On the Triumph of Evil and Escaping Blame

There’s a good deal of debate on the internet whether or not Edmund Burke said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” John Stuart Mill said something similar, and so do various passages in the Bible. JFK used the quote, so I’ll attribute it to him. The quote matters to me in the context of the sex abuse allegations swirling around the Blackhawks. Yesterday, former head coach Joel Quenneville resigned from the Florida Panthers. Previously, Quenneville had denied knowing anything about the alleged abuse committed by video coach Brad Aldrich against Kyle Beach in 2010. This is the same Quenneville who visited my nephew at home as he lay dying of cancer. How to reconcile that act with a lack of action? All I can do is turn to Burke/Mill/the Bible/John F. Kennedy. A paradox can be explained, if not fully understood. I continue to struggle with one other aspect of this story, how the Wirtz family has avoided its share of blame. Correct me if I’m wrong, but Rocky and his son Danny are claiming ignorance as a defense. If that won’t work in a court of law, why should it anywhere else? The point is, ownership needed to know what was happening. And, in failing to do so, it should be punished fully as much as anyone who once served in the Blackhawks’ front office or on the bench. Anything less allows evil to triumph.

Say It Ain't So, Joe (and Troy)

I’m enough of a Bears’ fan, or a Packers’ hater, that I tuned into last night’s Green Bay-Arizona game. With four minutes 48 seconds left and the Packers first and goal at the Cardinals’ one-yard line and already ahead by three, the dynamic broadcasting duo of Troy Aikman and Joe Buck opined it might be better for the Cardinals to allow a score so as to get the ball back with enough time left on the clock for two scores. You don’t say? Imagine everyone’s surprise in the broadcast booth when Arizona held for four downs and proceeded to march down the field. Too bad Kyler Murray threw an interception in the end zone on second and goal from inside the five with fifteen seconds left. The way the game ended, nobody focused on what Aikman and Buck had said a few minutes earlier. Expect more of the same when Buck does game three of the World Series from Atlanta. Just give up the grand slam, Joe?

Tick-tock

Unless you’re an Astros’ fan, last night’s 7-2 Houston win over the Braves was a pretty boring affair. What’s worse than a ballgame that drags on for three hours and eleven minutes? Why, one that takes four hours and six, that’s what. Atlanta’s 6-2 win in game one on Tuesday clocked in at a mind-numbing four-plus hours. Somehow, baseball has let its crown jewel turn into a never-ending reel of commercials for FOX TV. What’s crap on TV? Check the FOX promos to find out. Starting in December, baseball owners and players will start negotiating a new collective-bargaining agreement; it won’t be pretty. But will it be any worse than what FOX is doing to the World Series right now?

Not Too Much

Yesterday, the Blackhawks released the findings of an investigation into the team’s handling of a sexual assault allegation made by a player against a coach during the Hawks’ Stanley Cup run in 2010. There were no profiles in courage to be found anywhere. Instead, the front office sat on the charge for three weeks “so as not to disturb team chemistry,” as the team-commissioned report puts it. Not waiting to be pushed, Blackhawks’ GM Stan Bowman has resigned while ex-coach Joel Quennville may find himself having to answer some uncomfortable questions in the not-too-distant future. League action may also be taken against other team personnel who were part of the Hawks’ front office in 2010. The Wirtz family, of course, claims ignorance, as if that were a defense in court. The NHL showed its outrage over this handling of a sexual assault allegation—let me note here the Sun-Times reports the coach in question was later convicted of fourth degree criminal sexual conduct against a minor—by fining the Blackhawks all of $2 million. In comparison, MLB fined the Astros $5 million for sign stealing. The silver lining here is that the Hawks are facing two lawsuits related to the matter, so they may have to pay out more. A court of law may punish them in a way the owner-dominated league office doesn’t have the heart to.

