Calming Down A Bit

The tweet storm known as Clare seems to have calmed down since the announcement Thursday of Tony La Russa’s hiring as manager of the White Sox. But she did call twice yesterday to inform me of team transactions. GM Rick Hahn cut his losses by declining to pick up the options on non-hitting dh Edwin Encarnacion (.157 BA) and non-pitching swingman on the pitching staff Gio Gonzalez (4.83 ERA). Encarnacion and Gonzalez join reliever Steve Cishek as 2019-offseason moves that didn’t pan out. The good news is first-base prospect Andrew Vaughn looks to be first in line for the dh job. The Sox also lost infielder Yolmer Sanchez, again; the Orioles claimed Sanchez off of waivers. Well, it’s good to be wanted, and, maybe if Yolmer puts his mind to it, he can hit almost as good as he fields. Fingers crossed. As for the LaRussa hiring, if there’s anyone in favor of it outside of a few good-puppy sportswriters, I haven’t much evidence of it. The good news is that, when the going gets tough, Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf has a tendency to disappear. Though on Halloween, you’d think he’d want to move around freely with all the other ghouls and goblins.

It's Good to be the Boss

It’s good to be the boss, like White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf. If Reinsdorf decides to hire old pal Tony LaRussa as manager after GM Rich Hahn talks about fresh approaches, managers with recent championship experience, etc., too bad for Hahn. He can hang in the wind, mumble “Never mind” or exit stage right, whichever he wants. All that really matters is, The boss has spoken. My daughter is pretty much an exhausted mess in the wake of yesterday’s LaRussa announcement, tweeting among other things Ted Williams’ head for bench coach and apologizing in advance for all the terrible things she was going to tweet out about the hiring. I’ve tried to get Clare to see the silver lining, that either the two of us (and one hell of a lot of other Sox fans) don’t know baseball or Reinsdorf has made a colossal blunder, and it won’t take long to see which. Such a hothead I’ve raised. She doubts the 76-year old LaRussa will be able to relate to players fifty years younger, especially if they’re given to bat flipping and other emotional displays or have an opinion on politics; LaRussa is on record of disapproving of Colin Kaepernick kneeling for the national anthem. Me, I want him to come clean about steroids. He never saw Mark McGwire or Jose Canseco shooting up in Oakland? He never heard about it? If so, LaRussa’s sight and hearing left him long before he reached retirement age.

COVID Follies

The Dodgers lifted third baseman Justin Turner during game six of the World Series Tuesday night when Turner’s latest COVID-19 test came back positive. But that didn’t keep Turner from celebrating—sans mask—with his teammates on the field after Los Angeles clinched the Series with a 3-1 win over the Rays. Dodgers’ manager Dave Roberts, a cancer survivor, was celebrating, too. In fact, the two of them were shown sitting next to one another, not a mask between them. COVID, by the way, is known to go after people with weakened immune systems, which can result from cancer treatments. Turner’s actions were ignorant, disgraceful and dangerous. Team president Andrew Friedman’s defense of Turner is just ignorant and disgraceful. Endangering teammates; enabling anyone to endanger teammates; and rationalizing such behavior are actions that need to be punished, and punished severely. Stupid is as stupid does, and allows. Where I live, the Illinois High School Authority has voted to ignore Governor J.B. Pritzker’s ruling that postpones winter sports, in particular basketball. I’m inclined to go with the IHSA, provided teams and conferences can come up with the money necessary to conduct regular testing of teams, coaches and other personnel, that plus a ban on fans in the stands. Anything less, and it becomes the Justin Turner Show, part II.

