Loyalty? Or selfishness?

Watching the Chicago White Sox these days, a part of me can’t help but wonder who’s smoking what with regards to the ballclub’s best player these days – Jose Abreu.

Potential Sox all-time star?

Yes, I know the team has several youthful ballplayers who have the potential to be stars that lead the White Sox to potential championships in coming seasons.

BUT THE FACT is that Abreu, the Cuban exile who came to Chicago back in 2013, has been THE significant part of the White Sox during this past decade. He’s also achieved enough in recent seasons that his name has to come up in any discussion of White Sox history.

Abreu, at 167 home runs is already amongst the top home run hitters in Sout’ Side baseball history. Wouldn’t it make sense that people would want Abreu to be the BIG BAT at the lead of the potential White Sox championship teams of the 2020s?

Yet the fact is that there is a significant share of White Sox fandom who would just as soon see Abreu depart. It seems the contracts he has had to play in Chicago come to an end after this season.

If the White Sox want to keep him, they’re going to have to come up with some sort of financial bonanza to make it worth his while to want to stay in Chicago.

BUT THERE’S THE fact that Abreu now is 32, which in traditional baseball thought, is the point in time when a ballplayer crosses over from his physical athletic peak and starts to become over-the-hill.

Also an Indian, Cardinal and Senator

Do the White Sox really want to pay big money to keep Abreu for a few more years to see if he can be a part of the White Sox’ next World Series title-winning team?

Would the team be better off letting him go to some other ball club, while relying on the big name peloteros such as Yoan Moncada, Luis Robert and Eloy Jimenez to be the stars of the Sox?

For his part, Abreu says he wants to stay with the White Sox – going so far as to say he will sign himself to stay with the Sox even if the Sox themselves don’t make him a contractual offer beyond this 2019 season.

SO IS ABREU truly loyal to the Sout’ Side baseball scene? Or is he just being selfish in thinking about himself?

An Orioles team Hall of Famer

Actually, it’s the reason why I think old-timer fans who complain about modern ballplayers having no loyalty are full of it. The so-called loyalty of the past was usually one way – players were expected to give all to the teams, who would think nothing of trading away or releasing a player when it was to the team’s self-interest.

Heck, I remember when Frank Thomas (the White Sox’ most recent Hall of Fame player) expressed thoughts of wanting to play in Chicago his whole career. But the White Sox let him go willingly – and he wound up finishing with stints in Oakland and Toronto.

Even such White Sox notables as “Minnie” Miñoso and Harold Baines played for other ball clubs – with Miñoso also playing for Cleveland and Baines playing well-enough for Baltimore that he’s also a member of that team’s personal Hall of Fame. Or even legendary Sox like Luis Aparicio or Nellie Fox, who also played for Baltimore and Boston, along with Philadelphia and Houston respectively.

Sox combo also had their moments with Athletics and Orioles

SO MAYBE IT wouldn’t be the most outrageous deal if Abreu became a Yankee or a Red Sox for a few seasons. Who knows; that might be his best chance to actually be on a championship team.

One of the few life-long Sox

It’s not exactly out-of-line to think that the White Sox of the 2020s could find their championship dreams thwarted by the up-and-coming teams the New York Yankees are putting together these days.

Which actually would be in character with White Sox history, as the “Go Go” teams of the 1950s wound up finishing most seasons in second place behind the Yanks.

And we’ll have to see for ourselves just how much a part of White Sox history Abreu himself (will number 79 be the next uniform digit retired) is destined to become.

  -30-

Rebuild of the Chicago White Sox,or clique developing within the ballclub?

The key to the rebuild of the Chicago White Sox? Or development of the clique that could demolish any hopes of a championship in the near future?

Will trio be the key to 2020s White Sox? Photo by The Players Tribune

Those are the thoughts running through my brainpan on Tuesday, as I learn of the deal the White Sox pulled off this week to help strengthen their outfield.

JON JAY, WHO played last season with Kansas City and Arizona but was part of that Chicago Cubs championship team of 2016, will be a part of the White Sox this season – whose spring training begins in just over a month out in the Phoenix suburb where the Arizona (and one-time Chicago) Cardinals play.

Theoretically, he could be a piece of the White Sox’ outfield equation this year. He has some skills. But what is more noteworthy are two of Jay’s best friends within the world of professional baseball.

