Changes

The White Sox sweeping the Orioles at home in a four-game series doesn’t necessarily mean end times. It’s happened before, back in June of 1956 to be precise. But Billy Hamilton hitting homeruns in back-to-back games? It never hurts to keep one’s affairs in order. I prefer to keep a level head and think in terms of change. Life does not stand still, however much we might want it to. Last week, Clare came over to look at the changing table in the attic, actually, a chest of drawers with a nice changing platform on top. What was once done to her there will soon be done to her son. The drawers had collected a number of tee-shirts over the years, nearly 1-1/2 plastic garbage-bags’ worth. Most if not all of the shirts were softball-related; you could follow the course of our daughter’s career by the team and year mentioned. Once upon a time, this was clothing so valuable, so dear, it had to be stored away once it got too worn to put on. Now, everything is waiting for Waste Management. Change. Somehow, a pair of baby socks found its way into one of the drawers. White Sox socks, how or why I couldn’t say. Unless this is a sign, if small, that not all change need be feared. Some of it, maybe the best part, looks comfortably familiar.

Write It Down

What can you say about White Sox utility outfielder Billy Hamilton? Well, he’s a long drink of water who wears his socks to the knees. Oh, and he hustles. Hamilton used to start in center field for the Reds until they got tired of waiting for him to figure out how to take advantage of his speed at the plate. But put a glove on his left hand, and he knows what to do (think ten career errors in 1889 chances), as he demonstrated in game two of a doubleheader yesterday with the Orioles. The O’s had bases loaded, nobody out when Maikel Franco hit a sinking line drive out of the afternoon shadows in Hamilton’s general direction. Hamilton charged the ball and made a diving, head-first catch to record the out. The Sox went on to win 3-1 and sweep both games. Hamilton also hit a homerun, which was impressive for two reasons. First, he’s only done that 23 times in a nine-year career. Second, he didn’t stand there to admire his feat. No, Hamilton exploded out of the box, running full bore to second base before realizing the ball had reached the seats in left field. And he still kept running. After the game, Hamilton explained how he was thinking inside-the-park homerun or at least a triple. There’s been a lot of talk lately about the Sox and various unwritten rules of baseball. Somebody take pen to paper and write this one down, the Hamilton Rule: Always hustle. It'll keep you employed.

Crossing a Line

This week, NBA fans in New York, Philadelphia and Utah thought the best way to help the home team was by spitting at an opposing player; throw popcorn at an opponent; or verbally harass the visitors, respectively. The incidents involved five fans, two of whom so far have been banned from all future games (in Gotham and the City of Brotherly Love). I want to dump on these people, big time, until I think of people in glass houses and all. I have never in my life spit or thrown anything at a professional athlete; I have heckled opposing players. It has always been about performance—usually the lack thereof in key situations—and nothing more. But I don’t know if that’s enough to get me off the hook anymore. Anything beyond “You stink, Smith!” may be too much in these times, and even those three words may be stepping over a line. In the future, I think I’ll continue to ride players when in the comfort of home and keep my mouth shut at ballgames. Maybe that way the grandson will learn a lesson about respect.

Cautiously Optimistic

Dylan Cease struck out ten Orioles over six innings last night in a White Sox 5-1 win. That’s impressive, especially when coupled with just two walks, four hits and a run. But Cease threw 111 pitches along the way, this against the worst team in baseball that also happens to be on a ten-game losing streak. So, there’s that. Ditto Yermin Mercedes, who hit a rocket into the stands in left field while picking up three RBIs on two hits. I definitely want to see Mercedes back on track, and what better way to start than teeing off against bad pitching? Of course, the proof’s in the pudding, aka, performance against good pitching. Speaking of pudding, Yoan Moncada and Jose Abreu hit a combined 1-for-8 on the night, while Captain Clank Grandal had another two strikeouts. But I nitpick. Better to take the wins and hits where you can, so I will.

Jibber-jabber

The White Sox stranded 13 base runners yesterday afternoon in their 4-0 loss to the Cardinals; along the way, Sox hitters went 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position. Carlos Rodon got stuck with the loss, giving up one run ( a homerun) on one hit against no walks and ten strikeouts in six innings. I hate it when good pitching goes wasted. Here's why—pitchers will be tempted to press. Consider that in his previous start against the Yankees, Rodon went six scoreless innings while striking out thirteen. And what does he get for his efforts? A no-decision and a loss. A little voice may tell him to throw the ball through the wall if he wants to win his next start. Disregard that voice, Carlos. And then we have the future ex-manager talking jibber-jabber after the game. “We had to create those chances, so obviously our guys were working the at-bats,” Tony La Russa was quoted in today’s Tribune. “Just couldn’t break through.” Right, and twenty-game losers must be pretty good pitchers or else their managers wouldn’t send them out there all the time. La Russa jibber seems to be working on reporters to the point nobody’s noticed how the Sox manager has fallen in love with pitcher Jose Ruiz, who has a 7.71 ERA over his last seven games. Ruiz took a 2-0 game in the ninth and proceeded to give up three hits and a walk along with two runs. Me, I’d rather lose 2-0 than 4-0. Maybe the skipper knows better. Beat reporters may also want to take a look at what’s happening in the Sox minor-league system, where only one of four teams is over .500. Low-A Kannapolis comes in at 2-18 (no, that’s not a typo) while Triple-A Charlotte sports a 7-13 mark. (High-A Winston-Salem is .500, Double-A Birmingham 13-7.) Long story short, GM Rick Hahn may be back to drafting the wrong players, and don’t expect much help from the farm clubs this year. Please heal, Eloy and Luis and Adam and…