Facts and Figures, Game Six

Connect the following dots, if you dare: The Rays and Dodgers combined for ten hits last night in LA’s 3-1 win in game six of the World Series; the teams used 12 pitchers between them. That’s right, there were more pitchers than hits. And, according to Paul Sullivan in today’s Tribune, this was the least-watched Series through five games. Rays’ manager Kevin Cash pulled starter Blake Snell after 5.1 innings, despite Snell having yielded just two hits and no walks with nine strikeouts; Snell was pitching on five days’ rest, by the way. A 1-0 lead quickly turned into a 2-1 deficit and, eventually, a 3-1 defeat, with the Series going to the Dodgers. It doesn’t matter whether or not analytics led Cash to lift Snell; analytics dictated the 12 pitchers. There could be no repeat of game seven of the 1991 Series, when 36-year old Jack Morris pitched a 10-inning complete game shutout for the Twins over the Braves; working on just three days’ rest, Morris yielded seven hits and two walks on 126 pitches. Last night, Snell was gone after 73 pitches. The game took 3:28 to play, while Morris and the Twins finished up in 3:23. Long games, lots of pitchers (and strikeouts, another 27 yesterday vs. two homeruns) and low, low TV ratings—that’s where analytics has taken the national pastime. Maybe the powers that be are hoping that, once baseball gets declared a disaster, people will tune in the way bad accidents draw a crowd. Some silver lining, that.

Riddle Me This, Bears' Fans

How often does a 24-10 loss feel more like 240-10? Are the Bears what the ‘’62 Mets would look like as a football team? If Matt Nagy is such a good coach, why does he keep making Rick Renteria look like a genius? How much would the Rams be willing to bribe the NFL to schedule a game against the Bears every season? How much to put them in the same conference? Why do the Bears bother with an offensive line? They could save on the salaries with a long snapper hiking the ball to the “quarterback.” Or they could just punt on first down. Why do the Bears bother with a running game? If penalties reflect coaching, why was Akiem Hicks still in the game after picking up his fourth penalty in the third quarter? Hicks looked like a cartoon character diving into that pile of players at the goal line. Why did the Bears draft tight end Cole Kmet? I mean, he looks to be good, when he gets a chance. Wasn’t there a Mitch Trubisky-type player available? Was the fan noise intended to drown out laughter coming from the Rams’ sideline at Nagy’s play calling? If there were no fans in the stands, why did the wrap-around video board keep showing cheerleaders? With its ability to generate electronic messages, was the roof of SoFi Stadium sending out “Ha-ha” and “Bears Suck” for alien passersby to see?

Facts and Figures, Game Five

The Dodgers beat the Rays last night by a score of 4-2. Outside of an attempted steal of home by Tampa’s Manuel Margot in the fourth inning, the game was about as interesting as the lead sentence. The two teams combined for 13 hits, nine walks and 18 strikeouts; all that swinging yielded two homeruns, both by Los Angeles. Nine pitchers came and went. If you’re a Dodgers’ fan, the 3:30 it took to win the game might not seem so long. To those of us who don’t necessarily love LA, it dragged, and then some Today’s trip in the time machine isn’t to all that long ago, game five of the 1991 World Series between the Twins and Braves, Atlanta winning by a score of 14-5. Those two teams combined for 24 hits, nine walks and a mere ten strikeouts; oddly enough, all three homers were hit by the losing team. This game also featured nine pitchers, who did their work a good deal faster than their counterparts in 2020. The game clocked in at 2:59. Depending on how much God wants to punish baseball fans, the Series could go to the Dodgers tomorrow night in six games. Or the game could go into extra innings, a taste of an eternity in hell. Or the Rays could win and force a game seven.

Facts and Figures, Game Four

Ask me to rate last night’s 8-7 win by the Rays over the Dodgers, and I’d give it somewhere between a B and a B+. The last play, with the Rays scoring two runs— Randy Arozarena scoring the winning run from first base despite doing a literal cartwheel between third and home—was definitely exciting if not exactly textbook baseball. I mean, center fielder Chris Taylor booted Brett Phillips’ two-out single to get Arozarena started, and catcher Will Smith dropped a relay throw that would’ve had Arozarena out at the plate by, oh, two to three miles at least. But, yes, it was exciting. You know what comes next, the totals. Both teams combined for 25 his, nine walks and 20 strikeouts, 14 by the Rays; those 20 k’s came at the cost of six homers. Both teams used 13 pitchers, with the real question being, why did LA manager Dave Roberts go with Kenley Jansen to close it? I suspect Roberts chose loyalty over performance. All sorts of numbers indicate Jansen’s days as a shutdown closer are done. And, now you know what comes next, a trip in the old time machine, this time to game six of the 1977 World Series between the Yankees and Dodgers, won by New York, 8-4; this was the game where Reggie Jackson hit his three homeruns. The game featured 17 hits, four walks and 11 strikeouts to go with a combined five homers. The Dodgers used four pitchers while the Yankees let Mike Torrez go the distance. Back in the day, giving up four runs, two earned, was not a mark of dishonor. Allow me two final figures, relating to time of game. Last night’s game took 4:10, the game 43 years ago 2:18. Do with that what you will.

