Black Monday? So in character for Chicago baseball on both sides of town

Call it incredibly frustrating. But learning that the Chicago White Sox managed to pull off an 11-0 blowout of the Cleveland Indians Monday night was possibly even more annoying than any of the losses in the 2-10 stretch (2-5 during the last week of home games) the ballclub did in recent weeks that took them out of the pennant race.

'Comeback player' the best Sox can hope for?



Wouldn’t you know it that once it no longer matters, the White Sox would regain their hitting stroke.

I SAY ‘NO longer matters’ because it doesn’t. The Detroit Tigers were at the point where all they needed was one more win this season on their part, and they would clinch an American League division title and a spot in the playoffs.

They got that victory Monday night, beating the Kansas City Royals 6-3. It’s over. The White Sox who held onto first place for so much of the 2012 season (even though so many people were convinced this would be a historically awful ballclub) are now mathematically eliminated from contention.

History will record them as a second place ballclub in 2012, and one whose players get to watch the playoffs on television instead of from the dugout, while slugger Adam Dunn gets to wonder if his 40-plus home runs this season are good enough to win him Comeback Player of the Year honors.

But it wasn’t just the White Sox who managed to accomplish something on Monday.

LET’S HEAR IT for the Chicago Cubs, who on the same day that the White Sox were knocked out of contention managed to achieve their own “goal” for the season – they lost their 100^th ballgame.

Diamond in dung-heap of Cubs' '12 season?

And they managed to do it to the one team that may be worse than the baby bears – the Houston Astros already had 106 losses going into their final three games of the season being played at Wrigley Field.

So no contender for the Sox, all those losses for the Cubs, and a whole lot of misery for those of us with any interest in watching a contender on the playing field.

Although I suppose none of this should be surprising.

AFTER THE AWFUL season the White Sox managed to put out during 2011, there were many people who were convinced that it would happen again – which is what drove down the season ticket sales that made the White Sox all-the-more reliant on walkups to the ticket window.

And anytime that happens, you become reliant on quirks such as weather and timing. So many things can drive down attendance – which is why the White Sox fell just short of the 2 million mark in tickets sold (1,965,505, for those who have an anal-retentive attention to detail) this season.

Which is about 1 million short of what the Chicago Cubs are likely to draw by the time their home games are complete come Wednesday.

Which makes me wonder if Theo Epstein is still gleeful about his professional prospects of revitalizing this Cubs franchise. He knew he didn’t have a contender, but I doubt he realized he had a historically-awful ballclub.

THAT’S WHAT 100 losses means, although I’m sure those in Cubbie fandom will take their solace in the fact that they won’t have to put up with White Sox gloating over having a playoff-bound ballclub.

In fact, about the only happy person in White Sox-land these days is general manager Ken Williams (whom some reports say will be “bumped up” to another administrative post so that long-time deputy Rick Hahn can be general manager).

Nice 'digs' for one-time utility outfielder



Crain’s Chicago Business used its website to report that the ballclub gave Williams a $2.15 million loan so he could buy a century-old luxury home in the Gold Coast neighborhood. It seems Kenny is confident he’s still employed – even if his ballclub did flop in the end.

Although the real story these days may well be at Wrigley Field, where the Astros are playing their final ballgames as a National League team. In a touch of irony, Houston played their first games in the National League back in 1962 against the Cubs – whose “College of Coaches”-led ball clubs were as bad as this year’s version.

IN A RESTRUCTURING of the leagues, Houston is moving to the American League, where officials hope they will become a vicious rival of the Dallas-Fort Worth-area team, the Texas Rangers.

I don’t know about that happening. But it does remind me of that moment nearly 4 decades ago when Ron Santo joined the White Sox following a career with the Cubs in the National League.

On Opening Day, he was greeted by the Comiskey Park faithful with a banner reading, “Welcome to the major leagues.”

So as an American League fan, I say “Welcome!” to the Astros, who may well be the one ballclub that had wackier scoreboard antics at the Astrodome than those of the old Comiskey Park.

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What were they thinking?

