In the Blink of an Eye

It was ten years ago Thursday, April 28, 2012. Michele and I drove 3-1/2 hours to Appleton, Wisconsin, for a nonconference doubleheader between Lawrence University and Elmhurst College. It was the Saturday of swinging at first pitches. By my count, Clare did it a minimum of five times in eight at-bats that rainy, cold, Saturday afternoon, and she made an out seven times. The first game, it didn’t matter; Elmhurst won without their star right fielder contributing. Ah, but game two, that’s when the Blue Jays needed the kind of clutch power their sophomore could provide. Down 7-1 after four innings, the Blue Jays clawed their way back to within one run in the top of the seventh. With a runner on and actually waiting on a 2-1 fastball, Clare hit a ball that went 260 feet, per the dad (not me) who walked it off. Elmhurst wins, 8-7. The next day, the Blue Jays faced off against Illinois Wesleyan, needing a split to get into the postseason tournament, and they got it. Five days later, downstate Bloomington as warm as Appleton was cold, when Clare hit a ball against Carthage that literally silenced the crowd. We’re talking in the neighborhood of 300 feet. I’ve never seen a ball hit harder or farther. And now my daughter is married with a husband; nine-month old; and a house she and Chris placed the winning bid on this week. Mom and dad went to a John Mayer concert last night. The grandparents watched the baby, who cared not at all that the White Sox lost for the tenth time in eleven games, 5-1, to the Angels. The South Siders could’ve used a hitter like the one I saw, what, just the other day.

Not Cruel But Bad

Another game, another loss, nine out of the last ten. The White Sox are putting on clinic for anyone interested in futility. Yesterday afternoon, they fell to the Royals, 5-2, in ten innings. Manager Tony LaRussa thought it would be a good idea to pitch Aaron Bummer for two innings; it wasn’t. LaRussa should’ve been happy to get a scoreless inning out of Bummer, one that featured a hit-by-pitch and double play in the ninth inning. But, No, out went the lefty for the tenth inning, with that pesky ghost runner already on second base. The lefthander Bummer walking lefthanded-hitting Andrew Benintendi didn’t come as a shock, at least to me, or the switch-hitting Carlos Santana; Bummer has a WHIP of 2.22 on the season. He also has incredible stuff, as seen by the thirteen strikeouts in 7.2 innings. Did I mention his WHIP? With the bases loaded and two out in the tenth, Bummer threw a pitch that got by catcher Reese McGuire; in McGuire’s defense, he was set up for a pitch more down and away than up, which was where Bummer put it. Bummer then yielded an opposite-field single to lefthanded-hitting Kyle Isbel, who had to be happy to get his first two RBIs of the season. LaRussa told reporters after the game, “It is cruel, I think. You have bases loaded, two outs, lefty against lefty, and you think, ‘Wow, we get this out, and we can score a run and win.’ All of a sudden, there’s three on the board. [today’s Trib]” Wow, what a load of crap. I mean, where’s the agency here? How did the bases get loaded, Tony? Did the base troll come and do it? Runs scored because the pitcher and catcher failed to do their jobs. The tenth inning was made possible because you decided to send Bummer out there for another inning. By my count, the Sox are carrying fifteen (!) pitchers, and you went with Bummer (did I mention his WHIP?) in the tenth, even though that meant he’d be going out there with a runner on second base already. Wow, bad gamble. As ever, LaRussa feels the need to protect a player. He talked about Bummer pressing and needing to breathe but nothing on his WHIP. Because it’s still April, I won’t say how this looks like a perfect storm building—no accountability, no fire from the guy in charge, no sense of urgency. But I will start saying so come Sunday, when the calendar turns to May. This is how bad the Sox are right now. They dropped three in a row to the Guardians, who have gone on to lose seven in a row, the last four to the Angels. Guess who comes calling to the mall today? Mike Trout and company.

A Start, An End

The White Sox broke their eight-game losing streak yesterday by beating the Royals, 7-3. Jake Burger collected three hits, including a solo homerun and double, while Andrew Vaughn had a three-run homer to go along with a double. Dylan Cease looked good over six innings. I’m as satisfied as a 7-10 record allows a fan to be. Up in Milwaukee last night, the Bulls bowed out of the playoffs, losing in the first round to the defending-champion Bucks in five games. Billy Donovan’s guys peaked sometime in January, when injuries and a lack of roster depth began to tell. The 46 wins on the season was nice, but there’s no guarantee they’ll duplicate that, let alone improve on it, next season. DeMar DeRozan will be 33, an age when good forwards start to show their age. Zach LaVine is seven years younger but may need surgery on his left knee for a second time. Throw in the plodding Nikola Vucevic, and the future looks cloudy from here. Like I’ve said before, Arturas Karnisovas does a mean Kenny Williams’ impersonation as a front-office head. Maybe he’ll come up with a basketball version of 2005. We’ll see.