The Aging Process

I decided to push the old body yesterday by going on my second bike ride in four days. What’s 39 miles on the lakefront? Let’s just say pride goeth before the fall. No, I didn’t fall. In fact, my body held up as well as you might expect on a trail where the Chicago Park District still won’t open many if any of its restrooms. I just didn’t appreciate being passed by a guy my age—or a little older—on a Divvy bike. And not just passed but left in the dust to the tune of about 100 yards before he disappeared. Ouch. What’s a Divvy bike, you might ask? Think Miss Gulch peddling away in the tornado at the start of “The Wizard of Oz”; it looks like that, and you end up looking like her regardless of gender. I was at the start of my ride, at my fastest and strongest and on a ten-speed. And I get left in the dust. Oh, well, it could be worse. I could be Joe West. Somehow, the 68-year old West has made it through 5376 major-league games, though it’s debatable any game West umpires can be considered major league. Oh, everybody including “Hawk” Harrelson had nice things to say about West, who repaid the compliments by showing why he’s such a bad umpire behind the plate. Let’s just say his strike zone last night at Guaranteed Rate Whatever lacked consistency to the point of absurdity. But the White Sox did beat the Cardinals 8-3, so that’s a silver lining. Harrelson’s retired. How long until West joins him? The three of us could have a Divvy race on the lakefront.

The Little Things

My mother-in-law is 89, well into her second full year of being without the love of her life, whom she met while they were both eight-year-olds figuring out what it meant to live in an orphanage. Never have I encountered anyone so small so tough. Pound for pound, she could go the full fifteen with Ali. We brought Jimmy Johns over for dinner last night, and she showed me how to use the remote for the new cable box, actually, two remotes. For reasons I haven’t yet figured out in forty-four years, she likes me, and I know I like her. After dinner I helped her solve a word puzzle; she and her daughter talked on the couch; and I sat there watching the White Sox host the Cardinals. My late father-in-law loved the St. Louis uniforms and Stan Musial. He always liked to say the Cardinals played baseball the right way. We listened to the game on the radio while driving home. Along with my mother-in-law, I can’t quite figure out why Len Kasper left the Cubs’ TV booth to do White Sox radio. For what it’s worth, I think he does a nice job, honoring the spirit of Ed Farmer without trying to imitate him. God knows he makes Jason Benetti sound like an adult when he subs for Steve Stone on television. We got home, I turned the game on and the Sox went to losing, 1-0, in the bottom of the sixth inning. Earlier, when I saw Andrew Vaughn first step in against St. Louis starter Kwang Hyun Kim, I felt he was going to have a good night and thought of calling Clare about my premonition. I should have. Vaughn doubled on the second pitch he saw from Kim. Then, in the sixth, with two out and one on, Vaughn homered. Not bad for a guy who hit into a triple play last week. After that, a game-tying homerun against Aroldis Chapman (and the hardest ever hit off of him, by the way) followed by a lead-changing shot against the Cardinals. Who says nice things don’t happen to decent people? My mother-in-law gave Michele a book to read; they’re working through a mystery series together. It’s the little things that get you through times like this.

Put Up or Shut Up

The White Sox put on a Tony Award-winning performance at Yankee Stadium over the weekend as perfect patsies. Too bad that won’t get them any postseason awards. Sunday in the Bronx, Sox rookie Andrew Vaughn redeemed himself with a top-of-the-ninth, one-out game-tying homerun against New York closer Aroldis Chapman, this coming off the bench, no less. In Vaughn’s previous at-bat against Chapman, he grounded into a triple play. The homer represented the first run Chapman has given up this season in nineteen appearances. But it wasn’t enough for our big talkers in March. Dallas Keuchel couldn’t get through the fifth inning and couldn’t field his position; the two unearned runs he let in turn a possible 4-3 win into a sure 5-4 loss. Not that Aaron Bummer, Tim Anderson or Liam Hendriks helped any. Mr. Perfect Bullpen sandwiched two singles around a walk before yielding to Hendriks, who’s earning an awful lot of money to walk in the winning run. And Anderson? The Minister of Fun threw the ball away trying to turn a double play, good for a third unearned run. All I know is, if you talk the talk in March, you better walk the walk in late May at Yankee Stadium. Otherwise, you look stupid. Leadership is going to count even more among these players given that Tony La Russa, their future ex-manager, refuses to hold them accountable for bad baseball, Yermin Mercedes excepted, that is. The more I hear La Russa say things like “Right now, I’m hurting for our club (team website today),” the more I miss Rick Renteria. Now, there’s an odd turn of events.

