It took baseball a while to recognize Aparicio to Fox; will it take just as long to acknowledge Trammell to Whitaker?

Baseball fans of the Detroit Tigers are miffed these days. The Baseball Hall of Fame’s veterans committee acknowledged the list of ballplayers being considered for baseball’s version of immortality, and they see snub!

It took the baseball Hall of Fame some time to acknowledge their greatness

Back in the 1980s into the early 1990s, the strength of the team (including the year they won the World Series in 1984) was their middle infield combo of shortstop Alan Trammell to second baseman Lou Whitaker.

ONLY A COMPLETE fool (and yes, there are baseball fans who are incredibly foolish) doesn’t acknowledge they were stars of that era – and one of the best middle-infield combos to ever exist.

Yet the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., to date, hasn’t thought much of either. The veterans committee this year said it will reconsider the chances of Trammell.

But forget about Whitaker. He’s still out!

There were fans who have long been outraged about what has become of Whitaker – who only got one crack at the Hall of Fame ballot back in 2001, and only got 2.9 percent of the vote. Far less than the 75 percent vote required for enshrinement, and also less than the 5 percent minimum required to be considered again in future years by sportswriters.

Is Lou getting the 'Nellie Fox' treatment?

TIGERS FANS HAVE thought this was a moment of terminal stupidity that would someday be fixed by a veterans’ committee. Except that it’s not so.

There were the people building their hopes on the idea that Whitaker would get consideration, and saw a certain sense of perfection if it were to happen that Whitaker and Trammell (one of the longest-running middle-infield combos ever from 1977 to 1993) would get inducted together.

That could happen in the future, if Trammell gets passed over this year and the two get reconsidered again in the future. Regardless of how long in the future it takes for that to occur.

Could Mickey Klutts share card w/ 2 HoFers? 

I’m wondering if Trammell to Whitaker is destined to become a 21^st Century equivalent of the Chicago White Sox’ great middle infield combo of the 1950s. You know shortstop Luis Aparicio to second baseman Nellie Fox -- the stars at the top of the 1959 American League championship ball club?

NOWADAYS, Aparicio to Fox is a Hall of Fame duo. It seems ridiculous that the two weren’t a shoo-in for induction, and that they didn’t get in as a pair.

But they didn’t.

Aparicio became the first Venezuelan-born ballplayer elected to the Hall of Fame when he was inducted in 1984, which was about a decade after he retired as a ballplayer and after about five years on the ballot.

Is Nellie any less a baseball immortal because of wait?

Yet he was the downright easy choice compared to Fox. Who one year after Aparicio’s induction came up for his final crack at induction on the sportswriters’ ballot – that was the one where he got 74.6 percent support, which rounds off to 75 percent. But Hall of Fame officials claimed he needed a pure 75 percent vote – and was two votes short as a result.

FOX EVENTUALLY FELL to the veterans’ committee to review, and they wound up inducting him in 1997. It took awhile (and Fox was long deceased, having died from skin cancer in 1975, a complication to those tobacco chaws he was oft noted for), but it eventually happened.

Is that what’s likely to occur for the baseball brethren in Detroit?

Sox duo immortalized in bronze at 35th St. Photograph by Gregory Tejeda

Could Whitaker, now 60, wind up having to wait many, many years before he finally gets his image in bronze, hanging from a hall in upstate New York? Could it wind up being his grand-children who wind up speaking on his behalf to his greatness?

And when it winds up happening someday, will it not seem like such a big deal? Because in the end, all of those bronze images freeze over – and these are the kind of details that get lost to future generations. As both Fox and Whitaker will wind up being remembered among the best second basemen ever.

  -30-

Lone Chgo chance at Hall of Fame inductee?

EDITOR’S NOTE: The only Chicago-connections ballplayer being considered by the veterans committee is Tommy John, who pitched for more than two decades – including in the late 1960s for the White Sox. No former Cubs are under consideration, although I suppose Cubs fans could remember that home run Steve Garvey hit in the National League playoffs that helped cost the Cubs the league championship in 1984 – the year that Whitaker/Trammell led their Tigers to the ultimate World Series title.

