EXTRA: Return of “the Vulture,” and of past, to baseball in 21st Century

'The Vulture' returning to baseball

Something I’ve noticed about being a fan of professional baseball these days – following a ballgame has the ability to make me feel like an antique.

Not only are all the guys who I followed as ballplayers when I was a kid back in the 1970s long-gone from the playing field, they’re no longer really employable as managers or coaches.

Now most definitely a part of baseball past

MY OWN PERSONAL favorite ballplayer as a kid was Lou Piniella of the New York Yankees who went on to a lengthy managerial career with a championship in Cincinnati, a decade’s worth of contending ball clubs in Seattle and even a stint as head of the Chicago Cubs. Yet at age 75, his day in baseball is done.

More typical is Chicago White Sox manager Ricky Renteria, who at age 57 is barely older than I am. With most of today’s ballplayers having barely been born in the final years of the 20^th Century.

So it was with a bit of joy that I read the reports Friday about Phil Regan – the old relief pitcher of the 1960s and early ‘70s who got hired as a pitching coach with the New York Mets.

Even Ozzie has become a relic

Regan turned 82 back in April. Considering that one-time star shortstop and manager Ozzie Guillen is now considered an antique at age 55, it feels comforting to know that baseball has someone who was once a teammate to pitchers Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale – and was even a part of that Cubs’ ballclub of 1969,

AS IN THE one that managed to fall behind the New York Mets, who went on to win the World Series that year, and give Cubs fans tales of how a black cat (rather than tired, worn-out ballplayers) caused them to lose,

Of course, Regan was the ballplayer remembered best for his nickname – “the Vulture!” Which he got during his time with the Los Angeles Dodgers when he often managed to come into a ballgame and do something that cost his team the lead (and the starting pitcher credit for the “win”), but because his team would recover and win the game, Regan himself would wind up credited with the victory.

Joy in vulturing a victory

Which makes me wonder if we’ll get a return of talk of relief pitchers “vulturing” wins? Which I certainly would consider more interesting than constant speculation about the exit velocity (how hard the impact on the ball by a bat is) every time a home run is hit!

I still remember Game 2 of the 2005 World Series, where Mark Buehrle of the White Sox pitched 7 solid innings and was on his way to a World Series win when relief pitcher Bobby Jenks came in and blew the lead. The look of relief on Jenks’ face the following inning when the White Sox managed to recoup the lead and win (with a Scott Podsednik home run) was one of joy I’ve never seen duplicated on a ballfield.

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EXTRA: Will family tie be the key to White Sox success with Machado?

The Chicago White Sox had their face-to-face meeting Monday with Manny Machado, the all-star infielder who's trying to get the big-money contract that will make him potentially the highest-paid ballplayer ever.

Is Yainee Machado key to if her husband plays for Sox?

Reports are indicating that the White Sox aren't enthused about having to spend that much money (potentially some $300 million). There's also the fact that his meeting with the White Sox came first -- the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies are scheduled to have their one-on-ones Wednesday and Thursday.

The newest White Sox

MEANING THE WHITE Sox are unlikely to get in the last word and chance to top anybody else's financial offer. Which really means that any serious chance of Machado coming to Chicago is going to be in the hands of Yainee.

As in Machado's wife -- who also is the sister of Yonder Alonso, who happens to be a professional ballplayer in his own right. In fact, he's a first baseman who was acquired by the White Sox from the Cleveland Indians.

Freddy Garcia once had to call 'skip' … 

Would Machado want to be on a ball club with his brother-in-law? Would Yainee be inclined to think that having her brother and husband so close be a benefit (the two actually live a couple of blocks from each other in Miami during the winter months)? Or will they decide that a little bit of space during the summer would be beneficial to maintaining family unity?

I don't actually know the answers to any of those questions. But it would be an intriguing story line if the White Sox' ability to acquire a star shortstop like Machado depends on who their reserve first baseman is.

… the man who was sort-of a father-in-law

IT COULD TURN out to be as interesting as back when the White Sox' pitching rotation included Freddy Garcia -- who was married to the niece of manager Ozzie Guillen.