Same Old Same Old

Dylan Cease reverted to form in the Bronx yesterday afternoon. The young righthander barreled through the Yankees for three innings, then fell apart in the fourth. He staggered into the fifth before getting pulled and being charged with five earned runs in a 7-0 New York win. Cease also threw two wild pitches, but with Yasmani Grandal behind the plate, maybe not. Grandal leads the majors right now with five passed balls to go with those three catcher’s interference errors, so we’re not exactly talking Golden Glove backstop here. In fact, Grandal is making Zack Collins look good. Oh, Collins can’t hit his weight; if only the 220-pound left-handed hitter could. But even hitting .190 with a 36 percent strikeout rate looks better than Grandal’s .133 BA and percent strikeout rate. And he puts up those numbers while switch-hitting. Defensively, Collins has a 2.77 catcher’s ERA as opposed to 3.69 for Grandal. That’s nearly a full run, folks. How long until none of the Sox starters want to throw to Captain Clank? This is only going to get worse. I can think of three catchers I’d rather have. Remember James McCann? How about Omar Narvaez? Or Kevan Smith, who was just picked up by the Braves? We had all those guys, and now we have Yasmani Grandal. Not your best moment, Rick Hahn.

Killing Me Softly

White Sox starter Carlos Rodon struck out thirteen Yankees in six innings last night while walking nobody and giving up a mere two singles. But the Sox couldn’t hit, and future ex-manager Tony La Russa did what he does best, which is to leave me scratching my head in a 2-1 walk-off loss in the bottom of the ninth at Yankee Stadium. And don’t let me forget to mention the contribution of Yasmani Grandal, sent in to pinch hit in the top of the seventh inning of a scoreless tie with the go-ahead run on second base; Grandal struck out on three pitches. He would’ve been up again in the top of the ninth, only Andrew Vaughn settled things by hitting into an around-the-horn triple play. Why didn’t La Russa have Vaughn bunt? Why does La Russa rely on reliever Evan Marshall, with his 6.89 ERA, the way current ex-manager Rick Renteria did Jimmy Cordero? Marshall escaped a second-and-third, nobody-out situation in the eighth, so all of his magic dust was used up. Three straight Yankees’ singles in the bottom of the ninth pretty much proved that. But what do I know? For that matter, what does Tony La Russa know?

Everything in Working Order, More or Less

Finally, today, in the third week of May, I took the bike out. My first ride, I might’ve liked the temperature a little cooler than 85 degrees, but climate change looks to have put an end to that kind of spring. The 606 seemed my best bet, with the possibility of a lake breeze at the east end of the trail (no such luck, with the wind coming out of the southwest). The one nice thing about the heat is it tends to chase people off the trail. Nobody like the guy I saw one day busy scrawling “The Pope is a fascist” in chalk. A few skateboarders and inline skaters along with the usual assortment of runners and cyclists, but no tourists incapable of figuring out what side of the yellow line to walk on. I hate those people. I had time enough to sweat and think, about the White Sox traveling to the Bronx for a weekend series with the damn’ Yankees as well as my friend. Daniel Palka has resurfaced with the Nationals, signed to a minor league contract. Daniel has himself three homeruns in 45 at-bats so far with the Rochester Red Wings to go with seven RBIs. Relax, Daniel, and concentrate. You want to make a good impression on your new employers. With luck, I’ll hit the lakefront trail on Tuesday. Maybe Palka will have five or six homers by then.

Crazy

When she hit against them, my daughter hated pitchers. When she had them as teammates, my daughter just scratched her head. They were impossible to figure out, a Mars and Venus kind of thing. I was reminded of that yesterday watching Lucas Giolito pitch against the Twins. More often than not this season, Giolito has underperformed in his starts, which is how you end up with a 2-4 record and an ERA scraping 5. Listen to Giolito after one of those blah outings, and he offers an irritating mix (to me, at least) of Norman Vincent Peale positive thinking with techno jibber. I just have to visualize the jet pack on my shoulder, or words to that effect. All of which is to say Giolito went eight innings against the Twins, giving up but one run on two hits and three walks vs. eleven strikeouts in a 2-1 White Sox win. In his postgame interview, Giolito did the Mr. Positivity thing, along with his skipper, future ex-Sox manager Tony La Russa, who gushed about “his talent and his guts.” Pitchers are just nuts; you just have to put up with them, especially the good ones. It’s sort of like what Casey Stengel said about catchers. Try to win a game without one. But managers are a dime a dozen. They can be replaced, and, in this case, should be.

