Do racial slurs, profanity have place in baseball? How about a brushback pitch?

The outburst that occurred Wednesday between the Chicago White Sox and Kansas City Royals wound up having consequences that has some people convinced baseball has gone too far.

Tim Anderson, the White Sox shortstop who actually got hit by a pitch, wound up getting a one-game suspension – one that he voluntarily accepted by sitting out Friday’s ballgame at Detroit against the Tigers.

SOME ARE SAYING it is absurd that the guy who got hit (in the buttocks) by a pitched ball is somehow being penalized. Major League Baseball officials justified the action Friday, saying it was because Anderson responded to being hit by using inappropriate language.

Based on various news reports, it seems that in addition to the brawling that occurred between the White Sox and Royals (that we all saw on television), Anderson shouted out to Royals pitcher Brad Keller – telling him that he was a …

Well, let’s just say that Anderson managed to combine an insult, a profanity and a racial slur in saying just what he thought of Keller for hitting him deliberately with a pitch.

What makes the incident particularly odd is that Anderson is a black man, while Keller is a white guy. Anderson is alleged to have used one of the most elemental racial slurs meant to offend the sensibilities of black people and turned it around by using it on a white guy!

Both Anderson and Keller (below) … 

WHICH I’M SURE has many people confused. Although it seems that baseball officials are taking the simplistic attitude that n----- (the Chicago Defender stylebook way of downplaying use of THAT word) is always inappropriate – regardless of the circumstances.

Now for what it’s worth, Keller also got a suspension (five ballgames, but because pitchers traditionally only pitch every few days on a set rotation, it means Keller will lose one ballgame).

Some may argue that punishing both guys with a one-game suspension seems fair. While others are trying to claim Anderson is being singled-out for abuse.

Although personally, I think Anderson behaved like a “dink” on Wednesday, and some of his conduct since then has offended my own baseball sensibilities. So I can’t get too upset over him losing a single ballgame. He’ll be back Saturday.

… lost 1 ballgame as discipline for incident

THIS INCIDENT ACTUALLY became significant because of the circumstances. Anderson managed to hit a home run that briefly gave the White Sox a lead, and he reacted by doing what some are calling a bat flip (although White Sox broadcasters described the moment as him throwing his bat aside “like a javelin”).

Two innings later, Anderson came to bat again, and wound up having a Keller pitch bounce off his behind – which caused the Anderson outburst that led to both ballclubs charging the field and throwing punches.

For the record, White Sox manager Rick Renteria and Royals coach Dale Sveum (both former Chicago Cubs managers, for what it’s worth) also got suspensions, with Renteria also sitting out Friday night’s game.

Anderson has consistently claimed to be the victim in all of this, and claims there is nothing wrong with the way he reacted to hitting a home run. “Our fans pay to see a show,” is how he tries to justify it.

AS THOUGH CLOWNISH antics are what some people think baseball ought to become about. Certainly not something I need to see a lot of when I pay the ridiculous prices that get charged for tickets these days to a ball game.

Although what really bothers me about such logic is the notion that batters can engage in egotistical behavior, but pitchers who might try to do similar things are somehow acting inappropriately.

Maybe it’s because I’m old enough to have baseball memories of pitchers such as Bob Gibson or Juan Marichal – both ballplayers who used the threat of intimidation or retaliation in order to try to keep a batter off-balance enough. Just as batters are always looking for an advantage to throw a pitcher off his rhythm.

So if this issue wasn’t already absurd enough over the issue of when a brushback pitch is appropriate, now we have to determine just when a white guy can be dissed as a “n-----?” Groan!!!

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Despite the Cubbie dreams, this year’s World Series will have a White Sox tint

I find it humorous that the World Series this year – beginning Tuesday between the Kansas City Royals and the New York Mets – has as its Chicago connections players who did their Second City stint with the White Sox.

This was (at least according to the delusions of Cubs fans) the year that Wrigley Field would be the dominant presence and that we’d get a Chicago ball club winning a World Series title on its hallowed ground.

BUT THAT DIDN’T come to pass. After all, the Mets outplayed the Cubs last week. The baby blue overtones that will be on the field will come from the ball club from Kansas City, Mo.

Now since Chicago ball clubs in the World Series are such a rare presence (it has been exactly one decade ago on Monday since the White Sox blessed us with that victory over the Houston Astros), I usually focus some attention on which ballplayers on the league championship teams have Chicago connections.

This year, it means following the activity of Mets pitcher Bartolo Colon and Royals outfielder Alex Rios – both of whom have included the White Sox amongst the major league teams they have played for.

