Will Abreu remain in Chi beyond ’17?

The Chicago White Sox openly talk about how they’re scraping their whole ball club as part of a rebuild – a do-over of sorts that they hope could result in championship-quality teams by 2020.

Could Abreu lead White Sox rebuild?

But there’s a certain sense that the rebuild actually began in 2014 when Cuban star slugger Jose Abreu signed on with the team.

DURING THE PAST four seasons, Abreu has been one of the few attractions worth seeing at Guaranteed Rate Field. Typically, it would make sense that because of his worthwhile statistics (which include a batting average of .301, 124 home runs and 410 runs batted in, and a .359 on base percentage), he’d be trade bait.

For as the legendary baseball executive Branch Rickey once said of his star slugger Ralph Kiner with some lousy Pittsburgh Pirates teams, “We finished last with you, we can finish last without you.”

No ballplayer is ever untouchable. Not even for the White Sox, who last winter traded away their top pitcher, Chris Sale, to the Boston Red Sox.

So it shouldn’t be surprising to learn of the reports that several ball clubs have contacted the White Sox to express interest in acquiring Abreu and his big bat. Even the Red Sox.

WHO EVEN THOUGH they won their division title last year fell short in the playoffs, in part because first base is a weak position for them. Acquiring Jose would be a significant move in their ongoing battle to try to become superior to the New York Yankees (they’re not, but that’s a story for a different day).

Moncada looks to Abreu for leadership

So are the rumor mills onto something? Are the White Sox about to trade away their best ballplayer? For what it’s worth, the SB Nation website grades this particular rumor an “A.”

Yet I can’t help but think that if the White Sox truly are on the verge of making this move, it will be the action that turns out short-sighted. And not just because most of the people who are all excited about such a move are the ones who are interested in how it would help Boston – and don’t seem to care what happens in Chicago.

I wonder how the people who do have an interest in a Chicago White Sox rebuild appreciate how significant the Cuban angle is in all of this. We literally have the potential to have our own Cuban core dominating Sout’ Side baseball.

As likely will Robert

WHAT WITH THE young talent of Yoan Moncada and Luis Robert coming to Chicago. Moncada has already arrived and has shown some signs of the potential star he could become, while Robert is firmly in the White Sox minor league system.

Both were acquired in deals (Moncada was the prize Boston gave up in order to pry Sale loose from Chicago) during 2017. Both were Cuban ballplayers, and both were excited to come to Chicago largely because they knew Abreu when all three were still playing on the Caribbean island.

It certainly was more significant to them that Abreu was here, rather than the fact that Minnie Miñoso played in Chicago a half century ago.

I don’t think you can over-exaggerate the significance of the mentor role that Abreu would play in a rebuilt White Sox ball club. It could literally be the three Cuban stars (playing at first and second base, along with center field) who could be the key to that future championship ball club that White Sox fans are eagerly dreaming of.

Minoso the Cuban past

AND YES, I’M a firm believer in intangibles (unlike those who can’t look past statistics) in determining a ballplayer’s worth to his team.

Some might say that Abreu could bring in a whole slew of talent. However, I doubt that Boston (or any other ball club) would be willing to give up that much in exchange for one slugger – no matter how many dents he could add to the famed left field wall at Boston’s Fenway Park.

Encouraging that Cuban core could be the key to a rebuild that actually works, as opposed to one that merely produces second place teams – rather than the fourth place ball club the White Sox had this year.

Is the pair attending a hockey game in Las Vegas really as interesting as would-be Cuban beisbol revolution?

And it would certainly be more interesting than the dreams of Chicago Cubs fans these days – the ones that say Washington Nationals star Bryce Harper is eager to come to the North Side team to pair up with old high school friend Kris Bryant. Just so they could lose someday to a White Sox-style Cuban beisbol revolution.

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Harvey vs Maria? Natural disaster spread thruout southwest, Caribbean

One reason I’ve heard given as to why everybody is supposed to be rooting for the Houston Astros to win the World Series this week is because of the devastation caused this summer by Hurricane Harvey.

The Clemente Award for charitable works

After all, the people of Houston need a moral victory of sorts to boost their spirits following the devastation spread across the Texas city.

NOT THAT I’M badmouthing Houston in any way. I’m sure there might be a few people who would think in such terms – as though seeing the Astros finally win a World Series for the first time in their 55^th year of existence might make up for any losses they suffered due to the storm’s devastation.

But I can’t help but think that such logic trivializes what happened with Harvey (the hurricane, not the one-time All Star Harvey Kuenn). As though Houston is now fully recovered just because they got a World Series victory – and will be able to stage a massive parade through the city as a result.

