Wrong Sox

Love him or hate him—and I did both, often at the same time—Lucas Gioltio will pitch for the Sox next year. The Red Sox, that is. What I wouldn’t give to hear Gioltio swap tales with Chris Sale about life on the South Side. Rather than bring back someone who pitched a no-hitter for them in 2020, the other Sox signed right-hander Chris Flexen to a one-year deal. Along with the recently signed Erick Fedde, the Whjte Sox have on the roster two starters who spent time in the Korean Baseball Organization. Be still, my beating heart. What I wouldn’t give to hear what Dylan Cease has to say to his ex-teammate Giolito about his new teammates, assuming, of course, that Cease doesn’t become an ex-teammate himself.

"Gur-ta"

In yet another baby step at re-whatevering, White Sox GM Chris Getz signed lefty sidearm reliever Tim Hill to a one-year deal. Either out of belief or necessity, Getz has given manager Mickey Mouse someone who gets outs from the movement of his pitches rather than their speed. Good. Not everyone needs to throw 100 mph out of the pen. Too bad the move cost rookie reliever Declan Cronin his spot on the roster. I have a soft spot for Cronin dating to his performance in a video on the team website last season, about the correct pronunciation of Chicago street names. Cronin was the only player able to say “Goethe” correctly. The 18th century German poet-playwright and author of “Faust” would’ve said “Gur-ta,” just like the twenty-five year old righty out of Holy Cross did. Most Chicagoans say, “Gur-dey.” Cronin most likely was DFA’d because his 9.00 ERA over eleven innings with the Sox indicate he has a 4-A fastball. Declan, search out Wilbur Wood or R.A. Dickey, and learn how to throw a knuckleball. Mix your other pitches in with a good knuckler, and you’ll be back in the bigtime.

In Retrospect

By the end of last season, this is how much the White Sox regretted their signing of catcher Yasmani Grandal back in 2019—with one month left on his contract, Grandal started seven games behind the place to eighteen for Korey Lee, who at no point hit higher than .094. Carlos Perez also started four games. Wait, there’s more. A few weeks ago, the Sox acquired Max Stassi from the Braves. Stassi was injured all of last year, but the new front office of Chris Getz and company would rather go with the rehabbing Stassi, a career .212 hitter, than bring back Grandal in any way, shape or form. Wait, there’s more. Last week, Getz went out and signed Martin Maldonado to a one-year deal. Maldonado is a career .207 hitter who put up a .191 BA last season with the Astros. Again, this is considered an upgrade over Grandal. Holy Rick Hahn. The Sox are in their current predicament because they worked so hard to get there. Nobody has bothered to pick up Grandal yet, and nobody appears interested in adding Hahn to their front office. Gosh, I wonder why.

Déjà vu

The Bulls lost to a good Cleveland team Saturday, so I wondered how they’d respond last night facing Atlanta at home. The Hawks have a bunch of players greater than their sum, starting with guard Trae Young. That man can score, and pass when he wants to. Lo and behold, the Bulls won even though they were without center Nikola Vucevic. They may have won because they were without Vucevic, who suffered a groin injury against the Cavs. Andre Drumond started at center, and, wow, did he deliver. Drummond pulled down twenty-five rebounds to go with twenty-four points in a 118-113 win. Alex Caruso and Ayo Dosunmu did a nice Jerry Sloan/Norm Van Lier imitation while DeMar DeRozan was his reliable self with the game winding down. Drummond’s twenty-five boards reminded me of Tom Boerwinkle, who holds the team record with thirty-seven against the Suns back in January of 1970. I won’t say DeRozan is the second coming of Chet Walker or Bob Love, though. He reminds me more of ex-White Sox Jermaine Dye. I never realized how good Dye was until he came to the Sox. Ditto DeRozan. These retro-Bulls are still four games under .500, but the arrow definitely seems to be pointing up. I hope so. It’ll help make January go a little faster.

Blah Bears

After the Christmas Eve Family Mass yesterday afternoon, everyone went over to Grandma and Grandpa’s for a dinner of barley soup and meatless pierogi. This is what the inn keeper provided Joseph and Mary out in his stable. Leo was happy to play with the Tootsie Toys I bought as part of his gifts. For the uninitiated, these are hand-sized cars and trucks, very detailed, made from steel back in the day, my day. I bough a tow truck; a flatbed; and a car carrier with four cars. We were driving everywhere, up my shoulders, along the living room wall. I saw enough of the Bears-Cardinals’ game to shake my head. Twenty-one unanswered points midway through the second quarter, and they still had to hang on, 27-16? Typical Munsters. Our boys ran the ball thirty-nine times for 250 yards. Danger, danger, because that means they didn’t throw the ball much and/or for much yardage. Yup, Justin Fields went fifteen of twenty-seven for 170 yards, with a touchdown and an interception. But, hey, he ran nine times for ninety-seven yards! Offensive coordinator Luke Getsy did what Luke Getsy does, call any number of questionable plays. Head coach Matt Eberflus did what Matt Eberflus does, jibber this and jibber that in his postgame comments. Thank God for the Tootsie Toys.

One(s) Who Got Away

Bad teams are bad in a variety of ways: They acquire the wrong players. They keep the wrong players. They let go of the wrong players. The Bulls are trying not to be a bad team, which is hard considering they thought acquiring and then signing Zach LaVine to a big extension was a good idea. At least they’ve seen the error of their ways in that regard. But last night’s 109-95 loss to the Cavaliers highlighted another Oops in the player personnel department. You dis Max Strus at your own peril. Strus is yet another Chicago-area athlete our teams have managed to overlook, though that’s not exactly the case with Strus, who caught on with the Bulls after playing for De Paul. But a knee injury in 2019 ended the small forward’s cup of coffee with his hometown team. Strus blossomed coming off the bench after signing with the Heat. Something about playing with Jimmy Butler, no doubt. This off-season, he went to the Cavaliers, who aren’t complaining. Strus is averaging over fourteen points a game and last night torched his ex-team for twenty-six. Strus, Butler, Bobby Portis. Some teams wouldn’t know talent if it bit them on the butt.

Color Me Skeptical

Baseball-reference.com compares Shohei with his 681 career hits to Pete Alonso, Tony Clark and Greg Walker. The thirty-eight career wins puts him in the company of Jose Fernandez, Mike Clevinger (!) and Jose Urquidy. Somehow, all those modest names turned into a $700 million contract for Ohtani. Nice work, if you can get it. With pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, major-league “work” doesn’t even enter into it, or at least it didn’t for the Dodgers, who on Thursday signed Yamamoto to a twelve-year deal worth $325 million. Not one inning, not one-third of an inning, not one pitch in the major leagues, and a monster contract. Nice payoff, if you can get it. As you might expect, all the usual suspects love the deal; it shows how serious Los Angeles is in getting back to the World Series. OK, but Yamamoto stands all of 5’10”. That’s Tim Lincecum territory, and Lincecum had seven ten-plus-win seasons, three of them under .500. Lincecum made an estimated $102.55 million over the course of a ten-year career. Oh, and he was done at age thirty-two. Yamamoto will turn twenty-six next August. I won’t get all Jerry Reinsdorf here and go into Cassandra mode about the dangers of long-term deals for pitchers. The Dodgers either got it right, or they’ll crash and burn. But this does inflate—dare I say “artificially”?—the value of starting pitchers. Given a choice, I’d take Ichiro and Hideo Nomo over Ohtani and Yamamoto. Time will tell.

Coach

Clare and I had lunch with her college softball coach yesterday. The best way to describe Coach P is as a master teller of stories, all of them true, all of them connecting one person to another. Kevin Bacon needs six degrees. Coach P gets it done in two, three max. I can hold my own talking sports, provided I can steer the conversation away from hockey or college football; when that fails, I employ a mean head-nod, as if I know what the other person is saying, or agree. What struck me was how good my daughter was at the same thing. She didn’t even need to nod. We talked baseball (Coach P hates Yasmani Grandal); they talked softball and college politics. There was a time when Coach P wanted Clare to take his place, but things happened, and the world turned a different way. Some things are not meant to be. Because Coach P is connected to everyone (see above), he knows new White Sox infielder Nicky Lopez, who went to high school by him. We may even get Sox tickets through him. Lopez, I mean. No, Coach P. No, both. This interconnectedness takes some getting used to.

See Above

Now, it’s starting to get interesting. The Bulls beat LeBron James and company last night, 124-108, in a game that wasn’t close most of the time. And, yes, Alex Caruso played, for twenty-seven minutes, no less. Caruso was good for fifteen points, six rebounds and enough smart defense to leave me hoping he can stay healthy tonight against the Spurs. A win against San Antonio would put the Bulls at 13-17, not great but a whole lot better than when Zach LaVine was healthy. It’s funny to amazing how Patrick Williams at age twenty-two and Coby White at twenty-three seem to have figured things out all of a sudden. At twenty-eight, LaVine is still the same old same old, always needing the ball, for better and often worse, in order to get his points. Rumor has it the Lakers are interested in LaVine, with the Bulls wanting Austin Reaves in return. Who he? Think a smoother, younger Caruso. It’s a trade I’d make in a heartbeat, but the LA front office isn’t quite so desperate yet. Maybe a few more losses to sub-.500 teams will change their mind. Fingers crossed.

The X-Factor

The Bulls lost to the Bucks in overtime last Monday as Giannis Antetokounmpo took over late. They lost to the Heat in the closing seconds on Saturday as Jimmy Butler took over. Last night, they won 108-104 in Philadelphia, halting the 76ers’ six-game win streak and overcoming Joel Embiid’s forty points. What was different between this game and the two losses? Alex Caruso. The brittle, vital sixth man was injured and didn’t play against the Bucks and Heat. Last night, Caruso logged 30:30 and helped defend against Embiid, who failed to make a game-tying shot close in off the glass with six seconds left. Caruso plays, and his team has a chance. He sits, and good luck. The Bulls are 6-3 since Zach LaVine went down with a foot injury; all the losses have been close or pretty close. Without LaVine, they’re a team with everyone pulling in the same direction. With Caruso, they’re a team with a chance of making the playoffs.

Three's a Charm

With Sunday’s 20-17 loss to the Browns, the Munsters have now blown three fourth-quarter double-digit leads in going down to defeat. Fingers crossed, this means the end of head coach Matt Eberflus and offensive coordinator Luke Getsy. Eberflus/Getsy twice went for it on fourth down instead of trying admittedly long, fifty-plus-yards’ field goals; both times, Cleveland prevailed. Cairo Santos makes one of those kicks, and the Bears might have walked away with their third straight victory. Joe Flacco, all thirty-eight years of him, got intercepted three times, and still he engineered the winning drive(s). Flacco threw for 212 yards in the fourth quarter. In the future, the Bears’ secondary might want to hold off on celebrating takeaways until the game’s over. Here’s the thing. There’s no way Flacco gets to pull this off if he’s quarterbacking the Munsters; after three interceptions, E/G would’ve run the ball or seen how many bubble screens they could call over the course of fifteen minutes. Or, in total desperation, they would’ve mixed runs up the middle with bubble screens. Here's another thing—Flacco doesn’t get to do anything if the Bear offense were awake in the fourth quarter. Perish the thought. Other teams play to increase their lead. The Munsters only want to preserve the lead. This is how receiver Darnell Mooney put it: “I didn’t like how we felt comfortable in the third quarter, just lackadaisical and conservative. Everybody was just happy we were winning.” [today’s Tribune] Yes, indeed. The Bears ran the ball twenty-seven times, enough to make you think they racked up a lot or yards. Nope, just eighty-eight. The Browns managed a mere twenty-nine yards on eighteen carries. The difference? Flacco threw for 374 yards to Justin Fields’ 166. But this loss isn’t on Fields; pin it squarely on E/G. Then, send them packing.

