This I like, That I Don't

With the start of the season just four days off, here are your White Sox story lines. Good news first—Edgar Quero had himself a very nice spring. Counting yesterday’s 1-for-4 performance against the Reds, the 22-year old, switch-hitting catcher is hitting an even .300 with fourteen RBIs in 50 at-bats. Do the math, and that comes out to 110 RBIs in 500 at-bats. A regular season along the lines of that, please. Of more concern is Colson Montgomery with his .180 BA with four RBIs in 50 at-bats. Do the math, and that comes out to 40 RBIs in 500 at-bats. Good thing spring training doesn’t mean anything. Right? A Sox minor leaguer gave up a walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the ninth to the Reds, so I don’t want that to be some sort of bullpen omen. As for prospects, a group belonging to the Sox group squared off against the Dodgers in a 11-10 loss. Noteworthy: William Bergolla Jr. going 3-for-3 (Colson Montgomery, ignore at your own risk); Braden Montgomery driving in two; and George “Paul Bunyan” Wolkow homering. Two out of these three I hope, I expect, to see with the parent club before long. As for the 20-year old, 6’7” Wolkow, anything in the neighborhood of a .250 BA will earn him a promotion to the next level. You don’t want to stay at low-A Kannapolis, my friend. There you have it, the good, the bad and the maybe.

Cutting Down

Clare never had to worry about making a team, not really. The first travel team she tried out for, before the formal switch from baseball to softball, she didn’t make, but I later heard the organization didn’t field a team in her age group that summer. Then, a team she was on in eighth grade collapsed, and the older coach didn’t want her, but she found another team without a problem, even though—maybe because—she hit one of the coaches with a line drive. High school and college, though, she was pretty much a lock from day one of freshman year. So, I can only guess what players in White Sox camp are thinking right now. What I do know is there won’t be any Jarred Kelenic feel-good story short of someone getting injured and the Sox needing an outfielder; ditto for local-kid reliever Ryan Borucki. Either might have made the team in 2023 or ’24 or ’25 but not now. Bad for them, good for the organization and for anyone who considers themselves a Sox fan. What Clare does know about is dealing with a career that ends abruptly. In softball, that’s pretty much a given except for the .001 percent or so of college players who want to live an itinerant existence following a pro dream or fantasy For Kelenic and Borucki, along with a lot of people whose names appear in the Transactions’ announcements the next few days, retirement maybe closer than they’d like. But there’s no escaping it. As for the Sox, if they’re not going to stock the roster with a bunch of free-agent veterans, who makes the trip to Milwaukee for Opening Day? Stay tuned.

Waiting

The White Sox open their season six days from now in Milwaukee, and the 26-player roster is still taking shape. Regardless who makes the team, you have to wonder how set positions are going to be. Today’s lineup includes rookie infielder Sam Antonacci, and I’m inclined to ask, why? Chris Getz has flat-out said Antonacci will start the season in the minors. The 23-year mustn’t have gotten the message. He went 1-for-3 with an RBI last night against the Padres, which gives him a .313 BA and five RBIs for the spring. Oh, and three stolen bases to go with seven runs scored. How long does the 23-year old sparkplug languish in the bushes, Chris? The same question could be asked of outfielder Braden Montgomery, who also had himself a nice spring, hitting .348 with three RBIs and four runs scored. It felt like Getz couldn’t send the switch-hitting Montgomery down fast enough, lest he improve on those stats. Maybe the Sox wouldn’t have a muddled outfield picture had Getz decided to make a bold decision or two. I’ll hold my tongue on pitchers Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith, till June. If they’re struggling in the minors, keep them there. Otherwise, they should be up. I mean, it’s not a successful rebuild without proof of progress. Let these players prove themselves ASAP.

