How We Got This Way

White Sox fans are somewhere between Robinson Caruso and the Tom Hanks’ character in “Cast Away.” It all depends on who has the better island. The outside world couldn’t care less, as evidenced by The Athletic’s decision last summer to dump Sox beat writer James Fegan. “Let them read about the Cubs,” seems to be their reasoning. And now Jerry Reinsdorf wants to leave 35th and Shields, where the Sox have played for the past 113 seasons, give or take. Good lapdog that he is, Commissioner Rob Manfred has added his two cents, saying a South Loop stadium could be transformational for the franchise. Yes, whatever’s best for the franchise. Funny, but I don’t see much effort being made to gauge fan sentiment, which has never been a Reinsdorf strong point, assuming he ever had an interest in doing that. My sense is that many if not most fans feel they’ve been fooled once, and don’t want to fall victim a second time. For them, the location of the stadium matters far less than the quality of play by the home team in that stadium. Nobody asks our opinion, unless maybe we have full season’s-tickets plans. It makes a person feel invisible, and resentful, that’s for sure. But the island sure has a nice beach.

Shrinking Venues

According to a story in today’s Sun-Times, the average purchase price on the secondary market at TickPick for a Super Bowl ticket in Las Vegas hit an all-time high of $9,815. How interesting. Allegiant Stadium seats only 62,000 people. You’d think that the true national pastime would want to give as many fans as possible a chance to see the game, but that hasn’t been the trend over the last four years. The last time a Super Bowl drew 70,000-plus was back in 2019. Ten years ago, 82,529 fans packed MetLife Stadium to watch Pete Carroll and the Seahawks overwhelm John Fox and the Broncos, 43-8 (that humiliation no doubt making Fox an attractive coaching candidate for the Bears a year later). The last time a Super Bowl game attracted 100,000-plus fans was 2011. The all-time attendance record of 103,985 dates to 1980. I’m sure Commissioner Roger Goodell will get around to the problem of shrinking venues, someday. Until then, there’s always the law of supply and demand, with a little assist from the NFL.

Fan Failure?

I was watching the Chiefs-Ravens’ game yesterday and caught a videoboard message that said, more or less, “Visiting team requests quiet. Please act accordingly.” Patrick Mahomes mustn’t have noticed. A while back, as I recall, the fan noise at Lumen Field for Seahawks’ games set some kind of record, which no doubt explains Seattle having a Super Bowl-winning season in 2013. Have the fans lost their voice since? Or were 49ers’ fans louder than Ravens’ fans yesterday? Baltimore couldn’t come back against Mahomes, but San Francisco overcame a seventeen-point deficit at halftime to beat the visiting Lions at Levi’s Stadium. What does it all mean? That talent tops decibels, maybe.

Different Planets

Clare called the other afternoon all excited over her workout. “I biked with Aaron Judge!” Well, not exactly. No, my daughter was all alone on her Peloton, biking away in the basement. OK, I get that, and do the same in the living room. But I’m usually watching something I’ve taped. Sorry, no virtual instructor/class for me. Ah, but my eagle-eyed child spotted the giant off to the right on her screen, one fastball hitter to another, I guess. She didn’t say who went faster, although I wouldn’t be surprised if she kept up. Clare is nothing if not competitive. Meanwhile, I have two episodes of “Son of a Critch” waiting for me.

Imagine That

Back in August when he fired GM Rick Hahn, White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf said one of the reasons he acted then was to give Hahn a chance to hook up with another team in the offseason. Five months later, Hahn still looks to be unemployed. So do two of his former players. Nobody seems to want a slow-footed catcher prone to passed balls and stolen bases, none of which kept Hahn from signing Yasmani Grandal back in 2019. And shortstop Tim Anderson, once the face of the franchise, has yet to be picked up. This makes me wonder what other front offices knew that Sox beat reporters didn’t know or wouldn’t write about. The best that can be said of Hahn’s most recent work is that it’s produced two top-50 prospects according to MLB Pipeline: shortstop Colson Mongomery (#9) and starter Noah Schultz (#50). As for 51-100, not one Sox prospect is listed. Over on the North Side, the Cubs landed the most players on the list, with seven. Shorter rebuild, quicker turnaround. Something for new GM Chris Getz to shoot for.

