How long is too long for a ball game?

I recently had reason to go scouring the Internet for a baseball box score for the first ball game I ever went to live – a 1979 battle with the New York Yankees visiting Chicago to play the White Sox.
 

One-time White Sox pitcher Ken Kravec ...

It amazes me the amount of detail I do recall, such as eventual Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Hunter getting knocked out by the Sox within two innings (he went on to retire from the game following that season), a hard-hit line drive double by Reggie Jackson that I still recall as the hardest-hit ball I have ever seen.

AND A GRAND slam home run by Jay Johnstone of the Yankees that ultimately gave the Bronx Bombers an 8-5 victory over the ball club that was two years removed from being the South Side Hit Men.

So what’s of interest in a ballgame played some 38 seasons ago between ball clubs that finished in fifth and fourth place (Chicago and New York, respectively) in their divisions – the World Series that year involved “the Family” of Pittsburgh beating on the Baltimore Orioles?

What caught my attention was a tiny little detail at the end of the box score – listed down there with the attendance (a near-capacity crowd of 43,373 tickets sold) and the umpires for the game.

It was 2:19. That’s not a biblical verse. It’s the amount of time it took to play nine full innings of baseball on a sunny, but chilly, day in April of ’79.

... took on Hall of Famer Hunter many years ago

I’M PLANNING ON going to the White Sox game to be played Thursday night against the Yankees, and about the only thing I’m sure of is that when we’re two hours into the game, we’re not going to be anywhere close to being finished. Tuesday night’s White Sox 4-3 victory over the Yankees took 3 hours, 25 minutes to play.

Major League Baseball games may have managed to cut themselves down a little bit from the 2014 game length average of 3 hours, 8 minutes (last year, games averaged 3 hours, 26 seconds each).

But I’m going to be honest; I don’t recall anything significantly brief or prompt about that first game all those years ago. We have managed to drag down the pace of play to the point where many people have been lulled into thinking what we have now is somehow normal.

Foley achieved highlight in promptly-played game

I also found it odd the way that when the White Sox paid tribute a week ago to now-retired pitcher Mark Buehrle, several people went out of their way to offer up their praise for the way he used to be capable of pitching efficiently to the point where his games could last ONLY two-and-a-half hours on average.

IN SHORT, BUEHRLE would have been the norm back when I was a kid. Now, he gets great praise for doing what everyone used to be capable of doing. It also helped to reinforce the point that when Comcast Sports Chicago chose to rebroadcast the 2009 no-hit perfect game Buehrle pitched against the Tampa Bay Rays, the total broadcast took barely over two hours to complete.

I’ll be honest – the current pace of play is such that around 10 p.m. Thursday night, I’m going to be thinking seriously about whether I need to leave the ballgame early to catch the proper commuter trains to get back home.

Or will seeing the entirety of a ball game be worth not actually getting home until about Midnight?

Now I know there are some baseball fans who argue that the issue of a game’s pace is overexaggerated. They claim they’re baseball fans, and they want MORE game for their money. So who cares how long it goes, or if some games can approach the four-hour mark in length.

It wasn't Cocoa Puffs the Comiskey scoreboard went cuckoo for

PERSONALLY, I HAVE always thought that a quick-paced ball game is a well-played one. A game that drags out is usually one where the pitching stinks, the defense is bobbling the ball about and the sloppiness of play has overtaken everything.

For what I pay these days to get a ticket to see a major league ballgame, I’d want to see something of quality. That doesn’t mean artificially drawn out.

It even produces memories such as the first time I ever actually saw the Comiskey Park scoreboard go cuckoo with the fireworks and light show for a Sox home run. Catcher Marv Foley hit one of the 12 home runs he ever hit during five seasons of playing major league ball – and he did it off a future Hall of Famer.

Maybe Foley and I are the only ones who remember the shot. But it is moments like this that make baseball fun to watch, no matter how much some people want to muck it up with games that drag out forever.

  -30-

EXTRA: Buehrle, a Sox loss, and now we wait for the Cubano rebuild

The Chicago White Sox drew what could wind up being their best crowd of 2017, what with the ceremonies paying tribute to Mark Buehrle – the one-time ace pitcher who on Saturday had his jersey number 56 retired.
 

From back when he was a Sox 'kid'

No one else playing for the White Sox will ever wear number 56, and Bryan Ward (whose lone victory as a major league pitcher came with the White Sox in 1998 while wearing “56” on his back) will now fade away into history,

YES, THE WHITE Sox’ game against the Oakland Athletics was a capacity crowd, with most of those fans eager to celebrate the memory of Buehrle – who pitched for the White Sox from 2000-11 and was a part of the division-winning Sox teams of ’00 and ’08 and also the ball club of ’05 that gave Chicago its first World Series victory of the 21^st Century.