Those friends are Yonder Alonso, whom the White Sox recently acquired in trade from Cleveland, and Alonso’s brother-in-law. Who happens to be the baseball star Manny Machado – the infielder who currently is free-agent and is trying to get the big-money, long-term contract that will ensure he’ll never have to work for real so long as he lives.

The White Sox are in competition with the New York Yankees, the Philadelphia Phillies and possibly other teams that might want to give themselves an injection of talent for the near future.

IT HAS BEEN reported that the White Sox have made a definitive offer to Machado that falls short of the so-called $300 million over a 10-season period that Manny supposedly wants.

Could it be that the White Sox are gambling Manny will be eager enough to have his brother-in-law and long-time friend as teammates that he’ll take a Chicago offer? Helped by the fact that even though Machado has hinted he’d love New York, the Yankees themselves don’t seem too eager to kiss his behind to get him in their version of pinstripes.

Could the White Sox of the 2020s be reliant on the Machado clique for their on-field talent? Could Jay become the guy who played for both the ’16 Cubs championship team, along with whatever winner the White Sox produce?

Will Machado clique work well w/ Abreu batch?

Or is this a lot of wishful thinking?

FOR I CAN’T help but notice that much of the “Rebuild of the White Sox” talk has focused on the large number of Cuban exiles the White Sox have been able to obtain – with hopes they’ll develop with minor league affiliates into stars.

With those peloteros Cubanos eager to play baseball for Chicago someday because they see existing White Sox star Jose Abreu as their leader on-field.

Have the White Sox set up conditions for dueling cliques – with one group of Cubanos convinced this is the team of Abreu and which might be counting on the beisbol fan base in Havana to give the White Sox an international cheering base?

Or are we going to have a team with the Abreu people and the Machado people – with the latter figuring that he’s the one getting the big money so he’s the one who should dominate the ball club’s attention?

IT WILL BE interesting to see how the two factions (should Machado decide to come to Chicago) co-exist, because supposedly his wife Yainee (also Alonso’s sister) really, really wants to live in New York. Would this Miami girl with ethnic origins in the Dominican Republic regard Chicago’s Latino population that is heavily Mexican and Puerto Rican just a bit too different?

Could Jay be champ on both sides of Chicago?

Then again, ballplayers don’t necessarily have to like each other personally. Take the Oakland A’s of the 1970s that won three straight World Series despite constant infighting amongst themselves. But they had their mutual contempt for owner Charles O. Finley to unite them – and that contempt is what ultimately broke the ballclub up.

But it could be said that the Machado clique that considers Miami to be its home base could unite with the many Cubans who regard Miami as their home in exile.

Could a future White Sox championship team wind up getting just as many cheers in Miami as on the South Side? We’ll have to wait and see how it all shapes up – and if it is meant to become a reality.

  -30-

What should we think of rebuild; does All Star Abreu have future in Chicago?

Chicago White Sox fans are likely to get the highlight of 2018 come next week in Washington, D.C., when first baseman Jose Abreu starts for the American League in the baseball All Star game scheduled for next Tuesday.

Could Jose become a White Sox immortal someday?

Abreu, it seems, got so many fan votes that he is the top player at first base for the league. Which is an accomplishment, since first base is usually a position so overloaded with top hitters that many a talented ballplayer throughout the years has been crowded out of the All Star game because that was their position.

SO IT WOULD have been understandable if the best ballplayer the White Sox employ these days would not have made it onto the league’s All Star team.

But he did. White Sox fans will be able to enjoy that bit of glory that at least one of the players on their dreadfully mediocre team of 2018 is worth having around. He’ll be the bragging rights that Sout’ Side-oriented fans will be able to chat about next week.

And it could wind up being the bit of a boost for the White Sox, who are trying to justify their lack of concern over the 30-win, 60-loss (as of Monday) team the White Sox are putting forth this year.

We’re supposed to be in a rebuilding mode, which means the potential for young talent that will someday surround the veteran Abreu with equal talent – to the point where in just a couple of years, it will seem odd that the White Sox could ever have delved to the lows that we’ve seen last year and this.

Payton played for weak Bears teams before '86

THEN AGAIN, CONSIDER that things can change quickly in baseball.

It was just three years ago that the Kansas City Royals were a World Series-winning ball club. Now, they’re a team with only 25 wins this year – and the reason the White Sox can claim to not even be the worst ball club in their American League division; let alone all of baseball.

