Just Stay Put

According to Jon Greenberg in today’s The Athletic, the private-equity firm owned by Justin Ishbia has purchased a 47-acre site in the South Loop literally the other side of the Chicago River where Jerry Reindsorf wanted all of Illinois to build him a new stadium. Greenberg intimated Ishbia, White Sox owner in waiting, may want to build a stadium at the soon-to-be former Amtrak rail yard. As if Sox fans care. They don’t want a new facility; the current one is fine. What they want is new ownership and a commitment to winning. If Ishbia can provide that, fans will line up to watch games while standing on one foot. I know I would.

Is This Anything?

As my good friend David Letterman would ask. In this case, does Matas Buzelis scoring 29 points and Josh Giddey recording another triple-double mean anything? I ask because it happened last night in the Bulls’ 132-107 win over the Grizzlies. Impressive, but maybe not. You see, Memphis is in strict tank-mode. They went into the game with four fewer victories than their hosts; make that five. Outside of the stats for Buzelis and Giddey, what does the win do for the Bulls? It certainly doesn’t improve their chances in the draft lottery. No, the odds are they’ll land low enough so that all the top talent is gone and/or Arturas Karnisovas will be tempted to go after another “project” like he did this year with eighteen-year old Noa Essengue. Talk about your nine circles of sports’ hell. The sooner NBA Commissioner Adam Silver moves against tanking, the better. That would definitely be something.

Everything or Nothing

Spring training can mean everything or nothing, depending on the player and/or the team. Right now, the White Sox must be thinking their 13-10 record in Cactus League play means they’re going to be competitive-plus come Opening Day while the Cubs’ Jameson Taillon has to be telling himself his 22.18 ERA in 9.2 innings doesn’t mean anything. For his sake, I hope not. Taillon inadvertently let slip the dangers inherent with the analytics’ approach to baseball. He admitted in today’s Tribune online story to always “tinkering” and that he “tinkered a little bit and messed myself up” and now needs to tinker himself back to a good place. Maybe shutting off the gizmos would be a good start. Unlike Taillon’s ERA, spring injuries count. Kyle Teel hurt a hamstring in the WBC while Mike Vasil came away from his start Saturday with right-elbow soreness. I think Teel’s injury would have happened regardless the venue. The question here is conditioning. What, the Sox want to lead the world in muscle pulls, again? Vasil’s injury comes with the territory; every pitch risks time on the IL, whenever it’s thrown. But Seiya Suzuki’s injury to his right knee, now that’s something that could’ve been avoided. Suzuki slid into second on an attempted steal in a WBC game Saturday and limped off the field after being called out; the extent of the injury is still being evaluated. Here’s a thought—don’t risk injury by stealing. Even if you succeed, it doesn’t count for your career stats. Wait, here’s a better idea—don’t play in the WBC at all.

Waste of a Good Tree

Newspapers are hanging on by a thread. Consider that the Sun-Times not too long ago sold for one dollar. By that I mean a kit-and-kaboodle transaction down to every last computer terminal, not the cost of a single copy (it should be so cheap). Read either Chicago daily, and you come away with a sense they’re both circling the drain. Hard-news coverage keeps on shrinking; arts’ coverage verges on non-existent; and sports are on a strict diet. The Sun-Times has people who happen to be in Arizona filing Sox spring training stories while the Trib enforces a six-page format for sports, day-in day-out. Who needs NBA or NHL box scores? Once upon a time, both papers would offer their own baseball previews. No more. The only things “local” about the insert included in today’s Sunday Tribune are a front-page photo of Pete Crow-Armstrong and a Trib columnist included among the eight sportswriters making their 2026 predictions. Not one of the seven feature stories is local, and the one advocating a salary cap comes from where you’d expect, a Dallas paper. Each team gets a player photo and some miscellaneous information. Too bad nobody bothered to check for accuracy. Last time I looked, Colson Montgomery played shortstop, not “designated hitter.”