Other Springs, Past Summers

Last Saturday, we went to the Berwyn Rec for early voting in the Illinois primary. Talk about stepping into a time machine, or out of one, I guess. Old fogies went one direction, parents with kids in another. An electronic crawler announced Pony Ball signup, and I began to float through time. The father with the girl who wanted to play baseball. Which she did spring after spring through seventh grade. Then, Sunday, I started clearing out the area around the trainset in the basement; my hope is to get everything up and running by my grandson’s fifth birthday come August. If I know Leo, he’ll want full access to every side of the layout. And, if I know me, there’ll be some purchases of very old Lionel equipment on eBay to spike his interest, and mine. Know that, both by inclination and by profession, I am a collector of things past. If the thing tells a story, I’m inclined to keep it. The trainset? That’s pure Ed Bukowski. A man with three kids always in need of stuff found the money to buy a slightly used Lionel set and built the table to put it on. I have all of that to remind me. The story boards Clare used in grade school and high school do the same. They were piled in a far corner, where Leo is sure to be standing before long. All products of one history fair or another. My daughter said I could pitch everything. “I didn’t even know you’d saved them.” But I did, and I’m not quite ready to let go of one in particular, “Mustang Madness!”. It tells the story of one of the summer Morton teams Clare played on; for three years, she a Mustang not actually in high school. All I can say is, the kid could hit. Anyway, she imagined the team—which won the summer league championship, such as it was—as part of a “Field of Dreams”-like movie, with Clare being played by Amber Tamblyn. Jessica; Jezebel; Alyssa; and one other girl were played by other young actors at the time. The photos pasted on the board are of achingly young kid-athletes, posing, smiling, trying to project confidence. There are two of Clare, one in catcher’s gear (that experiment didn’t last long, trust me) and the other showing her ready to hit. The stance that launched a career’s worth of long balls. Those onetime teammates have all gone their separate ways. My contribution to that long-ago team has two children of her own now, and one of them will be starting t-ball in another week or so. Time flies. I’ll show Clare the story board. Depending what she says, I may find a place for it in the basement.

Just Stay Put

According to Jon Greenberg in today’s The Athletic, the private-equity firm owned by Justin Ishbia has purchased a 47-acre site in the South Loop literally the other side of the Chicago River where Jerry Reindsorf wanted all of Illinois to build him a new stadium. Greenberg intimated Ishbia, White Sox owner in waiting, may want to build a stadium at the soon-to-be former Amtrak rail yard. As if Sox fans care. They don’t want a new facility; the current one is fine. What they want is new ownership and a commitment to winning. If Ishbia can provide that, fans will line up to watch games while standing on one foot. I know I would.

Is This Anything?

As my good friend David Letterman would ask. In this case, does Matas Buzelis scoring 29 points and Josh Giddey recording another triple-double mean anything? I ask because it happened last night in the Bulls’ 132-107 win over the Grizzlies. Impressive, but maybe not. You see, Memphis is in strict tank-mode. They went into the game with four fewer victories than their hosts; make that five. Outside of the stats for Buzelis and Giddey, what does the win do for the Bulls? It certainly doesn’t improve their chances in the draft lottery. No, the odds are they’ll land low enough so that all the top talent is gone and/or Arturas Karnisovas will be tempted to go after another “project” like he did this year with eighteen-year old Noa Essengue. Talk about your nine circles of sports’ hell. The sooner NBA Commissioner Adam Silver moves against tanking, the better. That would definitely be something.

Everything or Nothing

Spring training can mean everything or nothing, depending on the player and/or the team. Right now, the White Sox must be thinking their 13-10 record in Cactus League play means they’re going to be competitive-plus come Opening Day while the Cubs’ Jameson Taillon has to be telling himself his 22.18 ERA in 9.2 innings doesn’t mean anything. For his sake, I hope not. Taillon inadvertently let slip the dangers inherent with the analytics’ approach to baseball. He admitted in today’s Tribune online story to always “tinkering” and that he “tinkered a little bit and messed myself up” and now needs to tinker himself back to a good place. Maybe shutting off the gizmos would be a good start. Unlike Taillon’s ERA, spring injuries count. Kyle Teel hurt a hamstring in the WBC while Mike Vasil came away from his start Saturday with right-elbow soreness. I think Teel’s injury would have happened regardless the venue. The question here is conditioning. What, the Sox want to lead the world in muscle pulls, again? Vasil’s injury comes with the territory; every pitch risks time on the IL, whenever it’s thrown. But Seiya Suzuki’s injury to his right knee, now that’s something that could’ve been avoided. Suzuki slid into second on an attempted steal in a WBC game Saturday and limped off the field after being called out; the extent of the injury is still being evaluated. Here’s a thought—don’t risk injury by stealing. Even if you succeed, it doesn’t count for your career stats. Wait, here’s a better idea—don’t play in the WBC at all.

