Contact

I finally got around to reading a story in The Athletic from last month by Mitch Bannon, “The Blue Jays made contact hitting cool again. Can the rest of MLB follow?” According to Bannon, the Jays’ ability to make contact and get hits—that second part is important—is leading other teams to try and do the same. I would hope so. During the regular season, the Jays struck out the second fewest times in baseball while leading the majors in on-base percentage; at the same time, they were tied for eleventh in homeruns. The Yankees may dig the long ball, to the point of leading all of baseball in that department, but they lost to Toronto in the ALDS. So, there’s that. Baseball being baseball, people want to have their cake, or homeruns, and eat it, too, meaning plenty of contact. Baseball being baseball, teams will want to stock their lineups with as many Aaron Judge clones as they can find while going light on anyone like Ozzie Guillen or Luis Arraez, who struck out a mere 21 times in 675 plate appearances this season. Yet Arraez only managed a .327 on-base percentage to go with 61 RBIs and 66 runs scored. Not the kind of production you want at first base. Second base, where Arraez used to play, Yes, but his defense there is nothing to write home about. Any manager or general manager who has a player with near identical BA and OBP will check the power numbers. Arraez had eight on the season. That’s why he’s still a free agent. Vlad Guerrero Jr., on the other hand, had 23 homers to go with a .381 OBP, which is why he got himself a huge contract back in April—fourteen years, $500 million. Like I said, cake and eat it, too.

Simple as One, Two, Three

It’s simple, really. The Bulls can’t afford to lose more than one of the people in their ten-player rotation. Last night against the Timberwolves, they were short three. T-Wolves 136 Bulls 101 in a game that wasn’t as close as the score suggests. First, center Zach Collins didn’t even play; Collins has a sprained big toe that could keep him out a week (hello, losing streak). Then, halfway through the first quarter Coby White aggravated his calf injury. Wait, there’s more. Josh Giddey looked like he pulled his left hamstring at the start of the third quarter. And a close game turned into a rout. It’s disappointing none of the other Bulls stepped up, if not to win the game then at least make it respectable. Minnesota committed three—that’s right, three—turnovers all night to sixteen for the Bulls. Enough said.

A Two-Minute Warning

Why did the Bears lose 42-38 to the 49ers last night on the road? Because they get clock-clueless around the two-minute warning. After D’Andre Swift picked up a first down at the Bears’ 31-yard line with 2:31 left in the half, the Munsters ran off zero plays until the warning. The possession ended with a punt and the Bears still down by seven. The 49ers pulled ahead with 2:15 left in the game. The ensuing kickoff went into the end zone for a touchback. The Bears had all three timeouts left plus the two-minute warning, which they proceeded to squander on a run play. Wait, there’s more. There was 1:01 left after quarterback Caleb Williams completed a fourteen-yard pass to Luther Burden III at the San Francisco 31. Williams, whether on his own or per instructions, wasted sixteen seconds before calling the next play. Only then did the timeouts start. Too bad the Bears were all out of them by the time they had the ball at the 2-yard line; you don’t have any room for error with just four seconds left. Maybe if they’d managed the clock a little smarter… Oh, and maybe if Pro Bowl guard Joe Thuney hadn’t just stood there and instead blocked Yetur Gross-Matos in hot pursuit of Thuney’s quarterback, Williams could’ve set himself instead of throwing off his back foot and bouncing the ball to an open Jahde Walker in the end zone. Oh, well. Let’s call the loss a learning experience, and leave it at that. Until and unless it happens again.

What the Camera Caught, Part II

The Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo played for the first time in over three weeks last night, which meant that the Bulls’ winning streak ended at five games. Bucks 112 Bulls 103, with Antetokounmpo scoring 29 points with eight rebounds. But the big guy might want that last basket back. With seven seconds left in the game, Antetokounmpo rebounded a three-point try by Kevin Huerter. Instead of letting time run down, Antetokounmpo trotted down the court for a windmill jam. Nikola Vucevic and Coby White took exception. Benches cleared but no punches. My suggestion would be two-fold: First, start a new streak tomorrow against the Timberwolves. Then, file this one away for the next game against the Bucks, February 3rd in Milwaukee.

What the Camera Caught

After losing to some of the worst teams in the NBA, the Bulls have gone on a five-game winning streak against .500-or-above teams. Last night, it was the Sixers who fell by a score of 109-102. Five days after allowing the Hawks to score 150 points in a win, the Bulls do 48 points better against Joel Embiid and company. Team defense. Who knew? The Bulls scored the last ten points of the game, which was cool, especially when you consider Tre Jones and Zach Collins led the attack with fifteen points apiece. Jones in particular impressed with two offensive rebounds and a basket in the final 58 seconds. And let’s not forget Jalen Smith, who dunked over Embiid with 2:31 remaining to set the United Center roaring for the last of his twelve points. The win pulls the Bulls back to .500, with a game tonight against the slumping Bucks. Let’s see if coach Billy Donovan can keep his ten-player-deep attack going. It would be nice to see the Bulls win, if only to grab some coverage away from the Bears. As it is, nobody seems to be commenting on what Embiid did after the game. You’d think a highly-paid star with aching knees would head straight to the showers after a tough road loss. Not Embiid, who stuck around to sign autographs and pose for photos with fans; the camera showed Embiid doing his thing while the Amazon Prime announcers were wrapping up. Talk about class. That, my friends, is how you grow the game.

Overkill

Hey, do you like on-and-on feature stories on rookie offensive lineman? Well, get a hold of today’s Tribune and read all about the Bears’ Ozzy Trapilo. How ’bout a story about the Bears at practice? A Bears’ player taking kids on a shopping trip for Christmas gifts? Or a story on the foam cheese-grater DJ Moore wore in the locker room after he caught the game-winning touchdown Saturday against the Packers? Or… You get the idea. We’re in a full-on Bears-blitz. Not the one with linebackers and defensive backs. No, this is one that grabs you by the eyes and ears and won’t let go. The only way any other Chicago team gets this kind of coverage is if they go deep into the playoffs, if that. The story on Trapilo was more like an epistle from St. Paul at his wordiest. And we don’t even know who the Bears play in the first round yet. There’s no escaping this onslaught in print, onscreen or over the radio. I just don’t get it.

Old Habits

Everybody came back to our house after the 4 PM children’s Christmas Eve Mass yesterday for a supper of barley soup and pierogi. When I went out onto the back porch to get Maeve’s highchair, Leo followed along and spotted the bat and wiffle balls. Of course, he asked, “Why can’t we play baseball?” Because we’re three days removed from the shortest day of the year and it’s pitch black outside, that’s why. Not that it mattered to my daughter and grandson Saturday afternoon. The snow was all melted, the ground dry enough. To a veteran of Illinois high-school softball, that plus anything over freezing qualified as “Play Ball!” weather. And they did. Now, not only does Leo like to hit, he wants to pitch, too. That explains the line drive off his cheek. “I was trying to hit fly balls,” the sheepish parent said to me when I brought it up. My daughter just can’t help herself with a bat in her hands. In Bronco Ball, she once hit a pitcher who had to be carried off the field. The next year, the boys on his team pointed out “that girl.” It happened again both in travel ball and fall ball, I think, pitchers on the receiving end of a shot off Clare’s bat. In her defense, I should note she was only practicing good hitting per the beliefs of Bill “Moose” Skowron. We met the Chicagoan and ex-Yankee near-great—who spent parts of four years on the South Side late in his career—at a White Sox convention when Clare was at Elmhurst. After Clare mentioned she played college softball, the man who hit .293 with eight homeruns over the course of eight World Series offered this advice: “Hit the ball up the middle, and don’t worry if you take the f****n’ pitcher’s head off.” Provided the pitcher isn’t your flesh and blood. I’m guessing Clare has one sports-related New Year’s resolution she’s going to work extra hard on.

Pulse Plus

OK, the Bulls did in fact register back-to-back wins against the Hawks in Atlanta (talk about weird scheduling). If nothing else, they survived Tre Young. Sunday, Young poured in 35 points to go with nine assists in a 152-150 (!) win for the visitors; Mr. Nemesis missed a contorted jumper with time expiring to tie the game. The Bulls countered Young by having nine players—topped by Matas Buzelis with 28 points—score in double figures. Last night was more of a “defensive” game, if a 126-123 score indicates defense. And Coby White led the way scoring 24 points as he tries to regain his “seas legs,” while Ayo Dosunmu didn’t take the bait late in the game when Young tried to provoke him with a pat on the butt. Young may have been angling for a punch thrown and an opponent tossed. Instead, he and Dosunmu were each assessed a technical as the Hawks were outscored 34-18 in the fourth quarter. So, that’s four wins in a row against two teams, the Cavs and Hawks, both ahead of the Bulls in the division standings. What does it mean? Basically, that the 14-15 Bulls can win if everyone stays healthy. No great players on the roster (yet), just a bunch of good ones. That said, this may turn into the best Bulls’ team since the days of Derrick Rose. Granted, it’s a low bar. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Priorities

Beware the Chicken Littles dressed in Bears’ jerseys now that the Kansas City Chiefs have agreed to leave Missouri for Kansas. Why? Because that august state is going to pick up 60 percent of the tab to build the Chiefs a new $3 billion stadium. How generous of a state that refuses to expand Medicaid coverage to residents. Truly, the state has its priorities in order. Better to help the Hunt family, carpetbag owners, before any needy Kansan. One last thing for the Chicken Littles to consider—the Chiefs intend to build a domed stadium, which will be number eleven in the NFL; the Bears’ would be number twelve and the Commanders’ thirteen. Correct me if I’m wrong, but if you keep increasing the supply of big indoor venues, won’t you be decreasing the chances of getting a Super Bowl or Final Four? Seems to me the sky’s falling only if you build an NFL dome.

Then What?

Well, that was a surprise. The White Sox have signed 25-year old slugger Munetaka Murakami to a two-year, $34 million deal. Sox GM Chris Getz is hoping the swing that’s produced 265 homeruns along with 722 RBIs and a .273 BA over eight seasons will translate from Japan to the major leagues. We’ll see. The signing comes with some risks. The lefthanded-hitting Murakami does a mean Dave Nicholson/Adam Dunn imitation in his swings-and-misses, striking out as much as 184 times in a season. And he’s not exactly a Gold Glove at first or third base, his two principal positions. From what I can see, the idea is to put him at first base. OK, then what? Something, or somebody, has to give and make room for Murakami. My guess is Getz will make at least one and maybe two deals before Opening Day to resolve the glut of infield talent, up to and including a switch of Colson Montgomery to centerfield if Luis Robert Jr. gets moved. More likely, Lenyn Sosa will be playing somewhere else before long. Is signing Murakami a good idea? For now, let’s just say it isn’t a bad or dumb move. In baseball as in other areas of life, nothing ventured nothing gained. And the Sox are forcing Chicago media to cover a story totally unrelated to the Bears, which is always welcome.