 

Many career highlights for Buehrle

White Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf couldn’t help but joke about the crowd, quipping to Buehrle that he might not be aware Sox games don’t average 40,000-plus paying customers per game (actually 38,618, to be exact).

There also was the ball club’s gag after Buehrle’s daughter, Brooklyn, threw out the ceremonial first pitch, and the team pointed out that her toss was much faster and harder than what Buehrle himself threw at the peak of his pitching prowess.

Then again, Buehrle was always the evidence that successful pitching was not all about throwing balls in excess of 100 mph. Heck, Buehrle himself was the guy who got cut by his high school baseball team in the St. Louis suburbs, was a 38^th round draft choice by the White Sox in 1998 and was supposed to be a “roster-filler type” guy who plays a couple of years in the minor leagues before returning home to get on with his life.

No longer White Sox' "No. 56"

LATER HE BECAME one of the "kids" whom White Sox marketing referred to in their "the Kids Can Play" advertising appeal, although he eventually became the reliable workhorse of a pitching staff who worked at a quick pace, making it possible for ballgames to be played cleanly and crisply in just over two hours per game.

As opposed to the just over three hours it took for the White Sox to get through their 10-2 loss to the Athletics on Saturday.

Will No. 79 someday be retired for Abreu?

One where starting pitcher James Shields and five other pitchers had to be used by the White Sox to get through a game to do the duty that Buehrle used to be capable of doing all by himself with regularity.

How far the ball club has fallen – and how rapidly we need the great rebuild and the White Sox’ version of a “Cuban revolution” to be led by current Sox slugger Jose Abreu to occur so as to restore baseball respectability to the Sout’ Side.

  -30-

Cubs fans will celebrate, but maybe we ought to root, root, root for the Pirates

The Chicago Cubs will continue to play ball for at least one more day, as they’ll be traveling to Pittsburgh to take on the Pirates this week for the right of which Wild Card team gets to take on the baseball division winners throughout October.

Is it the Pirates' turn to overcome losing ways?

I’m sure some Cubs fans are going to whine. That rant about being one of the best teams (based on won-loss record) in the National League, yet having to still fight for the right to compete.

EVEN THOUGH THE Cubs didn’t exactly choke. They finished their season with an eight-game win streak, and has many prognosticators wanting to believe this is the year that both the years 1945 AND 1908 lose their historic significance.

Yet I can’t help but wonder if it is more interesting if Pittsburgh winds up beating Chicago and going on to play the St. Louis Cardinals, with that winner taking on the Los Angeles Dodgers/New York Mets victor to claim the National League championship.

I’m sure some reading this will scream “Heresy!!!!!” and start sending me vulgar e-mail messages.

It’s just that I can’t help but think that the Cubs have already achieved far more than anyone had any right to expect this year. Whereas Pittsburgh has the ball club that in recent years has recovered from decades of dreck to come close to playoff success.

PERHAPS IT IS time for the Pirates to move forward. Perhaps it is Pittsburgh’s “turn” to move forward and win something – instead of those who have wanted to believe since back in May that it has to be the Cubs’ “turn” for victory.

 

One-time White Sox ace could be done

Somehow, the idea of a New York Yankees or Toronto Blue Jays World Series matchup against the Pirates or Dodgers is more intriguing than anything involving the Cubs or the intoxication crew that surrounds Wrigley Field.

 

Besides, if the Cubs really are the legitimate championship-quality ball club their fans want to believe they are, there are 2016 and 2017 to look forward to. If the Cubs can’t do anything in those years, then perhaps this whole era is as over-rated as Chicago White Sox fans will say it is.

As for the White Sox, they won two games of their final three-game series against the Detroit Tigers, but finished the season with a loss – and a 76-win season. Just short of the 78 to 82 win season I suspected they would have at season’s beginning.

Buehrle still far behind Spahn achievement

I WONDER HOW many White Sox fans on Sunday had their attention focused on Toronto, where the Blue Jays got their butts whomped by the Tampa Bay Rays and one-time White Sox ace pitcher Mark Buehrle gave up seven runs in two-thirds of an inning – costing the Blue Jays any chance of finishing the regular season with the American League’s best won-lost record.

 

The only reason Buehrle was called upon to pitch Sunday, just two days after pitching nearly seven innings on Friday. It was meant to give Buehrle a chance to pitch two full innings, bringing his season total to 200.

That would have made Buehrle one of only four pitchers to ever reach that season total in 15 or more straight seasons. All of those three – Gaylord Perry, Don Sutton and Warren Spahn – are in baseball’s Hall of Fame.

