Ducks in a Row

The White Sox need to do a better job of coordinating publicity for their “Field of Dreams” game next August.  Sox/Pravda has everyone agog—or should I say “atwitter”?—about the event, but a group interview of players during yesterday’s game against the A’s suggested otherwise.  Tim Anderson admitted he’d never seen the movie; Adam Engel claimed to have seen bits and pieces; and Dylan Cease said he’d seen it so long ago he couldn’t really remember.  Lucas Giolito saw it but likes “Bull Durham” better.

And while we’re on the subject, what do you think the talking points will be for the game?  At some point, the announcers are going to have to mention Shoeless Joe Jackson.  What exactly will they say, that he took a bribe to throw the 1919 World Series or that he tried to give the money back?  The movie “Field of Dreams” and the book it’s based on, “Shoeless Joe,” both touch on the subject of redemption, as well as second chances.  Will Commissioner Rob Manfred care to comment, let alone act on, the ban his predecessor Kenesaw Mountain Landis imposed on Jackson and seven teammates?

Then we have the matter of Buck Weaver, who by all accounts knew about the plot by his teammates but played the Series straight; Weaver’s sin was not to inform on the other Black Sox.  My guess is the announcers won’t even know who Weaver is, so that’ll be good for Manfred.

We wouldn’t want anything to spoil a magical baseball moment, now would we?