Incredible…Wet Blanket

The Bears scored ten points with 2:04 left in regulation to force overtime against the Packers in a rocking Soldier Field last night and then went on to win on a 46-yard touchdown throw from Caleb Williams to DJ Moore. Nothing short of incredible. Now for the stuff that might otherwise be forgotten in all the excitement, like ten penalties for 105 yards. That can’t happen in the postseason. Same goes for time of possession. You can’t expect to beat a good team by letting them control the ball over twelve minutes more than you do. And you can’t expect to beat a good team by knocking out their starting quarterback with a concussion, which is what the Bears did to Jordan Love in the second quarter. And you can’t let the backup quarterback perform like he was the starter. Malik Willis went 9-for-11 for 121 yards and a touchdown, with no interceptions. Willis also rushed for 44 yards on ten carries. Pout it all together, and he had a 142.8 rating. The Bears struggled to beat a Packers’ team without edge rusher Micah Parsons playing and Love playing just over a quarter; there were other Green Bay injuries as well that, together, probably explain why they went 0-for-5 in the red zone. You can’t expect the opposition to misfire like that in the postseason. Speaking of misfiring, Bears’ coach Ben Johnson must wondering how long his quarterback will keep scrambling to his right only to heave desperation throws; it isn’t pretty, and it isn’t effective. If I’m reading the stats correctly, Caleb Williams has been called four times for intentional grounding while doing his escape act, right, left or in the hands of an opponent. Of the four teams that have done it four or more times, only the Bears are going to the postseason, where you definitely don’t want it to happen. That said, a win’s a win, and a win against the Packers is always nice.

A Pulse

Not only have the Bulls won two in a row, they beat the same team, the Cavaliers, who have a winning record. What gives? In part, injuries and sickness, along with the truth of “what goes around, comes around.” The Bulls are only recently healthy, playing with everyone they need over the past week or so. They needed a full roster to beat back Donovan Mitchell, who scored 32 points against them Wednesday but sat out last night’s game due to illness, and All-Star guard Evan Mobley missed both games with a calf injury. Hence, maybe, the win. Next up are two games against the Hawks, with guard Tre Young, another Bulls’ nemesis, coming off of injury. The nice thing about being healthy is, coach Billy Donovan cand throw a lot of people at the opposition; when guard Kevin Huerter and center Zach Collins are getting significant playing time, it’s a good thing. Last night, they combined for 27 points and eight rebounds off the bench. Guard Tre Jones also contributed sixteen points and six assists in 22 minutes. If the Bulls can beat Atlanta both games, we’ll see. Otherwise, whatever.

Sign of the Times

The White Sox finished the overhaul of their coaching staff this week. Of the ten coaches who’ll suit up for a game, only one, bullpen coach Matt Wise, has major-league experience. The assistant pitching coach is 29, one of the bullpen catchers 22 (!). Journalist Jimmy Breslin once wrote a book, Can’t Anyone Here Play This Game?, about the hapless ’62 Mets (more hapless than the 2024 Sox?). Breslin wrote back when teams tended to hire people with major-league experience out of the belief they could impart lessons learned playing to current players. Those were the days. Now teams hire callow youth that already seems to know it all.

Road(s) to Nowhere

Bears’ President and CEO Kevin Warren is broadening the team’s search for worthy home for a “world-class stadium” fans can be proud of to include—wait for it—northwest Indiana. This is a ploy equally pathetic and funny. Warren sent a letter to season-ticket holders yesterday relaying the news. He also deigned to talk to the Tribune about the stadium situation. The one thing he failed to do was tell the truth and admit the Bears were issuing an empty threat in a sad, sad effort to gain some leverage. If Warren were being honest, he’d note how hard it would be for fans to get to a world-class stadium in Indiana, an oxymoron if there ever was one. Are fans going to take the Skyway? Sure, provided they’re ready to shell out $7.80 in tolls to get there, or $15.60 for a roundtrip. And then what, a site along I-90 or I-80? Pick your poison, unless bumper-to-bumper semis going 70 mph or more is your cup of tea. All those trucks on a Sunday night, all those fans slightly tipsy after a game. Imagine the possibilities World class? Hmm. The Bears think the 326 acres they own in Arlington Heights would be perfect, if only the General Assembly rolled over and gave them the power to negotiate property taxes with local governmental agencies. No doubt, they’d get that in Indiana, but where, exactly? For 326-plus acres of property across the state line, odds are it won’t be pristine. Far more likely, the land will be a brownfield in need of major remediation. Check that. It’s Indiana. Passing a magic wand over the site should suffice for cleanup. Bears’ fans might glow in Indiana, but it will have nothing to do with beating the Packers.

Regrets?

I wonder if Billy Donovan ever regrets saying “Yes” when Arturas Karnisovas offered him the Bulls’ head-coaching job? I would. The latest installment in “how low can they go?” came Sunday at the United Center with a 114-104 loss to the five-win Pelicans. Yes, two of those wins have come against the Bulls. I swear Zion Williamson comes off the injured list just to play the Bulls. In the Pelicans’ first win the big, fragile one scored 29 points; on Sunday, he came off the bench to rack up eighteen. It was his first appearance in two weeks. Everyone knows the Bulls have to do something. The players keep saying the right things while doing none of them. To watch Coby White and Nikola Vucevic on the floor is to see two players who have basically given up. How long until Matas Buzelis and Josh Giddey join in? Yet Karnisovas sits sphinxlike, without a care what the public or the media think. How low can they go? Good question.

Double or Nothing

I’ll say this for writers in The Athletic—they’re not afraid of coming off dumb. For example, take Jayson Stark, who on December 3 wrote a column, “The gapper is dead: Who killed the double and triple — and what can MLB do about it?” According to Stark, analytics have dictated a switch in outfield defense. Everyone plays deeper, which reduces the number of extra base hits, that plus far more athletic outfielders. To help prove his point, Stark notes a precipitous decline in the rate of doubles since 1992 and triples since, well, forever. The answer to the problem? Draw a line in the outfield that outfielders would have to be standing at when a ball is hit. Sounds dumb to me. Even worse, at no point in his article does Stark note another, even greater, affect of analytics on baseball, that the expected result of every at-bat should be a homerun or a walk at the risk of a strikeout. Once that idea becomes standard operating procedure, doubles and triples become an afterthought at best, stolen bases something even less. With this mindset, the baseball establishment emphasizes power above all else. I wonder what kind of careers Lou Brock and Rickey Henderson would have today, or Dustin Pedroia. Albie Pearson or Freddie Patek, both 5’5”? Forget about it. I continue to believe female ballplayers could easily play at the level of Pedroia, but will be ignored for a perceived lack of power. Did I mention Pedroia has more than a few HOF supporters? Once upon a time (think before the computer), players were encouraged to “think two” the second they hit the ball. Think Kirby Puckett, who hit 39 doubles at the age of 35. Players without power contributed by going from first to third or stealing bases, the latter of which explains Maury Wills and Patek, who had 385 stolen bases over a fourteen-year career. Those days are gone. And drawing a line in the grass won’t bring them back.

Why, Why, Why?

The Bears couldn’t have asked for an easier opponent than the hapless, three-win Browns. After three bone-chilling hours of play (and windchill of minus-eight degrees at the friendly confines of Soldier Field), a final score of 31-3, Bears. The score was 28-3 going into the fourth quarter. So, why in heaven’s name did quarterback Caleb Williams play the entire game? Williams passed four times over the course of two possessions and was sacked once. Any one of those plays could have resulted in injury. Just ask Patrick Mahomes. Teams have backup quarterbacks for a reason, yes? While we’re at it, why oh why did FOX have to make a prophet out of me by showing some clown shirtless in the cold? I told Michele Saturday night this would happen. The prophets speaks again—expect FOX to show that same clown or one—or more—just like him doing the same thing Saturday night when the Packers come to town. Keep it on, and keep the Cheeseheads out of the end zone.

"I Can't Wait"

The weather outside may be frightful (eight degrees, wind coming out of the northwest, you do the windchill), but Clare is getting ready to sign up Leo for t-ball in the spring. Sticker shock made both for an unpleasant surprise and a quick decision. Apparently, hoity-toity suburban t-ball costs an arm and a leg; by volunteering to help run the program, a parent saves a leg. My daughter is nothing if not Halas-like with her finances. So, she’s going to help. No, let me rephrase that. She’s going to help coach. She told me yesterday from the kitchen during the first or second batch of snicker doodles. “I can’t wait to see what the dads will say when they see a mom coaching their sons,” Clare offered while pulling duty as assistant baker to Michele. Well, if they’re smart, they’ll keep their mouths shut and be thankful somebody who knows how to hit—and is already teaching her son—can impart some building-block wisdom onto their kids. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a bunch of mini- Bronx Bombers come May.

Baby Step

The Bulls ended their losing streak at seven games last night, beating the Hornets 129-126 on the road in Charlotte. It’s a start. Something other than the win is worth noting here—center Nikola Vucevic only played 21 minutes and sat out the entire fourth quarter. And we’re not talking injury. No, Zach Collins and Jalen Smith took over for Vucevic, a combination that generated 21 points and eighteen rebounds. Rumor has it the Timberwolves are interested in guard Coby White, and a trade might be a really good idea. White’s return hasn’t resulted in much of a boost, with the Bulls just 2-5 with him back on the court. Worse, the seven-year guard isn’t playing much, if any, defense. In comparison, Vucevic looks like the second coming of Bill Russell out there. Make a deal, hope for health; Isaac Okoro’s return to the lineup certainly helped. Maybe, just maybe, this ship can be righted, even with Arturas Karnisovas at the helm.

Extremes

I don’t get it, how mlb.com lurches from one extreme to another. Right now, MLB’s mouthpiece is in its breathless, gossipy phase. Will the Mets pull off a blockbuster trade for pitcher Tarik Skubal? What are the chances Alex Bregman re-signs with the Red Sox? Take a look at the three-year deal closer and “absolute stud” Robert Suarez signed with the Braves. Report the news or fan the desire of front offices to make news? Either way works for mlb.com Then, Boom! Work stoppage, and the site has nothing to say, or had nothing to say once the player lockout began in December of 2021. Odds are the same thing will happen again with another lockout predicted when the CBA ends after next season. From rumors to crickets in a flash. How mature.

Bullet Dodged, I Think

One of the weirder rumors coming out of the winter meetings this week was that the Red Sox were experiencing some seller’s—as opposed to buyer’s—remorse over the Garrett Crochet deal of last winter. Oh, Boston is way happy with Crochet (who wouldn’t be after his 18-5 season in 2025?) just like they were back in 2016 when they acquired Chris Sale from us. Only it appears the Red Sox wish they hadn’t included catcher Kyle Teel as part of the deal last December. Which may prove lightning doesn’t strike twice or that you can’t fool the same organization twice or that Rick Hahn wasn’t around to accept another deal with the updated versions of Yoan Moncada and Michael Kopech. Take your pick. Anyway, Hahn’s replacement as White Sox GM didn’t bite, yet. And, if Chris Getz is serious about engineering a successful rebuild on the South Side, he’ll hold onto a player who looks exceptional at the plate and not-too-shabby behind it.

Now What?

The White Sox lucked out yesterday by winning the first pick in the 2026 draft. Depending how he does his junior year, UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky is the consensus top talent in the draft. Do the Sox pick him? Right now, they have a promising shortstop in Colson Montgomery, and their first-round pick in this year’s draft was shortstop Billy Carlson, who wowed more than a few observers with his defensive abilities. Plus, in the same draft they picked shortstop Kyle Lodise, now ranked as the ninth-best prospect in the system (Carlson is third) while Caleb Bonemer, a shortstop/third baseman, is ranked right after Carlson. Who’s going to play where? Only time and talent will tell. It’s a safe bet, though, that third base and centerfield on the South Side will go to a couple of ex-shortstops before long.

