Take a Chill Pill

This morning was one of those days I would’ve benefitted from the Tribune’s “if it don’t fit on six [pages], we don’t run it” approach to daily sports’ coverage. That way, I could’ve escaped the irritation caused by reading the lead story in the Sun-Times’ expanded sports section. It started with “WINDOW CLOSING” and went down from there—“Sox figure to be World Series contenders again this season, but given that some key players’ contracts are nearing expiration, they better win it soon.” Who knew that stoking the hot stove involved jacking up my blood pressure? Talk about dumb. We’re supposed to feel the pressure of “fleeting” time because Yasmani Grandal, Lance Lynn and Liam Hendriks all have contracts that could expire after 2024 while Lucas Giolito and Tim Anderson could also walk in the not-too-distant future. Give me a break. Adopting a “win now” attitude when you’re already winning, or want to repeat, is poison. All you need for confirmation of that is to look at what Kenny Williams did after the Sox won in 2005; goodbye, Gio Gonzalez, Aaron Rowand and Chris Young. The really good organizations—and I’m talking about you, Atlanta—plan to win year after year after… It's all a balancing act. A team has to develop and keep the players it can and deal or let go of the players it no longer wants or knows it can’t sign In other words, you try to sign Giolito and Anderson, but, if you can’t, you trade them for even younger talent who can keep you in contention. Last season, Sox actually came up with young players along the lines of Jake Burger and Gavin Sheets, both of whom contributed when called upon. Sorry, but I’m not trading them because of some need to “win now.” Rick Renteria was the wrong guy in the wrong place during the 2020 playoffs. If anything, Tony LaRussa was the wronger guy last October. You want to talk about closing windows and fleeting time, fine, but realize it’s the coaches and managers who speed or slow the process. Again, look at how Atlanta went about things, first in the 1990s and now. Like my father said, don’t talk like a… A broken orifice is an ugly thing.