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.

And Nobody Came

Yesterday’s Rangers-Rays’ game in Florida had an attendance of 19,704, the smallest crowd for a postseason game in over a hundred years. Game seven of the Reds-White Sox World Series in Cincinnati drew 13, 923 fans, and that was against a backdrop of war and influenza. MLB and Florida look to be a match made anywhere but heaven. The Rays have been hard pressed to draw fans to Tropicana Field since forever, and now they want to build a new stadium, part of a development just like—wait for it—the Bears have proposed in Arlington Heights. Only the Rays are asking for more of a public buy-in, at least with the stadium part. Local and county officials are supposed to pony up $600 million, with the Rays contributing $700 million. How nice of them. And to think this could be the White Sox we’re talking about, if only the team had moved to the Tampa area in the late 1980s, like they threatened to. I can just see Jerry Reinsdorf threatening to move the team back to Chicago, or Arlington Heights, if he didn’t get the funding.

Of Mice and Munsters

Bears’ head coach Matt Eberflus has accomplished the impossible, rendering White Sox manager Mickey Mouse competent and coherent in comparison. That, my friends, is no easy task. But Eberflus has been hard at work this entire season. The Bears may be 0-4, but you’d never know it listening to Eberflus. He has the extraordinary ability to see progress where mere mortals detect only dysfunction and defeat. The Munsters lose to the Chiefs 41-10? Quarterback Justin Fields moved the ball nicely for a score in garbage time. There’s lots of garbage time with the Bears. Eberflus’s charges blew a twenty-one point third quarter lead on Sunday to lose to the Broncos, 31-28. With just under three minutes left in the game, Eberflus decided to go for fourth-and-one at the Denver eighteen. OK, but why add five or so yards to Khalil Herbert’s task by setting up in the shotgun? Because “It was [just] a half yard, so I felt great about getting that right there,” the man who is not a deer in the headlights told reporters after the game. “Every situation is different. You have to look at the game in its entirety. I think the way we were running the football and the confidence that we had on offense in that moment, I would say we’re going to do that right there.” [story in yesterday’s Tribune] But Coach, you didn’t pick up the first down. And then we have the ongoing saga of unhappy wide receiver Chase Claypool, who was a healthy inactive for the game but didn’t attend the game with the other inactives. Claypool is also persona non grata this week at Halas Hall. Why is that? Because “In the building, we feel like that’s best for the team,” Deer Man was quoted in today’s Tribune. “And really it comes down to this: When you’re evaluating players in meetings, in practice, in walk-throughs and all those things, it’s important you evaluate the entire body of work, right? We just feel that right now Chase is going to be out of the building. It’s best for our football team.” So, to evaluate a player, the player shouldn’t be around? I hope Mickey Mouse sends Eberflus a Christmas card this year, and maybe get it in the mail early. Eberflus may not be around much longer.

101! 101! 101!

It took eleven innings, but the White Sox managed to lose for the 101st time this season, falling 2-1 to the Padres. They finish the season losing seven of their last ten. But everyone is already busy making sure they get things right next season. And I am the walrus. I’ll just make two observations here, or one observations concerning two players: Tim Anderson and Eloy Jimenez should not be back. Anderson had a godawful season, striking out when he wasn’t grounding out, grounding out when he wasn’t striking out. Consider that he managed twenty-five RBIs in 493 at-bats, and compare that to rookie Zach Remilard, who drove in eighteen over the course of 147 at-bats. And Remilard hit seven points higher at .252. Anderson will be 31 next June, and he has yet to play consistent defense. It’s time to t look elsewhere. The same goes for Jimenez, the great man-child. When he’s healthy, Jimenz is one of the best righthanded hitters in the game, but he has yet to reach 500 at-bats in a season. And this “Hi, Mom!” stuff has grown old. I’m sure Eloy would thrive with the right training regimen and a manager who believes in accountability. Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen on the South Side with manager Mickey Mouse at the helm. The best the Sox can hope for is that GM Chris Getz makes a better deal for Jimenez than Kenny Williams/Rick Hahn did for Jake Burger. Go, Marlins.

100! 100! 100!

Last night’s 6-1 loss to the Padres was the White Sox season in a nutshell—down by four going into the bottom of the first and six in the bottom of the second, roaring back with all the ferocity of a Tim Anderson grounder to short. Well, that is how he started the game. So, for the fifth time in team history and for the second time in six years, the Sox have lost 100 games. Truly, this is a Mickey Mouse team, everyone saying how bad they feel and vowing to turn things around next year. Ah, next year. Mouse, showing extraordinary talent at sucking up, keeps talking about great the recent front-office hires have been. He must be looking at a different list than I am. Me, I don’t see anyone hired away from the Braves or Dodgers. Since 1991, Atlanta teams have finished over .500 twenty-seven times and gone to the playoffs twenty-three times; the Dodgers, twenty-nine times and seventeen. That looks pretty impressive to me. And I’m supposed to get excited about a White Sox “brain trust” centered on the Kansas City Royals, an organization that finished over .500 three times, 2013-2015; went to the World Series twice; and has lost 103 or more games three times in the last six years? Nope.