DOAT

Hats off to sportswriter Grant Brisbee who wrote what I believe is the dumbest column I’ve ever read in my life. The piece, “Jeff Kent is a deserving Hall of Famer, and so is Barry Bonds,” ran in The Athletic, 12-8-25. Brisbee made one obvious if not-too-dumb observation, that Kent’s offensive numbers benefitted from having Bonds in the same lineup. After which, Brisbee races to the dumbest of the dumb, wanting to know “did you see what Bonds was doing at the same time? It was alien. Absolutely alien. The sport will never, ever see anything like it again.” Why do you think that is, Grant? Because Barry Bonds was using PEDs bigtime, that’s why. What makes Brisbee’s argument pathetic as well as dumb is he doesn’t even employ the “it wasn’t banned at the time” defense that Ken Rosenthal and others trot out. (If it wasn’t banned, then why didn’t PEDs’ users admit to using at the time? Because they wanted to minimize the number of cheaters so everybody wouldn’t have inflated stats, that’s why). No, Brisbee goes full ostrich and doesn’t mention PEDs or steroids once. Instead of letting juicers into Cooperstown, I have a better idea—kick out Bud Selig, the commissioner who turned a blind eye to PEDs.

Tick-tock

You could point out Calbe Williams’ inability to put together a strong performance over the course of four quarters or a secondary that trotted while Green Bay receivers zoomed, and that would help explain the Bears 28-21 loss to the Packers yesterday in Cheese Land. Or you could read all the epistles that have been and will be written about the game, and you won’t read the criticism that follows here—head coach Ben Johnson mismanaged the clock at the end of the game with his team down by seven. The Bears had a first down at the Green Bay 47 with 3:26 left to play in regulation; they managed all of two plays between then and the two-minute warning. My guess is that Johnson was being too smart by half, wanting to score and deny the Packers any time to answer. But they had the ball at the Packers’ 17 coming out of the warning. Then it was three straight runs, bringing up fourth-and-one at the 14 with 27 seconds left on the clock. Only then did Johnson use the first of his three timeouts. Why not a pass or two before? Say they score with a minute left. OK, challenge your defense to hold. Why not use a timeout or two rather than run down the clock and face a fourth down with just 27 seconds to go? Williams ended up throwing an interception in the end zone. I can’t help but think the result would’ve been different had Johnson not been so clock-focused. The Packers visit Soldier Field in twelve days. Let’s see what, if anything, Johnson has learned by then.

Great Expectations, Not

The baseball winter meetings heat up tomorrow in Orlando. If the White Sox sign any free agents, it’s likely to be another Anthony Kay, a first-round bust for the Mets back in 2016 who went 17-15 with a 2.49 ERA over the last two seasons in Japan. Kay signed a two-year, $12 million deal. I’m guessing he gets flipped before the end of that contract. What I expect, hope, to happen is a degree of resolution on the roster—come spring training, will it include, Luis Robert Jr., Lenyn Sosa, Miguel Vargas? And what will happen to rookie catcher Edgar Quero? Does he stay, or does he go? Some combination of the above could bring a nice haul in return. Or maybe GM Chris Getz will borrow a page from his predecessor. Rick Hahn loved working under the radar, announcing a deal or signing out of the blue. Good thing there isn’t another Yasmani Grandal out there. I don’t need a sequel.

Look Out Below

This is how bad the Bulls are right now. The four-win Pacers beat them last Saturday, then lost their next two games, which brought them to the United Center last night. End of losing streak, 120-105. Meanwhile, the Bulls have lost six in a row. If Josh Giddey and Matas Buzelis are the future, they can’t cough up the ball like they did, five turnovers for Giddey, four for Buzelis. Giddey got himself a nice $100 million contract extension in the offseason. Let’s just say nine points on the night don’t erase those turnovers or justify that contract. Yes, the Bulls are injured all of a sudden—Ayo Dosunmu, Kevin Hherter, Tre Jones, Issac Okoro, Jalen Smith, plus Coby White’s calf is keeping him on restricted minutes. Maybe everyone comes back, and they dig themselves out of their hole. That still doesn’t explain the play of Giddey and Buzelis. Go, Bears.

Your Bias is Showing

I just finished looking at The Athletic. Talk about bias. Anyplace that doesn’t touch on the Atlantic Ocean—or the Pacific, provided it’s Los Angeles—doesn’t count, at least when it comes to baseball. Must be hard to make a case for the Giants and the Jets. Unlike baseball. Start with Jim Bowden’s winter-meetings’ wish list, which could’ve been written by the Mets’, Red Sox and Yankees’ front offices. In addition, Bowden takes on HOF balloting. If it were up to him, he’d have the Contemporary Era HOF Committee elect Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Gary Sheffield, likely steroids’ use be damned. The ex-GM of the Reds and Nationals also wouldn’t mind Don Mattingly’s selection. Hey, “It wasn’t his fault he had injuries, but that’s why he hasn’t gotten in.” [quote from story in today’s The Athletic] As ever, there’s more. Ken Rosenthal, to be specific. He of the bow tie thinks, “As Baseball Hall of Fame standards change, voters must recalibrate with them.” Pitchers don’t win 300 games anymore, injuries keep players from accumulating stats that were once used to guide Cooperstown enshrinement. Like Bowden, Rosenthal thinks the effect of injuries on careers has to be weighed, even at risk of going down the “slippery slope.” He also wants consideration given to character. Contemporary Era HOF candidates “Mattingly and [Dale] Murphy were considered shining representatives of the sport, as were [Carlos] Delgado and [Fernando] Valenzuela.” If “bad guys” like Bonds and Clemens—both of whom Rosenthal voted for—are to be kept out, then “good guys” should get a boost on character grounds. [quote from story, 12-4-2025] This is what I want to know: Will the standards that a HOF voter like Rosenthal employs to make his decisions ever evolve to include the likes of ex-White Sox stars Paul Konerko and Mark Buehrle? I mean, no injuries for either and never a hint of scandal. In fact, in 2014 Konerko and Jimmy Rollins shared the Roberto Clemente Award for outstanding character. One of my daughter’s favorite players also collected 1412 RBIs on 439 homeruns and 2340 hits. Keep in mind Rosenthal is ready to grant HOF entry to Giants’ catcher Buster Posey, with just 1500 career hits and 729 RBIs to his name. I can’t wait to see what A.J. Pierzynski, with over 500 more hits and 180 more RBIs, will have to say about that. As for Buehrle, those 214 wins, including two no-hitters (one a perfect game), didn’t happen for an East Coast or Dodgers’ team. Which means, in the world of The Athletic, they count for nothing at all.

Crash and Burn

With their 113-103 drubbing at the hands of the now five-win Nets last night, the Bulls have lost five in a row—to the dregs of the NBA, no less, to which their name will soon be added—and eight out of their last twelve after getting off to a 5-0 start. Oh, my. There’s nothing to see here, unless your tastes run to six turnovers from Nikola Vucevic or having your shot blocked eight times by the opposition while returning the favor just once. Yes, these Bulls have a lot of injuries right now, but nobody given a chance to start or log significant minutes is seizing the chance to make a statement. I mean a positive statement. On top of everything, first-round draft pick Noa Essengue is out for the season with a shoulder injury. Bad luck? Maybe, but what do you expect to happen when an 18-year old generously listed at 200 pounds is plucked out of European club-play and deposited in the NBA G League? Gosh, you don’t think a lot of guys frustrated over their exile from the NBA took out on the kid, do you? This is all another feather in the cap of Arturas Karnisovas, the NBA exec who apparently can’t be fired.

Clueless in East Lansing

Ex-NU head football coach Pat Fitzgerald is taking over as head coach of the Spartans after being hired this week following the dismissal of coach Jonathan Smith. If I were a parent looking to keep my football-playing son out of someplace where hazing might occur, the Spartans would top my list of programs to avoid. Fitgerald told the media yesterday, “We [will] develop our young men as people, as students and as world-class athletes. This will happen through a values-based approach.” [all quotes from story in today’s Tribune] Fitzgerald did not bother to enumerate those values, which seemed to be missing in the locker room at NU. Like Sgt. Schultz on “Hogan’s Heroes,” Fitzgerald knew nothing, saw nothing. In other words, a football program based on the three wise monkeys. If we’re to believe Fitzgerald, the hazing scandal at NU affected him deeply. “The experience has made me a better leader, a better man, a better husband, a better father and a better coach. And it has reinforced my commitment to creating an environment that’s going to be built on trust, discipline, communication and accountability.” None of which, I would argue, was present during Fitgerald’s seventeen years as head coach at NU.

Bookish

You can never have too many books, I always say. Especially if they’re about the White Sox. For a while, I’ve wanted The Go-Go Chicago White Sox by Tribune sportswriter Dave Condon, who also did the “In the Wake of the News” column. Growing up, I read Condon all the time, and every so often the byline belonged to his daughter, Barbara. If memory serves, she’d start off by saying she was twelve before moving on to the subject of the column that day. The thing is, the prose didn’t read like it belonged to a twelve-year old. Anyway, Condon wrote the Go-Go book in 1959, a time when Chicago could go crazy for teams other than the Bears. It was a history of the franchise that went up to the six-game heartbreak of the 1959 World Series loss to the Dodgers. Condon made sure to include the players before Nellie Fox and Luis Aparicio, like Smead Jolley, who once made three errors on a play, and Jackie Hayes, an infielder whose eye infection led to blindness. A fan should know these things and the players they happened to. I bought a copy on eBay last week; it cost all of $7, considerably less than other copies I’d seen for sale. The book arrived yesterday, along with a mystery: Where is Pretty Prairie High School, whose library had the book, carrying a Dewey Decimal number of 796.357? Why, Pretty Prairie, KS, of course. Located in south-central Kansas, Pretty Prairie is home to some 660 people, down 20 from an all-time high of 680 per the 2010 Census. No one seems to have taken the book out since 1964, which helps explain how it got to be deaccessioned. Pretty Prairie’s loss is my gain, thank you, very much. Among those he thanked in the dedication, Condon mentioned the “late Mrs. Grace Comiskey, who was and always will be baseball’s first lady.” Different times, perfect to recall on a snowy day in early December.

Appearances

I’m the kind of person who believes in keeping up appearances—dress nice, don’t fight with the spouse in public, that sort of thing. College football is a whole different world. Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin accepted the head-coaching job at LSU but wanted to finish out the year with his current team, most likely bound for a postseason playoff berth. Nope, said the Ole Miss athletic director, maybe a little ticked that $9 million a year wasn’t enough to keep his coach, not when LSU offered a reported $13 million, totaling $91 million over seven years. Oh, and Louisiana governor Jeff Landry was busy behind the scenes making sure the old LSU athletic director was shown the door so a bright, new age could be ushered in. Louisiana, Mississippi—states where poverty goes to cut its teeth, and yet college coaches there can rack in the big bucks. Appearances be damned.