For a few years, including that World Series'-winning season of 2005, White Sox baseball was truly a family affair. In fact, when the Sox later traded Garcia away to Philadelphia, one of the people most upset was Guillen's wife, Ibis, who blamed her husband for not stopping the trade from occurring.

Machado would have Hall of Famer Aparicio as goal, if he becomes a Sox

Could the saga to rebuild the White Sox into a team that doesn't think avoiding 100 losses a season is a significant accomplishment develop its own potential for a family-type soap opera angle?

And could Machado wind up following in the path of star shortstops from Latin America who established their athletic credentials while wearing the old-English script logo of the White Sox.

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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.

World Series champs would like to challenge World Classic champs

I don’t often find anything to praise about the Chicago Cubs, but I have to confess to thinking that Cubs manager Joe Maddon has come up with a wonderful idea – the national team that wins the World Baseball Classic tourney come Wednesday ought to then take on the defending World Series champions.
 

Maddon offers a worthy proposal

Which, if it were to happen this spring, would be the Cubs!

NOT THAT I would think the Chicago Cubs need to beat anyone else to legitimize their accomplishments of 2016. Or that the WBC champion would gain any more legitimacy by beating up on the Cubbies.

But it could very well be the perfect way to end spring training, where the camps are scheduled to shut down toward the end of next week before U.S. major league ballclubs leave Arizona and Florida to begin the regular season in their home cities.

Now I’ll be the first to admit I don’t expect this idea to be acted upon this year. These things take time to prepare, and this idea would have about a week to become reality – what with we won’t know until Wednesday who even wins the World Baseball Classic.

So I don’t expect any team to leave Los Angeles and Dodger Stadium (where the championship games will be played Tuesday and Wednesday) to head for the Cubs’ training camp in Mesa, Ariz.

ALTHOUGH THE IDEA of the national teams put together for the World Baseball Classic playing U.S. major league teams isn’t absurd. Heck, there already have been such matchups during spring training.

If  Puerto Rico team wins, who would Javy pick?

Even the Cubs got to play Team Japan Saturday (the Cubs won 6-4) as part of that ball club’s efforts to cope with jet lag and adjust their body clocks (the games they have played thus far were in Seoul and Toyko) to playing in Pacific Daylight Time.

Pitting the two winners, whether in a two wins out of three games series like Maddon suggests or perhaps just one ballgame before breaking training could become a new tradition for the 21^st Century.

If this idea had been in place previously, then the defending WBC champion Dominican Republic team would have played the San Francisco Giants, while the Japan national teams that won the World Baseball Classic in 2009 and 2006 would have played the Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago White Sox respectively.

Easier rooting decision if Netherlands wins?

THE LATTER WOULD have provided a particularly intriguing scenario, and not just because we can’t help but wonder how much then-Sox manager Ozzie Guillen’s feisty spirit and loud mouth would have intrigued (or offended) the Japanese.

But that Sox team had Tadahito Iguchi as its second baseman. How much grief would he have got playing against his home nation?

Actually, that same scenario could occur this year, if it turns out that Puerto Rico keeps its undefeated ways going and wins the World Baseball Classic. We’d get the chance to see the Boricuans versus los Cachorros.

There's already been a Javy controversy

Except that the second baseman for team Puerto Rico is Javy Baez – who also happens to be an infielder for the defending champion Cubs. Somebody would have to make a judgment call on which team would get him, and it would be a decision guaranteed to offend a segment of baseball fans.

AS IT IS, Puerto Rican fans already are upset at the MLB-TV channel that has been broadcasting the games (Channel 233 on my cable TV system), a graphic of Baez depicted him in front of a Dominican flag!

It’s almost enough to make some people hope desperately that the Netherlands’ national team prevails. No conflict, and considering that their big star is New York Yankees shortstop Didi Gregorius, it’s likely the Yankees-hating world of baseball will unite in rooting against them.

How would Ozzie have 'played' in Japan?

All I know is that this spring already has had some intriguing baseball moments due to the World Baseball Classic, such as Team United States of America having the tying run on third base when they lost Friday to Puerto Rico, the fact that Team Israel briefly was unbeatable as they even knocked out Equipo Cuba. And the outrage I personally feel at watching Team Mexico blow a four-run lead to Italy, then getting knocked out of the tourney altogether even after they beat Venezuela because of a screwy tie-breaking system.