It would have been something for White Sox faithful who remember the decade-plus that he was the ball club’s best pitcher to celebrate. Instead, it added to the stink that was 2015 – with many fans fearing that 2016 will be more of the same because team manager Robin Ventura WILL return next year.

ONE OTHER ISSUE involving the end of the 2015 season – I thought it tacky that the Houston Astros ended their season with a loss that also ensured they would have to have their possible one-and-done playoff game at Yankee Stadium instead of at home, and yet the team could be seen celebrating with the now-expected champagne dousing.

What are they really celebrating? Creeping into the playoffs by a slot that didn’t even exist until a couple of seasons ago?

The Cubs still have a few rounds of winning to go before they can say they matched this achievement

Then again, I’m sure the White Sox – who beat up on the Astros in the 2005 World Series – would give anything if they could have an excuse to celebrate anything except avoiding a Last Place finish in ’15.

  -30-

EDITOR'S NOTE: Perhaps one reason I like the idea of Pittsburgh in the World Series is I still recall one of the most-fun series I ever saw was the 1979 version when the Pirates beat the Baltimore Orioles four games to three. When Willie Stargell led "the Family" to a dominant ball club; remember all those stars circling their 19th Century-inspired stovepipe caps? And when "Sister Sledge" wound up gaining the one bit of musical fame that they're still remembered for.

'05 memories all the more distant w/ Konerko departure from baseball ranks

I'm not going to make it out to U.S. Cellular Field this weekend -- so I won't get a first-hand glimpse of all the Paul Konerko hoo-hah.


The White Sox slow-but-hard-hitting first baseman/designated hitter has been with the Sout' Side ballclub since 1999, but has let it be known he's not going to play any more following this season -- which ends Sunday.


I DID MANAGE to catch a ball game just over a week ago; seeing Jose Abreu (Konerko's replacement) hit one of his many home runs this season but otherwise watching the Minnesota Twins beat up on the White Sox on what was a sunny Sunday September afternoon.


If anything, the repeated video tributes and bits of Konerko-related trivia were dominant throughout the spectacle. And this was just a routine late-season game in which Paulie didn't even play. I can just envision how over-the-top the tributes will be this weekend. Particularly on Sunday -- Konerko's last home game.


Although I doubt it will get as over-the-top as the "final home game" mania that surrounded the Thursday-night ballgame at Yankee Stadium, where long-time shortstop Derek Jeter got in his final home game of a career ending on a downer because the Yankees didn't even make it to the playoffs this season.


But still, there's just something about all this ending-of-a-career hoopla that seems to get ridiculously over the top. I realize that without this, these games Saturday and Sunday against the Kansas City Royals would otherwise just be the end of a mediocre season -- one in which the White Sox' highlight took place in Cooperstown, N.Y., when one-time star hitter Frank Thomas got inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.


INSOFAR AS KONERKO, it is intriguing to see a ballplayer last so long at the professional level and stay so long with the White Sox -- to the degree that most fans forgot he was once a Los Angeles Dodgers star prospect and also had a stint with the Cincinnati Reds before he ever envisioned that Chicago would become a significant part of his life.


Although when I think of his career, I have to note he is the final ballplayer from that 2005 World Series-winning team. Now, those of us who want to relish in nine-year (and counting)-old memories will have to watch the on-field antics of pitcher Mark Buehrle when the Toronto Blue Jays come to town, or those of Juan Uribe when the Dodgers play in this year's playoffs (and perhaps the World Series itself this year).


Or maybe we'll have to wait and see if there's a ball club out there that wants the former White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski, who becomes a free agent at season's end.


The rest of the guys from that ball club are gone from the major league playing ranks. Now the '05 White Sox are as much of the past as the '59 version of the ball club, or the 1977 "South Side Hit Men" version that some people forget wound up being merely a third-place team.


PERHAPS ONE REASON to turn out at the ball park this weekend would be to try to wring out one last memory of that '05 team that finally brought a World Series to Chicago in my lifetime.


Although the idea of sitting through the "Hispanic Heritage Night" festivities planned for the Friday night game against the Royals (or should I say, "Los Reals") was a bit too much. Particularly since it seems a large part of the" festivities" was that music by Shakira, Daddy Yankee and Cristina Aguilera was to be played throughout the game.


I don't want to pay "big league" ticket prices to have to endure that much racket over the public address system.


Although I will admit that not having Konerko around with the team is going to take some adjustment. Particularly since he was so big and slow and the total antithesis of what a traditional White Sox player (think Luis Aparicio and/or Nellie Fox) was supposed to be.


IT IS WHY one of my favorite Konerko memories remains the time I attended the next-to-last White Sox game of the 1999 season. It was a Saturday night, and the stands were virtually empty by the final third of the game.