Cleaning House

By my count, there are only two players left on the Bulls who place back to the regime of John Paxson and Gar Forman, which ended not so long ago, April 2020, to be exact. The two survivors are Zach LaVine and Coby White. LaVine, who scored 22 points in last night’s 111-108 win over the Raptors, is on the verge of free agency and due a big payday. Odds are he gets it with the Bulls, though you never know. White id different—he’s gone as soon as he generates some offense to peddle following an offseason shoulder injury. The roster overhaul has been nothing short of breathtaking and leaves me wondering: Is it like this in other sports? Does a hard salary cap play a sizable role? My gut feeling is, Yes, a hard cap matters. That always seems to contribute to roster churn regardless a team’s record; losing merely accelerates the process. But don’t hold me to that. In any case, the Bulls’ record stands at a gaudy 4-0, representing their best start to a season since the time of Jordan in 1996-97. Can they sustain it? I doubt it, but don’t hold me to that.

Clueless

Is there a more fitting description for yesterday’s performance by the Munsters of the Midway, a 38-3 blowout at the hands of Tom Brady and the Buccaneers? I mean, without going blue? Rookie quarterback Justin Fields committed five turnovers, two fumbles (not counting the third, which he recovered) to go with three interceptions. The fumbles concern me more. The way defenders are able to knock the ball away I worry Fields doesn’t have the right-sized hands for the job. I know that head coach Matt Nagy doesn’t have the smarts for his. “We lost, and we’ve got to learn from it,” Nagy told reporters after the game/debacle (quote from today’s story in The Athletic by Adam Jahns). Keep in mind that going into Sunday, Nagy’s Munsters had lost games by scores of 34-14; 26-6; and 24-14. Add those onto yesterday, and this team should be a bunch of friggin’ Ph.D.’s on the gridiron. I won’t go blue. Somewhere, my father the genuine South Sider is smiling; his old team the Cardinals have a league-best 7-0 record. And his son appears to have been wrong about Arizona quarterback Kyler Murray being better suited for a career in baseball. Live and learn, Dad. Right, Coach?

Conventional Wisdom

The dollar amounts differ according to source, but the Dodgers rate as having the highest payroll in all of baseball this season. According to the AP back in April, the Yankees and Mets placed second and third, respectively, while the Astros ranked seventh and the Braves fourteenth. Going into the NLCS, the Dodgers had been season-long favorites to return to the World Series; their trade-deadline pickups of Matt Scherzer and Trea Turner only increased a sense of inevitability. If memory serves, MLB.com all but anointed the Dodgers a super team heading into August. Correct me if I’m wrong here, but MLB.com is taking over from the front cover of Sports Illustrated, curse-wise, that is. Anyway, the Braves beat the Dodgers in six to advance to the Fall—and Winter—Classic, and that makes me happy, sort of. This is going to be an all-Confederacy Series where one team is made up of cheaters while the other is backed by fans who love their racist little chop. So, there’s that. And I don’t want to come off as a lapdog for a thrifty front office, not if the payroll savings go straight into the pocket of ownership. But according to a September story in The Athletic, the Braves rank sixteenth in this season’s fan cost index (the Astros are a surprising third behind the Red Sox and Cubs). So, at least some of that money saved was being shared with fans when they went to games, and that’s a good thing. When I first started playing Strat-O-Matic, along with the White Sox I liked the Braves, for all their power up and down the lineup; I had a thing for Mack Jones and Gene Oliver. Those memories together with a fan-friendly ticket structure will have me rooting for the National League, if just this one time.

MIA

The new-look Bulls sure look like the Kenny Williams’ White Sox. Back in the day, Williams built his rosters via trade and free-agent signing; rookies who stayed with the team were few and far between. This looks to be the approach Arturas Karnisovas is taking. Will it work? Well, Williams did put together the 2005 White Sox. On the other hand, he also signed Adam Dunn. Right now, these undefeated Bulls look more Jermaine Dye than Dunn. Granted, it’s only two games. But, back in 1998-99, they only won thirteen games all season. So, color me cautiously optimistic. And curious. Where was Zion Williamson last night? The Bulls were hosting the Pelicans for their home opener, and the 21-year old power forward did not take the floor all night. It appears Williams needed surgery on his right foot for an offseason injury. Oh, and rumor has it his weight is up around 300 pounds. That’s a lot of human being to haul up and down a basketball court. There’s no set date for his return, by the way. I could see the old regime of John Paxson and Gar Forman—or Jerry Krause—staking the future on the likes of Williamson. There are times when it’s definitely better to go with some version of Kenny Williams in the front office. I can’t believe I just said that.