Maddon’s idea is one that could help further cement the idea that the tourney is a part of the professional game – rather than something to be conducted in isolation. Even more important, it would be fun – and that’s what baseball is supposed to be about.

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EXTRA: ‘You’re only as smart as your batting average’ proven right yet again

For the record, it was .207 with 12 home runs and 44 runs batted in – not exactly the kind of statistics that a professional baseball club wants to have from the guy who's expected to be the big bat that helps a team contend for a championship.

But that’s the guy that was Adam LaRoche, who was one of the major team acquisitions of last year whose weak season was a big part of why the Chicago White Sox fell short.

HE’S ALSO THE guy who’s getting into the news across the nation because of his willingness to walk away from the $13 million he’s supposed to be paid for playing this season – all because White Sox management have problems with the fact that LaRoche’s son, Drake, goes everywhere with him – and even has his own locker in the team clubhouse at U.S. Cellular Field.

There are those people willing to defend the White Sox because they honestly believe an employer has a right to do what they want, while others find something noble in the 36-year-old ballplayer wanting to spend time with his just-becoming-a-teenaged son.

Personally, I wonder about someone’s devotion to work if they’re spending that much time with the kid. But that doesn’t mean I’m defending the ball club.

Because I have no doubt that if LaRoche had somehow been able to hit with as much power as well as he had in past seasons with other teams, somehow the White Sox would have figured a way of getting over their hang-ups about the kid being everywhere.

COULD IT BE that there will now be a batting average at which point a ballplayer can have his kid around? Perhaps similar to the “Mendoza line” of Mario Mendoza, the 1970s-era shortstop of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Seattle Mariners.

He was a lifetime .215 hitter, but managed to play regularly because of his quality defense, and is now regarded as the example of how bad a hitter one can be yet still play regularly.

Perhaps yet another example could come from the White Sox themselves. Everybody thought it was so cute back in 2005 and on their way to the World Series when manager Ozzie Guillen’s fully-grown kids hung around the team and were a constant presence.

Yet by the time the White Sox let Guillen leave as manager in 2011, the kids were often cited as part of the reason why Ozzie had become unbearable.

AS FOR THE White Sox, they would benefit financially if LaRoche walks away from the final year of his “big money” contract for 2016 – I’ve already read speculation about how this move makes it possible for them to afford to make a few roster moves if the team turns out to be in contention around mid-season.

Which makes me wonder how much this issue was stirred up just to offend LaRoche, who apparently suffers from ongoing back pains that may be a large part of why he didn’t play ball so well in ’15. Personally, the one White Sox game I made it out to last season was one in which the New York Yankees were walloping the White Sox so badly that LaRoche was called upon to pitch for an inning!

Not exactly a stellar moment in White Sox team history.

Although it also makes me wonder how Adam LaRoche sympathizes with his kid, on account of the fact that he, too, is the son of a major league ballplayer – Dave LaRoche, whose own athletic career of the 1970s and early 1980s included a couple-year stint with the Chicago Cubs.

FOR THE RECORD, Dave LaRoche had a record of 65 wins (9 of them for the Cubs) and 58 losses with a 3.53 earned run average during 14 seasons pitching in the major leagues. Good enough that he's been able to remain in professional baseball, coaching most recently for the New York Mets' minor league affiliate in Brooklyn.

Was that a good-enough record for Adam or his brother Andy (who also played major league baseball) to have been permitted on the premises of a major league locker room?

  -30-

Did 'Tomahawk Chop' overwhelm White Sox, Chicago moments of glory?

(Not in) COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. -- On the day that long-time Chicago White Sox hitter Frank Thomas got inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, one of the sights seen Sunday was that of a lone White Sox jersey-clad fan surrounded by Atlanta Braves fans who persisted in performing their nonsensical Tomahawk Chop.


Then again, maybe it was symbolic of what the White Sox franchise's fan base is like -- a small group of die-hards wondering why all the baseball fans around them get worked up over such nonsense.


