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5/18/2007
CROSSTOWN SHOWDOWN REDUX
CATEGORY: WHITE SOX

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Jermaine Dye blasts a two run homer in yesterday’s win over the hated Yanks.

These AL-NL tilts seem to be scheduled earlier and earlier in the year. I mean, nobody pays attention to baseball until at least Memorial Day – many not until the 4th of July. (Those of you who hate baseball, move along here…nothing to see).

At any rate, here we are in the middle of May and we’re already getting the blood feud matches between my World Champion Once Removed White Sox and the Forever Hopeful But Always Woeful Cubbies.

For the Cubs, this year is no different than any other. They are on a pace to lose about 88 games. The Sox project out to 87 wins at this point. Neither finish would be good enough to make the playoffs although if the Cubbies do end up losing that many games, they may very well be in the running for the rights to the first draft pick next June – an honor bestowed on the team with the worst record in all of baseball.

Both teams are scuffling at this point. The Sox are the worst hitting team in the major leagues and the Cubs…are just about the worst period. A study in contrasts would be yesterday’s games for the two clubs. The Chisox beat the Yankess 4-1 thanks to Jermaine Dye (hitting an anemic .216) and his 4 runs batted in as well as some outstanding pitching by John Garland (3-2, 3.18 ERA). The Cubs meanwhile took a 5-1 lead into the bottom of the Ninth inning against the Mets and promptly laid down and asked the Mets for a little tummy rub. The New Yorkers obliged scoring 5 runs for a spectacular 6-5 triumph.

Okay…so stuff happens. Except 39 games into the season, the Northsiders bullpen has already blown an incredible 8 saves and has suffered 11 losses. Lou Pinella, who managed the hapless Tampa Bay franchise these last few years, is used to this sort of thing. But very soon, he is going to realize that the job he took with such high hopes will become one, long nightmare into oblivion as his charges will prance and dance their way through the summer finding ever more novel and creative ways to throw a ballgame.

He will need therapy by August, I assure you.

Meanwhile, the Pale Hose are barely treading water. Pitching has been the only thing keeping them in the race so far. But with injuries to their regular leadoff hitter Podsednik and slugger Jim Thome plus the incredibly slow start to the season by Konerko, Dye, Crede, and just about everyone else, the Sox could easily go on a long, devastating losing streak that would just about spell the end of their season. In the most viscously competitive division in baseball – the AL Central – a losing streak of 7 or 8 games could put the team behind the 8 ball for the rest of the year.

Most observers believe their hitting will eventually come around. It better be sooner than later. And this weekend would be an excellent place to start.

By: Rick Moran at 12:36 pm | Permalink | Comments & Trackbacks (1)

4/3/2007
OF DOGWOODS, AZALEAS, AND THE BABES OF SPRING
CATEGORY: WHITE SOX

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The Par 3 12th hole at Augusta National. The most difficult Par 3 in golf.

Winter is now officially over.

That snow expected for tomorrow? Pay it no mind. Major League baseball teams have broken camp and moved north signaling the official start of spring.

Opening day was welcomed with the usual excitement and high hopes – even by luckless teams like the Chicago Cubbies who went out and spent a gazillion dollars to improve their fortunes. To be fair, Cubs fans always have high hopes. It’s part of the little kit kids get when they become Cubs fans. And along with those high hopes comes paper towels to wipe the spittle off the TV screen when your heroes blow another game as well as a suicide instruction manual for those who just can’t bear to watch the destruction of another promising season. “Wait until next year” has become a running joke in Chicago – sort of like the dead rising from the grave to vote in every election except there’s a better chance of that really happening than the Cubs winning the world championship.

And to make this time even more glorious and significant, Tiger, Phil, and the best golfers in the world will vie for the most glamorous championship in the world in what may be the most beautiful sports setting in the world; Augusta National Golf Club.