EXTRA: “Historically bonkers?” Playoffs nothin’ compared to ‘67 AL

The American League pennant race this season is getting some people worked up because, besides Boston, Cleveland and Houston leading their respective divisions, the New York Yankees are the best second-place team and eight other teams are within 3 ½ games of a wild card spot.

That makes for 12 of the league’s 15 ball clubs (but NOT the Chicago White Sox) having a shot at a playoff spot. “Historically bonkers” is how The Sporting News (the one-time Bible of Baseball) described the current conditions.

YET I CAN’T help but think that all it means is there are many teams that ought not to think of themselves as pennant contenders are being deluded into thinking they have a chance to achieve something of significance this season.

I’ve been thinking about this because of the fact that it has been 50 years since the American League really DID have a bonkers-type season. 1967, which might be the Summer of Love to some people, was also the year that the American League nearly finished in a four-way tie for first place.

The Boston Red Sox have been having ceremonies this week to mark the fact that they ultimately won the league championship.

Just this Wednesday, many old ballplayers turned out at Fenway Park – including our very own Ken Harrelson – the Hawk took time out from his duties as Chicago White Sox broadcaster to remember that year when he joined the Red Sox in mid-season and became a key part of why the team was able to rise from a Ninth Place finish the year before to a league championship in ’67.

HARRELSON MAY HAVE fond memories of that year. We all know he’s shared many a Red Sox-inspired tale during his broadcasts throughout the decades.

But we in Chicago have less-pleasant memories of that summer when I turned 2 years old – the White Sox wound up being the team that finished in fourth place out of the four teams.

Albeit only 3 games behind the Red Sox (with the Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins finishing in a tie for second place 1 game behind Boston).

That was the season where the four teams went into the final weekend with a very-real chance of a four-way tie for first place. Only the White Sox had to pick then to go on a losing streak – including getting beaten in both games of a final-day-of-the-season double-header, losing to the Kansas City Athletics.

WHO IRONICALLY ENOUGH were the worst team in the American League that year. Tenth place, and in fact they moved from Kansas City after the season to their current locale in Oakland, Calif.

The Kansas City Athletics got to end their existence with a bang – being the team that knocked the White Sox out of contention.

Although for what it’s worth, one White Sox ballplayer that year was outfielder Tommie Agee. He being the same guy who two years later got his chance at World Series heroics and made an outfield catch that New York Mets fans still remember to this day.

So for as much as some people like to bash about Harrelson for being too much of a “homer” who favors the White Sox, keep in mind that his glory days may well be those back in Boston.

THE FAILURE OF ’67 may also sting because that year was the end of a 17-season streak of winning seasons the White Sox experienced. For 1968 was the beginning of a losing period that we’re once again recalling now because of how badly the White Sox are playing this season. The Sox may come close to losing 106 games this year like they did in 1970.

As for Detroit and Minnesota, each had their own odd Chicago connections.

For the Twins, it was their top pitcher Jim Kaat, who by the early-to-mid 1970s became a White Sox pitcher of some talent. While the Tigers had as one of their top pitchers Denny McLain – who actually was a native of suburban Markham and the one-time son-in-law of former Cubs broadcaster Lou Boudreau.

And who went on to his own notoriety in baseball when he managed in 1968 to win 31 games – the last pitcher to come close to that level.

  -30-

EXTRA: Only 95 more “shopping days” ‘til baseball’s Opening Day

I sit here in a Midwestern winter chill eagerly counting down the days until baseball’s season for 2017 resumes activity.

And not just because I want to see some live game action – I also want the recurrence of warm weather. One of the reasons that baseball is the best game, it’s played in the best weather conditions – even though I’m old enough to remember the snowfall of ’77 when the Chicago White Sox kicked off the season (and existence of the Blue Jays) in Toronto.