Tutorial

The Bulls were up by two over the Heat with a minute to play last night in Miami, when a DeMar DeRozan turnover turned into a game-tying fast break. Then, with fourteen seconds left, Nikola Zucevic missed a close-in hook shot. Ex-Bull Jimmy Butler snared the rebound and hit the game-winning jumper as time expired. Miami 118 Chicago 116. The Bulls don’t have a Buter (though they once did). They also don’t have a Giannis Antetokounmpo, whose thirty-two points led the Bucks to an overtime 133-129 win over Chicago on Monday. Until the Bulls acquire players of that caliber, they’re going to keep losing the close ones.

Never-never Land

The Sun-Times did a story today on Tony La Russa, manager-turned-advisor to the White Sox. Current manager Mickey Mouse, who is nothing if not a suck-up to power, called his predecessor “one of the great managers in this game” and someone who “has become a good friend.” If they handed out awards for apple polishing, Mouse would have a shelf full of them. Nothing in the story about the upcoming SoxFest, because there won’t be one. Jerry Reinsdorf is not interested in hearing from the peasants. And nothing so far on a new television voice to replace Jason Benetti. That will come in good time, when Reinsdorf feels like it. At least the gray sky matches my mood.

Unexpected

We were so wrapped up in “$100,000 Pyramid” I totally forgot about the Bulls’ game. Imagine my surprise to find they beat the Heat in Miami, 124-116. Cody White continues to impress; last night, White had twenty-six points to go with seven rebounds and eleven assists. Ayo Dosunmu came off the bench to score twenty-four, along with eight boards and five assists. My gosh, even Nikola Vucevic look good. The big man also scored twenty-four points while tallying twelve boards and seven assists. The only problem was why Dosunmu came off the bench—he had to replace Alex Caruso, who went 4:52 before suffering his latest injury; Vucevic accidentally stepped on Caruso’s left foot. With that, an old problem turned into an aggravated one. Holy Pete Reiser, this man is injury-prone. The Bulls and Heat play again tomorrow. Maybe we’ll watch the next episode of “The Crown,” just to be on the safe side.

"Readymade"

Marcel Duchamp was a smart-aleck French artist who once bought a urinal which he then submitted to an art exhibition. To Duchamp, this was “readymade” art, an object decreed by an artist to have artistic merit. Ha, Ha. That said (and laughed at), I agree with Duchamp in that art can be what we say it is, even when it started off as something other than art. Recently, smokestacks and decades-old ads painted on building exteriors in Chicago have fit into that category. Let me add the photos of George Burke, who once worked as team photographer for the Cubs and White Sox. Burke was active in the 1930s and ’40s. Supposedly, he was hired by accident. Cubs’ manager Joe McCarthy confused him with the previous team photographer, who shared the same last name. When he found his mistake, McCarthy still gave George Burke a chance if only because his studio on Belmont Avenue was so close to Wrigley Field. The readymades started soon after. Burke got the job even though he wasn’t much of a baseball fan; that’s where talent helped. Baseball often takes a subordinate role in his photos, four of which I recently bought on eBay. Never have members of the 1935 White Sox looked so good. Three of the 4”x6” shots appear to have been done indoors. Ballplayers in uniform with no field in sight—that was daring worthy of Duchamp. But there they are: Rip Radcliff, “Sad” Sam Jones and Merv Shea, in profile. Shea is sitting on a chair, the full jersey logo showing, S-O-X superimposed on a bat, a baseball inside the O. For Radcliffe and Jones, only the S appears in their photos. What stands out are the faces, not one smile among them. Each player has a look somewhere between serious and bemused, as if they know the Sox won’t even play .500 ball that season. Zeke Bonura, the fourth photo, differs in that he is definitely smiling and definitely outside, yet the background is blurred and the S-O-X all but bleached out by the sun. What makes these photos art? In part, because of how they compare to the work of George Brace, Burke’s assistant who took over after Burke suffered a stroke. Brace’s work is pretty straightforward, typically showing player and park. You can all but hear him tell Jim Landis, Smile. Of course, it’s possible that Brace took those photos in 1935, but I doubt it. In any case, I’ll put them Facebook, and you can judge for yourself.

Like I Said

Two losses down, two games against a good team to go. So much for the Bulls’ four-game winning streak. Two things remain constant, though. This looks to be a team that can count on Coby White. If only the same could be said of Alex Caruso. White has been a revelation this season (and hats off to Sun-Times beat writer Joe Cowley for admitting he was wrong to write White off. That makes two of us.). Those two losses, in overtime to the Bucks and against reigning champs the Nuggets, saw White score thirty-three and twenty-seven points respectively. For the season, White is shooting 43.2 percent on three-pointers and tallying 4.5 assists a game. Lonzo who? Too bad Caruso missed both games due to injury. Each contest was close, and his defense could’ve made a difference in either of them. I know it’s not his fault, but the second coming of Jerry Sloan doesn’t matter unless he can play every game.

Sign Now, Pay Later

It appears Shohei Ohtani’s ten-year, $700 million contract is more of a twenty-year deal. For the first ten years, Ohtani will be paid $2 million a season, then $68 million a season for the next ten years. This gives the Dodgers some payroll flexibility in pursuing other free agents, or so they say. I wonder what kind of deal Jerry Reinsdorf would’ve signed off on? My guess is a hundred years at $700 million, or 700 hundred years.

Corrupting Our Nation's Youth

This is how my Sunday went. First, I chased my 2-1/2 year-old grandson around the house—living room to hallway to kitchen to dining room back to living room. Then, after three or four times around, he’d say, “No, I chase you.” And he did. Then I’d chase him; he’d chase me; Michele read him a few books; we watched “Paw Patrol” (don’t ask); and we ate lunch. After he shared his pretzels with me, we threw a little football back and forth. At this point, he’s better at throwing then catching. Next, he took the football to the far end of the room and ran into me, each time shouting, “Touchdown!” After nine or so touchdowns, he hit me and let out, “Packers win!” I was heartbroken. When his parents came home, I let the father know a child that small doesn’t really know what he’s saying; you blame the parent. To which the parent replied, “The Bears beating the Lions helped the Packers. Thanks.” And it was time to go home.

Is He Worth It?

The Dodgers have signed Shoehi Ohtani to a ten-year contract worth $700 million. Is he worth it? In a word, No. Let’s start with Ohtani being a two-way player—only he isn’t, not really. As a starter, the right-hander has a 38-19 record over five seasons with a 3.01 ERA, and two Tommy John surgeries. The Dodgers didn’t spend $700 million for an occasional appearance by Ohtani on the mound. If he thinks otherwise, Houston, we have a problem. Nobody seems willing to note the obvious about two-way players, that they double the chance for injury. Even if Ohtani were never to get injured pitching again, he’d be accelerating the inevitable erosion of skills that comes with time. And how’s he going to avoid fatigue, if not injury? What the Dodgers have here is a very good DH (he only played the field seven games with the Angels when not pitching), which then leads to the question, all that money for an offense-only player? According to baseball-reference.com, the top players Ohtani is compared to at this point in his career are Pete Alonso, Tony Clark and Greg—he of the White Sox—Walker. Can you spot the future HOFer in that trio? I can’t. So, Ohtani has parlayed 681 career hits and thirty-eight wins into a record-setting contract. I have no problem with that. If he works out the way the Dodgers think he will, good for them. It’s worth noting here that they’ll probably top four million in attendance next season. Lucky for them they have a “legacy” ballpark with a 56,000 seating capacity. All those dinky parks in the 30,000 range will never be able to do that, to offset that kind of contract with ticket sales or enjoy the windfall of a Dodger Stadium-sized crowd when Ohtani comes to town. One last thing—I hope Ohtani can take the pressure. Nobody blamed him for the Angels never being able to win more than eighty games during his six seasons in Anaheim, this despite having Mike Trout for a teammate. At $700 million, Ohtani won’t be able to get away with playing the smiling sphynx anymore. From now on at Chavez Ravine, it’s World Series or bust.

What Comes Next

The Bulls have now won all four games Zach LaVine has missed with a foot injury. Last night, they managed their second road win of the season, topping the Spurs, 121-112. A 9-14 record may be less than average, but a whole lot better than 5-14. Now comes the hard part, with the Bulls’ next four games against the Bucks, Nuggets and Heat. This should provide a good test to see what playing without LaVine really looks like. I should mention here that the Spurs, who led by eleven at halftime, are now 3-18. Which leads to the question, how good is Spurs’ rookie Victor Wembanyama? Well, he scored twenty-one points while grabbing twenty rebounds. That still begs the question, though. And any comparisons fall into the apples-and-oranges category. But here goes. The Bulls won twenty-seven games the season before Michael Jordan’s arrival, and they won eleven more games with their rookie sensation. The Cavaliers jumped from seventeen to thirty-five wins playing rookie LeBron James. Right now, it doesn’t look like Wembanyama is going to lead the way to thirty-plus wins for his new team, but we’ll see.

Insult to Injury

I can just imagine White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf alone in his Nashville hotel room looking for ways to further alienate his team’s fan base. “Eureka!” he shouts, I’ll meet with the city’s mayor and direct the front office not to release any details. Mission accomplished. Reinsdorf truly doesn’t care what the peasants think of him. I still say the Sox moving to Nashville is a longshot at best, and I doubt that’s why Reinsdorf and Mayor Freddie O’Connell chatted on Tuesday. No, the reason for the meeting was Reinsdorf couldn’t pass up the chance to stick it to the fans. Don’t tell me how this is Reinsdorf looking for leverage with the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority with the lease on Guaranteed Rate Whatever expiring in 2019. The only reason the ISFA exists was to administer the stadium Reinsdorf wanted built out of public funds. When Michele and I rented an apartment as newlyweds, the landlords didn’t build it just for us. And, when we left, they found someone to take our place, one-two-three. This ain’t that. Of course, if fans reach the point next season that they start boycotting Sox games, it’ll be our fault, and the team will have no choice but to consider relocating. It’s always our fault. Just ask Reinsdorf.

