Make It Stop

The White Sox won again yesterday, scoring eleven runs in the fourth inning on their way to a 12-3 thumping of the Rockies. The win pushes their record to 11-7, impressive given what they’ve done the last two seasons. Meanwhile, on the North Side, the Cubs are a blah 7-10. I bring this up because I’m a Sox fan, and I know there are Cubs’ fans out there ready to tell me what I can do with that proffered information. In those ancient times before the NFL conquest of the sports’ world, Chicago’s sports’ media would’ve reported both on the disparity in records and the friction it was causing between local baseball nations. Alas, no more. What I got this morning was more Bears’ coverage in the Tribune than the Sox and Cubs combined. The Munsters added some guys on defense. I mean, one of them had 3-1/2 sacks last year for the 8-9 Colts! Stop the presses!! The Sun-Times played copycat to the Trib, and both read the way TV and radio sounded. Listen to Jarrett Payton on WGN Ch. 9, and you’d think the clock was winding down to opening kickoff. It’s not. It’s March. Opening Day is fifteen days off.

Upon Further Review

With Opening Day a little more than two weeks off, the White Sox have the second-best spring-training record among American League teams at 10-7, trailing only the Yankees at 11-5. Interesting. I’ll just say there are a lot of good young players in camp, and leave it at that. As for a neither young-nor-old Jarred Kelenic, his chances of making the Opening Day roster may have turned on a reversed strike call yesterday against the Royals hanks to the Automated Ball-Strike System. Per today’s Sun-Times, Kelenic appealed a called strike three in the first inning and won. The 26-year made good use of his new life by hitting the next pitch for a 438-foot homerun. He went 2-for-3 on the day, lifting his BA to a decent .261. If that were his career average, Kelenic would be an established player somewhere, given his power and defense. I wonder, how many players before him were in the same situation, a pitch away from making the team, only to be victim of a bad call by the plate umpire? The pride of Waukesha, Wisconsin, should thank his lucky stars for ABS intervening on his behalf.

Old School

What can technology do? Well, last spring, it enabled me to check box scores every morning at breakfast while we were in London and Paris. What can’t it do? Preserve the value of page one. I can read stories online anytime, only one story doesn’t relate to another; it’s just a list of headlines. “Above the fold” means something, or once did. That was the most important story on the front page of the paper. You were well-advised to take a look. And, Yes, you can read the paper online in traditional format, but I wonder how many people bother? Regardless, supporters would have you believe the internet has “democratized” the news. Back in olden times, someone decided what stories qualified for page one and where while other pieces went inside the paper. Said who? Somebody I didn’t know but implicitly trusted. This makes me a Hamiltonian, I guess, suspicious of all the “new” news’ sources; give me the old-time rules of journalism, thank you very much. And forget the Bears, while you’re at it. Today is Sunday; we still get hardcopy papers; and I value the front page of each section, especially sports. You could see the echoes, if that’s possible, of the old ways at work on the front page of the Tribune sports’ section. Three stories and a column. Classic composition, which, taken together, worked to perfection. Almost. I learned that Troy Murray, Blackhawks’ star-cum-announcer, had died at the age of 63 and how various women sports at Northwestern University are achieving success. Paul Sullivan also stuck his neck out with his latest “In the Wake of the News” column. Sullivan went after the Trump administration for using MLB and NFL clips in tweets highlighting the U.S. aerial assault against Iran; something about connecting a homerun or hard tackle to an act of war rubbed Sullivan the wrong way. Agree or disagree, Sullivan was doing his job by providing thought-provoking content. But there was another story, sharing “above the fold” status with Murray’s obituary, about the Bears’ “biggest needs.” You see, there are just “46 Days until the NFL Draft on April 23 in Pittsburgh. The Bears have the no. 25 pick.” Thanks, and who gives a crap?

Coach Mom

Some daughters turn into stage mothers, but not mine. No, Clare is destined to be Coach Mom. She already has her 4-1/2 year old son in winter soccer, playing with and against kids as much as two years older. Last night, Leo scored a goal left-footed. No doubt, Coach Mom was happy. Heaven knows what she’ll do when my grandson hits his first homerun in t-ball. Then we have the eighteen-month old sprite known as Maeve. Lately, she insists that the two of us go on the back porch so she can play with wiffle balls and the same plastic bat her big brother uses. Granted, she uses the bat and ball as if she were playing lacrosse or field hockey, but, still, she’s putting bat to ball. Grandpa’s impressed. Wait, there’s more. Last night, said sprite tried to get in on the soccer action by running onto the court (they play in a gym because outside is one, big, muddy, March mess); Dad had to go catch her before she could join big brother. Coach Mom had twice the reason to like what she saw.