That last is not hyperbole. Golfing great Bobby Jones who designed Augusta, took what nature had to offer and added wide, sloping fairways, enough trees to populate a small forest, breathtaking hillsides filled with blooming dogwoods and azalea bushes, and topped it off with the most treacherously designed greens in Christendom. The effect is a feast for the eyes and torture for the soul. How many golfing greats have found their dreams shattered going around “Amen Corner” (#10, 11, 12)? How many eagles have turned to double bogey thanks to the innocuous looking but devilishly placed tributary to Rae’s Creek on #13? And how many big putts by big golfers have rolled in for victory on #18?

For sports drama there are few events that can match it. Perhaps the “old” Indy 500 came close. And today, NASCAR’s Daytona 500 is usually one of the most competitive events of the year. But for sheer artistry, performance under pressure, and nail biting suspense, the Masters Golf Tournament usually doesn’t disappoint.

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Sox Manager Ozzie Guillen contemplates the upcoming season.

Meanwhile, the Babes of Spring have begun their long quest for glory as Major League baseball opened its season this last weekend. Frankly, I don’t pay much attention until the Babes turn into the Boys of Summer who, in turn, morph into the playoff warriors of fall – fighting for the opportunity to join their names and the name of their team to the long and storied history of what we used to call “The National Pastime.”

No more, of course. For a variety of reasons I flesh out here, baseball no longer dominates the national conversation as it once did. But for those of us of a certain age, we can recall when baseball was king and other sports were created as filler, simply taking up the time before spring training started again.

No matter. I will be a baseball fan until the day I leave the earth and may the devil take anyone who criticizes me for it. I love the ins and outs of the game, the strategy, the grace of the players, and most especially, the one on one confrontation between the hitter and the pitcher – the most lovely of athletic competitions.

And even though players have turned into hobos and some have become Frankenstein monsters hyped up on steroids, the sound of the ball hitting the bat with that satisfying thwack still gets my blood racing and juices flowing.

This year’s edition of my White Sox will contend for the American League Central title. The only problem is, so will Detroit, Minnesota, and Cleveland. This, the most competitive division in baseball will probably feature some of the best games in all of baseball this year. Stellar pitching, excellent defense, and power offenses will make AL Central games a joy to watch.

Mercurial manager Ozzie Guillen will put pretty much the same lineup on the field this year as he did during last year’s 90 win season. The Sox have shored up some holes, notably in centerfield where last year’s weak sister Brian Anderson will start the season on the bench, giving way to veteran Darin Erstad. And two players who were pivotal during the Sox World Series championship year of 2005 – Juan Uribe and Scott Posednik – should regain at least some of the form that made them such a large part of that magical season.

Unfortunately, the pitching staff is something of a question mark. Trading away Freddie Garcia to Philly for two relatively unknown arms and the shocking deal that sent potential future star Brandon McCarthy to Texas for another set of young pitchers raised eyebrows around the league and set the fans to grumbling. But there is little doubt the Sox addressed their major problem from last year; an inconsistent bullpen. Now featuring three kids who can chuck the ball close to 100 MPH, the Sox should dominate in the late innings. And closer Bobby Jenks – whose fastball seems to have lost some velocity – still has that devastating hook as an “out” pitch.

For offense, murderers row is still in place with Thome, Konerko, and Dye, the triple threat power trio ready to play long ball. All three hit for average, drive in runs, and can go long at any time. Simply put, there is no more devastating middle of the lineup anywhere in baseball.

For intangibles, how about Ozzie being on the hot seat this year? Guillen’s shtick is beginning to wear thin with the club’s upper management, the press, and even some fans. If the Sox fall below expectations this year – and nothing less than another trip to the World Series is expected – Ozzie may find himself looking for another job. He has yet to learn to curtail his more outrageous comments and it may yet prove to be a distraction to the team if he gets embroiled in more controversies. But there is no doubt Guillen is a warrior for his players. And the players in turn feel a loyalty for their skipper that goes beyond the organization. Owner Jerry Reinsdorf has proven in the past that he can take only so much controversy before he takes care of the problem permanently. But if Guillen is winning, Jerry probably won’t care if Ozzie goes skinny dipping in the Grant Park fountain.