Dense

He just doesn’t get it. White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf thinks people should think of him the way he does. I don’t think so. Reinsdorf graced reporters with his presence on Monday during the winter meetings in Nashville. The human sphynx wanted to talk about Jim Leyland, newly elected to the HOF. Leyland started off his major-league coaching career under Tony LaRussa. Reinsdorf said he offered Leyland the Sox managing job after Jerry Manual was let go in 2003. Tribune sports’ columnist Paul Sullivan says it was after Terry Bevington got the boot. [Trib column yesterday] If Reinsdorf is right, Leyland chose the Marlins instead, and he won a World Series in 1997. If Sullivan is right, Leyland went to Detroit, where he won two pennants. I wonder why he didn’t come to Chicago. Oh, right, Jerry Reinsdorf would’ve been his boss. It takes a certain kind of person willing to accept that, like La Russa or Mickey Mouse. As Reinsdorf himself knows, there aren’t a lot of those types around.

Hype

On Monday, an MLB.com story described outfielder Jarred Kelenic, just traded from the Mariners to the Braves, as someone who “has not lived up to the great expectations that surrounded him when he was the top prospect the Mets used to acquire Robinson Canó and Edwin Díaz from the Mariners after the 2018 season.” What a change in tune. Here's the website on 3-2-20: Did Kelenic go full Bambino for first homer? Do a search, and MLB.com couldn’t say enough about Kelenic, until the stats (career .204 BA over three seasons, with thirty-two homeruns and 109 RBIs) indicated it was time to take a step back, that, or find someone else to ballyhoo. That’s the thing about MLB.com—it’s all hype all the time. Once upon a time, that included Jarred Kelenic. Now, the superlatives get heaped on Shohei Ohtani and Juan Soto. The real irony is that the website comes out of the commissioner’s office, and the commissioner exists to serve the owners first, as evidenced by the website treatment of the 2021-2022 lockout. But the owners are a dumb lot, seemingly oblivious to the fact that media attention drives up the value of players, which in turn drives up their cost. If Ohtani scores an out-of-this-world contract, don’t blame him. The owners made it possible. And, if Jarred Kelenic feels a little bit used, he was, by MLB.com.

Baby Steps

By beating the Pelicans 124-118 last night, the 7-14 Bulls accomplished something they hadn’t done all season, win two games in a row. Truly, baby steps. Two players have looked good recently. In this his fifth season, Coby White is finally looking like a real point guard, as evidenced by his thirty-one points and six assists against New Orleans. More improbable is the improvement of Patrick Williams, scoring in double figures over his last five games and playing plus defense. Who knew? Zach LaVine missed both games with a foot injury and isn’t expected back until Friday. Two games is a coincidence. But if the Bulls beat Charlotte on Wednesday, it’s time to connect the dots, and wins.

Unexpected Fun

Pretty much on a whim, I turned on the Purdue-Northwestern men’s basketball game last night, about halfway through the second half. For the first time in, I don’t know, forever, college hoops felt exciting. Welsh-Ryan Arena was rocking, as the kids like to say. NU gave top-ranked Purdue more than it could handle, even with all-world giant center (7’4”) Zach Edey scoring thirty-five points with fourteen rebounds in a game that went into overtime before the Wildcats pulled off the 92-88 upset. Guard Boo Buie—love the name—led NU with thirty-one points and nine assists. Wildcats’ coach Chris Collins seems to be heading in the opposite direction of his football ex-counterpart, Pat Fitzgerald. Three years ago, Fitgerald looked to have a job for life in Evanston, if he wanted it, while Collins’ star was in decline. But after an NCAA Big Dance appearance that went two games, Collins’ team looks ready for more March madness. As long as he runs a clean program (see Fitzgerald), good for him. And the same for Buie after coming back for his senior year. As for Edey, an intriguing talent. The era of the big center is long gone in the NBA. Edey may change that with a combination of athleticism and offense. It would be interesting to see him matched up against Spurs’ rookie Victor Wembanyama, a 7’4” power forward. Wembanyama was supposed to be the next LeBron James. He’s averaging 19.3 points and 9.7 rebounds a game so far, which is nice, but Wembanyama hasn’t led the 3-16 Spurs back to relevance. Will Edey, who’s probably going to be the top pick in the 2024 NBA draft, be any better? It’ll be interesting to see.

Calm Before the Storm

The winter meetings start Sunday, and all indications are the White Sox will be active. Not big free-agent signings, of course, because Jerry Reinsdorf operates with a small mind that translates into a small-to-medium-sized budget for his team. But there will be trades, I’ll bet. Dylan Cease is all but gone, and probably Eloy Jimenez, too. I wouldn’t stop until Yoan Moncada was moved, but that’s just me. Then again, Moncada is Rick Hahn’s pride and joy, not Chris Getz’s. The one free-agent signing I’d like to see is Lucas Giolito, assuming everyone who thought Giolito was too smart by half is no longer part of the front office. Ownership couldn’t have felt that way, too, right?

Sharp-dressed Man

Like my favorite Texas trio says, you have to be a “sharp-dressed man.” That’s why I bought the 1959 White Sox jacket. Black wool with red banding at the top of the shoulders and “S-O-X” in Old English lettering spelled out on a diagonal across the left side—need I say more? I seem to remember a photo of Billy Pierce wearing this style. I know I’ve seen him in one from the 1940s. I have a similar one, ca. 1938, and wore it to a radio show I appeared on with Pierce and ex-Cub Randy Hundley. “Well, you’re wearing the right jacket,” Pierce remarked when I stepped into the green room. The lefthander would’ve been twenty-two the first time he wore his, the big S holding a smaller O and X inside its two loops. It‘s eye-catching, with the red wool and leather sleeves. In all, I have nine jackets from minor-league (Oakland Oaks, Sacramento Solons, San Francisco Seals); major-league (Sox, Philadelphia A’s) ;and Caribbean (Havana Cubanos) teams. They date from 1990-2010, made in the USA either by Mitchell and Ness or Ebbets Field Flannels. The oldest I can remember buying with Clare in tow, a one-year carried into the sports-apparel-and-merchandise store on 35th Street. The one-year old has grown up to have a two-year old. Is nine enough? I guess, unless the unicorn shows up someday. It’s from 1934. Mitchell and Ness only made it for one year back in the ’90: green wool, green button, S-O-X on a diagonal with a bat superimposed. Hope springs eternal, for an item out of the team’s past if not for the team itself.

I Thought So

So, it wasn’t my imagination. Justin Fields did throw a ton of sideline passes Monday night against the Vikings, sixteen to be exact. How sad. Not to be confused with what Bears’ head coach Matt Eberflus told reporters the next day, that, “Certainly we had some opportunities to hit some more of those [big pass completions] and we want to take advantage of those.” [Tribune online story today] What a load of…nonsense. Eberflus knows he’s the guy in charge, yes? Last time I checked, the head coach has final say on pretty much everything. You’d think the head coach would notice how his quarterback kept throwing horizontal and not deep or over the middle, where the McCaskeys are certain a franchise-sucking black hole lurks waiting to strip them of their gold mine. Why didn’t Eberflus tell offensive coordinator Luke Getsy, like, “Throw the damn’ ball down the field” or words to that effect? But the coaching staff will check the film during the bye week and make adjustments, I’m sure.

Takeaways

How bad are the Vikings? They lost at home last night to the Bears, 12-10. How bad are the Bears? Their offense generated three points off of four Minnesota turnovers. How bad are the Vikings? Munsters’ quarterback Justin Fields fumbled the ball twice in the fourth quarter. The first time, Minnesota responded with a touchdown that put them ahead, 10-9. The second time, the Vikings managed a negative five yards on three plays, followed by a punt, followed by a game-winning field goal from Cairo Santos. How bad is Fields? See above. At the very least, Fields will never win, that is, if he stays in Chicago with Luke Getsy the offensive coordinator. How bad is Getsy? Late in the second quarter, the Munsters tried three straight screen passes. The first time, it went for a first down. The next two did nothing. Fields tried another screen in the second half that was so obvious the Minnesota defender nearly picked it off. How good is Fields? Well, he’s better than Mitch Trubisky, which isn’t saying a lot. The thing is, the level of talent at quarterback really doesn’t matter. The ghost of George Halas haunts this team, no, it controls this team, and the old man hated throwing the ball. The Bears likely control the top pick in the next draft, courtesy of a trade with Carolina. Unless GM Ryan Poles exorcizes a certain ghost, using it to draft a quarterback would be a complete and utter waste.

Next Week, Long Ago

Next week, we’ll see just how good a judge of talent new White Sox GM Chris Getz is when he attends the winter meetings in Nashville. May the spirit of Frank “Trader” Lane be with him. Until then, I’ll be keeping a watch on the mail for two Sox-related items I bought on eBay. Back in the early ’90s, my sister Betty bought me a throwback Sox jacket from the 1959 season; I literally wore it out close to fifteen years ago. Then, last week a ’59 jacket went up for sale. These are usually in jumbo sizes, the “mediums” probably getting passed down from generation to generation. After some back and forth with the seller, I was able to knock $70 off the price; the arm-and-a-leg price became just an arm. Rumor has it the jacket arrives tomorrow. Here’s hoping. Yesterday, with an all-day snow delighting my grandson, I happened on a 1972 team-autographed ball. Again, I went into bidding mode and managed a decent price for twenty-nine autographs, pitching coach Johnny Sain doing the honors twice. The ball should be arriving sometime around Thursday. What I love about autographed balls is that they represent a snapshot of that particular season. Not only do I get autographs by Dick Allen and Tony Muser, but Ed Spiezio and Eddie Fisher, too. Fisher’s means the ball was signed sometime after August 17th, when the Sox reacquired the knuckleballer. There’s also Don Neumeier, the pride of Shawano, Wisconsin. Neumeier pitched three games, his major-league total, in September. So, now I know a general date. You can’t beat baseball archeology, especially in the last week of November.

Clean House

How bad is the Chicago sports’ scene right now? Well, the big weekly section in today’s Sun-Times had the obligatory 500 Bears stories; Blackhawks’ and Bulls’ stories; coverage of NFL, college and high school (playoff) games; and still had room for stories on the Cubs and White Sox. This is what happens when none of your pro teams is in sniffing distance of .500. So, I’ll take the Sox coverage as the gift it is. It seems pretty obvious new GM Chris Getz is shopping Dylan Cease and Eloy Jimenez. Getz shouldn’t stop at trading one of his players; he should go for both. And, if he’s really smart, Getz should try to move Yoan Moncada while he’s at it. Sox fans are tired of the same-old same-old. If anything, keeping Mickey Mouse as manager; cancelling SoxFest yet again; and letting Jason Benetti take his mic to Detroit has only soured their/our mood, if that’s possible. Getz has a four-day window to prove himself at the winter meetings in Nashville, starting December 3rd. If he does something, fans will be pleasantly surprised. If he whiffs, expect stories on how the Sox would look playing in Nashville.

Gobble-gobble

Misery is having to spend Thanksgiving with Packers’ fans, especially after their team upsets the division-leading Lions, 29-22. No, I take that back. Misery is having to listen to Bears’ future ex-head coach Matt Eberflus explain why his star defensive player, end Montez Sweat, wasn’t on the field enough to prevent the Lions from scoring two touchdowns in the last 4:15 of the game the week before. You see, Sweat was in a particular rotation, and Munsters never mess with their rotations. On the other hand, joy is chasing your grandson and his first cousin around the house, then catching them and holding them upside down to squeals of laughter.

