Just Your Run-of-the-Mill Edge of the Abyss

First, the good news—Rule-5 find Shane Smith no-hit the Guardians for 5.2 innings and shut them out over six. Now, the bad news—Smith’s supporting cast couldn’t hit their way out of a paper bag. Sox hitters—and I use that term very, very loosely—managed two singles on the day. Luis Robert Jr. and Andrew Vaughn each failed to drive in a runner in scoring position. In fact, Vaughn managed that trick not once, not twice, but three times. The team batting average stands at .199, second-worst in all of baseball. Yet hitting coach Marcus Thames gets to keep his job. Maybe Mike Clevinger won’t be so lucky; I can hope. Clevinger started the ninth by failing to corral a low throw from second basemanLenyn Sosa while trying to cover first. Three walks later, and the Guardians had themselves a nice 1-0 win. Nothing in the three stories I read indicated Clevinger’s job was in jeopardy. Oh, well. Then again, why should I expect anything different? The team website ran a story, “Hungry for wins, White Sox front office still has faith in long-term plan,” that pretty much says nobody in the organization possesses much of an appetite. Consider this comment from assistant general manager Josh Barfield: “The worst thing we can do is get in our own way by trying to force something,” as in trying to find ways to win ballgames, I guess. Wait, there’s more. According to Bob Nightengale in Sunday’s USA Today, “White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, 90 [actually, 89], has made it perfectly clear to friends that he has zero interest in selling as long as he remains in good health.” Wow, Reinsdorf has friends. Who knew?

Torpedo That

I wonder if the Mariners or Royals had opened their season by hitting a whole bunch of homeruns with a different kind of bat how long it would’ve taken the national media to take note. Because the Yankees did it with the so-called bottle bat, baseball fans have been hearing about it 24/7. And— So what? A hot team beat a cold team (the Brewers’ pitching staff gave up fifteen longballs), and one of the cold team’s starters, Nestor Cortes, used to pitch for the hot team, which may be why they knew what to expect. Cortes, who grooved five pitches over two innings, is now on the IL with elbow issues. So, there’s all that to consider. Plus the fact that after sweeping a cold team, the Bronx Bomber have gone 3-4, including yesterday’s 6-2 loss to the Tigers. Those torpedo bats haven’t helped Carlos Rodon much. Rodon’s record slipped to 1-2 with a 5.19 ERA on the season. Oh, and no homeruns for the visiting New Yorkers. Before the torpedo bat with its bulging barrel (one person’s torpedo is another person’s humpback whale, by the way), we had the cupped bat; the maple bat; and the ash bat, to name a few types and fads. And did I mention the bottle bat? Nellie Fox used one in the 1950s and ’60s, and it looked pretty much like a bottle, if more 7-Up than Coke. My point is, different bats work for different players for different reasons. It’s too early to say that the torpedo bat is the wave of the future. Maybe a torpedo bat in hickory…

A Different Tune

No unicorns and rainbows out of the mouth of White Sox manager Will Venable after yesterday’s 4-3 loss to the Tigers, set up by a bullpen collapse. Nope, it almost sounded like the skipper was ticked. Lefty reliever Fraser Ellard nearly got himself a double play in the ninth, which would’ve meant two out and nobody on with the Sox ahead, 3-1. Instead, with one out and a runner on first, Ellard proceeded to walk Zach McKinstry and Riley Greene, both lefthanded hitters. That brought in Jordan Leasure, who is so early last year. It took all of two pitches for Leasure to give up a walk-off double to Spencer Torkelson, leaving the Sox at 2-7. As for Venable, he told reporters after the game, “Just too many walks out of the bullpen. We expect better out of those guys.” Venable added that Fraser was “in the game to get those guys out, and we’ve got to make them put the ball into play.” [quotes from today’s story in the Sun-Times] Nice to see the manager hold his players accountable in public, so very unlike the previous two seasons, four, really, given how Tony LaRussa never said a bad word about his players. Now I want to know if the manager and general manager care enough to at a minimum move the deck chairs around. You can’t keep sending out the same people if they keep giving you the same results; that’s crazy. Do the sane thing and find the right mix of pitchers, no matter how long or painful the process.

What he Said

Davis Martin pretty much stunk up the joint in Detroit yesterday, allowing seven runs on nine hits over five innings in a 7-2 loss, their fourth in a row. And I thought this was old last season, and the one before that. All of which reminds me of something former GM Jim Bowden said last week on CBS Sports, that this Sox team couldn’t win a championship at the Double-A level even. Bowden cited young pitching and a “lineup filled with fourth and fifth outfielders, fifth and sixth infielders on other teams.” If only he were wrong. But consider today’s lineup against the Tigers. There’s Matt Thaiss (.231); Miguel Vargas (.172); and Jacob Amaya (.111). All three have been written off by other organizations. As for Luis Robert Jr. (.143) and Andrew Vaughn (.154), well, it’s like waiting for Godot, and Godot ain’t coming. Michael A. Taylor and Mike Tauchman? Did Bowden say something about fourth and fifth outfielders? The Sox have a game in Detroit followed by three in Cleveland before coming home to face the Red Sox. Things could get ugly at (Cut)Rate ball-mall by next weekend.

Meet the New Boss?

It’s early, I know, but new White Sox manager Will Venable is starting to sound more than a little like old White Sox manager Mickey Mouse, and that’s not a good thing. Yesterday, Jonathan Cannon labored through 3.2 innings in a 7-4 loss to the Tigers; Cannon threw 88 pitches. But talk about a glass full. “He did a nice job getting ahead and just wasn’t able to put guys away, and the pitch count got up on him,” Venable in spin mode told reporters after the game. Oh, and Cannon “did a nice job dealing with some traffic,” as in three hits, three walks and two hit-by-pitch. [quotes in today’s Tribune] Down at Triple-A Charlotte, heir apparent at shortstop Colson Montgomery continues to struggle. Last night, Montgomery went 1-for-3, which raised his average to .087, with sixteen strikeouts in 23 at-bats. According to Venable, not to worry. It’s early, a weekend hot streak will give him good numbers. Montgomery “left spring training in a good spot. I don’t think anyone’s going to look too deeply at 20 [now 23] at-bats.” [quote in today’s Sun-Times] Ah, Skipper, Montgomery was not in a good spot at the end of spring training, because he got sent down instead of opening the season at shortstop for the Sox, as just about everybody—including you, I’m sure—expected. He didn’t hit well last year at Triple-A (.214), so the worry is, or should be, that this is a continuation of that. There’s a difference between accentuating the positive and living in an alternate reality, where Mouse pitched his tent for close to two years before getting what he so richly deserved. Do you really want to join him?

Front and Back

Everything was backwards—I pitch out front and play catch in the yard. No, wait. I did out front with Clare. Leo wanted to hit in back. Everyone came over for dinner yesterday (White Fence Farm fried chicken, family pack, hush puppies to die for), and there was enough time for a half-hour of hitting. Leo also wanted to show off his new shoes. “They’re fast,” he declared before losing a race with the dog to the kitchen. “Why is Penny faster?” “That’s because she runs on four paws,” I answered with the wisdom of a grandparent. It was also dinnertime, and my dog will not be beat to her bowl. In another two months, I’m going to switch out bats so that my grandson is swinging the same one his mother did at that age (3-5/6 years). What impresses me isn’t so much that he can put plastic balls into the neighbor’s yard so much as his doing it off of live pitching instead of a tee. Maybe that makes him further ahead in development than his mom, maybe not. I never even thought to pitch to Clare at the exact same age. But it should get interesting come June.

The Real World

The greatest clown show on earth, aka the Chicago Bears, were at it again yesterday, promising another hundred years of mediocrity while displaying an arrogance to take your breath away. Munsters’ chair George McCaskey, at the NFL owners’ meeting in Palm Beach, told reporters, “We’ve said for many years we intend to own the Bears for as long as possible. Another hundred years would be great.” Read it and weep, fans. Then we had team president and CEO Kevin Warren perform the latest version of his shakedown dance for public money to help build a stadium, anywhere, somewhere. For the past year or so, Warren has tried to generate public support behind a behemoth on the lake south of Soldier Field. Yesterday, he signaled that suburban Arlington Heights was in play as well. Wait, there’s more. In true “cake and eat it too” fashion, Warren wants the Bears to own the project while paying next to no taxes on it. “We don’t want tax certainty for the first five years with a building you hope lasts for 30 or 40 years. We want to pay our taxes, but you don’t want to find yourself in the position where fifteen years down the road, your tax bill quadruples.” [all quotes from today’s Tribune] Kevin, real estate taxes go up all the time in Cook County, and it doesn’t matter—at least for homeowners—how unfair or onerous it might be; if the assessed property rate goes up, so does the tax bill. Given that you keep promising a unicorn entertainment/stadium district, that means the value of the property will increase yes? But it should be other property owners who pay full freight on their tax bill? Sorry, but that’s not how things go in the real world. You should visit sometime.

The Path Not Taken

The White Sox have had themselves a nice little run of starting pitching the first five games of the season, including last night, when Rule-5 acquisition Shane Smith threw 5-2/3 shutout innings against the Twins. Too bad Smith lost his control and walked the final two batters he face3d. That led Will Venable to call on his bullpen, as if he had one. A 3-0 lead turned into an 8-3 loss. Of course, Smith and Martin Perez might not be with the Sox if management had decided to keep Garrett Crochet, someone the Red Sox think enough of to award a six-year, $170 million extension. But, hey, we got a whole bunch of minor leaguers in exchange for the 25-year old lefty. Who cares if Kyle Teel sits in Triple-A? Crochet and Sean Burke and Jonathan Cannon and Davis Martin and Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith? We don’t need no stinkin’ high-priced ace. That’s big-market ball. The White Sox prefer to develop, then trade. It’s the path they’ve taken, every time.

Deals Past and Future

My, my, four games into the season and the White Sox are at .500 thanks to some fine pitching, including yesterday’s 9-0 whitewash of the Twins. I wonder who Chris Getz will be looking to move for prospects? Martin Perez, who pitched six no-hit innings? Oh, he could get a second-rounder in return. Maybe Andrew Benintendi, who cranked a three-run shot in the second, or Andrew Vaughn, who did likewise in the first? Vaughn’s still under control, so Getz might not want to let him go. But I bet Benintendi could be had for a song. I mean, this is an organization that traded Jake Burger for Jake Eder, who as of last Wednesday “pitches” for the Angels’ organization. By the way, I see that Burger homered for the Rangers yesterday and Gavin Sheets drove in four runs for the Padres. Who would’ve thought those two would amount to anything?

Recalculating

What to make of one series that finds the White Sox 1-2 after yesterday’s 3-2 loss to the Angels? Well, the team ERA stands at 1.00, which is pretty much to die for. Oh, but the team batting average. When you throw out a bunch of guys who “hit” at a .196 clip, there’s trouble in River City, my friends. Now, let’s turn our attention to Triple-A Charlotte, where the Knights are 3-0 after sweeping Gwinnett. Top prospects Edgar Quero and Kyle Teel had themselves quite a weekend; Quero went 5-for-11 and Teel 6-for-12 with an eye-popping nine RBIs. And these guys aren’t in the majors, why, exactly? As for Colson Montgomery, look out below. The not-so-long-ago gem of the organization is already slumping, as evidenced by a .077 BA (1-for-13) with a stomach-turning nine strikeouts. Montgomery hasn’t hit above .244 since his promotion Double-A Brimingham during the 2023 season. This is the Sox prospect I expect to see on the move soon. Back to Double-A.

