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.