Heaven Help Us, and Him

The White Sox finally got around to naming their next TV play-by-play person yesterday, 39-year old John Schriffen. The best I can say is that even a broken clock gets the right time twice a day. (I must’ve had a cliché left over from yesterday). The Sox organization is nothing if not a broken clock. The hiring has all the markings of a Jerry Reinsdorf move a la Tony La Russa. I mean, replacing suburban South Sider Jason Benetti with native New Yorker Schriffen? Reinsdorf will live to be 100 if only to stick it year in and year out to his critics. Schriffen did himself no favors to Sox fans—at least this one—with the interview posted on the team website. He talked about “what Jerry [Reinsdorf] has done for this organization” without going into detail. Somehow, I doubt Schriffen will ever criticize where his new team plays or plans for playing elsewhere. On top of that, he referred to Steve Stone as a “legend.” And I am the Easter Bunny. Wait, there’s more. Schriffen said he wants to be Stone’s “point guard,” setting him up to do whatever it is he does that makes the owner so happy. I know, I know, give the kid a chance. He didn’t pick where he was born, and anybody without an established reputation coming into a situation like this has to be in serious apple-polishing mode. OK, I’ll give Schriffen the benefit of the doubt. But I have a lot of doubts.

Shush!

All this fog we’ve had this week has me drifting off into the past, which, at my age, can be a dangerous thing. But there I am, thinking of my undergraduate days, killing time watching Ray Meyer and his Blue Demons practice at Alumni Hall. I doubt anybody, even Dave Corzine, ever thought they’d go pro. Ah, the myth of the amateur athlete, the true warrior. I’m a sucker for it. Which explains how I ended up watching the second half of the Northwestern-Illinois men’s basketball game last night. It went into overtime before the Wildcats posted a 96-91 win. Beating the tenth-ranked Illini gets Chris Collins’ Wildcats that much closer to a NCAA bid come March. Did I in fact feel the excitement, was it palpable? As a rule, I try to avoid cliches, but the essence of college sports is based on myth, and myth is a kind of cliché, though popular and unquestioned. So, yeah, you could feel palpable excitement. And the crowd was electric, too. But the NU fans snapped me back to reality with their chants of “Guilty! Guilty!” directed at Illinois’ Terrence Shannon Jr., The senior forward is facing a rape charge stemming form an incident in Kansas last September. The university suspended Shannon, who won a restraining order last week in federal court which allows him to continue playing. Restraining orders make it hard to dream of Jason and the Argonauts on a hardwood floor. But, since I’m in full cliché mode here, let those without sin be the first to cast brickbats, and we don’t even know if Shannon is guilty of the charges. Apparently, in Evanston, paying $64,887 in tuition (or having their parents pay it) entitles students to fill Welsh-Ryan Arena and boo whomever they want. Silence is golden. Cliches out.

HOFers

Clare called twice yesterday, both times with Hall of Fame news. “Do you care who got voted in?” she asked on the first call. At the time, No, other than for the “juicers” being kept out, which they were. But on second thought… I’m OK with Adrian Beltre, though his .960 career fielding average is eleven points less than Brooks Robinson’s. Todd Helton and Joe Maurer, though, not so much. How Helton generated a 61.8 WAR is beyond me, unless playing seventeen years at Coors Field had something to do with it. As it is, Paul Konerko has 1412 RBIs to Helton’s 1406. What kind of stats do you think Paulie would’ve put up if he’d spent his entire career in the rarified air of Denver? And Mauer, he of the 923 RBIs and 55.2 WAR? If that qualifies for Cooperstown, what about A.J. Pierzynski, at 909 RBIs? Mauer has 40 postseason at-bats vs. 106 for A.J., by the way. It’s a good thing, at least for Helton and Mauer, that I don’t get to vote. Clare’s second call makes me wish I could vote for a different Hall of Fame. My daughter interrupted a spaghetti dinner to tell me she just got off the phone with Coach P, who’s nominating her for the Elmhurst College (though now we say University) HOF. Fingers crossed she gets in. Nobody at Elmhurst has ever hit more home runs or racked up more total bases. She’d be first in RBIs, too, if it weren’t for all those damned rainouts junior and senior year. Oh, well. With any luck at all, by this time next year I can say my kid got into the Hall of Fame.

