Cubbies create nothing but a yawn from me, but White Sox offer no guarantees

I am a life-long Chicagoan interested in baseball who must confess that the presence of the Chicago Cubs in the 2017 baseball playoffs trying to get themselves a second-consecutive World Series berth leaves me emotionally flat.

Chicago baseball fans debate ...

I honestly could care less what the Cubs do this year. And not just because my interest in the local baseball scene focuses on the chances that the Chicago White Sox’ rebuild, with an intense “Cubano revolution,” will result in success.

BECAUSE OF THE White Sox interest, I’m an American League fan – one whom I must admit as a kid enjoyed the New York Yankees ballclubs of the mid-1970s and still remembers that two of their preeminent ballplayers were former White Sox Bucky Dent and Rich Gossage.

... which World Series relevant

I went into this year’s baseball playoffs focusing attention on the Cleveland/New York matchup, figuring that I’d wind up rooting for whichever team prevailed in that early round to go all the way to win the American League championship – then the World Series.

As for the National League? I check the box scores , but really don’t care which team wins. I only want them to ultimately lose to the American League champions.

If there is Yankee success in '17,...

I only saw the last two innings of that final Chicago/Washington playoff game – and will always believe the Cubs were downright lucky to get that 8^th inning pickoff play ruled in their favor because it put to rest the rally that WOULD HAVE resulted in a Washington victory (and the Cubbie faithful crying in their beers).

BUT REALLY, I’M not rooting against the Cubs at this stage of the playoffs Eventually I’ll root for either New York or Houston to beat up on either Los Angeles or the baby blue Bruins of the North Side – whichever prevails this week.

... it could be due to a trio ...

The part of me that roots for the White Sox during the regular season almost wouldn’t mind a Houston/Chicago matchup. It would be downright funny if the Astros – who only once in their history ever made it to the World Series; losing to the White Sox of 2005 before transferring leagues in 2013 – beat up on the Cubs!

White Sox fans mostly are apathetic about the playoffs (even though Cubbie faithful is deluded enough to think the whole world is obligated to root for their ball club), but would get a kick out of history recording the Houston Astros losing to their team, while beating the Cubs.

... of ballplayers with Chicago ties

Not all of Chicago is getting all worked up over Cubbie-mania. There are those of us with real lives, and those of us who are still living off the memories of that aforementioned ’05 World Series victory that was the first for a Chicago ball club in this century

JUST AS REGARDLESS of what happens with the Cubs against the Dodgers this week, Cubs fans will still have their memories of 2016 how they nearly blew a Game 7 lead to the Cleveland Indians, but managed to win in extra innings.

If Jose Lobaton hadn't been picked off ...

It’s the inherent character of Chicago baseball that fans have their team to root for – and the other might as well not exist.

The only way we’d ever get Chicago united over a post-season round of baseball playoffs is if we were to ever get the proper circumstances for an all-Chicago World Series.

Which is the goal of the White Sox re-build, to put their ball club in contention for a World Series berth at the same time that the Cubs may still have ballclubs in contention. That would be a circumstance that would create memories Chicagoans would talk about for the rest of their lives. Which when you consider how young some baseball fans are these days could easily stretch to the final days of the 21^st Century.

... it's likely the 'L' flag would be flying in the minds of Cubs fans

OF COURSE, THERE’S there’s always the problem that there are no guarantees in baseball – just like there’s no crying (remember the film "A League of their Own?"). Nobody knows just how the baseball season will play out until the ballgames are actually played.

It was just a couple of years ago the Pittsburgh Pirates had contending teams that were supposedly going to end decades of losing. Yet they haven’t won a thing – and their window of opportunity may now be over. Similar to those Seattle Mariners teams of the late 1990s to early 2000s – including the 2001 team that still has a record for the most wins in a season, but no league championship or World Series title to show for it. There also are many American League teams throughout the years that represented Boston, Chicago or Cleveland -- to name just a few examples of teams that came so close to winning it all.

A revival in Chicago?