Facts and Figures, Game Three

Well, the Rays wandered back into the headlights last night, losing to the Dodgers, 6-2. The game wasn’t as close as the score might indicate. The teams combined for 14 hits, four walks and 24 strikeouts, 13 by the more-or-less hapless Tampa hitters; the teams used nine pitchers between them. Strikeouts are the cost of trying to hit homeruns in today’s game. Are 24 strikeouts worth the three homeruns hit last night? You decide. By the way, the game took 3:14 to play. Funny, but it seemed longer. Today’s jaunt in the time machine takes us to game one of the 1988 World Series between the Dodgers and A’s. Los Angeles won 5-4, on Kirk Gibson’s two-run walkoff in the ninth inning off Dennis Eckersley. The game featured 14 total hits, nine walks and 15 strikeouts balanced out by three homers. Six pitchers were used in a game that went 3:04. I dare any good baseball fan a month from now to remember anything remotely like the Gibson homer from this Series. I mean, other than the time the games took to play.

Facts and Figures, Game Two

Well, the Rays stepped out of the headlights last night to top the Dodgers, 6-4, and even the Series at a game apiece. There were a combined fourteen hits in the game along with eight walks and 22 strikeouts, fifteen by the Dodgers. But, hey, all those punchouts generated five homeruns. Both teams used a total of twelve pitchers in a contest that took 3:40 to play. Now, let’s jump in the time machine and set the controls to October 21, 1975, for game six of the World Series between the Reds and Red Sox, ending with Carlton Fisk’s walkoff in the bottom of the twelfth inning for a 7-6 Sox win. Both teams combined for 24 hits to go with nine walks and fourteen strikeouts, seven per team. A total of twelve pitchers were used, only four by Boston. The game took 4:01 to play. In other words, a game featuring eleven more baserunners and two-plus more innings took just 21 minutes more to play. I wonder if anyone outside Los Angeles or Tampa will remember last night’s game two the way they do that game six from 45 years ago.

Facts and FIgures, World Series, Game One

The Dodgers beat the Rays in game one of the Series last night by a score of 8-3. One team looked ready to play, the other looked like it was caught in the headlights. The game featured a combined sixteen hits and eight walks. There were three homeruns to balance out the 21 total strikeouts. Tampa used four pitchers to five for the Dodgers, though that stat is a little misleading given that Clayton Kershaw held the Rays to one run on two hits through six innings. Manager Dave Roberts must’ve felt a need to use his pen. The game took 3:24 to play. Just for fun, let’s go back to the 1960 Series between the Pirates and Yankees. New York won game three, 10-0. There were sixteen total hits, five walks and ten strikeouts. The Yankees hit two balls out of the park in a game that took 2:41 to play. Whitey Ford went the distance for the pinstripes while the Bucs went through six pitchers. Maybe Pittsburgh manager Danny Murtaugh should be credited with the invention of “bullpenning.” Game six went to the Yankees, 12-0. There were a combined 24 hits, three walks and nine strikeouts. No one hit a homer for the Yankees while the Pirates again went through six pitchers. The game went 2:38. Such was baseball in the time before launch angles and power arms out of the pen.