Bah, Humbug

The downside to rooting for a team or two is the losing. In Chicago, that means a lot of downside. Yesterday, the White Sox lost 1-0 because the lineup Will Venable threw out there couldn’t touch an OK+ pitcher (Jose Soriano) and Mike Clevinger couldn’t field his position. Bah. A little over five hours later, the Bulls lost 120-119 to the visiting Mavs because Klay Thompson and Anthony Davis always scare the bejesus out of them and they committed way too many turnovers, nineteen vs. six for Dallas. Plus the Bulls missed five free throws. Humbug. Fortune does not smile on sloppy play, guys.

Is This Anything?

How can it not be, when Josh Giddey sinks a 47-footer from half-court to beat the visiting Lakers Thursday night, 119-117? Oh, the look on the face of that LA fan was priceless. Don’t let the door hit you on the way to the airport, my friend. I think we can now officially move past the “they should be tanking, not winning” take that filled the airwaves the past week or so. And let’s not worry what Joe Cowley brought up in today’s Sun-Times, how much it will cost to keep Giddey and Coby White around. Right now, those two get the rest of the regular season, which comes out to nine games, and the postseason to show what they’re about. Until then, just enjoy the ride, or, as the great philosopher Bobby McFerrin once urged, don’t worry, be happy. Like scoring nine points in the final 12.6 seconds when you’re down by five. Makes me smile.

Cruel to be Kind

The White Sox beat the Angels 8-1 yesterday at (Cut)Rate Field to go above .500 for the first time in two years. Truly, baby steps. Sean Burke continues to look like a major-league starter, throwing six shutout innings on a mere three hits and zero walks. Oh, gosh, only three punchouts, which means the 25-year old righthander pitched to contact. Whatever. If Burke’s a keeper, maybe Lenyn Sosa is, too. Sosa hit the ball hard twice before connecting for a two-run homerun in the bottom of the eighth. All I’m asking for, Lenyn, is consistency at second base and at the plate. After that, it would be wrong to get too excited. Andrew Benintendi cranked a three-run homer to put the game out of reach in the eighth, so could for him. Chris Getz is still likely to spend the entire season trying to move Benintendi, though. Along with Luis Robert Jr., who hit a double and played a nice centerfield, and Mike Clevinger, who struck out Jorge Soler on a full count with the bases loaded in the top of the eighth. Austin Slater, who homered in his first White Sox at-bat, is more likely to get released when the time comes, unless he puts up some nice numbers that will net a midlevel prospect from somebody. Miguel Vargas? Two hits, one of them the saddest of dying quails. He didn’t do anything to hurt his chances at third base, but time will tell. Ditto for Andrew Vaughn, who really needs to get off to a good start for a change. As for Korey Lee, he’s a gone catcher walking, unless Kyle Teel and/or Edgar Quero fail to make it out of Triple-A. Anyway, it’s baseball, and that’s all I can ask for.

What I Want

What I want from the White Sox, first off, is for them to play hard and with a purpose. Under ex-manager Mickey Mouse, those proved to be two impossible goals. Next, I want to see young talent playing at 35th and Shields, the sooner the better. I don’t want to watch ballgames with the Cannon Ballers, Barons or Knights. If the Sox are going to be compared to a bunch of minor leaguers, put those minor leaguers on the major league roster. Last and by no means least, I want Jerry Reinsdorf gone. Hope springs eternal on a day such as this.

A Big Gamble

With the White Sox posting an over/under of 53.5 wins in gambling circles, there’s not much to do other than wait. But the Cubs, well, we can have some fun with them. The modus operandi for the North Siders seems to be a mix of retreat and confusion. Are they a big-market team or not? Kind of depends on the day of the week you ask. And Tom Ricketts does show signs of turning into Jerry Reinsdorf light when it comes to team payroll, as in small is never enough. Kids or veterans? Again, it depends on the day and the lineup card. Matt Shaw has gotten the nod at third, Pete Crow-Armstrong is a ball of excitement in center field and the top of the order. But what about right field? That’s the current home of Kyle Tucker, Jed Hoyer’s big offseason acquisition. Tucker is a talented 28-year old lefthanded hitter with 125 career homeruns and a .274 BA, stats that indicate he’ll be close to or at the top of the list of free-agent talent come season’s end. Will the Cubs sign him; let him walk; or trade him come July? Depends on the day of the week. What’s interesting is that Tucker is off to a slow start, hitting .100 in spring training while going 1-for-8 in the two games against the Dodgers. I mention this because of Cam Smith, the 22-year old prospect the Cubs traded for Tucker. Hoyer drafted the righthand-hitting Smith in the first round last June, and all the Florida State product did was hit .313 over three levels of the minors (low-A, high-A, Double-A), with seven homers and 24 RBIs. Wait, there’s more. In spring training, Smith hit .342 with four homers and eleven RBIs. Guess who Houston’s new right fielder is? With 32 minor league games under his belt, Smith makes his MLB debut in near-record time, third fastest ever for a position player taken in the draft. Hoyer has taken a real gamble here. If he signs Tucker who then settles into a nice career on the North Side, then he wins, how much depending on how well Smith does in comparison. If Tucker is one-and-done, not good, unless Smith is a bust, in which case no-harm-no-foul. Me, I remember the Sox trading Tommie Agee for Tommy Davis. When in doubt, go young. Had the Cubs gambled on Smith and Smith began producing from the start, money that might have gone to sign Tucker could have gone to an extension locking up Smith for a nice, long time. But, at the end of the day, not my team, not my gamble.

Conventional Wisdom

According to the pundits, there comes a time in the NBA season where every team has to decide whether to soldier on or tank it. After trading Zach Lavine, the Bulls were supposed to go into tank mode in order to have a shot at the latest flavor of the week, Duke forward Cooper Flagg. And they tried, sort of. Coach Billy Donovan had his team playing hard and losing close. In the first eight games after the LaVine trade, the Bulls went 1-7. Only now, they’ve gone 8-2 in their last ten games, including a 4-2 road trip that ended last night with a 129-119 win over the Nuggets. What say the wise ones? Andy Masur on WGN’s GN Sports Sunday night pretty much summed up the consensus reaction among sports’ people with a shrug. Yeah, it was nice to beat LeBron and the Lakers, but what does it really mean? No doubt, another win did little to change Masur’s mind or that of any of the other skeptics. We’ll see over the next three games, all at home, against the Lakers, Mavs and Thunder. Take two out of three there, and you’ve got something. Otherwise, it’s… Far be it from me to jump on any bandwagon connected to team executive v.p. Arturas Karnisovas, but I have to admit he did something right by trading LaVine (and Alex Caruso in the offseason) and drafting Matas Buzelis. Somehow, Karnisovas has stumbled his way onto a core of Josh Giddey, Buzelis and Coby White. Consider last night. Buzelis wasn’t much of a factor with ten points and four rebounds, but Giddey and White, oh my. Giddey had 26 points to go with seven rebounds and nine assists while the red-hot White poured in 37 points. After that, Donovan plays mix and match with his bench, which he does quite well and which—again, it pains me to say—Karnisovas has made possible with the acquisition of guard/forward Kevin Huerter and forward/center Zach Collins plus the offseason signing of center Jalen Smith. Once he gets healthy, guard Tre Jones belongs to this group, along with Lonzo Ball, Dalen Terry and Julian Phillips. It’s actually enough to make me all but forget that Partrick Williams is still with the team. Like I said, it’s fun, and we’ll know if it means anything in another three games.

Is This Roster Anything?

Four days from now, the White Sox take the field for Opening Day against the Angels at (Cut) Rate Field. As to who the starting nine hitters will be, your guess is as good as mine. As of Monday morning, the team still has five catchers in camp, six, if you include minor leaguer Adam Hackenberg, who’s having himself a nice spring with two homeruns and a .385 BA. But, with all due respect to Casey Stengel, there comes a point when you can have too many catchers, passed balls be damned. The starting rotation is pretty set, barring an unforeseen Tommy John surgery, but the bullpen is, as they say, a work in progress. Personally, I can’t wait to see Mike Clevinger coming in to close. Thing is, that’s probably a better option than Michael Kopech. Infield, outfield—who knows? Brandon Drury looked set to make the team, until he broke his thumb the other day and then got cut. Mike Tauchman was supposed to play right, but he’s injured, along with shortstop-apparent Josh Rojas. Really, you hold your breath every time a Sox player steps into or out of the dugout. I’m looking hard for bright spots, and about the only one I can find is the likelihood of Bryan Ramos making the team. Bryan, if you want to stay, hit from day one. Otherwise, a catcher might take your spot.

Is This Anything?

The Bulls beat LeBron and the Lakers by 31 on the road last night? Pinch me, I’m dreaming. Better yet, don’t. As soon as I have nice things to say about point guard Tre Jones, he goes down with a sprained left foot and could be out two weeks. Not to worry, though; this is the guard-heavy Bulls. Just insert Josh Giddey and watch him come within two steals of a quadruple double (points, assists, rebounds, steals). I didn’t even know there was such a thing. And let’s not forget Coby White or Matas Buzelis. White scored a game-high 36 points while the 20-year old Buzelis added a career-high 31. Now, if Giddey, White, Buzelis and company can pull off an upset in Denver tomorrow, definitely don’t pinch me. Oh, should I mention that prized White Sox prospects Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith both got rocked in their respective, split-squad starts yesterday or that Drew Thorpe will be the fifth Sox pitcher this spring set for Tommy John surgery? Naw, that’d just kill the dreamy buzz.

Grasping at Straws

By scoring six runs in the top of the ninth against Cincinnati yesterday, the White Sox pushed their spring record to 10-16, which is actually better than the Guardians, Mainers and Marlins; same as the Angels; and one less win than the Reds and Padres. Who knew? If their real record looks like that come May, I’ll be happy. Right now, though, there’s way too much emphasis on a future that doesn’t extend beyond Triple-A. This pitcher, that hitter, all with an ETA that sometime after Opening Day. The problem with that is no one will want to show up at 35th and Shields if there aren’t (m)any new, young faces in the dugout. The longer those faces stay in the minors—and the longer Jerry Reinsdorf holds onto the team—the less likely it is for Will Venable to make like another rookie Sox manager. Chuck Tanner took a team that went 56-106 in 1970 and pushed it to another 23 wins in ’71. (Note: Technically, Tanner wasn’t a first-year manager in 1971. He got his feet wet managing the last sixteen games of the 1970 season.) That’s the standard I’m holding Venable to, with GM Chris Getz to Roland Hemond. As for Jerry Reinsdorf, he couldn’t hold a candle to John Allyn.

Is This Anything?

Maybe if the Bulls had traded Zach LaVine last summer, they’d be playing like this from the start. All I know is the Zach-less Bulls are doing a mean imitation of a decent basketball team. Right now, they’re two-thirds of the way through a six-game trip against Western Conference teams. So far, it’s been losses to the Rockets and Suns and wins against the Jazz and Kings, with the Lakers and Nuggets to finish things off. Talk about a trip from hell going OK, so far. Because the front office has assembled a guard-centric roster, it only makes sense to go with a de facto three-guard offense, with newly acquired Kevin Huerter switching over to small forward. This makes for a younger, more athletic team, quite unlike anything Arturas Karnisovas has assembled since he took over in 2020. Last night, Huerter scored 25 points in a 128-116 win over the Kings while Tre Jones, another piece of the three-way trade in February that sent LaVine to Sacramento, scored fifteen points with seven assists. With Jones at point, Coby White can operate as shooting guard, which he did last night to the tune of 35 points. Billy Donovan and company would have to win their last twelve games of the season to finish over .500. Still, it makes me wonder what could have been and what it all means, if anything.

