This for That

The White Sox have traded away Tanner Banks; Erick Fedde; Michael Kopech; and Tommy Pham for a bunch of prospects I’ve never heard of. Since these Sox are so much like those Mets, it’s worth citing Casey Stengel here: in another ten years, these guys have a good chance of being ten years older. I mean, the Sox traded Tanner Banks with his career 3.89 ERA and three saves to the Phillies for 19-year old William Bergolla, the team’s eleventh-best prospect per MLB.com. Either the Phillies have a mediocre minor-league system; the Sox pulled off the deal of the century; or it was a trade of like-for-like. Which do you think? In case it matters, Mickey Mouse’s team lost their sixteenth straight last night, 4-3 to the Royals. That happened against a background of reports that a Mouse-mandated team meeting right after the All-Star break didn’t go well, with Mouse allegedly putting the blame for the team’s godawful record squarely on the players. Mouse denies it, of course. In case it matters, the Sox are now two games ahead of the ’62 Mets in the race to 120 losses in a season. I see no reason for things to change anytime soon.

What He Said and What He Meant

Hours before the White Sox went out and lost their fifteenth straight game (8-5 to the Royals, the bullpen giving up six runs in the eighth), Sox GM Chris Getz said “it was a bit hurtful, quite honestly” how Garrett Crochet’s agency has gone public about Crochet’s desire for a contract extension before he’d be willing to pitch in the offseason. If only Getz were honest (but, then, he wouldn’t be working for Jerry Reinsdorf, now would he?). Because what Getz meant to say was that Crochet had violated the second tenet of being in White Sox Land—thou shalt not conduct any business whatsoever in public. Of course, Crochet had already violated the Prime Tenet—in all things loyalty to the Reinsdorf—by turning down a contract extension. He should be gone, but now it’s harder. Boo-hoo.

Double the Fun

How bad are the 2024 White Sox? Bad enough to put together two 14-game losing streaks in the same season. Up next are the Royals, who have beaten the Sox nine out of ten times this season. Any bets on ten/fifteen? The Sox three best pitchers—Drew Thorpe, Erick Fedde and Garrett Crochet—faced a slumping Mariners’ team at home over the weekend. Not one of them lasted more than four innings as Seattle swept all three games, by a combined score of 22-6. Only two teams in all of baseball have scored fewer runs than Seattle. Guess which team has scored the least of all. This is what organizational incompetence looks like. Manager Mickey Mouse was at it again, quoted in today’s Tribune that, “We’re losing games in many different ways that we have to clean up.” Here’s an idea. If he’s so big on cleaning things up, Mouse should start by cleaning out his office.

Welcome to the Galapagos

The White Sox have been operating without a manager for a long time, assuming Mickey Mouse qualifies by any definition. For argument’s sake, let’s say he does, in which case, He gone, figuratively now and literally in the none-too-distant future. The players are left to fend for themselves, just like all those creatures Charles Darwin observed on the Galapagos Islands. Judging off of last night (and the entire season, for that matter), Luis Robert Jr. is a goner. Robert struck out four of his five at-bats last night as his team recorded its thirteenth straight loss, this one 6-3 to the previously slumping Mariners. Robert is batting .214 in 196 at-bats, his twelve homeruns and 24 RBIs balanced against 79 strikeouts. That would translate to 237 strikeouts in 600 at-bats, if only Robert could stay healthy. Many, but not all, creatures succumb in the survival of the fittest. I thought rookie infielder Brooks Baldwin was a goner, too, and, then, boom, he collects four hits over his last two games, including three doubles. Way to go, young man, and ditto pitcher Davis Martin, back from Tommy John surgery that cost him all of last season. Martin threw 2.2 innings of one-run ball in his first appearance of the year. Again, keep it up. Because, as we all know, it’s a jungle out there.