You Can Bet on It

According to the Associated Press, bettors in New Jersey wagered north of a billion dollars on sports during September. No wonder the Cubs and White Sox want to throw out the welcome mat for now-legal bet makers. What I fail to understand is how baseball can ignore its past while trying to cash in on the future. You would think—at least I do—that, at some point, the powers that be would address the Black Sox Scandal. A pity no one working in the office of Commissioner Rob Manfred is good at irony. Because it’s nothing short not ironic that Sox fans can bet on their team while Buck Weaver, a player who didn’t bet on his team, went through life labelled as a cheat. Weaver spent his post-Sox life in Chicago and died there in 1956. Later, two nieces he helped raise, Pat Anderson and Bette Scanlan, tried to clear their uncle’s name, but Manfred and predecessor Bud Selig couldn’t be bothered. Anderson and Scanlan are gone now, just as Manfred and Selig will be one day, too. The odds are pretty good, though, that baseball’s hypocrisy will remain in place, impervious to irony and mercy alike.

Never Too Early

My daughter and fellow White Sox fan called last night to ask, “Is Chris Sale done?” No, I answered. He’s still coming back from Tommy John surgery. The onetime ace of the Chicago Sox was tagged with the loss against the Astros in game five of the ALCS. Speaking of arm surgery, I see that Sox reliever Evan Marshall is slated for a Tommy John procedure come next month; so, count him out for 2022. As for catcher Yasmani Grandal, I wonder. Clare later texted me that Grandal has already undergone some sort of knee procedure since the Sox were eliminated by Houston last week. Nothing like bad knees on a catcher. I always say the next season starts as soon as the World Series ends. (December or January, right?) Maybe I should amend that to, the next seasons starts for any team the moment the current one ends. Either way, the Sox will need more help in the bullpen and definitely at catcher. Grandal hit .240, which also happens to be his average over the course of a ten-year career. He rates as a plus hitter in the clutch, which is nice, and a below-average defender behind the plate, which is not. Hello, Adam Hackenberg. Adam Who? That’s “Hackenberg,” as in a catcher out of Clemson taken by the Sox in the eighteenth round this June. Sox prospects aren’t exactly known for their ability to hit the ground running. Hackenberg, though, went to Low-A Kannapolis, where he hit .320 with a homerun and thirteen RBIs in just 100 at-bats. Oh, and he threw out fourteen of 32 runners trying to steal. That’s nearly 44 percent, vs. nineteen percent this season for Grandal. Guess whose progress I’ll be checking on regularly come next spring.

Ride and More

The stuff you’ll see on a bike path. Yesterday, I was doing the lakefront, knees pumping, nose dripping (worst October allergies in memory). There was a guy with a dog on a leash at Ohio Street; he was walking on the cement shoreline, the dog was swimming in water alongside. And the motorized unicycles. I can never get enough of those, with masked riders looking like they’re ready to attack, ninja-style. I assume the helicopters were hovering about were there to cover the Sky victory parade put on by the city. Back home watching the news, I heard head coach/general manager James Wade tell the crowd to remember where they were sitting because they’d be back at the same time, same place next year. I’m pretty sure people connected to the 1985 Bears, 2005 White Sox and 2016 Cubs said something along the same lines, too. Best-laid plans and all. Speaking of which, somebody explain to me why Braves’ manager Brian Snitker let right-hander Luke Jackson face the Dodgers’ left-handed hitting Cody Bellinger in the eighth inning last night. Jackson had already given up two hits to right-handed batters, and there were two left handers available in the Atlanta bullpen. After Jackson gives up a game-tying three-run homer, Snitker leaves Jackson in to give up yet another hit, and that one would come around to score what proved to be the winning run in another two batters after Jesse Chavez replaced Jackson. I don’t get motorized unicycles, let alone the pitching decisions of some managers.