P-U

If a stopped clock gets the time right twice a day, then a sports’ sage such as yours truly can get things wrong every so often, too. And was I wrong about these Chicago Bulls. After a nice 5-0 start, this softer-than-soft group has demonstrated a bizarre ability to lose to bad teams, like Monday to the two-win Pelicans; Friday to the four-win Hornets; and last night on a buzzer-beater to the three-win Pacers. P-U barely scratches the surface. Last night, no Chicago player scored more than seventeen points. The Bulls lost basically because they couldn’t shoot free throws, going 9-for-16 at the line. Not good in a two-point loss. What to do? In the ideal world, clean house in the front office, which means firing Arturas Karnisovas. Then, start trading some of the hundred guards on the roster. Then, see what you have. Would I keep Billy Donovan as coach? I love the guy, but I don’t know if anyone is listening anymore. Did I mention firing Karnisovas?

On the Bandwagon, Reluctantly

It would appear the Bears, after their Black-Friday, 24-15 win over the Eagles in Philadelphia, are for real. As a Chicago fan, I root for them, if reluctantly. A year ago on Black Friday, the Bears’ front office screwed up the firing of Matt Eberflus, and 365 days later they have a coach in Ben Johnson who Jon Greenberg in today’s The Athletic says, “Twelve games into his first season, it’s clear that he is underpaid.” At $13 million a year? Yeah, right. Yesterday, the Bears dominated time of possession—39:18 to 20:42—by running the ball. Yesterday was the first time in 40 years that two Bears’ runners—D’Andre Swift and rookie Kyle Monangai—combined for 200+ yards in a game. Holy Payton. That’s just how the McCaskeys like it, turning back the clock to Red Grange as much as circumstances allow. I wonder what quarterback Caleb Williams thinks about that. I guess my real problem with the Bears’ success involves the Chicago media. Everybody seems ready to outdo Greenberg, that or turn reporting into a quarterly financial report. In today’s online Tribune, Brad Biggs wrote, “Philadelphia wants to play in a two-high shell,” to which I say, Huh? Wait, there’s more. Biggs described Williams’ touchdown pass to Cole Kmet as a “boot concept to the non-throwing arm side, a three-level flood.” Huh? Whatever happened to sportswriting a la Red Smith, as a form of writing that verged on literature? Now, back to Poles, who’s never exactly exhibited the Midas Touch as GM. Until this year, his draft picks have been hit-or-miss and his free-agent signings mostly miss. But he’s done everything right since hiring Johnson back in February. Monangai,; receiver Luther Burden III; and tight end Colston Loveland constitute what has to be the best Bears’ draft in at least a decade while the free-agent signings of guard Joe Thuney and center Drew Dalman have helped transform the offensive line; some signings on the other side of the ball have also upgraded the defense. Is it lightning in a bottle like the 2018 Bears were under first-yar coach Matt Nagy, or is yesterday proof of an organizational reset? Time will tell. For now, enjoy. The Packers are up next.

Broken-clock Right

One of my favorite sayings is, even a broken clock gets the time right twice a day. As evidence, I give you Alex Rodriguez. If Rodriguez has ever said anything of value or great truth, it slips my memory. That is, until he appeared on SeriusXM this week. Rodriguez mentioned Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds, who so far have failed to gain admittance into Cooperstown because voters have held real or alleged steroids’ use against them. “All of this stuff you’re talking about was under Bud Selig’s watch. The fact that those two guys are not in, but somehow, Bud Selig is in the Hall of Fame, that to me feels like there’s a little bit, some hypocrisy around that.” [quote in story appearing in The Athletic, 11-26-2025]. Thank you, broken clock. If Selig is in the HOF despite his years of playing the ostrich in the face of rampant MLB steroids’ abuse, then McGwire, Bonds, Rodriguez and others shouldn’t be penalized. But, if steroids’ use disqualifies a player, then knowledge of said use should disqualify Selig. What did the commissioner know, and when did he know it?

Gobble-gobble

Baseball is many things, but it is not a meritocracy. Not when you look at Dylan Cease’s new contract. The soon-to-be 30-year old starter is reported to have signed a seven-year deal with the Blue Jays worth $210 million. This after the righthander posted a 8-12 record with a 4.55 ERA for the Padres last season. On his career, Cease has 65 wins and 58 losses to go with a 3.88 ERA and three complete games out of 188 starts. It was once said that, “Chicks did the long ball.” GMs also dig strikeouts beyond reason. Cease has 1231 in 1015.1 innings pitched. This is a contract based more on that ratio than anything else. In comparison, the Red Sox committed highway robbery last season when they gave Garrett Crochet a six-year, $170 million extension (including an opt-out after year five). In either case, nice to be an ex-White Sox starter.

Reinventing the Wheel

The Sun-Times ran a story today about a report the Chicago Architecture Center released, “Win/Win: The New Game Plan for Urban Stadiums.” Apparently, the Cubs and Wrigleyville are the ideal way to go. Who knew? What the Cubs did different from other Chicago teams is what they didn’t do—tear down their home and/or try to move to the suburbs. The Bulls and Blackhawks are starting to build their own version of Wrigleyville around the United Center. Too bad the United Center replaced the Stadium, aka, the Madhouse on Madison. As for the Bears leaving Soldier Field for Arlington Heights, God only knows what the McCaskeys will dump on their fans. My guess is the talked-about “entertainment district” will be urban in the way a Hollywood backlot is. Which brings us to the White Sox, who have plenty of land to develop around The Rate. Of course, they also had a ballpark just as unique as while different from Wrigley Field. Jerry Reinsdorf could’ve fashioned “Soxville” while strengthening ties to Bridgeport, which is slowly but surely evolving into one of Chicago’s hottest neighborhoods. My father wouldn’t recognize his old haunts. I doubt Richard J. Daley would, either. The story reminds me of all these commuter suburbs that are attempting to build old-fashioned downtowns; it can be done, but not easily or cheaply and without much chance of recapturing the spirit of the original, pre-WWII downtowns with their density and varied architecture. Oh, well. Soon, the Sox will have a new steward. Maybe he’ll have vision enough to see the potential that abounds at the corner of 35th and Shields. It's the holiday season. I can hope.

More Ick

The Bulls needed both Kevin Huerter and Nikola Vucevic in the lineup Saturday night to beat the one-win Wizards by a point. But minor injuries forced Huerter and Vucevic to sit out last night’s game against the two-win Pelicans, and the Bulls got blown out, 143-130. Mercy. Rather than stand up, these Bulls stood around when they weren’t committing turnovers, seventeen to be exact. At least now I know to appreciate Vucevic’s modest presence on defense. Without him, the Bulls were outrebounded, 70-41 (!!), and outscored in the paint, 78-44 (!!!). Oh, and the Pelicans stole the ball thirteen times while letting the visitors to the same a mere four times. Vucevic drew considerable attention for his comment about the Bulls being too “soft” too often. Well, if things don’t improve and fast, the big man’s going to need another word or two to describe team performance against opponents with four or more wins.

Jekyll and Hyde

When Bears’ quarterback Caleb Williams is good, he looks like the second coming of, well, no one in a Bears’ uniform since Sid Luckman, and Luckman retired two years before I was born. But, when he’s bad, Williams looks like any Bears’ quarterback over the past fifty years. Cade McNown, anyone? Yesterday at Soldier Field, Williams did his Jekyll-and-Hyde thing during a 31-28 win over the Steelers. He got stripped in the end zone, resulting in a touchdown; overthrew receivers numerous times; and ended up completing just nineteen of 35 passes. Oh, and he threw for three touchdowns while avoiding any interceptions. Go figure. Here's what bothers me (along with most everything else associated with the McCaskey family). The Bears got the ball with just 1:53 left in the game. If ever a team needed to run out the clock, this was it. Two runs and an incomplete pass later, though, and the Bears punted, giving Pittsburgh 1:29 to either tie or win the game. If the injured Aaron Rodgers was behind center instead of backup Mason Rudolph, what do you think would’ve happened? But a win’s a win, and now the Bears travel to the City of Brotherly Love to play the Eagles the day after Thanksgiving. Philadelphia blew a 21-point lead in losing to the Cowboy, so this should be fun. Maybe Dr. Jekyll can keep Mr. Hyde from putting in appearance.

Ick

The Bulls followed their cardiac-arresting 122-121 win over the Blazers Wednesday night with an atrocious 143-107 loss at home Friday to the Heat. Last night’s performance against the league-worst Wizards—1-14 coming into the game—was hardly better. Oh, the Bulls won 121-120, but only because the hapless visitors had problems inbounding the ball with six seconds left. Some pressure caused a turnover with one second to go, and disaster was avoided. After the game, Nikola Vucevic complained that he and his teammates “were very soft” for the first three quarters. [quote from story in today’s The Athletic]. Oh, out of the mouths of veterans. This is a team bad at securing loose balls—hey, guys, Norm Van Lier made the team Ring of Honor for a reason—and securing rebounds on the defensive end. Oh, and the opposition isn’t exactly afraid of scoring in the paint. What to do? Dive for balls, snag rebounds, box people out. Unfortunately, with this team it’s all easier said than done.

Adieu, Tim

The White Sox nontendered first baseman Tim Elko yesterday, a move that probably would‘ve happened whether or not Elko had surgery last month for a torn ACL. Oh, well. I can think of a whole bunch of reasons to wish the soon-to-be 27-year old well. He was a tenth-round draft pick who forced his way onto a major-league roster by hitting the cover off the ball—and possessing a career .289 BA while doing it—wherever he played in the minors. But timing is everything, both when you get your chance and how your mechanics affect production. Elko was the victim of bad timing, then, as evidenced by a .134 BA in 67 at-bats on the South Side. Hated the 30 strikeouts, loved the four homeruns. It would seem to me Colorado is the perfect spot for someone with Elko’s talents; here’s hoping. For what it’s worth, there are two Elko-like players, perhaps with better timing, waiting in the wings. Ryan Galanie, a 25-year old infielder, hit .276 with 94 RBIs across Double-A and Triple-A last season. Galanie doesn’t have the same level of power as Elko, but he doesn’t strike out as much, either. Galanie probably bumped into Caden Connor at some point last year while Connor was moving from High-A to Double-A to Triple-A. A lefthanded-hitting outfielder, the 25-year old Connor managed 64 RBIs on the season while hitting .272 (.333 with seven RBIs in 39 at-bats for Triple-A Charlotte) with only seven homeruns. Wow, a guy who drives in runs by making contact rather than crushing the ball. Let’s give both Galanie and Connor invites to spring training, especially now that Mike Tauchman also got nontendered.

Fool Me Once...

The summer before he bought the White Sox in 1981, Jerry Reinsdorf talked about team ownership as a responsibility: “I’ve always looked at the ownership of a baseball franchise as a public trust, maybe even a charitable thing. I’m serious about that. I never did forgive Walter O’Malley for moving the Dodgers from Brooklyn to Los Angeles.” [quote in Tribune story 1/29/2021, “Recalling Jerry Reinsdorf’s come-from-behind victory 40 years ago for control of the Chicago White Sox: ‘I’ve never celebrated anniversaries of this sort,’” Phil Rosenthal]. Wait, there’s more. In 1990, following a 32-day lockout that pushed back spring training, Reinsdorf told Bob Verdi of the Tribune, “Baseball is more a religion in this country than it is a form of entertainment, and it should stay that way.” [4/8/1990] Oh, what a paragon of public virtue and stewardship and whatever. Or not. Now, Justin Ishbia, the billionaire and eventual new owner of the team, comes out and says something similar, eerily so, this after meeting with the Pope on Wednesday in Rome, no less. Call me skeptical after reading his remarks in yesterday’s Tribune. Ishbia doesn’t think of himself as an owner. “The word I use is ‘steward.’ This team belongs to the city of Chicago, and I’m a temporary steward. Jerry today is the steward. Hopefully, one day I will hopefully [sic] have the good fortune of being the next steward of this franchise.” In addition, Ishbia invited the Pope to throw out the first pitch on Opening Day, once the Sox have themselves a new stadium. The steward-in-waiting was not quoted saying who’d be paying for the new digs. Speaking for His Holiness, I want to know.