Not Good But--

On a good day, I’m a White Sox fan who doesn’t like the owner or the ballpark he built on the public’s dime or the manager he rammed down everyone’s throat; I’m not a big fan of the general manager, either. Just imagine how I feel about things in the midst of an eight-game losing streak. Dallas Keuchel started last night and lasted all of four innings. Signing Keuchel to three years is on GM Rick Hahn; so is acquiring reliever Kyle Crick. Those two managed eight walks between them in a 6-0 loss to the visiting Royals. While I’m at it, what is pitching coach Ethan Katz doing to earn his paycheck? We’re not talking a string of 2-1 losses here. Sox pitching has pretty much stunk. Ditto the hitting. Add the batting averages of Josh Harrision and Leury Garcia, and you come up with .195. Somewhere, Mario Mendoza wants his reputation back. Again, this falls on Hahn. He re-signed Garcia to a three-year deal while getting Harrison to play second base. Happiness for an opposing pitcher is seeing both Harrison and Garcia starting in the lineup that day. Now tell me what hitting coach Frank Menechino is doing to earn his paycheck. Everybody keeps saying it’s early, the Sox will turn it around. I hope so because, if they don’t, I’m going to need something else to fill up those summer hours, and I rather it not be football related.

Send in the Clowns. Never Mind...

New York is wasted on New Yorkers in the same way youth is on the young. Forget Central Park, The Empire State Building, museums and plays galore; that’s for tourists. Real New Yorkers seem to want nothing so much as to sit in the outfield at Yankee Stadium and throw stuff at opposing players. It happened, again, Saturday, during the Yankee’s come-from-behind win against the Guardians. Rookie left fielder Steven Kwan hit the fence hard trying to catch a game-tying double by Isiah Kiner-Falefa. The Cleveland trainer went out to check Kwan for a concussion, and what did Yankees’ fans do? Well, one of them reportedly cheered, which led Myles Straw and Oscar Mercado to start yelling back at the fan. Straw actually climbed the fence the better to talk back. He must speak moron. Then, the Yankees pushed across the winning run, and that brought on what Straw termed a “beer parade,” though he probably meant “shower.” On the clip I saw, the outfield looked to be covered in all sorts of garbage with a suds’ chaser. Aaron Judge even went out to try and keep the peace. Wasted effort, that. My understanding is that the umpires’ crew chief has the authority to call a forfeit. If that had happened Saturday, no doubt there would have been a clown riot in the stands. It may be time for the commissioner to give himself the power of a delayed forfeit; he could call it the “goon rule.” Everyone would know what it stood for.

Back in the Day

I hesitate to wax fondly over the “good old days.” Trust me, you didn’t want to go high school where I did or be a stranger in the neighborhood I grew up in. That said, I do miss at least some old-school ways in the dugout. I doubt Al Lopez or Eddie Stanky would have put the shine or spin on a seven-game losing streak the way White Sox manager Tony LaRussa has. “It’s a tough loss,” LaRussa said after the Sox coughed up two late-inning leads before losing in ten, 6-4, on Byron Buxton’s tenth inning walk-off three-run homerun. “We all shared in it. Final score with the whole road trip, and we’re all part of it, and we’ll all wear it. [today’s Trib].” Yeah, right, whatever that means. Sorry, but all this “band of brothers” stuff doesn’t work absent a healthy dose of accountability mixed in. With a 3-1 lead going into the bottom of the seventh, LaRussa brought in lefthanded Aaron Bummer to face the number-nine hitter. Read on, if you dare. Not only is Jose Godoy a lefthanded hitter, he has yet to get a hit on the season; Bummer still walked him. Then he went full on Buxton, who lined a homer to the opposite field. Not a word of criticism from the manager, though. Fast-forward to the bottom of the tenth with the Sox up by a run. This time, Liam Hendriks walks Godoy to bring up Buxton. Hendriks bell behind 3-1 on the count. That pretty much let Buxton wait on a fastball in a fastball situation, and Hendriks is a fastball pitcher. According to MLB.com, Buxton hit a 469-foot shot to the third deck at Target Field, the longest walk-off homer that Statcast has ever measured. Not a word of criticism from the manager, though. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to have Hendriks work an inning the day before in a 9-2 Twins’ blowout. Then again, what is a good idea from LaRussa?

Pratfalls

It’s reached the point where our Keystone Sox can’t even stay on their fee. Yesterday in Minnesota, Eloy Jimenez stumbled trying to run out a groundball in what turned out to be the South Siders’ sixth straight loss, this one by a score of 9-2. Jimenez is expected to miss up to eight weeks with a right-hamstring pull. The injury occurred seventy-two hours after Luis Robert suffered a groin injury running to first. Maybe manager Tony LaRussa should tell his players to hustle less and loaf more? That, or he might want to address the pitching. I’m convinced injuries like these happen when players try to compensate for bad pitching (see Charlie Tilson and James Shields). Four of the six losses have come by scores of 9-3; 11-1; 6-3; and 9-2. After a while, hitters want to do what pitchers can’t. Vince Velasquez started for the third time and picked up his second loss. Velasquez has a 6.75 ERA, which leaves me wondering what Sox GM Rick Hahn saw and I missed. Injuries are opportunities for an organization, or can be. Lucas Giolito and Lance Lynn go down, and the White Sox answer with Velasquez and Jimmy Lambert. Enough said. Get well soon, Eloy.

What, Me Worry?