My Bad

Did I compare my daughter’s sense of basketball defense to Joe Frazier and Gordie Howe? Oops. My bad. I meant to say Dick Butkus. I met Butkus once at a memorabilia show and made him smile with my autograph request. It had something to do with “it takes one to know one.” Let’s just say the picture I’d brought along was being signed for a person of eastern European descent. Now as to Clare—in high school, one of her coaches did double duty, also working with the football team. He told me once, “Clare could play linebacker for me any day,” and I think he was more serious than not. My child brings a certain ferocity to her athletic endeavors. You could ask any of the pitchers she—literally—knocked out of a game. And she did end up marrying a high school linebacker who was converted to center in college. But will she be the mother of a football player? Not if baby Leo has his mother’s wrists, he won’t.

Change of Pace

Being a Chicago sports’ fan means facing a series of choices, mostly along the lines of “heads I win, tails you lose.” You get used to it or find something else to do. But it can be depressing. Bears’ fans want a real quarterback, somebody who can jump ahead of Sid Luckman and Jay Cutler on the team record lists. Rookie Justin Fields may be that player, only he comes with GM Ryan Pace and head coach Matt Nagy attached. The better Fields does, the more likely it is that Pace and Nagy are retained. This is how silver linings work in Chicago: The worse the rookie plays, the better the chances that the coach and GM will go. (Alas, the team owners will never sell.) Thank you, Aaron Rodgers, for doing your part in trying to make that happen. Cubs’ fans wanted a World Series win in the worst way, and with the Ricketts family, that looks exactly what they got. Certain Ricketts appear to be lukewarm at best to the system of representative government we have here in the United States. Fans got their title in 2016, and now a Ricketts or two—or three—may get Donald Trump as a presidential candidate in 2024. Bulls’ fans want a return to the promised land that Michael Jordan led them to six times, ending in 1998. How do you say “post-Jordan wilderness”? Try “Jim Boylan”. And White Sox fans? Well, we want a World Series, too, but hardly anybody thought Tony La Russa was the guy to get us one. Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf thought otherwise, and he’s the person who also hired Boylan. Which brings us to the Chicago Sky, who were winning the WNBA championship yesterday afternoon as the Bears lost, yet again, to Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers. In all honesty, I don’t follow the Sky, in part because I never encouraged my daughter to play basketball. Clare has a point guard’s build to go with an approach to defense better suited to Joe Frazier and Gordie Howe. She would’ve lasted, oh, five minutes before fouling out or drawing her two technicals. Still, hats off to Candace Parker for betting on herself when the L.A. Sparks, her old team, wouldn’t. Ditto for Kahleah Cooper; Diamond DeShields; Allie Quigley; Courtney Vandersloot; and the rest of the Sky roster for showing Chicago how a team can win. One other thing. Michael Alter, the Sky’s principal owner, shied away from cameras and reporters. The focus stayed on the players and James Wade, the GM/coach. How refreshing, and so unlike the world of Chicago sports.

Like Laughing Last

Carlos Correa of the Astros hit a go-ahead homerun last night in the seventh inning against the Red Sox. Instead of a Tim Anderson bat flip Correa went with a bit of pantomime, checking a make-believe watch on his right hand and mouthing the words, It’s my time, as he made ready to circle the bases. Speaking of things Houston, Earl Campbell, great running back of the since-departed Oilers, is credited with saying, “When you get to the end zone, act like you’ve been there before.” Words to live by, except in baseball these days.

Give or Take

According to baseball-reference.com, Gavin Sheets of the White Sox has a .2 WAR while Liam Hendriks’ comes in at 2.6. Andrew Vaughn? Why, .2, of course. Yoan Moncada beats Jose Abreu, 4 to 3. And if your life depended on one at-bat, who would you want taking it, Moncada or Abreu? Truly, figures don’t lie, figurers do. Moncada over everyone else named above is a testament to just how subjective analytics can be, and is. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that the Sox front office doesn’t go by such numbers alone. They just don’t add up.