But Konerko managed to get on base, then started chugging along toward second base. The idea of super-slow Paulie trying to steal a base caught everybody off-guard. The catcher made a terrible throw to second base. Konerko was safe!!!!!


Back then, the White Sox flashed a graphic on their video board every time there was a stolen base that read "(INSERT PLAYER'S NAME) has stolen _____ bases this season." With the ballplayer's name and theft total to fill in the blanks.


This particular moment in game number 161 of a 162-game season wound up getting a "Paul Konerko has stolen 1 bases this season." Which wound up stirring up a loud laugh from the dwindling crowd.


IT'S NOT SOMETHING you see every day.


And be honest. That thought is more entertaining than someone who says his favorite Konerko moment was that Grand Slam home run in Game 2 of the 2005 World Series. Which wound up getting overshadowed by the game-winning home run by Scott Podsednik (a real-life base thief whose home run was almost as rare as the Konerko stolen base).


  -30-

Wishing Buehrle back on Sout’ Side

It’s early in the baseball season. Nowhere near enough ball games have been played to be able to say a team is doing well. Or poorly.

But I couldn’t help but notice the record of pitcher Mark Buehrle in Toronto (what with four wins, no losses and an earned run average of 0.64) and wish the Blue Jay were still wearing black socks.

THE FORMER CHICAGO White Sox pitcher achieved enough here during his career (a pair of no-hitters, a World Series appearance and all those Opening Day starts) that he’s always going to be remembered primarily for what he did here. His stints with Miami, Toronto and any other ball club he ever pitches for (maybe someday the St. Louis Cardinals he rooted for as a kid) will be the add-ons of a professional career that is very impressive for a guy who was drafted in the 38^th round out of a junior college in Missouri where he played ball for a year.

But you have to admit he’s had an impressive season’s start – most recently pitching just over seven shutout innings Saturday night against the Cleveland Indians.

Starting pitching may not be the White Sox’ weakness this season. But you have to wonder how much better the South Side ball club would have in 2014 if that 0.64 ERA were done here.

For those of you who don’t comprehend, an earned run average figures how many runs he gives up in a typical nine-inning stretch. Thus far, he gives up about two-thirds of a run.

HE’S BOUND TO have a bad outing eventually that will shoot his ERA up to a more normal-sounding figure (something that starts with a “3.” rather than a “0.”

I’d definitely think that 2013 wouldn’t have been quite as atrocious if Buehrle had been around, ensuring that losing streaks didn’t get quite so long if he had been pitching.

But ’14 is ’14. The White Sox seem to be on their way to being a team that will win about 80 ballgames – and no more.

Although as evidence of how early it is in the season, Buehrle’s Blue Jays ball club is 10-8 and in first place in their division (tied with the New York Yankees), while the White Sox are 8-10 and in fourth place – only a half-game ahead of the Cleveland ball club that Buehrle beat.

ON THIS EASTER Sunday (when perhaps we should have higher ideals in mind than the doings of a mediocre ball club), we should wait for the next significant holiday (Memorial Day) before we start seriously paying attention to the standings.

Maybe then, Buehrle himself won’t have quite so impressive a record. Or maybe he’ll be even better.

And maybe, by chance, the 35-year-old who likely has another two or three seasons left may wind up returning to Chicago for a career-ending stint that would make some fans happy while waiting for the White Sox to put together a team that would actually contend for a league championship.

Which I still suspect will come to the South Side and Bridgeport before it manages to work its way up to Lake View.

  -30-

EXTRA: Guillen turns to ace Buehrle?

Wouldn’t it be freaky if Ozzie Guillen wound up getting the managerial post of the Toronto Blue Jays for the 2013 season?

For he’d literally be able to have as his top pitcher the same man he has relied upon for the past 12 seasons. The multi-player trade that sent much of the high-priced talent from the Miami Marlins to Toronto was given final approval by Major League Baseball authorities on Monday.

THAT BRINGS FORMER Chicago White Sox ace pitcher Mark Buehrle back to the American League. The Missouri boy who has made it known he wouldn’t mind it if he were to be able to pitch for the St. Louis Cardinals during a professional baseball career instead will get to be a Blue Jay.

Of course, the Marlins began their schizophrenic off-season mode last month when they fired manager Guillen – trying to place the blame on Ozzie for the fact that Miami grossly underperformed during 2012.

Some people who have always had their hang-ups about Ozzie might have been willing to believe that. Except that the Marlins management’s behavior since then has shown it is them, and not Guillen, who are the problem with baseball being a success in South Florida.

There are those who believe the only reason Buehrle left the White Sox following 12 seasons of being their most-reliable pitcher was the idea that he liked pitching for Guillen.