Toothpaste and Folk Song

De Paul University, my undergraduate alma mater, has lost its way, sports wise, as evidenced by the 3-15 record of its men’s basketball team. On top of that, the Blue Demons have lost nineteen straight conference games in the Big East, dating to last season. You know what that means, right? Yup, head coach Tony Stubblefield got the boot yesterday. Back when I rode a dinosaur to class up in Lincoln Park, the basketball program was the little engine that could. Ray Meyer was Ray Meyer, and his personality filled Alumni Hall, along with 5,300 screaming fans, give or take. Then the Blue Demons headed for the suburbs in 1980, and something got lost. Meyer tried but failed to make himself into a new-school coach. After 42 years, the father stepped down in 1984 in favor of his son, Joey, who led the team to a .594 winning percentage over thirteen seasons. De Paul saw fit to fire Joey Meyer after the 1997 season. The Meyer tandem coached the Blue Demons over the course of 55 years. Since then, it’s been six coaches and not much success over the last 27 seasons. The school thought moving back to the city in 2017 would help fix things. It hasn’t. The problem with Wintrust Arena is that it’s 8.4 miles and two “L” lines away on the South Side. If the idea was to pack the 10,000-plus seats with students walking over from the dorms to take the Red Line to the Green Line, it hasn’t happened. It might, but then you’d need a reason to go, and the Blue Demons haven’t played better than .500 since 2019. Like the saying goes, you can’t put toothpaste back in the tube once it’s been squeezed out. The team never should’ve left Lincoln Park. Alumni Hall II could’ve been built on campus back in the late ’70s or early ’80s, but the neighborhood is different now, very upscale and unhappy over plans for a proposed practice facility. In the words of Joni Mitchell, you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. De Paul abandoned paradise and can’t find the way back.

Why Is That?

Once upon a time, cities were strong economically, and stadiums big. Then cities went into decline, and stadiums started to shrink. On top of that, the smaller they’ve become, the more they get touted as economic engines. Why is that, do you suppose? Consider that the Yankees won 27 pennants and 20 World Series playing in the original Yankee Stadium between 1923 and 1964; seating capacity fluctuated between 58,000 and 82,000. All that success did nothing to stem Gotham’s post-WWII economic decline. Throw in the Dodgers winning nine pennants in Ebbets Field and the Giants adding another thirteen in the classic version of the Polo Grounds, 1911-1954. That’s 49 pennants for one city. Not only did all that success not do much for New York’s economy, it couldn’t keep the Dodgers and Giants from relocating west. And yet, somehow, we’re supposed to believe stadiums and teams have this magic power over local economies. The Colts and Orioles tended to field very good teams when they played in Memorial Stadium, when the seating capacity stood somewhere between 47,000 and 53,000. Again, on-the-field success did nothing to prevent urban decline. Camden Yards, which was supposed to supercharge Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, opened with a seating capacity of 49,000, which has since been reduced to just under 45,000 [all capacity figures taken from Wikipedia]. (The Ravens play in M&T Bank Stadium with a capacity of 71,000, which makes it an outlier for shrinking stadiums). The Lions used to play at Tiger Stadium, with seating for 52,000 after 1936. The team moved to the Pontiac Silverdome in 1975, capacity 80,000. Now back in Detroit at Ford Field, the Lions play to 65,000 fans. According to what I heard on NBC News twice over the weekend, the Lions and their hometown are back in a big way, though exactly why that would be so is hard to say. The stories didn’t cite population growth; crime and unemployment figures; or improved public schools to make that argument. No, new downtown construction and the Lions going to the NFC Championship are supposed to serve as proof. Why is that?

"Historic Partnership"

The White Sox stadium story has, if nothing else, filled a baseball void that comes with January. On Thursday, Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson issued a press release about the “historic partnership between the team and Chicago and the team’s ideas for remaining competitive in Chicago in perpetuity.” Oh, that’s rich. Johnson is a progressive Democrat whose politics should make him shy away from subsidies for stadiums. But he also doesn’t want to be known as the mayor who lost the White Sox, a fear that led then-mayor Harold Washington to jump aboard the “let’s build the Sox a stadium before they move out of state” train back in 1988. So, I sympathize with Johnson for having to walk the political high wire here. Allow me a few suggestions to guide him safely across to the other end. Start with the whole notion of partnership; the mayor needs to define the term precisely. If any sizable amount of public money goes into a stadium—making voters and taxpayers partners of the White Sox, if you will—then there better be full transparency, as in public access to the White Sox books. That’s what partners in the business world get. What makes a stadium any different? Second, Johnson has made it clear his administration is all about diversity, equity and inclusion. Alright, then, apply that concept to the White Sox, who announced a series of organizational moves yesterday. By my count, there are 62 positions not related to the team academy in the Dominican Republic. Of that number, I count four positions being filled by women, or 6.5 percent. The number goes down to zero when counting player personnel and coaching positions. In other words, same old same old. Why would the mayor of Chicago want to aid an organization that shows little if any sympathy for his beliefs? Curious minds want to know.