All of this may well be the reason why the most intriguing moment of the World Series activity that took place last week and this has to do with Anthony Rizzo of the Chicago Cubs receiving the Clemente Award from Major League Baseball.

The award named for the late Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Roberto Clemente is presented every year during the World Series to the ballplayer who engages in charitable work aside from his ballplaying activities.

Clemente made ultimate contribution

IN RIZZO’S CASE, he operates a foundation meant to support groups that address the issue of children who suffer from cancer. Last year, his group helped provide some $4 million to fund the Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago.

A nice cause. But what does any of that have to do with the World Series or Houston?

It’s that Rizzo received a $25,000 prize for receiving the Clemente Award, and Rizzo immediately donated that money to relief efforts meant to help the people of Puerto Rico – who suffered devastation also this summer from Hurricane Maria.

Which has caused so much devastation and has such a messed-up relief effort that there are large swaths of the island commonwealth remaining without electricity or running water – even though the hurricane struck a couple of months ago.

Clemente replacement a star in own right

I’M NOT SAYING I expect Puerto Rico to be back up and running at full efficiency this quickly. No more than it shouldn’t be surprising there are still signs of Harvey damage in Houston.

But for all the people who try to diminish the significance of what is occurring in Puerto Rico these days for their own cheap political advantage (I’m looking directly at President Donald J. Trump when I make this statement), it’s nice to see someone bring up the relief effort at a time when certain elements would rather focus attention on Houston.

Particularly in a way that really doesn’t do a thing to benefit that city or its people. Like the cliché goes, talk is cheap. These people don’t want to kick in with cash that could help the efforts to rebuild the damage caused by so many storms that struck this summer – Mother Nature really was in a foul mood during 2017!

And yes, Puerto Rico is a U.S. commonwealth – giving our federal government just as much responsibility for overseeing a rebuild there as it has for any rebuild done on the U.S. mainland.

Would you really rather think of Yuli and Yu ...

THE FACT THAT Rizzo would bring up the Puerto Rico relief effort as part of an official World Series-related activity is a plus – particularly since it reminds us all of Clemente – the ballplayer who in his final game of 1972 got his 3,000^th base hit. Only to be killed in a crash months later when he tried to try an overloaded airplane with supplies as part of the relief of an earthquake that struck Nicaragua.

An event that I’m sure would be long-forgotten amongst many of us if it hadn’t have cost the Pirates a star ballplayer – got to get our “priorities” right. Is Puerto Rico worth less to many of us because San Juan (the capital) hasn’t been deemed worthy of a U.S. major league ball club?

... when remembering the 2017 World Series?

Thinking of Rizzo is certainly more interesting than much of the World Series activity – unless you’re the type who wants to use the taint of controversy over Yuli Gurriel’s “slant-eyed” mocking gesture to pitcher Yu Darvish to somehow downplay slurs expressed in this country.

I have heard some say that since Gurriel is Cuban and Darvish is from Japan, we should realize that such attitudes are universal, and that the five-game suspension Gurriel will get next season is unfair. Just like they probably think it unfair that Rizzo’s gesture drew attention away from Houston hurricane devastation and toward Puerto Rico.

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Ditka tops Guillen in ranks of former Chicago sports guys turned goofs?

There are those people who like to rag on one-time Chicago White Sox shortstop and manager Ozzie Guillen as some sort of irresponsible goof – somebody who despite his significant athletic accomplishments for Chicago ball clubs is just too much of a goof to have around.

How does not seeing racial oppression ...

But after learning of one-time Chicago Bears tight end and head coach Mike Ditka’s latest railing on national television, I can’t help but think that Ozzie is nowhere near as absurd.

FOR THE RECORD, Ditka (who led the Chicago Bears to their only Super Bowl victory ever back in 1986) was on the Westwood One pregame show prior to the Monday Night Football game featuring the Bears against the Minnesota Vikings felt compelled to ignore the questions about the Bears’ ongoing struggles to find a competent quarterback.

Instead, he wanted to rant about the fact that many professional football players feel compelled to SUPPORT the protests taking place in recent weeks during the National Anthem rituals that take place prior to pro football games.

Those protests started last year with one player trying to express his concern about harassment of individuals based on race. When President Donald Trump felt compelled to get involved in this issue with his nonsense talk about “firing” football players, those players started showing solidarity with their colleague.

Ditka made a point of saying he’d “bench” anybody who dared do such things on any team he coaches. But the part that gets the national attention was Ditka’s claim that, “There has been no oppression in the last 100 years that I know of,” adding later, “I don’t see all the social injustice that some of these people see.”

... compare to 'respect' for Fidel Castro?