YES, I FIND this countdown to be much more pleasant than the one already existing on the Internet by which you can be informed of just how many more days remain until Election Day 2020 (1,403, to be exact).

The idea of a pitcher’s duel, or even a sloppy slugfest, comes across as much more interesting than anything having to do with feeding into Donald Trump’s ego any more than it already is over-bloated. Particularly if it is accompanied by a Polish sausage and a scorecard -- which I invariably will be the only person in my section of seating who can actually fill it out!

So it is 95 more days until the baseball season begins April 2 with the New York Yankees traveling to Tampa, Fla., to play the Rays, who get to kick off the season because this year is their 20^th season of existence.

Other teams begin play the next day, with the White Sox kicking off the season against the Detroit Tigers, while the Chicago Cubs venture off to St. Louis, where the Cardinals will begin their ’17 quest to prove to the world what all their fans seriously believe – that the Cubs’ World Series title of 2016 was the biggest of baseball flukes!

OF COURSE, SOME of us might find it hard to wait three more months for meaningful baseball.

In which case, keep in mind that we’re only 33 days away from the beginning of the Caribbean Series – the week-long tourney beginning Feb. 1 that will give us a baseball champion from Latin America.

Counting down the days 'til I can sit out here again and watch baseball

Or there’s the 69-day countdown to the beginning of the World Baseball Classic, which pits against each other the national teams of 16 countries with aspirations of wanting to claim to be the best in the world.

But then, if none of this is appealing to you (although I can’t help but wonder why), then there’s always the old standby countdown – only 359 more shopping days ‘til Christmas!

  -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.

Chicago Yankees? Not as ridiculous as you might want to think it sounds!

I rooted for the New York Yankees when I was a kid (back in the era of Billy Martin vs. Reggie Jackson vs. Thurman Munson, all up against George Steinbrenner), and even today can’t count myself amongst the types of fans who claim “Yankee Hatred.”

Back when Bucky wore 'red' socks

I just don't see the point. Apparently, I’m not alone. Not even in Chicago.

THE NEW YORK Times last week gave us a graphic based off a Facebook study that determined how big each major league baseball club’s fan base was geographically.

It’s not the most scientific of methods – people who indicated they “liked” the Facebook page of a particular ball club were counted as “fans.” It's about as scientific as an Internet poll asking people if they're a "Brittney" or a "Christina." But the graphic literally makes it possible to see – by zip code – which team dominates the local baseball fans.

Guess what?

The White Sox dominate on Chicago’s South Side and surrounding suburbs going down to Kankakee County, while the Cubs rule/drool in the northern part of the metro area. And yes, the Cubs have a regional fan base that extends into the rural Midwest, while the White Sox are purely an urban phenomenon.

LOOK AT A national map, and you see a swath of baby blue across northern Illinois, eastern Iowa and northern Indiana. With a big black blotch right in the middle – that blotch being the White Sox fandom that screws up the Cubbie perception that they prevail over all in their path.

'Joey Pep' in baby blue

None of this should be a surprise. It fits in with the commonly-accepted, and century-old, idea of the South Side/North Side split between the ball clubs.

But what caught my attention while going through the zip-code through zip-code breakdown of Chicago was that there were also stray out-of-town teams that get some fandom here.

And in most cases, it really is the hated Yankees.

Half a season in 'other' pinstripes

RIGHT IN THE zip code where U.S. Cellular Field is located, 5 percent of the locals are Yankees fans. Just as in Beverly and in 60601 – the heart of downtown Chicago.

In Hyde Park, that figure of Yankees fans boosts to 8 percent. Although it should be noted that that one South Side neighborhood was the lone Cubs outpost to the south of Roosevelt Road – albeit by only 35 percent for the Cubs and 34 percent for the White Sox.

A native Chicagoan Yankee

Of course, this shouldn’t be a complete shock. Anybody who ever attends a ballgame when the Yankees make their annual trip to Chicago knows there is a contingent of fans root, root, rooting against the home team.

It’s like the Yankees have become the default favorite team – a trend that makes sense in parts of the country that have no other ball club locally to root for.