And If It Does Get Built?

It’s very cold out, and snowing. The Bears aren’t in the postseason (what new?); the Hawks stink; and the Bulls are struggling mightily to progress beyond mediocre. So, of course the media wants to focus on a new White Sox stadium in the South Loop. This is what you do in January in Chicago. Because Sox ownership and the front office all act as if the Sphynx were a blabbermouth, nobody has any idea what this project would look like. So, of course the media is going to fill in the gaps. Why, the new stadium could go smack dab in the middle of an entertainment district, just like the Braves and Rams have built and just like the Munsters want to build, as soon as they can find a sucker of a community to welcome them. OK, so the stadium gets built with restaurants and bars galore. Then what? Do you think those restaurants and bars would in any way resemble the ones presently serving Sox fans in Bridgeport? Three-generation corner bars aren’t likely to afford South Loop rents. If the Sox move, those corner bars wither away, and what profit those new bars generate will likely go into corporate pockets. That, my friends, is a textbook example of disinvestment.

And Is This Anything?

The Sun-Times reported today that the White Sox are in negotiations with a developer for a new stadium about 1-1/2 miles north of Guaranteed Rate Whatever, in the South Loop. To which I can say, yikes. In the ideal world, this land wouldn’t even be available, but, between the Great Recession and COVID, it never got developed. The entire site is 62 acres, with the Sox needing something in the vicinity of fifteen to seventeen for a stadium and parking. This is where it gets truly bizarre. The story relies on a “veteran Chicago-based stadium consultant” who thinks the Sox could get by with a parking structure holding 7,000 cars, everyone else apparently coming by public transportation. And I am the tooth fairy. Yes, Cub fans make use of public transit for games at Wrigley Field, but Sox fans aren’t Cub fans. For generations, South Siders have driven to games. Take a look at photos of Comiskey Park from the 1930s; it was surrounded by parking lots. If anything, the ball mall opening in 1991 has even more parking. Consider what it would take to get fans out of their cars. They won’t flock to the CTA unless crime on the “L” goes way down, and there’s no indication that happening anytime soon. The site is close to several commuter train lines, but people would need to know they could access those trains after a short walk, not the mile-and-a-half it would presently take. Let’s say a super train stop encompassing those lines was built. Who would pay for it? For that matter, who would pay for the stadium? Not a word in the story about financing. Jerry Reinsdorf couldn’t pull off the Ring of Honor ceremony for his Bulls. How would he get Sox fans to take the bus, “L” and train to ballgames? My guess is, he wouldn’t. No, one of two things would happen. The stadium and parking structure would be built, and fans would go ballistic over the lack of parking. Or the new stadium would come with plenty of parking on what should be some of the most valuable real estate in urban America. Eventually, those parking lots would be redeveloped, and fans would go ballistic over the lack of options. Like the philosopher says, stupid is as stupid does.

Winter Caravan

Once upon a time, the White Sox conducted a winter caravan through hill and vale, doing meet-and-greets with fans in the boondocks. I have a vague memory of pictures in the sports’ section showing players as they filed out of a bus in someplace like Peoria or East Moline. The Sox don’t do that anymore. In fact, they don’t do anything anymore, except hire people away from the Royals. Just for fun, I Googled “winter caravan” and found that the Twins still do one. It’ll take place over the course of several days starting next week, through eleven communities in Minnesota; Iowa; and North and South Dakota. Different groups of players; former players; coaches and broadcasters will be assigned to each of three legs (rotating personnel to avoid frostbite, no doubt). Wait, there’s more. The team will also be taking part in a number of fundraisers. This one’s my favorite, the Justin Morneau “Ice Fishing Classic” in Isle, Minnesota, with money going to help military families. And to think for years I hated Morneau and his 109 career RBIs against the Sox. I was wrong, and, anyway, he had one more RBI against the Indians-not-yet-Guardians.