IT’S NOT SURPRISING to learn that a professional athlete lives his life in a cocoon that isolates himself from the daily realities of our existence. I also don’t doubt these guys think their physical skills in playing a ballgame at a high level somehow makes them worthy of living life in such isolation.

He may be the guy who doesn’t read the papers, except for the sports section so he can know which sportswriter to complain about for writing something he chooses not to agree with.

But it would be an exaggeration to say we haven’t had oppression in the past 50 years – although at least now the law is such that the people who try to pull off the most extreme instances can be prosecuted, rather than thinking the law is on their side.

These two youngsters likely never realized ...

Or maybe Ditka is just one of those types who thinks that certain people are supposed to accept the fact that they’re entitled to receive a certain level of harassment from society as a large?

I THINK THIS puts Ditka in a comparable category with Guillen, who led the White Sox to a World Series title back in 2005 – a moment that for some Chicago sports fans is more significant than that Bears Super Bowl title.

Remember all the loudmouth incidents when Ozzie played for, and managed, Chicago. Like Ditka, Guillen later got a one-year stint managing/coaching elsewhere (Miami for Ozzie, New Orleans for Ditka) and now is to the point where his only sporting value is as an occasional commentator for broadcasts.

Sports fans in Miami still haven’t forgiven Ozzie for his saying all those years ago that he actually had a certain level of respect for Fidel Castro – which I’m sure they feel is as absurd as Ditka trying to claim that no one has been oppressed in this nation. Personally, I always thought of Fidel as more of a third-rate, petty tyrant than a true world threat.

Just because many of the individuals who are oppressed belong to groups whom Ditka and people like him would prefer not to have to acknowledge. Which is the truly offensive part of all this cheap talk.

 

... the highs, and lows, they would reach

PERSONALLY, I’M MORE offended by Ditka, merely because his rant is so ridiculously simplistic – as in it’s difficult to believe anybody could think of life as being so basic. I couldn’t help but notice a report that one-time star quarterback Joe Namath responded to Ditka by saying “da coach” ought to look up the meaning of the word “oppression” to realize it has occurred.

It makes me wonder if Ditka is now material for Saturday Night Live – the show where he once was idolized in those “Super Fans” sketches. Would those same fans now ponder whether Ditka has gone goofy in his old age?

Just like some are pondering whether Guillen has lost it in his middle age, to the point where the most recent report I saw about Ozzie was speculating whether he’d be considered for the Detroit Tigers managing job that is now open.

He’s not in line for it, no more than any team would seriously want Ditka hanging around their sidelines during game time. A sad ending for two of the most intriguing ballplayers-turned-coaches to be a part of the Chicago sports scene in our lifetimes.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: One major Ditka/Guillen difference -- Ditka is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, whereas few people took seriously Guillen for the Baseball Hall of Fame the one year he was actually on the ballot. Which most likely is evidence that the baseball version in Cooperstown, N.Y., deserves more credibility than the football version in Canton, Ohio.

Could Chicago White Sox become beneficiaries of Cuban beisbol legacy?

It has been just over two years since the two living icons of Chicago baseball – Ernie Banks and Minnie Miñoso – passed on. Banks, as many have pointed out, didn’t live long enough to see his Chicago Cubs win a World Series.
 

The grandfather of Cuban baseball in Chicago

While Miñoso was around back in 2005. He even was a participant in that World Series parade wending its way from Armour Square through the Sout’ Side and into “da Loop.”

BUT IT’S ACTUALLY a shame the ballplayer, whose many nicknames included being called “the Cuban Comet,” isn’t still with us. Not that he didn’t live a long-enough life (about 90).

But it would be a sight to see if Miñoso could be present if the modern-day attempt by the Chicago White Sox to rebuild into a winning ball club were to succeed with all the Cuban talent the team has managed to obtain.

That talent appeared to have been bolstered this weekend (it won’t be official for a few more days) with the signing of Luis Robert, a 19-year-old who is among the Cuban national team’s stars and who has decided he wants to have a baseball career in the United States.

That led to a bidding war amongst several ball clubs, although is appears the fact that the White Sox have developed a reputation as being Cuban-friendly led him to want to play in Chicago.

Wore No. 9 in Cuba, but in Chi, that's Minoso

ALTHOUGH LET’S NOT make a mistake; he’s going to be paid well. The still-a-teenager living in Cuban poverty now will be paid some $25 million to play the next couple of seasons for Chicago White Sox minor league affiliates – possibly resulting in him working his way to Guaranteed Rate Field by about 2019 or 2020.

That is about the time the White Sox’ rebuilding effort is supposed to be complete. It is an effort that will include Yoan Moncada, who is the big Cuban star whom the White Sox obtained during the winter and could become a part of the Chicago baseball scene by this season’s end.