BUT SUNDAY WAS the day that Thomas was formally inducted into the Hall of Fame, which is a designation he will continue to have long after he passes on from this particular realm of existence.


All those Atlanta fans (whom I'm sure could care less about how silly they looked or how some will claim their "chop" is racist and offensive) were on hand because of the fact that the manager and two top pitchers from their string of winning ball clubs of the 1990s all got into the Hall of Fame as well.


But those of us focused on the Second City merely viewed that as the prelude to seeing Thomas get his honors, with some even noting the fact that long-time manager Tony LaRussa began his career as a major league skipper on the South Side.


We're the ones who took some pleasure in seeing the tearful (literally, his voice kept choking up, particularly when speaking of his late father) Thomas try to make sure to thank everyone who had an influence on his life. "I'm an emotional guy who wears my heart on my sleeve," he said.


HE SPENT QUITE a bit of time talking of his family. But also worked his way through the nearly 850 ballplayers he was teammates with. Not that he actually named them all. But he rattled through a list of nicknames that included a lot of otherwise long-forgotten White Sox players.


Some of whom I'm sure only the most hard-core of fans remember.


Although he also gave some more detailed credit to long-time hitting coach Walt Hriniak, broadcaster Ken Harrelson (who came up with the "Big Hurt" nickname that may be the "Hawk's" lasting contribution to baseball) and manager Ozzie Guillen.


The latter for, "leading us to my only (championship) ring" in 2005. Of whom fellow teammates Jermaine Dye (the World Series MVP that year) and Aaron Rowand were present in Cooperstown on Sunday.


I'D BE REMISS if I wrote that Thomas was the only Chicago moment.


For Hall of Fame pitcher Greg Maddux acknowledged the fact that half of his major league stint was with the Chicago Cubs, and he gave that 1989 ball club (managed by the late Don Zimmer) that went to the National League playoffs some recognition.


He even downplayed the ineptitude of Cubs management that let Maddux go even though it was apparent he was one of the best baseball pitchers of the era, saying instead on Sunday he left Chicago for Atlanta because he was looking for a nice place to raise a family.


Even LaRussa included the Chicago memories, even though many baseball fans tend to forget the 1983 division title White Sox to focus on the championship ball clubs Tony led in Oakland and with the St. Louis Cardinals.


LaRUSSA DIDN'T. HE mentioned those early-to-mid-1980s White Sox teams that had future Hall of Famers Carlton Fisk and Tom Seaver, along with talented leaders such as Greg Luzinski (he of the multiple rooftop shots, of which we can only dream how many Thomas would have hit if the old Comiskey Park were still standing) and Jerry Koosman.


LaRussa also gave a jolt to many White Sox fans when he recalled fan favorite Harold Baines, who came close to getting 3,000 base hits during his career and has some fans believing he should be a Hall of Famer as well.


"Like Tony Oliva (the Minnesota Twin star of the late 1960s), if (Harold) had kept his knees together (injuries), he'd have had his 3,000 hits," LaRussa said.


Perhaps that train of thought will influence the Veterans Committees the Hall of Fame has that give second chance consideration to ballplayers who fall short of induction like Baines himself has thus far.


  -30-

You know it’s a dead season when a “No. 14” is the “City Series” highlight

This year doesn't come close to matching '06

It was kind of cutesy to learn that the Chicago Cubs felt compelled to pay tribute to Paul Konerko this week – what with him expected to retire from playing professional baseball after the end of this season.

Honored in home of Cubs' No. 14

It’s nothing on the scale of what New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter is getting from every ball club the Yankees play against this season.

BUT SEEING THE Cubs put aside the natural, century-old rivalry between Sout’ Side and North, Sox and Cubs, to acknowledge that Konerko has been a significant figure in the history of Chicago baseball was nice.

I even got a kick out of the “gift” the Cubs gave Tuesday to Konerko – one of the number cards used in their allegedly-quaint hand-operated scoreboard. Specifically, a number “14” – to match up with the uniform number Konerko wore during his 16 years with the White Sox.

It’s not like this year’s version of the Cubs is ever likely to score 14 runs in any given inning; although I suppose it is possible that Cubs pitching will have several instances in which they will give up that many runs per inning.