In the world of covering ‘cops and robbers,’ it is all too easy to stumble across incidents where one’s initial reaction is something along the lines of “What was this fool thinking?”

The coach's wife

It even occurs on occasion that a story crops up that somehow manages to spill over into the world of sports – which somehow manages to attract attention on the grounds that something involving a ballplayer must be more important than something affecting a “real” person.

YET I COULDN’T help but chuckle at the pair of stories that cropped up Tuesday on the Chicago news scene – both of which have me thinking there’s a new couple that ought to be kept as far apart as possible to ensure they never spawn and create young’uns who would be a combination of themselves.

Of course, the woman in this pairing is already married – and her husband is the one who comes off looking somehow absurd because of her actions.

I’m referring, of course, to the spouse of the football coach at Antioch Community High School – who also happens to be a teacher (special ed) at that school. She now faces criminal charges (misdemeanor) related to computer hacking.

Not that hers is any kind of conventional case of someone who thinks they are entitled to break into someone’s computer system and tamper with materials.

FOR PROSECUTORS IN suburban Lake County say she got ahold of an administrative password and used it to start altering the grades of students. Some 64 young people in all. Coincidentally, many of them were members of the football team that her husband coached.

Although it seems that she is telling police he had no involvement in the matter, and prosecutors haven’t come up with any evidence indicating that he should also be facing criminal charges.

Not exactly KW 'clone'



Which is something that confuses me. It makes me suspect that there is some significant fact we do not yet know, and that when it does come out we’re going to wind up viewing this whole debacle in a completely different manner.

I also find it interesting to read the various statements that indicate the students’ actual grades have been restored, and that it wasn’t a matter of academically-ineligible students playing football, but one of trying to bolster students with mediocre grades into slightly higher ones.

AS THOUGH THERE really is no problem aside from one teacher-turned-alleged hacker – who now faces criminal charges, the likelihood of a fine and the near-certainty that she’s going to lose her own teaching position.

By comparison, the Kenny Williams burglary seems so logical and straightforward. For it seems that someone broke into the home of the Chicago White Sox general manager.

That person took a nap, heated up some pizza for himself, defrosted a lobster, and eventually left wearing one of Williams’ suits AND the big gaudy ring that the White Sox gave to everyone who was connected to their World Series champion ballclub from 2005.

That alone would have been a prize that would have caused the sports memorabilia market to go berserk. EXCEPT for the fact that the burglar managed to drop an identification bracelet in Williams’ residence. Police knew who they were looking for.

AND THEY MADE the arrest when the man actually returned to the Williams residence and gave police his real name when they caught him trying to peek into the windows.

It seems the man has a prior criminal record – a whole string of arrests for knuckleheaded moments. Although the idea that he returned to the scene of this particular moment makes this one stand out.

That’s not usually what someone does if their intent is to commit some sort of felony act or gain some goods that could be sold off for medium-sized bucks.

It actually makes me wonder if we’re going to find out someday that the man involved in this particular incident is not mentally stable enough to stand trial on the residential burglary charge he now faces. The fact that his identification bracelet was from a hospital may be some evidence in that direction.

ALL OF WHICH manages to make people like Antoin Rezko look like even more of an afterthought; even on a day when U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve blatantly rejected his request to be sentenced to time served.

Ten-and-a-half years in a federal correctional center. Even with his roughly four years of real time already served, that will involve another few years of being locked away. Yet so boring compared to the other two who came up Tuesday.

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White Sox readying to set foundation for a decade of on-field mediocrity

The way things are looking these days, I expect the 2010s are going to be a period of mediocrity for the Chicago White Sox.

Forget about any American League championships or World Series titles. Heck, this team will be lucky to get a lone playoff appearance – as in they’ll be the team that gets knocked out in the first round.

NOT EXACTLY WHAT White Sox fans desire, particularly since many still want another league championship to help verify the historic legitimacy of 2005. Six seasons and counting since the White Sox actually fulfilled the goal of 29 of the 30 major league teams.

The Chicago Cubs seem more interested in promoting ivy and cheap beer, but that’s a commentary for a different day – and an issue upon which I sympathize for legitimate baseball fans who happen to be deluded enough to pay attention to activity north of Roosevelt Road.