Waste of a Good Tree

Newspapers are hanging on by a thread. Consider that the Sun-Times not too long ago sold for one dollar. By that I mean a kit-and-kaboodle transaction down to every last computer terminal, not the cost of a single copy (it should be so cheap). Read either Chicago daily, and you come away with a sense they’re both circling the drain. Hard-news coverage keeps on shrinking; arts’ coverage verges on non-existent; and sports are on a strict diet. The Sun-Times has people who happen to be in Arizona filing Sox spring training stories while the Trib enforces a six-page format for sports, day-in day-out. Who needs NBA or NHL box scores? Once upon a time, both papers would offer their own baseball previews. No more. The only things “local” about the insert included in today’s Sunday Tribune are a front-page photo of Pete Crow-Armstrong and a Trib columnist included among the eight sportswriters making their 2026 predictions. Not one of the seven feature stories is local, and the one advocating a salary cap comes from where you’d expect, a Dallas paper. Each team gets a player photo and some miscellaneous information. Too bad nobody bothered to check for accuracy. Last time I looked, Colson Montgomery played shortstop, not “designated hitter.”

More

The White Sox beat the Cubs 4-2 yesterday, their third win against the North Siders this spring. More of the same come the regular season, please. An acquaintance of long standing—he’d be more of a friend if not for his questionable team loyalty—complained to me this morning how the Cubs used a “crappy” lineup against the forces of good. Truth be told, he was right. His team had at most three starters in the lineup, and, if that’s their pitching staff, look out below. But, hey, the Sox were playing maybe four of their regulars—does Korey Lee count?—and, yes, those four guys who pitched are all probably going to make the staff. But, if you can’t hit Jordan Hicks or Sean Newcomb, that’s on you. It’s twelve days to Opening Day in Milwaukee. Today, the 12-9 Sox play host to the 14-6 Dodgers. That should be a good test of how the spring is going. Depending who plays, of course.

Winning, Losing and Teaching

The purpose of tanking in the NBA is to lose games, thereby improving draft position. So, of course, the Bulls are 2-2 over their last four games. Part of the problem is the front office. Also, in a way, Billy Donovan. Don’t ask a Hall-of-Fame coach to tank. It’s like asking a fish not to swim. Donovan, bless him, insists on giving his all, which includes teaching his young players to be better. Take Matas Buzelis. Tuesday night, Buzelis scored a career-high 41 points in an overtime 130-124 win against the host Warriors. With his team up by five points with 32 seconds to go, Buzelis launched an errant three-pointer. Great idea, if you want to tank, but bad idea if you want to win. And for Donovan, a teaching moment. Coach and second-year forward had a postgame heart-to-heart, in keeping with their mentor-mentee relationship. Or, as the 21-year puts it, “I’m riding with Billy forever. He tells you the truth every time. You can appreciate that when somebody tells you what you need to hear instead of hearing all the other talk which isn’t true.” [quote from story in yesterday’s Tribune] Billy Donovan and Matas Buzelis—the stopped clock of a Bulls’ front office getting it right. I hope. And Josh Giddey? That one’s still up in the air. Only Giddey could find a way to tarnish his triple double, committing five turnovers to go with 21 points, thirteen rebounds and a whopping seventeen assists. Learn how to the handle on the ball, young man. Maybe Donovan can have a(nother) heart-to-heart with him, and bring in Tre Jones while he’s at it. Jones scored 22 points with four rebounds and five assists (and, yes, two turnovers) off the bench against Golden State. Then, in last night’s 142-130 loss to the Lakers, Jones tallied eighteen points, four rebounds and six assists (plus no turnovers) in a starting role. Giddey? The 27 points, eight rebounds and fifteen assists were nice, the six turnovers not so much.