Compare and Contrast

This verges on cruel: Dylan Cease pitches a no-hitter one day, and his replacement in the rotation manages just .2 innings, giving up eight two-out runs. And I like Drew Thorpe. Still, you wonder. In March, Sox GM Chris Getz traded Cease for three prospects. Thorpe now has a 3-2 record and a 4.81 ERA since being called up. Jairo Iriarte, a 22-year old righthander, is 3-6 with a 4.15 ERA at Double-A Birmingham. And 20-year old outfielder Samuel Zavala is hitting .196 with six homeruns and 29 RBIs for High-A Winston-Salem. Sort of makes you wonder what Getz will get if he trades Garrett Crochet.

Lucking Out

White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf really lucked out there with Dylan Cease. Just imagine if Cease had no-hit the Nationals, like he did yesterday, in a Sox uniform. It just wouldn’t do. As Reinsdorf has aged, he’s come to regard loyalty as the greatest character trait in others, more than talent or personality. Oh, and he seems to hold pitchers in particular low regard. See: Jack McDowell and Mark Buehrle. The Sox owner likes his players bland and amenable to front-office contract offers. Every once in a while, a player like A.J. Pierzynski will slip by, but less and less. Cease and Lucas Giolito had glimmers of personality, but they’re both gone. His team may be riding an eleven-game losing streak after falling 2-1 to the Rangers yesterday and saddled with a 27-78 record, not that Reinsdorf cares. He has what he craves most these days. Fans be damned.

You Could've Fooled Me

The White Sox did more than stink up the joint with their 10-2 loss last night to the Rangers. They set some milestones along the way. Like a ten-game losing streak—not to be confused with the fourteen-gamer in May-June—and a record of 27-77. That’s 50 games under .500, folks, with 58 games to go. And what does manager Mickey Mouse have to say about this debacle he presides over? Why, he told reporters “our No. 1 priority is to win baseball games, and we're trying to win games. We're not winning them. It's not like we're just coming out here to develop, you know?” [quote from story today on team website] You could’ve fooled me, Skipper. I don’t see any signs of development outside of Garrett Crochet, and your front office wants to trade him. But wait, there’s more. Mouse understands full well, “This is not a developmental league. This is the Major Leagues. You're coming here to win baseball games every single day. We're just not doing it. We're finding a way to lose the game in some way, shape or form. We’ve just got to continue to clean it up.” If by “clean it up,” he means back up the truck, go for it. And pack, while you’re at it.

Riddle Me This

Another game, another loss for the Mouseketeers, 3-2 to the Rangers last night. That’s nine in a row in case you’re counting, just one game behind the pace set by those ’62 Mets. But enough of that. How about this—there was a public Jerry Reinsdorf sighting yesterday. Propelled by a weird combination of tone deafness and keen sense of irony, Reisndorf showed up at the unveiling of a $7 billion redevelopment plan for the area around the United Center. Wait, there’s more. It involves developing a good portion of that sea of parking surrounding the home of the Bulls and Blackhawks, and it won’t involve public funding. Say what? The man who wants a free stadium for his other team and who won’t extend the star pitcher of said team and has never seemed interested in redeveloping any of that 70 acres of parking in the vicinity of 35th and Shields all of a sudden wants to underwrite a mega development on the Near West Side? If it didn’t hurt so much to laugh, I would.

Stench

The fish has gone from rotting from the head down to stinking all over. Last night in Texas, the White Sox suffered their eighth straight, 4-3 in ten innings to an underachieving Rangers’ team. They’re now one game behind the pace set by the 40-120 Mets in 1962. Keep a good thought. John Brebbia lost the game Sunday with three eighth-inning runs. For an encore yesterday, he gave up the game-tying hit with two out in the ninth. Just for fun, Steven Wilson followed suit in the tenth, a two-out single by Wyatt Langford providing the walk-off. The Sox were 1-for-14 with runners in scoring position, including the tenth inning, when the ghost runner didn’t move from second base as Luis Robert Jr., Andrew Benintendi and Tommy Pham failed to get the ball out of the infield. In fact, Robert and Benintendi struck out, which Sox “hitters” did seventeen times on the night. And yet Marcus Thames keeps his job as hitting coach. Then again, Mickey Mouse is still around, too.