As I did last year, I will write from time to time about the Sox, especially the “Crosstown Showdown” series with the Cubs. And I expect I’ll have something to say when Barry Bonds breaks Hank Aaron’s career home run record, although if there has ever been a less attractive hero breaking an iconic major record than Bonds, I cannot for the life of me think of one.

So get set and strap it down. Baseball is here and summer isn’t very far behind.

By: Rick Moran at 5:36 pm | Permalink | Comments & Trackbacks (6)

7/2/2006
CROSSTOWN SHOWDOWN: TAKE TWO
CATEGORY: WHITE SOX

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CHISOX CATCHER A.J. PIERZYNSKI TOSSES HIS BAT ASIDE AFTER HITTING THE GAME WINNING HOME RUN IN THE 9TH INNING, PROPELLING THE SOUTH SIDER’S TO AN 8-6 WIN OVER THE CUBS

If I didn’t hate them so much, I might be able to feel a smidgen of pity for those hapless Cubs.

After playing well enough to win with some timely hitting, good defense, and clutch pitching, their efforts fell victim to the World Champion South Sider’s penchant for pulling a rabbit out of their hat at the last possible moment to gain victory where defeat seemed a foregone conclusion.

Ten times this year the White Sox have come back to win a game in their last at bat which not only makes for exciting baseball but also necessitates my frequent use of a paper bag to purge the excess oxygen in my lungs due to hyperventilation. It worries me that at this rate, watching my beloved Pale Hose could become hazardous to my health – a prospect too horrible to contemplate. What with 24 on hiatus and my beloved Bears not set to start their run to the Super Bowl until September, I would be forced to do something useful with my life this summer like finding a cure for cancer or ordering up world peace.

Or I could write about politics which is becoming less and less enjoyable the more my Republican party insists on doing everything possible to lose the upcoming elections in November.

Regardless, the most recent feat of Chisox legerdemain was accomplished yesterday at Wrigley Field. Trailing 6-5 going into the top half of the ninth inning, Cubs closer Ryan Dempster (1-5) seemed to have regained his early season form as he retired the first two Sox hitters with ease. Dempster was a terror in April and early May, going 6 for 6 in closing opportunities with a minuscule 1.38 ERA only to lose his edge during the North Sider’s long losing streaks since. This is death for any closer who depends on frequent and regular work to stay sharp both physically and mentally. No opportunities to close out a victory meant a steady erosion in Dempster’s confidence and skills. It showed yesterday.

With light hitting Ross Gload at the plate, Dempster threw a pretty good slider that was hit straight back at him, right between his legs. The ball glanced off his glove as Dempster tried to field it and it caromed out to shortstop Ronny Cedeno who drifted behind second base in order to field it. Too late, Gload was able to beat the toss to first.

This seemed to cause Dempster to lose concentration as he then walked Sox clean-up hitter Jermaine Dye on 5 pitches. With runners at first and second, up to the plate stepped the man Cubs fans love to hate. A.J. Piersynski, who took a punch to the face delivered by Cubs catcher Michael Barrett during round one of the season series at US Cellular Park last month, paid the Cubbies back in spades when he got a hold of a hanging slider and sent the ball into orbit. Replays showed the pitch hovering like a ripe plum right in A.J.’s comfort zone – belt high and over the middle of the plate.

Piersynski’s blast made the score 8-6. All that was left in the bottom of the ninth was for Sox closer Bobby Jenks to come in and wipe the blood off the floor, which he did with his usual alacrity, setting the Cubs down with nary a peep. It was Jenk’s league leading 25th save and barring injury, the fireballer’s 100 MPH heater will make him as much of a sure thing when it comes to closing as anyone in baseball today. Simply awesome.