Oh, Well

The White Sox played their biggest game of the season yesterday, at home and to a full house. They responded by losing 10-1 to the Astros, who move on to the ALCS against Boston. The game was not as close as the score might indicate. The old saying about defeat being an orphan doesn’t apply here; the White Sox debacle had plenty of fathers, and I mean that literally, because this is an organization prone to glass ceilings. As ever, it starts with owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who goes through life oblivious of the consequences of his actions. See the post-Michael Jordan Bulls as but one example. Reinsdorf wanted Tony La Russa to manage, and he got him. Never mind that La Russa did no better this postseason than his predecessor did last year. All that matters is what the Chairman wants. The consequences are for mere mortals to face. And let’s not forget White Sox GM Rick Hahn. Last season, Hahn declared the rebuild over by signing free agents Edwin Encarnacion, Yasmani Grandal and Dallas Keuchel. How did that go, Rick? Let’s see. Encarnacion hit too poorly to have his option picked up for a second season; Keuchel, aka The Hitter’s Friend, didn’t make the ALDS roster; and Grandal proved to be everything I thought he would. Which isn’t much. Houston stole five bases against him yesterday. The Sox led the majors in stolen bases allowed during the regular season. And, as James Fegan pointed out in today’s The Athletic, they also led in passed balls and wild pitches combined. Funny, but I didn’t hear anyone extol Grandal’s pitch-framing skills. Maybe the 7.94 team ERA in the ALDS has something to do with that. Far be it from me to dwell on the past. Looking ahead, I see a 2022 team headed up by La Russa, barring any health issues. I don’t know what Hahn is inclined to do about free-agent signings. I’d say the South Siders need another starter, which probably means Hahn goes out and trades Adam Engel for a Double-A reliever. So, color me pessimistic about next year. To move to the ALCS and beyond, one of two things has to happen—the Sox get new hitting and pitching coaches, or members of the core get traded. Personally, I’d do both. Pitching coach Ethan Katz should be one and done. Yes, the team ERA was 3.73 in the regular season, the fifth-best in all of baseball, but Lucas Giolito was better in 2019 and better in the postseason last year. Dylan Cease? He still looks pretty clueless on the mound. Michael Kopech and Garrett Crochet? Young, with plenty of talent, but consistently hittable in tough situations. How exactly will Katz help those two go from the bullpen to the rotation? As for hitting coach Frank Menechino, all I can say is, Eloy Jimenez and Yoan Moncada; both definitely look to be regressing. Either find a coach who can draw out their potential, or trade them while they still have plus-value. The only problem with that is Hahn’s spotty record in the trade department. The last thing this team needs is another Craig Kimbrel and/or Cesar Hernandez. Yes, I’d trade Jimenez and Moncada, and Cease, too. Done right, those could be transformational deals. I keep thinking of the young, impressive Reds’ teams of the late ’60s and early ’70s. Look what happened after they acquired Joe Morgan. Just imagine a full season of Andrew Vaughn (playing just one position, not five, thank you very much) and Gavin Sheets mixed in with the talent two or three big trades would net. And let’s not forget Jake Burger, Luis Robert, Jose Abreu…

It's All Relative

Ask any White Sox fan, and you’ll get an earful of complaints about media coverage. For example, today’s Sun-Times has nine pages of football (seven) and basketball (two) before getting around to the Sox, who were rained out against the Astros at home yesterday. And had they played? A headline and photo on the back page with coverage that probably started after the Bears or got sandwiched in between stories. It's interesting, not to mention ironic, that the WNBA Sky, facing off against the Phoenix Mercury for the league championship, actually had their story in ahead of the Sox. In the Tribune, where new ownership is squeezing every last penny, sports is down to six pages, and the Sox rate over the Sky, along with Bears’ coverage that is nothing short of numbing. Go to the Trib website, and it’s worse somehow. You can’t click onto the Sky as a favorite. You either start scrolling down sports’ stories and keep scrolling until you find them, or give up. Candace who? It’s all relative, I guess.

Crowdsourcing

A crowd of 40,288 White Sox fans endured the costs of playoff baseball to fill Guaranteed Rate Whatever last night; the mostly white fans wore black and saved the irony for another time. They brought along the electricity that runs through all things South Side. The fans willed their heroes to score in the first, then refused to be silenced when Houston scored five unanswered runs over the next two innings. They roared after Yasmani Grandal hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the third, only to roar louder when Leury Garcia launched a 436-foot shot to dead center field, good for three runs and a 6-5 White Sox lead. The Astros tied the game in the fourth, not that the fans stopped cheering. Their heroes were about to score three more runs in the bottom frame before doing something as long overdue as the clutch hitting was—Ryan Tepera, Aaron Bummer, Craig Kimbrel and Liam Hendriks came out of the bullpen to shut the opposition down without so much as a hit or a walk. Final score, Sox 12 Astros 6. So, weather permitting, the home team will try to make it two in a row. With fans behind them, they have a chance. This is what the South Side can do, when people call it home.