Survival of the Fittest

There is no coaching at the major-league for the White Sox, unless you think Mickey Mouse and his staff qualify; enough said. What they have going instead is what Darwin wrote about, the survival of the fittest. And even that I wonder about. Yesterday in Kansas City, rookie starter Drew Thorpe was pretty much unhittable; Thorpe threw six shutout innings, allowing a mere three hits and two walks. He left with a 1-0 lead the bullpen turned into a 4-1 loss. That’s seven in a row in case you’re counting. The day before, fellow rookie starter Jonathan Cannon also threw six innings, though his weren’t nearly as clean, four runs (all earned) on eight hits. After the game, Cannon talked about the outing giving him “invaluable” experience (from story Sunday on team website). That’s putting a nice spin on things. And maybe Cannon’s right, given how he went on to retire twelve of the last thirteen batters he faced. Still, the danger here is that young players will press trying to get the win. With the position players, that could mean an error or a strikeout, as evidenced by Brooks Baldwin. After singling in his first major-league at-bat, Baldwin has gone 0-for-9 with five strikeouts. No physical harm, though. It's different with pitching. Pressing on the mound can lead to a shoulder injury or Tommy John surgery. Right now, all I can do is hold my breath until the Sox put a real coaching staff in place, if they ever do. It’d be a waste for all this talent to perish in the jungle.

Are We There Yet?

If this isn’t rock bottom for the White Sox, I don’t know what is. Last night’s 6-1 loss to the Royals pushes their record to 27-73, a franchise-worst at the 100-game mark in a season. Wait, there’s more. Andrew Benintendi had a ball sail over his head in left for a run-scoring double; Tanner Banks walked in two runs; and Mickey Mouse praised an opposing pitcher, yet again. Brady Singer, your place in Valhalla is waiting. Seven hits, one run, ten strikeouts, and hitting coach Marcus Thames has a job why, because his team has scored the fewest runs in baseball with the second-worst batting average in baseball? Pitching coach Ethan Katz has a job why? See Tanner Banks, above, or a team ERA of 4.60, third worst in all of baseball. And Jerry Reinsdorf owns this team why? Beats me.

Good and Bad

The White Sox drafted infielder Brooks Baldwin in the twelfth round of the 2022 draft. Good teams like the Braves and Dodgers are good at identifying talent in the later rounds. It’s strange to see the Sox doing the same. I’ve followed Baldwin’s progress the past two seasons for the simple fact the big-league club offers so little to root for. The switch-hitting Baldwin went from A to High-A last season, hitting better in High-A. He hit .322 for a half-season in Double-A this year and .345 (10-for-29) in Triple-A. Last night in Kansas City, the 23-year old singled on the second major-league he ever saw. All of this is good, unlike the 7-1 loss Baldwin found himself a part of. The Sox record now stands at 27-72, with manager Mickey Mouse still talking about how important it is to avoid hitting into double plays. The difference between the Braves and Dodgers and the Sox is this—those teams have people to manage their young talent, we have the Mouse.

A Falling Domino, Perhaps

Be still, my beating heart. Late last night, Clare called with news of a move by the White Sox—they released catcher Martin Maldonado and his .119 BA and his -1.5 WAR and his seven percent success rate throwing out baserunners and… The Sox also sent Lenyn Sosa back to the minors and released Danny Mendick. Fingers crossed that Bryan Ramos gets recalled and Mendick catches on with another team. Solid glove at second and third, surprising pop for someone 5’10”. Either the knee injury from 2022 is still affecting him, or he was pressing. Time will tell. Fingers also crossed that the front office decides it’s time to see what 21-year old catcher Edgar Quero can do. I mean, do you seriously think Quero could be any worse than Maldonado?

You Say Classic, I Say Circus

They call it the Midsummer Classic, for reasons that escape me. Circus is more like it, starting with Homerun Derby. Everybody there is auditioning for the job of Strongman. And yesterday the players dressed up in clown-color uniforms. Mlb.com tried to pass off the Bozo gear by saying, “The home American League jerseys will feature a sandy base, along with red sleeves and lettering, while the visiting National League threads will have a navy blue base, with light blue sleeves and lettering.” [online story, 7-3-24] That red sure looked like a shade of coral too coral for the Marlins, even. As for the game, it was mostly tall guys throwing hard to tall guys swinging hard. It added up to two total homeruns, fifteen strikeouts and a 5-3 AL win. Our giants are better than your giants. On the plus side, the game didn’t take long, only 2:28, amazing for a FOX production. Too bad MLB doesn’t have the guts (insert a stronger term here if you like) to insist FOX forego advertising the NFL. Too much to ask, Commissioner? At least Garrett Crochet pitched a scoreless inning.

