As I Was Saying

White Sox manager Tony La Russa is in possession of a mind greater than mine, or else why would he be in the Hall of Fame? (Bud Selig and Kenesaw Mountain Landis are inductees best left for another time.) Me, I never would’ve signed Yasmani Grandal, not if I had James McCann around, and I certainly would’ve thought twice about taking over a team that was committed to Grandal behind the plate for the next two seasons. In other words, Grandal caught Carlos Rodon last night, and Johnny Vander Meer again stands alone, as he has since 1938, in the back-to-back no-hitters’ department. Hats off to Rodon, though. He made it through five innings with Grandal catching him and even got the win in Cleveland, 8-5. Luckily, the Sox decided to hit. Why, Grandal even went one-for four with a two-run home run, raising his average eleven whole points, to .150! If only all his hits left the premises. That would help make up for the passed ball and two—that’s right, folks, two—catcher interference errors, giving him three of those every special miscues on the young season. James Fegan in The Athletic today tried to rationalize Grandal’s problems by noting he’s employing a new, one-knee-on-the-ground catching stance; Fegan pointed out that McCann did the same thing last year and went through a similar oops! process, with three interference calls against him. So, it could be that. Or Grandal isn’t that good a catcher.