Konerko retirement cycle not on same scale

I guess the Cubs will just have to ensure that high-scoring rallies by the opposition go to at least 15 runs at a time.

THAT MOMENT ALSO appears to be the highlight of the “Crosstown Classic” between our city’s two ball clubs; even though I still think that label sounds lame and I prefer to think of it as the “City Series” – which technically hasn’t been played since the Second World War.

Much has been written already about the level of apathy expressed by fans toward this year’s four-game version of the series.

A mediocre White Sox team, combined with a truly dreadful Cubs ball club, doesn’t exactly make for a must-see series – particularly since the current ways in which Major League Baseball operates has turned the series into just another set of games (all won by the White Sox, thus far) over the course of the 162-game season both ball clubs will play.

Dull series another reason to bring back Ozzie?

We’re still early enough in the season that the standings don’t mean much. Memorial Day is the date on which we can start to see how well a team is truly playing – there just haven’t been enough games thus far.

SO I WASN’T at any of the games at Wrigley Field (although it has been a decade since I have set foot in that ball park – which I remember because the Cubs lost to the Montreal Expos; who ceased to exist after ’04).

Nor did I feel the need to show up at U.S. Cellular Field Wednesday (although that was quite a catch by shortstop Alexi Ramirez to create that 9th inning double play). Nor will I likely be there Thursday night for the final game between the two until 2015 (because I really don’t see the scenario in which both Chicago ball clubs manage to make it to the playoffs, win their respective league pennants, and wind up playing in the World Series).

I care enough about what happened that I did take the time to look up the box scores. But I have been doing that all season, and would have done so regardless of whom each team was playing.

This series just isn’t intriguing enough now – this is one of the off-years that are bound to come. The kind that test how committed one is to following a ball club.

Remember '98

WE DON’T HAVE Ozzie Guillen going around talking about how rat-infested Wrigley Field was (one of the drawbacks, that and those troughs, of being 100 years old). Nor do we have A.J. Pierzynski trying to rile up the crowd after getting slugged by Michael Barrett following a home plate collision.

We don’t even have shortstop Mike Caruso achieving the highlight of his miniscule major league career during a city series.

We just get to “Wait ‘til Next Year” in terms of a White Sox/Cubs series that is on-field interesting – a concept that we are way too familiar with in this city.

  -30-

EXTRA: Serie del Caribe to get Chicago Sout' Side baseball viewpoint

The ballplayers taking part in the Caribbean Series beginning Saturday were from places scattered all over Latin America, while the umpires came from Mexico and Cuba.

The advertisements around the ballpark were for Polar-brand beer (get it?), while the fans danced to merengue music (rather than the heavy metal or rap music riffs we hear in U.S. ballparks).

AND THE WEATHER or Margarita Island in Venezuela, where this year’s Caribbean Series baseball tourney is being played, was so un-Chicago – sunny skies and 88-degree temperatures on Saturday afternoon.

Which is why I was amused to learn of the broadcast crews that way too many baseball fans will ignore because they’ve been brainwashed into thinking that the Super Bowl somehow matters – or that they’re supposed to care about overpriced commercial spots that will air during the game.

It was as Chicago as one could get.

I found it amusing to tune in to the pre-game show and see that the usual ESPN Deportes broadcasters were joined by one-time White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen – who didn’t give us any verbal whoppers, but tried to make himself appear to be quite the baseball expert.

THEN AGAIN, THE Caribbean Series runs through next Saturday. There will be plenty of opportunities for Ozzie to say something that will manage to tick off somebody, while amusing, entertaining or informing the rest of us.

Although if by chance you didn’t watch the ballgame on television (I don’t know your access to the ESPN Deportes channel – station number 609 on my television set), keep in mind that the ESPN Spanish-language radio broadcasts are using one-time baseball pitcher Orlando "El Duque” Hernandez to give player insight to the broadcasts.

Hernandez might well be remembered most as a New York Yankees pitcher. But let’s not forget his stint with the White Sox team that won the 2005 World Series. His relief pitching stint in the final playoff game that year against the Boston Red Sox (where he pitched three perfect innings, prevented the White Sox from blowing a one-run lead AND made Red Sox slugger Manny Ramirez in particular look like a total chump) is one of those memorable moments.