Eat It Up

This is what matters to the White Sox—the menu, not the roster. The past couple of days, Chicago news outlets have been showering the Sox with free publicity. Want to get something to go with that Campfire Milkshake? Well, check out Korean (hot) dogs or the Changeup Bubble Waffle. As for any player moves that promise to add another twenty or so wins over last year’s pitiful total of 41, move along, nothing to see here. Listen closely, and you can hear my father rolling over in his grave. We went to Comiskey Park to watch baseball. On the way home, we picked up something to eat. I saw rookie Cisco Carlos make his major-league debut against the Red Sox on August 25, 1967. Carlos threw six shutout innings against a Boston lineup that feature Carl Yastrzemski; George Scott; Reggie Smith; and Rico Petrocelli. The soon-to-be 27-year old righthander held the visitors hitless until two out in the fifth inning. Ken Berry hit a walk-off single for a 2-1 right Sox win. That game feels like it happened yesterday. Funny, but I have no idea what we ate.

Two Down, 120 to Go

The Cubbies lose two games in Tokyo, and my South Side starts to show. Another 120 losses, guys, and you beat our record. Go, Cubs, go. If I were a Cubs fan (perish the thought), I’d be a little ticked at having to start the season close to two weeks ahead of everyone else (except the 2-0 Dodgers, of course). This has got to hurt team rhythm, if there is such a thing, and I think there is. Maybe all this rushing explains why Jed Hoyer put the immortal Jon Berti on the roster instead of Nicky Lopez, who can at least catch the ball. If I were a Cubs fan (see above), I’d also start to wonder about manager Craig Counsell. At least Joe Maddon had a shelf life. Counsell’s supposed savvy in the dugout translated into a 83-79 record, which seems a tad modest given his five-year, $40 million contract. And talk about a cure for insomnia. Alas, honesty forces me to admit Will Venable sounds like an excited Counsell, if there is such a thing. That said, 0-2. Keep up the good work, everyone.

Arizona Dreamin'

The White Sox have named 25-year old Sean Burke as their Opening Day starter. The righthander has all of nineteen innings pitched in his MLB career. I’m not complaining. Burke looked good last September over the course of those nineteen innings, going 2-0 with a 1.42 ERA in three starts. Expected to follow Burke in the rotation are Jonathan Cannon; Davis Martin; Martin Perez; and someone known but to God and manager Will Venable. Burke, Martin and Perez have all looked good in their spring starts while Cannon looks like he wants to pitch himself back to Triple-A, with a 10.32 ERA in four starts. As for the unknown fifth starter, we live in different times. Because prospects Hagen Smith and Noah Schultz have shown enough to be part of the conversation. By this time next year, I’m sure they will be. But rebuilds can’t be rushed, especially if it means the Sox devoting one season of control over them in what would be a “lost” season. Never mind that fans would pay to see those two along with Burke, Martin and Perez. Pitching for Sox, not the Barons. Oh, well, I can dream.

Another Bite

Veteran slugger Joey Gallo asked for his release yesterday, and the White Sox complied. The 31-year old with 208 career homeruns and a .194 BA wants to convert himself into a pitcher. Let’s see, the last position player I can remember who pulled that off was Anthony Gose, who’s now trying to catch on with the Mets. Gose, though, made the switch starting at age 27. And the results have been modest at best, 32 innings spread over parts of three seasons. Gose is 3-0 in that time with a 4.78 ERA over 31 relief appearances. A long, long time ago back when I was a baby, Dick Hall switched from the infield to the pitcher’s mound, and he had himself a nice 16-year career mostly as a reliever. But it doesn’t happen often for the simple fact that throwing strikes on a consistent basis is hard to do. Otherwise, Bobby Douglas would be the greatest two-sport athlete in Chicago history.

Glass Ceilings Made Secure

Because the Cubs open up against the Dodgers in Tokyo on Tuesday, the Tribune felt the need to pull together a baseball-preview section. As a certain president might say, sad. This is paste-and-cut at its most basic, without a single Trib writer contributing a story. Still, one story in particular caught my eye, “Calling their shots: 5 former players are running baseball operations in the majors. More could be on the way.” According to Jay Cohen of the AP, the Giants; Mariners; Rangers; Red Sox; and White Sox are all headed up by former MLB players. So, everything old is new again, though two of the people in question do have Ivy League degrees. I happen to think experience counts, especially in coaching—which is different from managing—and maybe in the front office, too. If more former players are in fact headed to the front office, here’s the thing: That’s not a good trend for women. Why? For the very simple fact that there has never once been a female MLB player. Over at The Athletic, I read a story about the value of pitching labs. The story shows a young woman working a computer as a college pitcher looks to be throwing hard, which is what pitching labs are all about. The story also mentions a woman who set up a lab at Wake Forest much-visited by MLB clubs. Nothing new here. From what I’ve seen, women coaches in baseball tend to have a tech connection. They either operate the gizmos or base their hitting/pitching coaching on data from the gizmos. So far, though, female, tech-reliant coaches haven’t reached the major leagues. And what happens when tech loses its appeal? Roger Craig, who twice lost 20-plus games in a season for the Mets, reinvented himself as a pitching guru by coming up with the split-finger fastball. Maybe Craig would’ve done it sooner with the help of tech, but the point is as an ex-pitcher of some success in the majors (74-98 for his career), Craig kind of knew what he was looking for. An ex-hitter never could’ve done it. How can someone who’s never pitched? Long story short, from where I sit, women will always be an afterthought in baseball whether in the front office or the coaching ranks until they establish themselves on the field first.

What Goes Around Comes Around

A very long time ago, Jerry Reinsdorf huffed and puffed his way to a new stadium for the White Sox. Really, good times to be an owner. Fast-forward 35 years, and Reinsdorf can’t get anyone to fall for his antics. He’s hinted at selling and/or moving as part of his ploy to get money from the General Assembly to build at least part of another ball mall for him. Really, bad times to be an owner. Gone are the days of the public picking up the entire tab. Now, teams are expected to contribute. Part of Reinsdorf Ploy 1.0 was the threat to move into a domed stadium in St. Petersburg. In the greatest of all ironies, the Rays are desperate to leave the place, only nobody will build them a new home, and they really don’t have the money and/or the will to contribute to the cost of construction. The same with Reinsdorf. After getting the cold shoulder in Springfield, he made vague statements about sharing building costs without ever specifying how much. Right now, the Bears can’t get a dime from the General Assembly, and Ploy 2.0 just hangs there like a balloon caught in a tree, slowly deflating until it falls to the ground. If the Rays move, that’s one less place for Reinsdorf to threaten to go to. And, if he tries to move the Sox anytime soon, he may find his unpopularity will follow him. I mean, who wants a grumpy, 89-year owner whose track record consists of one World Series win in 44 seasons? Talk about karma. And now I see the A’s don’t have a finalized deal yet with Oakland. Truly, what goes around comes around, and I couldn’t be happier.

Cry Me a River

Maybe if we weren’t in the midst of Bears-a-palooza somebody might pay attention to what’s happening in Florida, which is nothing. And that matters a whole bunch to the White Sox. You see, nothing’s happening in St. Petersburg but was supposed to. The Rays were all in as part of a grand redevelopment project that included a $1.3 billion stadium for them. All they had to do was come up with their part of the funding, in the neighborhood of $700 million. Yesterday, ownership announced, no can do, without saying exactly why. The first thing to point out here is that this was the market Jerry Reinsdorf threatened to move to if he didn’t get a new stadium. Folks, people may play baseball in Florida, but they won’t pay to watch it played. The inability of a MLB team to participate in this kind of venture shows just how much times have changed since the late 1980s. The public wants private skin in the game when it comes to new stadiums. The Rays got no skin. Now what? Does ownership threaten to move? Does it sell? If they move, that’s one less place for Reinsdorf to threaten to go to if he doesn’t get a new stadium in Chicago. And even if the Rays are sold to local ownership, the situation serves as a cautionary tale about big urban redevelopment projects featuring stadiums. They’re not a shoe-in to get done. Reinsdorf may have to promise to kick in more money than he’d like to in order to get what he wants where he wants. And people like me will make a point of telling the public why it’s a bad idea to give it to him. So, things could get interesting regardless how many games the Sox win.

Textbook

Talk about shock and awe. Yesterday, the Bears trotted out three of their latest acquisitions—offensive guards Joe Thuney and Jonah Jackson along with defensive tackle Grady Jarrett—to meet the media. Only the media acted like it was the second coming. Everywhere I looked, it was the three Bears saying this, that and the other. The craziest, or most confused, was Thuney, who made it sound like he was going to the Chiefs, where he won four Super Bowls, instead of the Munsters of the Midway, a team that hasn’t even played in four Super Bowls. Again, this is how the NFL juggernaut works. Consider that the Sun-Times offered up four pages on the Bears plus an attack on ex-Bear Justin Fields by columnist Rick Morrissey. Four plus one equals five pages of Chicago football coverage, folks. That includes an obit for John Johnson, a defensive tackle who played on the Bears from 1963 to 1968. When White Sox star pitchers and Joel Horlen (2022) and Gary Peters (2023) died, you needed a magnifying glass to read about it. All hail the juggernaut. Oh, and the Munsters have two more new Bears to introduce today.

Repeat After Me: It’s Only Spring Training

Nothing says trouble like sending one of your top prospects to the minors, which the White Sox did yesterday with shortstop Colson Montgomery. Lack of hitting, bad back, one or both. Take your pick. GM Chris Getz is peddling the line that he wants Montgomery “in a very good spot” when the Sox call him up. In a good spot, as in Triple-A? Folks, everyone this side of Ted Williams is going to slump at some point in a season. Hoping Montgomery puts up good numbers for Birmingham only delays seeing how he handles adversity on the big-league level. On top of that, I keep thinking Ron Hansen, a long-ago talented shortstop for the Sox done in by a…yup, bad back. Tell me this isn’t that. You can’t? I thought so. Oh, and ex-Sox Gavin Sheets has five homeruns for the Padres, including two yesterday against…yup, his old team. Good thing we have Bobby Dalbec.

Dazed and Confused

The Chicago news broadcasts yesterday came this close to treating the Bears’ signing three free agents as breaking news. Thank you, NFL juggernaut. As far as I could tell, nobody in local media knows the difference between baseball and football free agency. Here’s a hint—there’s a lot more talent available in one than the other. Football may reign supreme, but, in comparison to the national pastime it’s replaced, the best free agents are in baseball. Maybe it’s because of football’s hard salary cap. The Bears signed two defensive linemen and one center. What that means is their old teams didn’t want them, didn’t see their value vs. other, most likely, younger players. In baseball, it’s not so much that teams don’t want to sign their players to extensions, but they can’t afford to. This is apples to oranges, but here goes—the Bears didn’t sign anyone close to Juan Soto or Alex Bregman, even, in terms of talent. Yes, an NFL team can strike it rich in free agency, like the Eagles did with Saquon Barkley last season. Far more likely, though, talent is acquired through trades, usually in the form of draft pick(s) in exchange for player(s). Ex-Bears’ GM Ryan Pace did that all the time. Yes, he got burned giving away valuable draft capital for players he overvalued. Regardless, that’s how talent gets moved the majority of times in the NFL. So, pardon me if I’m not jumping onto the Bears’ bandwagon just yet. Super Bowl LX? No, more likely, bust.