The Keystone Sox were at it again last night, taking their show to Target Field against the Twins. That vaunted offense managed one run, again, a solo shot from number-eight (!) hitter Andrew Vaughn that actually held up until two out, nobody on in the bottom of the eighth. Hijinx ensued on an 0-2 pitch from reliever Kendall Graveman to the number nine hitter. That would be catcher Ryan Jeffers, who doubled off the wall in left. Graveman then walked leadoff hitter Luis Arraez to bring up Carlos Correa, who hit a grounder deep in the hole at short, “fielded” by Tim Anderson. Please note the qualifying quotation marks. Anderson couldn’t get the ball out of his glove for a force at second and couldn’t throw cleanly to first; that was the first error, along with the first run. Next, Jose Abreu got in on the act by retrieving the ball and throwing it past catcher Reese McGuire. That was the second error, letting in the winning run. Let’s review here—two errors by different infielders on the same play. And let’s not forget that Abreu lost his glove trying to field Anderson’s throw; that, my friends, definitely looked weird. For those of you keeping count, that’s six errors by Anderson at short over the last four games, and sixteen for the team. Guess who leads the majors in that department? But, not to worry. At least that’s what players and coaches are saying; the ship will be righted. I hope so. As soon as that happens, maybe the skipper will relate why he didn’t pinch-hit in the ninth inning, when the Sox loaded the bases with one out. Twins’ reliever Emilio helped by walking two consecutive batters. So, would you have had McGuire—still looking for his first RBI on the season—face him? Consider that the one thing Yasmani Grandal does well is take a pitch; if anyone could coax a third walk, it would be him. But Tony LaRussa stuck with McGuire, who popped out. Jake Burger ended the game taking a close pitch for strike three on a full count, and the bump in the road reached five straight losses. But it’s April, too early to worry. Right?

Keystone Sox

The way those last two games went in Cleveland, the White Sox must be streaming episodes of the Keystone Kops in the clubhouse, only pratfalls aren’t nearly as funny on a baseball field as they are on a Hollywood backlot. Adam Engel got thrown out at the plate with what would’ve been the tying run in Wednesday’s second game, and Luis Robert turned what could’ve been a monster inning into a mini by failing to see Jose Abreu’s double off the wall in right yesterday. It’s not often someone as fast as Robert gets nailed at the plate trying to score on an extra-base hit. Did I mention Robert was at second base? Wait, there’s more. Robert later was thrown out trying to steal. Oh, and he pulled a groin muscle trying to beat out a grounder in his last at-bat. For those of you keeping count out there, that makes four muscle-related injuries since March: Yoan Moncada; Lucas Giolito; A.J. Pollock; and Robert. Good thing the Sox fired their longtime strength and conditioning coach at the end of last season. Just imagine the injuries they’d have without the new guy. The Kops’ forte was slapstick. With Tony LaRussa, the comedy tends to the absurd, like when he said after Thursday’s game, “We were a lot more ourselves today, we played better. But they outplayed us the whole series. That happens. We took care of our business. It wasn’t good enough. [today’s Trib]” Ha-ha, No, it wasn’t.

FOT (Friend of Tony)

It pays for a player to be a friend of White Sox manager Tony LaRussa. No matter how much you stink up the field, he’s got your back. Take yesterday’s doubleheader in Cleveland, please. In game one, starter Dallas Keuchel gave up ten runs (eight earned) in one-plus inning. At one point, Keuchel yielded eight straight hits, including a grand slam by Jose Ramirez. Not that he thought he pitched all that poorly, no sir. “I’ll take nine singles and a blast,” the lefty said after the game [as noted in today’s Sun-Times]. “Three hard-hit balls all day. First-pitch swings, ground balls, I mean, [it’s] really all I wanted.” What universe does he live in? Oh, it’s the same one where LaRussa says Keuchel “deserved better” and, “I look forward to the next time he gets out there. [So will opposing hitters, Tony.] He came out there with good stuff. [today’s Tribune]” Wait, there’s more. The Sox managed eight hits in two games, losing 11-1 and 2-1. After the first game, LaRussa blamed himself. After two rain-outs in Cleveland, after which “you have to push, and I didn’t push the club like I should have. I take the heat. We weren’t ready to play early [or late, for that matter], and it’s my job to get that done. [Trib]” That must include Tim Anderson’s three errors at shortstop in the first game. Back in the day, Rick Renteria likely would’ve called Anderson out for lackluster play. Too bad Renteria wasn’t a FOJ, friend of Jerry (Reinsdorf). If the owner’s in love with you, it’s easy to take the blame. Right, Tony?

When You Die and Go to Hell…

…The only sport they cover is football. Which means I died and went to hell. What other explanation is there? Consider that the White Sox have gotten off to a good—first-place in the AL Central Division—start and the Cubs to a surprising over-.500 one. Oh, and the Bulls are in the NBA playoffs for the first time since 2017. Now, tell that to the Tribune. Not only does a picture of Bears’ quarterback Justin Fields dominate the first page in sports, the Munsters get all of page three. It’s the same at the Sun-Times—three pages of coverage, more or less the same photo-space. And this is April, before the draft. Technically, the Bulls, Cubs and Sox aren’t getting squeezed on coverage. The Hawks are, but that’s what happens when you stink (25-40) with no chance of making the postseason. What no local sports’ reporter or editor will admit to, though, is that there’s a whole lot of stealing from Peter to cover Paul, er, the Munsters. You get what I mean, right? If not, don’t bother to look for coverage of certain amateur sports in these parts. Chicago-area high-school and college spring-sports are in full swing, though you’d never know it from picking up a paper or reading it online; ditto turning on the TV. If it ain’t football or basketball, it don’t count. Those parents I see at Morton West watching their sons play baseball in miserable weather? They don’t exist, at least not for sportswriters. And Northwestern University, where the softball team ranks sixth in the nation? Invisible. But the Munsters of the Midway had their minicamp. Hold the presses. Grab the cameras. It’s enough to make a sports’ fan sick.

