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.

That's Why

The Bulls gave it the old college try, so to speak, last night against the visiting Lakers, even pulling to within seven points with just over five minutes remaining. But the third straight pretty-good opponent proved one too many. Lakers 129 Bulls 118. Luka Doncic scored six of his 46 points in the fourth quarter, and the Bulls had no answer either for the big guy—a 6’8”, 230 pound point guard—defensively or offensively. That’s why most teams try to build around a superstar. Get it right, and you can win a game like last night going away. The best the Bulls could counter with was Coby White with 23 points. Did I mention White’s four turnovers? Doncic had three, half of the Lakers’ total. The Bulls turned the ball over fifteen god-awful times. You can’t do that, especially without a superstar to bail you out. Did I mention that Doncic scored 46?

Marking Time

In January, time just doesn’t stand still. It’ll go in the wrong direction when you’re not looking. Today is yesterday, and tomorrow never comes. Except, maybe, on the coattails of football. Yesterday was the league championships, and, so far, no repeat today of the Patriots or Seahawks winning. I must be enough of a Bears’ fan to note that, not only did the Rams lose, but the Seahawks allowed them more points (27) in regulation than the Bears did in overtime (20). Wait till next year, or whenever. If I can make it through the arctic chill the rest of the week, again, assuming time doesn’t go backwards, SoxFest starts on Friday. That should be good for a few stories, force the Bears to share media coverage, if only for a weekend. Then, another week and it’s Superbowl Sunday, February 8. Pitchers and catchers report to White Sox camp two days later. With that, time should start moving in the right direction again.

Curioser and Curioser

Thursday night, the Bulls reached .500 with a road win against a pretty good (27-18) Minnesota team. Last night, they climbed one game over with a home victory against an equally good (28-17) Boston team. Kevin Huerter hit the game-winning three with .2 seconds left on the clock. Bulls 114 Celtics 111. The thing is, Huerter might’ve been sitting on the bench if not for Tre Jones’ hamstring injury, suffered against the T-Wolves. Yup, another injury for another Bulls’ guard. At first, it looked like Jones would be out two-plus weeks, but now it’s looking more like two weeks. What a difference a day makes. It was another all-hands-on-deck performance by the home team, with eight of the nine Bulls who saw action scoring in double figures and, instead of ten or more points, Josh Giddey managing ten assists in 23 minutes of play. How often does a team commit fifteen turnovers to the opposition’s six and still win a game? Maybe it helps to hit 21 three-pointers. Again, the question becomes, who do you trade? Coby White hit five of those three-pointers on his way to a team-high 22 points. Jalen Smith impressed again, and his pairing with Nikola Vucevic seems to have energized Vucevic. Did I see a couple of defensive stops from the big guy? So, decisions to make before the February 5 trade deadline. As to Derrick Rose having his number retired in postgame ceremonies, Rose didn’t talk about altered grades in high school or suspicious SAT scores, so I won’t talk about him.

Everything New is Old Again

Yesterday, the Tribune printed a listing of organizational job titles for the White Sox and the people filling them in the upcoming season. By my count, of the hundred or so listed, no more than eight went to women, and not one of those was in coaching or the GM-track in the front office, unless “education coordinator” or “nutritionist” qualifies. Apparently, the person hired for “player development biomechanist” just had to be a guy.