Robert and Moncada could join ...

It also may include the star slugger Jose Abreu, who when he broke into U.S. baseball did so with a jolt, winning Rookie of the Year and showing himself to be a consistent slugger in U.S. baseball ever since. And yes, it seems that Abreu was a part of the effort to sway Robert to want to come to Chicago (or at least to the South Side) on the grounds the White Sox "get" Cubans and what they go through to adapt to life in this country.

... w/ existing star Abreu for Cuban trio

With Abreu often saying he’s happy with the White Sox because of the large number of peloteros Cubanos they have employed throughout the years. Including Miñoso, who was around to see Abreu play, and many of the other Cubans such as former shortstop Alexi Ramirez, outfielder Dayan Viciedo and the two pitching stalwarts of that 2005 World Series-winning team, Jose Contreras and Orlando Hernandez.

THE LATTER OF whom gave what I still consider one of the most amazing pitching performances I have ever seen, in the ’05 playoffs against the Boston Red Sox, when the pitcher known as “El Duque” came in relief that one game and pitched three shutout innings right at a point when Boston was threatening to retake the lead, and momentum, in that playoff round.

Yankee had his moment in White Sox 'sun'

I’m still trying to figure out who looked most ridiculous – Johnny Damon swinging at that “Strike Three!!!!!” in the dirt, or Manny Ramirez an inning later looking totally hopeless as he struck out.

This Cuban connection of sorts leading his old ball club to a championship is something I’m sure Miñoso would have liked to have seen. Although to be honest, those of us beisbol fans who enjoy the growing Latin American presence will also get our kicks if this phenomenon becomes a reality.

A tie between Venezuelan and Cuban Sox heritage

Which, I’m sure, means there’s some xenophobic type out there who’s teeth are gnashing and his “I (heart) Trump” pin jiggles on his chest as he rants about the need to tighten the immigration laws AND undo the efforts former President Barack Obama made to improve U.S./Cuba relations.

A recent Cuban Sox star

SO WE’LL HAVE to see how all this plays out, particularly if it turns out to be that a Cuban influence helps rejuvenate the White Sox into a championship ball club.

Who’s to say the Chicago Cubs don’t have another championship run in them as well, and we really could get that all-Chicago World Series our city has dreamed of, yet been denied since 1906.

Will Ernie, Minnie quarrel in heavens?

Those Cubs with a Puerto Rican presence in the form of infielder Javy Baez taking on the Cuban- and Venezuelan (Chico Carrasquel and Luis Aparicio to Ozzie Guillen to Magglio Ordonez to today’s Avisail Garcia)-influenced Sox.

That really would make a Chicago “city series” into a World-Wide spectacle the World Series likes to think it is – something for us to look forward to in coming years. Even if Miñoso won’t be around to see it; he and Banks will have to watch from that realm above.

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EXTRA: Castro step-down a let-down

EDITOR’S NOTE: This commentary was originally published Feb. 19, 2008 by The South Chicagoan, a sister weblog to this site that focuses on issues of concern to the growing Latin American population in this country. The fact that long-time Cuba dictator Fidel Castro finally departed this realm of existence Friday at age 90 and is likely to have his remains cremated later Saturday makes it semi-relevant again, particularly since a part of me wishes I were in Havana now to report the reaction.

  -0-

Fidel Castro, from back in the days when we'd let him openly enter this country. Photograph from Library of Congress collection

Every news reporter who is worth anything has a “dream story,” a realistic event that would be of historic proportions that they would like to be present at, so as to take a crack at writing news copy for posterity.

For me, any chance I ever had at covering my “dream” died early Tuesday when Fidel Castro officially stepped down as leader of the communist government in Cuba – bringing to an end a 49-year reign that had frustrated the will of so many U.S. presidents.

MY DREAM WOULD have been to be in Havana at the moment that the Cuban people learned that Fidel was no longer in control. I would have settled for being anyplace where people would have a special interest in the passing of Castro.

But now that Fidel Castro is officially no longer in charge for the record on the Caribbean island nation, I have to admit the reality turned out to be so far removed from any dream story I could have wanted.

Castro played his resignation to make it sound as uneventful as possible. The departure last year of Alberto Gonzales as U.S. attorney general occurred with more political drama than the departure of Fidel.

Making the announcement on the website of the Cuban government newspaper “Granma” in the early hours of the day ensured that most Cuban people knew little of the event, since Internet access in Cuba is so heavily restricted.

BUT THE SIMPLE fact is that Castro still looms over the government. His brother, Raul, who has been Fidel’s number two man since the days of the revolution against the Batista regime, is now officially in charge.