While both of the game’s starters Javier Vasquez and Greg Maddux had to deal with a 19 MPH gale blowing out at Wrigley, the game was not as much an offensive explosion as others have been in the history of wind-blown Wrigley. While there were 6 home runs hit by both sides, I can recall games where hitting a pop-fly behind second base ended up a souvenir for one of the bleacher bums in the right field stands. Suffice it to say that both pitchers fared better than others in that situation due to their both throwing an effective sinker. Vasquez especially was able to wriggle out of jams by sawing off Cubs hitters thanks to his moving, dipping fastball. In fact, if he had been able to contain Cubs slugger Aramis Ramirez, the score wouldn’t have been close. The third baseman had a double, triple, and home run, accounting for 5 of the six Cub runs (the other coming on a homer by Sox killer Jacque Jones).

Besieged manager Dusty Baker could only shake his head at his team’s creativity in finding one more way to lose a ballgame. It probably won’t matter to him too much longer as attendance starts to plummet on the North Side thanks to the Cubbies being out of the race earlier than usual. This will lead to the inevitable dismissal of a manager who has proven himself a winner everywhere he has been. And it will hide the incompetence and myopia of one of the richest corporations in the world, the Tribune Company, who fielded a team this year unworthy of a great city and a storied franchise.

The Cub’s troubles aren’t only on the field; they are also in the front office and on the top floors of the Tribune building. Until those issues are addressed, the North Siders’s famous adage of “Wait until next year” will be chanted earlier and earlier in the season until the saying itself becomes an anachronism, a quaint hope for the fans of a franchise that just doesn’t care enough about winning.

By: Rick Moran at 8:17 am | Permalink | Comments & Trackbacks (7)

Radio Left linked with CROSSTOWN SHOWDOWN: TAKE TWO
5/20/2006
CROSSTOWN SHOWDOWN
CATEGORY: WHITE SOX

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WHITE SOX HURLER MARK BUEHRLE TWIRLS A GEM AGAINST THE NORTHSIDERS

One would think that because the baseball team representing the North Side of Chicago has fallen on desperately hard times of late that the South Siders would take pity upon their unfortunate cousins and go easy on them. After all, we all live in the same city, enjoy the same kind of pizza, love the Bears, hate the Packers, and pray to the one God with equal fervor – regardless of how you see Him.

In a perfect world, such would be the case. However, this is not a perfect world, this is Chicago – which explains the royal 6-1 drubbing my Southside heroes gave the Beastly Boys from the Northside yesterday at White Sox Park.

I hadn’t watched the Cubs this year at all which is a good thing because I would have become confused and disoriented immediately. Have they begun broadcasting Schaumburg Flyers games? A better question that Cubs fans should be asking is how is it possible that one of the richest media conglomerates in the world – the Tribune Company – is fielding a team made up of marginal major leaguers, rehab projects, castoffs, and rookies?

Yes, there are a few bona fide players like Juan Pierre, Jacque Jones, and Aramis Ramirez. But Jerry Hairston? Matt Murton? Neifi Perez? The starting lineup that took the field for the Northsiders yesterday could have been confused with the starting nine for the junior varsity team at the local community college so bereft of talent the cuddlies are this year.

No matter. It’s doubtful that the 1927 Yankees could have touched Mark Buerhle yesterday. The White Sox hurler was near perfect, pitching a 2-hit complete game gem. One of those hits came in the first inning – a swinging bunt beat out by the speedy Pierre to lead off the game and led to the only run of the game for the Cubs.

Jerry Hairston (whose father was a fan favorite on the South Side for many years in the 1970’s) then laid down an excellent bunt, placed perfectly between first and home forcing catcher A.J. Pierzynski to field it. AJ’s wild throw to first skipped on by Konerko’s outstretched glove and scooted into right field allowing Pierre to continue on to third with Hairston able to breeze into second. It was Pierzynski’s first error in 150 games, a not insignificant streak. Would that AJ was as good at throwing out baserunners trying to steal.