Ticking

The Bulls have gone 4-2 over their last six games, which is just OK. Had they gone 6-0, they’d be at .500 for the first time since Halloween; at 5-1, they’d be close. Oh, so far away. The game they lost Friday, 140-131 to the Warriors, pretty much sums up what this team is, one capable of taking a thirteen-point halftime lead and turning it into a fifteen-point deficit one quarter later. Keep in mind that Golden State had lost the previous two games by fifteen- and 36-pint margins and have lost the two games since. But they found a way to come back against our Bulls. Then, yesterday in Cleveland, they gave up 40 points in the first quarter to fall behind by nineteen. Zach and the gang managed to get it down to a three-point deficit to start the fourth quarter, but you’re not going to win if you put up fourteen points to the opposition’s 29. Final score, Cleveland 109 Chicago 91. You’re also not going to win if your starting point guard turns the ball over seven times, which is exactly what Coby White did. This 4-2 record coincides with Zach LaVine’s return from injury, and I wonder if White is pressing as a result. Then again, the whole team turned the ball over eighteen time, including three for LaVine. Long story short, you’re not going to get over .500 if this keeps up. Which brings us back to the question of blowing up the roster. Time is ticking down for Arturas Karnisovas to make a decision.

Boo

Would I have booed Jerry Krause’s widow during the Bulls’ Ring of Honor ceremonies Friday night? No. Would I have stopped the person next to me from booing? Again, no. As folks like to say these days, it’s complicated. Fans let go a chorus—and then some—of boos when Krause’s name was announced, and, for no good reason, television cameras stayed focused on Thelma Krause as she tried to maintain her composure. Anyone who didn’t foresee this happening is a fool, starting, naturally, with Bulls’ owner Jerry Reinsdorf. Last week, Reinsdorf told a story in the Sun-Times how “the best memory I will ever have” about his team’s championship run was the shot Michael Jordan made over the Cavaliers’ Craig Ehlo in 1989. The bulk of the story involves Reinsdorf and Krause. Michael who? Krause always did his boss’s bidding, which in Reinsdorf’s world counts for everything. When Krause said, “Players and coaches don’t win championships, organizations do,” Reindsdorf was mouthing the words off in a corner somewhere, if not playing the wizard behind the curtain outright. With Phil Jackson coaching a 34-year old Jordan, 32-year old Scottie Pippen and 36-year old Dennis Rodman, the Bulls won their sixth and, so far, last NBA championship. The next year, with Tim Floyd coaching a roster headed up by Tony Kukoc and Brent Barry, the Bulls won thirteen games. A year later, seventeen, and a year after that, fifteen. Some organization. By way of comparison, take a look at the Celtics. They got old in the 1960s, but kept winning with teams built around Bill Russell, up to and including 1969, when Russell was 34. The Celtics were mediocre for two seasons after Russell’s retirement before becoming the Celtics again. And the Bulls? Krause wanted Jackson, Jordan and company gone because Reinsdorf did. If Kruase came to this decision all by himself, Reinsdorf could’ve intervened. He didn’t. Everyone knew that, and enough people remembered that Friday night to boo, not Jerry Krause, not really, but on the man who let Krause make the dumbest decision in the history of Chicago sports.

Compare and Contrast

The Cubs are having their fan convention this weekend, and it looks to be going well despite wet snow yesterday followed by deepening cold the rest of the weekend. Weather never gets in the way of true believers. Newly signed free agent Shota Imanaga made a favorable impression speaking English, which I’m betting is about as easy as me speaking Japanese would be. The thirty-year old lefty quoted a few lines of “Go, Cubs, Go” and said one or two other things without an interpreter. Both smart and endearing. The White Sox, meanwhile, have borrowed a page from “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre”—they don’t need no stinkin’ fan convention. For that matter, they don’t seem to think they need anyone to replace the departed Jason Benetti in the television booth, either. The nice thing about contempt, it goes around, it comes around. Jerry Reinsdorf shows it, Jerry Reinsdorf gets it right back.

