Third basemen

In the late 1960s I took solace in the play of a young White Sox third baseman by the name of Bill Melton; he was the only guy on the team who could hit with power.  At the fairly tender age of 26, Melton had amassed 91 homeruns for a team where the stolen base had always mattered more than the long ball.  Then Melton had to go fall off a roof one offseason and hurt his back; he was never the same.  Not that Harry Caray cared.  The Sox announcer turned on Melton the way he had Ken Boyer in St. Louis and would with Ron Cey on the North Side:  I don’t know why they throw [insert name here] a fastball….

Several years ago, Melton took the job of postgame analyst on Sox telecasts, and he’s actually good, what you might call a critical homer; he wants the team to win, but he’ll tell you all the reasons why they’re not.  Better yet, he never pretends to have been more of a player than he was.  Stacey King, take note.

Melton the announcer has had the good sense not to pull a Harry Caray with Sox rookie Tyler Saladino, a 26-year old who’s come out of nowhere to claim the starting job at third.  National Public Radio has been following Saladino through the minors over the past four years, and they seem to have gotten it right—Saladino doesn’t have an ounce of flash to him; rather, he’s a ballplayer who looks steady and projects smart.  I can live with that.