Although if we’re looking for Chicago connections, we’d also have to take into account Mets outfielder Curtis Granderson – who was born in suburban Blue Island, played high school ball in suburban Lansing then played college baseball for the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Curtis Granderson with a former White Sox star in Magglio Ordonez

MAKING GRANDERSON A guy who once played his home games on a ballfield in the shadows of the downtown skyscrapers – and in fact now has his off-season residence in the Near West neighborhood near the campus.

Considering that Granderson and Rios both play right field for their respective ball clubs, it would seem Chicago fans would be focusing their attention on that part of the ball field in searching for something local to observe.

I don’t know how many Chicagoans of the Cubs fan persuasion are going to be inclined to want to back Granderson, since he is a part of the reason it’s not the Cubs in the World Series this week.

 

Why he couldn't play so well in Chicago?

He had a .385 on-base percentage throughout the playoffs this month, although his batting average during the four games last week against the Cubs was a mere .200.

BUT IT COULD be something from Chicago if Granderson were to finally be on a World Series-winning team following the all-or-parts of 12 seasons he has played in major league ball. Only one of which was with a World Series-bound team – the Detroit Tigers who lost in 2006 to the St. Louis Cardinals.

Or else we could watch Rios, who during his all-or-parts of five seasons with the White Sox was one of the reasons that fans dreamed of having a chance at winning another championship to go with the ’05 pennant that still flies prominently over U.S. Cellular Field.

He finally made it to playoff baseball with Kansas City – and hit .368 with one home run and two doubles during the playoffs thus far. Which I’m sure will infuriate those White Sox fans (and cause Cubs fans to chuckle with glee) as to why the goof couldn’t play so well back then.



Reminiscent of one-time pitcher Wilbur Wood

Then, there’s the 42-year-old Colon, whose pitching for eight teams in both leagues includes two stints with the White Sox (2003 and 2009). The former of which was the year the White Sox nearly won a division title – only to fall to second place in mid-September behind the Minnesota Twins.

PERSONALLY, I’LL HAVE to confess to not realizing until this weekend that Colon was even still pitching in professional baseball. Although the New York Daily News reported recently how Mets relief pitcher Jeurys Familia (who’s 26) considers Colon to be his mentor.

Or there’s also Addison Reed of the Mets, whom the White Sox drafted in 2010 from San Diego State University, where he pitched for the Aztecs and the Sox thought he’d be the star relief pitcher of the future.

 

Coulda been a Sox star, 'sted of Met reliever

Instead, he did a couple of seasons with the White Sox before being traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks, then winding up as a part of the Mets bullpen this year.

 

Where the World Series will come up this week with Cubs fans wishing they were there and White Sox fans wishing those rummies could have played as well when they wore the Old English “Sox” script on their jerseys.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Am I the only one who thinks it odd that back in 2005, the World Series was complete by now, whereas this year it won't even start until Tuesday and won't be complete until early November?

Willie Wilson for president? More likely for the Chicago Cubs outfield

Some people have an overly-bloated sense of their self-worth, particularly if they catch the political bug.

WILSON: Mr. President? Really?!?

Yet even for the overgrown egos I have encountered amongst political people, Willie Wilson is an outstanding persona.

WILSON IS THE guy who decided to give the people of Chicago the chance to vote for him to be mayor back in the February elections.

One look at the continued presence of Rahm Emanuel at City Hall tells us that Wilson was unsuccessful – he came in third in a five-candidate field, taking only 10 percent of the vote.

Yet because Emanuel fell short of a majority of votes himself in that election, he had to go to a run-off in April against the number two candidate – Jesus Garcia.

It really was an Emanuel/Garcia campaign, with the other candidates getting mere fringe vote totals. Yet Wilson wants to think he personally caused the run-off election, even though he barely did better than former Alderman Robert Fioretti in that February election.

IT STRIKES ME as being as ridiculous as those who think that Bruce Rauner won over the people of Illinois in the 2014 gubernatorial election – rather than accepting there was a significant number of people who voted against Pat Quinn and he was the one who was lucky enough to have his name on the ballot as the challenging candidate.

In the same way that Rauner thinks he has a mandate to tell a Democrat supermajority General Assembly what to do, Wilson now thinks that 10 percent of the vote in an election cycle that had a fairly poor turnout now makes him fit to run for the highest office in the land.

President of these United States!!!

Wilson on Monday let it be known he’s going to be a candidate in the 2016 Democratic primary election. He’s going to take on former first lady and Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley and anybody else who wants to succeed Barack Obama in office.

NOT THAT IT’S clear what his campaign would stand for. He tosses about the phrase “the people’s candidate” to describe himself. But insofar as details are concerned, he’s taken lessons from the Rauner campaign of last year – say as little as possible.

Willie Wilson is eyeballing this Pennsylvania Ave. home as his new humble abode

It helps to avoid saying something stupid by saying nothing at all.