WOULD ANOTHER REUNITING with Guillen be enough to make him happy in Toronto? Much of the reporting about this potential deal and its impact on Buerhle has focused on the fact that he owns pit bulls and would have personal objections to the laws in Ontario that severely restrict ownership of that particular breed of dog.

Or is the Midwest boy at heart going to literally find himself in an alien land – one where he will have to face the tough teams of the American League eastern division multiple times per year, instead of the one game or two a season that he got while pitching for the White Sox of the league’s central division!

Now keep in mind that I’m not in possession of any knowledge that the Blue Jays (who lost their manager to the Boston Red Sox at season’s end) are considering Guillen for the managerial post.

He may well be the last person they’d want to consider for the job! Which could be a mistake. Guillen could be that jolt that could bolster a ballclub that hasn’t won a league championship since 1993 (when they beat out then-shortstop Ozzie Guillen and the White Sox in the AL playoffs).

INSTEAD, THE REPORTS I have seen indicate that one of the alleged front-runners for the Blue Jays managerial post is Jim Riggleman – who back in the late 1990s had a stint managing the Chicago Cubs and later managed the Washington Nationals before they became good.

Who knows? Maybe he learned something in recent seasons (he managed a Cincinnati Reds minor league affiliate last year).

Either that, or they figure he’s already worn a light-blue uniform and might feel comfortable in Toronto.

Somehow, he just doesn’t seem to be the kind of leadership that could help Toronto overcome the New York Yankees, the improving Baltimore Orioles or Tampa Bay Rays – or even the Red Sox (who can’t possibly play as poorly in ’13 as they did last year).

  -30-

Free agent purchases not a guarantee to victory, but Miami likely now more interesting than Chicago ball clubs

Seeing long-time Chicago White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle join the Miami Marlins along with several other ballplayers in recent days can’t help but remind me of the California Angels of three-plus decades ago.

I’m speaking specifically of the Angels of the mid- to late-1970s, when long-time owner Gene Autry got fed up with the perpetual mediocrity he was putting on the field.

HE TRIED TO use the same free agency that the New York Yankees used to bolster their ball clubs of that era to bring in star ballplayers – believing that athletic talent would translate into championships galore for the team that represents the suburbs of Los Angeles.

I remember that first winter of 1976-77, when the Angels went out and gave “big money” (for that era) contracts to infielder Bobby Grich and outfielders Don Baylor and Joe Rudi.

Future years saw them acquire expensive talent such as future Hall of Fame members Rod Carew and Reggie Jackson, along with Lyman Bostock (who might have become a star had it not been for that unfortunate evening in Gary, Ind., in 1978 – R.I.P.)

They had interesting ball clubs back then, and had a nucleus that resulted in playoff appearances in 1979, 1982 and 1986.

BUT BY THE time the Angels actually won an American League championship and World Series title in 2002, NONE of those ballplayers had a thing to do with it. Even Gene Autry was gone from the scene – although I recall widow Jackie being at the ballpark as though she was channeling the Singing Cowboy’s aura.

My point in bringing any of this up is to say that ball clubs that actually manage to win something usually go beyond just ratcheting up a collection of ballplayers who run up the “best” statistics at their respective position.

Buehrle, relief pitcher Heath Bell of the San Diego Padres and shortstop Jose Reyes of the New York Mets may not be enough of a boost to bring a National League championship to Miami – not even if they also manage to lure Prince Fielder away from the Milwaukee Brewers with the promise of a “big money” contract.

It could turn out to be an overly-costly ($198 million committed in salary thus far) mess on the field and at the ticket booth – particularly if the Marlins do not wind up drawing the significantly-higher crowds to their games that they will need to generate the gate receipts that will cover these expenses.

ALTHOUGH I STAND by my previously-written thought that new Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen has a better chance of getting to a World Series before either Chicago ball club does so.

In fact, I’m getting my chuckles from the memory of all the anonymous Internet posters who took their pot-shots at Guillen when he departed the Chicago White Sox back in late September.

I recall some people specifically stating that Guillen’s leaving Chicago increased the chances that Buehrle would stay with the White Sox. After all, their convoluted logic went, Guillen’s “screwy” managerial style and strategy had hurt Buehrle as a pitcher in recent years. Buehrle would be glad to be rid of him. 

So what does Mark do? He winds up voluntarily picking the Marlins (reportedly over offers from the Washington Nationals and Texas Rangers) and ensuring that he and Ozzie will be a duo for the next four seasons (that is the length of the contracts both men have with the Miami ball club).

I WONDER IF in the White Sox’ front office on Wednesday, the thought of an Ozzie/Buehrle pairing hurts even more than if Buehrle had taken seriously those suggestions that the Chicago Cubs were interested in acquiring him.