Worth It?

The good news about the WBC is it can serve as a continuation of spring training, with a dash of regular-season pressure thrown in. Produce here, and you have a chance of producing in the bigs come June. Bad news? Injuries. Kyle Teel homered and doubled Tuesday night for Team Italy, only to suffer a hamstring injury running to second; he’s expected to be out four-six weeks. The hamstring’s a hamstring, and it could just as easily have been pulled in Arizona. Still, what happens when an MLB player suffers a knee injury for Team Whatever? Which leads me to Bryce Harper’s stated desire to play baseball in the Summer Olympics one day for Team USA. Yeah, the injuries won’t count, right? And MLB won’t be tempted to switch the World Series to a neutral site because the season shuts down for two weeks. Game Seven on Thanksgiving, anyone? But, like I said, at least the WBC offers a plus-version of spring training. Sam Antonacci, Teel’s teammate on Team Italy, has a homerun to go with three RBIs. He also performed an Oscar-worthy deek last night at shortstop, diving for a flyball that centerfielder Jakob Marsee made an easy catch on. Baserunner Joey Ortiz was off with the pitch, and the deek convinced Ortiz to keep running to third. Marsee threw the ball back in for an easy double play. White Sox GM Chris Getz said he was proud of how well Teel and Antonacci have done, but I wonder. Getz keeps saying Antonacci won’t make the Opening Day roster. Why not? Because starting him at second would constitute an admission that he overvalued Chase Meidroth’s talent in the Garrett Crochet deal? Perish the thought.

Chance Encounter

Michele went clothes’ shopping yesterday, and I tagged along. Just for fun, I wore my Mitchell &Ness 1934 White Sox team jacket. Let me just say, to wear this article of clothing is to be transformed. The jacket is green with a logo consisting of a white S-O-X on a diagonal over a large red C, with lots of white and yellow outlining throughout. The first time I wore it, someone followed me up and down the aisles at Jewel to tell me how great it looked. Yesterday, somebody at the mall did the same. And, yes, I know, it’s the jacket, not the person wearing it. Anyway, she was arranging stock only to stop and stare as I sat waiting for Michele to come up of the dressing room. My new friend knew the jacket represented something old. One thing led to another, and she informed me, “I’m both a Cardinals’ and White Sox fan.” Well, enemy of my enemy and all that. She even saw a Cardinals-Sox game in 2014 when A.J. Pierzynski subbed behind the plate for an injured Yadier Molina. So, I asked, did you ever see a game at Sportsman’s Park, long-ago home of the Cardinals and Browns? “Oh, yes,” she answered, her whole face brightening. “My first game, we went there, but it was to see the Browns, and I couldn’t understand why.” The answer came years later when she learned her parents wanted to see Satchel Paige pitch, most likely when the ageless wonder toiled for the Browns, 1951-53. On the way out, I wished my new friend a good season for both her teams.

Make It Stop

The White Sox won again yesterday, scoring eleven runs in the fourth inning on their way to a 12-3 thumping of the Rockies. The win pushes their record to 11-7, impressive given what they’ve done the last two seasons. Meanwhile, on the North Side, the Cubs are a blah 7-10. I bring this up because I’m a Sox fan, and I know there are Cubs’ fans out there ready to tell me what I can do with that proffered information. In those ancient times before the NFL conquest of the sports’ world, Chicago’s sports’ media would’ve reported both on the disparity in records and the friction it was causing between local baseball nations. Alas, no more. What I got this morning was more Bears’ coverage in the Tribune than the Sox and Cubs combined. The Munsters added some guys on defense. I mean, one of them had 3-1/2 sacks last year for the 8-9 Colts! Stop the presses!! The Sun-Times played copycat to the Trib, and both read the way TV and radio sounded. Listen to Jarrett Payton on WGN Ch. 9, and you’d think the clock was winding down to opening kickoff. It’s not. It’s March. Opening Day is fifteen days off.