How to Win

First, involve the fans. Take the energy they give and build on it. Do something. Next, do not give the other side a chance. Always execute, always keep the pressure on them. Maybe throw at the first batter. If all else fails, come back for the win. See above for instructions. Anything else spells defeat.

What I See

What I see is this—the White Sox are a team totally unprepared, so far, to compete in the postseason. Tony La Russa was hired last Ocotber because White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf saw the experience and expertise his team needed in a manager who could lead them to deep playoff runs. In that, Reinsdorf appears sadly mistaken. La Russa employed shifts, and the Astros hit ’em where they weren’t, especially in a five-run seventh inning that sealed a 9-4 loss yesterday. La Russa went to his bullpen, and Houston scored, almost at will. La Russa went to his bench, and he may have lost the game in the process. For reasons I haven’t yet heard explained, the White Sox manager pinch hit Cesar Hernandez for Adam Engel in the top of the seventh. Surprise, not, Hernandez struck out. That was bad enough, but there were consequences to come, with Leury Garcia shifting from second base to right in the bottom of the inning. Again, if La Russa explained why he thought weakening his outfield defense late in the game was a good idea, I didn’t hear it. Which brings us to the bottom of the seventh. After the Astros had strung together three seeing-eye singles to take the lead, La Russa lifted Aaron Bummer for Craig Kimbrel, who by La Russa’s own admission in the postgame, is a closer being made to pitch in non-closer situations. (So, why did Rick Hahn go out and get Kimbrel if they already had Liam Hendriks to close? That, my friends, is a question for later.) With two out, Carlos Correa hit a line drive to right that turned Garcia around as it went for a double; unless shown otherwise, Engel catches that ball. A 5-4 score suddenly turned to 7-4, with the obligatory Kimbrel gopher ball following immediately after. Final score, Houston 9 Chicago 4. La Russa’s postgame comments have been an embarrassment, or should be for anyone so proud of his HOF status. Thursday, he went after a TV reporter who dared to ask how the Sox would come back from a 6-1 loss; La Russa responded that she didn’t know the team. Yesterday was filled with blather about effort and being ever so close. Somewhere, Rick Renteria smiles. And the rest of us cry.

You Want It, You Got It, Not

You wanted the White Sox to have homefield advantage against the Astros, but Sox manager Tony La Russa thought it was more important to rest his players, advantage be damned. After their 6-1 loss at Minute Maid Field yesterday, the visitors looked like they’re still taking it easy. You wanted Lucas Giolito to start game one, La Russa went with Lance Lynn, despite a 5-7 career record against Houston with a 4.41 ERA. Maybe La Russa didn’t know a stat that FOX Sports passed along, that Lynn is 0-6 in his last six starts against the Astros. Oh, and that comes with a 9.18 ERA. You wanted the team to come roaring out of the gate, but Tim Anderson and company gave “lethargic” new levels of meaning, except for Luis Robert, who came to play. For reasons best known to himself, Eloy Jimenez continues to play at being a major-league hitter. You want someone to explain why, if the Sox are going to carry eight relievers, La Russa left Lynn in long enough to give up five runs in 3.2 innings. Relievers throwing 4.1 innings of one-run is, as Jack Brickhouse used to say, shutting the barn door after the horse is gone. You want someone to own up to this mess of a loss. Instead, La Russa sounded befuddled, bemused and betwixt in a postgame question-and-answer session, saying Lynn, despite having good stuff, “was not pleased with the sequence of pitches he used.” Well, how did that happen? Couldn’t his catcher or his pitching coach or his manager gone out to the mound to remind him of all the other pitches La Russa said Lynn has in his arsenal? But enough of this nattering negativity. Today’s another day, and hope springs eternal that a light bulb or two or more goes off among our local heroes. Or else.