Immediately, if not Sooner

Fire Tony La Russa now, today, this instant, before he opens his mouth one more time to further tarnish whatever HOF legacy he may think he has. Did I mention the White Sox should do it now? Monday night, Sox DH Yermin Mercedes hit a monster homerun off position player Willians Astudillo, who was doing mop-up duty in a 16-4 Twins’ loss. Yesterday, La Russa called Mercedes “clueless” for missing a 3-0 take sign and went on to say “there’ll be a consequence he has to endure here within our family.” Yes, we are fam-i-lee. La Russa told reporters Mercedes has to see the take sign because that’s “just sportsmanship and respect for the game and respect for your opponent.” The irony here is profound to the point of hilarious. La Russa was exposed to the baseball world recently for being ignorant of the actual rules of the game concerning extra innings, and he has the gall to talk about respecting said game. This is where I might suggest practicing what you preach. Only it’s too late. You throw your player under the bus, you lose any right to talk or hold your job, for that matter. In the seventh inning of last night’s game, Twins’ reliever Tyler Duffey threw at Mercedes and was immediately ejected. Did La Russa rush out of the dugout to protect his player or go after Duffey? No, instead he offered, “I don’t have a problem with how the Twins handled that.” La Russa said with a straight face that the pitch might have gotten away from Duffey. From what I can tell, just about every MLB ballplayer not wearing a Twins’ uniform is in Mercedes’ corner. Clueless? Oh, yeah. Tony La Russa is damn’ clueless and should be out of a job, immediately, if not sooner.

Listen Closely

Given how much his mom and granddad are talking baseball these days, the little fellow should be quite the White Sox fan once he enters the world come summer. I hope he’s taking notes. Like Sunday, when Clare and Chris were over for dinner. Naturally, father and daughter talked hitting, with me complaining about Nick Madrigal’s leg kick. “All that kick, where’s the power?” I asked. Madrigal responded with his first career homerun just 24 hours later in a Sox 16-4 pasting of the Twins. Then, we talked over the phone yesterday, and I mentioned Danny Mendick would be in the starting lineup, reason for both father and daughter to cross their fingers and provide a little help to one of their favorite players. Mendick responded by hitting his first career grand slam. Notice a pattern here? This morning, Clare texted if I’d heard anything about Yermin Mercedes’ homer, a solo shot on a 3-0 eephus pitch by position player Willians Astudillo that gave the Sox their sixteenth run. Apparently, Twins’ announcer Roy Smalley, among others, was not amused. I’m guessing some people are claiming Mercedes broke an unwritten rule by trying to go deep. I say he didn’t. I mean, why does the losing team in this type of game get to trot out crap pitching and it’s supposed to be OK? If you want to talk about respecting the game, try not to be down eleven runs in the top of the ninth. Where’s the respect when the “pitcher” isn’t even registering 50 mph on the radar gun? One day in the not-too-distant future somebody is going to lose the batting crown because he grounded out or popped up a pitch thrown by a position player in a blowout game back in May or June. Then what? Let’s say the bases loaded and Mercedes swung for the fences. I might feel differently about that. But would Roy Smalley and company be satisfied with “just” a double or single? Boy, the grandkid’s heard an earful in just a couple of days.

Asked and Answered

Well, I wanted to know what Dylan Cease would do in what I saw as the May version of a must-win game. Cease responded by going 5.2 innings, giving up 0 earned runs. The young right-hander left trailing the Royals 1-0 in a game the White Sox would win 4-3 with Jose Abreu scoring the winning run—maybe, you watch the video and decide—on a wild pitch in the bottom of the ninth. I’d like to think Cease could’ve gone deeper if only…Captain Clank hadn’t gotten in the way. And who might the Captain be, you ask? Why, catcher Yasmani Grandal, of course. You know, he of the big contract and .132 BA. To his credit, Grandal added a few points to his average, going 1 for 4, and he looked great standing at the plate while Abreu came barreling in during his at-bat. But getting back to Cease, the one run charged against him was set up by a Grandal passed ball in the first inning. Our number one catcher has four PBs on the year to with his three errors, all on catcher’s interference. Cease threw 88 pitches. Was that enough by manager Tony La Russa’s count? Maybe there’s a new math I don’t know about or an unwillingness to change catchers. Is it too late for a do-over with James McCann?

Different, Yes, But Bettter?

Both of Jerry Reinsdorf’s teams lost yesterday. With the White Sox, you don’t expect that to happen much these days. With the Bulls, you do. The best the Bulls can do on the season will be to finish 31-41 in Arturas Karnisovas’ first year in charge of the front office There’s definitely a pulse on the bench, thanks to new head coach Billy Donovan, and a greater attention to in-game detail. The results, though, have been lacking. Just consider that Fred Hoiberg-led teams won as many as 42 games a season. If next year’s Bulls were to do that, Donovan would be in the running for Coach of the Year. But I don’t see that happening. Zach LaVine is a certified scoring machine for sure, but with a bad case of the turnovers. New center Nikola Vucevic is a plus-player. Now, if Karnisovas can just figure out to how to come up with three more quality starters, especially ones who can play defense and protect the ball. I’m not holding my breath. No, I’ll be watching to see if Dylan Cease can pitch the kind of game his team needs against a team that he should be able to dominate. Alas, that kind of game won’t be coming along for Bulls’ fans anytime soon.