And I’m sure that to the mindset of the Red Sox fan, Hernandez’s White Sox road uniform looked remarkably similar to when he wore Yankees road grays and did his part to repeatedly shut them down.


An improvement over Bud?

GUILLEN AND HERNANDEZ – it’s a shame they won’t be a part of the same broadcast at some point. Perhaps we’d get a reminiscence or two of that special season from nine years ago when a Chicago ball club actually wound up being the best.

 

Before they go back to telling us about this year’s versions of the Licey Tigers (the Dominican Republic’s champions) or the Hermosillo Orange Growers (from Mexico), or the fact that Cuba is once again being included in a tourney that purports to give us the championship of all Latin America.

All in all, it has me hoping that there’s some truth to the speculation that Caribbean Series officials are considering a change in the rotation of host nations so that it will come to the United States (most likely at the Miami Marlins’ ballpark near the "Little Havana" neighborhood that has cropped up along Eighth Street) in future years.

Be honest. It will be a more interesting spectacle than anything likely to happen Sunday when football (not futbol) fans freeze their behinds off in the wintry weather of the Jersey-based suburbs of New York City.

  -30-

EDITOR'S NOTE: One little tidbit when watching a Spanish-language baseball broadcast. When you hear the announcer say that the batter was "punched out," it means he was struck out by the pitcher. Not that any kind of brawl was about to take place.
 

Girardi a Cubbie dream; I’d sooner believe Ozzie will be at Wrigley Field

It isn’t a surprise that the Chicago Cubs fired their field manager on Monday. It had been speculated upon that Dale Sveum would not be back with the Cubs in 2014.

Joe Girardi, where he began

And in a sense, a manager whose teams lose 101 and 96 games during the two seasons he was in charge is vulnerable to losing his job. Although these were the Cubs teams that management higher up openly admitted weren’t going to be in contention for anything other than last place in their division of the National League.

SUPPOSEDLY, THE CUBS are putting all their efforts into bolstering a minor league system so that sometime around 2015, it will start producing quality ballplayers for the major league roster.

And perhaps by 2016 or 2017, it could mean winning ball clubs that could actually bring an end to the assorted championship droughts (no National League title since 1945, no World Series championship since 1908) by teams wearing Cubbie-blue.

It’s no secret that I’m skeptical of that time line. I’m not convinced that the influx of talent will be forthcoming. I’m also aware of the fact that draft picks don’t always pay off (which is why I think those White Sox fans who were rooting for a historically awful season in 2013 so as to get a higher round draft pick were being stupid!).

But what really amazes me is the fact that Sveum is being blamed for the awful play of ball clubs that his bosses always admitted were going to be terrible. Particularly since it is stirring up the speculation that Joe Girardi is destined to be the new field manager of the Chicago Cubs.

Girardi as much Yankee lore ...

THAT’S JUST RIDICULOUS. It’s not going to happen. If THAT’S the reason for letting Sveum go, Cubs fans are going to be in for quite a disappointment when Girardi remains in New York – where he has been field manager for the New York Yankees for the past six years.

I realize that Cubs fans see a Peoria native who played Big Ten college baseball for Northwestern, then went on to play 15 seasons in the major leagues – including two stints totaling seven years with the Cubs.

... as Mariano Rivera or Derek Jeter

They want to believe he’s the ultimate Cub who’s just dying for the chance to come back to Wrigley Field. I don’t believe it. Not just because Girardi himself told reporter-types Sunday that his Chicago connections aren't as strong as they used to be AND his family has grown to like life in the New York area.

Mainly because I’ve always thought of him primarily as a Yankee (he played four seasons, including a stint as the starting catcher for the 1996 World Series-winning team and also as a significant player paired up with Yankees star Jorge Posada on World Series-winning teams of 1998 and 1999).

Skowron a Boilermaker/Yankee

DURING HIS MANAGERIAL stint as a Yankee (dating back to 2008), he led a World Series-winning team (2009) and also other teams that were contenders – and likely would be in the American League playoff picture this year if not for all the injuries they experienced.