Of course, there are some people out there who are convinced that what the White Sox ought to be doing with their best current (and one of their best ever) ball players is – repeat after me – “TRADE HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Could Abreu top Minnie for top Cuban Sox

The theory being that some other team wishing to have Jose’s big bat (12 home runs and 59 runs batted in, as of this week) to help them win THIS YEAR might be capable of giving up some young “kid” who might be capable of being a star come 2020 or 2021.

WHICH, THE WHITE Sox marketing people will claim, is the time about when it might be possible to expect the ball club to “not suck” quite so bad as they do now.

Abreu being the ballplayer who’s already 31 years old (meaning he’s on the tail end of his physical prime as a ballplayer), and it might be helpful long-term to let go of him now, rather than thinking he’d still be of use at ages 33 and 34 (which is what he’d be if still a part of the White Sox) in ’20 and ’21.

Of course, if the Chicago Bears had followed the same line of logic, they would have let their immortal star Walter Payton leave just before that Super Bowl-winning year of 1986 and those contending teams of the late 1980s.

We’d probably have Bears fans now ranting about how the team gave up on “Sweetness” and didn’t include him in the chance for athletic glory at the team’s peak.

SO IS THIS just a matter of sports fans who can feel malcontent regardless of what their favorite team actually does?

Is the "L" flag destined to return to Wrigley?

Keep Abreu, and they’re being shortsighted. Get rid of him, and the White Sox will regret it if he and his big bat are the missing piece of a contending team the White Sox hope/wish/dream they’ll have around 2021.

Because personally, I could see how that future White Sox contending team could be one built around Abreu – who will wind up being the leader of a core of Cuban and other Latino ballplayers who play in the mold of past White Sox stars like Minnie Miñoso and Luis Aparicio.

Besides, it could also be that many of the people who want Abreu dealt away from Chicago are nothing more than Cubs fans realizing that 2016 is history, their own “winning” ways aren’t forever and it’s just a matter of time before the “L” flag becomes the symbol flown atop the Wrigley Field scoreboard on a regular basis.

  -30-

Double-header in the snow? Or is it just early-season baseball, the Chicago way

I usually get worked up whenever people complain about professional baseball beginning its season in the part of spring that’s really the tail-end of winter.

Helping Sox fans cope with cold

These are the ninnies who will complain that the season should start with the first games actually played in western or southern cities – or in places like Milwaukee where the local officials erected a stadium with a retractable roof.

AS THOUGH THE Chicago ball clubs, or teams from places like New York, Boston or other eastern or Midwestern municipalities ought to have to start out their seasons with a streak of road games.

Personally, I’d argue those are the franchises with the lengthy histories and cultural existence and where the locals know how to handle a little cold weather.

Just like on Thursday when the Chicago White Sox started out the 2018 season with their first home game a loss to the Detroit Tigers, and there were times one could see the heavy snowfall coming down during the ball game.

An early season freebie giveaway promotion the White Sox offered up? A stocking cap with the Old English “Sox” logo and in the black and grey of Sox colors. Truly an appropriate giveaway, and one that I’m sure many a fan who actually attends Saturday's game will bother to wear.

Will TV-viewing fans get to see ...

OF COURSE, THERE were those who felt compelled to mock – with the observation being that many of the people who theoretically gave the White Sox a capacity crowd by buying tickets somehow managed to disappear by about the fifth inning.

Resulting in many empty seats, particularly in the Sox stadium’s upper deck.

I’m going to be watching the crowds that show up at Wrigley Field come Monday, where the Chicago Cubs will have their Opening Day. Monday’s weather forecasts are for equally-dismal weather conditions.

Temperatures might get as high as 40 degrees, but it will be a cloudy, overcast day with light rainfall (and maybe even snow) expected to hit Chicago. Not ideal conditions for sitting outside in the stands to watch a ball game.

... split-screen, simultaneous home runs?

I DON’T DOUBT that the Cubs have sold the just over 40,000 tickets for Monday’s game against Pittsburgh (another ‘tough’ city that wouldn’t let some inclement weather put a stop to a ballgame) so they’ll be able to claim a capacity crowd. It will be “sold out,” even though I don’t doubt that watching the game on television will reveal many vacant seats.