Although Cubs fans will get to see the duo next season at Wrigley Field July 17-19. Will Buehrle beat the Cubs again, while Guillen bad-mouths the run-down conditions of the 98-year-old stadium?

Those moments could be the “highlights,” so to speak, of the 2012 season in Chicago.

While I’m not convinced that the Marlins have bought themselves a championship, I do believe it will be a more interesting baseball experience next season in Miami than it will be on either side of Chicago.

NO MATTER HOW much the Cubs want to talk themselves up as “major players” in trying to acquire the big stars who are now available, any serious rebuilding effort is going to take years. Theo Epstein is a success if the Cubs win anything before 2020.

And as for the White Sox, the loss of Buehrle (perhaps they believe they replaced him by acquiring pitcher Nestor Molina from the Toronto Blue Jays) convinces me all the more that this will be a roughly .500 ball club for the next few season.

Not incredibly awful. But not championship caliber either. And now, we don’t even have Ozzie’s mouth to keep things interesting.

In fact, I can think of only one potential move that would thoroughly inflict the pain on the Chicago baseball scene – if the Marlins were literally to work out a deal to take pitcher Carlos Zambrano off of the Cubs’ hands.

YOU KNOW THEY want to dump him.

But what if the next Miami Marlins championship team were to be led by a pitching staff featuring ex-Chicago hurlers Buehrle and Zambrano?

Admit it! That would be so in character for Chicago baseball.

  -30-

Zambrano turned his Cubs pitching career into nothing more than Sosa-Squared

I’m starting to wonder if there is some psychic connection between Carlos Zambrano and Sammy Sosa that caused the Chicago portion of their professional baseball careers to self-destruct in the same manner.

Both of them will be remembered by Chicago Cubs fans as the one-time star ballplayers who deserted their team, and who never again donned the uniform of the baby blue bears.

IN THE CASE of Zambrano, that is not yet official. But I would think it highly unlikely than Carlos will ever again pitch in Wrigley Field for the home team. Although I would get a kick out of it if he signed on with some other ballclub, then came back to beat up on the Cubs.

For the unwarranted arrogance we get all too often from Cubs fans, it would serve them right.

In fact, I would sooner expect the sight of Sosa making a comeback to Major League Baseball with the Cubs, before I would expect to see Zambrano pitching in Chicago for the Cubs.

Because I have to admit that it is the demise of Sosa (who once was the baseball demi-god who was THE reason national baseball people paid any attention to the Cubs) back in 2004 is replaying in my mind now that we’re seeing Zambrano on his way out.

FOR THOSE WITH short memories, the only man who three times hit more than 60 home runs in a single season played his last game with the Cubs seven years ago – and walked out on the team in mid-game of the last game of what turned out to be a crummy season.

One not all that different from this year, if you want to be honest. Then again, the idea of crummy seasons by the Chicago Cubs comes up so often that they all tend to blend together into a mass.

Zambrano differs in that his Cubs team this season still has just over 40 games to play – which means Carlos in theory would be asked to start about seven or eight more games.

But Sosa supposedly left because he didn’t see the point of sticking around for the final few innings of a depressing season. Just as Zambrano supposedly threw a tantrum on Friday about the poor play of his ballclub, then left – using the word “retirement” to describe his departure. Neither seems to be missed. Sosa's CD player was smashed by a teammate after he left, while one of Zambrano's teammates has already moved some clothes and a guitar into what would have been Zambrano's locker at Turner Field in Atlanta.

ONE MIGHT ARGUE these two are overly-competitive people who were frustrated and let the more juvenile part of their temperaments get the best of them. Would-be winners having a tantrum that in many ways would be best ignored.

But Chicago Cubs fans are going to go out of their way to demonize both men – my guess as part of their mental efforts to justify why their ballclub played so pathetically (after all, it is filled with head cases).

Sosa is persona non grata at Wrigley Field these days, and Zambrano has now turned himself into nothing more than Sosa-Squared when it comes to the minds of Cubs fans.

Just another head case, although I’m wondering how many of their fans will make the additional leap and try to think of them as Latin American head cases? You just know there will be a couple of knuckleheads who will think that way. So this is my calling-out of them, in advance, for ethnic-inspired trash talk.

THE ONLY REAL question remaining with Zambrano is whether the Cubs will get stuck having to pay him any of the remaining $24 million that remains on his contract for this season and 2012.

Cubs fans I have heard seem to think he gets nothing, although I suspect the Cubs ultimately will give him some money to get him to go away. Then, we’ll have to see where he winds up for next season (even though I suspect many Cubs fans would like him to wind up with the Lake County Fielders – the suburban Zion-based independent league ballclub that isn’t even sure which league it plays in these days).

Because I suspect he still can pitch. And probably, he will do much better by getting away from the Wrigley ivy and all of its trivial distractions.

