Bonus Autographs

This is the time to count blessings, when the world outside is a depressing Chicago gray. A dollar if you can tell the sky from the ground, and I’ll throw in that hint of fog for free. Blessing number one is being on the other side of COVID, ditto Michele. Blessing number two is having a daughter attentive to parents in distress (more on that later). Blessing number three is reaching over to check those White Sox team signed balls for two more autographs. Yup, got ’em. That would be Ray Berres and Johnny Sain, acknowledged in some parts as among the best, if not the best, pitching coaches of their respective times. Berres followed an eleven-year big-league career, mostly as a backup catcher in the NL, with an even longer run as Sox pitching coach, from 1949 to 1966 and again in 1969. Sain, as in “Spahn and Sain, and pray for rain,” was hired—along with Chuck Tanner and Roland Hemond, which is sort of like lightning striking 35th and Shields three straight times—in late 1970 and handled the pitching staff through 1975. Berres and Sain were the kind of coach Don Cooper could only dream of being. Put another way, those two forgot more about pitching than “Coop” ever knew. As ever when discussing coaches, there’s a chicken-and-egg argument that you have to confront: Did Berres and Sain make pitchers great, or did great pitchers make the reputations of Berres and Sain? Consider Leo Mazzone, who had Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux and John Smoltz in Atlanta. Can you name me anyone else Mazzone is credited with turning into a topnotch starter or reliever? I can’t. And Mazzone’s subsequent two years in Baltimore weren’t exactly memorable. What it all comes down to is, certain coaches and players “click.” That was probably the case with Mazzone and his trio of HOFers and maybe for Sain and Wilbur Wood, who went from relieving to starting, winning 106 games while Sain served as his pitching coach. I did read, however, that Tommy John wasn’t a Sain fan. No “click” between them, if you will. Berres may be the more intriguing figure. The big name to connect to him would be Billy Pierce more than anybody. So, how’d he stay employed for so long? Berres was the master at reviving careers, for a season or two if not more. A 39-year old Early Wynn goes 22-10 for the pennant-winning Sox in 1959 while Bob Shaw comes out of nowhere to win a career-best eighteen games that same year. Berres had the same kind of success with the likes of Dick Donovan and Ray Herbert, claimed off the scrap heap that was Kansas City to go 20-9 for the Sox in 1962. The mid-’60s were also the time of Eddie Fisher, Joel Horlen, Gary Peters and Juan Pizarro. Oh, and Hoyt Wilhelm kept doing what he did to get into the Hall of Fame those four years Berres was his pitching coach. Today’s The Athletic has a story about how the lack of access to in-game video affected players like Christian Yelich and Javy Baez. I wonder what Ray Berres and Johnny Sain could’ve done with the technology available to new Sox pitching coach Ethan Katz. Maybe Katz should see what it would take to channel Berres and Sain. It couldn’t hurt.