It Doesn't Add Up

Add it all up, and the Bulls should’ve suffered a crushing defeat in Portland last night. When Josh Giddey and Kevin Huerter, the starting backcourt, combine for eleven points and a 21-point, fourth-quarter lead turns into a four-point deficit with sixteen seconds left in the game, you should lose. But the Bulls didn’t. Instead, Coby White hit a three-pointer with nine seconds left to draw his team to 120-119. Then, Jerami Grant made only one of two free throws with eight seconds to go. After a timeout, the Bulls inbounded; White passed the ball to Nikola Vucevic in the corner; and Vucevic nailed the three-pointer as time expired. Bulls 122 Blazers 121. After the game, K.C. Johnson lobbed Vucevic a question about his team’s resiliency, and, give the big man credit, he didn’t bite. No, he said getting the win was nice, but he and his teammates had to find a way to close things out so heroics wouldn’t be necessary every night. Amen to that, Nikola. Still, I’ll take an 8-6 record with the roster close to reaching full strength with the expected returns of Zach Collins and Tre Jones. With those two healthy, the upcoming Christmas season could be merry, indeed.

Tap the Brakes

In 2023, the 61-101 White Sox employed Yasmani Grandal (.234 BA and 33 RBIs in 363 at-bats); Seby Zavala (.155 and sixteen RBIs in 161 at-bats); and Korey Lee (.077 and three RBIs in 65 at-bats) behind the plate. Wait, there’s more, or less, depending how you look at things. In 2024, the 41-121 Sox used Lee (.210 and 37 RBIs in 377 at-bats); Martin Maldonado (.119 and eleven RBIs in 135 at-bats); and Chuckie Robinson (.129 with zero RBIs in 70 at-bats) to do the catching. Then, mercifully, things got better. Last season, rookies Kyle Teel (.273 with 35 RBIs in 253 at-bats) and Edgar Quero (.268 with 36 RBIs in 365 at-bats) did the bulk of the catching after the great Matt Thaiss experiment (.212 with eight RBIs in 85 at-bats) came to an end in late May. And now there are rumors Teel or Quero could be traded. What’s the rush? Once upon a time, the Sox had two young catchers in Earl Battey and Johnny Romano, only for Bill Veeck to trade both of them away so they could make nine All-Star teams between them elsewhere. Veeck thought it was a good idea to go with 35-year old Sherm Lollar as his primary catcher. Trade Teel or Quero too soon, and you risk a repeat of that kind of mistake. Figure out what you’re going to do at first and third base, first. Do Miguel Vargas and Lenyn Sosa stay or do they go, or do you keep one? For the first time in a long time, catching on the South Side is just fine. Hands off, I’d say.

Streakin'

The Bulls came this close in Utah to breaking their four-game losing streak, only to fall 150-147 in overtime to the Jazz Sunday night. With a game in less than 24 hours against the Nuggets in mile-high Denver, our tired heroes looked well on their way to their sixth consecutive loss, to slip below .500 on the season. But, No, they found a way to “contain” Nikola Jokic and hold on for a 130-127 win. Mercy. You don’t really contain a player who manages a triple-double with 36 points, eighteen rebounds and thirteen assists; you just try to minimize the damage. Billy Donovan did that by putting Jalen Smith on Jokic. The big guy had to earn his stats, as reflected by the Denver bench, which managed all of nine points. The Bulls’ second unit, led by Ayo Dosunmu with 21 points, put up 66 points!! The worry here is that increased playing time for Smith, with sixteen points and eight rebounds, could be interrupted by injury. Smith hurt his right shoulder midway late in the third quarter and was seen with an ice pack wrapped around it by game’s end. Fingers crossed there. Because the venerable, 35-year old Nikola Vucevic is suddenly looking, and playing, his age. Vucevic managed 29 minutes last night, going 3-for-13 from the floor. Granted, his three-pointer with 33 seconds left gave the Bulls a four-point lead, but Time waits for no one, and it won’t wait for Vucevic. Zach Collins, Smith and Vucevic could make for a nice, three-headed monster at center. If people can just stay healthy.

It's Personal

It’s not so much that I’m a Bears’ fan as it is the Bears are a way for me to get back at people. At least give me points for honesty. Bears beat the Raiders, Yea, big deal. White Sox beat the Diamondbacks, and I’m on top of the world. Ah, but the Bears beat the Vikings or Packers, oh, I’m a happy camper, indeed. Why? Because of certain people I know. For them, the Purple or the cheesy Green must always triumph, an attitude that grates after a while. There are certain other character flaws these people possess that I won’t go into detail here, but, trust me, those exist. Their team losing is my way of pointing out those flaws while keeping my mouth absolutely shut. So, yesterday, those Vikings’ fans I know must’ve been all agog as their team scored the go-ahead touchdown with 50 seconds left in the game. Too bad the Purple special-teams’ guys whiffed on bringing down the Bears’ Devin Duvernay before he ran the ensuing kickoff back 56 yards. Three subsequent running plays netted a few more yards before Cairo Santos booted a 48-yard field goal as time expired. Bears 19 Vikings 17. I still say this is a team more lucky than good. Five times in the last seven games, they’ve scored the winning points with less than two minutes left in the game. Maybe if they’re lucky enough long enough, they’ll starting getting good enough. Until then, better to be lucky than the opposite, which is how you lose.

Crushing Bookends

Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge are your NL and AL MVPs, respectively. Nellie Fox need not apply, or Jose Altuve. Or Andrew McCutcheon or Mookie Betts. Or Dustin Pedroia. Players under 6’ tall can and do win the MVP, just not often. Betts (5’10”) was the last to do that, in 2018 for the Red Sox (and they traded him why, again?). Basically, though, MVP voters dig the long ball, and, odds are, the taller/bigger you are, the better your chance of being named MVP. Even small guys have to muscle up. Altuve (5’6”) hit 24 homers during his MVP year for the Astros in 2017 while Pedroia managed seventeen when he won the honors for the Red Sox in 2008. Now, take a step back in the time machine to look at two other short guys who won the award. Nellie Fox (5’10”) won MVP honors for the White Sox in 1959, with all of two longballs. A year later, Dick Groat (5’11”) of the Pirates had himself an MVP season with, yup, two homeruns. Judge hit 53 this season, in case you’re wondering, and Ohtani 55. Long story short, the baseball played by the likes of Fox and Groat has fallen into disfavor, abandoned in the name of launch angle and exit velo. There’s a lot of baseball talent residing in players south of 6’. Good luck in having teams notice. Which will make the chances of a woman breaking the grass ceiling that much harder.

Fleas

First, the NBA was hit with a betting scandal, and now it’s baseball’s turn—again—with Guardians’ pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz under federal indictment they were part of a betting scheme centering around what pitches they threw and where, as in fast or slow or out of the strike zone. Somewhere, the Black Sox are having a good laugh. All pro sports in the U.S. happily went to bed with legal betting, only to wake up scratching from fleas. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred thinks limiting “prop bets,” that center on game minutiae, e.g., whether or not a ball rolled out to the mound between innings stays there, a batter getting a hit, a pitcher throwing a ball, that sort of thing. Manfred thinks that getting sports’ books to set a $200 maximum on these types of bets will somehow fix the problem. Yeah, right. Not that anybody would use a “legacy” bookie or one of those folks would try to influence the outcome of a game—or prop—because, well, the Commissioner thinks that would be bad for baseball. With Clase in particular, it would seem that the Guardians should’ve known something was up. I mean, how exactly did the parties involved figure out to place their bets? According to The Athletic, Clase used his phone to message and speak with conspirators. If true, then where was the coaching staff? The Athletic noted that MLB prohibits players from using their phones during a game. So, everyone thought Clase was a cool cat shooting the breeze before an appearance and let things slide? I won’t hold my breath until the Guardians are hit with a hefty fine.

Nothing to See Here

Last night in Detroit, the Bulls were down two starters, Coby White and Josh Giddey, only the Pistons were down four. The math says Chicago should’ve won, right? Pistons 124 Bulls 113. Center Nikola Vucevic (six points and six rebounds) got eaten up by his Detroit counterpart Paul Reed (28 points and thirteen rebounds). Bulls’ backup center Jalen Smith played thirteen minutes to Vucevic’s 25 and still outscored him, nine to six. Forward-center Zach Collins is expected to be ready to play soon after suffering a broken wrist in the preseason. As soon as Collins returns, it’s time for a change. Vucevic is 35, Smith 25 and Collins 27. If the Bulls want to do anything this season, they need to transition away from the skating tree toward the two youngish centers. That, or be ready to absorb more beatings like last night.

Looking Ahead

The calendar says November, but I’m thinking next March already. Thank you, Sam Antonacci. The onetime D-II player has done nothing but hit since the White Sox selected him in the fifth round of the 2024 draft, starting with a .333 BA in 81 at-bats in A ball. This year, the 22-year old hit .279 in high-A Winston-Salem and, better yet, .292 for AA Birmingham, with 25 RBIs and 27 runs scored. Antonacci also stole 48 bases between both levels. Did I mention the Arizona Fall League? The Sox eleventh-ranked prospect hit .379 with thirteen RBIs and 20 runs in just seventeen games. More of this come spring, please. Because then, things could get interesting. A lefthanded hitter, Antonacci can play second and third and has also appeared at short. If he puts up comparable numbers in the spring, he could set in motion a series of moves—Colson Montgomery to third base or center field, which would signal a trade of Luis Robert Jr., and Miguel Vargas to switch from third to first, which could mean a trade of Lenyn Sosa, or even Chase Meidroth. I don’t need sportswriters to stoke my own hot stove.

Good News, Bad News

This is how deep the Bulls are at guard—last night, the second-string backcourt totaled 43 points and twelve assists. Oh, and they still lost. Tre Jones and Kevin Huerter played in place of Coby White—yet to play this season due to a calf injury—and Josh Giddey, who sprained his right ankle Sunday against the Cavs. In their place, Jones/Huerter helped build a 114-111 lead over the visiting Spurs with just over a minute left in the game. Enter three-point giant Victor Wembanyama. Over the next 33 seconds, that incredibly long drink of water (7’4”) sank two three-pointers and down went the Bulls 121-117. It was a game they could’ve won, even shorthanded had everyone done their job. Instead, Nikola Vucevic reverted to his 35-year old self, managing a sad eleven points while trying to guard Wembanyama; backup center Jalen Smith played 21 minutes to Vucevic’s 28 while managing the same number of points (eleven) and four more rebounds (twelve to four). Wembanyama poured in 38 points with six three-pointers out of nine attempted. The less said about the play of Isaac Okoro and Patrick Williams, the better. Let’s go with the glass half-full here. White is due back any game now, and Giddey’s injury looks to be minor. Next up is the Pistons tomorrow. In a lot of ways, it qualifies as the most important game of the young seasons for this young team.