The Wilson mayoral campaign was based on the notion that there would be a significant number of African-American voters who were so appalled at the thought of four more years of Rahm Emanuel that they’d vote for any black candidate – and Wilson was the most visual of the black candidates who ran in that election cycle.

In a federal election, that won’t matter as much. Somebody who can’t get votes outside of the African-American population isn’t about to win – particularly if there are no run-off elections to give him a second chance.

BESIDES, IT’S NOT like Wilson did all that well in that February election. He didn’t win a majority in a single ward – a majority of voters in those African-American leaning wards wound up preferring Emanuel, with Wilson finishing second.

Compared to Wilson being irrelevant elsewhere in Chicago. Which is what I suspect he will quickly become to the rest of the nation. He’s the equivalent of Lars “America First” Daly without the “Uncle Sam” suit.

 

Of course, there always are fringe candidates who feel the need to put themselves on the ballot – or at least go out and campaign even if they can’t get their acts together enough to get a ballot spot. Which could wind up being Wilson’s fate.

Which means that after next year, it is most likely that the name “Willie Wilson” will revert back to the image it has created for many people – the one-time Kansas City Royals star outfielder who actually finished up his playing career as Sammy Sosa’s backup with the Chicago Cubs in 1993-94.

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Who’s having the last laugh?

We’re possibly only a day away from the end of the World Series, and yet the focus of the baseball world (at least those who are narrow-centric enough to believe the Chicago Cubs are all that matters) already has shifted from who will become the professional baseball champions for 2014.

For the speculation already has gone to who will wind up managing the Cubs for the next few seasons – the ones that the die-hards are convinced will produce the long-awaited championship that everybody EXCEPT the Cubs seems capable of winning.

ALL OF THIS talk started up when Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon used an escape clause to get out of his contract. Maddon has led the previously-feeble Rays to winning records in recent years AND an American League championship in 2007.

Which has the baseball world thinking he can probably pick whichever ball club he wants to work for as a next job. Cubs-oriented people are convinced he’s going to want to come to Chicago.

Even though the Cubs went out of their way to fire their former manager and hire someone new just a year ago. Anybody remember Rick Renteria – who supposedly was a wisened baseball man with the ability to relate to young talent in a way that he’d develop the Cubs prospects into a championship team?!?

He might as well be just another interim manager; just waiting for the players to develop so the Cubs can bring in someone experienced for the possible Cubs championship in 2016 or 2017.

WHICH IS A line of thought that makes me all the more skeptical that the Cubs will ever amount to anything in the next few seasons.

Impulse shopping when it comes to personnel is a large part of what can bring down a professional sports franchise. Heck, the New York Yankees have some convinced they’re not going to win a thing in the near future because they’re still stuck with past-their-prime ball players who are making big-name money so that they can’t easily be unloaded.

I’m not convinced Maddon is actually coming to Chicago. Even if he does wind up working in the Lake View neighborhood, I’m not convinced he is enough to ensure that a Cubs team would actually win something of significance.

I’m Cubskeptical because I have seen throughout the decades that I have followed baseball that prospects don’t always pan out the way their minor league statistics and scouting reports hint they ought to.

CUBS FANS OUGHT to feel lucky if one of their so-called blue chip prospects turns into a long-term regular ballplayer for the ball club. The fact that Cubs management is putting so much emphasis on prospects makes me think nothing will happen.

Particularly since the major league level activity we have seen thus far hasn’t been that outstanding. Let’s be honest. The best rookie ballplayer for a Chicago team in this decade likely is to be Jose Abreu – the Cuban defector whose 2014 season with the Chicago White Sox was good enough to win him Rookie of the Year honors.

I’m not saying the White Sox are anywhere near to winning a championship. But I’d have to think they’re closer than the Cubs – even though both of them had mediocre 73-win seasons this year.

I’d hate to be in Renteria’s position these days, where his fate depends on factors and whims that are so far beyond his control.

BUT IT MAKES me wonder if the last laugh is now going to the man who once was the Cubs manager until the team decided that Renteria was the real long-term choice.

That would be Dale Sveum – who led Cubs teams to truly dreadful losing seasons in 2012 and 2013 before being fired.

He’s now the hitting coach with the Kansas City Royals, whose staff also includes one-time White Sox player Rusty Kuntz (middle-age White Sox fans are now giggling) as first base coach – who if circumstances go right could both be with a World Series-winning team by week’s end.

The so-called loser who was too inept to work for the Cubs could have a World Series ring (if the Royals prevail on Tuesday and Wednesday) long before anybody wearing the baby blue of Cubdom does.

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It’s that World Series time of year – which ballclub do we follow in Chi?

I’m amused by the knowledge that Jake Peavy is scheduled to start the second game of the World Series on Wednesday, pitching for the San Francisco Giants as they try to win their third World Series title in the past five years.

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.”

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