Circling the Drain

Another game another loss for the Bulls, who went down 116-102 to the Thunder last night. The team’s 5-11 record is nothing if not well-deserved. Each loss adds to the rumor mill—who gets traded, does Billy Donovan get fired? This being a Jerry Reinsdorf operation, look for head-of-basketball-operations Arturas Karnisovas to make a series of moves and then get the boot himself. In which case, the team should hire Rick Hahn. Reinsdorf was looking out for Hahn back in August, firing him so he could get a head start on securing his next job. The Bulls are clueless, which makes Hahn a perfect fit.

A Day Late and a Dollar Short

And now comes news the White Sox are about to sign free-agent infielder Paul DeJong to a one-year deal. I guess this qualifies as progress. I mean, Kirby Puckett and Curtis Granderson literally played a short car ride away from Sox scouts, and don’t get me started on Jim Thome. Somebody find a map that shows Peoria. Last week, the Sox traded for Nicky Lopez, who went to Naperville Central, then Creighton. With DeJong, it’s Antioch followed by Illinois State. Lopez was drafted in the fifth round (2016), De Jong in the fourth (2015). Lopez will turn twenty-nine in March, De Jong thirty-one in August. Wouldn’t it have been better to acquire them when they were younger? Along those lines, the Sox also picked up minor-league pitcher Riley Gowens in the deal that brought Lopez to the South Side. Gowens went to high school in Libertyville before attending the U of I in Champaign-Urbana. The Braves drafted him this June. At least we didn’t wait until he was thirty.

Nope

Nope And here I was ready to forgive Justin Fields for the two delay-of-game penalties. Nope. This dog of a Bears’ team won’t hunt. Tear it all down, better yet, with an owner not named McCaskey swinging the sledgehammer. The Munsters had a 26-14 lead with 4:15 left in the game, only to go into hibernation. Where was the recently-signed-to-a-big-deal defensive end Montez Sweat as Lions’ quarterback Jared Goff marched his team down the field for two incredibly easy scores? Where was cornerback Jaylon Johnson, who wants to sign a Sweat-sized deal because he’s so good, as Goff completed pass after pass? To borrow a line from Bulls’ analyst Stacey Kind, big-time players make big-time plays. The Bears managed to take the ball away four times, including three interceptions. Off of that, they managed all of three points. Where was Fields? With the Munsters up by five with just under three minutes to go, Fields twice handed off the ball to Khalil Herbert, who managed all of one yard. The first play came courtesy of offensive coordinator Luke Getsy. The second time, Fields made the decision after looking at the defensive setup. Nope. Head coach Matt Eberflus said Fields made the right read. Nope, nope. With twenty-nine seconds left in the game and his team in need of a miracle, Fields was strip-sacked for a safety. That secured a first-ever in NFL annals. No team since 1932 had ever controlled the ball for forty-plus minutes and had three-plus takeaway and lost. Ladies and gentlemen, your 2023 Chicago Bears. Eberflus now has a 6-23 coaching record. Fields is 6-26 in his starts dating to 2021. Add it all up. Nope, don’t.

2.0 or Lite?

The score of the Heat-Bulls’ game last night when I tuned in was something along the lines of 24-5, Miami. So, a 102-97 win is nothing to sneeze at, especially for a 5-9 team. If I were to vote anyone off the island first, Zach LaVine or Nikola Vucevic, it would be Vucevic. The Bulls’ center makes a difference about as often as Duke Snider did, for the Mets. In other words, not often. The team MVP over the first fourteen games has been Alex Caruso coming off the bench. Caruso provides instant energy and defense, both of which are in short supply for this team. The problem is that Caruso can’t stay healthy, and that’s never a good thing. Some of us old timers see hints of Norm Van Lier and Jerry Sloan in Caruso’s hardnose play, with this one difference—Van Lier and Sloan were indestructible, until they weren’t. Van Lier went full-bore seven seasons at the old Stadium, Sloan nine seasons. They were both a dynamic duo and pair of iron men in the backcourt. The closer Caruso gets to playing a full schedule of eighty-two games, the better the chance the Bulls have of being…well, better than the Bears or White Sox.

Reality Check

The White Sox traded lefty reliever Aaron Bummer to the Braves Thursday in exchange for five players, the most prominent being oft-injured starter Mike Soroka and good-fielding, light-fielding Nicky Lopez, who hails from nearby Naperville North. Whatever can this mean? Basically, either new GM Chris Getz took Atlanta to the cleaners (I hope so), or the Braves had five guys they didn’t need they could ship off for a pitcher they think they can fix; Bummer amassed a 6.79 ERA this season. Given the teams’ respective records, which do you think is the more likely scenario? When you trade for a starter who’s won two games in the four years since he went 13-4 in 2019, it’s a sign as to how bare your pitching cupboard is. When you talk up someone with a career .249 BA over the course of five seasons—read Getz’s comments on Lopez—and who couldn’t establish himself with the forever rebuilding Royals, ditto on the player side. All I can say is I hope Getz cleared the deal with Brooks Boyer first.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

According to a story in today’s Sun-Times, ex-White Sox announcer Jason Benetti had a rather unpleasant conversation this past summer with Sox v.p. Brooks Boyer, who was Benetti’s boss in that indirect way of teams and broadcasters. What Boyer said motivated Benetti right out the door. Benetti related the story in a podcast this week. There was an exchange between the two that centered on the matter of respect. Benetti asked for more, to which Boyer reportedly answered, “Respect according to normal human beings, or respect according to Jason Benetti?” Keep in mind that the forty-year old Benetti suffers from cerebral palsy. So, how was he supposed to take that? This is the team that asks for my money and my loyalty, until and unless they decide to move to someplace like Nashville. Or maybe Oakland.

Crash and Burn

The Bulls have started their season at 4-8, proof even for a Jerry Reinsdorf organization that things have to change. Which in this case most likely means trading guard Zach LaVine. Karma’s a bitch, goes the saying, and it sure applies here. In what literally was another century, Reinsdorf let his henchman Jerry Krause blow up the dynasty that was Michael Jordan. Nothing has ever worked for the Bulls since. Krause thought Tyson Chandler and Eddy Curry promised a return to NBA prominence. Nope. So, exit Krause and enter John Paxson, who went with some combination of Luol Deng; Ben Gordon; and Kirk Hinrich. In time, Paxson shared front-office responsibilities with Gar Forman, which led to the Derrick Rose Era, and after. Think Carlos Boozer; Jimmy Butler; Joakim Noah; Pau Gasol; Nikola Mirotic; and Lauri Markkanen. None of those combinations worked, so exit Gar/Pax and enter Arturas Karnisovas. LaVine dates to Gar/Pax, but Karnisovas thought enough of the guard to give him a max contract before the start of last season. Karnisovas also thought that the three-headed monster of LaVine, forward DeMar DeRozan and center Nikola Vucevic would work, only it hasn’t. So, trade LaVine by all means. Just don’t expect karma to lend a hand, not to this team or this owner.

Eber-gloop

Bears’ head coach Matt Eberflus makes Bill Belichick sound downright loquacious and informative in comparison. Asked by reporters yesterday to provide an update on the availability of quarterback Justin Fields for Sunday’s game against the Lions, Eberflus gibbered that he wanted to see Fields “Just functioning in the game of football.” As opposed to baseball or cricket, I guess. Wait, there’s more. “Once we see him in the game of football in terms of going against the scout team and all that stuff and taking snaps and playing full speed, then we'll make a determination, but it's not there today.” [quotes from story today on team website] The more Eberflus talks, the more I appreciate Bulls’ head coach Billy Donovan for the way he answers questions, which is honest and to the point. How Donovan ever ended up working for a team belonging to Jerry Reinsdorf is beyond me.

Higher Education

Yesterday, Texas A&M fired football coach Jimbo Fisher, who exits with a $75 million parachute. Nice unemployment, if you can get it. Misplaced priorities by a public institution, if you get what I mean, Texas A&M being a public school and all. Even a Texas school is supposed to be about education, right? Then again, closer to home, my alma mater De Paul University wants to spend $60 million on a basketball practice facility for its men’s and women’s basketball teams. To the unenlightened, that might seem like a lot of money for some practice courts, but that’s why they pay college administrators, to better explain things, of course. Towards that end, De Paul trotted out athletic director DeWayne Peevy last week to address a community meeting to air residents’ concerns. According to Peevy, “We have to be a better front porch for this university to help attract students from all across the country. In the world we live in, sports gets attention, so we think, how can we turn that into something good to help everybody?” [story in 11-10-23 Tribune] I’d say Peevy thunk wrong. Funny how Georgetown has weathered the downturn in its basketball program. Oh, right, Georgetown doesn’t need sports the way De Paul does because Georgetown has always focused on academic excellence. De Paul has given up on that ideal to pursue the perfect-sized locker room. And if that means knocking down five hundred-year old buildings the school owns, so be it. For some odd reason, there were people in the audience skeptical of the plan. No doubt, highly uneducated people at that.

The Cost of Cheering

What makes the situation so bad with three of Chicago’s sports teams is that to cheer for them means knowing success will entail ownership crowing, “We were right all along,” despite decades evidence to the contrary. How long has it been since George McCaskey said his mother Virginia was “pissed off” over the state of the Bears? Oh, right, nine years ago. What’s changed since then? Two GMs and three coaches, but the Munsters still stink. And fans are still supposed to believe ownership has a clue. Apparently, none of the McCaskeys has ever heard head coach Matt Eberflus at a news conference. Then we have the White Sox, where owner Jerry Reinsdorf said back in August that he didn’t wait to fire GM Rick Hahn so Hahn could have a head start in lining up his next job. Reinsdorf needn’t have rushed—Hahn’s still unemployed, though it would’ve been nice if Reinsdorf had cleaned house before Kenny Williams got it in his head that trading Jake Burger would be a good idea. And now we’re getting a second installment of this weird, Reinsdorfian “compassion” with the Jason Benetti situation. According to team v.p. Brooks Boyer, chief revenue and marketing officer, they let Benetti walk because they love him so. Here’s the sentence Scott Merkin wrote yesterday on the team website: “As Boyer went through numerous talks with Benetti, they realized the move was the next best step and in the best interest of this ‘really great, talented guy.’” Never mind those stories circulating that Reinsdorf didn’t think Benetti was funny. No, everyone in the Sox organization did the next best thing to laying down their lives for Benetti by letting him go. Right. The Bulls? Same as the Sox, same as the Bears. Trust us and ignore the box scores. We know what we’re doing.

When It Rains--

Yesterday, announcer Jason Benetti let it be known he was leaving for Detroit. White Sox Nation is less than happy. It’s another example, as if anymore were needed, of a tone-deaf organization. Benetti was popular as a hometown kid made good; that he quietly deals with the effects of cerebral palsy only adds to his stature. On top of that, he was articulate in a way Harry Caray and Hawk Harrelson never were. When an egghead can excel behind the mic, you know you have a rare talent. Unless you’re White Sox management. Their beef was that Benetti spent too much time away from the team doing national baseball or college football, in which case a message needed to be sent years ago that being a Sox broadcaster meant that and nothing else. Management has no one to blame but themselves for letting Benetti establish himself nationally. Once that happened, they should’ve lived with the consequences. The team being a Jerry Reinsdorf creation, they couldn’t. My guess is Reinsdorf will try to put Chip Caray in the booth to replace Benetti. Then maybe he’ll sell the team to Mike Veeck.