Upon Further Review

With Opening Day a little more than two weeks off, the White Sox have the second-best spring-training record among American League teams at 10-7, trailing only the Yankees at 11-5. Interesting. I’ll just say there are a lot of good young players in camp, and leave it at that. As for a neither young-nor-old Jarred Kelenic, his chances of making the Opening Day roster may have turned on a reversed strike call yesterday against the Royals hanks to the Automated Ball-Strike System. Per today’s Sun-Times, Kelenic appealed a called strike three in the first inning and won. The 26-year made good use of his new life by hitting the next pitch for a 438-foot homerun. He went 2-for-3 on the day, lifting his BA to a decent .261. If that were his career average, Kelenic would be an established player somewhere, given his power and defense. I wonder, how many players before him were in the same situation, a pitch away from making the team, only to be victim of a bad call by the plate umpire? The pride of Waukesha, Wisconsin, should thank his lucky stars for ABS intervening on his behalf.

Old School

What can technology do? Well, last spring, it enabled me to check box scores every morning at breakfast while we were in London and Paris. What can’t it do? Preserve the value of page one. I can read stories online anytime, only one story doesn’t relate to another; it’s just a list of headlines. “Above the fold” means something, or once did. That was the most important story on the front page of the paper. You were well-advised to take a look. And, Yes, you can read the paper online in traditional format, but I wonder how many people bother? Regardless, supporters would have you believe the internet has “democratized” the news. Back in olden times, someone decided what stories qualified for page one and where while other pieces went inside the paper. Said who? Somebody I didn’t know but implicitly trusted. This makes me a Hamiltonian, I guess, suspicious of all the “new” news’ sources; give me the old-time rules of journalism, thank you very much. And forget the Bears, while you’re at it. Today is Sunday; we still get hardcopy papers; and I value the front page of each section, especially sports. You could see the echoes, if that’s possible, of the old ways at work on the front page of the Tribune sports’ section. Three stories and a column. Classic composition, which, taken together, worked to perfection. Almost. I learned that Troy Murray, Blackhawks’ star-cum-announcer, had died at the age of 63 and how various women sports at Northwestern University are achieving success. Paul Sullivan also stuck his neck out with his latest “In the Wake of the News” column. Sullivan went after the Trump administration for using MLB and NFL clips in tweets highlighting the U.S. aerial assault against Iran; something about connecting a homerun or hard tackle to an act of war rubbed Sullivan the wrong way. Agree or disagree, Sullivan was doing his job by providing thought-provoking content. But there was another story, sharing “above the fold” status with Murray’s obituary, about the Bears’ “biggest needs.” You see, there are just “46 Days until the NFL Draft on April 23 in Pittsburgh. The Bears have the no. 25 pick.” Thanks, and who gives a crap?

Coach Mom

Some daughters turn into stage mothers, but not mine. No, Clare is destined to be Coach Mom. She already has her 4-1/2 year old son in winter soccer, playing with and against kids as much as two years older. Last night, Leo scored a goal left-footed. No doubt, Coach Mom was happy. Heaven knows what she’ll do when my grandson hits his first homerun in t-ball. Then we have the eighteen-month old sprite known as Maeve. Lately, she insists that the two of us go on the back porch so she can play with wiffle balls and the same plastic bat her big brother uses. Granted, she uses the bat and ball as if she were playing lacrosse or field hockey, but, still, she’s putting bat to ball. Grandpa’s impressed. Wait, there’s more. Last night, said sprite tried to get in on the soccer action by running onto the court (they play in a gym because outside is one, big, muddy, March mess); Dad had to go catch her before she could join big brother. Coach Mom had twice the reason to like what she saw.