What George Romney Said

Today’s Sun-Times has a story in the news section, not sports, about the new Bears’ Fan of the Year, a person both loyal and true. According to the story (and I’ve rewritten enough press releases in my life to know that’s just what this is), the NFL Fan of the Year contest “aims to highlight fans who have a deep connection with their team, inspire others and bring together family, friends and local communities.” Every year, each team picks one such fan, and the most-super of these super fans will be chosen at an event three days before the Super Bowl; the finalists also get an all-expenses paid trip and two tickets to the game. I have no doubt these people are decent human beings who devote a good part of their time volunteering to worthy organizations. They get to attend the Super Bowl on the NFL’s dime, so, good for them. But not necessarily us. Forgive me for being cynical (again), but by picking the most civic-minded fan(s), the NFL wants to bask in reflected goodness: Oh, John Doe and Jane Smith spend all their free time when not watching their favorite team on Sunday (or Monday or Thursday or Saturday) in some worthy activity. If you love/respect what John and Jane are doing, the odds are you’ll love/respect the NFL for honoring them, too. And if the NFL is all about honoring worthy fans (just like teams calling their fans the indispensable “twelfth man” for generating crowd noise), why, then, the NFL must be telling the truth about financial assistance for stadium construction; the need to relocate franchises (apparently, fans in St. Louis, Oakland and San Diego didn’t cheer loud enough); and the proper level of compensation to former players suffering from traumatic brain injury, as well as efforts to prevent injuries to current players. If you believe all of the above, then you know what George Romney was talking about back in 1968.

Ph.D.'s

Hats off to the McCaskeys. Their team goes 7-10, and the local sports’ media still bathes them in coverage as if their season weren’t over. Maybe every edition of the nightly news yesterday didn’t lead with the firing of offensive coordinator Luke Getsy and the retention of head coach Matt “call me Mickey Mouse II” Eberflus, but I’ll bet the story ran within the first ten minutes, tops. Heaven help us, and thank goodness Christ didn’t schedule the Second Coming for January 10th. Nobody would’ve been available to cover it. Nice to see GM Ryan Poles and team president Kevin Warren come out of hibernation to address reporters, and how nice of reporters not to ask them where they’ve been all season. Yes, they’re more accessible than ex-GM Ryan Pace ever was, but that’s a low bar. Whatever the McCaskeys pay them, Poles and Warren earned their salaries, and then some, piling it higher and deeper. The front office loves Eberflus and sort of loves quarterback Justin Fields. Warren said nice things about Chicago proper, adding to the sense that the Munsters may not move to the suburbs, after all. Warren was asked if developing the Arlington Heights’ site was a priority, to which he responded, “The priority is to make sure we build a world-class stadium for our fans.” [story in today’s The Athletic] And we all know Warren is a person of integrity because last week he donated $1 million for cancer research in the name of his late sister. The timing with yesterday’s news conference was pure coincidence, I’m sure. And so it goes in a land ruled by the most mediocre of sports’ franchises.

Caveat Emptor

I did my daily rounds on eBay today and came across one eye-popping item—a White Sox team autographed ball going for $249,995. What in the name of Charles A. Comiskey is going on here? Oh, it’s from 1917, the last time the Sox won the World Series until 2005 (they are a franchise both old and lacking in accomplishment). An authenticating report—think Charlie Brown getting a signed document from Lucy before kicking the football—identifies seventeen legible signatures. Here’s the kicker—one of those signatures belongs to Shoeless Joe Jackson. And all this time I thought Jackson was illiterate. Oh, it’s possible he signed his name with someone guiding his hand, only I doubt it was on a baseball in a clubhouse where teammates or anyone passing by could have made fun of him. Neither the “authenticating” report nor the item description makes any reference to Jackson’s illiteracy. Buyer beware. Me, I’ll hold on to my quarter of a million dollars and spend it on something more authentic, a unicorn, maybe.

Is This Anything?

David Letterman used to have a bit on his show called “Is This Anything?” where he and Paul Schaffer would have to decide if some bizarre activity happening onstage constituted something, anything. I was reminded of all that when I read about the Marlins hiring Rachel Balkovec as their director of player development. Balkovec comes over from the Yankees, where she managed their Low-A ballclub the last two seasons. So, good for her, and I mean that. But I question this being any kind of “advance” for women in baseball. Why? Because the Marlins’ GM used to be Kim Ng, until she left, jumped, or was pushed out last October. The skeptic in me wonders, is Miami operating under some sort of informal quota, down a woman, hire a woman? Balkovec got a promotion, but the standing of women in the Marlins’ didn’t increase, now did it? Unless Miami has totally restructured its front office, the director of player personnel reports to the general manager, whether or not he’s called that or president of baseball operations. So, is this hire anything?