Nobody's Watching

Ratings for the Rangers-Diamondbacks’ World Series were the lowest ever. I’m tempted to say, “Good,” but nothing that remotely involves MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred ever turns out good. Manfred is probably scratching his head, trying to understand the numbers given that playoff games this season were on average twenty-one minutes shorter than last year. Here’s the thing—they still broke the three-hour mark. Football can get away with that because the game appeals to our baser instincts. Baseball is about hitting an object, not the opponent. The mind tends to wander—and channels change—after three innings of scoreless, and hitless, ball. What to do? Basically, hope that the three-outcomes mindset falls out of fashion. Homeruns aren’t worth it, if it means a bunch of walks and strikeouts come with, along with pitching changes. I mean, the Diamondbacks went with an opener in game four, using six pitchers. Somehow, the Rangers managed to go through seven. How exciting was that? My guess is that Manfred will push for the full Super Bowl-ing of the World Series, with a neutral site, plenty of hoopla and some sort of holiday hook, Thanksgiving if not Christmas. And the ratings will still shrink.

Ch-ch-changes

Clare and I have been burning up the literal and figurative phone lines the past two days, what with the Cubs hiring Craig Counsell and the White Sox countering with…the likes of Drew Butera and Jason Bourgeois. I’ll say this about Butera, the new catching coach—he and his dad Sal hung around as backup catchers for a combined twenty-one years. Granted, they hit all of twenty-seven homeruns between them. But teams always need a catcher. And we’re not talking hitting. For that, the Sox hired former big-leaguer Marcus Thames, a ten-year MLB veteran. Thames managed just 450 hits in that span, although 115 of them were homers. So I’m guessing our new hitting coach won’t be teaching anyone to slap. Seriously, I’m willing to give Thames a shot. “He has an incredible ability to relate to all types of players,” new GM Chris Getz told reporters Tuesday. [quote in today’s Tribune] That’s close enough to Bill Robinson for me, for now. Butera, Bourgeois (first base/outfield); Thames; Grady Sizemore (baserunning/outfield); Matt Wise (assistant pitching coach)—what do they all have in common? They’re former major leaguers. And why is that important? Because I’m convinced ballplayers get more from coaches who have been there, as opposed to Kannapolis or Birmingham. I’m also convinced there is or shortly will be a backlash to analytics’ baseball. All things being equal, give me the coach who can read the data and frame it within the context of his own career. Sorry, but if that career never got past college or the low minors, I doubt that coach will have much of an impact on the players he’s coaching. And there’s the rub—through no fault of their own, women coaches lack the necessary MLB experience to draw on. I know how I’d fix it, but no one seems interested. Oh, well, the game’s loss.

Business

Here’s hoping that new ex-Cubs’ manager David Ross is a fan of “The Godfather.” You know, the scene where Tessio says, “Tell Mike it was only business. I always liked him.” Only Tessio is Jed Hoyer and Michael/Ross does in fact get whacked, or at least fired. That’s what happened out of the blue yesterday, when the Cubs announced the hiring of Craig Counsell as their new manager. Since you can’t have two managers at the same time (although the North Siders did once have a “college of coaches” where the manager rotated), that meant Ross was getting the boot, though not before he was lauded in a press release for all that he had done for and meant to the organization. Whatever. The way the White Sox are going, they’ll immediately hire Ross to be Mickey Mouse’s bench coach before firing Mouse and replacing him with Ross in 2025. Of course, they could’ve scooped the Cubs and hired Counsell themselves, but that’s not the White Sox way. But hundred-loss seasons are.

He Gone

Yesterday, the White Sox declined their $14 million team option on Tim Anderson, thus making him a free agent and paving the way for top organization prospect Colson Montgomery to take over at shortstop some point next season. All teams have traditional weak and strong positions. The Sox have excelled at starting pitching; shortstop; and centerfield; third base and catcher, not so much. Anderson was nowhere near as talented as HOFers Luke Appling or Luis Aparicio. He fits into another category, good/very good. According to baseball-reference.com, Ozzie Guillen amassed a 21.0 WAR over the course of his career; Bucky Dent, 17.5; and Ron Hansen, 24.1. Anderson comes in at 16.2. He hit over .300 from 2019-2022. But last year was a disaster to the point of casting considerable doubt on the chances of Anderson bouncing back at age thirty. Part of that doubt concerns his lack of walks and propensity to strike out, neither of which is a good thing in a leadoff hitter. And Anderson’s game is all about offense, as evidenced by his .962 career fielding average. Basically, you wanted to see Anderson with a bat, not a glove. I can’t help but feel part of the problem was coaching. Rick Renteria ran a tight ship, Tony La Russan and Mickey Mouse did not. Would Renteria have kept Anderson from developing too big a chip on his shoulder? Unfortunately, we’ll never know. Two silver linings for anyone interested—someone will take a chance on Anderson, and how unlike the Sox not to wait to cut their losses, though they could have and should have moved Anderson at the July trade deadline. But kind of early beats way too late.

Turning the Page

Turning the Page Leo asked Clare Thursday where the baseball was. Mom had to tell him baseball was over for the season. I think that realization hurt her more than her son. But the 2024 season is already upon us. Yesterday, the White Sox declined their $15 million option on Liam Hendriks, who will spend most of next year rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. Mike Clevinger, in turn, exercised his option to pitch elsewhere next season. Look out for the door closing, Mike. Next up, Tim Anderson with a $14 million option. If GM Chris Getz wants to show the new boss is different from the old boss(es), he declines the option. So, there’s baseball all around, especially from now through the winter meetings next month. It’s just not the kind played on a field.

Why We Carp

Fans of Philadelphia sports’ teams complain about their teams’ performance in the postseason. Fans in Chicago complain that their teams don’t make the postseason. This is how sad things are in Chicago—the White Sox are getting good press over front-office hires; just the fact that new blood is being pumped into a moribund organization qualifies as news. None of which is to be confused with the Munsters of the Midway. Has an NFL team ever fired or forced out two assistant coaches over the course of six weeks in a season? Well, the Bears have, axing running-backs’ coach David Walker on Wednesday, with head coach Matt Eberflus and GM Ryan Poles doing their best not to explain why. Something about a failure to meet “standards,” the exact nature of which have yet to be laid out. Walker joins defensive coordinator Alan Williams, who resigned for reasons still unknown. Not to worry, though. Eberflus says, “Our [team] culture is awesome,” and a 2-6 team going 2-2 over its last four games means, wait for it, “We really feel we’re turning the corner there.” [both quotes in yesterday’s Sun-Times] Where, exactly? The Munsters are last in the NFL North. The Blackhawks are last in the NHL Central. The Bulls are fourth out of five in the NBA Central. The good news? It’s been a month since the Cubs or Sox have lost a game.

The Bottom Line

The Rangers took the World Series last night with a 5-0 win over the Diamondbacks. Consider what that means, White Sox fans. The team that started the season with the ninth-highest payroll in baseball won it all. Corey Seager, he of the $325 million contract, was named Series MVP, while his highly paid teammate Marcus Semien didn’t do too badly either, hitting .292 with two homeruns and eight RBIs. Jerry Reinsdorf might say, what will happen in the second half of those contracts Seager and Semien signed? Fair enough, but the best answer to that is, what happened to the Sox after their Series win in 2005? Zero return appearances, that’s what. This was the Rangers’ third World Series appearance in fourteen years. You know what’s worse than losing a World Series? Not appearing in one.

Smart and Dumb

I almost feel sorry for Jerry Reinsdorf, that paragon of fiscal prudence. This World Series just isn’t going his way. Last night, the Rangers topped the Diamondbacks 11-7 to go ahead three games to one. Marcus Semien and Corey Seager led the way by going a collective 4-for-10 with seven RBIs, Semien accounting for five of those. The then thirty-one year old Semien signed a seven-year, $175 million deal starting in 2022. The then twenty-seven year old Seager signed with Texas the same day as Semien. His deal was for ten years at $325 million. So, the Rangers seem to be doing well in the short term. One more win, and no one will care that the acquisition of Max Scherzer hasn’t worked out. Time looks to be catching up with the thirty-nine year old Scherzer, who signed a three-year deal with the Mets. Next season, he’ll be owed what’s left on a $130 million contract, in the neighborhood of $43.3 million. The question all comes down to, how much does an owner want to pay for a real shot at a World Series title? The Semien and Seager deals will likely come back to bite the Rangers down the line. Will Semien play second base at thirty-eight, Seager shortstop at thirty-seven? And why take a gamble on a pitcher pushing forty? All good questions, and ones Reinsdorf could be answering authoritatively if he knew how to hire front-office talent. The White Sox developed Semien, only for Rick Hahn to trade him away for one year of Jeff Smardzija. Hahn also bet the farm on Tim Anderson as a foundation piece. In addition, Hahn made first-round draft picks that went.bust way too often. The Diamondbacks are a good young team assembled on the cheap. The Rangers are a good team with a high payroll. This season, it looks like high will beat young. But either way, smart always beats dumb.

Keeping Track

The only way I can put it is Iowa State must’ve let one of its cyclones, aka my grandson Leo, get loose last night. Trucks in the dining room, Halloween costume in the living room, Grandpa in the pantry reading, grandson sitting alongside listening—and making stacks four cans high, the better to knock down. So, I hardly got to watch the World Series last night, though Clare alerted me to Corey Seager’s third-inning, two-run homer that provided the cushion for the Rangers’ 3-1 win over the Diamondbacks. Bigtime players get the bigtime hits, right, Mr. Reinsdorf? But Jerry Reinsdorf had to feel good that his salary-cap team won on the road in Indiana. The Bulls squared their record at 2-2, beating the Pacers, 112-105. Zach LaVine, DaMar DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic all scored twenty or more points, just the way coach Billy Donovan likes to see it. The Bulls’ front office got it stopped-clock right on Donovan, who may not know more than Matt Eberflus, though I think he does, but, unlike Eberflus, knows how to talk about his sport. Eberflus won’t commit to the day of the week while Donovan holds both himself and his players accountable after every loss. So, for Donovan, I want the three-headed monster on offense to succeed, no matter how unlikely.

The Long and Short of It

This is all you need to know about the Bears losing 30-13 to the Chargers last night: Twice in the third quarter, down by twenty points, they ran the ball on first down for little to no gain. That, plus Chargers’ quarterback Justin Herbert went fifteen for his first fifteen passes of the game. That, plus the Bears’ pass rush recording zero sacks. That, plus Bears’ defenders forgetting—assuming they ever knew—how to tackle opposing players in the open field. That, plus head coach Matt Eberflus….