A Sunday Afternoon in September

The notion of Chicago being a “city of neighborhoods” is both cliché and truth, depending on the time. Where and when I grew up, it wasn’t so much neighborhoods as parishes. Mine was St. Gall. We lived four blocks west of the church, my grandmother one block north and three blocks east, on the other side of Kedzie. She owned a two-flat and occupied the first floor with her widowed daughter, my Auntie Lou, who was a great White Sox fan. I doubt my grandmother, who left Austrian Galicia when she was little more than a girl, ever attended a game in her life. But she did love her grandson, and for that I’m still grateful. In grade school, I walked over for lunch on days my mother went shopping downtown. If there were a lot of sales on State Street that day, I went back after school and waited to be picked up. There were always enough Salerno butter cookies to tide me over. In summer, my aunt would go on vacation, and the grandchildren took turns sleeping over. In fall, I went over either to dig up carrots in the garden or pick strawberries; the carrots may have been easier. Mowing the lawn was good for a quarter. My grandmother had a flip-handle Sunbeam electric with a metallic blue-green paint job. They show up from time to time on eBay. I was over on a Sunday in September, the start of sophomore year, to mow the lawn. The White Sox were a game-and-a-half back of the Twins and Red Sox with the Tigers in town, Joel Horlen vs. Joe Sparma. I’d mow a section of lawn, then come in to watch an inning on TV. My grandmother didn’t mind. I may have been her favorite. This went on for the backyard and the gangway; for some reason, there was a large stretch of grass between houses on the east side. It was the same for out front, mow and check, mow and check. At some point I realized Horlen had a no-hitter going, but I still went back out to mow the lawn. Don’t ask me why, superstition, probably. I remember Cotton Nash coming into play first base for Ken Boyer in the top of the ninth and Jerry Lumpe making an out. According to baseball-reference.com, Bill Heath and Dick McAuliffe did likewise to end the game. It was Horlen’s sixteenth win of the season, a hit-by-pitch and error by Boyer short of perfection. I’d forgotten it was a Sunday doubleheader. The Sox won the second game, too, also a shutout, though the Tigers did manage five hits. It was such a tight pennant race in 1967—Sox, Tigers, Twins and Red Sox—that the teams were allowed to go and print World Series’ tickets. My aunt bought two for us, only for the Sox to collapse that last week of the season. She died in 1972 while Horlen passed away last week. I haven’t seen any mention of it by the Sox.

Get Well Soon

This is what happens when your number-one and -two starters (Lucas Giolito and Lance Lynn, respectively) are out—Vince Velasquez pitches. And, yesterday at least, that wasn’t a good thing. Velasquez handed the visiting Rays a victory in the first inning by walking in two runs and muffing a tailor-made 1-2-3 double play that would’ve ended the first inning at 1-0 instead of the 4-0 deficit it turned into. But, hey, props to Velasquez. “The fact that I limited the damage and kept them within four, I’m pleased with [today’s Tribune],” and the same goes for his manager. Tony LaRussa said his emergency starter “gutted it out” and “gave us a great chance” to win [again, today’s Trib]. Yeah, nothing like coming into the dugout for the bottom of the first and you’re in a 4-0 hole (before going on to lose 9-3). The real lesson here is the value of being a friend of Tony. If you are, he’ll always have your back, no matter how bad your performance. Oh, how I miss the likes of Earl Weaver.

(Not) Rocket Science

Not only did White Sox manager Tony LaRussa opt to play Leury Garcia over Jake Burger yesterday against the Rays, LaRussa also batted Garcia sixth. The Sox won 3-2 while Garcia went 0-for-3, which puts his BA for the season at .043, as in 1-for-23. Unlike Burger, Andrew Vaughn got to play, which probably made White Sox Nation happy, more or less. Earlier in the week, a rumor spread over social media that Vaughn was being shipped to Oakland for starter Sean Manaea. The reaction got so bad that GM Rick Hahn felt the need to publicly dismiss the rumor, going so far as to say Vaughn would be one of the last people he’d trade. When Rick Hahn goes on record to give anything other than the time of day, it’s news. So, why wouldn’t Sox fans be excited to see their second-year hero in the lineup? Because the manager decided to bat him ninth, that’s why. Vaughn managed a double off of Rays’ starter Corey Kluber that didn’t figure into the scoring. How could it, when one of the best young hitters on the team is stuck in the nine-hole? Oh, well. Today’s game of musical chairs features Gavin Sheets batting sixth; Burger eighth; and Adam Engel ninth, in place of Vaughn. God give me strength, this day and every day.

