A Tree Falls...

A Tree Falls…

This is how the White Sox lost in Florida yesterday afternoon, with the tying run thrown out at home.  It looked like the Marlins’ catcher was blocking the plate without the ball, and the Sox challenged the ruling, to no avail, so no three-game sweep.

After the game, manager Robin Ventura said, “You get a hit, and you make them make a good play, and they did.  It was a great throw.”  Ventura also liked how his team went “about it and put some at-bats together.  You just come up short.”  Oh brother, do they.

What should’ve happened at the end of the game was Ventura doing his best Lou Piniella/Earl Weaver imitation.  Demand a review, then complain that it took all of 15 seconds—I’m not making that up—to decide on a play that literally ended the game.  Then go into the postgame news conference and let the media know you’re playing the game under protest.  For added measure, blast the vagueness of the Posey Rule, re-enact how the catcher was blocking the plate without the ball.  Finally, say something along the lines of “What was my guy supposed to do, barrel into the catcher?  God forbid.”  Last but not least, make sure you’ve said enough to earn a big fat fine.

For better or worse, a team takes on the personality of its manager.  Robin Ventura is mellow to the point of comatose.  Players feel it, and I suspect umpires act on it; three close calls all went against the Sox in that game, and not once did Ventura make like Piniella-Weaver.  When I told Clare how they lost, she said, “That’s what happens when you suck.  Nobody cares.”  Again, out of the mouth of a child comes unheeded wisdom.