What’s causing me to be in this depressive funk?

It is the fact that everybody seems to be counting down the days until the season’s end – which is Wednesday when they play their final game against the Toronto Blue Jays.

I’M SURE THERE are many people who are eagerly anticipating an announcement by the ballclub that field manager Ozzie Guillen (who, like it or not, has been one of the most successful in team history) has been let go.

As in fired! Dismissed! Terminated! Canned! Stuffed in the toilet bowl of life and flushed into the Chicago River!!!!!!!

Which is an act that I think would be a mistake.

Yes, I’m one of the few people who’d like to see Guillen remain with the ballclub for another season – and for much longer if there are signs that the funk of 2011 can be overcome.

THIS WAS AN annoying season for White Sox fans – who at times rooted for a team that showed signs of why it was a legitimate contender for a championship this season. With the way the players played, I can't envision how Guillen could have done better?

With that depressing season start back in April, the only reason the White Sox remained serious contenders until early September was because everybody else in the American League’s central division was mediocre to bad.

Put Justin Verlander and his 24 victories on the New York Yankees (which may happen someday, regardless), and the Detroit Tigers without the league’s real MVP become depressingly mediocre.

Everybody wants to blame it on Ozzie, even though one could say he did the best he could with a roster provided to him by General Manager Ken Williams that had as its big bat a ballplayer who had one of the worst seasons ever in major league history.

WHAT WHITE SOX fans ought to be desiring is a serious assessment by their favorite team as to whether Adam Dunn is worth retaining – even though I realize his multi-million dollar contract would make him difficult to unload without taking a serious loss.

Had Dunn ever started hitting this year at the rate he had throughout his career (38 or more home runs per season for seven straight seasons), this would have been a radically different season.

What needs to be determined is if 2011 was truly an aberration? Or are the Chicago White Sox such a funk hanging around Dunn’s neck that there is no way he will ever amount to anything as a ballplayer here?

Does he need a change of scenery in order to regain his hitting stroke? If so, then the White Sox ought to unload him for whatever little they can get – even though they will then get forever mocked for trading him away to see him hit hard and heavy for another team.

INSTEAD, TOO MANY people are focusing on the quickie fix that really doesn’t fix anything (that, and wondering if Tuesday’s game against Toronto will be the last for pitcher Mark Buehrle with the White Sox). They want to say that Guillen is such an emotional drag with his outspoken temperament that the team needs a character change.

They’re willing to believe the speculation that Guillen and Williams (who have known each other since those 1980s days when both played for the White Sox) just hate each other too much to continue working together.

It makes me wonder how many of these people are the ones who didn’t like it back when Guillen was hired for the 2004 season. I recall a few who wanted former White Sox catcher Carlton Fisk to be considered as a manager (who fits their idea of a U.S. baseball manager closer than an outspoken Venezolano, and I couldn’t help but notice one newspaper columnist who proposed the idea of Fisk as manager, with Frank Thomas as some sort of hitting coach.

Of course, I have never got the sense that Fisk wanted to do the work of being a baseball manager, and have always sensed that Thomas merely wanted to be the former star who hangs around the team while also engaging in his own life out-of-baseball.

SO I DON’T know why people would seriously want that alternative, particularly since so much of the White Sox’ public image is tied up in Guillen.

Dump Ozzie and replace him with some conventional baseball man, and you’re going to see the White Sox become just another generic team. They’d be completely ignorable.

And you just know that would sway into the local perception and attendance – where the Cubs this season managed to sell just over 3 million tickets while the White Sox are going to have to have one heck of a late-season surge to surpass 2 million.

We all know that attendance surge ain’t gonna happen.

NOW BEFORE YOU complain to me about those attendance figures, I realize that many of those 3 million Cubs tickets were part of season-ticket packages that wound up going unused. There’s no way 3 million fans packed their way into Wrigley Field this year.

But unless serious thought is put into the on-field product by the White Sox, that 1 million-plus attendance gap will grow larger and larger in coming years, and the amount of attention paid to the team will drop back to the early Jerry Manuel years.

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