A Tale of Two Pitchers

The White Sox and Royals split a day-night doubleheader yesterday during which the injury bug tried to strike again. In the top of the second of game one, first baseman Jose Abreu collided—and I mean collided—with batter Hunter Dozier in pursuit of a foul popup. Things look day-to-day, which is about as good as you could hope for. The Sox were up 1-0 at the time, with one out and one on for Kansas City. Once play resumed, starter Lucas Giolito grooved the first pitch he threw to Michael Taylor; that made it 2-1, KC. The next inning, Giolito grooved one to Salvador Perez, making the score 5-1, bad guys. The Royals broke an eleven game losing streak, 6-2. Manager Tony La Russa offered a stout defense of Giolito, noting that both balls were of the wind-aided variety. OK, but shouldn’t the starting pitcher be aware of conditions at game time? Wouldn’t a smart pitcher change his approach with the wind blowing out? Giolito is a smart pitcher, no? In game two, Michael Kopech went four innings in a 3-1 Sox win, yielding a run on two hits and two walks to go with five strikeouts. Afterwards, Kopech told reporters, “I know things were a little down [because of the Abreu-Dozier collision], especially after we had been so up the last six games or so. I felt like I competed well and did the job I was supposed to do today. [Sun-Times]” Indeed he did. Now tell me why the number one starter couldn’t.

Bad Then, Good Now

Yermin Mercedes pinch-hit an RBI single in yesterday’s 4-2 White Sox win over the Twins. What a difference a year makes. Last season, the Sox spent $12 million on Edwin Encarnacion to handle the DH chores. Encarnacion responded with absolutely dreadful numbers: .157 BA in 159 at-bats over 44 games; 10 homeruns; 19 RBIs; and 54 strikeouts. The Sox took a pass on picking up Encarncion’s $12 million option for what promised to be more of the same. Now consider his replacement, earning a basement-bargain $570,000. Mercedes is hitting .382 in 110 at-bats over 31 games, with 5 homers; 22 RBIs; and 18 strikeouts. To say the difference verges on night and day is to mix absolute truth with cliche. Mercedes could still flame-out next week or next month or hold off on crashing until next year. But so far he’s been a godsend in the wake of injuries to Eloy Jimenez and Luis Robert. His at-bat in the eighth inning yesterday was textbook Yermin, taking an inside 1-2 pitch and lining it to center field. He didn’t do this as the DH, but who cares? Despite having prodigious power, the 5”11” Mercedes doesn’t go looking for the long ball, at least not all the time. Of his 42 hits, 12 have been for extra bases, the rest singles. Throw in eight walks, and we’re talking a true offensive threat where there used to be someone who was just offensive, statistically speaking. The player who comes out of nowhere, be it Roy Hobbs or Joe Hardy or Yermin Mercedes, helps make baseball fun, or as fun as a game taking 3:31 can be. Really, a tip of the cap to Rick Hahn and the rest of the organization on this one, and you know how hard it is for me to say that.

More Old-school

White Sox hitting coach Frank Menechino said some interesting things yesterday. Because he employed a dash of salty language, different media outlets are reporting it with a slight twist, ranging from using brackets to ellipses. I’ll proceed with brackets. In talking about rookie left fielder Andrew Vaughn, Menechino said “[fornicate] the homerun, let’s hit .300.” (from today’s The Athletic, sans brackets) This is an eye-opening, even bold, rejection of the launch-angle mania now gripping baseball. It takes a brave hitting coach to talk batting average and, by extension on-base percentage, in an age of fast and furious long balls. I guess this makes Menechino old-school, if not exactly my ideal type. I prefer hitting and pitching coaches who have career numbers to back up their approaches. In comparison to Walt Hriniak, Menechino did have a HOF career spanning seven years; 302 hits; 36 homers; 149 RBIs; and a .240 BA. Compare that to 25 career hits over two big-league seasons for Hriniak. Still, give me the late and lamented Bill Robinson or the recently fired Chili Davis. Now, those were guys with stats to back up what they were preaching. But hats off to Menechino, at least so far. The Sox are tied for first in all of baseball for batting average; second by a point in on-base percentage; and fourth in runs, just five out of first. And, for you new-stat fans, the Sox lead all of baseball in run differential. So, Menechino must be doing something right. Given how much Sox starters have dominated the last month or so, ditto pitching coach Ethan Katz, he of the thirteen career wins in four minor league seasons. The gravity belts are a little too New Age-y for me, but anything is better than Don Cooper, and Katz has certainly been that with the starting rotation. Some relievers—Matt Foster, Codi Heuer and Evan Marshall to be specific—look lost, but I’m not putting that on Katz. I just want to see if he can fix them. One other thing about Menechino. A few hours after his comment about the homerun, Vaughn hit his first. Neat karma there.