ALTHOUGH THERE IS one other thing I noticed – it seems to be limited to the South Side, where the Yankees are “Team Number Three” across the region. But to the north, it seems fans who don’t want to root for either black and silver or baby blue root for the Detroit Tigers or the Boston Red Sox.

It ended for Sparky at Comiskey

Go to Lincoln Park or Old Town, and it’s the Red Sox who are the next favorite team – 4 percent. Which might be all the more reason for a Sout’ Side Yankees fan to look down on the tawny set who reside there. While those living around Wrigley Field consider the Tigers their next ball club (4 percent) to root for.

For what it's worth, my favorite ballplayer as a kid was Yankees outfielder Lou Piniella -- even with that notorious temper. But my adult self always thought that his temper and Yankee ways just contradicted that Cubby blue.

NY "Louuuuuus" were Chi "boooos"

With all the on-field gaffes he had to cope with, it's a wonder he survived the experience to go back to New York as a part-time baseball broadcaster.
 

FOR THE RECORD, Cook County as a whole roots 40 percent for the Cubs, 38 percent for the White Sox and 4 percent for the Yankees, as opposed to 47 percent of Will County residents rooting for the White Sox, 37 percent for the Cubs and 3 percent for the Yankees.

Sound pretty contrarian? Perhaps it is. Although there was another figure I noticed that showed me the real malcontents of Chicago baseball fans. It’s 28 percent.

It is both the number of Wrigley Field-area residents who root for the White Sox AND people surrounding U.S. Cellular Field who root for the Cubs. Talk about people whose houses likely get egged every Halloween.

And those who spark a civil war each summer that only ends when the Chicago Bears pull their annual sports uniting act of the city each autumn.

  -30-

EDITOR'S NOTE: My own Facebook page doesn't indicate my "liking" of any particular major league ball club. But if anyone ever does a study of defunct professional sports teams, I'll turn up as a fan of the Chicago Sting.

Fortunately, we’re not Detroit. But could we have this year’s Tigers team?

I got my kick from reading the Standard & Poor’s study that says Chicago’s financial situation isn’t anywhere near as bad as that of Detroit – which officially qualifies financially as “bankrupt.”

DALEY: Our financial savior?

For among the factors that it says makes Chicago more sound is the long political reign of Richard M. Daley. The study by the financial agency says the fact that Chicago had one leader for 22 years is much different from Detroit’s constantly-changing leadership during that same period.

NOT THAT I’M ready to erect a monument to the memory of Richard M. anytime soon.

But it seems that most of the people who in recent months have been eager to lambast Chicago’s reputation by saying we’re on the verge financially of becoming the next Detroit are doing so for political reasons. They'd have us think that it was having Daley around for so long that put us on this economic path the city is on.

It becomes easy to dismiss their rants against the Second City because they’re so ideologically overloaded.

These kind of people probably want to believe that it was the city administration under Daley that somehow put us on the path to becoming a Detroit – while also dragging Illinois down to the status of another Michigan.

WHICH, BY THE way, seems to be a state that people who were raised there are eager to leave – to come live in Chicago for at least a stint.

That trend is obvious enough. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder recently tried deriding Chicago as a place for “yuppie(s),” while saying that Michiganders who want to be substantial should stay in Detroit.

SNYDER: Jealous of Chicago?

Which reeks of a sense of desperation from an official who realizes his place has become secondary in the Midwestern U.S. to that of Chicago (which gives Illinois a boost as well). Just as desperate as those Indiana government officials who get all excited whenever an ice cream stand in an Illinois border community moves over one town to the east to be amongst the Hoosiers.

But back to Standard & Poor’s, which said it did the study released Thursday because it heard all the comments coming from politically-partisan people about Chicago becoming Detroit and wanted to figure out for itself whether there was any truth to them.

FOR THE RECORD, the study contends that there are significant differences between Chicago and Detroit, to the point where it’s not really right to say that city number three (in population) is about to become city number 18!