Good Egg

I grew up in a family that engaged in competitive Easter-Egg coloring; we all wanted to come up with the most colorful egg. (Where have you gone, Ruby Easter Egg dye?) Ask my daughter, and she’ll tell you I did the same as a father. And now it looks like the same will happen to her own child. So, Clare and company came over for mushroom-and-olive pizza last night, after which we watched the White Sox on Apple TV+ (who in God’s name were those announcers?) before coloring eggs (mine, naturally, were the best). When Jake Burger singled to right for his second RBI of the night, my daughter shared another part of her upbringing with her son. “Oh, Grandpa likes what Jake Burger did, Leo,” said my child as she went into a mocking rendition of my voice. “He didn’t try to do too much but took the pitch to the opposite field.” And then she added something in her own voice that I didn’t even see. “And he did it while rolling his wrists.” Shortly thereafter, we adjourned to the kitchen to color a dozen eggs under the watchful eye of an eight-month old observer. Wait ’til next year, kid. Burger also homered in last night’s 3-2 win over the Rays. Does that mean he starts again today? Of course not. Manager Tony LaRussa will pitch Aaron Bummer game after game (back-to-back doubles last night after two out in the sixth to turn a shutout into a one-run affair), but that’s different. Why? I don’t have a clue. But Leury Garcia, who got his first hit of the season last night and is now one for twenty, gets to start again. Go figure.

Killing Me Softly

When it comes to TV, the White Sox never turned down a deal that threatened to reduce viewership. Lucky for the team, as opposed to baseball fans local and nationwide, the rest of the industry has followed their lead. It all started in 1968, when Sox owner Arthur Allyn tried out another of his visionary ideas (a team plane and proposed sports’ complex were among his others), putting games on UHF station Ch 32. Without a box, you didn’t get to see your Sox. My dad bought a box, which made him the exception among Sox fans rather than the rule. The team bounced around various outlets until Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn became owners; their big idea was to put Sox games on pay TV. I remember an Einhorn interview in which he said they could play games without fans if they wanted. Such love. Pay TV led to cable. All in all, these broadcast decisions opened up the city to that other team. Channel 9 broadcast ever more games—no box needed—starting in 1968, and that insured a whole generation of kids growing up watching Cubs’ games after school. Yes, day turned to night, and the Cubs eventually put in lights at Wrigley Field, but no matter. There would be a new generation of fans who fell in love with the North Siders, with games played day or night. And many of those fans even paid for the privilege. Beginning in 1978, WGN became a “superstation” picked up on cable, this at a time before cable bills caused sticker shock. People in the Chicago area could still watch games for free while viewers nationwide fell in love with a classic ballpark and the antics of broadcaster Harry Caray (don’t get me started). The Sox didn’t have a chance. But then a funny thing happened. All of baseball went the way of the White Sox, to the point that free games no longer exist on TV except for a game of the week; some September and playoff games; and the World Series. If anything, the Cubs have gone to opposite extreme now, with their own broadcast network on cable. I find myself paying for the privilege of not watching them. All of this is a prelude to noting that tonight’s Sox game against the Rays will be on Apple TV+. The team wants everybody to know the broadcast is free, just as long as you have an Apple account. Anybody who doesn’t is a dinosaur who deserves to be shut out of the future. I wonder what the ratings will be, not that MLB cares. Baseball chases after a bottom line in the here and now, the future be damned. Kids becoming lifelong fans because they grew up watching games on free TV? Where’s the profit in that?

Baby Steps

San Francisco Giants’ coach Alyssa Nakken made history Tuesday night when she became the first female baseball coach to take the field, this after first-base coach Antoan Richardson got tossed in the third inning of the Giants-Padres’ game. Judging by the way MLB.com played the story, you would have thought it was the Second Coming. No, it was an accident set in motion by an umpire’s decision. It becomes something more when Nakken or somebody who looks like her becomes a base coach fulltime. Until then, it’s just a baby step. Of course, MLB feels differently. I mean, anything to draw attention away from Reds’ president Phil Castellini, right? Responding to a reporter’s question about why fans should trust team management. Castellini countered with, “Well, where are you going to go,” Castellini countered. That’s just the kind of snark you’d expect from the son of the team’s majority owner. Castellini must be a real anatomical freak because he didn’t stop with just one foot in his mouth. No, he was compelled to add that, given the “current economic system” pervading baseball, the best solution for the Reds would be “to pick it up and move it somewhere else.” Yeah, I’d be pushing Nakken’s accidental breakthrough, too.

On the One Hand...

Yesterday, I killed time before the White Sox home opener by leafing through my 2022 Lindy’s and Athlon’s. One magazine has the Sox in the World Series, the other doesn’t. I can see their point. Focus on center fielder Luis Robert, and it’s get your tickets early. Robert saved two runs on a catch in the third inning; put the Sox ahead in the sixth with his first homerun of the season; and set up what proved to be the winning run in the eighth by walking on a full count before stealing two bases and scoring on a groundout. A-plus, Mr. Robert. Ah, but the pitching. Emergency starter Vince Velasquez needed 62 pitches to get through four innings, which was actually a good deal better than Aaron “strap on your seat belts” Bummer, who threw twenty pitches to record two outs—while giving up his customary two walks—in the seventh. At this rate, Bummer will have a dead arm by the middle of May, if not sooner. And let’s not forget the head-scratching performance turned in by closer Liam Hendriks—one inning, a run on three hits, and three strikeouts. For anyone out there counting, it took Hendriks 25 pitches to record his first save of the season. One game at a time, right? Only a 3-2 contest shouldn’t take 3:22 to play. An opening-day crowd may not mind, or a fan base expecting to contend for a championship, but this is baseball at a snail’s pace. My grandson has a world to explore with only so much time to do it in. You can’t expect him to sit through eight pitching changes and a bunch of mound visits.