Old-school

Dylan Cease turned into Dylan Cease last night, but, thankfully, just for an inning, long enough to give the Twins an early 3-0 lead. The White Sox came back, big time, to win going away by a score of 9-3. Cease was all over the place in the second inning, giving up a homerun and a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch, both on 1-2 counts. Then, you could almost see the switch flip, and that was it as Cease struck out seven in five innings. He left after 97 pitches in a tie game. Really, not 100 pitches and six innings? Why not? Instead, we get the bullpen parade, five pitchers strong, some good, some not. I’m not sure what this accomplishes outside of subjecting fans to a game that ran 3:23. Cease seems to be finding himself. I would’ve let him at least start the sixth. Who knows, he might have retired the side on three pitches. According to James Fegan in today’s The Athletic, Cease has improved his mechanics in part by using a core velocity belt in the offseason. I think Buster Crabbe wore one of those playing Flash Gordon.

Fuzzy Memory

Since last year, the White Sox have gone 10-0 against the Royals at Kauffman Stadium, a place I’d always associated with the most painful of losses. Think George Brett and Willie Wilson, Mike Sweeney and Billy Butler. Indeed, those ten wins leave the Sox at 189-213 while visiting the Royals, and yet we’re 418-392 against KC all time. I would’ve had it reversed, with twenty or thirty more losses thrown in. According to mcubed.net, it all depends what decade you look at. Sox teams visiting in the 1970s, 1980s and 2010s served as human punching bags while those from the 1990s and 2000s had themselves a good old time. It's just like me to remember the losses over the wins, but it’s not like me to misremember who did the beating. Baseball-reference.com shows that Brett and Wilson did OK-plus but not great against Sox pitching. Oh, Sweeney and Butler did absolutely feast on Sox pitching, but they did it together for only one season, in 2007. They were more of a pass-the-baton affair from 1996-2014. Funny what we remember and how we remember it. I’m pretty sure the Royals did play on AstroTurf for the longest time, though. Right?

Go, Danny, Go

No doubt, every sport has its Danny Mendicks. For example, every so often a player makes it to the NFL via Canada or to the NBA by way of France, Turkey and China or some other mega travel-points route. But it seems to happen more in baseball, and to greater effect (think Al Weis or Phil Linz). And the success stories tend to come in fan-sized packages, as opposed to, say, 6’9” forwards or 6’5” 330-pound plus linemen. No, Mendick stands all of 5’10” and tips the scales at 195 pounds. He doesn’t look to have an ounce of fat on him, and he swings hard at every pitch, so we’ll see if he falls victim to big-player pec and oblique injuries. But with his stirrups worn high, Mendick looks to be a real hard-ass, too, not the kind of guy you’d want to get on the wrong side of. Picked by the White Sox in the 22nd round of the 2015 draft, Mendick worked his way up the organizational ladder before getting his call-up to the bigs in 2019. What he’s shown in the two-plus seasons since is versatility and gap power. If you can play second, third and short, why not right field? Manager Tony La Russa gave his utility man his first-ever MLB starts in the outfield over the weekend in Kansas City, and, wouldn’t you know it, Mendick caught everything hit his way in two games there. Oh, he also hit a homerun and drove in three batting ninth. If and when Adam Engel comes back (I’m starting to wonder), Danny Mendick deserves to stay. While he probably won’t keep hitting .333 with a .467 OBP, but some Mendick hard-ass could go a long way in a pennant race.

Half-full? Hardly

White Sox catcher Yasmani Grandal walked four times in last night’s 9-1 Sox win over the Royals, which gives him thirteen walks in four games, a feat only Grandal, Babe Ruth and Bryce Harper have accomplished in MLB history. Grandal now has 26 walks on the season to go with seven hits. You could point to Grandal’s .388 OBP and say, “Wow!”. Or you could point to his .121 BA and .259 slugging percentage and say, “Holy Crap!” or words to that effect. Put me in the second category. Apparently, so is ex-Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, who’s taken his displeasure with Grandal’s performance to Twitter. So much for Guillen taking over the reins if and when Tony La Russa exits. The Sox front office is a lot like it ownership, which is a lot like Fight Club, where the less said the better. Oh, well. Maybe if Sox starters keep pitching like it’s the mid-1960s, everything will be OK. If only the hitting didn’t look like it’d reverted to back then, too.

Do My Eyes Deceive Me?

Well, now we know what prompted the White Sox to made Carlos Rodon a first-round draft choice back in 2014. Who wouldn’t want a bulldog capable of winning his first five starts in a season? But this Carlos Rodon and the earlier versions one and the same player? Amazing. In three of his seven years as a big-league pitcher, Rodon has won at most three games in a season. Last year, he went 0-2 with an 8.22 ERA in 7.2 innings. Compare that to 5-0 with a 0.58 ERA in 31 innings. Truly, health is everything. I’m trying to recall any Sox pitcher who has bounced back like this, and the closest I can come up with is Tommy John, who compiled a 2-11 record over two seasons with Cleveland before being traded to the South Side, where he became the Tommy John of Cooperstown-worthy credentials. But John was 20- and 21-years old when he was getting his head pounded in; Rodon was already 22 his rookie year with the Sox. So, so far, so sui generis. That’s’ the good news, Rodon pitching six shutout innings last night in a 3-0 win over the Royals. Ah, but closer Liam Hendriks. There, I see problems. How ’bout it, Ethan Katz? What do you see, coach? By my count, Hendriks yielded base hits to three straight batters over two games after getting ahead 0-2 in the count. That was good for a loss to the Reds followed by two-out, bases-loaded fun with the Royals. If the numbers are to be believed, velocity is not to blame; Hendriks is throwing at 97-98 mph. Little if any break on his pitches, maybe? But I’m not the pitching coach, just a garrulous fan.