Is the Asian Carp 'invasion' Chicago's fault?

The city has a higher median per-capita income than Detroit, along with higher housing values, less of an unemployment rate and a slower rate of population decline in recent decades.

Although on the latter point, it should be noted that while the city proper has dropped, the overall metro area has grown. Back when Chicago had about 3.5 million people, the entire state of Illinois was about 8 million.

Compared to the current 2.7 million living in the city and another 5.5 million in the Chicago suburbs. The rest of the state remains about the same in the just over 12 million.

NOW I HAVE relatives who live in Detroit and its suburbs (although I personally haven’t visited them on their home turf since nearly 30 years ago). I’m really not up to bashing about Detroit – or any other Great Lakes state. We are a region of the nation in and of itself and ought to be trying to find our commonalities.

It’s just that the rhetoric we often hear becomes so partisan as to be pointless. Just as much of the debate over the Asian Carp getting into the Great Lakes and ruining its ecosystem seems to become a matter of other states wanting to blame Chicago for somehow allowing this to happen.

We get nowhere when we let ourselves get split up. Although I would much prefer to be associated with Chicago than just about anywhere else. The bottom-line when it comes to Standard & Poor’s ratings is that Chicago’s debt is ranked “A+” with a negative outlook, compared to a “D” ranking for Detroit – how clear could that comparison be?

Could this be the Tigers' home for a season?

Except for maybe this particular baseball season, where I have to confess I wouldn’t mind if this year’s version of a Detroit Tigers ball club were based on the Sout’ Side, so as to spare us the mediocrity we’re likely to see this season.

  -30-

No memories of Medwick, but a World Series pair Cobb could comprehend

I was disappointed a couple of days ago when the Boston Red Sox managed to win the American League championship – I was hoping that the Detroit Tigers would prevail.

Because that would have meant a Tigers-St. Louis Cardinals matchup in the World Series beginning Wednesday. Considering that part of a World Series coverage includes a historical review of all the other times the two teams have played each other, we invariably would have been able to review 1934.

THAT WAS THE World Series between St. Louis and Detroit in which Tigers fans – outraged at the way Cardinals star Joe Medwick was kicking their behind on the field – started pelting him with fruit and vegetables and pop bottles, then turned to hot dogs and newspapers when they ran out.

The situation became so bad that then-baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Landis ordered Medwick removed from the game – which the Cardinals won anyway.

I still think Medwick’s after-game response was one of the funniest (and honest) things I have ever heard from a ballplayer’s mouth – he said he understood why Tigers fans were upset, but couldn’t comprehend why they had brought all those fruits and vegetables to the ballpark in the first place. It would have been fun to relive.

But we’re not going to get those reminisces. Instead, we have 1946 (Enos Slaughter’s unbelievable game-winning run scored from first base), 1967 (when pitcher Bob Gibson “owned” the Red Sox) or 2004 (when the momentum of defeating the New York Yankees in the American League playoffs enabled Boston to defeat a superior Cardinals ballclub in the World Series).

NOT AS FUNNY as Medwick’s moment. But I have to admit to not being offended by a Boston-St. Louis matchup, particularly because it means that the ball clubs with the best regular-season records in the American and National leagues respectively actually went on to win their league championships.

It really will be the two top ball clubs playing for the championship of U.S. baseball (what would constitute a real “World” Series is a subject best written about for another day).

There is a part of me who doesn’t mind when a pair of traditional ball clubs makes it to the World Series. An Atlanta-Tampa Bay matchup in the World Series (which could have happened) just doesn’t have the same “aura” about it! What would a reincarnated Ty Cobb think?!?

Besides, it doesn’t directly involve Chicago – the World Series rarely does.

THIS COULD BE the year that Chicago Cubs fans wind up rooting for Boston, because there’s no way that they’d think of rooting for their arch-rival in St. Louis to win yet another championship.