Or maybe the story of coming years will be the resurgence of the Yankees (who haven’t won a World Series since 2009). What if the Yankees were to beat the Cubs in this year’s World Series, and have continued success that prevented the White Sox from winning a World Series birth in the near future?

Could the “Damned Yankees” be the uniting factor for both sides of Chicago baseball in years to come!

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Chgo v. N.Y., Round 1; 2017 World Series preview, or baseball fluke?

The New York Yankees are making their annual trip to Chicago to play baseball, but it’s not the usual one.

For due to the quirks of interleague play, the Yankees will be headed to the North Side this weekend – taking on the Chicago Cubs in a three-game series beginning Friday.

GOING INTO FRIDAY’S game, both ballclubs are in first place in their respective divisions, which I’m sure will have some people getting all worked up into thinking this weekend is a potential preview of the World Series – Yankees vs. Cubs!!! – and a rematch of 1932 and 1938.

 

Not that any serious baseball fan of the Cubs wants to relive either of those seasons – the Yankees won both years in four-game sweeps. ’32 will forevermore be famed for that home run Babe Ruth hit that he may-or-may-not have called in advance, while the ’38 Yanks of Joe DiMaggio swatted aside the baby blue bears as though they were insignificant.

In short, there’s not a whole lot of history between the two ballclubs – the Chicago/New York baseball battles throughout the years have involved the White Sox; and as it turns out will occur June 26-29 at Guaranteed Rate Field on the South Side.

Historically, the White Sox were the ones that had something of a rivalry with New York and the Yankees (although the coming of modern-era divisions and an emphasis on local rivalries has diminished that), while the Cubs were the ones who engaged in their rivalry with the St. Louis Cardinals for Midwestern supremacy.

A RIVALRY THAT fits in perfectly with the modern-day divisional structure.

Not that any such rivalry would have been possible for the White Sox, since back in the days when St. Louis was a two-team baseball town, even at their low points the Sox could count on being better than the St. Louis Browns of old.

But this week will give us the one-time City Number One versus City Number Two, although there are enough players who’ve done double duty for both ball clubs.

Take the Yankees squad that will take the field at Wrigley. Starting shortstop Starlin Castro was once supposed to be a Cubs star of the future, while Cubs fans still remember the glories of relief pitcher Aroldis Chapman who was acquired in a mid-season 2016 trade from the Yankees, then skedaddled back to New York as a free agent once the season ended.

THEN, THERE’S ALSO Yankees manager Joe Girardi, the pride of Northwestern University who also was once a Cubs catcher and whom some Cubs fans are delusional enough to think fantasizes about the day when he’ll be able to leave New York to once again don a Cubs uniform.

Actually, it makes me wonder if the Yankees are now subject to the Ex-Cub Factor – three or more former Chicago Cubs on the roster is the Kiss of Death to any World Series-bound ballclub.

It even took down the Yankees in 1981 – which had pitcher Rick Reuschel, catcher Barry Foote and outfielders Oscar Gamble and Bobby Murcer. Even though Murcer played the bulk of his ballplaying career as a Yankee, it seems his Cubby stint tainted him in the eyes of the baseball “gods” and that wound up being the year a Dodgers team was finally able to defeat New York.

Of course, there also have been other Yankees who did stints in Cubby blue, including Hall of Fame-quality relief pitcher Rich Gossage, toupee-clad infielder Joe Pepitone (who looked stylish while he played) and even a guy who was a personal favorite ballplayer when I was a kid.

THE LOU PINIELLA who smashed water coolers to ease his temper (and making a game-saving defensive play in that 1978 tie-breaker with the Boston Red Sox) just always seemed out-of-place during that stint he was the Cubs manager.

I’m sure the hard-core fan of Cubdom can rattle off endless lists of people who did double duty for both ballclubs.

All I know is I have my ticket for Friday’s game; the first time since 2004 that I’ve set foot in THAT ballpark. I’ll be watching to see how Cubdom reacts when it is in the presence of a team that has enough on-field achievements to justify a haughty attitude, while wondering myself what the chances are this could be a World Series preview.

And I most likely will be giving the outside world – the part that actually thinks Donald J. Trump makes a credible government official – little thought.