Bard Time

I just read an editorial in the Tribune on how the White Sox are the poor stepchild of Chicago’s professional teams. Whatever. Bandwagons are for other folks, and North Siders. Right now, I’m waiting for my daughter to call with news of the Sox roster and lineup for today in Houston. Did Dallas Keuchel make the cut? Will Adam Engel start in right? Is Jose Abreu over the flu? Questions demand their answers. A person grows anxious in the hours before gametime, or at least I did waiting for Clare to play. “Once more unto the breech, dear friends, once more.” That’s it, words of comfort, words to rally “We few, we happy few,” Sox fans one and all. Because now is the time to remember, “Men of few words are the best men.”

Of Wet Blankets and A-Rod

The White Sox found a wet blanket to throw over fans on Monday with the announcement that team-controlled parking lots will be hiking rates from $30—a $10 jump from 2019, by the way—to $45 for as long as the Sox play at home this postseason. And, if fans don’t like it, they can eat cake. That was pretty much the message Sox spokesperson Scott Reifert offered up in yesterday’s Sun-Times. “The free market will set a much higher rate than this,” Reifert said in a spot-on imitation of Marie Antoinette, if not exactly Milton Friedman. Here’s the thing, Scott. The Sox set the base price, regardless. Keep the fee at $30, and private lot owners will feel the squeeze. Raise the price 50 percent, and you give the green light for the other guys to do likewise. Oh, well, it could be worse. I could be a Yankees’ fan, perish the thought. Giancarlo Stanton hit a ball high off the Green Monster, and I do mean high, at Fenway in the first inning of last night’s 6-2 Red Sox win, and he forgot to run he was admiring his feat so; it should’ve been a double, my friend. And then Gerrit Cole, the $324 million man, couldn’t make it through three innings and said after the game, “I’m sick to my stomach,” over his performance. Cry me a river, Gerrit, the Hudson, if you like. And then, if my ears didn’t deceive me, Alex Rodriguez on the ESPN broadcast anointed Cole as the AL Cy Young Award winner, for 2022, his “sophomore” season, only this was Cole’s second season pitching in the Bronx. New York, New York, if you can’t make it there, you can’t make it anywhere. Especially when you’ve got friends in all the right places.

I Predict...

I took a look back at those PECOTA projections by Baseball Prospectus released in February. If I were those guys, I’d check my equations for accuracy. They had the Yankees, Twins and Astros winning their respective AL divisions with the Mets, Brewers and Dodgers doing the honors in the NL. The White Sox were projected to win 83 games to the Cubs 85. Athlon did better, at least in the AL, going with the Yankees, Sox and Astros along with the Braves, Cardinals and Dodgers in the NL; unlike PECOTA, all the Athlon picks will be playing this week. Lindy’s went with Yankees, Sox and A’s in the AL, Braves, Cards and Dodgers in the NL. The winner is Athlon, with three correct picks vs. two for PECOTA and Lindy’s. I have no idea what the odds were out of Las Vegas, and I don’t care. My guess is that MLB and its broadcasting partners wish the Yankees and Dodgers had performed as predicted. The Rays aren’t all that much of a surprise, but the Giants? Who knew? That’s why you play the games, as the saying goes. I learned not to trust predictions a very long time ago, when I was still wet behind the proverbial ears. After finishing a mere three games out of first place in 1967, the Sox traded for Luis Aparicio and Tommy Davis, among others. And what did that do? The ’68 Sox proceeded to finish 36 games behind the pennant-winning Tigers, that’s what. Tommie Agee and Don Buford probably didn’t mind, though. They escaped the South Side to play in four World Series between them. You just never know.

What's in a Number?