Remote Repeat

I went back and forth again last night between the World Series and the Bulls, a 9-1 Diamondbacks’ win and a 118-102 blowout for the Pistons. Blah. Good for Alek Thomas in getting two hits, shame on the Bulls for totaling sixteen assists to Detroit’s twenty-nine. The Pistons pulled down fifty-three rebounds to thirty-two for the visitors. Zach Lavine scored fifty-one points, the same number as his twelve teammates combined. I had more fun this morning, running into Frank Howard’s niece at Jewel. Trust me, Hondo has no bigger fan.

Back and Forth

I grew up in a remote-free household. You turned on the TV and watched a particular channel. Change channels too fast or too often, and you incurred the wrath of Edwin. The joys of a remote had to wait for love and marriage, though before Clare in the baby carriage. So, I spent last night switching between the World Series and the Bulls’ game. Funny how games have gotten longer in the postseason. Game one in Texas took 4:02 to play 10-2/3 innings. Yawn, though it was nice to see Adolis Garcia kind of run out of the box after hitting what proved to be a walk-off, opposite-field homerun in a Rangers’ 6-5 win over the Diamondbacks. I imagine Jerry Reinsdorf is rooting for Arizona, less for Alek Thomas being on the team than for matters of payroll. Reinsdorf’s other rooting interest, the Bulls, did considerably better, making up a seventeen-point deficit late in the fourth quarter to beat the Raptors 104-103 in overtime. Toronto’s Chris Boucher put his team up by four on a lay-up with a little over thirty-nine seconds left in overtime and then did something really dumb—trotting downcourt, Boucher turned around to give a little bye-bye wave to the opposition. Alex Caruso’s three pointer with 2.7 seconds left made for a nice wave back. There are too many problems—Patrick Williams, Zach Lavine, Nikola Vucevich—with this Bulls’ team to get into now. Better to just enjoy the win. The Bulls play again tonight in Detroit. So, it looks like I’ll be doing more channel surfing, provided my father doesn’t materialize in the living room to snatch the remote.

Listen Up, Chris Getz

Over the last three seasons, the White Sox have gone from ninety-three wins to eighty-one to sixty-one. Hence, a much overdo housecleaning of the front office. If he wants to avoid the same fate of Kenny Williams and Rick Hahn, new Sox GM Chirs Getz would do well to look at the rosters of the two teams that are in the World Series. Start with the Rangers’ Adolis Garcia. For years, Sox fans heard about this special Cuban connection the team because players from the island revered Sox great Minnie Minoso so much. Too bad said connection didn’t extend to Garcia or Randy Arozarena, who’s also made a name for himself in recent postseasons. If there’s a silver lining, it’s that the Cardinals signed both Garcia and Arozarena and then let both of them go for next to nothing in return. What really bus me, though, is how much better Arizona and Texas have been at drafting players. Start with the Diamondbacks. They took Corbin Carroll, we took Andrew Vaughn; Kevin Ginkel (in the 22nd round of the 2016 draft), a whole bunch of players including first-round busts Zack Collins and Zack Burdi; Alek Thomas, Steele Walker. If I could have Carroll, Ginkel and Thomas at the cost of Vaughn, I’d do it in a heartbeat. Now, onto the Rangers. They took Josh Jung; we took Vaughn; they took Evan Carter, we went with Jared Kelley. Throw in their signing of ex-Sox infielder Marcus Semien along with their trades for Nathaniel Lowe and Jonah Heim vs. anything Hahn did not involving Chris Sale or Adam Eaton ( and the return on Sale of Yoan Moncada and Michael Kopech is debatable at best), and you can see why us Sox fans have yet another reason to be grumpy. But it is baseball, so I guess I’ll watch.

Twos

Jerry Reinsdorf’s second team is picking up where his White Sox left off. In other words, the Bulls got blown out at home in their season opener, falling 124-104 to the Thunder. How bad was it, is it? So bad the team had a players-only meeting after the game. Do that following your first game of the season, and things either change for the better, fast, or they proceed to go down the drain, fast. I’m sensing number two. The way the Bulls are constructed, you wonder—have the Bulls’ Arturas Karnisovas and Rick Hahn ever been seen together in the same room?

One or the Other

So, the team that didn’t hit that many homeruns (five) in the NLCS is going to the World Series, while the team that did hit homeruns (eleven) isn’t. Go figure. I insist. The Diamondbacks won games six and seven on the road against the Phillies because their updated version of Whitey Herzog baseball trumped launch angle. That’s it in a nutshell. Live by the long ball, die by the long ball, or, put another way, it doesn’t matter you outscored the opposition 30-21 if fifteen of those runs came in the first two games, as opposed to three runs in the last two. To take a quick look at the stats, Kyle Schwarber was the better leadoff hitter compared to Corbin Carroll; Schwarber hit .364 with five homers, but only five RBIs, to Carroll’s .222 with two RBIs for the series. But, if analytics has taught us anything, it’s to take a deeper look. Carroll went 4-for-8 those last two games in Philadelphia, with two RBIs and three runs scored; granted, he batted second in game seven as well as games three and four, but, just for fun, let’s call it the second leadoff spot. That said, now look at Schwarber. He went 1-for-5 with no RBIs or runs scored, with three walks that didn’t lead to anything. Did I mention the Diamondbacks ran wild on the bases with eight stolen bases the last two games vs. one for the Phillies? Arizona out-stole Philadelphia nine bases to seven. If nothing else, all that running in the last two games may have affected Phillies’ catcher J.T. Realmuto, who went 2-for-8 with a run scored and zero RBIs. Realmuto had six RBIs in the first five games of the series. Enough of Philadelphia, unless you’re wed to the idea of winning with a power hitter batting leadoff, in which case I can’t help you. A question worth considering, at least for White Sox fans, is: Who would you rather have in center field, Carroll or Luis Robert Jr.? Defensively, the nod might go to Robert, though it’s interesting that Arizona’s Alek Thomas—him again—is, like Robert, a Gold Glove finalist. Now, what about hitting? Carroll batted .285 with twenty-five homers; seventy-six RBIs; and 116 runs to Robert’s .264; thirty-eight-homers; eighty RBIs; and ninety runs scored. So, who would you pick?

This Old Man

Maybe I should shut up, take a seat next to Tony La Russa, and the two of us can work on the unwritten rules of baseball, starting with: Run after you hit the ball, don’t stand there to see how far it goes. The Rangers’ Adolis Garcia did the opposite last night in game seven of the ALCS against the Astros. With a run in and a runner on first in the top of the first, Garcia hit a ball he was sure was gone, only it wasn’t. The ball hit high off the wall in left field for what should’ve been a double, had Garcia not stood as still as a statue admiring his work. Right there, I would’ve benched him. Silly me. Garcia went 4-for-5 on the night, with two homeruns and five RBIs in the Rangers’ 11-4 rout of the Astros, a win that puts Texas in the World Series. He hit .357 in seven games against Houston, hitting five homers and driving in fifteen runs. Guess who was named series MVP? The guy I would’ve benched. At least he plays hard. By way of solace, I have to think Jerry Reinsdorf is having a worse time of things than I am. This will be the Rangers’ third appearance in the World Series since 2010; Reinsdorf’s White Sox have gone to just one series in the forty-one years he’s owned the team. The Rangers also have the ninth highest payroll in baseball this season (vs. fourteenth for the White Sox), and Reinsdorf is nothing if not a believer in fiscal prudence. He also likes old managers. Too bad he hired the wrong one. We got La Russa, Texas went with Bruce Bochy. Maybe Bochy was too young at age sixty-eight, or maybe Reinsdorf should’ve fired Bochy back in 1986 instead of La Russa. If only.

Just for One Day

The Bears started undrafted, D-II rookie quarterback Tyson Bagent yesterday in place of the injured Justin Fields, and Holy Virgil Carter, Bagent looked good in a Munsters’ 30-12 win over the visiting Raiders. Of course, Coach Matt Eberflus used a game plan provided by George Halas from the other side: Run, run, pass if you must, but only if you have no one fresh to run. Given those parameters, Bagent handed the ball off thirty-eight times to runners who accumulated 173 yards while passing for 162 yards himself on twenty-one of twenty-nine attempts with no interceptions (or fumbles). If he had managed a few completions downfield (his longest pass went for sixteen yards), Bagent would be the subject of a heated quarterback controversy this week, with Bears’ fans in his corner and the coaching staff behind Fields. But that controversy may only be delayed, depending on the extent of Fields’ dislocated thumb. Bagent wins again on the road against the Chargers, talk radio will be in meltdown mode. As it was, former Bears’ Ed O’Bradovich and Dan Hampton could barely contain themselves on their postgame radio show. They kept talking about Bagent’s poise, which did in fact show throughout the game. I think it was O’Bradovich who said the rookie made his offensive line look good. The o-line allowed two sacks on the afternoon. Heck, they do that on a single play behind Fields. This is how dysfunctional the Bears’ offense has been for years, that a display of competence stands out. Fox analyst Rob Gronkowski wasn’t impressed, but he doesn’t live here, doesn’t see on a daily basis what passes—pun intended—for NFL football in Chicago. Let’s see if Bagent gets a start next Sunday and connects with D.J. Moore a few times for some yardage. In the meantime, maybe somebody could call up Virgil Carter for a comment, or write about why that should matter.

To Pimp or not to Pimp

His team down by a run in the sixth inning Friday night, the Rangers’ Adolis Garcia launched a three-run home run in game five of the ALCS against the Astros, after which he spiked his bat into the ground before taking thirty-four seconds to circle the bases. That is what the kids refer to as pimping a home run. Geezers, myself included, frown on the practice. To paraphrase Walter Payton on scoring a touchdown, we think it’s better, wiser, to act like you’ve done it before and will be doing it again before long. But that view keeps losing ground to the Garcias and Tim Andersons of the world. Apparently, Garcia did something of the same against the Astros in a regular season game, so it’s hard to think of Bryan Abreu plunking him with a ninety-nine mph fastball in the eighth inning as a coincidence. All the Astros deny it was intentional and point to the fact they were down by two runs at the time. Outside of a 10-0 score, is there ever a “right” time to hit someone? Anyway, Houston entered the ninth inning down 4-2. Texas reliever Jose Leclerc gave up a single to Yanier Diaz and then walked pinch hitter Jon Singleton, in his first at-bat of the postseason after batting .165 in the regular season. That brought up Jose Altuve, who took an 0-1 pitch over the wall in left for his own three-run homer. Altuve needed twenty-four seconds to circle the bases, ten fewer than Garcia. It probably would’ve been less if not for those two runners in front of him.

If Only

Alek Thomas, the pride of Mt. Carmel High School on the Great South Side, pinch hit in the bottom of the eighth inning last night, a runner on, his team down by two runs. Of course, he homered (off of Craig Kimbrel, no less), and the Diamondbacks went on to beat the Phillies 6-5, knotting up the NLCS at two games apiece. Thomas has three homeruns this postseason in twenty-six at-bats. Consider that Oscar Colas of the White Sox had five in 245 at-bats, along with nineteen RBIs. Thomas is at five and counting. But the brain trust assembled by ex-GM Rick Hahn passed on Thomas in the 2018 draft for Steele Walker, who was out of the organization after two years. Because outfielders are like catchers in a Casey Stengel sort of way, Hahn went out and signed Colas in 2022. The rest is history.