Expert Opinion

Expert Opinion OK, so now the Blue Jays have placed outfielder George Springer on the IL, and Mets’ starter Jacob deGrom is dealing with back soreness. I’m sure it has nothing to do with trying to make machines out of athletes. Of course, I’m kidding. Yesterday, the Sun-Times quoted Brian Schulz, an orthopedic surgeon and specialist in sports medicine, on Luis Robert’s hip flexor injury. My layman’s opinion about over-muscled athletes just got some expert support, thank you very much. Schulz said, “These athletes are so long and so fit, and he’s going from 0 to 100 almost immediately and the forces that are going through [Robert’s musculature] at the time, if his muscles aren’t warmed up or maybe he was just a little tight that day from the workload he had the previous day, who knows? Those forces are so great that sometimes the muscle can’t provide the support that it needs to.” I told you so.

Lift Fingers to Head, Scratch Vigorously Until Relief Comes, if Ever

You have to say this for White Sox manager Tony La Russa, he’s all the rage on all the platforms that carry Chicago sports. Not that that’s a good thing, necessarily. Especially when you consider why La Russa is trending in these parts. First off, he admitted he didn’t know about a rule that may have affected the outcome of the game his team lost 1-0 in ten innings. Because of a double shift in the ninth, the Sox started the tenth inning with closer Liam Hendriks on second base. A new rule implemented in the wake of the NL dropping the DH allows for the last position player to make an out in the inning previous to be the runner at second instead of a pitcher. Oops. Then, La Russa announced to the world via a Zoom press conference he wasn’t aware of the rule. Half of White Sox Nation wants him fired for that ignorance. I’m with the half that wants to know why none of his coaches brought it up to him. Isn’t that why you have a bench coach in the first place? Then we have the “strategy” La Russa employed in the tenth with runners on first and second, nobody out. He had Leury Garcia swing away instead of bunt. At least that half-worked, with Garcia hitting into a fielder’s choice that put runners on first and third. So, why exactly did La Russa send Garcia in a steal attempt with Billy Hamilton up? Something about Garcia being a good base stealer and being aggressive in that situation. Too bad Garcia was thrown out by a whole lot. That left Hendriks on third, Hamilton up with two outs. Down swinging he went. Why not suicide-squeeze with Hamilton and one out? To me, that was the way to go, and Jose Abreu would’ve been the runner on third if any of the Sox coaches had known their rule book. Or how about a pinch-hitter for Hamilton? The man can’t hit, and that’s being charitable; he went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and now has a .136 BA. So, the Sox waste seven shutout innings from Dallas Keuchel and decent relief from Michael Kopech, who struck out four and walked four in 1.2 innings. As for Hendriks, he twice had Reds’ batters in an 0-2 hole only to give up hits. That’s concerning, but not more than what went on—and didn’t—in the visitors’ dugout on a Thursday afternoon.

Cease and Desist

Obviously, I can’t leave some things alone, like injuries. I see that Christian Yelich is back on the IL with back issues; Juan Soto’s shoulder is relegating him to DH duties; and George Springer looks to be suffering from “old man legs.” (I told you so on that one.) So many strong young men (except maybe for the 31-year old Springer who some White Sox fans wanted the team to sign), so many injuries. Now, if you’ll step into the time machine with me and consider these Sox immortals: Nellie Fox, the 5’10” second baseman who went twelve straight seasons with 600-plus at-bats; Luis Aparicio, the 5’9” shortstop who went fifteen straight years with 500-plus at-bats and had an eighteen-year career of never fewer than 436 at-bats (that at age 38); and Minnie Minoso, like Fox a 5’10” player who strung eleven straight seasons of 500-plus at-bats, this despite getting hit by pitches 178 times; as I recall there were some serious beanings among those HBPs. But maybe this is apples and oranges, HOFers (plus someone who should be in Cooperstown) compared to ballplayers too muscled for their own good more than anything. You decide. And, while you’re at it, tell me if you agree with Ozzie Guillen’s call for putting Sox starter Dylan Cease in center in place of the injured Luis Robert. Guillen was kidding, of course (I think), this after Cease went three-for-three in his first-ever major-league at-bats in last night’s start in Cincinnati. Forget the hits. Cease pitched lights’ out for a second straight start, shutting out the hot-hitting Reds over six innings in a 9-0 Sox win. It was Cease’s second straight start where he struck out 11 batters. More of that, please. In his postgame interview, Cease credited fellow pitcher Lance Lynn for giving him valuable hitting and pitching tips; unlike Guillen (I think), he was serious. OK, now we know who the good influence is on this young man. Let’s keep those two together.