Virtue Signaling

On Saturday, the first-ever college-level women’s flag-football game in the state of Illinois took place, with Rockford University beating Illinois Benedictine, 32-0. It was no accident the game took place at the Bears’ indoor, Halas Hall facility. The Bears love flag football because it allows them to have their cake and eat it too, to signal a commitment to women’s sports that has next to no chance of affecting the structure of pro football. That’s precisely why team president Kevin Warren showed up to opine before the TV cameras. Talk, unlike a privately-funded stadium, is cheap. Here's part of a story posted on the team website on February 5: “Girls flag football has seen exponential growth in Illinois throughout the last four years, and the Bears have been there every step of the way. By hosting coaches clinics, player jamborees and the state's first ever girls flag championship, the Bears have made a clear commitment to expanding the exposure of young women to sports and the opportunities that being a student-athlete can provide.” Will that support have much impact on the composition of coaching staffs and front offices? Do you think Warren would be there if it did?

One More Than the Other

The White Sox beat the Dodgers 5-2 yesterday, with a Rule 5 pitcher I never heard of striking out Shohei Ohtani twice. Too bad it doesn’t count, although it sort of does. What counts for sure is the Bulls winning last night against the Heat in Miami, 114-109. Wow, two wins in a row on the road. Twenty-two-year old Josh Giddey may actually be the real deal as a guard who can both shoot and pass; at least over the past month or so he has, which makes the trade that sent Alex Caruso to Oklahoma City not look so bad. I mean, a guy can hope. It’s also been interesting to watch center Zach Collins play; The Bulls got him in the three-way deal that sent Zach LaVine to Sacramento last month. Hmm. Collins looks to be a decent player, physical and with a soft shooting touch. On top of that, he’s all of 27, which makes him seven years younger than Nikola Vucevic. You can see the age difference every time Collins runs down the floor. What does it all mean? Just a two-game winning streak, but one that allows the Bulls’ front office to argue they aren’t total screwups. Right now, that’ll have to do.

Gone

We’re in the middle of redoing ceilings in the basement and on the back porch. What doesn’t kill me—think dust, and plenty of it—will make the house more appealing. I guess. A quarter-century ago, Clare and I would practice in the basement, usually in the fall and winter. She’d hit a wiffle ball or throw a league. Ever so often, a ball struck the ceiling, leaving more of a line than a mark. Early on, Michele also got hit in the head with a wiffle ball while she tried to work on the computer. It didn’t take too many errant throws to get her upstairs. In between gasps for air, I can see how good a job the contractor’s done. One thing is missing, though. I’ll have to get my grandson down here to do some hitting and throwing.

Why I Follow Sports

No doubt it’s different in NYC and LA, where gobs of money go into teams that win far more often than not. Chicago’s different, always has been. Mike Ditka once said Bears’ owner George Halas tossed nickels around like manhole covers. That’s pretty much the modus operandi in these parts. With the White Sox, they’re either too poor to compete (Bill Veeck) or act like they’re too poor to compete (Jerry Reinsdorf). Whatever team you root for in Chicago, you don’t go in expecting championships. It's individual performance that counts. I have a sense of what Luke Appling and Ted Lyons did a very long time ago, Minnie Minoso and Billy Pierce a long time ago, Mark Buehrle and Paul Konerko in what seems like a day ago. Plus Billy Donovan. If he knew what was good for the Bulls as an organization, Donovan would sit on his hands and let his team lose, again and again in order to get a better spot in the draft. But there was Donovan last night coaching his players to a comeback win on the road in Orlando, 125-123 over the Magic. Any night Coby White scores 44 points, you know it’s special. The win gives the Bulls a 25-38 record, as mediocre as it gets, or a little worse. Donovan—and for that matter, White—are Appling toiling away in obscurity, trying their best because that’s what they expect of themselves, whatever the result of the game. Which is what I look for in Chicago sports.

Bears' Nation

24/7/52/364—All day every day every week of the year, that’s the amount of time the Chicago media devotes to news of your Chicago Bears. Anything left over goes to the other teams, pending breaking Bears’ news. The Munsters, fresh off their 5-12 “triumph” of a season, are commanding every platform out there this week. Why? Because they’ve acquired two offensive linemen, one 28 and the other 32. Breaking news—they just acquired a “blocking” tight end. Never mind players at that position are supposed to be able to block and catch the ball. Bears’ management doesn’t even require one of those skill sets. The really irritating part is how the other teams make it all possible. The Bulls, Hawks and White Sox are somewhere between awful and mediocre, which means minimal coverage. The Cubs are mediocre-plus, which means any extra coverage is usually devoted to columnists complaining how cheap they are. August used to belong to the Munsters. Now, March does, too.

Aches and Pains

What, me worry? Colson Montgomery is supposed to be part of the White Sox rebuild, only A) he can’t play because of injury and B) he can’t hit when he does play. The 23-year old shortstop has played in all of three games this spring, with one hit in seven at-bats. The problem? Back spasms, or so they say. Montgomery was limited to 64 games in 2023, also due to back problems. Either the Sox can’t scout healthy players, or they can’t keep players healthy. Neither possibility says anything good about the organization. And, yes, this is where the cranky old baseball fan says, “There are too many injuries. It’s all because of guys bulking up.” Maybe I’m right, maybe not. In a way, I see the Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong as the canary in the coal mine here. PCA strikes me as a real throwback to when the leadoff hitter had speed first, power later if at all; the guy strikes me as scary fast. I just want to see how many games he can play. I don’t mean this out of any South Side sour grapes. I just wonder if the Cubs employ a different training/conditioning regimen for their players or if there’s something special about this particular player. Is it possible PCA doesn’t hit the weight room the way other players do? Could Chris Getz and the Sox learn something? Perish the thought.

Not My Problem

Back in the day, I truly hated the Cubs. It’s a South Side thing, and I won‘t even say the feeling’s mutual. Sox fans have never bothered to ask. But I’m a more mellow person now. So, I’ll try not to laugh at the show Sammy Sosa is putting on at spring training in Mesa. Yesterday, I read how he thinks players will listen to what he tells them because he has the career numbers to back it up. And, today, let’s just say things went from silly to absurd. The Sun-Times ran a column Bob Nightengale did for USA Today. Well, technically a column but in truth more of a puff-piece and trial balloon to get Sosa and fellow PEDs-ers into Cooperstown. To call it journalism would be a stretch. Nightengale also talked to Mark McGwire, who admitted to kind of feeling bad about taking PEDs, and Sosa agreed. You see, “There was no testing. There were no rules. We didn’t break any laws.” So says Sosa. Nightengale went on to write, “If truth be told, PEDs were nearly as common as chewing tobacco” in the time of McGwire and Sosa. But everyone looked the other way, and there were no rules. It’s called the honor-system, guys, or a conscience, or the ability to tell right from wrong. Maybe Nightengale wasn’t around then to point out how big McGwire, Sosa, Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens had gotten, but other reporters were out there. Crickets. No rules, no testing. I guess for some people that means, anything goes. Enjoy your Sammy-la, Cubs fans. You can keep him.

You Can Bet on It

So, Donald Trump says he’s going to pardon Pete Rose and wants him in the HOF while at the same time Commissioner Rob Manfred announces that he’s is considering a petition from Rose’s family to remove Rose from the ineligible list, which would just so happen make him eligible for election to Cooperstown. Trump seems to think it was OK for Rose to break the cardinal rule of baseball since “Charlie Hustle” only bet on his team to win. Yeah, because he had to stop after getting caught. You think Rose wouldn’t have bet the other way once he racked up serious debt to gamblers? But let the powers that be have their way on the matter, provided Manfred at least acknowledges any change to Rose’s status demands reconsideration of Buck Weaver’s and Shoeless Joe Jackson’s. The one didn’t bet against his team in 1919, and the other may have taken the money and played to win, anyhow. How ‘bout it, Commissioner?

Crickets

Well, not only did I save a boatload of money by not buying anything off my eBay watchlist, the White Sox were in fact worth checking out, to the tune of an 18-9 win over the Mariners. Another two hits and two RBIs for Lenyn Sosa. I guess I should be happy both papers had stories on the game, what with beggars (at 41-121) and choosers. Still, I can’t shake the memory of how newspapers used to be on the lookout for…what is it, oh, right, news, as in, did Justin Ishbia buy up any minority shares of the White Sox by the Friday deadline mentioned in other accounts? Crickets. But both papers felt the need to run stories on the Bears. Tell me, isn’t 5-12 a whole lot like 41-121? Or is there something about a .294 winning percentage I’m missing?

For a Few Dollars More

You know things are tough when Lenyn Sosa is the sole bright spot during White Sox spring training, but that’s where things stand with a 1-6 team. Better to get my baseball fix elsewhere, provided I don’t turn into a junkie running through his cash. Because my eBay “watchlist” list could be a very dangerous place to visit. I save stuff I have no intention of buying, or so I tell myself. Like the photo of John Montgomery Ward, a long-ago player, manager and early critic of the reserve clause. The seller wants $30,000, give or take. For $365 I can have a team picture of the 1935 White Sox, with 33 player autographs included. A shot of Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis at Comiskey Park has an asking price of $169.99 while a view of the park being set up for a boxing match is going for $225.45. A wire photo of Moe Berg will set me back a mere $195. Or I could always take the plunge and buy an autographed ball. There are two from the pennant-winning ’59 Sox, one for $937.05 and another at $1,284.99. Both have 26 autographs, so it comes down to condition. You be the judge. When in doubt, consider Frenchy Bordagaray, a goofball outfielder from the 1930s and 1940s who tried to get away with wearing a mustache while a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Manager Casey Stengel informed Bordagaray that is there was going to be one clown on the team, “it’s going to be me.” Bordagaray shown twirling his mustache: $112.99. On second thought, I think I’ll check and see if Sosa is in today’s starting lineup against the Mariners.

All Aboard

The Sun-Times ran Bob Nightengale’s USA Today column today. Talk about jumping on the bandwagon. You see, the Dodgers have an “embarrassment of riches” with their starting pitching, so much so “The excitement has permeated the entire organization,” all the way down to ex-White Sox closer Micheal Kopech, who says, “The talent in here is just incredible.” Did I mention Kopech may not be ready until early April because of right-forearm inflammation? Or Clayton Kershaw until May? Or that Shohei Ohtani won zero games for the Dodgers last year, the same number of career wins Roki Sasaki has? Or that Yoshinobu Yamamoto suffered a strained rotator cuff last season? Or that newly-acquired Blake Snell is 32 and had an injury-marred 2024? Or that fellow starters Tanner Scott and Tyler Glasnow are 30-plus? Nightengale seems to have missed all that. Must be the rose-colored glasses.

What's the Point?