Attitude

This is how bad things are—yesterday, the dentist apologized for upsetting me. She’s a White Sox fan whose family shares season tickets with a group of people. Between pokes to my gums, we talked about the state of the team. My voice must’ve gone up with each poke, or change of subject, from Mickey Mouse to John Schriffen to a new stadium in the South Loop; like me, she doesn’t see how Sox fans used to driving to the game will all of a sudden jump on public transit, assuming they can even find it in the suburbs. I may have lost it by the time we got around to discussing Garrett Crochet. No cavities, though. Later in the day, I picked up Michele from the train, and we went over to Clare’s for dinner. It was Home Run Derby, and my daughter insists on watching every year. Her pick was Pete Alonso, but his heart didn’t seem into it. Leo kept shouting, “Homerun, White Sox!” I wish.

OED

After falling to the Pirates 9-4 Sunday afternoon, the White Sox go into the All-Star break on a four-game losing streak. They have now been swept thirteen times this season, which is what you would expect from a 27-71 team. That’s two games better than the ’62 Mets, by the way. The team’s record seems to have caught manager Mickey Mouse by surprise. Mouse is nothing if not the walking definition of cluelessness. “This is not something we planned for. It’s something we really didn’t expect.” [quote from story in today’s Sun-Times] Funny, I did. The worst manager in franchise history went on to say, “You can’t pinpoint it to one area because there have been times where we’ve made mistakes mentally and physically on the field defensively. There have been times we have not executed a game plan.” They also can’t hit, at the bottom or one or two above it in most categories for all thirty teams. Other organizations would use the break to get a start on the inevitable housecleaning. Don’t count on the Sox following the lead of other organizations. It’s not the Reinsdorf way. I mean, who would the Chairman have to text and talk on the phone with if he got rid of Mouse?

This is Progress?

Ordinarily, I’d be head-over-heels happy to see the White Sox facing ex-teammate Yasmani Grandal, which is what happened yesterday. Sure enough, Grandal was Grandal, going 0-for-4, including a very sad foul bunt for strike three, and giving up two stolen bases to Luis Robert Jr. Of course, the Pirates still won, 6-2. Any team facing a squad managed by Mickey Mouse has more than a fighting chance, even with the likes of Grandal in the lineup. Here's the really, truly depressing thing: According to baseball-reference.com, Grandal is more than three times the player Martin Maldonado is, with a -0.5 WAR vs. -1.6 for Maldonado. In 129 at-bats, Grandal is hitting .178 with three homeruns and seventeen RBIs. In 135 at-bats, Maldonado is hitting .119 with four homers and eleven RBIs. Wait, there’s more. Grandal has caught 329.2 innings. During that time, he’s thrown out six of 34 potential base stealers for an eighteen percent throw-out rate while committing three passed ball and watching five wild pitches sail by. In comparison to Maldonado, he’s putting up Johnny Bench numbers. Maldonado has accumulated 388.2 (!) innings behind the plate and thrown out three of forty-one runners for a seven percent (!!) throw-out rate. He has as many passed balls as Grandal to go with eighteen wild pitches. Talk about intangibles. Speaking of the worst manager in franchise history, he said in the Sun-Times today, “We have to finish strong. We’ve got to find ways to finish this season in a manner that could set you up for next year.” I have two ideas in that regard.