I only hope the White Sox don’t get any silly ideas about trying to sign him – even though I know that his family and the Guillen family are friendly (they’re all fellow Venezolanos).

THAT TEAM HAS enough distractions already – so many that it may well be the highlight of the season that on Sunday, they beat the Kansas City Royals  and restored themselves to a perfect .500 winning percentage (60-60, with 42 more games to play).

Besides, I’d rather see that team try to work out a deal by which they keep Mark Buehrle – the guy who really was the best pitcher in Chicago during the first decade of the 21^st Century (no matter how many Cubs fans tried to claim it was Carlos).

  -30-

EXTRA: Did anybody have Mark Buehrle on Thursday as their ‘pick to click?’

Frank Smith is no longer unique. The man with the anonymous name now has to share his athletic designation with Mark Buehrle.

Both Buehrle and Smith were pitchers for the Chicago White Sox, and until Thursday, Smith was the only Sox pitcher who had ever thrown more than one no-hit ballgame.

SMITH WAS A major leaguer with the White Sox, the Boston Red Sox, the Cincinnati Reds, the Baltimore Terrapins and the Brooklyn Tip-Tops. The latter two teams were in the long-defunct Federal League, which shows you how long ago Smith played ball.

For the record, his White Sox no-hitters came on Sept. 6, 1905 against the Detroit Tigers, and Sept. 20, 1908 against the Philadelphia Athletics.

Now, Buehrle has matched him, with his April 18, 2007 no-hit game against the Texas Rangers, combined with his perfect game (got everybody out) on Thursday against the Tampa Bay Rays.

None of the 14 other White Sox pitchers who threw no-hit games managed to do more than one for the ball club. Their ranks include such stars as Ed Walsh and Ted Lyons, notorious names such as Eddie Cicotte, and such un-immortal talents as Francisco Barrios (who on July 28, 1976 combined with John “Blue Moon” Odom to throw a no-hit game against Odom’s old ball club, the Oakland A’s).

OF COURSE, BUEHRLE also becomes the second White Sox perfect game pitcher ever – not since Charlie Robertson tossed one on April 30, 1922 against the Detroit Tigers.

I’m kind of jealous, since I have never seen a no-hit game being pitched. I have seen some come close, but fail. So naturally, Buehrle pitches his game on a day when I had no time to spare to watch television (let alone go out to the ballpark for a day game).

For the record, I can’t help but think many White Sox fans will enjoy the thought of Buehrle’s first no-hit game more. After all, that was the game in which only one Rangers player got on base – Buehrle walked Sammy Sosa.

And we all got our kicks watching Sammy look like a chump when Buehrle promptly picked him off first base. Although watching DeWayne Wise’s stumbling catch that preserved Buehrle’s achievement comes close to matching that moment.

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It's way too early to think 'City Series'

Major League Baseball’s scheduling practices occasionally result in some quirks – such as the way the White Sox and Cubs schedules match up this week.

New York is coming to Chicago to play our city’s team. That statement is true, regardless of whether one is talking about the American or National leagues.

THE YANKEES ARE in town through Thursday to play a three-game series against the White Sox – a series that always results in larger-than-usual crowds since the ball club that personifies New York swagger has come to town.

Meanwhile, the Mets came on Monday and will be here through Wednesday to smack the Cubs around (although, somehow, the Cubs managed to fluke their way to a victory Monday night).

This kind of scheduling is unusual because the powers that be who put together 162-game seasons for each of the 30 major league teams usually try to have it so that the cities with two ball clubs (New York and Los Angeles, in addition to Chicago) have one team playing at home while the other is in another city.

A 'shot' of the crowd at the South Side Grounds attending Game 6 of the 1906 World Series - the day that the White Sox got the ultimate one-upmanship on the Cubs. Photograph provided by Library of Congress collection.

To have them both playing on the same day in Chicago is an event that usually happens maybe once or twice per season. But to have them both at home simultaneously to play series against the mighty ball clubs from Gotham? That is probably something we’ll never see again.

One could literally on Tuesday and Wednesday root against the hated New Yorkers (even though some Manhattan snobs would argue that, as the ball club from Queens, the Mets really don’t count) twice in one day – traveling from the North Side day game to the South Side for the superior matchup.

JUST ONE THING – don’t behave like that Cubs fan fool a few years ago who got liquored up during the day at Wrigley Field, then came south and acted like a buffoon by charging the umpire while watching the evening Sox game.

The New York-Chicago baseball doubleheader got me to thinking, though, about the possibility of having two contending ball clubs in Chicago.

Such a concept is not unheard of in New York. I’m sure there are some baseball fans in that city who fully expect the World Series this year to be a New York Yankees victory over the Mets – the first “’subway series” since 2000 and one of more than a dozen that have been played during the century that the American and National league champions have deigned to play each other at the end of the season.