“South Siders unveil their vaunted southpaws/Sox give’em the old 1-2,” read the headlines on the White Sox team website today, to which any living, breathing, thinking fan should respond, so what? Sox rookie starters Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith both threw scoreless innings in yesterday’s 3-1 loss to the Padres (that’ 0-5 in you’re keeping count). Schultz needed eight pitches, Smith recorded three strikeouts. Again, so what? First off, there’s next to no chance either of them sees Chicago for any extended amount of time until September, if then. Next, let’s say they’re both as good as advertised. You know what that means, right? A low-ball extension offer followed by a refusal followed by a trade. It’s the Reinsdorf way. And what’s the Chris Getz/Will Venable plan here, make it like t-ball where everybody plays? Yesterday, Kyle Teel got two at-bats but didn’t catch; today, Omar Narvaez catches. Yesterday, Jacob Gonzalez and Jacob Amaya split time at short; one’s going to be in the minors while the other is a career .182 hitter whose presence on an MLB roster indicates a team short on talent. Where was Colson Montgomery? Oh, he plays today. Things need to change, or all those empty seats I saw on TV—courtesy of the antenna I bought because the new Sox/Bulls/Hawks sports’ channel still doesn’t have a deal with major cable companies—is going to translate to empty seats on Opening Day and every other home date in 2025.

Same Old Same Old

I hope new White Sox manager Will Venable likes losing because his team sure is off to a losing start, 0-4 in Cactus League play. The Sox have been outscored 36-12 by the opposition along the way. Hitting coach Marcus Thames continues to work his magic with hitters, who’ve put up a .177 team BA. (Amazingly, the Twins are worse at .165. They must be bummed Justin Ishbia took a pass on buying the team.) Wait, there’s more. Pitching coach Ethan Katz continues to work his magic with pitchers, who’ve put up a 9.55 team ERA. Nobody in baseball is worse. Advantage, Sox hitters. Not to worry, right, because it’s only spring training? Then why should I care about Sox rookie catcher Kyle Teel homering off of Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki? If spring training games don’t count for anything, the Teel-Sasaki matchup in a simulated game counts for even less. Which brings me to another question—why does Teel, a big part of the trade that sent Garrett Crochet to the Red Sox, have one at-bat in four games? Shouldn’t Venable and general manager Chris Getz want to see what Teel has to offer right out of the gate? Is there any reason for Korey Lee, Omar Narvaez and Matt Thaiss to be playing ahead of Teel? None that I can see. The White Sox have some 70 players in camp, which means they’re lucky to have 30 worthy of making an MLB roster. Giving everyone an at-bat and touting simulated-game homeruns is both cruel and stupid.

Oops

According to all those armchair general managers out there, the Red Sox shook baseball to its core, all by signing one free agent. “In Alex Bregman, Red Sox get swagger they desperately need,” reads the USA Today headline. “The Red Sox are serious players in the AL East,” if you believe Will Leitch on mlb.com. Only the geniuses forgot to ask Rafael Devers what he thought. Devers could be the reincarnation of long-ago Red Sox thumper Dick Stuart, who was nicknamed “Dr. Strangeglove” for a reason. Boston’s starting third baseman since 2018, Devers has a .944 career fielding average, with 141 errors over 951 games. In comparison, Bregman has a .968 career fielding average with 81 errors over 995 games at the hot corner. So, Bregman would be a bigtime defensive upgrade. Only Devers doesn’t want to play another position, and Bregman volunteering to switch to second base hardly resolves the matter. The Red Sox don’t get better playing him out of position (Bregman last played second back in 2018) to satisfy Devers. And no matter how this gets resolved, Bregman’s contract allows him to walk after one season, if he wants. Then what, Dever’s back at third? It seems to me somebody’s front office didn’t do their homework. In fact, the Red Sox look to have created a problem where there was none (outside of a bad-fielding third baseman who may have to be traded). I can’t wait to read what the armchair GMs have to say about things.

Priorities, Contd.

Say this for the Tribune—at least they mentioned the passing of ex-White Sox pitcher Eddie Fisher yesterday, something the team hasn’t bothered to do yet on their website. And, yes, it matters. First off, Fisher was the “big catch” in the deal that sent Sox great Billy Pierce to the Giants. In four full seasons with the Sox and parts of three others, Fisher made 286 appearances, all but 49 in relief. His best season was 1965, when he went 15-7 with a 2.40 ERA in 82 appearances, all in relief. Guess who threw a knuckleball, and guess who compared notes with teammate Hoyt Wilhelm? Yup, Fisher. Wilhelm came to the Sox at age 40 in 1963. Here are his ERAs in six years on the South Side: 2.64; 1.99; 1.81; 1.66; 1.31; and 1.73. Fisher and Wilhelm pitched together for 3-1/2 seasons, until Fisher was traded to the Orioles in June of 1966. The next year, the Sox went out and acquired another knuckleballer to pair with Wilhelm. Wilbur Wood seemed to do pretty well for himself. The White Sox front office is finally catching up in the analytics’ department. It’s all about drop, spin rate, and speed, which is why prospect Grant Taylor throwing a pitch yesterday at 101.2 mph was mentioned in both papers today. The knuckleball is so 20th century. Apparently, so is Eddie Fisher.

Priorities

You can’t teach an old dog new tricks, the saying goes, or failing newspapers, for that matter. Just look at the Tribune. Check that, look at social media first. White Sox fans may be—are—weighing in on the chances of Justin Ishbia buying the team. The Sun-Times may be—is—mentioning it today, but not the Tribune, where “it’s all the [sports] news that fit to print,” as long as it fits onto one of six pages. Which wasn’t the case today. And the Trib online didn’t have anything on Ishbia, either. More likely than not, the Sunday sports’ section was dummied late Friday or early Saturday, with space left for spring training and Bulls’ games. Oh, and a half-page color photo of Bears’ GM Ryan Poles with new hire Ben Johnson, along with a big story on how the Munsters could approach free agency. What matters more, looking into rumors of a new owner for one of the more storied franchises in sports or a think-piece on how a 5-12 football team will navigate free agency? With the Chicago Tribune, you don’t even have to ask.

Billionaire Swap?

I have to hand it to my daughter. Despite caring for two kids, 3-1/2 and five months, Clare can still provide breaking White Sox news, as in a possible new owner for the team. Ladies and gentlemen, meet plutocrat Justin Ishbia. According to a story by Jon Greenberg in yesterday’s The Athletic, the 47-year old, Chicago-area head of a private-equity investment firm is intent on buying up shares from Sox minority investors, with the idea of then buying out owner Jerry Reinsdorf. The mind boggles, for both Twins’ and Sox fans. First off, Ishbia was negotiating with the Pohlad family to buy the Twins, and all was going well until this story broke. Why would Ishbia turn from an easy situation—the Pohlads want out, and the fans want them out, too—for one where he has to deal with Reinsdorf, a person who has to come out on top of every activity from owning things to flushing toilets? Maybe the soon-to-be 89-year old is finally ready to move on. Compared to the Twins, Ishbia would have a shorter commute to the South Side. And, if he could turn the Sox around, the payoff would be ever so much greater than in the Twin Cities. Chicago’s a bigger market, which means nice earnings, plus the Sox offer Ishbia the chance to show either Coast what the Midwest can pull off. It’s the kind of challenge to stoke a billionaire’s ego. The good news for Sox fans is that Ishbia is local-ish. On the other hand, his plans to build a mega-estate in Winnetka on the tony North Shore leave something to be desired. In true plutocrat fashion, Ishbia wanted the village park district to give him property on the lakefront in exchange for land elsewhere so he could have himself have a nice “little” compound without free of public land encroaching on it. A lawsuit settled last month put a stop to the attempted land swap. So, Ishbia is the kind of guy not afraid to push people around to get his way, a trait that Reinsdorf has always held dear. But maybe there’s more here. Maybe the devil we don’t know has virtues sorely lacking in the devil we’ve known for way too long. And maybe we’ll find out before long.

America's Team No More

Who says bad people and the teams they own don’t get what they deserve? Just look at Jerry Jones and his Dallas Cowboys. America’s Team? I doubt it. First off, Dallas hasn’t won a Super Bowl since 1995-96. Since then, they’ve gone 5-13 in the postseason. Oh, and they just hired Mickey Eberflus to be their defensive coordinator. Mickey hasn’t missed a beat. Talking to Dallas reporters on Tuesday, Eberflus offered up this gem: “You want to learn and grow from every experience and impart that wisdom onto the next crew, and that’s what we’re going to do here. You learn a bunch of things that are different and things that you grow from, and that’s important to do.” [quote from Wednesday’s Sun-Times] Some croutons on that word salad?

Rich

What better way for the Bears to put the death of team matriarch Virginia McCaskey behind them than by raising season-ticket prices by an average of 10 percent? Here’s what team president and CEO Kevin Warren wrote in a letter to season-ticket holders: “While we did not reach our goals during the 2024 season, we are making clear, intentional [as opposed to unintentional?] and strategic decisions to ensure our 2025 season meets the expectations of both our organization and our fans.” And for that a 5-12 team gets to jack up prices? How rich. Warren also pointed to “market dynamics, industry trends and a strong home schedule.” [all auotes from story in today’s Tribune] Industry trends in a hard-salary-cap business? And higher prices because the home schedule is full of visiting teams likely to beat the point spread? I can’t wait to see Warren lower prices for when the Munsters have a weak home schedule. And here I thought there was no one in Chicago sports who could make Jerry Reinsdorf look good. I stand corrected.

Next in Line?

Every baseball franchise has historic strengths and weaknesses. With the White Sox, you never spend more than a couple of minutes talking about great left fielders or catchers. It’s all pitching and centerfield—plus shortstop. Consider that the White Sox had four shortstops—Luke Appling, Chico Carrasquel, Luis Aparicio and Ron Hansen—from 1931 to 1971. Two of them, Appling and Aparicio, are in the Hall of Fame. Some of the guys who came later—like Bucky Dent, Jose Valentin and Ozzie Guillen—weren’t too shabby, either. Which brings us to the next presumptive standout, Colson Montgomery. Never has a 22-year old talent raised so much anxiety. Why? Only decent with the glove, Montgomery is going to have to prove himself hitting, which he hasn’t done a whole lot of since he left high-A. The pride of Jasper, Indiana, hit .244 at Double-A Charlotte in half a season in 2023. Last year, Montgomery moved up to Triple-A Charlotte, where he showed some pop with 18 homeruns and 63 RBIs. But the .214 BA and 164 strikeouts—yikes. But I’m not supposed to worry because Montgomery hit .264 with 13 RBIs over 19 games in September and then followed that up with .313 and 11 RBIs in 11 games in the Arizona Fall League. Let’s see if this keeps up starting Saturday. Otherwise, shortstop is going to turn into another catcher or third base for the Sox.

More Moves

So many ex-White Sox players, so many moves to either coast. I forgot to mention Nick Madrigal signing a minor-league deal with the Mets and Eloy Jimenez with the Rays. Well, the trainers will have a busy spring. The two names that really caught me by surprise, though, were Yolmer Sanchez and Trayce Thompson. Yolmer is hoping to land a spot with the Angels (for an Anderson/Moncada/Sanchez reunion, no less) while Thompson is trying his luck with the Red Sox. Like, wow. If Thompson, 34 on the Ides of March, were to make the Red Sox, that would be his sixth major-league team. The right-hand hitting outfielder and brother of NBA star Klay Thompson has had three separate go-arounds with the Sox and two with the Dodgers. Thompson has also played fourteen seasons in the minors. I can’t even begin to count the different teams. As for Yolmer, he’s a tad younger at 32 with a birthday in June. He’s played for three major-league teams and has spent twelve seasons in the minors plus six seasons of winter ball in Venezuela. Again, I can’t begin to count the seasons. At the end of Ball Four, Jim Bouton wrote, “You see, you spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time.” What holds for pitchers holds for position players. Good luck, guys.

