Peas in a Pod

I really liked longtime White Sox starter Mark Buerhle, sort of.  He worked fast, yet always seemed to go from 0-2 to 3-2 before putting a hitter away; I came to realize, slowly, that Good Mark and Bad Mark were one and the same.  He also looked like a goof but pitched with the fire you would expect of someone who recorded two no-hitters, one of them perfect.  Buehrle loves pit bulls (I prefer bassetts), and at the age of 38 could still be pitching rather than starting his second year of retirement.  Go figure.  Yesterday, the White Sox announced they’re going to retire Buehrle’s number in June.  What four-time Gold Glover spends a career wearing the number 56 on his back?

Buehrle was born in St. Charles, Missouri.  Rick Reuschel was born a little over a hundred miles away, in Quincy, Illinois.  Buehrle pitched 16 years, Reuschel 19.  Buehrle came up with the Sox at the age of 21 in 2000, Reuschel first appeared with the Cubs at the age of 23 in 1972.  They each pitched 12 years in Chicago, and they both finished with 214 career wins, though Buehrle had 31 fewer losses.  (Sox fans and Cubs’ fans can argue which player was stuck on worse teams.)  Buehrle totaled 161 wins with the Sox, Reuschel 135 with the Cubs.  Buehrle managed a .973 fielding average to Reuschel’s .972 while Reuschel had a career 1.275 WHIP to Buehrle’s 1.28.  The difference in career ERA—3.81 for Buehrle, 3.37 for Reuschel—is the result of one pitcher spending all but one year of his career in the American League, with its DH, while the other spent all but one year in the National League.

My point?  You don’t know what you got till it’s gone, and you don’t need to throw smoke to excel as a big-league pitcher.  Here’s hoping you get perfect weather on your day, Mark.