He Crazy

As I was saying, Clare and I have been in regular contact the past few days now that baseball’s back. Last night, Michele and I were binge-watching episodes of “Grantchester” when our daughter texted that the White Sox reportedly signed reliever Joe Kelly. Father and daughter agree, he crazy. And that may be a good thing. First off, the right-handed reliever has a Ryne Duren thing going on. For those of you too young to remember, Duren was a fastballing reliever who had some good years with those dynasty Yankees of Mantle, Ford and company. Not only did Duren wear glasses, he was effectively wild, in particular during warmups. Batters saw the glasses, the fastball, the lack of control and took an instinctive step back. Kelly wears glasses, throws a mean fastball and will throw at people, at least if they’re wearing an Astros’ uniform. Kelly was suspended eight games in 2020 for throwing at Alex Bregman; this was the same game where Kelly mouthed “Boo-hoo” to Carlos Correa after striking him out to end the inning. Correa was not amused, nor was his manager. At one point in the inning, Dusty Baker yelled from the Houston dugout for Kelly to “Get your skinny ass on the mound” after covering first base on a play. Anybody who irritates Dusty Baker is OK in my book. As Kelly would go on to explain, he didn’t like how the Astros’ players handled the sign-stealing scandal, not so much the stealing as the taking responsibility, or failure thereof. The new-White Sox thought that coaches and managers were thrown under the bus—think Alex Cora and AJ Hinch losing their jobs—while the actual cheaters got off punishment-free. Good point. Here's hoping Correa, now a free agent, doesn’t sign on the South Side. I want to see him in a matchup with Kelly. Ditto those Dusty Astros.