No matter what one thinks of the Yankees, that’s a winning situation he’s in. And most professional baseball people don’t get hung up on any one city – they want to win!



The Red from Argo

I don’t see him giving up his current status until the time comes when the Yankees are ready to let him go. Which likely would make him a manager past his peak – which is what one could argue was a description that fit Gene Michael and Lou Piniella (two Cubs managers who came to Chicago with strong Yankees pedigrees).

They wound up winning nothing during their time in Chicago. I don’t see Girardi wanting to suffer the same fate.

IN A SENSE, I see Joe Girardi as being a modern-day equivalent of ballplayers like Bill Skowron and Ted Kluszewski. The latter was from suburban Summit, while Skowron was from the Northwest Side. Both also attended Big Ten colleges (Purdue for Skowron, Indiana for Kluszewski) before getting into professional baseball.

And both included a stint in Chicago (with the White Sox) amongst their major league careers.

Could Ozzie learn to love Wrigley?

But Skowron was very much a Yankees star, while anyone remembering Kluszewski’s uniform sleeves cut off to accommodate his bulging shoulder muscles remembers the Cincinnati Reds uniform he was wearing at the time.

I see Girardi staying in New York, while someone else winds up being the head guy at Wrigley Field. Ozzie Guillen, anyone??!?

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EXTRA: Does Ditka number retirement mean Ozzie must wait a few decades?

I find it intriguing that the Chicago Bears finally felt compelled to retire jersey number 89 – which was worn by Mike Ditka back in the days some five decades ago when he was a tight end for the Monsters of the Midway.

It has been a looong time since he actually wore the jersey, and it has been more than 20 years since his days as a Super Bowl-winning coach – which is the reason most Bears fans remember him anyway.

DITKA, OF COURSE, left the team’s actual employ having suffered the fate of just about every professional athletic coach or manager – He was fired!!!

Meaning there was a time in which no one would have wanted to think about honoring him. But the passage of time has allowed for his athletic accomplishments (coaching the only Super Bowl-winning Bears team, and playing for the last NFL champion Bears ball club before that) to stand above the personality conflicts.

Many of us probably don’t remember what provoked Ditka’s dismissal, and really don’t care anymore.

He’ll get his honor, meaning that he’s one of the most interesting personas in the history of the Chicago Bears – for what that’s worth.

WHICH MAKES ME think to the Chicago White Sox, who this very weekend are playing the Miami Marlins. I think it’s a shame that we don’t have their former manager, Ozzie Guillen, at work at U.S. Cellular Field this weekend.

Because the very act of Ditka’s tribute could have stirred up talk of how long it will be until the White Sox put jersey number 13 on their retired list – and put Ozzie’s grinning visage on their outfield wall?

Ozzie, of course, came out on the short end of a personality dispute with then-General Manager Kenny Williams, causing his own dismissal even though he is a former All Star shortstop for the White Sox AND manager of the only White Sox team to win a World Series in the past eight decades.

One can easily argue his persona is as significant to the White Sox organization as Ditka is to the Bears.

HECK, ONE COULD argue that Ozzie personifies the White Sox – that aggressive attitude that can easily spill over to obnoxiousness to the point where many people wish they could just ignore him.

But they can’t. Which really does describe the White Sox franchise that so many Chicago Cubs fans like to pretend doesn't exist at all in so many ways.

But even though Williams is also gone from his position, we probably still need the passage of more time before the moods have settled to the point where the idea of honoring Ozzie seems befitting.

If it takes as long as the Bears took to honor Ditka, we may well be talking about the year 2033.

JUST ENVISION IT.

An aging Ozzie (he’ll be 69 that year) getting his youthful mug on the outfield wall at the same time the White Sox are likely hosting the All Star Game – which will be celebrating its 100^th anniversary of the first all-star game ever, held at Comiskey Park.

Let’s just hope that spouse Ibis is on hand to give him a silencing nudge when his “speech” that day becomes so long-winded that they can’t get in the All Star game itself any other way.

 

And if White Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf is to be believed, even he'll be on hand to see the great moment.

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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).

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