Meanwhile, Chicago White Sox fans will be watching the performance of Red Sox pitcher Jake Peavy, and will likely tear their hair out of their heads if he winds up being spectacular. A Cy Young Award winner for the San Diego Padres and potential World Series star for the Red Sox who got paid big bucks by the White Sox for injury-prone seasons on the Sout’ Side.

Would Sox fans prefer it if the Cardinals knocked Peavy on his keister for a game or two?

Or will this World Series follow the trend of other World Series played in recent years – nobody outside the home cities of the two teams involved cares much?

Nobody attending Wednesday night's World Series game is getting into the ballpark for $1.20

 

IF SO, IT would be a shame. Because this still is for a championship, and the next week to 10 days could wind up creating moments that will be remembered forevermore.

At least during those times in the future when there is a rain delay and somebody thinks that past highlights shown on the stadium video boards will help pass the time.

Although somehow, I doubt it if anyone in Boston or St. Louis brings fruit and vegetables to pelt their least-favorite player on the opposition. Medwick’s memory will likely remain unique!

  -30-

We in Chicago ought to applaud the idea of “mustard-only” hot dog vendor

If either of our professional ball clubs had any sense, they’d figure out a way to make Charley Marcuse a part of their ballpark atmosphere.

He’s not capable of pitching 200 innings, playing a stellar shortstop or depositing fly balls into the outfield seats on a regular basis. He wouldn’t help the on-field activity.

BUT HIS HIRING would make a statement totally in character with the ethos of our home city – or at least the way we’d like to think of ourselves.

Marcuse is a hot dog vendor. Or at least he was until this week. Since 1999, he has worked concessions at Detroit Tigers baseball games. He’s one of those guys roaming through the stands with a metal box – selling you overpriced hot dogs to munch on while you watch a ballgame.

His particular schtick that made him stand out was as the “Singing” vendor. He’d sing out his cry for people to buy hot dogs as though he were parodying an operatic singer.

But that’s not why he ought to come to Chicago. In fact, I suspect if he did set foot inside a Chicago ballpark, he’d come across as being more annoying than Ronnie Wickers, the “Woo Woo” man in the stands at Wrigley Field.

WHAT MAKES MARCUSE stand out in my mind that he believes hot dogs are meant to be served with mustard. He is known for letting people who ask for ketchup on their ballpark hotdog just how little he thinks of them.

In fact, it seems that attitude is what caused Sportservice (which handles concessions at Detroit’s Comerica Park) to let Marcuse go. Friday’s Tigers game against the Kansas City Royals was the first since 1999 where he wasn’t present.

The Detroit News reported that “general employee conduct” was the reason Marcuse was given for losing his job. Although speculation is that it was his “no ketchup” attitude – which some fans have said on various Internet sites was so over the top that he came across as intimidating to fans.

Which reminds me of the one-time “Andy the Clown” who used to roam the stands at old Comiskey Park – using his loud, piercing voice to be able to shout cheers over the din of the ballpark crowd. Some fans hated having to be the one sitting near where he stood because he could be that loud.

OTHERS FOUND HIM to be part of the atmosphere of the old ballpark that never carried over to the structure now known as U.S. Cellular Field.

Now in writing this commentary, I don’t seriously expect Marcuse to relocate his life from Michigan to the greater Chicago area just to take a job as a hot dog vendor.

Hot dog lovers to an extreme in L.A.

But the whole idea of someone willing to take a stand for the lack of ketchup (which I personally don’t put on anything I eat) is something I wouldn’t mind seeing promoted. Even though I realize that the vendors at our own ballparks don’t offer ketchup (you have to go to one of the stands underneath the seats if you want it).

A no-ketchup vendor who’s proud of it would be a kick – even if it were just to last for a day.

BESIDES, IT'S ONE of the quirks of Michigan that Marcuse has actually developed his own brand of mustard that can be bought in assorted stores and served in some area restaurants.

Perhaps a Chicago stint could help him expand his market. At the very least, it would appease those people who get all worked up over the genuine “Chicago dog.”

Although I’ve always found a hot dog with mustard and onion to be an adequate edible item.

