Who Are They Trying to Kid?

MLB owners offered an unintended bit of levity with their latest CBA proposal. I mean, they can’t be serious, right? On Tuesday, the owners offered to postpone implementing a salary cap until 2028 (Whoopee!) while increasing both the floor and ceiling. It’s the floor that kind of tickles my funny bone. Owners are willing to force the cheapskates in their ranks to spend a minimum $180.2 million on team payroll. Hmm. What that $180.2 million figure means is that ownership—outside of the cheapskates—is confident that floor figure won’t get in the way of their making tons of money. If I can see that, the players can, too. This proposal is headed straight for the trash can.

But Something to Hear

Bulls’ guard/small-forward Norman Powell is either going to have a bracing effect on his new team, or a short stay. Either way, you have to love what Powell said after the Bulls’ 135-105 loss to the Knicks on Wednesday. “Teams are coming at us and looking at us like it’s lunch,” the twelve-year veteran told reporters in postgame remarks. “Like they’re going to get their numbers [game stats] and it’s going to be an easy win. We’ve got to figure out how to” compete. [quote in today’s Tribune story] Powell has gone to the postseason nine years with the Raptors, Trail Blazers and Clippers, winning a championship with Toronto in 2019, so he knows whereof he speaks. The question is, will his teammates listen? For that matter, will the coaching staff and front office appreciate his stating the obvious to reporters? We’ll see.

Nothing to See Here, Really

Talk about your rebuild starting with a thud. The Bulls are 1-7 after last night’s 135-105 loss to the Knicks at the Gah-den. And, yes, the game wasn’t as close as the score might indicate. The visitors gave up 84 points in the first half. What gives? Part of it is the schedule. This is the second time in eight games new coach Tiago Splitter and a roster full of new players have faced the defending NBA champs; they’ve also had to face the Celtics twice and the 76ers once, all losses. Theoretically, things should get better once the schedule softens up. But will it? Rookie forward Caleb Wilson has had his moments (though not last night, scoring just five points) while Josh Giddey and Matas Buzelis seem to be regressing. Not good, especially when the NBA has instituted anti-tanking rules. So, nothing to see now. Later? We’ll see.

Upon Further Review…

I bought the team autographed ball of the 1937 White Sox for a few signatures, including Jimy Dykes’ and Monty Stratton’s and Zeke Bonura’s. But there are others, and they come with a story. Like infielder Tony Piet, a journeyman infielder whose name is pretty much seared into my memory. Piet’s full last name was Pietruszka, which carried a certain cache if you wanted to sell cars on the South Side, which Piet did on Western Avenue with his Pontiac dealership. I can close my eyes and see the neon sign outside his showroom. Or Jackie Hayes, a pretty talented second baseman whose career ended three years later when glaucoma led to eventual blindness. Or pitcher Merritt Patrick Cain, not that he signed his name that way. No, he used his nickname: Sugar Cain. Or Dixie Walker, a 26-year old outfielder who was still playing in the majors ten years later. Walker was a career .306 hitter with 2064 hits to his credit, though that’s not why most people remember him. That offseason, the Sox traded Walker to Detroit, where he played for a season and a half before the Dodgers claimed him off of waivers in July of 1939. The lefty-hitting outfielder found a home in Brooklyn, where hi hit .311with 725 RBIs over eight-plus seasons. But the Georgia-born Walker did not want to play with Jackie Robinson and even tried to organize a player walkout. It didn’t happen. Walker’s autograph appears right below John Rigney’s, with Bonura’s above Rigney’s.

What a difference a player makes. In his first game with the Bears since being acquired from the Titans, defensive tackle Jeffrey Tackle energized his new team, which went on the road to beat the defending Super Bowl-champion Seahawks 34-17. Oh, and quarterback Caleb Williams looks totally heeled from his hamstring injury, as evidenced by his 247 passing yards and a touchdown. Williams was sacked once without any apparent effect. Cynic that I am, I wonder how the McCaskey clan will try to use growing Super Bowl buzz to get a deal to their liking out of the General Assembly. You can’t do a Super Bowl Shuffle in Hammond. Arlington Heights might be good for a bunny hop, and I bet that’s what the McCaskeys are betting on.

In the Blink of an Eye

I sat at the breakfast table, glasses off, one eye closed, the better to read the tiny type of the Deals section in today’s Sun-Times. That’s how I learned that the Orioles declined their club option on ex-White Sox Luis Robert Jr. A career that began with such promise could end do to one too many muscle pulls. Roberts burst onto the scene in 2020, looking to be the Sox centerfielder for the next decade, or more. But injuries started the next season and never really let up. Too many muscles, maybe, or bad luck or some combination of the two. I also wonder if the Sox coaching staff made a real effort to communicate with Robert. If a player trusts his coaches, he’ll do things he might not otherwise be inclined to try. Did the Sox give Robert reason to trust them? So, one rebuild recedes—where are you, Eloy?—another builds steam. Assuming the coming lockout doesn’t get in the way.

No Respect

Where have you gone, Rodney Dangerfield, the White Sox turn their lonely eyes to you. Oh, oh, oh. What’s that you say, folks at The Athletic, the Sox should go away, they don’t rate in your after-the-World-Series power rankings? That’s right, the Sox ranked seventeenth out of thirty teams, according to a trio of experts who no doubt have forgotten more baseball than I’ll ever know (that being Stephen J. Nesbitt, Chad Jennings and Tim Britton). Ranked ahead of the 84-78 Sox were five teams that didn’t even play .500 ball and a sixth team, the 82-80 Pirates, that, like the other five, didn’t make the postseason. The geriatric Yankees? Third. The 87-85 Red Sox, who got swept by the Yankees in the wild card and had only two months where they played above .500? Fifth. The 79-83 Blue Jays? Seventh. And on and on. It’s a good thing the headline read “The 2027 Way-Too-Early MLB Power Rankings: Where Does Your Team Stand Now?”. Where? Right next to the late, great standup comedian who knew a joke when he saw one.