More Lucky Than Good

For the best part of three quarters yesterday, Giants’ rookie quaterback Jaxson Dart had the Soldier Field faithful on edge. A raw, damp Sunday—Bears’ weather, or so we like to think—had no discernible effect on the 22-year old, who ran for two touchdowns and looked well on his way to handing the 5-3 Bears their fourth loss of the season, this one to a 2-7 team. Then Dart fumbled away the ball with just over five minutes left in the third quarter. If he didn’t suffer a concussion a few plays before that, he did then, and in came Russell Wilson to replace him. The Bears’ defense looked clueless against Dart, who threw for 242 yards and rushed for another 66. Those stats were food for a 17-7 lead, which eventually grew to 20-7 under Wilson before momentum shifted. Credit the Bears for waking up or blame Wilson for trying to play well beyond his expiration date. Either way, the Munsters scored two touchdown with under four minutes remaining to win, 24-20. And to think ex-GM Ryan Pace was hot for Wilson back in 2021. Bears’ second-year quarterback Caleb Williams threw for one touchdown and scored another to fuel the comeback. What struck me, though, was Williams’ inability to do much against one of the worst defenses in the league. In Williams’ defense, sort of, Dart kept him off the field for long stretches as he frustrated Bears’ defenders. Watch me run, guys. So, everything fell into place and the home team didn’t suffer an embarrassing upset. Yay. And Williams may have been better than his 20 completions and 220 yards gained suggest. For a change of pace, Bears’ receivers came down with a case of the dropsies, letting six catchable passes fall to the ground. Go figure. Basically, I can’t. This is a team that waits to the very end to beat bad teams and has yet to win against a good team. Well, the Eagles; Packers (twice); 49ers; and Lions await. Get back to me at the end of the season. Right now, enjoy.

Like I Said

The Bulls dominated the first half against the Cavaliers last night, and the Cavaliers dominated the second half. Guess who won? The team with the star, as in guard Donovan Mitchell, who scored thirteen of his 29 points in the—wait for it—fourth quarter. Cavs 128 Bulls 122. Matas Buzelis (four points) and Nikola Vucevic (nine points) both had off nights, which can’t happen when you go up against a player like Mitchell. Maybe things will get better when Coby White is cleared to play, but it won’t happen tomorrow. That’s when Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs come to town.

What I Feared

On Tuesday, the Bulls were able to handle Joel Embiid, still recovering from knee surgery. But a healthy Giannis Antetokounmpo? Not when it counted. Last night in Milwaukee, the Bulls made a game of it for three quarters and were only down at the start of the fourth. Enter Antetokounmpo, who scored nineteen of his 41 points in the final frame. If Billy Donovan had a answer to the Bucks’ biggest weapon for 36 minutes, he lost it in the final twelve. Milwaukee 126 Chicago 110. The Bucks may not be a great team, but they have a great player, and in the NBA, great players can elevate the people around them (see Jordan, Michael). The Bulls are a team comprised of good and a few very good players. They’re deep, but they can’t dominate in crunch time the way Antetokounmpo did last night. That, I fear, will be an ongoing problem. Let’s see how Donovan and company respond.

Discussion

How many fathers get a call from their adult daughters to discuss the new White Sox pitching coach? I did, and we talked for a good ten minutes. Neither of us was very excited. Throw in the new hitting coach, and we were even less than that. New pitching coach Zach Bove played first base in college before serving as a hitting coach on the high school and college levels. Oh, let me count the ways this doesn’t impress—no apparent minor-league career even, not a catcher serving as a pitching coach but a former college infielder instructing major-league pitchers how to do their jobs. Somewhere, Johnny Sain spins in his grave. And maybe the late Bill Robinson with the hiring of Derek Shomon as the new Sox hitting coach. According to baseball-reference.com, Shomon had cups of coffee with two independent-league teams. I can just see Shomon telling Sox hitters in spring training, Do as I wish I’d done, guys, not what I did (career .115 BA in 26 at-bats). Bleh. Clare had a nice guy of a hitting coach from eighth grade on and off through college. He wasn’t big on gizmos (though I definitely see the benefit of taping at-bats in order to analyze a hitter’s approach to different types of pitches). Instead, he was big on “envisioning” what a hitter wanted to accomplish in a particular situation. It worked to the extent my daughter still holds a number of hitting records at Elmhurst University. I asked Clare something: “What if Jessica Mendoza had been your hitting coach?” I could practically hear her eyes growing wide at the thought.

Oh, Ye of Little Faith

Usually, I check the score of a Bulls’ game just before the half and again midway through the third quarter. There was nothing I saw last night to suggest the game would go Chicago’s way. A halftime nineteen-point deficit to Joel Embiid and the 76ers usually doesn’t end well, or it hasn’t in recent years. Oh, ye of little faith. Imagine my surprise to find out on the WGN sports’ segment that Nikola Vucevic sank a three-pointer with seventeen seconds left on the clock to give his team its first lead on the night as well as the win, 113-111. Huh? Part of the reason I quit watching was Josh Giddey looked totally out of sync; he kept passing the ball, instead of shooting. Or so it looked during my two peaks. For the game, though, Giddey matched a feat, with back-to-back triple-doubles, last done by a Bull when Michael Jordan managed it back in 1989. On the night, Giddey scored 29 points with fifteen rebounds and twelve assists, the last one setting up Vuvevic for his game winner. Not that I saw it live. The 76ers came in tied with the Bulls for the best record in the Eastern Conference. Sorry, guys, but Philly is now truly second-best. As for the Bulls, they’re 6-1, even though Coby White has yet to take the floor this season and Ayo Dosunmu missed a second straight game with a quad injury. Maybe January won’t be so grim after all.

One and Done

Well, no way were the Bulls going to run the season schedule. Still, it would’ve been nice to beat the Knicks in Manhattan Mecca Sunday night. But with Ayo Dosunmu out nursing a quad injury, Billy Donovan’s crew lost 128-116. Their record now stands at 5-1. This is where it starts to get real. The Bulls’ next three games are with the 76ers, Cavaliers and Bucks. The gauntlet doesn’t end there, not with Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs coming to town next Monday. If they come out of that stretch over .500, we can talk.

Just Beneath the Surface

Caleb Williams hit rookie tight end Colston Loveland for a 58-yard touchdown pass with seventeen seconds left in the game to give the visiting Bears a 47-42 win over the Bengals. In securing their fifth win, the Munsters have many as they managed all of last year, with twelve games to go. Still, I wouldn’t get too excited, not with a pass defense that got riddled by 40-year old QB Joe Flacco, who threw for 470 yards and four touchdowns. Or by a brain trust that thinks Cario Santos can handle kickoffs. Like Charlie Jones running the opening kick back for a touchdown was just luck? If only for a game, decisions by GM Ryan Poles seem to have paid off. Seventh-round draft pick Kyle Monangai rushed for 176 while first rounder Loveland caught six passes—two for touchdowns—for 118 yards. Rumbling down the middle of the field to the end zone with two Bengals bouncing off of him, Loveland looked like the second coming of Mike Ditka. So did head coach Ben Johnson, who used more trick plays in a game than all the coaches between him and Ditka did in their entirety. The best one featured a double reverse with receiver DJ Moore throwing a two-yard touchdown to Williams. Somewhere in St. Adalbert Cemetery, George Halas spun in his grave. Ditka got to be Ditka because he was Halas’ boy, and that only lasted for so long until Michael McCaskey gave him the heave-ho. I can’t help but think Johnson being so outside-the-box rubs has George McCaskey worried. The double reverse is not Chicago Bears’ football; three yards and a cloud of dust is. I’m predicting friction between coach and ownership before long. Until then, enjoy.

World Champions

The Dodgers proved to be the better team by winning games six and seven of the World Series, tying game seven in the ninth with a homerun from number-nine hitter Miguel Rojas and winning it on an eleventh-inning homer by catcher Will Smith. Dodgers 5 Blue Jays 4. The Dodgers survived the vanity project that is Shohei Ohtani the pitcher, who, given the ball to start game seven, left his team in a 3-0 hole after 2.1 innings. But five LA relievers combined for 8.2 innings of one-run ball to set up the Rojas-Smith heroics. A real tip of the cap to Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who pitched 2.2 scoreless innings for his third win of the Series. Not only that, Yamamoto pitched one night after throwing six innings in game six. The Dodgers were also lucky. Ermie Clement hit a ball with two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth that caused a collision between left fielder Kiké Hernandez and center fielder Andy Pages, who somehow held onto the ball. A foot to the left, and Pages may not have made the play. And if Daulton Varsho had hit a ball like that to the outfield one batter before, the Jays win on a sacrifice fly or hit. Instead, Varsho grounded to second baseman Rojas, who was playing in with the bases loaded and one out. The ball staggered Rojas, who needed a moment to steady himself before throwing to the plate to force Isiah Kiner-Falefa at the plate. To me, it looked like Kiner-Falefa beat the throw, piano on his back and all. That’s the thing. Kiner-Falefa was put into run for Bo Bichette after Bichette had singled with one out. The umps weren’t going to make a call that made up for d Kiner-Falefa failing to get a good lead off of third, and they shouldn’t have. But there was more than luck going on. I’ve never been a particular fan of Dodgers’ manager Dave Roberts. I mean, give me that lineup, and let’s see how I do as skipper. But Roberts definitely brought his A-game last night, e.g., his defensive substitution of Pages, and he definitely took a big risk pitching Yamamoto back-to-back nights. And it worked. In contrast, Toronto’s John Schneider sure looked like an Ontario deer caught in the headlights. It's the World Series, where weird stuff happens (see Rojas and Yamamoto, above). Twice, in the ninth and the eleventh, the Jays had the bases loaded and came away empty. My sixty years of playing Strat-O-Matic Baseball told me the need to roll the dice (pardon the pun or enjoy it) here. And, what would I have done? Suicide squeeze, pure and simple. A bunt in that situation puts all sorts of pressure on the defense. Pitchers typically aren’t great fielders, so, there would’ve been a good chance Yamamoto either would not have fielded the ball cleanly or he would’ve made a bad throw to home. If I kind-of thought Schneider should’ve bunted with Varsho (who went 0-for-5 on the night), I was practically screaming at the TV screen with Alejandro Kirk up in the eleventh. A 5’8” catcher weighing 245 pounds, Kirk could be the poster boy of likely double-play candidates. And what did Kirk do? After fouling off two pitches, he hit into a tailor-made, 6-3 double play. I don’t know for a fact that Kirk has ever bunted in his life; doesn’t matter. It’s the World Series, and you go big or you go home. The only player left on the Toronto bench was backup catcher Tyler Heineman, a switch-hitter, by the way. That would’ve given Heineman an advantage against the righthanded Yamamoto (and put him a step closer out of the box). Nothing ventured, nothing gained. So, the Dodgers in seven. Adieu, Baseball 2025.