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24 years since “Game suspended due to darkness” concept became history

It has been 24 years since the day that the Chicago Cubs played their first official ballgame under the lights at Wrigley Field.



Wrigley, w/out the light towers



The concept of a stadium used by a Major League Baseball club without light towers became history. Wrigley Field had to come into the 20^th Century more than four decades after every other ball club gave in and installed lighting systems for night games.

I REMEMBER THE occasion because I was working the overnight shift back then at the now-defunct City News Bureau of Chicago. I showed up for work just as Aug. 8 was becoming Aug. 9 and couldn’t help but see the humor in the fact that the Cubs’ big attempt to put on pomp and circumstance to match up to the “history” being made totally fizzled out.

For the game that was supposed to be played on Aug. 8, 1988 (as in 8/8/88, get it?) got rained out after a couple of innings. It didn’t even come close to the point of being an official ballgame.

So all the people who went out of their way to buy tickets (most likely at inflated prices) for the Monday night game so they could claim to have been on hand when the lights went on at Wrigley wound up getting taken. They got drenched.

They got nothing!

CITY NEWS, ALONG with many other news organizations, did their best to document the sports history moment that wasn’t. Although I suspect at least a few sportswriter-types who were in need of a bath benefitted from getting showed upon by the heavens.

And it was the people with the 36,399 tickets sold for the Tuesday night game played 24 years ago today who got to see the first official Cubs home game played at night – a 6-4 victory against the New York Mets.

I always thought that alone provided a sense of poetic justice!

Although those people missed out by one game on what some would consider real sports history – the fact that relief pitcher Rich Gossage (now a Hall of Fame member) got the 300^th save of his career just a couple of games before in a 7-4 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.

THE PEOPLE WHO saw the first official night game at Wrigley Field had to settle for viewing Gossage get Save Number 301.

This moment is one I always think about whenever I hear sports marketing types go on and on about the great significance of any particular event. This particular event got washed away by Mother Nature (who was taking a break from those Chiffon margarine commercials she used to do many decades ago).

Many other events fizzle out into such ordinariness that, looking back, we wonder how anyone could ever have been delusional enough to think there was anything historic about it.

If anything, true sports history moments are the ones that happen on a Wednesday fternoon when only about 10,000 people are sitting in the stands. They are the truly unexpected events that everybody later wishes they could say they attended – and probably will try lying to say they were there anyway.

SO IF IN the future, you encounter someone who claims “I was there” the day that Wrigley Field was lit up after dark, ask them how soaked they got! Then you can figure out which night they were truly on hand.

The Los Angeles version



Then, you get the people of a certain age who probably think they’re “life-long Cubs fans” who are too young to remember a time when Wrigley had no lights.

They probably also don’t realize there was once a Los Angeles ballpark that bore the same name. Some people just have no sense of history. What a shame!

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A second Hall of Famer for 80-80 Sox?

When Ron Santo’s surviving spouse gives the speech Sunday to accept his membership in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., he will become the second member of the 1974 Chicago White Sox to gain such immortality.

The first, of course, came a few years ago when relief pitcher Rich Gossage gained admission to the Hall of Fame. Gossage was in his third year in the major leagues that year, although showing signs already of how overpowering he could be.

WHICH WAS THE exact opposite of the Santo career in baseball – which spent so many years with the Chicago Cubs, then gained one last season playing in Comiskey Park.

Where the White Sox faithful greeted the ol’ heel-clicker with banners reading, “Welcome to the Major Leagues, Ron Santo!”

It was a final year of a career that may or may not have ended prematurely due to what we now know was Santo dealing with the physical effects of diabetes.

It should not be a shock that he was basically a utility infielder for the White Sox – backing up Mexico Baseball Hall of Fame member Jorge Orta and Bill Melton. A .221 batting average, only 5 home runs and 41 runs batted in, and 72 strikeouts in 117 games played.

HIS WHITE SOX stint has nothing to do with him being in the Hall of Fame. Which is a large part of why I personally have problems getting all excited about his candidacy, and will be glad to see the Santo hoopla come to an end.