The White Sox are a franchise of longstanding, which is not to be confused with success. Since 1901, the Sox have managed 90-plus wins all of twenty times. By contrast, the Reds have done it 22 times, eighteen alone since 1956. The ever-woeful Pirates have done it 29 times, the Cubs 25. So, what exactly does it mean to win 93 games? The 1959 team won the AL pennant with 94 but lost to the Dodgers in the World Series. The 2005 team went 99-63 and won everything. The 1990 Sox with such rookies as Robin Ventura and Frank Thomas went a very entertaining 94-68. That’s what this team reminds me of. Jose Abreu is a lot like Carlton Fisk, but with personality. Lucas Giolito could pass for Jack McDowell, and Liam Hendriks is now what Bobby Thigpen was then. It’s mix-and-match, past and present. Jeff Torborg managed the Sox in 1990. Of his eleven seasons managing, Torborg finished above .500 twice, both time with the Sox, 1990-91. We all know who manages the team now. We have a HOFer at the helm. With any luck at all, he has the questionable lineup and pitching decisions out of his system e.g., leaving Reynaldo Lopez in long enough for him to give up three runs in the ninth inning against the Tigers. A seven-game winning streak going into the postseason would’ve been nice. Then we’d have 94 wins, just like in ’90. Oh, well. We do go into Houston with a HOF manager at the helm.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Let’s start off with the bad from last night, that being the decision by White Sox manager Tony La Russa to have Dallas Keuchel relieve in the seventh inning of a game where the Sox were down, 1-0. The bad is what Keuchel did, giving up three runs on four hits and a walk in just .2 inning. But let’s not forget the good, either. There was Tim Anderson going 2-for-4 with an RBI; Gavin Sheets picking up his 34th RBI on the season in just 159 at-bats; and Yoan Moncada hitting what proved to be the game-winning homerun, a two-out, two-run shot to the opposite field (left) in the bottom of the eighth inning. Take your pick as to which of the above qualifies as the most important going into the postseason. “At least he showed some emotion,” said my daughter of the enigmatic Moncada when I called her to talk about the game. “Sometimes, he hits a homerun, and it’s like nothing’s happened.” Yes, a little emotion is in order here, especially if it helps counter the homefield advantage the Astros finally secured last night with a win over the A’s. Come Thursday, it’s all hands on deck, starting with how the postseason pitching staff is constructed. Rick, Tony, they pay you the big bucks to make the tough decisions. Time to earn your pay.

Come Full Circle

This must have been how it started with Clare, her an infant nestled alongside me with the White Sox game on the television. Last night, we traded daughter for grandson so she could watch her husband coach high school football. The kid didn’t seem to mind much whenever the old man muttered. And you’d think he wouldn’t have much to mutter about after his Sox beat the visiting Tigers 8-1, with Jose Abreu picking up four RBIs and Tim Anderson going 4-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI. Gavin Sheets, my pick to click most any day he’s in the lineup, had two hits to go with two RBIs. And I’d be complaining why, exactly? Because when all the decent hitters the Sox have actually play together, things happen (see above). With two games left in the season, the Astros have one more victory. All those times when Anderson or Luis Robert or somebody else rested and the Sox went on to lose matter now. Houston needs to lose out, and we need to win out in order for the ALDS to open on the South Side. Otherwise, it’s on to Houston next week. Leo Joseph and his grandpa would very much like their Sox to open at home, but at least one of us isn’t holding his breath, at least not for that to happen.

Misdirection

The timing was perfect. In the midst of yet another (self-inflicted) quarterback controversy, the Bears announced yesterday that they’ve signed $197.2 million purchase agreement to acquire 326 acres in northwest suburban Arlington Heights. In the not-too-distant future, fans may be able to enjoy watching their Munsters in a state-of-the-art facility. Whoopee! As ever, the McCaskey family is depending on the ignorance of others to keep getting by. The casual fan—and, more importantly, the mass of Illinois taxpayers who could be asked to kick in tens of millions of dollars in infrastructure improvements—will assume that a bigger, better stadium will translate into more money to spend on players. It won’t, because the NFL operates under a hard salary cap. In other words, the Packers and Bears have the same payroll (in the neighborhood of $182.5 million this season), only Green Bay has decided to use it for the likes of Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers as opposed to Jay Cutler and whomever coach Matt Nagy taps for Sunday. Oh, a new stadium promises plenty of new revenue, which the heirs of Halas will spend however they see fit. But we can’t spend more on an offensive line because of the cap. So sorry. Soldier Field is the devil you know. Arlington Heights could very well turn into the monster you wish you’d never set eyes on.