  -30-

EDITOR'S NOTE: For anybody who thinks crusading against ketchup on a hot dog is silly, keep in mind that it makes more sense than anybody who can't envision the Wrigley Field baseball experience without an Old Style-brand beer.
 

Detroit/S.F. match-up may disappoint, but it's still the World Series

I’ll be honest – I was hoping for a World Series matchup this year between the New York Yankees and the Washington Nationals.

Not only would it have been a matchup between the two ballclubs that finished the regular season with the best winning records in their respective leagues, I would have loved to see the frustration from Chicago Cubs fans as yet another city with a losing history made it to the series before their precious Cubbies.

WASHINGTON, AFTER ALL, hasn’t had any of its assorted baseball teams throughout the years play in a World Series since 1933. No D.C. ballclub has won the Series since 1924.

But that isn’t going to happen. The Nationals blew a playoff lead to the St. Louis Cardinals, while the Yankees who appeared so significant in the first round of playoffs against the Baltimore Orioles withered away into insignificance against the Detroit Tigers.

Those same Tigers who barely scraped past the Chicago White Sox will go into the record books as American League champions for 2012. They will take the field in San Francisco Wednesday night – where the World Series against the National League champion Giants will begin.

Detroit versus San Francisco. I’ve heard of worse series matchups, I suppose.

BUT THAT’S WHAT it’s going to be for the next few days – possibly through Nov. 1 if the World Series actually manages to drag through all seven games.

I must confess to being unsure of who to root for in this particular pairing. I am a fan of the American League, and I usually root for the American League champions come World Series-time (and the league’s All Star team come the All Star Game).

I know some White Sox fans are so appalled at the fact that their ballclub didn’t even make it into the playoffs that there’s no way they’d even think of rooting for Detroit. Although considering how badly the White Sox played the final month of the season, I’d argue they didn’t deserve a playoff spot.

But a part of me has to confess to admiring this particular version of a San Francisco Giants ballclub.

THEY WERE THE team that was one game away from elimination in the first round of playoffs against the Cincinnati Reds – then came from behind to win three straight games.

Then in the second round of playoffs against St. Louis, they were down 3 games to 1 – at which point Giants manager Bruce Bochy made a wisecrack about having the Cardinals “right where we want them.”

Yet as it turns out, the Giants then managed to pull off three straight victories against St. Louis to win the round, and the National League pennant.

That last game in particular amazed me – particularly the final inning when the rainfall that had been hitting San Francisco all day Monday came down in a deluge. If it hadn’t have been the final inning of Game Seven of the National League Championship Series, I’m sure the umpires would have delayed the event – if not postponed it.

WATCHING GIANTS’ INFIELDER Marco Scutaro struggle to avoid slipping on the slick grass while catching the pop-up that was the final out of the Giants 9-0 victory was a truly nerve-wracking moment. I’m sure Boston Red Sox fans, in particular, are wishing their last-place ballclub had never gotten rid of him. It also was more intriguing than the final presidential debate, which seemed more like Mitt Romney trying to moderate himself into another Barack Obama when it comes to foreign policy that I can envision his followers being utterly repulsed.



Washington continues to wait for World Series


It’s kind of difficult for me to think of rooting against this Giants ballclub – even if it has been a few years since an American League team won a World Series and the American League “fan” in me feels like it’s overdue.

And I’m sure Detroit Tigers fans are gleefully awaiting a chance to see if their team’s acquisition of rotund slugger Prince Fielder for a big-bucks, long-term contract will pay off.

Being able to say that the Tigers got a World Series victory in the first year of the Fielder contract will go a long way towards erasing the complaints that will arise in the final years of the contract when Fielder is nowhere hear the feared hitter he is now – but will still get paid as though he is.

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A-Rod to the White Sox? The concept is not completely out of the question

The New York Yankees have suffered a humiliation, and somebody must pay! Will the Chicago White Sox be the alleged beneficiary?

