Something My Kid Said

Watching the White Sox stink up Great American Ballpark in a 7-3 loss to the Reds yesterday, I thought of something Clare told me once at the start of her baseball season. “If I miss a ball, it’s because I stink,” she said, no doubt after hearing that very thing. “If they [boys] miss a ball, it’s because they missed a ball.” Or keep striking out or keep throwing balls a foot outside. To be fair, Sox dh Edwin Encarnacion had a homerun to go with his three strikeouts on Sunday. So, Encarnacion is now batting .164 with ten homers; 18 RBIs; and 47 strikeouts in 134 at-bats. Even if you factor in the thirteen walks, Encarnacion has struck out in 32 percent of his plate appearances. What if those stats belonged to a female baseball player? Encarnacion gets the benefit of the doubt because he’s hit 424 homers in his career. And Sox pitchers Dylan Cease? We have to be patient because Cease has all kinds of talent, or so I’m told. Yesterday, Cease walked seven batters in three-plus innings. Add 32 walks to 45 hits, and Cease has a 1.43 WHIP this season. But, boy, can he hum that pea. That said, how would Sox fans react to a female pitcher putting up those numbers? Clare was eleven or twelve when she ran up against a baseball instance of Catch-22. Nothing’s changed since then, I’m sad to say.