Imagine

With a nod to Albert Brooks, I imagine I’ll have to defend my life in order to get into heaven. I can just see St. Peter playing a clip of all those times I said to Clare, “And where would the ball have gone if you’d managed to hit it?” Allow me to explain. Like most seven- and eight-year olds, my daughter would commit to a pitch too early and end up swinging off her front foot. Hence, the cutting remark from Dad. I said it often enough to impress upon my daughter the importance of waiting for the pitch to come to her. Clare ended up hitting a whole bunch of homeruns in high school and college; you can look it up in your book, St. Peter. And if I still end up going to the bad place, at least give me a chance to work with Luis Robert Jr. of the White Sox. How does someone make it all the way to the majors hitting off his front foot as often as Robert does? He did it again multiple times in last night’s 4-1 loss to the Pirates. Front-foot swing, usually a miss, mope back to the dugout. It’s not a pretty look. If Robert gets traded, I imagine someone like me will tell him what I told my daughter decades ago. It’d be nice if someone from the Sox did it, you know, better late than never. Maybe Mickey Mouse will get around to it now that he’s done excusing/rationalizing Eloy Jimenez’s proclivity to hit groundballs instead of line drives. Yeah, right.

So Long

Erick Fedde picked up the win in the first game of a doubleheader against the Twins yesterday, and Michael Kopech pitched an immaculate ninth inning, nine pitches, nine strikes, three punchouts. They should both be gone in another two weeks or so. Fedde, who now has a 7-3 record with a 2.99 ERA, signed a two-year deal for $15 million back in December. I’m guessing a whole bunch of teams are dangling prospects in front of Sox GM Chris Getz. Kopech has one more season of arbitration before hitting the free-agent market in 2026. Did I mention he hired Scott Boras as his agent a few days ago? He gone. If the White Sox knew how to hit, which they don’t as evidenced by their eight hits spread over two games yesterday, they might’ve swept. Rookie Drew Thorpe had a 2-0 shutout with one out in the sixth inning before giving up back-to-back jacks to Brooks Lee and Carlos Correa. Still, six innings pitched with three hits and two runs allowed isn’t bad. Michael Soroka is another story. Soroka gave up the winning run to push his record to 0-10. Yes, 0-10. Imagine the possibilities once Getz moves Kopech.

How Low Can They Go?

Why the White Sox recalled Jordan Leasure is beyond me, unless they wanted Michael Kopech 2.0, in which case they got it. Leasure entered the game in the seventh inning last night with a 5-2 lead. You know what happened, right? Double; single (run scores); groundout; two-run homerun to tie the score. You’d think that would lead to a pitching change , but Sox manager Mickey Mouse stands by his players, dab gummit, and let Leasure serve up a gopher ball to left fielder Matt Walner, who entered the game 3-for-26 on the season. Mickey’s kids rallied to tie the game and send it into extra innings, but the Sox don’t like to score after the ninth. Twins 8 Sox 6. Clare and Chris were at the game, with Grandpa pretending to his grandson that their team was good. My daughter reported the upper deck was closed off, and, sure enough, I read in the box score that attendance was announced at 10,881. Poor, poor Jerry Reinsdorf. The more his Sox lose, the harder it is for him to demand a new, publicly-funded stadium. Wait, there’s more. In olden times, the worse a team drew, the stronger its case for moving. But there’s been no sign from Nashville that it wants a team that loses like the ’62 Mets without any of the lovability. So, Reinsdorf stews, ala The Judge in “The Natural.” Good.

No Can Do

Jonathan Cannon is a major-league pitcher, Michael Kopech isn’t. It’s as simple as that. Yesterday in Miami, Cannon held the Marlins to one run on three hits over six innings; Kopech entered the ninth needing to protect a one-run lead. He walked the first batter; retired the next two; gave up a game-tying double; issued an intentional walk; balked the runners along; and served up a pitch that ex-White Sox Jake Burger hit for a 431-foot walk-off homerun. Cannon is sporting a 1.29 WHIP, which is pretty good for a rookie pitcher. In contrast, Kopech’s WHIP stands at 1.50. In case that number is too abstract, consider that the righthander has made 38 relief appearances this season. Only eight of them have been “clean,” where’s he’s retired every batter faced. All of which adds up to a 2-8 record, 5.45 ERA and five blown saves. Gosh, I wonder how Mickey and his brain trust will clean this problem up?

