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.

In Your Dreams

Either the folks at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill had nothing better to do yesterday, or a respected Chicago architecture firm is in need of work, bigtime. Either way, SOM released drawings of what a new Bears stadium would look like if sited at Rate Field, home of the White Sox Chicago being Chicago, local media was all over the “story’; maybe somebody even mentioned that the Bears had no comment on the idea. Come to think of it, maybe everybody should’ve kept their mouths shut about what looks to be a Hail-Mary’s Hail Mary. I mean, the drawings envision a residential/entertainment district around the stadium. But if it’s on Illinois Sports Facility land, who’s going to run that district? Don’t you think the McCaskeys fantasize about the revenue streams that would come out of it? And has anyone ever seen the heirs of Halas willing to share money with a public body? The drawings also wish away a small public-housing development. Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson’s going to be OK with that? And if the Bears are headed to Bridgeport, that means the Sox would relocate to the South Loop with an Amtrak cleaning-and-repair facility headed for Bridgeport. SOM realizes Bridgeport wants no part of that facility, right? This is what happens when a tiny group of people indulges in wishful thinking and it gets picked up by an enabling media; a non-story becomes a story. Expect the Bears’ stadium saga to continue.

This Season is Ovah!

The Brewers put the Rays out of their misery last night by a score of 4-1, thereby clinching their first-ever championship. All hail the conquering heroes. In what otherwise was a pretty-blah five-game series, second-year player Chandler Simpson of the Rays stood out. The 25-year old left fielder is a throwback to the days of Willie McGee and Vince Coleman. Simpson’s game is all about speed. In a five-year professional career, the lefthanded-hitting Simpson has hit all of one homerun. On the other hand, he’s stolen 90 bases in the two years he’s been with Tampa. Whenever Simpson got on base, which happened six times in the Series, you could see the Brewers go into a slow panic. Simpson stole two bases and forced at least one error with his baserunning. I was so impressed by his level of play that I was going to say the White Sox could use a player like that. And then I thought. Sam Antonacci.

Too Many Toys

The Brewers pulled ahead of the Rays 3-2 in the top of the twelfth inning last night when rookie shortstop Cooper Pratt homered off Tampa pitcher number-seven. The Rays stormed back to walk the game off in the bottom of the inning after a lead-off error was followed by four straight hits off of Milwaukee pitchers number-eight. Rays 4 Brewers 3, Milwaukee up three games to one. That’s fifteen pitchers total in 11.2 innings, in case you’re counting. Speaking for all the baseball dinosaurs out there, what a joke. Baseball works best when it enters the realm of things magical and unscripted. Consider game six of the 1975 World Series between the Reds and Red Sox. Sparky Anderson made just like Pat Murphy did last night, by using eight pitchers over eleven-plus innings; Darrell Johnson went with four. The magic was provided by Carlton Fisk in the bottom of the twelfth. Or take the 1991 Series between the Braves and Twins, recognized as one of the best ever. Games six and seven both went extra innings. The Twins won game six in eleven innings, 4-3, each team using four pitchers. The next night, the Twins clinched the Series when Jack Morris threw a ten-inning, complete-game, 1-0 shutout. Atlanta went with three pitchers, John Smoltz going 7.1 innings. Minnesota one pitcher 35 years ago, Milwaukee eight last night. Somebody point me in the direction of Jurassic Park.

Could'a, Would'a, Should'a

Well, if you’re a Brewers’ fan, last night’s 10-1 beatdown of the Rays in their home park had to be a lot of fun, especially since the game wasn’t as close as the score might indicate; two of the three hits Tampa had on the night came in the ninth inning. Did I mention that Milwaukee scored eight two-out runs in the fifth inning? The Rays are being thoroughly outclassed here. If the White Sox had had a clue in the ALDS, they could’ve beaten the Guardians and advanced to the ALCS. And what’s to say they couldn’t have won there, too? They definitely couldn’t have done any worse than the Rays are, that’s for sure.

Lap-dog Journalism

Bears’ tight-end Cole Kmet suffered a season-ending knee injury Thursday night against the Patriots. What kind of knee injury I don’t know because nobody wants to say or find out. Go on the Bears’ website, and the only two things you’ll find are Coach Ben Johnson’s press conference from Friday where Johnson confirms Kmet’s season is over and a roster-move, also from Friday, that Kmet has been placed on the IR. As ever with the NFL, they decide what’s newsworthy and what isn’t. All of which is to be expected. What gets my head shaking in disbelief is how meekly the Chicago media goes along. No updates on Kmet anywhere that I could find. Kevin Fishbain did a story in The Athletic today that assesses Kmet’s value to the team. OK, but what exactly happened to him? Fishbain doesn’t say. To which Coach Johnson, Bears GM Ryan Poles and everyone else in the NFL would respond: Good boy.