Matt Nagy/Jerry Manuel

Bears’ general manager Ryan Pace is Kenny Williams come to football. Just like the former White Sox GM did, Pace makes a series of moves in the offseason, mixes the new players in with the holdovers and hopes for the best. Sometimes, it works, most of the time it doesn’t. This looks to be one of the seasons it will. Think White Sox, 2000. In which case, Pace’s head coach is the White Sox manager from twenty years ago. Matt Nagy, meet Jerry Manuel. Bears’ fans, prepare for disappointment. Manuel got his team into the postseason that year, only to be swept by the Mariners. If Manuel couldn’t win with Paul Konerko, Carlos Lee, Maglio Ordonez, Frank Thomas and Jose Valentin, you think Nagy is going to do better with Nick Foles, Khalil Mack and David Montgomery? I doubt it. I’ll say this for Foles: He gets too much of the blame. Critics need to stop focusing on Foles’ anemic yardage gain per pass and realize those are the plays the head coach calls. Nothing over the middle or deep? Blame Nagy, who appears to be channeling his inner George Halas. Of course, Halas knew a running back when he saw one, and that looks to be a talent lacking in Nagy. How does a team get the ball at the two-minute warning at the end of the first half and not have any timeouts left? Ask Mike Nagy. Why would the team without a running game call a run with two minutes left and no timeouts? Ask Mike Nagy. And how often can a team expect a journeyman kicker to bail it out with a 55-yard field goal to close out the half? Ask Mike Nagy. And, while you’re at it, ask Nagy why he stopped using tight end Cole Kmet after Kmet caught his first career touchdown early in the game and followed that up with another nice catch. Correct me if I’m wrong, but after that Kmet pretty much disappeared. How ’bout it, Coach? Unlike Mitch Trubisky, Foles looks like he can read defenses and find his receivers, at least on occasion. But to win consistently and go deep in the playoffs, look to Jerry Manuel. Either Nagy gets better, or the Bears go splat.

Time Has Come Today

I can’t wait for the World Series to start on Tuesday. No, what I should say is I better expect to wait and watch as every game that drags on interminably. The Rays-Astros’ ALCS went seven games and averaged 3:33 in length, with three games clocking in at 3:50 or more. The Braves-Dodgers’ NLCS was worse, or longer, going seven games and averaging a mind-numbing 3:45, with two games breaking the 4:12 mark. Now, for some perspective. The Yankees-Pirates World Series also went seven games, averaging 2:40 a game. The Dodgers’ 15-3 win took 4:15 to play vs. 3:14 for the Yankees’ 16-3 victory in game two. Not one game in either championship series clocked in at under three hours while three of the World Series’ contests managed to finish in 2:32 or under and five in 2:38 or under. The Pirates 10-9 game-seven win, one of the greatest games in baseball history, took all of 2:36 to play. Television and mound visits are killing baseball. I watch one after another infield convention on the mound, everyone talking behind their gloves, and wonder what kind of bizarre ritual I’ve stumbled onto. Worse yet, the commercials are spilling over into the actual game. Baseball is playing with fire, a minute at a time. Once the game reaches a certain time threshold, it’ll be destroyed in a flash. How sad.

Worst Nightmare

The Tampa Bay Rays must be Commissioner Rob Manfred’s worst nightmare come to life. First, the Rays knock off the Yankees, a team pretty much touted in the media all season as the second coming of the Bronx Bombers or Murderers’ Row, take your pick. Then, last night they finish off the Astros to punch their ticket to the World Series. Poor Josh Reddick, haters like me win. Poor Dusty Baker, unable yet again to win when it counts, for all the world to see, yet again. As for the Rays, they’re what happens when you mix analytics with moneyball and competence. Tampa is the smallest of small markets. No household names here. Instead, you get the likes of Austin Meadows, Kevin Kiermaier and Hunter Renfroe. Rookie Randy Arozarena has been on fire this postseason with seven homeruns, and he may be the real deal. Blake Snell won the Cy Young in 2018, and he definitely can dominate hitters over stretches. What are the odds for either of them to stay in Tampa for long? The Rays find talent, develop talent and then trade proven trade talent for young talent in what sure looks like a perpetual cycle. They also implement analytics, especially in the form of employing openers more than starters. And this season they’ve made the idea of closer-by-committee work, with twelve pitchers sharing the team’s twenty-three saves. I think openers and multiple closers are bad ideas, but right now the Rays are demonstrating otherwise. If the Braves hold on to beat the Dodgers, this World Series will be a contest between a modest market and a small-to-tiny market. And, if the Rays win their first-ever World Series, MLB will trumpet the success of the little team that could. Meanwhile, the commissioner and all the broadcasters will pray it never happens again. Mike Brosseau?