More

The White Sox beat the Cubs 4-2 yesterday, their third win against the North Siders this spring. More of the same come the regular season, please. An acquaintance of long standing—he’d be more of a friend if not for his questionable team loyalty—complained to me this morning how the Cubs used a “crappy” lineup against the forces of good. Truth be told, he was right. His team had at most three starters in the lineup, and, if that’s their pitching staff, look out below. But, hey, the Sox were playing maybe four of their regulars—does Korey Lee count?—and, yes, those four guys who pitched are all probably going to make the staff. But, if you can’t hit Jordan Hicks or Sean Newcomb, that’s on you. It’s twelve days to Opening Day in Milwaukee. Today, the 12-9 Sox play host to the 14-6 Dodgers. That should be a good test of how the spring is going. Depending who plays, of course.

Winning, Losing and Teaching

The purpose of tanking in the NBA is to lose games, thereby improving draft position. So, of course, the Bulls are 2-2 over their last four games. Part of the problem is the front office. Also, in a way, Billy Donovan. Don’t ask a Hall-of-Fame coach to tank. It’s like asking a fish not to swim. Donovan, bless him, insists on giving his all, which includes teaching his young players to be better. Take Matas Buzelis. Tuesday night, Buzelis scored a career-high 41 points in an overtime 130-124 win against the host Warriors. With his team up by five points with 32 seconds to go, Buzelis launched an errant three-pointer. Great idea, if you want to tank, but bad idea if you want to win. And for Donovan, a teaching moment. Coach and second-year forward had a postgame heart-to-heart, in keeping with their mentor-mentee relationship. Or, as the 21-year puts it, “I’m riding with Billy forever. He tells you the truth every time. You can appreciate that when somebody tells you what you need to hear instead of hearing all the other talk which isn’t true.” [quote from story in yesterday’s Tribune] Billy Donovan and Matas Buzelis—the stopped clock of a Bulls’ front office getting it right. I hope. And Josh Giddey? That one’s still up in the air. Only Giddey could find a way to tarnish his triple double, committing five turnovers to go with 21 points, thirteen rebounds and a whopping seventeen assists. Learn how to the handle on the ball, young man. Maybe Donovan can have a(nother) heart-to-heart with him, and bring in Tre Jones while he’s at it. Jones scored 22 points with four rebounds and five assists (and, yes, two turnovers) off the bench against Golden State. Then, in last night’s 142-130 loss to the Lakers, Jones tallied eighteen points, four rebounds and six assists (plus no turnovers) in a starting role. Giddey? The 27 points, eight rebounds and fifteen assists were nice, the six turnovers not so much.

Worth It?

The good news about the WBC is it can serve as a continuation of spring training, with a dash of regular-season pressure thrown in. Produce here, and you have a chance of producing in the bigs come June. Bad news? Injuries. Kyle Teel homered and doubled Tuesday night for Team Italy, only to suffer a hamstring injury running to second; he’s expected to be out four-six weeks. The hamstring’s a hamstring, and it could just as easily have been pulled in Arizona. Still, what happens when an MLB player suffers a knee injury for Team Whatever? Which leads me to Bryce Harper’s stated desire to play baseball in the Summer Olympics one day for Team USA. Yeah, the injuries won’t count, right? And MLB won’t be tempted to switch the World Series to a neutral site because the season shuts down for two weeks. Game Seven on Thanksgiving, anyone? But, like I said, at least the WBC offers a plus-version of spring training. Sam Antonacci, Teel’s teammate on Team Italy, has a homerun to go with three RBIs. He also performed an Oscar-worthy deek last night at shortstop, diving for a flyball that centerfielder Jakob Marsee made an easy catch on. Baserunner Joey Ortiz was off with the pitch, and the deek convinced Ortiz to keep running to third. Marsee threw the ball back in for an easy double play. White Sox GM Chris Getz said he was proud of how well Teel and Antonacci have done, but I wonder. Getz keeps saying Antonacci won’t make the Opening Day roster. Why not? Because starting him at second would constitute an admission that he overvalued Chase Meidroth’s talent in the Garrett Crochet deal? Perish the thought.