Priorities

The White Sox website has steered clear of the “Frank Thomas, who he?” Black History Month fiasco. No surprise there. But bidet news? Seems that free-agent acquisition Munetaka Murakami would like a bidet in the Sox clubhouse. What’s a bidet, you might ask? Think combination toilet-shower for a quick rinse of the private parts after doing your business. Obviously, this is the kind of story Sox fans want to read. Again, Frank who?

A Bottomless Well of Stupid

Well, the White Sox have stepped in it again. On Friday, the team tweeted out a timeline in “celebration of Black History Month, [during which] we reflect upon momentous firsts for the White Sox organization.” Kenny Williams and Jerry Manual rate two photos, Bo Jackson and Charles Johnson (?!?) one apiece. And Frank Thomas, the Big Hurt who holds just about every team offensive record? If you look hard enough, he’s mentioned after Dick Allen, “the first Black player in White Sox history to win AL MVP honors.” Now, wait for it: “Frank Thomas joined Allen as MVP in 1993-94.” That’s it. No other mention, and certainly no photo. To which Thomas replied, “I Guess the black player who made you rich over there and holds all your records is forgettable! Don’t worry I’m taking Receipts!” I’m not sure what that last sentence means, but I’m pretty sure the big guy is ticked. Did I mention two photos of Jerry Manuel? Sherlock Holmes didn’t believe in coincidences, and neither do I. This has Jerry Reinsdorf’s fingerprints all over it. Anybody doing a deep dive into White Sox history and coming up with Danny Goodwin being the first African American picked first in the draft (1971, Sox) would have a sense of who Thomas is and why he’s important. Somebody with clout felt the need to hurt the Hurt. Thomas was a sometimes-immature player, little different than Ted Williams on that score. Like Williams, Thomas mellowed. In my own personal encounters with the man, he still wore his Sox allegiance on his sleeve, which he showed repeatedly when doing postgame commentary on cable with Ozzie Guillen (though not last season). I suspect the affection only travelled in one direction. How stupid.

Chicken and Egg, Not

With age comes wisdom. I finally realize that all Chicago sports starts and ends with the Bears, holy be the Halas/McCaskey name. I honestly can’t remember a time when the Bears didn’t suck up coverage, in season and out. Their season ended two weeks ago in a game they could’ve won but didn’t? No matter. Here’s all the available space we have. Tell us if you want more. SoxFest ran Friday and Saturday; I caught glimpses, hints. The Tribune, bless them, ran two page-one stories in Sunday Sports today. You know what that meant? That got as much coverage as the Bears. Let me repeat, the team whose season just ended received as much space as the team that starts training for the new season in nine days. Go figure. And, while you’re at it, try to find any Sox news in today’s Sun-Times’ special weekend sports’ pullout. Oh, it’s there, after four football stories; Blackhawks’ and Winter Olympics’ coverage; a story on the Bulls beating the Heat; and a piece on preps sports. Wait, we’re not there yet, not until you turn the page on who the Sky might draft this year. After that, your 2026 White Sox. I could—and do—complain about the amount of coverage the Cubs get. What bothers me, and probably most Sox fans, is how every celebrity this side of Pope Leo and the late, great Bernie Mac goes through the motions of being a Cubs’ fan. But, if I’m being honest, much of this is the Sox fault. They tore down their classic ballpark where the Cubs renovated theirs, and their billionaire owner has spent decades acting like he exists in a small market. That said, the Cubs would kill to get the offseason coverage the Bears do. Maybe five straight World Series wins would change things. Then again, maybe not.