No Thanks

The Bears traded wide-receiver DJ Moore to the Bills yesterday in exchange for a second-round draft choice. The Munsters also gain about $16.5 million in cap space. Two things here. First, Moore. I wish I acted as mature at 28 as he did this season. Moore made himself available to the media on a regular basis, and he preferred a minimalist approach to touchdown celebrations; his reaction to catching two game-winning touchdown against the Packers back in December were a study in understatement. I liked that. In what proved to be the Bears’ last game of the season, Moore was out of position for a ball that ended up an interception, which led to a game-winning field goal for the Rams in overtime. Moore took a lot of heat for that but handled it better than most 28-years olds would. A good guy, he will now provide an inviting target for Josh Allen, one of the best quarterbacks in the game. Two, cap space. The Bears also released linebacker Tremaine Edmunds and are coping with the sudden retirement of center Drew Dalman, two moves that mean more cap space. How I hate that term. Until the owners win out (and I don’t think they will), baseball operates free of anything resembling a hard cap, which is nothing short of a straitjacket. No cap, and Moore and/or Edmunds could stay, providing depth in the process. But with the cap, a football front office turns into a high-stakes accounting firm. I can do without it. So can baseball.

Behind the Mic

The one thing that White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf did that I had no problem with was letting go of announcer Harry Caray, a backstabbing frontrunner if there ever was one. I wonder, how many old Cardinal and Sox players attended Caray’s funeral? For that matter, did Ron Cey? The problem with Reinsdorf is that he’s always better at firing people than finding replacements. Not that he thinks so. I’m sure he considers Ken “Hawk” Harrelson the perfect replacement for Caray, and, in a sense, he was. Nobody ever sucked up to Reinsdorf like the Hawk did year after year. When it finally came time for Harrelson to retire, the Sox got it broken-clock right with his replacement, homegrown Sox fan Jason Benetti. Only, like any South Sider (technically, Benetti is a South Suburbanite), Benetti comes with attitude, which showed in his highbrow brand of humor and a very un-Harrelson-like willingness to criticize—as opposed to Caray, who brutalized—Sox players. The Chairman no like, with Benetti gone to Detroit. And, now, to NBC, where he’ll handle play-by-play on Sunday night games. The Sox didn’t want Benetti to do anything but Sox broadcasts. In contrast, the Tigers released a statement saying the team is “incredibly proud” Benetti got the new gig. Crickets so far from Benetti’s former employer. But, hey, we’re about to start season three of the embarrassment known as John Schriffen. Stand up, South Side—and reach for the mute button.

Logjam

The White Sox just updated their top-30 prospects’ list. All I can say is, don’t get attached to anyone in the infield. Two of the top ten are shortstops; one a third baseman-shortstop; and another as a second baseman-third baseman. Oh, and the eleventh-ranked prospect is a shortstop-second baseman. Got that? In addition, two of the Sox top ten—shortstop-third baseman Caleb Bonemer and shortstop Billy Carlson—are on the top 100 prospects’ list put out by MLB Pipeline. Got that? Also, the eleventh-ranked Sox prospect, shortstop-second baseman William Bergolla Jr. is having himself a nice spring, going 6-for-13 so far. Bergolla is not to be confused with ninth-ranked Sox prospect, second baseman-third baseman Sam Antonacci, who was 4-for-13 with two homeruns before leaving to play for Team Italy in the WBC. Got that? Oh, I forgot to mention the White Sox have the number-one pick in the upcoming draft. The consensus top player in said draft is UCLA’s Roch Cholowsky, who happens to be—wait for it—a shortstop. Cholowsky is hitting .341 so far this spring with seven homers. Got that? Good. Now tell me what the above means for Colson Montgomery; Chase Meidroth; Miguel Vargas; and Lenyn Sosa. If the Sox do in fact pick Cholowsky, they’ll have five prospects all capable of playing shortstop. Odds are, they all won’t be a bust. Like I said, don’t get attached to anyone in the infield just yet.