No. No. No

I read an op-ed in the Sun-Times yesterday written by a Chicken Little of a lawyer who fears the end of professional baseball is upon us. Why? No hard salary cap. Chicken Little sees billion-dollar ballplayers on the horizon if something isn’t done. And, as Robert Preston used to warn in “The Music Man,” that spells trouble in River City because inflated payrolls “may not be supported by ticket sales, sponsors and television deals.” Wait, there’s more. “If baseball does not intervene with a real [as in hard] cap, small-market teams like the Twins, Reds, Guardians and others may falter.” So, the solution is to prevent hundreds of players from a shot at getting filthy rich—Chicken Little seems to be particularly upset with Juan Soto’s $765 million contract—by ensuring that a handful of owners get to earn obscene profits at the time of sale of their teams? No, no, no. No hard salary cap without a hard windfall profits’ tax. Failing that, let the magic of supply and demand work itself here. If costs go ever higher until fans and broadcasters balk at covering them, the market will adjust. If the contracts for Soto and Alex Bregman bring us one step closer, so be it.

Premonitions

This week, the White Sox signed 31-year old Joey Gallo (career .194 BA, hasn’t broken .200 since 2019) and 33-year old Michael A. Taylor (career .235 BA, .220 and .193 the last two seasons). What gives? My suspicion is that both moves are evidence of trades likely to happen before Opening Day, as in Andrew Vaughn and Luis Robert Jr. gone, to be replaced by the likes of Gallo and Taylor. And let’s not forget Andrew Benintendi. You think GM Chris Getz wouldn’t love to move him and start Mike Tauchman in his place? I also think the Sox “brain trust” is in no rush to promote any of its top prospects this season, especially not starting pitchers Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith. Check that. They might go with Colson Montgomery at short, assuming he can hit the ball better in Arizona than he did last year. Nothing says (Non) Rookie of the Year than a .214 BA at Triple-A Charlotte. Other than that, I’m really excited about the upcoming season on the South Side.

Like I Said

Well, that didn’t take long. Paul Sullivan of the Tribune went after the Cubs today for failing to sign Alex Bregman. Getting his digs in by having “Cubs fans” doing the talking, Sullivan said the ostensible big-market team “once again was outbid for a prominent free agent,” proof that “it’s back to the Cubs being the Cubs.” Excuse me, but shouldn’t the real story here be a player reaching the threshold of $40 million a season? And, given how Bregman’s deal has opt-outs after each of the first two seasons, that figure go very well go higher. Call me a shill for ownership, but I just don’t see how that kind of salary comes without consequences. Like what? The All-Star game and World Series as pay-per-view events. How’s that for openers?

None of My Business, But…

Here’s what’s going to happen—all the armchair GMs and owners out there are going to bellyache how the Cubs passed on free-agent third baseman Alex Bregman, who reportedly is going to the Red Sox on a three-year deal for $120 million. Give me a break. If I were a metrics’ guy, I could show how Bregman, age 31 by Opening Day, is slipping. Instead, all I can do is point out that the last time he cracked 100 RBIs was 2019 and he hasn’t hit over .262 his last three seasons. He does have a Gold Glove for 2024. The Cubs’ top prospect just so happens to be a third baseman, Matt Shaw, rated number 14 by Keith Law in The Athletic and number 19 by Sam Dykstra for mlb.com. What I’d like to ask the armchair experts is what they would do with the 23-year old Shaw if Bregman had gone to the North Side? Convert him to another position? Trade him? For this expert, the template for any organization should be to develop top talent; sign top talent to extensions; trade other young talent for youngish talent; and finish, rather than start, with free agents. Constructing a playoff-caliber roster around free agents is a fool’s task. Nobody wants to point out the emperor isn’t wearing anything or that the Yankees aren’t winning anything with this, then that, free agent signing. The Dodgers are winning by spending real big bucks, but I wonder. Their starting lineup could feature eight players 30-years old or more, and their pitching is a combination of young, old and untested. I like what the Orioles have done instead, except for the part where they don’t seem interested in extending all their young talent or finding the right free agent(s) to get them deep into the postseason. The Cubs have the money to build a first-rate minor-league system. Will they? I don’t know. But signing Bregman sure wouldn’t put them in the same class as the Dodgers, or Orioles, for that matter.

What They Said

I figure Bulls’ head coach Billy Donovan will be gone sometime within the next twelve months, then or whenever Arturas Karnisovas is shown the door. Karnisovas is so clueless someone will have to walk him through. Donovan, a good soldier and a smart man, will be able to manage that on his own. Karnisovas has assembled a roster full of guards who can’t guard anyone to go with a center who does a spot-on impression of a statue. For proof, consider last night’s 132-92 humiliation to the visiting Pistons. “I’m not going to sit up here and make excuses, ‘It was one game of 82’ or ‘It was one of those nights.’ No,” Donovan told reporters after the game. Instead, “We have to own it all the way through. Myself, the players, the coaches, everybody.” [Donovan quoted in story in today’s Sun-Times] A couple of White Sox tie-ins here. “Flushing” is just what ex-Sox manager Mickey Mouse would say, and scoring all of 29 points in the first half—as the Bulls did last night, eleven in the second quarter—is definitely reminiscent of the 2024 Sox, they of the 41-121 record. Speaking of which, their GM addressed reporters at spring training in Arizona yesterday. Weasels worldwide would’ve been embarrassed by the quality of weasel-words used. “You look at our record last year, we want to win more games this year,” Chris Getz, a better-looking version of Homer Simpson, offered from spring training. “What exactly is that amount [of wins in 2025]? Time will tell.” [Getz quoted in today’s Tribune] No kidding.

Pick a Coast

Usually, Clare is the one to call me with White Sox news. But I beat her to the phone this morning—Gavin Sheets signed a minor-league deal with the Padres that includes a spring-training invite. That reunites Sheets with Dylan Cease, at least for a while. And then you have Yoan Moncada signing a one-year deal with the Angels, who’ve also invited Tim Anderson to spring training. Wouldn’t those two make for an interesting double-play combination? And let’s not forget Garrett Crochet, Lucas Giolito and Liam Hendriiks pitching for the Red Sox over on the other coast. Atlanta is about 250 miles from the Atlantic, so you might throw in Chris Sale with the Braves, too. Let’s see how all this coastal ex-Sox talent does in the months ahead.

Words of Wisdom

All I want on Super Bowl Sunday are one or two good commercials and maybe, just maybe, a decent game. So, yesterday was one-for-two—Matt Damon and Aubrey Plaza made me smile while the 40-22 score signaled a game only an Eagles’ fan (and Chiefs’ hater) could love. Lucky I heard a few things that really made my day. Like Chiefs’ quarterback Patrick Mahomes in his postgame comments, taking “ownership” for the loss and saying, “We didn’t start how we wanted to. I take all the blame for that. The early turnovers swung the momentum of the game. That’s fourteen points I kind of gave them.” [from USA story today] All 29-year olds should be so mature. With luck, Mahomes will live long enough to show both the wisdom and humility of 91-year old Hubie Brown, who retired after a 53-year career as a pro basketball coach and announcer. In his farewell remarks, Brown revealed the secret to his success, “We never underestimate the IQ of the audience” while explaining the difference between the weak side and the strong side. By “we” I think Brown was including his partner, play-by-play announcer Mike Breen, who showed some class in making sure the spotlight stayed on Brown. Three examples of how adults should act, no matter the circumstances.

It Doesn't Add Up

By my count, after trading Zach LaVine, the Bulls now have eight guards and three centers on their fifteen-player roster. The question is, do they have three real guards and two centers? Off of last night’s 132-111 loss to the visiting Warriors, the answer is a definite No. Not when you give up a fourteen-point halftime lead and allow the opposition to outscore you 77-42 in the second half. And Arturas Karnisovas wants these guys to make a playoff push? Not likely.

My Super Bowl Prediction

Tomorrow at Clare’s will be dicey—a bunch of Bears’ and Packers’ fans watching two other teams play in the Super Bowl. My grandson is upset his mother is rooting for a different team than he is. I won’t predict the final score, though I will join my daughter in rooting, faintly, for the Eagles. What I am willing to bet on is a moment of silence for Virginia McCaskey, late owner of the team and daughter of George Halas. After that, Ryan Poles will still be the GM; his team will still have an awful offensive line; and ownership will continue to push for public money to help them build a mega mall/stadium on the Chicago lakefront. There are some things in these parts that death won’t change.

Not to Speak Ill

Bears’ owner Virginia McCaskey died yesterday at the age of 102. She had been on this earth for all but 36 of the games the Bears have ever played. It’s safe to say she loved her father George Halas and all that he accomplished. But she was wrong to think the public should help build a stadium for the team her father started.

Half-a**

The Bulls traded star guard Zach LaVine on Monday to signal the start of yet another rebuild. It’s a Jerry Reinsdorf thing. Then they signed Lonzo Ball to a two-year extension. Then…they did nothing at all. I watched Nikola Vucevic play defense against the Timberwolves last night, a 127-108 loss where the Bulls were outrebounded 68-42. It was sort of like what David Letterman said at the end of his interview with Joaquin Phoenix, “I’m sorry you couldn’t be here tonight.” If your center isn’t going to play defense or can’t, what good is he? Why hang onto him? Who’s going to want him in the last year of his contract next season? If this isn’t half-a**, what is?

On a Winter's Day

You can tell it’s winter in Chicago by the cold and the color, which is always gray. The never-ending warnings of an ice storm are icing on the cake, if not the streets. So, I did a quick read-through of the grocery flyers that come in the paper on Wednesdays—buy two diet whatevers, get three free. That meant a trip to Jewel before the rain started. Plus a hunt for Lindys, “The Baseball Preview For Smart Fans.” Well, if that isn’t me, then who is it? As far as I know, Lindy’s is the last of its kind, a dinosaur and an institution rolled into one. I used to buy: Athlon; Street and Smith; Lindy’s; Baseball Register; Who’s Who in Baseball. All but Lindy’s gone. And how nice of Jewel to mark the shrinking of an industry by doing the same to its magazine rack, now half of what it was a month ago. A brave, new world, indeed. Now, allow me to open the section on the White Sox...Oh, that bad, huh? Oh, well. Something to read as the ice coats.

Smoke

Did I mention the NBA is dealing, again, with gambling allegations involving one of its players? Oh, right, I did. What about baseball, this time with an umpire involved? Yesterday, MLB fired umpire Pat Hoberg for placing bets through a professional gambler and then covering it up. Umpires are allowed to bet on their own, which seems plenty dangerous to me, as long as it’s not on baseball. Hoberg got in trouble for letting someone else do it. Wait, there’s more. Basically, Hoberg used an intermediary who did bet on baseball, 141 times between 2021 and 2023. Not only that, the gambler made eight bets on five games where Hoberg was either part of the umpiring crew on the field or handling replay reviews. [information from mlb.com story of 2-3-2025]. Oh, and Hoberg admits that he never told the guy to avoid baseball bets. What we have here, my friends, is a failure to communicate, as the late Strother Martin put it in “Cool Hand Luke.” To say the least. What we also have is a growing temptation that someone somewhere in professional sports will give into, with bigtime consequences. It’s just a matter of when.