Pitchforks and Torches, Please

In their most important game of the season yesterday, the Bears played like the Bears. By sleepwalking their way through a 17-9 loss to the Packers at Lambeau Field, they handed Green Bay a wildcard spot. Torches and pitchforks, please. I swear I hear White Sox manager Mickey Mouse every time Bears’ coach Matt Eberflus opens his mouth. Addressing reporters Sunday night, Eberflus offered, “I do know this. The foundation has been set for how we operate. And I do know the locker room. We’re standing on [the] solid ground of hard work, of passion and enthusiasm for the game. And we’re just going to keep working together to improve this.” [today’s Tribune] Setting a pretty low bar for yourself, aren’t you, Matt? The Bears premise their offense on a running game minus the players to make it work. Passion and enthusiasm without the requisite talent usually translates into three-and-out, as the Munsters proved time and again yesterday. They ran the ball 25 times for 75 yards. Do the math. Then show offensive coordinator Luke Getsy the door. (Tony Romo sure sounded like Getsy’s agent, didn’t he?) Oh, and Eberflus, too. Which leads us to Justin Fields, who threw the ball all of sixteen times, completing eleven passes for 148 yards. Compare that to Green Bay’s Jordan Love, who went 27-for-32, good for 316 yards and two touchdowns. Fields was also sacked five times for a loss of 31 yards vs. the Munsters generating one sack of Love for eight yards. Where was Eberflus’ passion and enthusiasm on defense? Fields will do considerably better with a different coach and coordinator. What he lacks in talent, he makes up for in maturity. And, like I said, put him in a different environment, and you may just well see how much untapped potential he was carrying around with him the past three seasons. We’ll probably start seeing proof of that come September. If GM Ryan Poles fires Eberflus and Getsy, he’ll just go out and hire their clones; it’s the way of the organization. If they use the first pick in the draft and go with a quarterback, well, I shudder to think what will happen. Da’ Bears.

Thank You for Your Service. Next.

The White Sox made their signing of Methuselah, aka catcher Martin Maldonado, official on Friday, adding the 37-year old catcher to the roster at the expense of infielder Zach Remillard. Remillard was the feel-good story in a 101-loss season, the minor-league lifer who finally made it to the big leagues at age 29. Only MLB player to debut with game-tying and go-ahead hits in the ninth inning or later? First Sox player to reach base four times in his major-league debut since Johnny Callison in 1958? That’s so 2023. Remillard is smart; plays multiple positions; and actually knows how to bunt. Those are skills that should lead another team to pick him up. At least they should.

Don't Say That

The Tribune says Zach LaVine said he “could care less what people think about” him while the Sun-Times says LaVine said he “couldn’t care less” about that. He shouldn’t have said either. Because LaVine needs to care what people think, not fans in the stands necessarily (though I’d advise players from ever saying anything that sounds, however remotely, like a diss to the folks who fill the seats), but coaches and teammates. Don’t care what Billy Donovan thinks or Coby White? Allow me to suggest a mea culpa here by way of “My words were taken out of context” plea. The good news is LaVine came back from his foot injury last night to appear for the first time in over five weeks, contributing fifteen points with four assists in a 104-91 Bulls’ win over the Hornets. LaVine played thirty minutes. If he stays healthy and cares what his coach and teammates think, LaVine can only help, whether it’s here or somewhere else (Los Angeles, please, please). We’ll see.

A Fifth Evangelist

Really, the Tribune must be auditioning people to add a fifth book to the New Testament. I always thought Brad Biggs had the inside track until today. Dan Wiederer filled up two broadsheet pages, sans pics, with Munster drivel. Guys, the best that the team that would abandon Chicago for the suburbs can do is knock the Packers out of a wildcard spot. Nice, but not worth writing a book on, or even an epistle. Has anyone at the Trib ever heard of prep sports? Not from the looks of their sports’ section.