No Thanks

The Bears traded wide-receiver DJ Moore to the Bills yesterday in exchange for a second-round draft choice. The Munsters also gain about $16.5 million in cap space. Two things here. First, Moore. I wish I acted as mature at 28 as he did this season. Moore made himself available to the media on a regular basis, and he preferred a minimalist approach to touchdown celebrations; his reaction to catching two game-winning touchdown against the Packers back in December were a study in understatement. I liked that. In what proved to be the Bears’ last game of the season, Moore was out of position for a ball that ended up an interception, which led to a game-winning field goal for the Rams in overtime. Moore took a lot of heat for that but handled it better than most 28-years olds would. A good guy, he will now provide an inviting target for Josh Allen, one of the best quarterbacks in the game. Two, cap space. The Bears also released linebacker Tremaine Edmunds and are coping with the sudden retirement of center Drew Dalman, two moves that mean more cap space. How I hate that term. Until the owners win out (and I don’t think they will), baseball operates free of anything resembling a hard cap, which is nothing short of a straitjacket. No cap, and Moore and/or Edmunds could stay, providing depth in the process. But with the cap, a football front office turns into a high-stakes accounting firm. I can do without it. So can baseball.

Behind the Mic

The one thing that White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf did that I had no problem with was letting go of announcer Harry Caray, a backstabbing frontrunner if there ever was one. I wonder, how many old Cardinal and Sox players attended Caray’s funeral? For that matter, did Ron Cey? The problem with Reinsdorf is that he’s always better at firing people than finding replacements. Not that he thinks so. I’m sure he considers Ken “Hawk” Harrelson the perfect replacement for Caray, and, in a sense, he was. Nobody ever sucked up to Reinsdorf like the Hawk did year after year. When it finally came time for Harrelson to retire, the Sox got it broken-clock right with his replacement, homegrown Sox fan Jason Benetti. Only, like any South Sider (technically, Benetti is a South Suburbanite), Benetti comes with attitude, which showed in his highbrow brand of humor and a very un-Harrelson-like willingness to criticize—as opposed to Caray, who brutalized—Sox players. The Chairman no like, with Benetti gone to Detroit. And, now, to NBC, where he’ll handle play-by-play on Sunday night games. The Sox didn’t want Benetti to do anything but Sox broadcasts. In contrast, the Tigers released a statement saying the team is “incredibly proud” Benetti got the new gig. Crickets so far from Benetti’s former employer. But, hey, we’re about to start season three of the embarrassment known as John Schriffen. Stand up, South Side—and reach for the mute button.

Logjam

The White Sox just updated their top-30 prospects’ list. All I can say is, don’t get attached to anyone in the infield. Two of the top ten are shortstops; one a third baseman-shortstop; and another as a second baseman-third baseman. Oh, and the eleventh-ranked prospect is a shortstop-second baseman. Got that? In addition, two of the Sox top ten—shortstop-third baseman Caleb Bonemer and shortstop Billy Carlson—are on the top 100 prospects’ list put out by MLB Pipeline. Got that? Also, the eleventh-ranked Sox prospect, shortstop-second baseman William Bergolla Jr. is having himself a nice spring, going 6-for-13 so far. Bergolla is not to be confused with ninth-ranked Sox prospect, second baseman-third baseman Sam Antonacci, who was 4-for-13 with two homeruns before leaving to play for Team Italy in the WBC. Got that? Oh, I forgot to mention the White Sox have the number-one pick in the upcoming draft. The consensus top player in said draft is UCLA’s Roch Cholowsky, who happens to be—wait for it—a shortstop. Cholowsky is hitting .341 so far this spring with seven homers. Got that? Good. Now tell me what the above means for Colson Montgomery; Chase Meidroth; Miguel Vargas; and Lenyn Sosa. If the Sox do in fact pick Cholowsky, they’ll have five prospects all capable of playing shortstop. Odds are, they all won’t be a bust. Like I said, don’t get attached to anyone in the infield just yet.