Raul Castro is not the dominant personality that his older brother, Fidel, is. A Raul Castro-led revolution back in the late 1950s likely would have ended with some hard-core, long-forgotten Communists rotting away in a Cuban prison, instead of being swayed by the cult of personality that is Fidel Castro.

That personality is going to ensure that the Castro ideals will remain in place. Nothing of significance has changed.

In fact, all this really means is that Fidel Castro is finally conceding he’s not a young man and his intestinal problems are so severe that he can’t even pretend to be in charge of the day-to-day operations of Cuba’s financially-strapped government.

HE WILL GET to spend his final years of life (although I understand that genetics indicate Castro could still have several more years to live – there are a few centenarians in his family tree) living in as much luxury as Cuba can offer.

He won’t be living out the wildest fantasy of many a hard-core exile in the U.S. Cuban community that uses Miami as its spiritual capital – those people wanted him overthrown, put on trial and dangling from the end of a rope (just like Saddam Hussein).

Castro, when he finally dies, will get the ceremonial funeral and will be forever remembered as a hero to official Cuba, while exiles will have to suffer with the knowledge that there’s no way they can spin history – Castro’s revolution won control.

They lost.

THAT IS PROBABLY why the initial reaction out of Miami was subdued.

Aside from a few Cuban flags dangling from Florida palm trees, there isn’t much in the way of celebration. Cuban exiles realize significant change has not occurred.

It was even good to hear President Bush NOT gloat. Castro has had control of his country since the days of President Dwight Eisenhower, and eight other men oversaw the U.S. government and had to “deal” with Fidel.

Bush the younger will be the president who will get credit, so to speak, of presiding over the downfall of Fidel in the same way his father gets credit for "bringing down" the Soviet Union. He will be the Leader of the Free World who will have to set policies that try to sway the Cuban people to think of the United States as a potential ally (instead of the source of all their country’s financial problems, as the Castro government spins it).

AN EASING OF the trade embargo that has hurt the Cuban economy while also cutting off U.S. businesses from what could be a desirable market for U.S.-manufactured and –produced goods would be a step in the right direction.

It might be the incentive that gets Castro the younger (Fidel’s kid brother is 76 Now 84) to seriously think about improvements to his country – instead of early signs that say he views Cuba as a potential China (easing the economic restraints of Communism while maintaining the rigid social controls of a totalitarian state).

How should we remember Fidel Castro?

The Cuban government is pushing the notion that the revolution against the Batista government resulted in free public education and health care for all the Cuban people.

THAT IS TRUE, to a point. The reality is that the quality of health care in Cuba is so poor and so scarce. Many Cubans can’t get needed health care – because it’s not available to anybody, not because of its cost.

And as far as education is concerned, yes, minimal literacy is higher in Cuba than in many other poor nations. There are statistics that can be twisted to make it appear to be better than impoverished neighborhoods in the United States.

But in today’s world, bare literacy is not going to get anyone ahead in life. Advanced education is needed, and for many Cubans, that is a dream often discouraged by a government that still wants to talk about the nobility of the “workers of the world” over all else.

And when it comes to Castro’s human rights record, it stinks just as much as many other third-rate dictators around the world. The sad fact of the Castro regime is that it overthrew one totalitarian dictatorship run by Fulgencio Batista and replaced it with one run by “los Hermanos Castro” (not the Mexican singing group).

BUT I HAVE a hard time singling out Castro as some sort of tyrannical demon (as the Cuban exile community of Miami is quick to do), because I know full well there are many other government “leaders” who run their countries with as much of a strong-arm demeanor as Fidel.

But since they are willing to denounce the label of Communism, the United States has been willing to look the other way. Heck, if Castro hadn’t declared himself to be a Communist after one year in power, the U.S. would never have dreamed of embargoing the Cuban economy. We’d be willing to make excuses for Castro’s overcrowded jails.

The past 49 years of U.S. policy toward Cuba have not accomplished much of anything. The United States did NOT drive Fidel Castro from power. He got to leave on his own terms, and name his successor.

PEOPLE WHO ARE insistent on having history record the Castro regime as illegitimate are going to have to accept failure, and move on for the best.

It’s not that I ever expect a sudden rush of exiles seeking to return to Cuba – so many decades in the United States have caused them to change permanently, and in the process become an important part of the larger Latino community in this country.

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No direct route from Chicago to Havana, unless you count the one in Ill.

One of the reasons people brag on Chicago is that our major airport (O’Hare International) seems to have direct connections to just about anywhere in the world one could want to travel to.

 

There won't be any direct flights to Marti Airport in the near future

The only reason for having to make connections with flights in other cities is if one chooses to do so in an effort to save some money.