The Man Who Would Be Commissioner

Fay Vincent died yesterday at the age of 86. He served as commissioner of baseball from 1989 to 1992. It was an interesting time. Vincent admitted to owners’ collusion in trying to suppress free-agent salaries; banned the Yankees’ George Steinbrenner from day-to-day control of the Yankees; and forced an end to the spring-training lockout in 1990. The former movie CEO and lawyer made the mistake of thinking the commissioner was independent of the owners. Bud Selig and Jerry Reinsdorf taught Vincent otherwise. The Sun-Times ran the AP obituary, mentioning Selig and Reinsdorf’s involvement in Vincent’s ouster. The obit on mlb.com skipped that bit of information.

How Much You Wanna Bet?

Talk about perfect timing, not. The NBA is dealing with betting rumors connected to guard Terry Rozier back in 2023 while the Great Day, the Holy Day, the Day of Bets Big and Small is just a week away. That’s right, Super Bowl LIX. And how fitting that for its big Sunday sports’ pullout, the Sun-Times ran this page-one headline: “Prop Till You Drop/Super Bowl provides wildest set of one-day prop bets on sports landscape, and we try to break it all down.” With a story on gambling addiction to follow, no doubt.

Ball of Confusion

With the calendar finally turned to February, I read on the MLB website today that White Sox outfielder Luis Robert Jr. David Adler’s pick as “dark horse candidate to be the best player in” the AL Central. From Adler’s lips to God’s ears. A day before in The Athletic, Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon wrote that the Sox and Reds were sort-of close to a deal for Robert, who appeared to be worth in the neighborhood of one prospect who’d missed 2024 after labrum surgery. Hence, my confusion. Read one guy, and Robert just might produce on a level with Bobby Witt Jr. Read another source, and Robert may be worth little more than a rehabbing minor leaguer. Knowing the Sox, they’ll hold out for two rehabbing players.

Antsy

This is the time of year baseball fans start getting antsy, big time. Clare just texted that ex-White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson has a spring-training invite from the Angels. Comeback player of the year has to start somewhere, I suppose. And now I see Keith Law at The Athletic is weighing in on MLB rookies and the organizations that have produced them. Yeah, whatever, I guess. Still, I read through Law’s rankings of minor league systems. It’s a tossup as to the bigger surprise, that the Mariners are ranked first or that the Red Sox and Dodgers are second and third, respectively. I hope he’s right about Boston, considering we just received two of their top prospects—catcher Kyle Teel and outfielder Braden Montgomery—as part of the trade for Garrett Crochet. That, or we got taken to the cleaners, again. Law also ranked players, with Sox lefty Noah Schultz coming in at number 20. He included another four Sox in the top 100—catchers Teel and Edgar Quero; Montgomery; and starter Hagen Smith. My guess is that Schultz and Smith will have their innings capped in the minors. The other three, though, might find their way to 35th and Shields at some point if they show the slightest pulse in the minors. Or, better yet, spring training. Did I mention I’m antsy? I just checked, and Lindy’s baseball preview still exists in paper. I’ll have to track down a copy to see if they have the Sox winning 60 games.

How Rich

Give the Cubs credit. They do want to be like the Dodgers. No, not in talent on the field but the cost of watching that talent. The North Siders have just announced a new seating area in their famed outfield bleachers, to be called “The Yard.” Be still, my beating heart. The section will seat as few as four fans and up to a total of fifty. According to a news release on the team website, those lucky folks will experience a “new outdoor space complete with five new semi-private rental spaces designed to help fans enjoy the excitement of the Budweiser Bleachers as if they were in their own backyard. The Yard offers a more intimate vibe with high-top seating, fully stocked coolers and a smaller premier experience not previously available at the ballpark.” All this starting at a base price of $175 per ticket, depending on the competition. [price mentioned in Sun-Times’ story today] Funny, but I don’t remember paying anything to watch or listen to a ballgame in my backyard.

Laughs

Saturday night, Michele and I went to the Chicago Theatre for some real South Side comedy. By that I mean the performer on stage getting a rise out of sold-out venue by mentioning St. Cajetan’s. And that’s what Pat McGann did. McGann mostly aimed his comedy at “sandwich” folks, middle-aged couples raising their kids while keeping an eye on aging parents; that used to be me, until I migrated to the outside of the sandwich. Whatever, I can still remember those days. Which is why I could enjoy McGann’s take on travel sports, even though he was talking hockey. Ah, yes, an 8 AM game in Kenosha, followed by one at 9 PM “if we win” and another at 7 AM tomorrow “if we win” and on and on and… You had to be there, both ways, to fully appreciate it.

Getting Closer

The NFL AFC and NFC champions are set with the Chiefs and Eagles triumphant. I was rooting for the Bills. They used to play at War Memorial Stadium (think “The Natural”), and our one time in Buffalo, we ate at a restaurant that served a “Polish breakfast.” Let’s just say the portions were ample. Now, all I have to do is get through the next thirteen days, an orgy of football this and that. Ben Johnson, aka the Bears’ Messiah, is assembling his staff, so that merits breathless coverage. When that grows old (I mean if), there’s always mocking the media excess of pre-Super Bowl coverage. Funny how nobody did that in Chicago when the Bears played in Super Bowl XX or XLI. When the Munsters make the ultimate game, anything goes. But I digress. With the Super Bowl now pushed back to the second week of February, you know what comes next, right? Yup, spring training, when I get to see if the 2025 White Sox are more 1971 or 2024. It’s what keeps me going.

WAR, What is It Good For?

Just like a stopped clock at exactly the right time, a Cubs’ friend of mine made a good point yesterday: If CC Sabathia, why not Rick Reuschel? Reuschel, whose nineteen-year career included twelve seasons on the North Side, amassed a 214-191 record with a 3.37 ERA. If that doesn’t impress, then how to explain a baseball-reference.com WAR of 69.5? Compare that to 62.3 for Sabathia or Andy Pettitte, with 60.2. The Athletic loves both those guys. Their playing for the Yankees is just a coincidence, I’m sure.

Empty Gesture

The White Sox are going to honor pitcher Mark Buehrle with a statue at the ball mall next summer. Talk about the epitome of an empty gesture. Buehrle attended SoxFest yesterday for the announcement. During remarks to the press at the Ramova Theatre in Bridgeport, the lefthander said, “This is home. Spent most of my career here and would have loved to finish out here. But that’s business and everything that is involved with that.” You can find that and other comments by Buehrle in today’s Sun-Times. Don’t bother looking for it on the team website. Jerry Reinsdorf called Buehrle with the news last summer. Reinsdorf was thirteen years late. He could’ve called Buehrle with a fair contract offer back in 2011. The Chairman, though, prefers empty gestures.

Depair or Not?

According to sportac.com (thank you, Paul Sullivan, for mentioning the site in your Trib column today), the White Sox payroll for 2025 will be in the neighborhood of $61.3 million, which puts them some $173 million below the luxury tax threshold. Somewhere, Tom Ricketts is crying. Given how teams like the Dodgers and Yankees spend money, these figures are cause for despair among Sox fans. Outside of Andrew Benintendi and Luis Robert Jr., who between them are pulling down $32.1 million and who may both be gone by Opening Day, there’s nobody on the team with anything close to a big contract. Then again, off of 121 losses last season, how could there be? So, GM Chris Getz can be expected to tell fans at SoxFest this weekend those sad numbers mean that his team is young and hungry; let’s hope so. And he may be right. I’m old enough to remember 1971 and 1990, both exciting bounce-back years. Noah Schultz, Hagen Smith, Colson Montgomery, Bryan Ramos—a fan can dream. Let’s say a near-miracle occurs and the Sox double their win total. Then what? That’s when despair threatens to creep in again. Under Jerry Reinsdorf, the team has shown a perverse ability to develop pitching talent—Jack McDowell; Chris Sale; Dylan Cease (though he came over as a minor leaguer from the Cubs); Garrett Crochet—only to trade that talent away for one reason or another. And let’s not forget this is a team that also traded away Jake Burger and Aaron Rowand while letting the likes of Magglio Ordonez and Robin Ventura leave via free agency. Hello, despair, my old friend…

One More Thing

CC Sabathia, he of the career 62.3 WAR per baseball-reference.com, received 86.8 percent of the vote necessary for selection to the Hall of Fame, this in his first try. Mark Buehrle, he of the career 59.1 WAR (to say nothing of a perfect game and a second no-hitter), received 11.4 percent of the vote necessary in this, his fifth year on the ballot. No East Coast bias there, right?

Election Results

Well, the HOF votes are in, and pitcher CC Sabathia will be going to Cooperstown. Go figure. Sabathia was 251-161 with a 3.74 ERA over nineteen seasons. Seven of those seasons he had an ERA over four and one season over five. Yet that translates to a baseball-reference.com WAR of 62.3 and all sorts of love from the baseball establishment. In comparison, Tommy John went 288-231 with a 3.34 ERA over the course of 26 seasons. John did not have an ERA over four until he reached age 40. Sabathia pitched to age 38, John to age 46. But new-age analytics doesn’t like longevity, so John has a WAR of 61.6. The difference between the two is a mere seven-tenths of a point. You be the judge.

Priorities

How important are the Bears to Chicago? Enough that Martin Luther King Jr. and Donald Trump had to share the spotlight as the Munsters fijnhally picked a new coach yesterday. They seem to have gotten the candidate they wanted, Lions’ offensive coordinator Ben Johnson. While the local sports’ media—and news departments, too, for that matter—are doing cartwheels over the hire, it is worth noting that Johnson was available because his now ex-team laid a colossal egg against the Commanders in the NFL Divisional game, 45-31. No Super Bowl for Detroit this year, a new Bears’ coach regardless. And now we can watch the Munsters get that 24/7 coverage the NFL has engineered for its member organizations. What spring training?

Being Played

Network TV went straight for the cliché last night in Buffalo, showing Bills’ fans on the proverbial edge of their seats as the home team held on for a 27-25 win over the Ravens and a trip to KC for the AFC championship. Expect more crowd shots on Sunday. Only, it’ll be of Chiefs’ fans every time the visiting Bills threaten to score or keep Patrick Mahomes and company out of the end zone. God, is this old. Teams and TV could care less about fans, how much they pay for tickets or how they have to rearrange their plans because a game has been flexed. But make noise to drown out the opposing quarterback calling signals, stat. Meanwhile, back in Buffalo, fans must be going crazy. Really, Buffalo and Chicago should become sister cities given the heartbreak their respective sports’ teams generate. Four straight Super Bowl losses—yikes! You feel for these people, or should. And now they’re supposed to root for their team to get back to the big event, spend thousands upon thousands of dollars, even, to cheer the Bills on in Kansas City. And their reward? Why, a new, publicly subsidized stadium that will seat 10-12,000 fewer screaming Bills’ fans. Pay, cheer and obey.