Checking the Map

Well, Garrett Crochet and the White Sox weren’t in Kansas yesterday, but Miami, where the Marlins fouled off 28 of Crochet’s pitches over the course of his four innings. Crochet left with the Sox ahead 3-2, but, well, we are talking the second coming of the ’62 Mets here. Reliever Michael Soroka was touched for a two-run homer, and that was the ballgame. Starting in the fourth inning, Sox “hitters” went 1-2-3 five out of six innings; a seventh-inning walk represented their only baserunner. Soroka’s record now stands at 0-9. Holy Mets. If he keeps it up, Soroka could match Craig Anderson’s 3-17 for the Lovable Losers of 1962, or Bob Miller’s 1-12. The Sox record stands at 26-65 after 91 games, vs. 24-67 for the expansion Mets. I have full faith in manager Mickey Mouse’s ability to close the gap and clinch a record he so richly deserves.

Hope, Sort Of

White Sox rookie righthander Drew Thorpe threw 6.1 innings of three-hit, one-run ball last night against the Marlins in a 3-2 Sox win. Thorpe picked up the victory and is now 3-1 with a 3.71 ERA since his callup last month. The temptation is to dream, and hope that the Sox will have themselves a real starting staff before long. But then I read today in the Tribune online how Thorpe says he’s been learning from his teammates since coming up. By that, I assume he’s including Garrett Crochet, who pitches today. And that’s good. But what if Crochet gets traded? What can Thorpe learn from Chris Flexen or Mike Clevinger? The bad possibilities abound.

Trivial Pursuit

Yesterday, the White Sox used four pitchers who combined for a twelve-hit, 8-4 loss in Cleveland. The thing of it is, I couldn’t name any of them if you asked me. Just as well for a team 25-64, one game better than the ’62 Mets at the same point in the season. If only I could forget the name of manager Mickey Mouse. If only. Lately, his Kops have been oopsing and dropping and catcher-interfering, all of which led him yesterday to proclaim it’s, “Just little things, little details. The game came [down] to a few decisions that we opted in another direction that cost us.” [quote from story in today’s Sun-Times] Opting to lose—that would explain a franchise picking Mouse to manage in the first place.

An Early Fourth

A visit from my grandson includes hitting off a tee in our backyard, Clare constantly working on Leo’s stance. Whatever she said late yesterday afternoon led to a stinging line drive into Grandpa’s stomach. I have to remind myself to stand further back next time. A visit from my grandson also includes playing with trucks big and small; right now he prefers the small one, Tootsie Toys, a Chicago precursor to Hot Wheels. If you wanted a semi or a cement mixer back in the day, you went to an Ace Hardware, Woolworth’s or drug store with a good toy aisle. Since it was hot and humid and our attic isn’t air-conditioned, we brought a bunch of trucks downstairs into the living room to play with. Of course, the TV was on to the White Sox-Guardians’ game, so we actually saw Martin Maldonado hit a two-run homerun; I liked Leo’s hit more. As for my grandson, all he wanted to do was crash his dump truck into Grandpa’s. Berwyn did fireworks a day early, though late for any self-respecting, almost three-year old. The Sox and trucks kept Leo up until 9 P.M., when we all went back out into the yard to ooh and ah at the explosion of colors in the night sky; one of the perks of living in our Berwyn bungalow is proximity to the high school football field where the show takes place. For me, the best fireworks’ shows were the ones after White Sox games, that is, until I could sit next to my grandson as he watched his first.