For what I remember firsthand was that final season, which came at about the time I started following professional baseball on a regular basis. Much of the Cubs time was just before my time, and from what I read it seems that the Boyer brothers (Ken of the St. Louis Cardinals and Clete of the New York Yankees) were regarded as the top third basemen of that era.

I don’t see either of them getting admitted to the Hall of Fame anytime soon.

But Ron’s in. I’m sure it’s the highlight of this year for Chicago Cubs fans, and personally I’m more curious to see if the White Sox can snatch back first place on Sunday with a  win against the Detroit Tigers.

AND PERHAPS I’LL reminisce a bit more about that ’74 ballclub, which was one of the first I remember following. 

For as it turns out, that ballclub had another player whom the new-school stat geeks like to tout as a potential Hall of Fame pitcher. None other than Jim Kaat, who in that season had a 21-win, 13-loss record with a 2.92 earned run average and 142 strikeouts in 277 1/3 innings pitched.

Whodathunk that the 80-win, 80-loss ball club (compared to 66-96 for the Cubs that season) would have the potential for three Hall of Famers – and none of them would be named Dick Allen?

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Sanchez/Tebow not really new, not even for New York City sports fans

I’m not much of a football fan, so it kind of amazes me that people are getting so worked up and seeing “Controversy!!!” in the making with the trade of quarterback Tim Tebow to the New York Jets.

After all, the Jets already had a quarterback in Mark Sanchez, and not exactly one who is going to be willing to share the limelight – or sit on the bench.

YET WITH THE persona that Tebow has developed in recent seasons, there’s no way he is meant to be the benchwarmer for the upcoming football season. At the very least, I could see the fans who like Tebow’s excessively public displays of religious fervor getting all offended.

Bring down the wrath of God on the team that hasn’t won a Super Bowl since the days of Joe Namath? Why risk it!

Yet tamper with the personality that brings attention to the Jets with his ability to date so many women whose own public personas rely on their ability to look fine in skimpy bathing suits.

Are we destined to see a brawl out of New York at some time this autumn? Will their jealousy overcome them? Or is it inevitable that one of them – most likely Sanchez – will fade away from the celebrity scene and ultimately wind up desperately hanging on to professional athletics for a few seasons?

BECAUSE I HAVE to admit that when I hear about this potential for conflict, I can’t help but think back to baseball a trio of decades ago. Specifically, to the off-season between 1977 and 1978.

Because that was the time when the New York Yankees, coming off their first World Series victory in 15 years, had a team that had the “best” pitcher in the American League in the form of Sparky Lyle – who actually won the Cy Young Award for ’77.

So how did the Yankees deal with this situation? They gave a “big money” contract to pitcher Rich Gossage, who threw hard fastballs compared to Lyle’s slider.

There was some talk early on that the two pitchers would be used in a platoon – Lyle pitching to left-handed hitters in relief while Gossage would throw to right-handed batters.

IS SOMEBODY CONCOCTING a similar scheme in New York these days to try to pretend that it is possible for both Sanchez and Tebow to be the “regular” quarterback for the Jets?

If they are, my guess is that it will last about as long as the Yankees’ cheap rhetoric – just a month or so.

Because eventually, the Gossage fastball was viewed as so overpowering at game’s end that it became “the arm” that the Yankees relied upon in order to preserve victories.

In the famed words of Yankees third baseman Graig Nettles, Lyle went from, “Cy Young to Sayonara.” He was traded away at the end of the season, and he bounced around baseball for another four seasons – eventually winding up his career as a major league pitcher in a season-ending stint with the Chicago White Sox in 1982.

HE WAS A far cry from the “best pitcher of the American League” that he was with the Yankees that year, and the relief pitcher who some fans thought might have a shot at election to baseball’s Hall of Fame. While Gossage – whose career started out with the White Sox and even included a one-season stint with the Chicago Cubs – went on to Hall of Fame pitcher status.

Are we going to see something similar happen in New York this year? Perhaps Sanchez can take the same route that Lyle went – keeping a day-by-day diary of his season and turning it into “The Bronx Zoo,” which is still an entertaining sports book a third-of-a-century after it was written.

