Bargain Hunting

White Sox general manager Chris Getz looks to have himself a real bargain in first baseman Munetaka Murakamit, who’s hit three homeruns in his first three career MLB games. If only Getz had the same luck with pitching. I figured it would be a rough start to the season with the Sox opening on the road against the Brewers. Getting out of Milwaukee with a 1-2 record would’ve been OK by me. Blowing a four-run lead in the eighth only to lose by two, not so much. But that’s what Getz’s rebuilt bullpen did. Chirs Murphy loaded the bases with one out before giving up a one-run single. Murphy then exited, to be replaced by Seranthony Dominguez, who did manage to retire the first batter he faced on a popup. Oh, but what happened nest. A two-run single on a full count followed by a three-run, pinch-hit homer courtesy of Christian Yelich, this on a 2-2 pitch. To state the obvious, Dominguez didn’t attack the zone, and he showed the reflexes of a sloth on the single, hit to his left. He fields it, inning’s over. He slows it down, maybe inning’s over. Just not good. Next up, the Marlins, who’ve started the season 3-0, followed by the Bluejays, also 3-0. Not good, indeed.

L.A. Goodbye

Spend 5-1/2 days in Los Angeles (Santa Monica, actually), and you notice things, like traffic. It’s different, not worse. Here, people drive the taxis and Ubers. There, the taxis drive themselves. But an L.A. freeway could pass for a Chicago expressway, easy. The one thing that did impress me was the sports’ scene. In Chicago, it’s Bears, Bears, Bears, 24/7 365 days a year. In Los Angeles, no one seems to care that the Rams beat the Munsters in the playoffs to get to the NFC Championship game; that’s old news, if it was ever news at all. I could be wrong, but people look to be in Dodgers-Dodgers-Dodgers’ mode, 24/7 365 days a year. More interesting yet, we’re not talking celebrity fandom, either. In fact, the Dodgers’ fan base looks as varied as the White Sox, and more working-class, if that’s possible. L.A. may be home to two basketball and two football teams and a hockey team, but you’d never know it from walking around. The only “gear” that counts comes in Dodger-blue. I can respect that.

This I like, That I Don't

With the start of the season just four days off, here are your White Sox story lines. Good news first—Edgar Quero had himself a very nice spring. Counting yesterday’s 1-for-4 performance against the Reds, the 22-year old, switch-hitting catcher is hitting an even .300 with fourteen RBIs in 50 at-bats. Do the math, and that comes out to 110 RBIs in 500 at-bats. A regular season along the lines of that, please. Of more concern is Colson Montgomery with his .180 BA with four RBIs in 50 at-bats. Do the math, and that comes out to 40 RBIs in 500 at-bats. Good thing spring training doesn’t mean anything. Right? A Sox minor leaguer gave up a walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the ninth to the Reds, so I don’t want that to be some sort of bullpen omen. As for prospects, a group belonging to the Sox group squared off against the Dodgers in a 11-10 loss. Noteworthy: William Bergolla Jr. going 3-for-3 (Colson Montgomery, ignore at your own risk); Braden Montgomery driving in two; and George “Paul Bunyan” Wolkow homering. Two out of these three I hope, I expect, to see with the parent club before long. As for the 20-year old, 6’7” Wolkow, anything in the neighborhood of a .250 BA will earn him a promotion to the next level. You don’t want to stay at low-A Kannapolis, my friend. There you have it, the good, the bad and the maybe.