Keystone Kops 2.0

Oh, are these White Sox bad. Take Paul DeJong, please. On Sunday, DeJong went 0-for-6 against the Rockies, including two strikeouts and two double plays (hitting into, not turning). Last night in Cleveland, DeJong got thrown out at the plate in the second inning and then hit Josh Naylor in the back with a throw as Naylor advanced from second to third on a groundball in the sixth inning when Cleveland went on to score three runs. Error, DeJong, who has eleven on the season, one less than this career high back in 2018. And let’s not forget “closer” Michael Kopech or centerfielder Luis Robert Jr., who combined to lose the game 7-6 in the bottom of the ninth. Kopech was Kopech, giving up a leadoff single, followed by a groundout that advanced the runner followed by a wild pitch. Kopech caught his spike delivering a pitch that went very much astray. Runner on third, one out. Enter Robert, who up until that moment was having a very good night going, at 2-for-4 with a homerun and four RBIs. The Guardians’ Bo Naylor lofted a flyball to Roberts, who decided not to make a throw. End of ballgame. Why did our “star” centerfielder eat the ball? Because “I didn’t have a chance.” [quote from story on team website today] Did that line of thinking upset manager Mickey Mouse? Of course not: “He’s playing in because there’s one out. He’s going back. Even if he runs back and comes in, there’s no play there. If we’re going to dissect that, we’re making something out of nothing. You’re not going to throw that guy out from there.” Mouse also defended DeJong, if not quite as strongly, saying “I thought he made the right decision going there” to third base. The devil’s in the details, I guess. Making something out of nothing—there’s Mouse’s managerial epitaph in five words, and this organization’s.

Anniversary

The ball is one of eighteen I have on display; it’s the only one without an autograph or more, with thirteen of them being White Sox team autograph balls. That doesn’t make it any less important. The label reads, “Clare Bukowski, Berwyn Bronco Yankees/2-run walk-off homer/225 feet, left-center field/July 2, 2004.” God, could my twelve-year old daughter hit. The next day, despite my attempts to dissuade her, Clare insisted on taking part in an All-Star homerun hitting contest. I think it’s safe to say most if not all of the other participants also played on travel teams. Clare was the only girl. She finished fifth out of 25. She played one more year of baseball, moving up to the Pony level, and I wanted her to come back for a second year the summer between grade school and high school, but it didn’t work out. Berwyn switched over to Little League, and that involved way too much money for us as we were just starting to navigate our way through travel softball. Several years ago, our daughter let it slip she would’ve liked to play softball at the University of Chicago, why I really couldn’t say. Maybe she heard that Kim Ng had played there, or she had a thing for Enrico Fermi. The Maroons’ playing field is located a few blocks from the site of Stagg Field, where scientists for the Manhattan Project split the atom in a facility under football grandstands back in 1942. Ng went from softball to baseball, working her way up to general manager of the Marlins in late 2020. Despite leading Miami to the playoffs last season, she left the team over what may have been a power struggle. Ng reportedly moved on after learning the Marlins intended to create the position of president of baseball operation, who in effect would be her boss. Clare called me yesterday to say that Ng had signed on as a senior advisor for yet another attempt to establish a pro women’s softball league. Right now, Athletes Unlimited has players compete on an individual basis; think a series of All-Star Games where pay is based on individual performance. According to an AU press release, next year a number of teams will barnstorm and the year after that four teams will play in host cities. Baseball doesn’t particularly want women, and pro softball can’t seem to catch on. My onetime baseball player is currently teaching her son how to hit. I wonder if she’ll do that with her daughter, too. And will it be baseball or softball?

Guilt By Association

Another start for Garrett Crochet, another bunch of strikeouts, eleven Rockies over seven innings yesterday in an eventual 14-inning 5-4 White Sox loss. Did I mention Crochet didn’t issue a walk? Not that it matters. According to Bob Nigthengale in yesterday’s USA Today, the Sox had “brief contract extension talks” with Crochet, but nothing happened. What, Crochet wouldn’t take a lowball offer from his overlords? For shame. Just because he has 140 strikeouts (vs. 20 walks) in 101.1 innings with a .93 WHIP and .198 opponents’ batting average, who does this guy think he is? Especially using CAA Sports to represent him. These are the people who signed Shohei Ohtani to a record contract, and Jerry Reinsdorf announced to the world last August he wouldn’t be going after Ohtani. If not Ohtani, then not Crochet, even if he just turned 25 and could be the foundation of a kiddie corps with Jonathan Cannon, Drew Thorpe and some intriguing minor-league pitchers. Nope, Reinsdorf is a person of firm beliefs and budgets who won’t pay market value for a pitcher any more than he would a new stadium. Lucky us.