No, No, No La Russa

Reports are that the White Sox intend to interview 76-year old Tony La Russa for the manager’s job made vacant this week by “mutual” agreement between the Sox and Rick Renteria to part ways, “mutual” as in “don’t let the door hit you on the way out.” “Tony La Russa,” as in “April Fool’s”? Team owner Jerry Reinsdorf says firing La Russa was his biggest mistake, not to be confused with firing Roland Hemond and replacing him with Hawk Harrelson as general manager; siding with Kenny Williams over Ozzie Guillen; letting Mark Buehrle walk; or tearing down Comiskey Park for a ball mall. Truly, the man has a lot to atone for, baseball-wise. But bringing back La Russa, let go by Harrelson in 1986, won’t undo the past or sit well with Sox fans. La Russa never much impressed the fan base, and his professed ignorance of PED use by Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco when he managed the A’s boggles the mind. At least A.J. Hinch apologized for his role in the Astros’ cheating scandal. Here’s what Reinsdorf should do first—rehire Hemond (bye-bye, Rick Hahn) and rebuild Comiskey Park. Once he’s accomplished that, he can hire whomever he wants to manage, even someone with the worst dye-job I’ve ever seen.

Karma

Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman couldn’t find the right words to apologize last offseason for the Astros’ sign-cheating scandal. Now, Altuve can’t find his glove in the ALCS, and Bregman can’t buy a hit. So sad. Dusty Baker is the perfect manager for a team like the Astros. Nothing is ever Dusty’s fault, not back taxes or Barry Bonds’ or the Cubs’ collapse against the Marlins in the 2003 NLCS. Houston makes the fifth team Baker has graced with his presence. Never a World Series winner, though. But, hey, his Astros are only down to the Rays, three games to none. Karma, anyone?

Out the Door

Our daughter had a Claude Monet book and video growing up, and the Art Institute has a new show, “Monet and Chicago,” so we all went to see it yesterday. That’s how I heard about Rick Renteria jumping/being pushed. It was announced by a soon-to-be 29-year old jumping up and down outside the garage door. Then, as we were all back in the car for the drive back home, came the update, pitching coach Don Cooper jumped or got pushed out, too. Clare judged it to be one of her best days ever. This is how I know I’m getting old, when I feel bad for someone like Renteria. Cooper? Not so much. He had all the warmth and personality of a wolverine, or badger, take your pick, and either one of those creatures would probably be better at relating to Millennial pitchers than Cooper. But Renteria was sincere to a fault, and he never tried to B.S. the media. Trying to win a playoff game with nine pitchers or thinking Carlos Rodon is ever the answer to any question that isn’t “Who do we DFA next?”, well, that’s a different story. I don’t particularly want A.J. Hinch or Alex Cora, both rumored possibilities, because they’re tainted by the Astros’ sign-cheating scandal. Roberto Alomar Jr. would probably get my vote, and, yes, Ozzie Guillen, if I could get him to sign a good-conduct pledge. The Sox have already announced Guillen won’t be a candidate. Here’s the thing to consider about Renteria—how much were Edwin Encarnacion and Nomar Mazara his fault? Yes, Encarnacion should’ve been benched well before the playoffs, but what’s to say Renteria didn’t try? The manager didn’t go out and get those two players. A general manager by the name of Rick Hahn did. If Hahn’s next pick to sit in the dugout doesn’t pan out, he should be joining Renteria in the unemployment line.

Not My Problem, ButThen Again....