Back and Forth, Again

Oh, those Blue Jays, capable of squandering the advantage of a home field filled with over 44,000 screaming fans. The ninth inning looked ever so promising. Runners on second and third, nobody out, two runs down. Then Ernie Clement swings at a pitch high and inside to pop out to first baseman Freddie Freeman. It was the kind of pitch I used to ask Clare, each word dripping with sarcasm, “And where exactly would that pitch go if you’d hit it fair?” Then Andres Gimenez lines out into a double play, from left field to second base. What Toronto baserunner Addison Barger was looking at beats me, and it beat his team. Dodgers 3 Jays 1, seventh game tonight. Whoopee. November baseball. At least flipping over to the Bulls proved more fun. Billy Donovan’s crew beat the visitors from New York—where they perfected the game of roundball, you know—by a score of 135 to 125. Josh Giddey outscored Jalen Brunson 32 to 29, and that’s all you need to know. Plus the fact this is a home-and-away series with the Bulls visiting “The Gah-den” Sunday night. My bad. Did I mention this is the best start by a Bulls’ team since the Michael Jordan era, 1996-97, to be exact?

How Nice of Them

I'm supposed to root for a team that would dare do this? Let’s just say it’s hard. The Bears want a state law that will allow them to negotiate their tax bill with the relevant public bodies in and around their hoped-for new Arlington Heights Stadium. To move things along, the team offered to make a one-time,$25 million payment to the city of Chicago. Why? Because in McCaskeyland, that qualifies as a principled act. The Munsters think that the $534 million in outstanding bonds from the 2003 renovation of Soldier Field isn’t their concern; they’re just tenants. But, out of the goodness of their hearts, they offered the money “to rebuild or improve public parks and playing fields each year in under resourced Chicago neighborhoods,” according to a letter the Bears circulated to Chicago Democrats in the General Assembly. [story in today’s Sunb-Times] The mind boggles here. The team says that costs go up every month the project is delayed, yet they have $25 million on hand to buy votes. And they still want close to $1 billion in infrastructure assistance. How will they sweeten that ask?

Back and Forth

I watched enough of game five of the World Series to come away impressed by rookie starter Trey Yesavage. The 22-year old righthander had the Dodgers eating out of his hand for seven innings last night at Dodger Stadium. The pride of East Carolina University scattered two singles and a solo shot while striking out twelve and giving up zero walks. No one in World Series history has recorded that many strikeouts to go with no walks. Yesavage is now 3-1 in the postseason, which is two more career wins than he has in the regular season. He went twentieth in the first round of the 2024 draft. The White Sox skipped over Yesavage for Hagen Smith. Here’s hoping Smith performs at the same level once he gets to the majors. I also switched over to the Bulls-Kings game between World Series commercials, the frequency of which assured me of watching a lot of basketball. How nice to see another team for a change trying to figure out how to balance scoring between Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan. Bulls 126 Kings 113. Four starters in double figures, along with two players off the bench plus another three people scoring nine apiece. Interesting. The win pushes Chicago to 4-0 on the season, with their next game in “The Gahden.” Please, oh please…

GOAT, Asterisk

Shohei Ohtani had a very nice game for himself Monday night. No, a really nice game. OK, an incredible game with two solo-shot homeruns and two doubles along with five walks plus three runs scored and three RBIs in the Dodgers’ 6-5, eighteen-inning marathon win. Let the superlatives rain down, which they are. And, like an idiot, I unmuted some of the broadcast on FOX last night. One of the announcers—they all sound alike to me, except for the fingernails-on-blackboard tones of John Smoltz—very gently dissed Babe Ruth by saying he “only” pitched two full seasons. They must’ve had a bad internet connection up in the booth at Dodger Stadium. Baseball-reference.com has the Sultan of Swat pitching anywhere between 166.1 and 326.1 innings for the four seasons 1915 to 1918 and another 133.1 innings in 1919. That’s the period when he picked up 89 of his 94 wins to go with a 2.28 ERA. I’ll just note in passing the 107 complete games. Ohtani has never pitched over 166 innings in a season. In the regular season this year, he threw 47. I keep looking at his stats and come away with the same conclusion—pitching is his vanity project. A 39-20 record, 3.00 ERA and one complete game. Oh, and every time he goes out to the mound, he risks injury. He’s already had Tommy John surgery and another procedure on his UCL. Smoltz inadvertently called out Ohtani when he suggested the 31-year old needs to learn to vary the speed of his pitches. John, the guy’s 31. He should’ve learned that a long time ago. This may be pushing things a bit, but I’d argue the GOAT does what he did on Monday and then tops himself Tuesday, not at the plate but on the mound. Instead, what happened is that Ohtani pitched a nice game into the seventh inning, when he ran out of gas, trailing 2-1. Reliever Anthony Banda couldn’t keep the two Jays Ohtani put on from scoring, before letting in two runs of his own. Toronto 6 Los Angeles 2 not even a day after losing what’s being ballyhooed as the greatest World Series game of all time. One other reason to pull back on all this GOAT talk. Sorry, but the greatest ballplayer can’t be a DH, at least not until he hits 100 homers a season. Ohtani has played eight years in the major leagues, and, in all that time, he’s played the outfield seven times, none since 2021. In comparison, Ruth started 2222 times in the outfield over his 22-year career. Did I mention the Ohtani Rule, where he gets to switch to DH after being relieved as a pitcher? What exactly am I saying here? That Ohtani belongs on the short list of greatest hitters of all time and that he’s less of a pitcher than the folks on FOX care to admit. Shohei, meet Frank Thomas, another player whose hitting prowess made up for a bad glove. Big Hurt, this is Shohei. You two have a lot in common.

Late Night

Clare went upstairs to put Maeve to bed last night, leaving Michele and me with Leo. Did our four-year old grandson want to watch the World Series? Not really. But throw a mini-football to and at his grandparents? Oh, yeah. After twenty minutes or so of throwing and catching, Clare returned, and we got back to watching the game. The grandparents got tired just about the time Alejandro Kirk hit a three-run homer in the fourth inning. I caught my second wind once we were back home and lasted through the visitors’ half of the thirteenth inning. Note to Blue Jays: If you don’t want to lose in eighteen, figure out how to run the bases and bunt runners along. Between innings, I caught the end of the Hawks-Bulls game. Three games—and wins—into the season, Billy Donovan’s squad looks just like I said last week, with players six through ten nearly as good as numbers one through five. Last night, eight Bulls scored in double figures while Nikola Vucevic fell one assist short of a triple-double in a 128-123 win. Trae Young of the Hawks dished out seventeen assists to go with 21 points. Anytime you can overcome a performance like that, you’ve had a good game. A 3-0 start. Who’d have thought it?

Comedy of Errors

Here are your Chicago Bears, a team trying to shake down the General Assembly for close to $1 billion to fund infrastructure needs related to their planned stadium in Arlington Heights. Ravens 30 Bears 16. Caleb Williams, the first pick in the 2024 draft, couldn’t move his team against a mediocre Ravens’ defense. Williams also continued the disturbing habit of getting lost in the red zone. Two early forays there led to six points; good teams would’ve generated fourteen. And a good quarterback would avoid throwing an interception deep in his zone with his team trailing by three points with just over nine minutes left in the game. The defense, which had excelled at takeaways, came up with none against a 1-5 team led by a backup quarterback. But they did pick up penalties. Then again, so did the offense. The Munsters managed eleven—let me repeat, eleven—penalties on the afternoon. Guys, figure out how to line up on the right side of the line of scrimmage and when to move, as in with the snap and not before. As for coaching, you have to wonder. Ben Johnson said in the postgame that team leaders need to deal with the penalty problem. Funny, I thought the coaching staff handled that. And who decided to have Cairo Santos handle kickoff duties? Baltimore gained good field position on Santos’s kicks all afternoon. Sure looks like Santos is suffering from a thigh injury, but what do I know? Poor McCaskeys. Well, not poor in any financial sense. No, more poor as in pitiful. Here’s a family that sees their pot of gold from a new stadium, yet they can’t make their team play well enough to excite the fan base. How do you expect folks to pony up for personal seat licenses, again, when the product on the field doesn’t look a whole lot better than it did last year? Beats me.

Playing to Strength

The Dodgers like to hit homeruns, and they like to spend money on pitchers. Last night, that formula worked to perfection, with the boys of Tinseltown topping the Blue Jays, 5-1, behind seventh-inning homeruns from Will Smith and Max Muncy along with a complete game by Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The 27-year old righthander gave up four hits (three singles and a double) and no walks while fanning eight. Yamamoto signed a twelve-year, $325 million contract back in December of 2023. Has he been worth it? That depends. He’s gone 19-10 over the course of two seasons. Not overwhelming numbers—affected by injuries, especially in 2024—and not nearly as impressive as 5-1 over two postseasons, including 3-1 this year, including a 1.57 ERA. In comparison, the White Sox are barely on the same planet, let alone the same sport, as the Dodgers. Contact vs. power, both hitting and pitching. Series tied at one game apiece. Onto Los Angeles, with Grandpa and grandson Leo slated to watch game three Monday night while at least one of us eats pizza.

Warming Up

As good parents, grandparents and in-laws, we went to the last game of the season for the Lake Park Lancers, coached by our son-in-law Chris. And, because we are parents, grandparents and in-laws of a certain age, we left in the third quarter. Something about the temperature dipping into the forties makes a body feel its age, and then some. We listened to the World Series on the way home. Michele loves baseball on the radio; it feels like summer, she says. Me, I think of the time driving in Colorado, an Oakland A’s game fading in and out. I was too preoccupied with not driving off the side of a mountain road at a time of night when all sane people were asleep in bed. I don’t listen on the radio now as much with Ed Farmer gone. Anyway, we heard Daulton Varsho go deep against Blake Snell to tie the game at two. And we got home in plenty of time to see the Blue Jays score nine runs in the sixth against Snell and the Dodgers’ bullpen. Final Score, Toronto 11 Los Angles 4. What really stuck out is how the Dodgers struck out, thirteen times in all to four whiffs by the Jays. Toronto hitters are geared to contact, which shows in the stats—best team batting average (.265) and on-base percentage (.333) in all of baseball. The Dodgers hit twelve points lower and had an OBP six points lower than the Jays. However, the boys of Tinseltown did lead the majors in striking out, 1627 as compared to 1099 for the Jays. That’s the second lowest in baseball. Game two, who can say? All I know is, you can’t win unless you hit the ball (or walk a lot). That, and dress like it’s winter even if it’s only late October.

Ice Berg Tips and Coal Mine Canaries

The NBA has been hit by a betting scandal, again, only now it involves HOFer and current Portland Trailblazers’ coach Chauncey Billups along with Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and former player and former assistant coach Damon Jones. What the various charges do is raise questions, again, about the honesty of NBA games, of their outcomes. (A second scandal involving Billups concerns high-stakes’ card games, rigged by the Mafia.) It also raises questions about the integrity of broadcast networks that show games and push betting. I’m talking about you, ESPN, Marquee and CHSN. Right now, it’s the NBA. How long until a scandal rocks the NFL or MLB? Is tonight’s game one of the World Series on the legit? You have to wonder.