SO WHAT SHOULD we make of the fact that the federal Transportation Department, in its review of proposals for direct flights from the United States to Havana, Cuba, didn’t think any routes connecting O’Hare to Jose Marti International Airport were worthy of consideration.

Federal officials considered more than 60 proposed routes, but only gave their tentative approval to 20 of them. None of which involved a connection from Chicago to Cuba.

Both United and American airlines had desired permission to have such direct flights between the two cities.

But as things now stand, people wishing to fly American will have to go to the airports in Miami or Charlotte, N.C., and transfer there to a flight to Havana.

USING UNITED AIRLINES will entail a trip to Newark International Airport on the fringes of New York or, in what could be considered an insult to the Second City, a flight to Houston – where the transfer to a Cuba-bound flight would be made.

Considering that Houston boosters already are obnoxiously claiming their city will surpass Chicago in population to become the nation’s third largest within another decade, could it be that someone is already anxious to acknowledge the Texas city as somehow superior.

Even though when one considers the entirety of the metro areas, Houston and its suburbs will still remain smaller than Chicago metro for a long, time time.

It does seem odd that O’Hare International wouldn’t get a direct flight – considering that it used to be capable of boasting to be the world’s busiest airport and is still one of the most significant airports in the United States.

BUT APPARENTLY OUR Cuban ethnic population in Chicago (about 23,000 of the city’s 2.7 million residents) isn’t sufficient enough. Federal officials were interested in putting the direct to Havana routes in cities that have the large numbers of Cuban exiles and their families.

Maybe they think those are the only people who would want to travel to Havana, now that our own government is making a serious effort to try to restore relations between our two nations.

So much for the idea of business interests that also would want to have access to the Caribbean island nation and would think that the future economic development would create opportunities that would be beneficial for both nations.

Or maybe it just means that O’Hare’s days as being a leading airport for the United States are in the past. Even though there are many people whose trips to various places across the country mean catching a connecting flight at O’Hare.

COULD IT BE that the only “Havana” in Chicago’s future is the one located in Illinois? As in the Mason County city of some 3,200 people where Peoria is the largest nearby city of size – and whose own access involves a series of Interstates and county roads that would discourage just about anyone from wanting to actually visit the place.

Or perhaps we should consider focusing on the town of Cuba, Ill., in rural Fulton County. Or perhaps a trip to Cuba Township, the suburban place located near Barrington.

They seem to be the only such places in our future.

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EXTRA: Baseball truly a global game, even though some wish it weren’t

So just what should we make of the fact that Ichiro Suzuki, the aging outfielder for the Miami Marlins who was the first big star ballplayer to come to this country out of Japan, has theoretically topped Pete Rose for the number of base hits in his career?

I say theoretically because Suzuki hasn't officially reached the 3,000-hit milestone yet (he needs 21 more base hits to achieve that goal), while Rose over the course of his career playing for the Cincinnati Reds and other National League teams got more than 4,200 hits.

BUT WHEN ONE contemplates the fact that Suzuki got some 1,278 base hits while playing for nine seasons for the Orix Blue Wave in Japan’s professional leagues.

Making him some sort of international hit king at the professional level. While some others are all too eager to denigrate the achievement in various ways. They’re determined to claim it is an irrelevant goal that we shouldn’t pay any attention to. Then again, there also were those who couldn’t stand it when famed Japanese ballplayer Sadaharu Oh hit more home runs in Japan than either Babe Ruth or Hank Aaron managed in the United States.

While I personally admit that I think adding up Suzuki’s 1,278 Japan base hits and his 2,979 (as of Wednesday) hits in this country is an oversimplified stat that means about as much as getting the most pinch hits during the third week of August, I don’t like the hostile tone of those overeager to diminish Ichiro.

Who has a significance both athletic and cultural in the way he became the first non-pitcher of any significance from Japan to achieve success in U.S. baseball.

I'LL BE THE  first to admit the professional leagues in this country do play ball at a higher level than any other place o Planet Earth, but not because of any supposed superiority by naturally-born U.S. citizens when it comes to the game.

If anything, it is because our professional leagues literally attract the best the world has to offer. And that is because of money. All of those Latin American stars on major league teams across the country probably would have stayed back home if they could have made as much money doing so as they get here.

I’ll go so far as to say that the only reason the Central and Pacific leagues in Japan are not considered superior to the U.S. American and National leagues is because of all those “foreigners” whom some baseball fans seem to wish they could do away with.

Heck, just think of how much better the Dominican or Venezuelan leagues would be if they could keep all their home-grown talent in their native countries?