Silver Lining

Two games—I knew it was too much to ask. Joel Embiid was back for the 76ers on Tuesday, which translated into a 110-97 loss for Billy Donovan and his Bulls. Trust me, the score wasn’t anywhere near as close as that. Then, last night at the “Gah-den,” the visitors sleep-walked through the second half against the Knicks, getting outscored 65-45 on their way to a 116-100 loss. Wake up, guys. At least there’s one silver lining, for the 76ers if not the Bulls. Nobody for Philadelphia played more than Joel Embiid, who logged 31 minutes (good for 31 points, BTW). But good ol’ Tom Thibodeau, ex-Bulls head coach now running the Knicks (and I mean that in the literal sense, as in “into the ground”), doesn’t understand the meaning of “rest.” Not when four of his starters logged a minimum of 34 minutes, with guard Jalen Brunson and forward Julius Randle both staying around for 38 in a game that stopped being in doubt halfway through the fourth quarter. How do you say “gassed”? I have a feeling Thibodeau and company will know how come spring.

I Beg to Differ

Clare sent me a story from the team website today on ex-White Sox player Nicky Delmonico. She thought it was interesting. I thought it was a piece of lazy writing. Delmonico has been yo-yoing between different levels of the organization as a hitting coach the last two seasons. Because this is a feel-good piece, Scott Merkin quoted Colson Montgomery, the Sox top prospect and a top-100 prospect in all of baseball, who naturally gushed over Delmonico. Fine, Montgomery loves him. What about prospects who don’t have the can’t-miss label attached to them? What do they think of Delmonico as a coach? I’m serious here. The Sox have two prospects, Jacob Burke and Brooks Baldwin, rated #21 and #30 in the organization, respectively. I tracked their progress all of last season. I mean, it beat watching the Sox under the “leadership” of manager Mickey Mouse. Burke and Brooks both started at Class-A Kannapolis before moving up to High-A Winston-Salem. Burke, an outfielder, hit .315 in low-A and .281 in high-A while Baldwin, an infielder, went from .245 to .327. They were both drafted in 2022, Burke going in the eleventh round, Baldwin in the twelfth. These are the kind of players top-ranked organizations develop. Anytime a relatively low-round draft choice makes his way to the bigs, somebody’s done something right. I’m not saying either Burke or Baldwin will, but their success so far leaves me hopeful. Did Nicky Delmonico have anything to do with their development? If only Merkin had bothered to ask.

Just Two More

If the Bulls can just hang on for two more games (against the 76ers and the Knicks), they’ll find themselves with the third-easiest schedule over their remaining 46 regular-season games. About time. Talk about a tough stretch. Over their last eleven games, the Bulls have faced the 76ers and Heat two times each, along with single games against the Bucks; Nuggets; Cavaliers; Lakers; and Pacers. They’ve gone 6-5 in that stretch. Now, if Joel Embiid can just miss one more game… My winter team has gone 10-5 since problem-star Zach LaVine went down with an injury, and they’re 2-1 since Nikola Zucevic got hurt (actually, kicked in the groin). Holy Andre Drummond. That’s right, Zucevic’s replacement has been on fire, if a rebounding machine can do that and function at the same time. Drummond has totaled 64 rebounds in the three games he’s spelled Zucevic. The Bulls are probably a better team with Zucevic healthy (and you have no idea how much it pains me to say that), but Drummond definitely needs to play more. Keep in mind that he’s nearly three years younger than Zucevic. And speaking of Justin Fields, which I did the other day, Drummond has been nothing but a positive force in the locker room and on the bench, this while being adamant he wants to start. A monster deal featuring Zucevic and LaVine would require a good center in return, and there aren’t a lot of those around. So, I expect Zucevic won’t be going anywhere, although his understudy will no doubt be seeing more minutes. What an unexpected, happy surprise in the eight weeks before spring training starts.

Flurries by the Lake

I’ll give Bears’ quarterback Justin Fields this—if he played his last game for the Munsters at home, he gave the fans something to remember, as in 313 yards combined offense and at least one highlight-reel-worthy scramble in a 37-17 win over the Falcons. Fields is the most polarizing player in Chicago sports since Sammy Sosa, and even that comparison might be understating it. The third-year quarterback has generated stats that show beyond a doubt he ought to be shown the door, along with numbers (and those highlight plays) that point to him being the foundation of a dominating offense. Take your pick. But even his biggest critics have to admit—that is, if they’re not the vein-bulging, red-in-the-face kind—Fields has always handled himself with class. After the game, he praised the fans and Chicago weather, even. Jay Cutler would’ve mumbled something we’d all still be trying to decipher. Keep or trade Fields? Not up to me, though I shudder to think of an organization with the track record the Bears have for developing quarterbacks starting over with the number-one pick in the upcoming draft. So, good luck to Fields, wherever he lands and by all means if he stays put.