Accentuate the Positive

Gavin Sheets and Jake Burger homered, Lance Lynn pitched three nice innings, and that’s what you take away from the first game of spring training, a 6-2 White Sox loss to the Padres. Anything more is just asking for trouble. Like why Sox skipper Pedro Grifol keeps wearing sunglasses on the back of his head or why Steve Stone continues to exist in the Sox broadcast booth. All Stone could do yesterday was express his love, again and again, for the new rules put in effect for this season. Rob Manfred couldn’t have asked for a better shill. If I heard Stone correctly (and I admit to hitting the mute button most of the time he opened his mouth), fans will like the balanced schedule because that way they’ll see more of the best players in baseball. You might want to take another look at the schedule, my friend. Let’s say the Sox are two out of first place with a week to go. Two behind the Guardians? So sorry, the balanced schedule has both teams done playing one another August 6th. Two behind the Twins? Done playing them September 17th. Nothing like closing out the season with six games against the Diamondbacks and Padres. Good luck making up those two games. Right, Steve?