The Ex- Factor

Well, playoff baseball certainly had a Chicago feel to it last night, didn’t it? What that means depends on perspective, I guess. For the Rangers, let’s skip over Marcus Semien and note instead ex-White Sox Dane Dunning, who started for the Rangers (and got pounded in a 10-3 Astros’ win). Dunning had a breakout season, going 12-7 with a 3.70 ERA. Who would I want right now, Dunning or Lance Lynn, who we traded Dunning for back in December 2020? Youth before girth, I always say. Beyond that, Dunning’s record is more a reflection of what the team did for him than vice versa. Think Jim Coates (11-5, 3.44 ERA) or Rollie Sheldon (11-5, 3.60 ERA) with the ’61 Yankees. Take away Mantle and Maris, and those win totals would’ve plummeted. Take away Seager and Garcia… As for the Astros, Jose Abreu hit a three-run home run, giving him four this postseason along with eleven RBIs. I’ll say it again—good for Abreu, but that was never going to happen with the White Sox, unless maybe they’d kept Dunning and Semien (and Jake Burger). This was a divorce that had to happen. Sort of like Kyle Schwarber and the Cubs. Schwarber has had himself an interesting postseason, hitting three homers, driving in four and batting .200. Sort of what you’d expect from the poster child of saber-analytic leadoff hitters, you know, like the one who hit forty-seven homers in the regular season while driving in 104 and scoring 108. Oh, and batting .197. And, if the Cubs had resigned Schwarber, then what? I’m thinking his production fits better some places, like Philadelphia or Boston, than others, like the North Side. Once that Cubs’ core from 2016 started moving out the door, it just didn’t make sense to keep someone who hit the ball long and hard, when he hit it (.230 BA in six seasons). The Phillies could’ve used Schwarber’s power last night in their 2-1 loss to the Diamondbacks (made possible by ex-Cub and White Sox reliever Craig Kimbrel, and who misses him?). Schwarber went 0-3, along with fellow ex-Cub Nick Castellanos. Can you see both of them still wearing Cubbie blue? I can’t. Castellanos would’ve wanted a ton of money, per his agent, Scott Boras. That might’ve slowed down the Cubs’ teardown, but it wouldn’t have prevented it. Anthony Rizzo, Javy Baez and Kris Bryant were all going to go or get resigned and start getting injured. By not signing Castellanos, the North Siders managed a quick rebuild that would’ve been impossible with him around. So, enjoy your favorite ex-Chicago players. Just don’t wish they were still here. Except, of course, for Marcus Semien. Talk about dumb moves….

Risky Business

Last night, the Rangers looked to go up three games to none against the Astros behind thirty-nine year old Max Scherzer. Didn’t happen. Scherzer got pounded for five runs, all earned, over four innings in a 8-5 Houston win. The inevitable question becomes, is Scherzer done? No, one game does not end a career, short of injury. But it can affect a reputation. In this case, the reputation could use some readjusting. Scherzer has an exceptional 214-108 career record with a 3.15 ERA. That’s who the Mets thought they were getting when they signed him to a three-year $130 million contract back in 2021. Scherzer went 11-5 for New York in 2022 with a 2.29 ERA and 9-4 this season with a 4.01 ERA before his trade to Texas. The Mets spent a lot of money on a pitcher who has won twenty games just once in his career and last won as many as eighteen in 2018. On top of that, Scherzer has been so-so in the postseason, yesterday’s loss putting him at 7-8 with a 3.80 ERA. You can make a counterargument that Scherzer is the guy who gets his club into the playoffs, where teammates can take over, but you don’t have to be Jerry Reinsdorf to point out that going a combined 13-6 with a 3.77 ERA at age thirty-nine is not exactly earning your salary. That was the risk the Mets took and now the Rangers. It will be interesting to see what happens if and when Scherzer’s former teammate on the Mets pitches for the Astros. Justin Verlander is forty and 17-12 in the postseason. Oh, for a Scherzer-Verlander matchup.

Hurt So Good

Watching the ALCS is a masochist’s delight, at least if you’re a White Sox fan. Hurts so good. Two years ago, the Texas Rangers went 60-192 while the Sox came in at 93-69 in what was supposed to the beginning of a long run of contending teams on the South Side. The Ranger won eight more games in 2022, the Sox twelve fewer. This season, Texas went 90-72 to our 61-101. What happened? Call it reaping what you sow. Both teams opted for veteran managers, only Bruce Bochy has a lot more left in the tank than Tony La Russa did. Both team also spent on free agents. Think Corey Seager vs. Andrew Benintendi. And let’s not forget Marcus Semien. We drafted Semien and developed him, only to have Rick Hahn package him in a deal that included Chris Bassitt and Josh Phegley for the A’s Jeff Samardzija. Talk about mistakes The pride of Notre Dame pitched one season on the South Side before signing with the Giants in 2016. Smardzija has bee out of the league for three years. Semien, first a shortstop and now a second baseman, has hit 207 homeruns with 630 RBIs since the trade. You’d think that deal would’ve been enough to cost Hahn his job a few years before it did (or how about James Shields for Fernanado Tatis Jr.?). But, No, he hung on long enough to draft pitcher Jared Kelley in the second round of the 2020 draft. In the three years since, Kelley has amassed a 3-20 record with a 5.66 ERA over four levels of minor league ball. The Sox “brain trust” took Kelley over outfielder Evan Carter, who was called up by the Rangers last month. Carter had himself a nice cup of coffee, hitting .306 with five homers and twelve RBIs. This postseason, Carter is hitting .350, with seven hits, three RBIs and four runs scored. I could also mention that in game one of the ALCS against the Astros, he made a nice running catch off the bat of Alex Bregman, then doubled off Jose Altuve, who missed second base on his way back to first. Or I could mention Andrew Benintendi, our left fielder. Twelve RBIs in barely a month vs. forty-five in 562 at-bats. The smart way or the White Sox way.

Back to Reality

I was talking to my son-in-law’s dad last week, and he told about all the Bears’ fans—he’s a Packers’ guy—talking it up at the gym the day after the Munsters beat the Commanders, 40-20. One group talked about the march to the playoffs while the other group talked about that and all the help the Bears would be getting in the 2024 draft. The gym is probably a tad more somber this morning after the Munsters laid an egg vs. the visiting Vikings, 19-13. This is really all you need to know about the institutional mindset of this team—absent their top three running backs, the powers that be still opted to run the ball xx times. When he threw the ball (just ten times in a little over 2-1/2 quarters), Justin Fields managed all of fifty-eight yards with an interception. The offense actually picked up when undrafted D-II rookie backup Tyson Bagent ame in after Fields suffered a thumb injury to his throwing hand. And I say that even though Bagent was strip-fumbled for a touchdown and threw a drive-ending interception late in the fourth quarter. I wonder if this is a good time for the McCaskeys to discuss personal seat licenses for their new stadium (the odds are those won’t be transferable), wherever and whenever that project gets built. Maybe the Heirs of Halas should wait until their team‘s next victory, or next season, whichever comes first.

Reconsidered

Despite my best efforts, I raised a smart aleck for a daughter. Whenever I’d offer, “Great minds think alike,” she’d answer with, “No, great minds think for themselves.” And yet she survived into adulthood. Now, though, a very smart parent and child find themselves in agreement over the matter of Bryce Harper. Neither of us thought Harper was worth the thirteen-year, $330 million contract the Phillies gave him back in 2019. A nice player, but not a great player, we agreed. Check that, even though Harper has never reached 100 RBIs in a season for the Phillies and has only hit .300-plus one time. What I like, and I think Clare likes, is that Harper acts like a leader; takes responsibility for failure; and treats injuries as motivation. He also hits in the postseason. So far in the playoffs, he’s hit three homers, which really isn’t that surprising, given that he has fourteen in six trips to the postseason. What is surprising is how quickly Harper has come back from Tommy John surgery on his right elbow. He played through a partially torn UCL in 2022 (hitting .286 with sixty-five RBIs as a DH) before undergoing surgery in late November. Guess who came back on May 2nd? Yes, Harper, first as a DH and then, in July, as the Phillies’ first baseman. To quote my daughter, “Nobody even talks about how he’s learned a whole new position.” That’s probably because people have been more focused on his hitting. We’ll just note that he hit .352 this season when putting the ball in play (and .323 for his career). Add those postseason homeruns, and you’re forced to reconsider your opinion. Hey, even great minds can get it wrong once in a while.

Figuring Figures

The 2023 MLB payroll figures say a lot, depending on perspective. Some teams that spent a ton, like the Mets and Yankees, didn’t make the playoffs. Others (Phillies, Rangers, Astros) did. Likewise, there were teams that played on the cheap (A’s and Pirates) and looked it, and others (Diamondbacks and Orioles) that proved to be winning bargains many times over. In the end, it comes down to front-office smarts. Consider the White Sox, who ranked fifteenth this season with a $162.9 million payroll. Jerry Reinsdorf thinks that’s a lot, and so did his ex-GM Rick Hahn, yet three of the four remaining teams spent some $74 million more to get to their respective league championship series. Those teams tended to spend on big free agents while the Sox preferred to overpay for relievers. Not smart. Too bad Reinsdorf didn’t bother to keep Dave Dombrowski around. Instead, he let go of Roland Hemond and his assistant Dombrowski with the installation of his pet, Hawk Harrelson, as GM. Talk about a move that keeps on hurting. Dombrowski has served as GM of the Expos; Marlins; Tigers; Red Sox; and Phillies. He keeps getting hired because he keeps winning pennants, five in all spread over four teams, and two World Series titles. But firing Tony La Russa was Reinsdorf’s big mistake. Dombrowski’s modus operandi has been to go with veterans; he’ll trade youth for established players—think Yoan Moncada and Michael Kopech for Chris Sale) and sign free agents—e.g., Magglio Ordonez, Trea Turner—as much as his owner will allow. The five pennants (and a sixth possible, depending what the Phillies do next week against the Diamondbacks) suggest he knows what he’s doing. Did I mention Dombrowski is a Chicago native? Of course, you don’t have to spend money to win. The Twins and Brewers along with the Diamondbacks made the postseason with smaller payrolls than the Sox. In which case, you have to scout talent; sign and develop talent; and make smart trades and acquire the occasional free agent. Carson Fulmer, Adam Dunn, Joe Kelly. I rest my case.