Good News, Bad News

Points to White Sox rookie outfielder Braden Montgomery for aiming high and thinking big. The homerun and triple he hit against the Cubs Sunday didn’t lead him to think he could just make the Sox roster at some point this season. The almost 23-year old has his sights set on Cooperstown. Montgomery told reporters after the game, “My overall goal is to make the Hall of Fame. I’ll take it a game at a time, and we’ll see what happens at the end of it.” [quote from story in today’s Sun-Times] Well, good to hear, and, from what Montgomery’s shown so far, not out of the question. But I wonder, what hat he’d wear at his induction ceremony? If Jerry Reinsdorf makes it to 100-plus years on this planet, there’s a good chance it won’t be a Sox cap. The team has had two homegrown talents worthy of the Hall since Reinsdorf took control of the team in 1981, Frank Thomas and Mark Buehrle. The Big Hurt is in, Buehrle should be and one day perhaps will be. But neither of them played their entire career on the South Side. Then-GM Kenny Williams let Thomas walk after the 2005 season and called him an “idiot” in the process. Granted that Thomas was a man-child, but so was Ted Williams. One team was good enough for the Splendid Splinter and should’ve been for the Big Hurt, too. As for Buehrle, he took the ball; pitched a perfect game among his two no-hitters; and never made waves. But he got the boot as well. Reinsdorf doesn’t like paying big bucks to pitchers, even HOF-worthy ones offering a hometown discount to stay, as Buehrle did before leaving for the Marlins in 2012. I don’t put Paul Konerko in the same group as Thomas and Buehrle because, technically, he wasn’t homegrown. For some odd reason, both the Dodgers and Reds gave up on Konerko, maybe because they tried him at third base and left field instead of first base. Their mistake turned into our gain, and I’m pretty sure “Paulie’s” sixteen years on the South Side would mean he’d wear a Sox cap at his induction ceremony in the not-too-distant future. Konerko was like Buehrle, quiet and dedicated to his craft. Montgomery looks to be more vocal, a la Thomas or even A.J. Pierzynski (who I also think is HOF-worthy, whichever of the possible seven caps he’d choose). In Reinsdorf Land, it’s never a good idea to express opinions. Heck, it doesn’t always help if you stay quiet and mind your own business. Montgomery is an outfielder, not a pitcher, so, there’s that. But I wouldn’t hold my breath about his staying around if he is in fact worthy of Cooperstown.

Stay Calm and Carry On

I know. It’s only spring training. Get a grip. But it’s always fun to beat the Cubs, which the White Sox did yesterday by a 5-1 score. Better yet when your team hits three homeruns off of starter Shota Imanaga. Nice when the other team has to worry about its starting pitching. Second-year catcher Edgar Quero connected off Imanaga in the first, followed by rookie outfielder Braden Montgomery in the second and veteran Austin Hayes in the third. For me, Quero’s and Montgomery’s homers are the clouts that count in particular. Young guys hot, that’s what you want in spring training. Not that Lenyn Sosa is old; the 26-year old added a homer of his own while 25-year old Brooks Baldwin stayed hot with a single and run scored. I still think Sosa gets traded by Opening Day, but good for him and good for the Sox if he keeps on hitting. Somehow, I can see him hitting a ton at Yankee Stadium. Now, back to Montgomery, who also tripled; that gives him two to go with the homer in a 5-for-14 spring so far. How long does Montgomery stay in the minors, or Sam Antonacci, for that matter? Good questions to have and the kind of questions the Sox haven’t had for way too long.

No, Thanks

The Sun-Times quoted some Cubs’ pitchers today about how great it would be to pitch for the United States in the Summer Olympics, if only baseball were a recognized sport. To which I say—No, thanks. I may be the only person in all fifty states to think that the Dream teams of the 1990s made up of American NBA stars was an embarrassing example of Ugly Americanism, but I do. I’d also argue it verges on big-time hypocrisy to lionize the Dream Teams, the antithesis of amateurism, and the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” men’s hockey team, the quintessential example of amateurism. But that’s just me. On a more practical note, I don’t see how NHL fans can stand having their sport shut down for over two weeks so players can to their respective national teams. I’d like to see that happen in the NFL. And I want to know how fans and teams will react when a star player gets injured. I don’t like the World Baseball Classic for how it messes with getting ready for the regular season. What if Tarik Skubal and/or Paul Skenes gets injured? It wouldn’t be any better if the injury happened on the mound at the Summer Olympics.