Buehrle as is his wont, shrugged off the error, getting out the inning with only one unearned run scored by the hapless Cubs on a sac fly by the 3rd place hitter – the not-much feared slugger and journeyman infielder Todd Walker. The fact that manager Dusty Baker has his second baseman batting in the third slot should tell you all you need to know about the potency of his offense. The only other time I can recall a second baseman batting third for any major league club was Tommy Herr for the Cardinals back in the 1980’s. That’s not to say it doesn’t happen (as I’m sure someone will clue me in via comment or email) but it is a rarity in the Major Leagues and usually denotes a weak hitting team.

From there on out, Buerhle was damn near unhittable, retiring 18 out of 19 batters at one point while walking only two batters. The Sox lefty can be one of the streakiest pitchers in the majors and if this performance is an indication of things to come, the Southsiders can look forward to sending the best one-two punch in baseball to the mound every series as the team’s ace Jose Contreras makes his return on Sunday from a short stint on the disabled list.

As for the offense, the quadrumvirate of Podsednik, Iguchi, Thome, and Konerko did most of the damage. Pods and The Guch were on base 5 times for sluggers Thome and Konerko who accounted for 4 of the 6 RBI’s driven in for th game. Thome’s ribby came on a towering, opposite field home run, his 17th of the year, off starter and loser Greg Maddux, a 300-game winner fading toward the end of a storied career. Maddux looked befuddled as his once pin-point control abandoned him and his pitches seemed to find the middle of the plate much more often than in his Cy Young years with the Braves.

Walking 5 while striking out only 1 and giving up 9 hits in less than 6 innings, Maddux’s fastball – never overpowering but always exquisitely spotted – seems to have lost some snap and his breaking ball looked ordinary. I have no doubt he can still contribute to any Major League club which makes me think he very well could be trade bait by July if the Cubbies continue their march to the basement of the National League Central.

The question uppermost in the minds of many fans this weekend is are we witnessing a changing of the guard here in the city? Are the Cubs, once the unquestioned ruler of the baseball universe in Chicago, about to be surpassed in popularity by the surging White Sox?

Not hardly. As long as the Cubs play at Wrigley field, the Tribune Company could put Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs out on the field and fans would still fill the old ballyard to the rim. On the other hand, when the White Sox fall on hard times, their fans register displeasure by ignoring the team and stay away from the less than desirable US Cellular Field in droves. In this respect, it might be helpful to view the Sox as representing American capitalism at its finest while the Cubs exhibit an affinity for the European socialst model.

Sox fans will not buy into an inferior product thus causing the team to lose money in reduced attendance. Sox ownership realizing they are in a competitive environment, then make moves necessary to bring back a winning team to the South Side which, in turn, re-ignites fan excitement in the team resulting in increased attendance and larger profits.

The Cubs meanwhile, like the French, take the laissez out of laissez faire by consistently fielding teams best suited to their fanbase of teenage girls, grandmothers, drunken Gen X’ers, and the Sisters of Mercy whose order requires obedience to God, Mother Superior, and the infield fly rule. Also like the French, the Cubs never seem to fire underperforming employees such as managers who lose more consistently than the French Armed Forces. Unlike the French however, who tend to be a sour, grumbling lot, Cubs fans are all daisies and sunshine, willingly walking into catastrophe year after year with a smile on their face and a childlike faith that the Gods of Baseball will relent in their persecution and vouchsafe their team a chance at immortality.

Alas, it appears that the generally jovial although ignorant Cubs rooters will once again be disappointed this year as they forever fan the flames of hope that one day, the Tribune executives (who laugh behind their hands at the simple minded folk who visit the holy shrine of Wrigley Field while clutching huge wads of ill gotten cash) will field a team worthy of such love and loyalty. Judging by this year’s edition of baseball futility currently playing out the string on the North Side, they may have to wait a while longer.

By: Rick Moran at 9:08 am | Permalink | Comments & Trackbacks (4)