For
let’s not forget that Peavy also was active this time of year one year ago – he
was with that Boston Red Sox ballclub that managed to slip an American League
championship in between two last place seasons. He got to pitch in the 2013 World
Series.
TWO
YEARS IN a row, Peavy is a starting pitcher for ball clubs that have a shot at
the top title in professional baseball.
Of
course, during the parts of five seasons that Peavy was a starting pitcher for
the Chicago White Sox, he was supposed to be the big game pitcher who would
lead the Sox to a World Series appearance.
Only
it never happened. The White Sox flirted with playoff baseball during his time
in Chicago. But it never was fulfilled for the South Side ballclub and its
fans.
So
what should we think when Peavy pitches on Wednesday. Are we going to secretly
be rooting for him? Or wondering why the big bum couldn’t get his act together for
Chicago (a 36-win, 29-loss, 4.00 earned run average record was far from what
the White Sox expected).
NOW
I’M NOT necessarily wishing ill will on Peavy. I’m just pointing out he’s one
of the few ballplayers who will be taking the field beginning Tuesday in this
year’s World Series matchup between American League champion Kansas City Royals
and the National League champ San Francisco Giants that has a Chicago
connection.
One
of the few for whom we can scream at our television sets “Why couldn’t you do
that here!!?!?” while watching him play the summer game in the days leading up
to Halloween.
He’s
not the only one.
There’s
also Jason Frasor, a relief pitcher who’s on the roster of the Kansas City
Royals.
SOME
MAY REMEMBER he pitched part of a season (the second half of 2011) with the
White Sox. It wasn’t all that substantial.
His
connection is more home-bound. He was born in Chicago, raised in suburban Oak
Forest and played college baseball at Southern Illinois University in
Carbondale – before going into the professional ranks that has seen him pitch
in Toronto and Arlington, Texas, along with the Royals and the White Sox.
It
will be a first World Series appearance for Frasor – in fact, this is the first
time he’s ever played for a ballclub that managed to get into the playoffs.
Thank
goodness for all those wild cards that now permit lesser ball clubs to have a
chance at a league championship and World Series appearance. Otherwise, the
Royals would all be sitting at home, on account of the fact that the Detroit
Tigers were one game better than they were during the regular season.
BUT
WE DO have these expanded playoffs in baseball, and some people like the idea
of these almost-good enough teams getting a second chance. Which the Royals
have take advantage of – having not lost a single ballgame during the playoffs.
While also giving us the all-Wild Card World Series for 2014.
Beginning
with that wild card qualifier game against the Oakland Athletics – who had the
guy who many thought was going to be the Chicago connection to this year’s
World Series.
After
all, the White Sox’ Adam Dunn was traded to Oakland in early September, giving
them a big bat (home runs, plus many strikeouts) to bolster the team in
October.
Yet
his “Super Whiff” characteristics kept Dunn from even playing in Oakland’s one
playoff game – in which Kansas City overcame the rest of the team, got hot at
the right time and has given us countless moments on television of watching
one-time Royals third baseman George Brett cheer on the boys in baby blue as
they try to win their first World Series title since that ball club Kansas City
had in 1985.
MUCH
HAS BEEN made of the fact that Kansas City hasn’t won anything since the middle
of the Reagan Administration. Although those of us who will be watching the
World Series on television this week and next will snicker at the idea of 1985
being all that distant.
Particularly
for North Side baseball partisans – where despite playoff appearances in recent
years, there hasn’t been a World Series victory since the days when the U.S.
flag only had 46 stars.
Nor
even an appearance since (with apologies to Steve Goodman) “the year we dropped
the bomb on Japan.”
-30-
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