A Sleeper, or Not

The Bulls kicked off their season last night, beating the Pistons 115-114 before a packed house at the United Center. They almost snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, only to think better of it. This is an odd team, one where the second unit looks nearly as talented as the starting five. That’s either a good thing, or bad; only time will tell. But nobody seemed to miss guard Coby White, expected to be out another two weeks with a calf strain. In which case, thank goodness Arturas Karnisovas decided to keep Tre Jones around for another three seasons. The 25-year old scored twelve points while dishing out eight assists, the sort of performance he gave on a regular basis last season after being acquired from the Spurs. A smart move by Karnisovas—who knew? Sort of like Nikola Vucevic, the human tree on skates, scoring 28 points to go with fourteen rebounds. Now, if the big tree can do that in March and April, there may be cause for hope. I’d also trade some of the 50 or so guards Karnisovas has collected, but that’s just me.

Do the Math

I wonder what Jerry Reinsdorf and Tom Ricketts are going to do during the World Series. Wag their fingers and say, “Tsk-tsk,” maybe, or lay the groundwork for a work stoppage after the CBA expires at the end of next season? A hard salary cap for the good of the game, anyone? At the very least, they should both be rooting for the “small-er” market Blue Jays, who have a $255.2 million payroll vs. $350 million for the top-spending Dodgers, per spotrac.com. Number seven payroll vs. number one. Go, seven. What I’d love to ask these two whiny billionaires is this—why are you team owners if you don’t want to spend money? By all means, be smart in spending the cash (think Blue Jays), but spend it or get out of the business. Instead, the odds are we’re talking about two owners who are going to spearhead the drive for a hard cap. What a bunch of cry babies.

Two Jays

Say this for the White Sox under GMs Kenny Williams and Rick Hahn. When they made a dumb trade (and they made lots), you could count on it being a doozy. Take this one from December 2014. Hahn—or maybe Williams, the former was GM by then, but that never stopped the latter as team president from interfering—engineered a trade of four prospects for ex-Cub Jeff Samardzija and a minor leaguer. Three of the ex-Sox—pitcher Chris Bassitt, catcher Josh Phegley and infielder Marcus Semien—all have had pretty decent (or better) major-league careers. In fact, Bassitt and Semien are both still playing, and come Friday, both can say they’ve been on World Series teams. Samardzija? He pitched one year on the South Side before having five pretty-blah seasons with the Giants. I was reminded of all this last night when Bassitt came out of the bullpen to pitch a scoreless eighth inning while protecting a one-run lead for the Blue Jays. Jeff Hoffman did the same in the ninth, and the Jays beat the Mariners 4-3 in game seven of the ALCS to advance to a date with the Dodgers in the World Series. Three of the runs came courtesy of a George Springer homerun to erase a two-run Seattle lead in the seventh. Ah, George Springer. I’ve never been a fan, at least of his contract, six years at $150 million. At the time of signing, Springer was already 31 years old. I wondered what would happen the last two years of the contract. Well, what I thought would happen, sort of. Springer started 80 games as a DH, which suggests he won’t be seeing much of the field either in the World Series (honesty forces me to admit he took a fastball off the knee in game five of the ALCS) or next season. But, right now, I doubt Blue Jays’ fans care much about that, and I can’t say I blame them.

Walking Around

Michele calls what we did on Saturday part of the “best day of the year” for her. With Open House Chicago, you have access to places you wouldn’t get into the other 365 days, like the rooftop garden at McCormick Place. Trust me, it offers views of Chicago you can’t get anywhere else. We walked through an area generally referred to as the “South Loop,” an area once marked by abandoned buildings, old warehouse and vacant lots, along with a few Prairie Avenue mansion hanging on for dear existence. Well, the mansions are thriving now, and you’d be hard-pressed to find an empty lot. The place has been transformed to the point that, if you told me this was a new residential development in lower Manhattan, I’d believe it. Between an iffy weather forecast and the uncertainties attached to the “No Kings” march downtown, we didn’t know if we could do Saturday; Open House is a two-day affair. But everything worked out, so that we didn’t have to go on Sunday. Not that we could have, not really. As it was, I had a hard time finding street parking; let’s just say if you don’t live in the area and have a sticker on the windshield to prove it, you’ll be in trouble. But I found a spot that allowed us to walk around to three places, and all was good. But Sunday, the odds are somebody going to the Bears-Saints’ game at Soldier Field likely would’ve snagged it ahead of me. No doubt they’d have had a happy walk back to the car after the Munsters dominated the visitors, 26-14. Or they might’ve stopped in to celebrate at any of the restaurants and bars we passed. That’s the thing. The Bears right now generate all sorts of economic activity centered in the South Loop. The resulting tax revenue goes to the city. If the Munsters move to Arlington Heights, that economic activity will tag along. The team basically will be generating the same amount of business wherever it plays. It won’t matter to the state of Illinois where the McCaskeys pitch their flag, just to the communities within walking distance of wherever the Bears play. The Bears are already bad neighbors (What? We’re not responsible for that $534 million in construction bonds still outstanding for the 2003 Soldier Field renovation. We’re just tenants.) If the Munsters move out of the city, Arlington Heights and surrounding communities will learn just how bad.

Smart Money

Poor Tom Ricketts (relatively speaking). He must’ve drawn solace from the fact that his Cubs lost the NLDS to the kind of team he wishes his Cubs were. In other words, underpaid overachievers. According to sportac.com, the Cubs’ payroll this season is $211.9 million, as opposed to $121.7 million for the Brewers. And then the Dodgers had to go and ruin things by sweeping Milwaukee in the NLCS. Nobody spent more on salary this year than Los Angeles, at $350.3 million. Call it smart money, especially when compared to the Mets spending $342.4 and not even making the postseason. You can draft; develop; trade; and hope or draft; develop; trade; and spend smart. That’s what the Dodgers do. Oh, and gamble smart. They signed Blake Snell this year and Tyler Glasnow last year. Both have a history of arm problems, and neither pitched much in the regular season. But both were ready for the postseason, as evidenced by Snell’s eight shutout innings in game one of the NLCS. The same goes for Shohei Ohtani, who pitched all of 47 innings during the regular season. As if that kept him from throwing six shutout innings as he scattered two and three walks against strikeouts against the Brewers last night in the series clincher. We won’t even mention the three homeruns he hit in the game. This is the player Jerry Reinsdorf publicly stated the White Sox wouldn’t be pursuing when Ohtani was a free agent in 2023. Yes, by all means draft; develop; and trade. Just don’t expect to win unless you spend smart, which is not the same as spending less.

An Embarrassment of Choices

You want baseball? NLCS or ALCS? Hockey? Check the Hawks’ schedule this week? Basketball? The Bulls start next week. Football? NU or the Bears? Truly, this is the one time of year where Americans sports overlap. I hope to live long enough to see an October where the Cubs and White Sox are in their respective championship series, TV schedule be damned; the Hawks and Bull are looking to defend championships; ditto the Wildcats and Munsters. I’m pretty sure that never happened over the course of Sister Jean’s 106 years on the planet. I can wait.

Freeze Frame

My latest purchase arrived in the mail on Monday, an 8”x10” photo of Tommie Agee sliding under the tag of Lee Elia during spring training, 1966. Oh, the memories. Agee was part of a three-way trade with the Indians and A’s. We sent Fred Talbot, Mike Hershberger and Jim Landis to Kansas City for Rocky Colavito and then shipped Colavito and Cam Carreon to Cleveland for Agee, Tommy John and John Romano. Nice deal, that. Elia was already a baseball lifer when he debuted with the Sox as a 28-year old rookie in ’66. A .205 BA in 195 at-bats didn’t win him a second season on the South Side, just a cup of coffee with the Cubs in 1968. But his career in baseball was hardly over. Dallas Green named him Cubs’ manager in 1982. Elia gained notoriety for speaking truth to conceit in April of 1983. His team had just lost a close game to the Dodgers and gotten off to a terrible start at 5-14. Let’s just say Elia wasn’t a fan of the fans who showed up back then, saying that, “Eighty-five percent of the f****n’ world is working. The other fifteen come out here.” Unfortunately for Elia, his words were caught on tape. Not that he was wrong. This was the era of “Bleacher Bums,” which offered a fanciful take on that fifteen percent. Bums they were, and unemployed Elia became late in the ’83 season when the Cubs fired him. I see those full houses at Wrigley Field, and I can still hear Elia cursing, good White Sox that he was.

Now, That's What I'm Talking About

So, if Blake Snell was doing Sandy Koufax Monday night, then Yoshinobu Yamamoto stepped into the role of Don Drysdale last night. The 27-year old righthander threw a 118-pitch complete game helping the Dodgers beat the Brewers 5-1 win in Milwaukee. It’s the first postseason complete game since Justin Verlander in 2017. Eight innings from Snell, nine from Yamamoto—the analytics’ world must be reeling. What about batting average third time around the order? What about starter fatigue? What about leveraging power arms out of the bullpen? Who cares?

Stop the Presses!

How old school was that? Dodgers’ manager Dave Roberts let starter Blake Snell go eight innings last night in game one of the NLCS in Milwaukee. It didn’t hurt that Snell gave up all of one baserunner enroute to a 2-1 LA win over the Brewers. That’s the good news for those of us who remember going to ballgames on our brontosauruses. The game still took 2:53 to play. Yes, Brewers’ pitchers—and there were six of them—issued eight free passes, but the Dodgers helped things along by hitting into two double plays. And the Brewers chipped in, so to speak, when Caleb Durbin was picked off of first in the third inning. Gosh, I wonder if an onslaught of TV commercials had anything to do with an excruciating pace? Nah. Commissioner Rob Manfred cares too much about the future of the game to let anything like that happen. Right?

Done

With the Cubs’ loss to the Brewers in the NLDS Saturday night, the Chicago baseball season is officially over. It’s liberating, in a way. Now, I don’t have to listen to White Sox manager New-Mickey Venable—and I’ll call him by his given name the day he gets his team ten games over .500, I promise—start every answer to a question with “Yeah” or wonder why the lineup features the likes of Jacob Amaya or Josh Rojas or Will Robertson or why a hot hitter sits for one of the above. I miss reading box scores, but only for the 60 wins on the season. On a possibly related note, the 1967 team-autographed ball I bought arrived over the weekend. Talk about a stroll down memory lane—Wayne Causey, Don McMahon, Don Buford and, oh, so many more. Best of all, the autographs are clear, which makes it easy to spot Ken Boyer and Rocky Colavito (acquiring aging talent, always the White Sox way). The only tough signature to decipher belongs to coach Kerby Farrell, born two weeks after my dad and died 25 years before he did. Gary Peter, Joel Horlen, Walt Williams. Perfection, or almost. There’s no Cisco Carlos, who amassed an eyepopping 0.86 ERA in 41.2 innings. The 26-year old rookie got his first start August 25th (Bukowski father and son were in the stands, I distinctly recall), and Colavito was acquired July 29th. My guess is the autographs were amassed sometime between July 30-August 24. I lived and died with this team, the last gasp of a “Go-Go” Sox iteration dating to 1951, before my birth. With five games left in the ’67 season and one game out of first place, the Sox finished out the schedule against the tenth-place A’s and seventh-place Senators. Easy-peasey, right? No, a five-game losing streak brought me to tears and ushered in three miserable seasons of losing culminating in the 56-106 debacle of 1970. Hope returned in the following season with the hiring of Chuck Tanner. I already have the 1971 team ball: Bart Johnson, Jay Johnstone, Carlos May…Venable as the new Tanner? Sox fans should be so lucky.