I WONDER IF the people most anxious to denigrate the Suzuki achievement are the ones who wish he’d have somehow stayed home, thereby depriving fans here of the chance to enjoy the skill with which he has played baseball since coming to this country back in 2001.

Or many of the other great stars of recent decades who have made our ball clubs in this country capable of playing at a higher skill level than ever before?

Such as Minnie Miñoso, who played many years in the outfield for the Chicago White Sox of the 1950s, but also has stats from playing professionally in Cuba and Mexico that give him a cumulative total of 4,073 base hits.

It’s a shame that it’s only now after his death that we’re fully appreciating what a talent we had playing in our fair city.

EVEN THOUGH HE has yet to make the Baseball Hall of Fame in this country Miñoso is in the Halls of Fame in both Mexico and Cuba. Which may be the ultimate achievement that Suzuki achieves if he becomes the first inductee of the Halls of Fame both in Japan and Cooperstown, N.Y.

Although that would pale in comparison to the record of Martin Dihigo, a black Cuban native who actually is in the Halls of Fame in Cuba, Mexico, Venezuela and Cooperstown, albeit for his performance in this country back in the Negro leagues of old -- which is why most fans of this country are totally clueless of this international sensation known as El Maestro or El Immortal.

It’s a good thing we can claim to have seen someone such as Ichiro actually having played ball – and only a shame that we never got to see him don a Chicago uniform.

Although knowing the White Sox’ history of acquiring aging stars after they’re washed up (anyone remember Steve Carlton, Jose Canseco or Ken Griffey, Jr., in a Sox uniform?), we may get him on the Sout’ Side come 2018 or so. 

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Obama does Cuba; does it make much of a difference in our relations?

I’m sure there are some people to whom the only part of President Barack Obama’s three-day sojourn to Cuba that matters is the ballgame being played Tuesday between the Tampa Bay Rays and Cuba’s famed national baseball team.

Will there be lasting benefits?

Others, I’m sure, are going to downplay even that factor – it is, after all, just a pre-season exhibition (although the Cuban squad is filled with players who have been active in a winter season for several months, they’re going to ‘give game’ and play to win).

BUT WHAT REALLY is the significance of the fact that Obama felt compelled to arrive in Havana on Sunday, and spend the day at several sites around Havana of cultural importance? And also include a couple-hours session meeting with the brother of Fidel Castro?

I have long been a supporter of the idea of closer relations between the United States and is neighbor nation in the Caribbean. I have always thought the trade embargo our nation imposes on Cuba to be a failure – primarily because it has not achieved its goal of breaking the Cuban economy.

Granted, Cuba’s economy is in the gutter. But the powers-that-be there have managed to use it as propaganda material to inspire distaste for the United States. We play right into the stereotype of the “Ugly American,” and our business interests lose out on the chance to gain from Cuba’s assets.

Which is why I found it interesting to read the news accounts of Obama’s arrival on Sunday, to find crowds chanting and cheering “U-S-A, U-S-A” as enthusiastically as any sports crowd watching a United States team beating up on some batch of foreigners!

COULD WE BE on the verge of a significant thaw in the ice that has developed between the two nations? Or will the partisanship motivated by too many generations of ideologues be enough to keep things a mess for years to come?

The Tuesday highlight to end this particular presidential sojourn

Will the laying of a wreath at the monument to 19^th Century Cuban patriot Jose Marti (who actually lived a large chunk of his life in exile in New York City) be seen as a magnanimous gesture? Or as some sort of social surrender by a U.S. president?

I can already envision the rants that will come from some political people – those determined to see that nothing changes; likely because their own livelihoods depend on continued hostilities and keeping the image of Fidel Castro alive and thriving to frighten our masses.

Not much has changed since Ryan met Castro

Just think of how little has changed since that day in 1999 when then-Gov. George Ryan led a delegation to Cuba in hopes of putting Illinois at the head of the pack when the day came that the trade embargo was lifted.

THAT EMBARGO STILL remains, even though Obama has taken actions to ease relations between the two nations – such as restoring the U.S. Embassy in Havana and permitting an exhibition such as the Tampa Bay ball club getting a spring training sojourn to Cuba.

Although a part of me still thinks it would have been more interesting if it had been the Chicago White Sox and Cuban star Jose Abreu doing Havana to play the Cuban national team!

But back to our relations, which remain unsettled because of those people determined to undo anything Obama has done during the past seven years, One of those people is Republican presidential dreamer Ted Cruz – who is one of those eager to keep alive the image of Fidel as a tyrant threatening world freedom; instead of the third-rate, penny-ante, sorry excuse of a dictator he always has been.