This I Remember

I’ve gone to two season openers in my life, 1971 and 1988. The second one I try not to think about too much; it was all wrapped up with the politics of building a new stadium. Ah, but the other one… I was all of eighteen, bright-eyed and pretty much clueless in the ways of the world (see: stadium politics). Chuck Tanner was starting his first full season as White Sox manager, with Johnny Sain as his pitching guru. Comiskey Park looked to be pretty full that April 9th with the Twins visiting. According to the box score, this had to be one of the few times Tony Oliva or Harmon Killebrew didn’t put one into the bullpen or upper deck in left. Newly acquired reliever Vicente Romo worked out of jam in the top of the ninth, the score tied at two; Romo struck out Cesar Tovar with one out and then got Rod Carew to fly out to center. A single; bunt; wild pitch; and pinch-hit single by Rich McKinney sent 43,000-plus White Sox fans home quite happy. Romo would appear in 45 games for the Sox that year. This was his second appearance and only win. Guess who turns 79 today. Yup, Vicente Romo. What are the odds?

Small Ball

Yesterday’s White Sox and Cubs’ games were throwbacks to a time when giants, small g, didn’t roam the field and dugout. Thank goodness. In Detroit, the Sox started 5’8” Josh Harrison at third and 5’10” Danny Mendick at second in the Sox 10-1 win over the Tigers; Harrison and Mendick both notched RBI hits while playing errorless defense. Over at Wrigley Field, 5’7” Marcus Stroman threw five innings of two-hit, one-run ball in his Cubs’ debut. The game was decided on a pinch-homerun by 5’10” Mike Brosseau, he who would have his revenge against Aroldis Chapman. Back in Detroit, 30-year old rookie Tanner Banks made his major-league debut by striking out four Tigers over two innings of work. Banks stands 6’1”, so to some extent he towers over Harrison and company, but he’s a throwback in a different way, by not being a power pitcher. Hence, 30-year old rookie. Banks moved the ball around the zone nicely and could’ve passed for a lefty from the ’70s or ’80s, if just for a day. I also saw by way of the box scores that 5’11” Nick Solak, the pride of Naperville North, scored three runs for the Rangers yesterday in their come-from-behind 12-6 win over the Blue Jays. All in all, a day of big things in small packages.

Hurts So Bad

For those of you keeping score, it looks as if Lucas Giolito will go on the ten-day IL and miss a couple of starts with that tweaked ab muscle of his while right fielder A.J. Pollock could join him after tweaking—how I hate that term--his hamstring running the bases in yesterday’s win against the Tigers. Mercy. Now, back to Yoan Moncada. One of the reasons I like Jake Burger is his being upfront about dealing with anxiety and depression issues; that takes guts to admit to. What’s to say Moncada doesn’t have them, too? How would we know, unless he admitted to them and team interpreter Billy Russo passed the information along? Which leads me to think that teams need to do more along these lines for their Latin players. Burger went to college and from everything I can tell has a strong family-support system to fall back on. In other words, he’s got some things working to his advantage, provided, of course, he makes the decision to use them. How many Latin players do, starting with college or high school degrees? Oftentimes, they’re signed as teenagers and tasked with supporting their (extended) families from the get-go, and they have to do it in a foreign land with strange ways and a strange language. Talk about pressure. I just read a feature on new Cubs’ starter Marcus Stroman, who utilizes a mental coach and a therapist. Again, good for him for being upfront about this. But what do you expect from a guy who finished his college degree at Duke while rehabbing from ACL surgery? What works for Jake Burger and Marcus Stroman may be just what a number of Latin players need. If only teams started making the effort.

It Figures

Yesterday in Detroit, Lucas Giolito mowed down the Tigers for four shutout innings, giving up but one hit and two walks against six strikeouts. This is where I need to point out that the de facto ace of the White Sox staff reported to camp twenty pounds heavier, all muscle. Well, that new muscle may have contributed to a tug the 27-year old felt on his left side. Giolito left the game with a 3-0 lead. It was 3-1 in the eighth when lefthander Aaron Bummer entered the game. This is where I need to note the Sox either need a better catcher or someone to take Bummer’s place. As a lefty out of the pen, you can’t walk lefthanded batters, as Bummer did Austin Meadows, and you can’t leave the ball over the plate, or off-speed and away, to righthanders the way Bummer did to Robbie Grossman and Javy Baez. Note to catcher Yasmani Grandal and pitching coach Ethan Katz—Bummer’s breaking stuff has to go inside to righties, or he’s useless. And here’s a note to manager Tony LaRussa: Anyone who’s played Strat-o-Matic baseball knows to make defensive changes in the ninth inning. New Sox right fielder A.J. Pollack had played all of six games in right over his ten-year career, so why was he out there to start the bottom of the ninth? Pollock has one gold glove as a left fielder, so why didn’t he take Eloy Jimenez’s place with Adam Engel coming in to play right? Engel makes the catch on a ball that went off Pollock’s glove, and the game goes into extra innings. As far as I can tell, nobody asked LaRussa why Engel wasn’t out there. Figures.