Cry Me a River

Somebody stop Cubs’ Chairman Tom Ricketts from opening up his mouth again. The rich are never more irritating than when they cry poor. Ricketts was quoted in today’s Tribune about Juan Soto’s $765 million contract with the Mets. “I mean, our family paid $800 million for a perpetuity [ownership] of the Cubs. When you think about it [Soto’s contract], it’s kind of crazy.” What Ricketts forgot to say is that Forbes puts the value of his family’s purchase at $4.2 billion, a better than 500 percent increase. That’s without signing Soto or anyone else for that kind of money. At the same time, Ricketts sounded dumbfounded about how the Dodgers are throwing money around. “Nothing I can do about it,” sighed the rich man, who again forgot to note that all that crazy spending—think Shohei Ohtani, Roki Sasaki and Yoshinobu Yamamoto—hasn’t affected franchise value. Forbes puts it at $5.45 billion. The Mets come in at $3 billion. If Ricketts is looking for a fig leaf, maybe it’s that the valuations were done last March, and they’ve all gone done since, but I doubt it. Apparently, Ricketts has never heard the saying that, sometimes, to make money you have to spend money. That, or he just doesn’t believe it.

Pull the Plug, if Only

I watched, I wondered, I waited, and now I know. It’s time to pull the plug on this Bulls’ team, the sooner the better. They’re 3-6 over their last nine games, with losses to three of the worst teams in the NBA, Washington (6-33); New Orleans (11-32); and, last night, Charlotte (10-28). At 18-24, the Bulls are a team mired in mediocrity. Arturas Karnisovas is the new Rick Hahn. Anytime Karnisovas makes a move, you hold your breath for the basketball equivalent of Yasmani Grandal. If the Bulls’ front office did right by signing Alex Caruso, they’ve done wrong in dealing Caruso for Josh Giddey, a guard creative only in the ways he turns over the ball. Put Giddey on the floor with Patrick Williams, Karnisovas’ first first-round pick, and you realize how good a coach Billy Donovan is to have this team to within six games of .500. At least with the White Sox, there’s hope that kind-of new GM Chris Getz has made the right hire with new manager Will Venable. But for Jerry Reinsdorf’s other team, all I see is drift.

Money Money

Yesterday, the Chicago Plan Commission approved the first stage of the 1901 Project, a $7 billion, mixed-use development on 55 acres around the United Center. This is how the project website puts it: “A transformative $7 billion private investment on Chicago’s West Side celebrating Chicago’s unique spirit. Spearheaded by the Reinsdorf and Wirtz families, The 1901 Project will transform the West Side with a jolt of new development, bridging neighborhoods and enhancing opportunities for residents, businesses and all of Chicago.” Wow. Here's my question. If Jerry Reinsdorf and Danny Wirtz think they can round up $7 billion in private financing, why can’t Reinsdorf finance a new ballpark the same way instead of seeking a reported $1 billion in public money? I mean, what’s good for the 1901 Project should be good for any future home of the White Sox. Right?

Anybody But

MLB teams began announcing their international signings yesterday. If you believe what the White Sox front office says, they’ll be stocking the farm system with a bunch of can’t-miss prospects. Of course, 29 other teams are saying the exact same thing. What gets me is that, out of the sixteen players they signed, six are sixteen-years old. In other words, the Sox are willing to gamble on players one or two years from graduating high school, but not on any woman athlete, anywhere. Priceless.

Next in Line

Ex-Packers’ and Cowboys’ coach Mike McCarthy is the latest addition to the near-never-ending line of interviewees at Halas Hall. My guess is the McCaskeys like being the object of affection by those desperate enough to want to go work for them. McCarthy, really? He was a big thing back in 2011 when the Packers won Super Bowl XLV. Since then, he’s won a game (or two, 2016) in the postseason here, lost one there. It’s like the Bears going back to Lovie Smith. Or the White Sox Tony LaRussa.

No Bias Here

I just looked over the HOF ballots belonging to twelve voters at The Athletic. My, my, what an interesting bunch of selections. There were votes for Ichiro, of course, along with Carlos Beltran; Bobby Abreu; CC Sabathia; Andruw Jones; Andy Pettitte; Felix Hernandez; Chase Utley; and others. Voters thought enough to include David Wright and Jimmy Rollins. But not Mark Buehrle. What a surprise.

Pretty Pictures

I saw the start of two NFL wildcard games over the weekend, more for the initial camera shot than the action. I saw what I expected to see. The Baltimore skyline looked great at night; you could hardly tell this was a city in crisis. The Bills played during the day and don’t actually play in Buffalo (Orchard Park instead). But in the daylight there was no mistaking the massive new facility going up across the street from Highmark Stadium. Pretty pictures—this is what the NFL traffics in, and what the Bears want in on. It’s not enough for them to play in Soldier Field and be able show the Chicago skyline, which includes the lakefront, by the way. No, the McCaskey-Munsters want to show off a pretty new bauble of a field as well. Provided the public picks up a big part of the tab.

Say It Ain't So

This is rich, if you’ll pardon the pun and take it to heart, too. The Red Sox say they’re serious about signing Garrett Crochet to an extension, to which Crochet says, “Staying in Boston long term is something that has a lot of merit in my mind and something that I think would be awesome.” [story today on mlb.com website] Meanwhile, Crochet’s former team busies itself with one-year deals so as to have enough talent on hand to start spring training, to say nothing of the regular season. If I’m lucky, this qualifies as time in Purgatory. If I’m not…

Did I Say Tight Ends?

I saw today that the White Sox signed ex-Sox catcher Omar Narvaez to a minor league contract. If they wanted (who knows, maybe they do), the team could field an all-catcher infield. Right now, Korey Lee and Matt Thaiss are on the 40-man roster, with prospects Kyle Teel and Edgar Quero waiting in the wings. Both Teel and Quero made it to Triple A last year, so it would look like there’s going to be a logjam behind the plate at Birmingham, what with Narvaez and all. Maybe somebody will volunteer to play at a lower level in the system. Correct me if I’m wrong, but something’s got to give here, and I don’t mean bringing back Martin Maldonado.

Pick a Number

From what I can tell, the Bears are interviewing everyone short of my late mother for their head-coaching vacancy. So, why do I keep thinking tight ends? What I mean is Ed O’Bradovich and Dan Hampton talking about the pre-Cole Kmet Bears’ proclivity to collect tight ends, as in “If you’ve got seven, that means you don’t have one.” I’m supposed to be impressed with the breadth of interviews, but I’m not. The longer the list grows (pick a number between1-100, it seems), the more it looks like Ryan Poles and Kevin Warren don’t know what they want in a coach, or who. But after beating the Packers to finish the season at 5-12, they say they’re making progress on getting that new stadium built, mostly by others if primarily for their benefit. Da Bears.

Déjà vu All Over Again, or Not

The last time the White Sox suffered an epic collapse was 1970, when they lost 106 games. That led to massive changes in the front office and on the field. Some of the new players worked out to varying degrees—Mike Andrews; Jay Johnstone; Pat Kelly; Rick Reichardt. Others—Lee Maye, Bill Robinson, Ed Stroud—did little to nothing in advancing the cause. And then there was Chuck Tanner. Will Venable will be playing the role of Tanner in just over a month. Kyle Teel; Chase Meidroth; Cam Booser; Mike Tauchman; Bryse Wilson; Josh Rojas; and others will soon sort themselves out into the “keep” and “discard” piles. I sort of see Tauchman as the next Mike Hershberger. I just pray to God that Venable is the next Tanner.

Compare and Contrast

The White Sox decided this offseason they didn’t need Gavin Sheets, a pretty good lefthanded-hitting first baseman-outfielder. Arbitration and all. So, bye-bye, Gavin, and, hello, Boby Dalbec, just signed to a minor-league deal. Like Sheets, Dalbec is a power-hitting first baseman. Unlike Sheets, Dalbec bats righty and can play—as in it’s the fifteenth inning and we need somebody out there—the infield. Two of his career 333 games have been spent in right field. Maybe Dalbec will resurrect his career on the South Side, and maybe he’s a great clubhouse presence. He’s also ten months older than Sheets. And, I’m guessing, a good deal cheaper, if he even makes the team.

Posterized

Talk about surprises. The Bulls fell behind the Spurs by fifteen heading into the third quarter and thirteen to start the fourth. Then, they outscored the visitors 32-15 as Coby White sealed the deal with a dunk on Victor Wembanyama with fifteen seconds left in the game and the Bulls up by one. Did I mention that Wembanyama had eight blocked shots at that point? Bulls 114 Spurs 110. The win pulls Billy Donovan’s club to within two games of .500. The question now is, do the Bulls tank in order to protect a top-ten draft pick that would otherwise go to the Spurs? Personally, I hope not. Zach LaVine is playing as well as he can, yes, offense over defense but at least thinking about the value of defense. And I actually saw Nikola Vucevic moving his feet in an attempt to stay in front of Wembanyama. Truly, end times.

Up Close and Personal

If the Bears are going to snap a ten-game losing streak, let it be against the Packers. If they’re also going to snap an eleven-game losing streak to the Packers, let it be in Green Bay. And if they’re going to beat the Packers in Green Bay, let it be at a family gathering with lots of Packers’ fans glued to the TV. That way, when Cairo Santos nails a 51-yard field goal with time expiring for a 24-22 win, all those green cheeseheads can be embarrassed, which, as far as I could tell, they were. Nothing like going into the postseason dropping one to the Munsters at home. There is a God. Old Testament, but still.

Sweet Emotion

Go figure. Three days after losing to the worst team in the NBA Eastern Conference, the Bulls beat the second-best. Chicago 139 New York 126. My oh my. Not only does Billy Donovan show up Tom Thibodeau, Coach T’s team coughed up a nine-point lead at halftime. And the team coached by that mastermind of defense allowed 41 points in the third quarter, then another 35 in the fourth. What happened? In part, Derrick Rose, whose retirement got commemorated over the course of a 25-minute ceremony between halfs. The Spurs come to town Monday, by which time the emotional high from having Rose and Joakim Noah, Luol Deng and a host of other ex-Bulls in the building should be gone. At which point, an almot-.500 team will have to find a way to beat Victor Wembanyama.

It's Bad, You Know

Ex-Bulls’ forward Jimmy Butler appears to have gone off the deep end in Miami, where he’s just been suspended for seven games. According to the Heat’s front office, “Through his actions and statements, he [Butler] has shown he no longer wants to be part of this team.” For his part, Butler says, “I want to see me getting my joy back playing basketball.” [today’s Tribune] Isn’t this all a little weird? Butler was the Bulls’ first-round draft pick back in 2011 and spent six productive seasons in Chicago. But the Bulls are the Bulls, and part of what makes a bad organization bad is not knowing when they have it good. See Butler, Jimmy, and ever so many more. Bad, bad teams are like the Hornets and Wizards, who never seem to get it right. The Bulls are more crazy bad. In Chicago, Butler was pretty gung-ho, team-first all the time. Things soured when he started opening his mouth about the blah roster around him. I doubt his criticisms included Bobby Portis, another Bulls’ first-round pick. Butler and Portis played together for three years, 2015-2018. That, my friends, was a pretty nice foundation to build around. Instead, Butler got traded for Kris Dunn, Zach LaVine and Lauri Markkanen while Portis was basically traded away for nothing after punching Nikola Mirotic at practice. Yes, fighting is both bad and dangerous, But Portis was just like Butler, gung-ho and team-first. Mirotic? Nikola first and foremost. A dangerous mix of personalities there. So, now the Bulls are thinking about trading LaVine. For Butler? If only a time machine could be part of the deal.