Back in the Day

I hesitate to wax fondly over the “good old days.” Trust me, you didn’t want to go high school where I did or be a stranger in the neighborhood I grew up in. That said, I do miss at least some old-school ways in the dugout. I doubt Al Lopez or Eddie Stanky would have put the shine or spin on a seven-game losing streak the way White Sox manager Tony LaRussa has. “It’s a tough loss,” LaRussa said after the Sox coughed up two late-inning leads before losing in ten, 6-4, on Byron Buxton’s tenth inning walk-off three-run homerun. “We all shared in it. Final score with the whole road trip, and we’re all part of it, and we’ll all wear it. [today’s Trib].” Yeah, right, whatever that means. Sorry, but all this “band of brothers” stuff doesn’t work absent a healthy dose of accountability mixed in. With a 3-1 lead going into the bottom of the seventh, LaRussa brought in lefthanded Aaron Bummer to face the number-nine hitter. Read on, if you dare. Not only is Jose Godoy a lefthanded hitter, he has yet to get a hit on the season; Bummer still walked him. Then he went full on Buxton, who lined a homer to the opposite field. Not a word of criticism from the manager, though. Fast-forward to the bottom of the tenth with the Sox up by a run. This time, Liam Hendriks walks Godoy to bring up Buxton. Hendriks bell behind 3-1 on the count. That pretty much let Buxton wait on a fastball in a fastball situation, and Hendriks is a fastball pitcher. According to MLB.com, Buxton hit a 469-foot shot to the third deck at Target Field, the longest walk-off homer that Statcast has ever measured. Not a word of criticism from the manager, though. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to have Hendriks work an inning the day before in a 9-2 Twins’ blowout. Then again, what is a good idea from LaRussa?