Cutting Down

Clare never had to worry about making a team, not really. The first travel team she tried out for, before the formal switch from baseball to softball, she didn’t make, but I later heard the organization didn’t field a team in her age group that summer. Then, a team she was on in eighth grade collapsed, and the older coach didn’t want her, but she found another team without a problem, even though—maybe because—she hit one of the coaches with a line drive. High school and college, though, she was pretty much a lock from day one of freshman year. So, I can only guess what players in White Sox camp are thinking right now. What I do know is there won’t be any Jarred Kelenic feel-good story short of someone getting injured and the Sox needing an outfielder; ditto for local-kid reliever Ryan Borucki. Either might have made the team in 2023 or ’24 or ’25 but not now. Bad for them, good for the organization and for anyone who considers themselves a Sox fan. What Clare does know about is dealing with a career that ends abruptly. In softball, that’s pretty much a given except for the .001 percent or so of college players who want to live an itinerant existence following a pro dream or fantasy For Kelenic and Borucki, along with a lot of people whose names appear in the Transactions’ announcements the next few days, retirement maybe closer than they’d like. But there’s no escaping it. As for the Sox, if they’re not going to stock the roster with a bunch of free-agent veterans, who makes the trip to Milwaukee for Opening Day? Stay tuned.

Waiting

The White Sox open their season six days from now in Milwaukee, and the 26-player roster is still taking shape. Regardless who makes the team, you have to wonder how set positions are going to be. Today’s lineup includes rookie infielder Sam Antonacci, and I’m inclined to ask, why? Chris Getz has flat-out said Antonacci will start the season in the minors. The 23-year mustn’t have gotten the message. He went 1-for-3 with an RBI last night against the Padres, which gives him a .313 BA and five RBIs for the spring. Oh, and three stolen bases to go with seven runs scored. How long does the 23-year old sparkplug languish in the bushes, Chris? The same question could be asked of outfielder Braden Montgomery, who also had himself a nice spring, hitting .348 with three RBIs and four runs scored. It felt like Getz couldn’t send the switch-hitting Montgomery down fast enough, lest he improve on those stats. Maybe the Sox wouldn’t have a muddled outfield picture had Getz decided to make a bold decision or two. I’ll hold my tongue on pitchers Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith, till June. If they’re struggling in the minors, keep them there. Otherwise, they should be up. I mean, it’s not a successful rebuild without proof of progress. Let these players prove themselves ASAP.

Other Springs, Past Summers

Last Saturday, we went to the Berwyn Rec for early voting in the Illinois primary. Talk about stepping into a time machine, or out of one, I guess. Old fogies went one direction, parents with kids in another. An electronic crawler announced Pony Ball signup, and I began to float through time. The father with the girl who wanted to play baseball. Which she did spring after spring through seventh grade. Then, Sunday, I started clearing out the area around the trainset in the basement; my hope is to get everything up and running by my grandson’s fifth birthday come August. If I know Leo, he’ll want full access to every side of the layout. And, if I know me, there’ll be some purchases of very old Lionel equipment on eBay to spike his interest, and mine. Know that, both by inclination and by profession, I am a collector of things past. If the thing tells a story, I’m inclined to keep it. The trainset? That’s pure Ed Bukowski. A man with three kids always in need of stuff found the money to buy a slightly used Lionel set and built the table to put it on. I have all of that to remind me. The story boards Clare used in grade school and high school do the same. They were piled in a far corner, where Leo is sure to be standing before long. All products of one history fair or another. My daughter said I could pitch everything. “I didn’t even know you’d saved them.” But I did, and I’m not quite ready to let go of one in particular, “Mustang Madness!”. It tells the story of one of the summer Morton teams Clare played on; for three years, she a Mustang not actually in high school. All I can say is, the kid could hit. Anyway, she imagined the team—which won the summer league championship, such as it was—as part of a “Field of Dreams”-like movie, with Clare being played by Amber Tamblyn. Jessica; Jezebel; Alyssa; and one other girl were played by other young actors at the time. The photos pasted on the board are of achingly young kid-athletes, posing, smiling, trying to project confidence. There are two of Clare, one in catcher’s gear (that experiment didn’t last long, trust me) and the other showing her ready to hit. The stance that launched a career’s worth of long balls. Those onetime teammates have all gone their separate ways. My contribution to that long-ago team has two children of her own now, and one of them will be starting t-ball in another week or so. Time flies. I’ll show Clare the story board. Depending what she says, I may find a place for it in the basement.

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.