Cubs’ Nation is in the dumps right now. The North Siders lost to the Marlins in the wildcard, and Florida went on to get swept by the Braves in the NLDS. The Marlins were shut out twice by the Braves, the Cubs scored one run in two games against Florida. The Cubs went 9 for 62 against Miami pitching, with five walks and sixteen strikeouts. Javy Baez, Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo combined to go 1 for 24 with eight strikeouts. And let’s not forget Kyle Schwarber, who went 0 for 4 with a strikeout. (It should be noted that Schwarber did get three walks.) This was the core (including Willson Contreras and the now-departed Addison Russell) Theo Epstein assembled back in 2015. So young and full of promise then, so close to being shipped out of town now. What happened? Not my problem, not my worry. Then again, it is. I think Tim Anderson is an overall better player than Baez based on the fact that Anderson’s numbers have gone up (in all the right ways) the last two seasons while Baez’s offensive stats have stagnated, which makes you wonder how long until his defense starts to suffer. OK, so that one for our core. But what about Yoan Moncada? Will he bounce back from COVID and whatever else caused him to hit .225 after his breakout season in 2019? Moncada has had one really good season vs. three mediocre ones. If your rich uncle would be willing to take on Bryant’s contract, would you be tempted to trade Moncada for Bryant? I would. I think Eloy Jimenez has the most tools of any hitter in Chicago. Provided he stays focused (and healthy and avoids walls), I think Jimenez will be a humongous force in the lineup. Luis Robert? I hope so, but he could just as easily turn into Jorge Soler, here today and gone to KC tomorrow. Nick Madrigal? Dylan Cease? They could turn out to be very good, or not. I worry that Madrigal won’t have any magic dust left for another season of bloops and seeing-eye singles. If Cease can’t find the strike zone sometime soon, Cub fans may end up happy he went to the South Side. My point is, you don’t what will happen until it does. I want to think our core is better than their core, but I have no way of knowing. The Cubs squeezed one World Series championship out of their young guys, courtesy of Joe Maddon. Right now, that’s one more than us. Oh, well. Spring training will come soon enough, COVID willing and all things notwithstanding.

Whitey Ford

I was too young to acquire a real sense of Whitey Ford or to have seen him match up against Billy Pierce and the White Sox. Instead, he was one of those players I used my first year of Strat-O-Matic. And, truth be told, while I liked him for his 16-13 record in 1965, I liked the hitting of fellow Yankees Ray Barker and Hector Lopez even more. But Ford did have an impact on me as a White Sox fan in April of 1967. On the 19th, the 38-year old lefthander pitched his last career shutout against the Sox, winning 3-0 before all of 3,040 fans at Comiskey Park. Then, on the 25th, he went all nine innings again, beating the Sox 11-2 at Yankee Stadium. Ford also collected two hits that day. Those were the last shutout, complete games and victories Ford recorded; he retired before the end of May. For his career, Ford went 39-21 against the Sox with a 2.17 ERA. Those were the most wins against any opponent and the best ERA. The 1967 White Sox collapsed the final week of the season, to finish three games out of first place. Two wins against a sore-armed, near 40-year old pitcher at the end of his career would’ve put them within one game of first place. Who knows, two wins against the hated Yankees might’ve made all the difference in the world. It was not to be. If you’re a Sox fan, life is rarely fair, and Whitey Ford is all the proof you need.

Be Like Mike

For me, the less bat-flipping and standing at the plate after hitting a (possible) homerun the better. This attitude could be the product of race and/or age and/or upbringing. After all, I was raised by the children of immigrants. Given how he acted last night, maybe Mike Brosseau of the Rays was, too. In the tenth pitch of what had to be a grueling at-bat against Yankee closer Aroldis Chapman in the bottom of the eighth inning, Brosseau—the pride of Munster, Indiana and Oakland University—lined a 100-mph fastball over the wall in left field at Petco Park. Unlike many, many players the past few seasons, Brosseau didn’t stand there and admire his handiwork, and he had cause. Last month, Chapman buzzed his head with a 101-mph pitch. And Brosseau didn’t flip his bat. No, he threw it and started running. The celebrating came later. The homer broke a 1-1 tie and sent the Rays to the ALCS against the Astros. I like Tim Anderson of the White Sox a whole lot. More than anything, Anderson shows dedication to his craft and leadership qualities. I don’t like the bat flipping and standing at home plate after a homerun; it gets in the way of the more important stuff. Brosseau and the Rays are going somewhere Anderson and the Sox aren’t. There may be a lesson in that somewhere.

One More Time

All four teams that won their divisional round games yesterday struck out less than their opponents and three of the teams used fewer pitchers. I’d like to say this is a positive trend, but I’m sure teams will still maximize the number of pitchers on their rosters for the next round. The surprise from yesterday is that two of the games, both in the NL, featured a total of zero homeruns. I honestly didn’t think that was possible. Over in the AL, both winning teams outhomered their opponents. How depressing, given how much I dislike both the Yankees and Astros. What a championship series that would be, sort of like choosing between a punch to the jaw or one to the stomach. Go, Rays.