But as of now, Chicago is the city with ball clubs at the top of the standings in their respective divisions.

DON’T GET ME wrong. I realize it is ridiculously early to be thinking about 2008 being the year of the “el series” (or would we call it the Red Line series, in honor of the Chicago Transit Authority line that connects the two stadiums?). Personally, I don’t pay serious attention to baseball standings until Memorial Day.

By then, the fact that both Chicago ball clubs were once on top of their divisions could be a long-forgotten memory.

But one has to admit the White Sox are going a long way toward showing the world of baseball geeks that 2007 (with its 72 victories) was an aberration. The White Sox of the 2000s (the current decade) are a team with consistent winning records and two (thus far) first place finishes.

My mind is starting to run amok at the thought of a third first-place finish in this decade (which would have to be either this year or next). But with John Danks showing that he has the potential to be the worthy starting pitcher that White Sox officials always expected (and that general manager Ken Williams wasn’t stupid for acquiring him a few years ago) and Jim Thome showing he can still hit (even at the advanced – by baseball standards – age of 37), this is going to be a very interesting year on the South Side.

FOR AWHILE, THE White Sox had the best record in the American League. Now, they’re just the best in their division, against four other ball clubs all of which have losing records. I don’t expect that situation to continue for the remainder of the season.

But I could see 2008 becoming a season-long Chicago-Cleveland brawl to win their respective division, then meeting up against the division winners of the east and west and a wild card team.

Who knows, it could very well be the Yankees that the White Sox meet up with in the playoffs – which would literally have baseball commentators looking back on this early April series (the only time the two teams will meet in Chicago, they will play a three-game series in New York Sept. 15-17) for some sort of clue as to which team will prevail to win the American League pennant.

Of course, the Sox could also fizzle out in June and turn this into a fairly forgettable year, much as I expect the Cubs to do at some point in mid-season. It’s probably fair to say that both ball clubs have just enough weaknesses to prevent them from being considered legitimate contenders (and I don’t want to hear about how the Cubs play in a weak division – ‘contenders by default’ is just lame).

SO ALTHOUGH I might want to dream of the 2008 World Series giving us an encore to the 1906 version, my serious thoughts about baseball these days focus on three questions – if anybody can answer them for me, I want to know:

--What is up with White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle? He doesn’t appear to be throwing the ball all that bad, but seems to have some of the lousiest luck when it comes to getting run support or just losing it at the most inopportune moments. I only hope this isn’t like his past lousy-luck slumps of 2003 and 2006 when he managed to go for a couple of months at a time without a victory.

--Why does anybody think it is cute that those goofs who make a living selling unauthorized t-shirts and other junk around Wrigley Field are taking to selling shirts that purportedly feed off the aura provided by Japanese star ballplayer Kosuke Fukudome? But their idea of a “tribute” is to mock the “Holy Cow” saying of late broadcaster Harry Caray with Japanese-type characters and a baseball with slants for eyes. I’d like to think Cubs fans have too much sense to actually wear something like that. But then again, I’d like to think people are too intelligent to root for something as historically pathetic as the Chicago Cubs – I’d be wrong.

--Why did the Toronto Blue Jays really release aging former White Sox star Frank Thomas? The man can still swing a bat, and his past two seasons have shown him to get off to slow starts in April, only to get better and turn into a virtual hitting machine when the weather warms up. Does Toronto merely want to get out of having to give Thomas a hefty raise for 2009 if he were to get a minimum number of at-bats? If it really is the case, then we know for sure why the Blue Jays are the perpetual runner-up in the east division behind New York and the Boston Red Sox. I don’t expect the White Sox to make a bid for Thomas (there’s no room on the team for him), but I do expect him to wind up somewhere this year as an impact player.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: Chicago baseball’s best pitcher of this decade (http://www.baseball-reference.com/b/buehrma01.shtml) is off to a slow start this season.

I don’t mean to rub it in, but I don’t recall anything even remotely close to this being sold (http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/cubs/901817,CST-SPT-gordo18.article) in Chicago when Shingo Takatsu or Tadahito Iguchi played on the South Side.

One-time White Sox star (and eventual Hall of Fame member) Frank Thomas is looking (http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/columnists/cs-080421-downey-frank-thomas-chicago,1,6288243.column) for work these days.

It is still kind of early in the year to be seriously talking about (http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080421&content_id=2564365&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb) an “el Series” (Sox vs. Cubs in the World Series). Besides, would it really be fair to put Cubs fans through the trauma of having a sequel to the only other time (http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/history/postseason/mlb_ws_recaps.jsp?feature=1906) the two teams met in the World Series?