U.S. foreign policy has done much (even more than those Soviet Union subsidies) to keep alive the Castro regime in Cuba, and it likely is a step (or several) in the Obama direction for us to truly give Cuba the boost in the direction toward the freedom we’d like to see them have. A significant part of that is gestures such as the one where Google will set up improved Internet access on the Caribbean island nation -- which will go a long way toward making the people desire a U.S.-influenced lifestyle.

OR AT LEAST something not so openly hostile to our nation’s interests as what currently exists.

Because I do realize what our nation’s primary interest will be is in creating economic opportunity for U.S. businesses in Cuba. Whether the Cuban people gain a less-oppressive government isn’t something we really care about.

It’s nice if it happens, but we’ve been willing to do business with tyrants in the past. Let’s not be hypocritical about that point. We’ll have to see if Obama’s presence in Havana these past few days will do anything to make a difference, and perhaps push Cuba in the right direction.

Lincoln's memory still revered in Havana -- even if his brand of cigars is a thing of the past

It makes me wonder if, a century from now, Obama’s legacy in Cuba will be remembered somewhere close to the way Cubans actually revere the memory of Abraham Lincoln – a thought I’m sure infuriates the ideologues of U.S. of today.

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Who matters more? Does it really matter? It's baseball in Chicago

I’m sure some baseball fans are making half-wit jokes these days about how the only place the Chicago White Sox matter is in Havana – where the Major League Baseball delegation that is touring Cuba this week bears a strong Sout’ Side flavor.

The pride of Havana in Chicago? Or...

Four major league ballplayers with Cuban ethnic origins will be in and around Havana through Friday, including star Sox slugger Jose Abreu and former shortstop Alexi Ramirez – who may well wind up begging for his roster spot back by the time spring training comes around.

IT WON’T BE the White Sox going to Cuba to play some spring-training games (the Tampa Bay Rays were chosen from a bowl a few weeks ago). But the Cubano fanaticos de beisbol will get to see the elite of the White Sox portrayed as part of the game’s elite.

And for what it’s worth, Abreu got to see his son for the first time in more than two years – it was one of the drawbacks of fleeing his country that he had to abandon his family.

Although from news accounts, it seems the two occasionally have talked on the phone. And when Abreu’s son was brought to the hotel where Jose was staying, the cap he had perched on his head bore the Old English-style Sox logo that would make the boy welcome in just about any South Side establishment.

Of course, much of the public attention to baseball in the past couple of weeks involved trades made by the Chicago Cubs that supposedly reinforce their championship dreams.

INCLUDING THE FACT that some St. Louis Cardinals ballplayers chose to leave that team so they could play for the Cubs. Which led me to stumble across a parody story recently that said Cardinals manager Mike Matheny left St. Louis to become a third-base coach for the Cubs.

... the pride of Chicago in Havana?

Those Cubs fans who think the whole world revolves around their preferred ball club are sky-high.

Although all I can remember is the winter following the 1977 season when New York Yankees pitcher Mike Torrez left the team for a big-money contract with the rival Boston Red Sox.

Everybody was convinced this was the gesture that ensured the Yankees’ downfall. The Red Sox ascension to their rightful place as champions. All would be right with the world.

Only in fantasy is Matheny becoming a Cub

IN REALITY, WHAT happened in 1978 was that memorable tie between the two and that one-game tie-breaking playoff. In which Torrez wound up being the losing pitcher who gave up that immortal home run to one-time White Sox shortstop Bucky Dent.

A scenario I could see befalling the Cubs as much more likely than a championship.

Is this the Cubs fate?

Besides, I couldn’t help but notice the Crain’s Chicago Business report that found a Nielsen Scarborough study finding the most popular Chicago sports teams to be the Bears and the Blackhawks – with the two baseball clubs bringing up the rear.

That’s what a Stanley Cup will do for a team’s popularity, compared to promises to flirt with championship status that ultimately fell short for both the Cubs and White Sox.

AND BEFORE ANYONE of the Cubbiedom status goes on much, I couldn’t help but notice both baseball teams experienced slight upticks in their popularity. Even the White Sox, who were one of baseball’s biggest disappointments in 2015.

Even with Jose Abreu, whose performance in ’15 may have been the best on the team but didn’t match up with the 2014 statistics that made him the American League’s Rookie of the Year.

Perhaps an Abreu 2016 resurgence (along with performances closer to what was expected this year by several White Sox players and the acquisition this week to play third base of Todd Frazier from the Cincinnati Reds) could be what brings South Side baseball back up to anticipated levels.

What will happen come the next Chicago city World Series?

And who knows, if paired up with another Cubs team that doesn’t embarrass itself, perhaps we could get that dream season of an all-Chicago World Series – one that would let us put the South Side/North Side debate to rest for all-time with a White Sox victory.

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