Same Old Same Old

Jose Abreu hit his third homerun in two games, and it pretty much ended the Twins’ season, a 3-2 win sending the Astros to face the Rangers in the ALCS. I still think it made sense for the White Sox to let Abreu go at the end of last season. He was thirty-five, and his power numbers looked to be dropping. On top of that, he was keeping Andrew Vaughn stuck in the outfield. Abreu did up his RBI total from seventy-five to ninety with Houston, but his batting average dipped from .304 with the Sox to .237 with the Astros. Is Abreu HOF material? Interesting question, given that he didn’t break into the majors until age twenty-seven. So, amassing most of his 953 career RBIs after the age of thirty is pretty impressive. You could say Minoso-like, even, and that gentleman is a HOFer. No such questions surround Lance Lynn. After his performance last night, Lynn is pretty much done. What do I mean by “performance”? Think four gopher balls served up to Diamondback batters in the home half of the fourth inning. Things got so bad for Lynn that Gabriel Moreno, the fourth and final Arizona batter to go deep, did it twice. After a ball went just foul down the right field line, Moreno parked the next pitch over the wall in left-cent at Chase Field. To his credit, Lynn faced reporters after the game, though he didn’t say he had to pitch better, a promise he made after nearly every start his last two seasons with the Sox. Usually, when a pitcher loses it as quickly as Lynn seems to, he tries to remake himself, top to bottom. How do you reinvent Lance Lynn? Chicago native Alek Thomas had himself a nice game with the Diamondbacks, collecting two hits and making a nice running catch in deep center field to rob Chris Taylor of extra bases in the ninth inning. This is the twenty-three-year old’s second season with Arizona. Thomas has hit .231 with thirty-nine RBIs both years. He keeps getting a chance to play because of his exceptional defense. Did I mention he’s from Chicago, or that his dad Allen used to be the Sox strength and conditioning coach or that the younger Thomas used to shag fly balls during White Sox batting practice? The Sox picked Steele Walker seventeen places ahead of Thomas in the second round of the 2018 draft. Walker was released by the Tigers, his fourth organization, this summer. The Cubs picked Brennen Davis ahead of Thomas. Injuries have slowed Davis’s progress through the organization. But neither team saw fit to draft a player now headed to the NLCS. Maybe Chris Getz could acquire Thomas for Oscar Colas.

Making Do

I am, admittedly, a Goldilocks when it comes to cycling. Too hot, and I sweat buckets to the point of exhaustion. Too cold, and my asthma kicks in. Too windy, and I turn into Benny Hill (see Facebook). But come October, beggars can’t be choosers. Same goes for Goldilocks. This morning was sunny and cool. By the time I hit the 606, the temperature was flirting with sixty; good enough for me. I wore shorts and a jacket. I’d like to think I was making a fashion statement, though of what exactly I couldn’t say. Spring or summer, I’ll usually spend at least part of the time breaking down the latest White Sox game. Thankfully, none of that dreariness today what with a team incapable of reaching the postseason. I see Jose Abreu hit two homers for the Astros against the Twins yesterday. Good for him, but he wouldn’t have been doing that had he stayed with the Sox. The trail extends 2.7 miles, from Ridgeway on the west to Ashland on the east. These streets are memory bookends for me, so I do a lot of free association. If I pass over Kedzie (the trail is an old elevated rail spur), I think of Sixta’s Bakery, where both my sisters worked. Going past Albany, I can recall all those times I walked over to my grandmother’s after school whenever my mother went shopping downtown. At Central Park, I think of work and the wire warehouse, Coil City, I used to call it. My father got me the job between college and graduate school. I just couldn’t tell them I in fact had graduated college. My foreman probably doubted I’d gone to high school given the problems I had learning to drive a forklift. He had me practice in the alley behind the warehouse, and I stuck a blade in somebody’s garage door. My foreman took pity on me from time to time and had me get him a sandwich from a corner grocery. These stores used to be a Chicago institution. This one was spotless, with a display case for fresh baked goods and a news rack courtesy of the Daily News. The person behind the counter was my age, the owner’s son probably. I wonder if he wanted to run the business when the time came. Work was seven miles from home, as the crow flies, and I could never hitch a ride with one. There was just no easy way to get from the South Side to the mid Northwest Side. Sometimes, I’d take Sacramento Boulevard, passing through a viaduct without once thinking about the railroad tracks overhead. Those tracks are gone, replaced by a celebrated bike trail. The warehouse has been torn down and the store converted into a hipster restaurant I’ve gone to a couple of times. But nobody wants to hear stories about the old days, how a guy in his twenties trying to figure things out went to this very spot when it was a grocery, and brought his foreman a sandwich wrapped in wax paper. Like I said, there was no baseball for me to break down.

The Hitting Coaches

With her husband cheering on his brother, who was running the Chicago Marathon, Clare and Leo came over for dinner yesterday. When he wasn’t running through the house (sometimes with dustpan and whiskbroom in hand) or playing with the toy collection I’ve assembled, Leo was the subject of conversation. Well, he’s always the subject of conversation, only this particular line concerned hitting. Clare has a large backyard, perfect for hitting off a tee. My daughter also believes in the benefits of outdoor play. As a five-year old, she’d drag me outside to play catch in the yard, never mind the temperature. No snow on the ground, Dad, let’s go out. So, Clare being Clare, she’s trying to impart good hitting habits onto her son, only he won’t listen. (Another trait inherited from his mother, I might add.) Most times, he stands right next to the tee, effectively jamming himself. Considering he can hit a ball the proverbial mile those few times he steps back, it’s a little frustrating, at least for parent-coaches. “He's two months past his second birthday,” I reminded Clare. “Wait until spring. That’s when he should be ready.” If he keeps jamming himself, I know what comes next. My daughter will want me to come up with an idea on how to change that. I’m thinking, I’m thinking.

Cold Truths

It was Friday Night Lights for us, never mind a temperature well into the 40s and a winding tearing out of the west. If my son-in-law’s Lake Park Lancers won their game against Wheaton Warrenville South, they pretty much would have their ticket punched to the state playoffs. Did I mention it was cold? A high school football game is marked by perpetual motion and sound, starting with the students. Groups and couples are forever walking or running, and laughing, or whispering; what the players on the field are doing at that particular moment is of little import to the groups and couples assembled. Adolescents need to see and be seen. Then there’s my grandson. If electric vehicles ever find a way to possess just half the energy Leo does at twenty-six months, we’ll all be going electric any day now. His three grandparents took turns chasing him around the end zone grandstand, from the opening kickoff till halftime. (Coaches’ families prefer sitting there because, that way, they won’t hear parents in the home stands complaining about their kids’ coaches.) Around and around we went… “Grandpa, chase me!” What choice did I have but to obey? The only thing that could make Leo stop was the band; my grandson is fascinated by music, especially when the musicians are marching. Want to get on my daughter’s bad side? Offer to buy her son a drum, better yet, a drum set. Somebody in her family keeps rhythm by pounding things. Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich, Keith Moon…. What with the running and listening Leo finally drained all his batteries by the third quarter. Daddy was losing his game; there’d be another shot at the playoffs next week. Time to go home and to bed. For grandparents, too.

Records Both Old and Modest

Somehow, the Bears beat an average team Thursday night, topping the Commanders by a score of 40-20. I am here to throw water on anyone excited by a 1-4 start or quarterback Justin Fields’ performance. Oh, Fields had a nice game, throwing for 282 yards and four touchdowns. Now, remember that Bears’ game I mentioned from 1970? Jack Concannon also threw four touchdowns that cold, sunny afternoon in Wrigley Field while racking up 338 yards in the process. Plus Concannon ran for a touchdown. My point? One game does not a quarterback make. But I hope this indicates what Fields can do and will be doing over the remainder of the season. He’s serious and takes responsibility, almost to a fault. Fields also threw for four touchdowns against the Broncos on Sunday, so it could be more than a fluke. Then again, Concannon threw for three touchdown in his next game, and we don’t exactly talk about him in the same breath as his teammates Dick Butkus and Gayle Sayers, now do we? If the past is prologue in sports, then the Bears will fumble things with Fields the way they did Mitch Trubisky and virtually every quarterback who’s had the misfortune of lining up behind center for the Munsters. It’s what the Bears do, that alternating runs up the middle with bubble screens. Fields found D.J. Moore for eight catches Thursday totaling 230 yards (and three touchdowns), the second-most by a Bears’ receiver in team history. Alshon Jeffery tops the list with 249 yards against the Vikings back in 2013. Consider that those 249 yards by Jeffrey rank 32nd all-time in the NFL. Also consider that Jeffrey heads a top-five list that includes Harlon Hill (1954) and Johnny Morris (1961). That’s sixty-nine and sixty-two years ago, respectively. In the NFL, you can’t win without passing, and the Bears have been loath to pass the ball from their 1920s’ start. Either Justin Fields in these last two games has dragged the Team That Halas Built into the 21st century, or he had himself a Jack Concannon run of luck. It’s asking a lot of Fields to undo so much of what the Bears have always done. I want him to succeed but can’t help but feel that the deadweight of Bears’ history will defeat him.

Us

I saw Dick Butkus play once, on December 13, 1970, Packers vs. Bears. It was the last ever Bears’ game at Wrigley Field. My brother-in-law Bill and I had seats down the third-base line for a Chicago 35-17 win. I can still see Butkus bouncing, or dribbling, Green Bay quarterback Bart Starr off the frozen infield dirt. I met Butkus once, at a memorabilia show in the late 1990s; he signed a photo for me. I asked him to inscribe it to a friend, someone with a good South Side mix of consonants in his last name. That’s what he did, to my friend “from Butkus. It takes one to know one.” Then he smiled. Butkus was the son of immigrant Lithuanian parents and a child of the South Side. He played with a ferocity that still resonates—and frightens—on film. That he did so knowing full well his team was likely to lose, the Bears went 48-74-4 during his nine-year career from 1965-73, is probably what endeared him to fans. Here's a good working definition of a Chicagoan: Anyone who stares into the mirror, sees the image of Dick Butkus reflected back, and smiles in recognition.

Help Wanted: Hitting Coach

In a move I won’t call rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic, the White Sox fired hitting coach Jose Castro and reassigned assistant hitting coach Chris Johnson. Major-league field coordinator Mike Tosar also had a say in hitting this season, leading to what manager Mickey Mouse accurately, if unwittingly, referred to before the season started as “almost probably a two-and-a-half-headed monster.” And the monster accomplished what monsters do, which is nothing good. Sox hitters ranked 25th in batting average; last in on-base percentage; 29th in runs scored; last in walks; and 12th in strikeouts. Good God, y’all. The analytics crowd would have you believe hitting is a science, pure and simple. I come from the Bill Robinson school. The former big-league outfielder who didn’t figure out how to hit until he turned thirty (and, boy, could he hit after that) believed, “A good hitting instructor is able to mold his teachings to the individual.” Which meant, “If a guy stands on his head, you perfect that.” A million times, yes. Does the coach make the player, the player the coach, or a little bit of both? I vote for option three. A coach who has something to impart can reach players who want to listen. But woe onto the team that thinks coaching consists of reading gizmos and having players reach certain gizmo metrics. The monster couldn’t get Jake Burger to hit for average (power, yes). When Burger went over to the Marlins, his BA jumped from .214 to .303. Two of the three Miami hitting coaches, Brant Brown and John Mabry, spent considerable time in the majors. Did that help them relate to Burger and vice versa? The numbers would appear to speak for themselves. At various points over the last twenty-eight years, the Sox have employed the likes of Harold Baines; Bill Buckner; Chili Davis; Greg Walker; and Gary Ward as hitting coaches, along with Castro; Jeff Manto; Greg Sparks; and Todd Steverson. I know who I’d want teaching me from those names. Maybe someday the Sox will have coaches able to teach and players willing to learn.