K's and Jacks

In yesterday’s divisional-round games, the teams that struck out less vs. their opponents all won; two of the teams using fewer pitchers won (one winning team used more and one used the same number as its opponent); and seven of the eight teams hit homeruns. Those seven teams accounted for sixteen long-balls. The winning team outmuscled its opponent in three out of four games, but that’s not what matters here. What does is baseball’s addiction to jacks, with strikeouts a tolerated byproduct. In three out of the four games, the team with the fewer strikeouts also hit more homers. So, yes, I think the analytics’ crowd will say that a better launch-angle approach means victory 75-percent of the time. The hit-and-run be damned. Baseball—it was fun while it lasted.

Minding Your P's and k's

Just for fun, I checked the box score from yesterday’s divisional round for two things, pitchers used and batters striking out. We’ll start with the Braves beating the Marlins, 9-5. Atlanta used six pitchers. Over on offense, the Braves struck out ten times. Compare that to Miami using four pitchers and striking out eleven times. In NLDS game two, the Dodgers topped the Padres, 5-1, using five pitchers and striking out seven times. San Diego tried nine pitchers while striking out fourteen (!) times. Over in the American League, the Astros bested the A’s, 5-2, employing just three pitchers and striking out a mere four times. For Oakland, it was five pitchers and five punchouts. Last and certainly not least, the Rays beat the Yankees, 7-5, using four pitchers and striking out six times along the way. New York went with six pitchers while striking out eighteen (!!) times. Moral of the story: In all four games, the team that struck out less won. In three of the four games, the team that used fewer pitchers won. However will the analytics crowd spin those numbers? Better launch-angle approach and spin rate?

Haters and Cheaters

Astros’ outfielder Josh Reddick appears to be on some kind of mission this postseason. “It’s all about silencing the haters,” he was quoted in the AP yesterday, “that’s what all this year was about.” Josh, Josh, Josh, this year was about dealing with the fallout from the cheating scandal your Astros were part of, 2017-18. Trust me, the cheating precipitated the hating, and that’s why I’ll be rooting against you guys all through the playoffs. XOXO

Mis-Judge-ment

Yankees’ outfielder Aaron Judge put a very big foot in his mouth when he told MLB.com over the weekend, “To me, the regular season is kind of like spring training. The real season is the playoffs.” Oh, really? This is rich, coming from a player whose team used to hold the two most-coveted records in baseball, single-season and career homerun marks. Sorry, Babe, sorry, Roger. What you did isn’t all that important, the way Aaron Judge looks at it. If the regular season is “kind of like” spring training, why even bother with the MVP and Cy Young Awards? The really sad thing here is that Judge is merely reflecting what the entire baseball establishment thinks. What counts is October (and, if COVID ever goes away, maybe November). And, pardon me, but the only people who should worry about seeding in the national pastime are the groundskeepers. With all due respect, Commissioner, October isn’t March, and to confuse the two is madness.

Enough, Already

It’s bad enough that Tom Seaver and Lou Brock died within a week of each other. Now, in the past seven days, Jay Johnstone, Bob Gibson, Lou Johnson and Ron Perranoski have all joined them. Some of these names I knew mostly from playing Strat-O-Matic, some—Brock and Gibson, especially—I rooted for when they faced the Cubs. Seaver actually won his 300th game pitching for the White Sox, and Jay Johnstone may be the first Sox player I remember Harry Caray turning on: I don’t think this guy’s ever gonna hit. That would’ve been 1972, when Johnstone still had another thirteen years to go. I wonder what he thought those two-plus seasons he played for the Cubs with Caray in the booth? Baseball teaches many useful lessons, among them our mortality. Message received. Let’s move on, now, shall we?