The ballclub that finished the regular season this year with the best record in the American League managed to get swept in four straight games of the final round of playoffs by the Detroit Tigers – which, we all know, is the ballclub that only made it to the playoffs because of the White Sox’ pathetic play in September.

THIS YEAR DEFINITELY won’t be a year where the American League puts up its best ballclub against the National League champion in the World Series that starts next week.

Which has Yankees fans seriously peeved! (Actually, the word that most accurately describes them is one much too vulgar to be published here). They’re looking for a person to take their abuse out on!

And it would seem that the fans and management want to blame Yankees third-baseman Alex Rodriguez – who for the record-setting kind of contract he has is supposed to be “the man” who leads the team to championships.

Instead, he didn’t hit worth squat. In fact, his play was so bad that the final two games of the playoff round against Detroit, Rodriguez was sat on the bench.

WHICH APPARENTLY GAVE him time to engage in one of the old tricks of a ballplayer – tossing a ball at a babe in the stands, in hopes that under the guise of asking for an autograph, she’ll hand over her phone number.

Rodriguez seems to have been more interested in getting himself some blonde companionship for after the ballgame, rather than trying to focus on winning the ballgame itself.

Personally, I think it’s possible for a ballplayer to focus on winning while not completely ignoring his surroundings.

But the mood is ugly in New York these days (uglier than usual, I should say).

THERE ARE THOSE who want Rodriguez traded away. There has been speculation that he will wind up in his hometown of Miami; which makes me wonder how he would react playing for manager Ozzie Guillen.

But there also is speculation that other teams might be interested. On Friday, I saw one list of clubs that emphasized that someone of Rodriguez’ “stature” would have to play for a “big-market” ballclub. No Kansas City Royals for him.

And that list basically came down to the two Los Angeles-area teams (the Dodgers and the Angels) and our very own White Sox!

Personally, I’m inclined to think that the White Sox are the bottom team on any such list. I’m not sure I see it happening – even though current White Sox third baseman Kevin Youkilis is likely to leave soon (he was only a one-season pickup to bolster the ballclub for a potential World Series that never happened).

THERE WILL BE a vacancy at that position. There would be room for Rodriguez on-the-field. Although I suspect the Yankees would have to agree to pay virtually all of what remains of Rodriguez’ contract for the notoriously-cheap White Sox to seriously think of pursuing him.

But we also have to admit that the White Sox have a history of picking up big-name veteran ballplayers whose best years are behind them. It’s like a stint on the South Side is a part of the path toward athletic retirement.

Wear the Olde English script “Sox” before trying to figure out what to do with the rest of one’s life.

Hall of Fame ballplayers such as Tom Seaver and Steve Carlton (and likely Hall of Fame member Ken Griffey, Jr.,) all had their stints in Chicago near the end of their careers.

HECK, LET’S NOT forget of such players as one-time relief ace Sparky Lyle (a Cy Young Award winner) or slugger Jose Canseco – who also have a bottom line of statistics in agate type indicating they played for “Chi-A” as their very last employer in Major League Baseball. I'm sure Sox fans with time on their hands can name dozens of other big-name ballplayers throughout the decades who finished up here.

In that context, it would make all the sense in the world for Alex Rodriguez to have a stint with the White Sox.

But then again, Rodriguez may well be capable of playing another couple of regular seasons in the major leagues. He probably isn’t completely washed up as a professional athlete. He’s just no longer the superstar that he once was with the Seattle Mariners (and whom the Yankees thought he would be for them).

Which probably means he’ll go to Los Angeles or Miami (where he lives during the off-season) and play for a bit.

THEN, HE’LL WIND up coming to Chicago to finish up in the black-and-white pinstriped uniforms that – from a distance – sort of look like Yankees uniforms.

So let me write a premature “Welcome to Chicago, Alex Rodriguez.” He’ll be here around 2015 and will get in a few final ballgames that will be considered an embarrassment to his career – while White Sox fans will speculate about how wonderful it would have been if he could have played for the ballclub a decade or so earlier.

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