Austin Flipper

To keep the hot stove stoked over SoxFest weekend, the White Sox are expected to announce the signing of outfielder Austin Hays to a one-year deal. GM Chris Getz must like his Austins. Last year, Getz went out and got outfielder Austin Slater and then flipped him to the Yankees at the trade deadline for minor-league pitcher Gage Ziehl. Now, here’s how you can measure progress. Slater had eleven RBIs for the Sox while Hays hit fifteen homeruns with 64 RBIs for the Reds last season. Bigger signing, bigger flip, most likely. This can go one of three ways—Slater does really well on a really surprising team and stays; he does really well on a blah team and gets traded; or he stinks, and it doesn’t matter. I’m hoping for number one, though I wouldn’t mind if Slater had to fight for at-bats because of the emergence of Brooks Baldwin, Braden Montgomery and Sam Antonacci. Hey, it’s almost February. A guy can dream, can’t he?

Comings and Going

The White Sox announced their spring-training invites yesterday, with first baseman Tim Elko among them. How odd and decent. If Elko had managed fifteen homeruns in 200 or so at-bats last season, he’d be going into camp as the odds-on starter and Munetaka Murakami never would’ve been signed, but that didn’t happen. Instead, Elko struck out too much and suffered a torn ACL at the end of the season and was DFA’d in November. The Sox very quietly signed him to a minor-league contract in December and made the invite public yesterday. The odds of the 27-year old making the team range between slim and none, with none having the inside track, and that’s even assuming he’s healthy enough to play. My guess is he gets sent to Triple-A Charlotte with a chance to put up numbers that could interest a team like the Rockies. Oh, could the big guy launch some moon shots at Coors Field. The Sox also announced they were DFAing third baseman Bryan Ramos. If GM Chris Getz seemed reluctant to give Elko much of a chance, he looked downright intent on burying Ramos. What the 24-year old ever did to deserve such treatment is beyond me. All I know is that I watched him pass out U.S. flags during a pregame naturalization ceremony in 2024, and acted like a kid on Christmas morning. Two months later, Ramos did in fact become a U.S. citizen. I just checked, and the Rockies are thin at the corners. There are two guys who tried their best for the Sox and deserve a second chance somewhere. Why not Colorado?

All The News That's Fit to Print

Chicago news outlets are all agog over the Indiana legislature pushing stadium stuff to lure the Bears to their beautiful armpit just across the state line. It’s what the stories omit that bothers me. Last year, Hoosier state senator Ryan Mishler led an assault on Medicaid, under the guise of, in Mishler’s words, “right-sizing” the program. [https://indianapublicradio.org/news/2025/02/indiana-senate-passes-medicaid-hip-overhaul-despite-concerns-about-access-coverage/] Guess who was one of the sponsors for the stadium authority bill? Now, guess what the bill omits. If you said participation levels for minority- and women-owned businesses, you’d be right. The Bears love showing how committed they are to their community. Either they employ the most socially-conscious 25-year olds on the face of the earth, or their marketing department does a good job of getting those players to the right hospitals and schools, the ones where the TV cameras are waiting to show them handing out gifts and whatnot. Also consider that Virginia McCaskey was known for her philanthropic efforts. Seems to me that playing in a publicly-funded stadium in Indiana kind of defeats all that, makes the Bears into a bunch of hypocrites. But that’s just my opinion.

Super Sad

Forty years ago Monday, the Bears beat the Patriots 46-10 in Super Bowl XX. They have not won a Superbowl since and have appeared in only one other, a 29-17 loss to the Colts on February 4, 2007. Clare was a high school freshman waiting to start her first year on varsity softball. She’s now a mother of two and waiting to start her first year as a t-ball coach. Also on Monday, WGN/Channel Nine sportscaster Jarrett Payton called the ’85 Bears the best football team ever, or words to that effect. Payton won’t deny his bias; his father was Walter Payton, a force of nature who played on that team. But other people without that kind of connection pretty much say the same thing. The ’85 Bears receive recognition even today that the 2005 White Sox or 2016 Cubs never will attain. How sad, and weird the way Chicago media buys in to the McCaskey nostalgia machine. The Seahawks will be making their fourth Super Bowl appearance since 2006, to the Bears’ one. The Patriots, well, do you really want to know? This will be the eleventh time…since that 1986 beatdown. Oh, and they have six championships, with a possible number seven to be determined a week from Sunday. So, please, don’t confuse greatness with lightning in a bottle.