Passing Time

For eight years with Clare, from freshman-year high school through the end of college, I didn’t have to bother much with baseball.  Between travel and varsity, Clare was busy—and I was busy with her—a full eleven months out of the year.  (In case you’re wondering, we got August off).  If the Sox were bad or mediocre, which they mostly were, I had the luxury of concentrating on my daughter’s career instead.  

College was a little different.  I wasn’t a real part of the equation anymore other than to be on hand as a sympathetic ear once practice started in January.  Then, beginning with the spring trip to Florida, it was six of the most intense weeks you can imagine.  I needed that long, into June, just to recover.

But now I’m in my second year of having to care about the White Sox, the textbook definition of an average team at 38-38.  But Chris Sale is anything but average after beating Toronto 5-2 on Sunday to up his record to 13-2.  Sale needed all of 99 pitches to go eight innings.  Two solo shots in the eighth cost him a shot at a complete game.  Oh, well, you take the bad with the good.

Sale beat Marcus Stroman, who only lasted five innings.  My fan-crush on Stroman remains strong.  What I wouldn’t give to have him, all 5’8” of him, following Sale in the rotation.  But, hey, we have James Shields instead.  Be still, my beating heart, be still.