One Reason or Another

The White Sox haven’t been hit by the injury bug so much as a plague of locusts. Eloy Jimenez and Adam Engel go down in spring training, Tim Anderson spends time on the IL the first month of the season, and now this. Luis Robert is expected to be out three-four months after tearing a hip flexor while beating out an infield hit in Sunday’s loss to Cleveland. So much for hustle being its own reward. This all could be the inevitable result of launch-angle baseball, where size and strength are required to maximize outcome. Think about it. What do Anderson, Engel and Robert all have in common, along with Yoan Moncada, for that matter? They’re lean and muscled beyond belief, that’s what. Eloy is more of a hitting savant who could do what he does at any weight and any age between twelve and fifty. The other four, though, are trying to make their bodies into machines. Sorry, but that won’t work. The athlete in our family disagrees, and I admit my theory is based more on anecdote than analysis. It’d be nice if the analytics’ crowd got around to breaking down trips to the DL by non-pitchers over, say, the last fifty years or so. I’d be especially interested in contact vs. non-contact injuries. Have the percentages changed or stayed the same? Inquiring minds want to know. I’d also be interested in seeing if the White Sox conditioning program differs substantially from that of other teams. You have to attack this plague any way you can. Or it may all be karma. Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf has always been too smart by half. He wanted a publicly-funded stadium in the worst way (and, boy, did he get one), along with a strike (ditto there). He’s also the owner who engineered the signing of Albert Belle and defended the infamous “white flag” trade of 1997. Maybe with a history like that, you’re lucky to get just one title. Anything more and the locusts descend en masse.

Silence is Golden

Rather than address strangulation by launch angle and velocity, baseball seeks salvation through a mix of flip and taunt. Let the players express themselves, goes this line of thinking, and maybe the ratings will get a bump. Only, someone might want to explain to Manfred and company what a “dead-cat bounce” is. Because the new way creates more than a few problems of its own, as this past weekend showed. On Saturday in Cincinnati, Reds’ reliever Amir Garrett struck out the Cubs’ Anthony Rizzo. The best way to put it is Garrett acted like it was the end of October instead of the first of May in a game his team lost anyway. Garrett’s mix of screaming and chest-thumping offended the visiting Cubs, infielder Javy Baez most of all. After the game, Baez, who loves to stand at the plate and watch his drives (mostly) leave the park, told reporters “I’m just not going to let him [Garrett] disrespect my teammates or my team.” If something like that happens again, “we’ll go out there again.” Meanwhile, on the South Side, the Minister of Fun (and Truth, it seems) was busy as well. After hitting a grand slam Saturday to help the White Sox beat the Indians 7-3, shortstop Tim Anderson was quoted on the team website saying, “I never lose.” For mere mortals, that might be pronouncement enough, but Anderson went on to say, “When I step on that field, I know I’m the best.” No doubt he does. And so do the overwhelming majority of major-league ballplayers appearing in a ballgame on any given day, only they don’t feel the need to proclaim it to the world. There’s something to be said for letting one’s actions do the talking. Talk by itself is just talk. The funny thing is, Anderson didn’t raise his voice loud enough to call off third baseman Yoan Moncada in the fourth inning of yesterday’s game, with a runner on third and one. A popup behind third should’ve made it a runner on third and two out. Instead, Anderson and Moncada collided, the run scored and Cleveland went on to win the rubber game, 5-0. Oh, and the ever-winning best went 0 for 4 with a strikeout and two left on base.

Seventh Heaven

Last night, I got a recap of the Bears’ brilliant draft, rounds 1-7. This morning, I read about the same, rounds 1-7, including the defensive lineman from BYU the Munsters took in round seven. A real sleeper, there. The thing is, I don’t ever remember reading or hearing about anyone either Chicago baseball ever took in the seventh round of the MLB draft. Heck, last year’s draft only went five rounds. In case you’re wondering, the Sox took lefthander Bailey Horn out of Auburn in the fifth round while the Cubs went with righty Koen Moreno from Panther Creek High School in North Carolina. Maybe every Bears’ pick will be assigned a reporter (more for quarterback Justin Fields, of course) to cover their search for housing in the Chicago area. And a realtor and a banker and…

King! King!!

All hail Bears’ GM Ryan Pace, he who should be king, or so Chicago sports’ media would have you believe. A day after picking the second coming of Sid Luckman if not the Almighty, Pace is being hailed for nabbing offensive tackle Teven Jenkins in the second round. The Oklahoma State product was a first-rounder for sure, or so they say. Jenkins’ availability comes off in these parts as a sure sign of the ineptitude, the until Thursday night very Ryan Pace-ness, of all the other GMs in the National Football League. In the course of a mere 48 hours, the house of McCaskey is restored, doubt defeated, all semblance of sanity cast aside. Give the people what they want, I say, and give them what the deserve. It’s football in Chicago.