57 Reasons Why, and Counting

Here are the only two things you need to know about the White Sox today—they’re 20-57, and Mickey Mouse is still their manager. After last night, you can only wonder how much time Mouse has left impersonating a professional. The team that’s on a pace to break the ’62 Met’s record for futility (40-120) was on the road in Detroit Friday, down a run at 2-1 in the top of the ninth, Paul DeJong on first and one out. Pinch-hitter Andrew Benintendi lifted a lazy fly to center fielder Matt Vierling, who caught the ball and then froze for a moment, trying to process the Marv Throneberry play taking place in front of him—DeJong thought there were two outs and was past second base when Vierling caught the ball. The Sox shortstop was still in another zip code by the time the ball came into first base to complete the game ending double play. To his credit, DeJong took the blame for the blunder. Then Mouse did his best Clarence Darrow, saying, “DeJong plays the game really hard every day. He prepares.” [quote in today’s Tribune online story] Prepared to run into a double play, maybe. Mouse has said he gets Sox fans, but here’s yet another example of him being totally clueless. Fans want accountability. Players don’t need to be humiliated, but a manager needs to hold them accountable, and do it in a way that lets fans know. Drew Thorpe gets his third major-league start today, against 36-year old Kenta Maeda, who’s sporting a 6.02 ERA. That should be going down, just like the Sox. Any bets on loss number 58, anyone?