These
really are the dog days for baseball, when indoor sports abound and the Bears
implode. In ancient times, I either
waited for a trade (e.g., 1-20-65, John Romano, Tommy John and Tommie from the
Indians to the White Sox for the recently acquired Rocky Colavito and Cam
Carreon , or 11-29-67, Luis Aparicio and Russ Snyder from the Orioles to the
Sox for Don Buford, Bruce Howard and Roger Nelson) or gutted it out to the end
of January. By then, the early baseball
magazines would begin showing up at Charles Drugs on the corner of 55th
and Kedzie. I ran, slid and slipped the
four icy blocks from my house.
It’s
a little easier now, thanks to baseballreference.com, where the names and
numbers hardly ever stop. I can watch
for transactions in the sports’ section (or cheat by going to the MLB website),
then study a player in depth. A little
baseballreference makes the time pass in a most delightful way.
Take
the Sox signing of Melky Cabrera. I can
check the splits and confirm that Cabrera has been pretty much of a Sox killer,
10 homers, 38 rbi’s and 39 runs for a .316 career batting average in 244
at-bats. Then I see the Sox have signed
catcher George Kottaras to a minor league contract with an invitation to spring
trainer. Kottaras, isn’t he the guy…? Yes, the guy who had a cup of coffee with
Cleveland last year and hit two homers in a game against the Sox. In fact, Kottaras has done quite well for
himself facing my team. Of his six
career hits against the Sox, Kottaras has managed two doubles and three home
runs for a .333 lifetime average (and .944 slugging percentage!).
Stats
like that can keep a fan alive in this cold, dark wintertime.
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