Well, That Bites

The injuries to Lance Lynn and Garrett Crochet I get. Sign a hard-throwing, overweight pitcher over the age of thirty, and you can expect something to happen. Draft a hard-throwing pitcher, and you play a game of Russian roulette, baseball-style. It’s the other injuries as the White Sox start their season that leave me scratching my head. Consider that Ryan Burr felt something in his right shoulder warming up Wednesday and now finds himself on the 10-day IL. A day earlier, Yoan Moncada felt soreness swinging the bat before the team’s final spring-training game, and out he goes for an estimated three weeks with a right-oblique strain. I’m off this train. Either Moncada has been hiding the injury, which affected his hitting all spring, or it’s bad luck on top of bad performance. Either way, he hit all of .121 this spring, four hits in 33 at-bats, with a whopping thirteen strikeouts. If you’re hurt, you tell someone. If you’re not, change your body language so it doesn’t look like you’re going through the motions. To me, Moncada looks distracted, at best. So, now it falls on Jake Burger to see if he can make this a Wally Pipp moment for Moncada. At a minimum, Burger doing well could force Moncada into getting serious about proving he’s an All-Star talent. Because, if he isn’t, then it’s time to find someone who is.

Back Then

Whenever the weather turns cold, gray and wet (like today), my thoughts turn to softball. April in the Midwest makes for the hardiest of athletes. Somehow, twelve years have gone by since I had a hand in any of it, sitting in a dugout to score varsity games; generating stats; and calling papers with the score. Once upon a time, Chicago dailies actually cared about spring sports, or at least softball. There was the occasional story to go with the daily line score and game summary. Her senior year, Clare was named one of the top 100 players in the Chicago area by the Sun-Times. I can’t even remember the last time the Times did that. Luckily, I can still remember the ten homeruns my daughter hit that typically cold and wet spring. Baseball would have you believe women are making great progress in the front office, but I wonder. High school softball receives virtually zero television coverage, ditto in the papers. NCAA D-I softball does better, thanks largely to cable. Too bad it doesn’t generate half the coverage the Munsters get in the offseason. Here’s just one example. Because Clare told me, I know that Northwestern is having a very good season, 24-6 overall and 5-1 in the Big Ten, good enough to be ranked eighth in the nation. Good luck trying to find any coverage in the Chicago media. It’s simply not there. But I’m supposed to believe glass ceilings are shattering all across the national pastime? We’ll see.

More Building

Bears’ fans—and media, as witness to all the loving ink being poured over new General Manager Ryan Poles—drink the Kool-Aid every year. White Sox fans, beer in hand, sit there and expect the worst. We’re rarely disappointed. Two big injuries going into the start of the season would devastate Bears’ Nation. Lance Lynn and Garrett Crochet go down, and Sox fans shrug their shoulders before uttering those two words that echo across the South Side six months out of every year: “It figures.” That goes for first-round draft picks as well as injuries. Back in 2016, the Sox made catcher Zack Collins the tenth pick in the June draft; pitcher Zack Burdi went 26th. The buzz on Collins was that he’d be a plus-hitter who might have to move over to first base. Instead, he was pretty much a bust at and behind the plate. So, off he goes to Toronto in an exchange for backup catcher Reese McGuire, another disappointing first-round pick (in 2013). Burdi, meanwhile, didn’t last a full year in the minors before needing Tommy John surgery. He was good before, less than that after. The Sox released him last August, and the Diamondbacks cut him in spring training last month. All in all, not much to show for two high draft picks. In partial defense of the Sox, the 2016 draft wasn’t all that great; that’s when a front office really has to do its scouting homework. Both Alex Kirilloff and Gavin Lux were available after Collins, Dylan Carson and Dakota Hudson after Burdi. Kenny Williams/Rick Hahn went in another direction. It figures.

Build it and...

This is the worst of times and the best of times for my daughter. This week, work has taken her away from baby Leo, which is hard on both, to say the least. If my grandson had been with his mother yesterday, they could have beheld Fenway Park together. Clare went straight from airport to ballpark; check-in could wait. I got a video report in the early afternoon. “If you didn’t know about baseball, I don’t think you’d know there’s a ballpark,” marveled my other-Sox fan. She couldn’t get over how ballpark and neighborhood fit so cheek-by-jowl. “Now you know why your father gets cranky sometimes,” I said at one point in our conversation. “We used to have a ballpark just like that,” only different, with its own personality, one based on arches and a deep centerfield. I then told Clare to find someone who could take her picture, showing fan and ballpark. Tomorrow, she takes the train to New York City. “Be on the lookout for Citi Field and Yankee Stadium as you get close,” I advised. Then, she ends the week in Washington, which means a chance to catch a glimpse of Nationals Park. The stories Mom will have to tell her eight-month old when she gets back home. Green Monsters and Citgo signs, oh my.

Fragile, Contd.