My Kingdom for a Horse

The White Sox went through nine relievers in losing Thursday, and I couldn’t help but think of Hoyt Wilhelm, the HOF knuckleballer who spent six seasons on the South Side, starting at the age of 40 in 1963. That’s FOUR-OH, folks. At the age of 41/42, Wilhelm appeared in 73 games for the Sox in 1964 with a 1.99 ERA in 131.1 innings pitched. That’s right, 131.1 innings. The next year, 1965, Wilhelm’s innings went up—to 144—while his ERA went down, to 1.81, in 66 games. In 1967, Wilhelm logged 89 innings with a 1.31 ERA. A day before his 45th birthday, he pitched in both games of a doubleheader, one inning in the first game and 3.1 in the second. In 1964, Wilhelm went as many as six innings in an appearance; five innings in 1965; and four innings in 1967. In ’65, Wilhelm teamed with knuckleballer Eddie Fisher, who threw 165.1 innings in 82 games, good for a 15-7 record and 2.40 ERA; Fisher had outings of five and six innings. In ’67, Wilhelm had Wilbur Wood. You can pretty much sense a pattern here, yes? As Sox fans wait on pins and needles to see if rookie fireballer Garrett Crochet needs Tommy John surgery, they might ask themselves why their team doesn’t go back into the past to meet the challenge of relief pitching. Wilhelm’s gone, Fisher and Wood are retired (though, who knows, they might be coaxed into trying a comeback). But the pitch they threw is still out there. It floats like a butterfly and breaks for a strike, or used to at 35th and Shields.

Oh, Well

How did the White Sox go from being up 3-0 against the A’s to losing the game 6-4 and ending their postseason “run”? Going through nine pitchers who gave nine walks might have something to do with it. And, yes, bad luck, too. The Sox needed Eloy Jimenez for more than the two at-bats he gave them Thursday afternoon, just as they needed rookie reliever Garrett Crochet to go more than two-thirds of an inning. If Eloy hadn’t injured his foot last week, the Sox might still be playing. If Crochet needs Tommy John surgery, next season loses some of its promise. It’s never a good idea to tell Jerry Reinsdorf what to do; bulls are less bull-headed. So, I won’t waste my time calling for someone, anyone, to replace Renteria in the dugout. But even Reinsdorf has to be able to see that it’s long past time for pitching coach Don Cooper to take his pension and exit stage right. Nine pitchers, nine walks and a loss—that’s Cooper in a nutshell. Rookie center fielder Luis Robert hit a 487-foot homerun that the folks on ESPN couldn’t stop talking about; I was more impressed by Robert’s RBI single. Robert hit an 89-mph fastball from Mike Fiers. Big deal. I told Clare I would’ve expected her to hit it at least 387 feet. Same for any good ballplayer. Don’t get fooled by Robert’s feats of strength. He’s far from a finished work. The Sox need to be on their big talent all offseason. What are you eating? What video are you watching? How ’bout this one showing you swinging and missing at breaking ball after breaking ball? If they do that, next season may not be such a downer, after all.

Second-guessing

The White Sox traded four young players, including starter Chris Bassitt and shortstop Marcus Semien, in December of 2014 for Jeff Samardzija. Let me repeat, Jeff Samardzija. Yesterday, Bassitt held the Sox to one run in seven-plus innings while Semien smacked a two-run homerun, and the A’s beat the Sox 5-3 to even up their wildcard series. Samardzija, who went 11-13 with a 4.96 ERA in his lone season on the South Side, was released by the Giants earlier this week. Sox manager Rick Renteria starter Edwin Encarnacion at dh yesterday. Encarnacion responded to this show of faith by going 0 for 2 with (just) one strikeout before Renteria lifted him for pinch-hitter Nomar Mazara in the seventh inning. Mazara singled. Sox manager Rick Renteria saw something in the recently returned Leury Garcia to merit a second start in the outfield, this despite Leury going 0 for 4 two with strikeouts in game one. Garcia rewarded this hunch by going 0 for 2 with (just) one strikeout before Renteria lifted him for pinch-hitter Zack Collins in the seventh inning. Collins, who hadn’t seen major-league pitching in over a month, struck out on three pitches. All I heard about the A’s was how good their bullpen is. Oakland manager Bob Melvin brought in closer Liam Hendriks with one on and nobody out in the eighth inning. Forty-nine pitches later, Hendriks had allowed the inherited runner to score, along with two of his own. I wonder if Melvin will pitch Hendriks again. I hope so.