Although I doubt the Jets are as equally entertaining a sports team as that Yankees team whose season was ultimately a success because of another one-time White Sox farm hand whom Boston Red Sox fans still hold a grudge against.

Go Bucky Dent!!!

WHILE THE REST of us will be looking toward New York to see how entertaining the athletic jealousy will be.

And perhaps we should be pondering the day when a washed-up Sanchez (or will it be a washed-up Tebow?) will be touted as the great hope (and savior) of our very own Chicago Bears.

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A DAY IN THE LIFE (of Chicago): Kirk wants his Blackberry! Why?

I got my big chuckle for this week from the reports coming from Northwestern Memorial Hospital – the ones that were meant to reassure us that Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., has a good chance at recovering from the stroke it appears he suffered this past weekend.

KIRK: Gimme my Blackberry?!?

For it seems that one of the first things that Kirk did after undergoing surgery meant to reduce the damage that could be caused by the stroke was to ask for his Blackberry.

IT SEEMS THAT the senator from the North Shore suburbs was more than eager to get back to work – even though it will be several months (if ever) before Kirk can claim to be fully recovered.

But the idea of asking for a Blackberry?

Personally, I have been carrying a Blackberry for nearly a year – and there are times I wish I could get away with flinging the thing into the Chicago River (or maybe Lake Calumet).

If I were in recovery from a serious medical condition, I’d want to use the time to get away from constant communication with certain people.

BUT THAT’S ME. As for Kirk, the officials at Northwestern Memorial seem determined to give us optimism. On Wednesday, they were saying they were “hopeful” about the senator’s long-term prospects.

For the talk we have been hearing is that the stroke he suffered affected the side of the brain that impacts his body movement – NOT the side that impacts his mental state.

Which means that his continuance in the U.S. Senate will depend on whether he can continue to move about. It means the image he tries to project of himself as a vigorous warrior is a thing of the past. Then again, he certainly couldn’t be any worse off than some of the near-centennarians (Strom Thurmond, for example) who have served in the Senate.

What else is notable these days on the slushy shores of the southwestern corner of Lake Michigan?

WILL HOOSIER GOPers TURN SUPER BOWL SUNDAY INTO LABOR CELEBRATION?: The Indiana House of Representatives gave its approval to a measure turning the Hoosier State into the 23^rd state to have “right-to-work” laws on its books.

With the state Senate expected to follow suit on this measure in the near future, there is some speculation that final approval of this measure by Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (who got some national attention by giving the GOP rebuttal statement to the State of the Union address this week) could literally be timed to coincide with the Super Bowl – which this year is being played in Indianapolis.

It would figure that some ideologues would want to turn an occasion for sports celebration into an excuse to make their anti-organized labor statement even louder than it will be regardless.

Personally, I’d like to think most people will be disgusted by any attempt to turn this over-bloated sports event into a political statement. Then again, I also think many people are disgusted that the Super Bowl this year isn’t being played at some warm-weather locale.

WHITE SOX TO MAKE SUNDAYS PARTICULARLY GARISH: I never cared much for those bright-red pinstriped uniforms the Chicago White Sox wore back in the early 1970s. Yet it seems the ballclub in 2012 will resurrect them.

The White Sox said on Wednesday they plan to wear uniforms modeled after those get-ups for all 13 of their Sunday home games. Since they won’t be using road uniforms, we won’t get to see the light blue-with-red trim jerseys with a zipper up the front that the ballclub used to wear in other cities.

I couldn’t help but notice the Chicago Tribune’s write-up about this act made references to Dick Allen – the slugger who had his best season ever (American League Most Valuable Player for 1972) while wearing this jersey.

Yet I can’t help but think of two other ballplayers from that era who wore those uniforms – Bucky Dent and Rich Gossage. Both were products of the White Sox system and it was apparent that both were exceptional ballplayers while in Chicago. Yet both had their glory days later in the decade playing for the New York Yankees. To me, that inability to keep talent is what is glorified by this get-up.

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