Oops. I forgot to mention that White Sox starter-of-the-future Garrett Crochet is scheduled for Tommy John surgery this week. Crochet has all of 192.1 innings of work between college and the pros, yet he needs surgery on his left elbow. But, boy, could he hum that pea. I wonder if Crochet’s procedure will take place the same day as Lance Lynn’s. Our big boy has a slight tear in a right-knee tendon and is expected to be out four weeks, knock on wood. So it goes. In baseball, you can never have enough pitching, which explains why someone like Max Scherzer can demand a king’s ransom at the age of 37; he’s got a golden arm (although he also has a sore hamstring right now for the Mets, who signed Scherzer to a $130-million three-year contract in the offseason). The conventional wisdom that rules our national pastime calls for developing starters who can throw hard for six innings and to replace them with relievers who can do likewise for an inning or so. Plan B is surgery when they get injured or free agency when the young arms run out. In my make-believe world, the idea would be to overpay for pitchers, trading money for contract length; with Lucas Giolito, I’d give him the sky, over no more than four years. I’d also beat the bushes for knuckleballers, submariners and control pitchers because hitters raised on “velo” will hate that kind of stuff. But what do I know?

Fragile, Handle with Care

We were deep into our Saturday night routine of watching Father Brown and Death in Paradise when Clare texted that Lance Lynn of the White Sox left his start against the Diamondbacks with leg discomfort, this after throwing 79 pitches. Oh-oh. It seems to be raining pitching injuries, and has been for some time. The Sox traded for Lucas Giolito after he had Tommy John surgery. Giolito came with Dane Dunning, who subsequently had the procedure, too. Carlos Rodon had it, along with Michael Kopech. Dylan Cease arrived from the North Side after having his right elbow operated on. We ship Codi Heuer to the North Side last summer, and he went under the scalpel last month. Oh, and Chris Sale had Tommy John back in 2020. Clare asked if Tommy John threw like the pitchers above, and I said, No, he was more a “pitch to contact” guy. I’d go so far as to say the surgery started off as a way to prolong a veteran’s career; consider that John had already pitched ten full seasons before he underwent the operation he lent his name to. Conversely, Giolito; Dunning; Rodon; Kopech; and Cease were all youngster when they had it. Blame it on baseball’s infatuation with throwing hard; Tommy John surgery exists as a kind of insurance policy against injury. Only there’s no guarantee a power pitcher will come back just as strong; ask Zach Burdi. You’d think all these operations would give a pitching coach pause, but No. It’s damn’ the torpedoes (and scalpels), full speed ahead. Speaking of Lance Lynn, he’s one of the lucky ones, somebody who can throw hard and avoid elbow problems. Only that seems to have gone to his head by way of his stomach. Lynn could do a passable imitation of Wilbur Wood with a beard. Too bad carrying all that extra weight (270 pounds on a 6’5”frame) can cause knee problems. Too bad there aren’t any more Wilbur Woods out there.

Good Talk

Apparently, White Sox starter Lucas Giolito sat down with owner Jerry Reinsdorf this week for a heart-to-heart (theoretically possible, if you use the narrowest of definitions for Reinsdorf), and now all is right with the world. Good. Seriously. Giolito was upset that management couldn’t close a $50,000 gap between sides during salary negotiations and, instead, went in the other, lower, direction once it came time to file numbers for arbitration. Now, Giolito has what he feels is a fair contract along with a sense of being valued by ownership. “I love this team, there’s nowhere else I want to be,” the right-hander told reporters yesterday after the agreement was announced. Again, good. Why? Because Giolito is the linchpin for any success the Sox hope to have in the years ahead, note the plural. He’s the horse whisperer here, with Dylan Cease and Michael Kopech two impressionable ponies following in the rotation. If they commit to the craft of pitching the way Giolito has, Sox fans can dream of the second coming of Glavine/Maddux/Smoltz, only to the South Side instead of Atlanta. If Giolito walks after 2023, Sox fans will face the likelihood of the team going back to a patch-and-pray approach to starting pitching. I’m having problems enough right now watching Yoan Moncada strike out at-bat after at-bat. I don’t need any extra worries, thank you very much.

Parse This

In most businesses, the customer is always right. But baseball isn’t like most businesses. Ask any White Sox fan. On Monday, LaRussa responded to the widespread sentiment—not shared by me, by the way—that the team needs to go out right fielder (hello, Michael Conforto). People thinking that way “are probably the fans who are not White Sox fans,” LaRussa told reporters. This is textbook LaRussa, who’s spent a career treating his players like a band of brothers and everyone else the enemy (hello, Jimmy Piersall and…During the playoffs, LaRussa reacted in similar fashion to a reporter who asked how the Sox would react to being down in the ALDS to the Astros. As I recall, he said something along the lines of, You don’t know this team if you have to ask. Yesterday, LaRussa walked back his comments, sort of. “What I said was we are going to win with what we’ve got here,” parsed our HOF manager. “And if somebody is saying we need help, they are not White Sox fans, because they don’t know it.” Share in the genius that is Tony LaRussa by agreeing with him. As noted, I agree with LaRussa; the Sox have enough to get themselves into the World Series. But a whole bunch of people who consider themselves Sox fans feel differently. LaRussa doesn’t care, and why should he? Jerry Reinsdorf is there to forever back him up. Those two are joined at the hip, starting with their disdain for the media and anyone who dares to disagree with them. Same as it ever was.