It also will be interesting to see the White Sox game that same day. Because their game at Guaranteed Rate Field against the Tampa Bay Rays has been rescheduled from 7:10 p.m. to 1:10 p.m.

White Sox officials said they think making it a day game will be more comfortable for fans than having them sit in the stands during the evening hours.

But it also means we’re literally going to have both Chicago ball clubs playing simultaneously Monday afternoon. (The Cubs game is scheduled to start about 10 minutes after the White Sox take the field).

WE IN CHICAGO occasionally get the days when a Cubs game is scheduled for the afternoon, with a White Sox game in the evening. People can literally take the Red Line elevated train from one ballpark to the other to see both games in the same day. Which has its drawback -- a fan gets intoxicated during the day at Wrigley and is so wasted by nightfall at Guaranteed Rate that he acts stupid AND EVERYBODY wants to think it's the Sox' fault!

Monday not likely to look this idyllic

That won’t be possible on Monday – they’ll be simultaneous events and Chicagoans most definitely will have to pick one ball club or the other to watch. Unless they’re a wishy-washy sort who stays home and watches both games on television.

A split screen feature put to work on that new-fangled huge screen television. Maybe we’ll get the dual sight of Jose Abreu and Kris Bryant hitting home runs simultaneously on both sides of town.

Although knowing our city’s sporting mentality and likely crummy luck, we’re more likely to get two collections of fans suffering frostbite and two more digits in the “loss” column – just what Chicago needs on a dreary day when it seems like not even baseball can make winter go away!

  -30-

Will Abreu remain in Chi beyond ’17?

The Chicago White Sox openly talk about how they’re scraping their whole ball club as part of a rebuild – a do-over of sorts that they hope could result in championship-quality teams by 2020.

Could Abreu lead White Sox rebuild?

But there’s a certain sense that the rebuild actually began in 2014 when Cuban star slugger Jose Abreu signed on with the team.

DURING THE PAST four seasons, Abreu has been one of the few attractions worth seeing at Guaranteed Rate Field. Typically, it would make sense that because of his worthwhile statistics (which include a batting average of .301, 124 home runs and 410 runs batted in, and a .359 on base percentage), he’d be trade bait.

For as the legendary baseball executive Branch Rickey once said of his star slugger Ralph Kiner with some lousy Pittsburgh Pirates teams, “We finished last with you, we can finish last without you.”

No ballplayer is ever untouchable. Not even for the White Sox, who last winter traded away their top pitcher, Chris Sale, to the Boston Red Sox.

So it shouldn’t be surprising to learn of the reports that several ball clubs have contacted the White Sox to express interest in acquiring Abreu and his big bat. Even the Red Sox.

WHO EVEN THOUGH they won their division title last year fell short in the playoffs, in part because first base is a weak position for them. Acquiring Jose would be a significant move in their ongoing battle to try to become superior to the New York Yankees (they’re not, but that’s a story for a different day).

Moncada looks to Abreu for leadership

So are the rumor mills onto something? Are the White Sox about to trade away their best ballplayer? For what it’s worth, the SB Nation website grades this particular rumor an “A.”

Yet I can’t help but think that if the White Sox truly are on the verge of making this move, it will be the action that turns out short-sighted. And not just because most of the people who are all excited about such a move are the ones who are interested in how it would help Boston – and don’t seem to care what happens in Chicago.

I wonder how the people who do have an interest in a Chicago White Sox rebuild appreciate how significant the Cuban angle is in all of this. We literally have the potential to have our own Cuban core dominating Sout’ Side baseball.

As likely will Robert

WHAT WITH THE young talent of Yoan Moncada and Luis Robert coming to Chicago. Moncada has already arrived and has shown some signs of the potential star he could become, while Robert is firmly in the White Sox minor league system.

Both were acquired in deals (Moncada was the prize Boston gave up in order to pry Sale loose from Chicago) during 2017. Both were Cuban ballplayers, and both were excited to come to Chicago largely because they knew Abreu when all three were still playing on the Caribbean island.

It certainly was more significant to them that Abreu was here, rather than the fact that Minnie Miñoso played in Chicago a half century ago.

I don’t think you can over-exaggerate the significance of the mentor role that Abreu would play in a rebuilt White Sox ball club. It could literally be the three Cuban stars (playing at first and second base, along with center field) who could be the key to that future championship ball club that White Sox fans are eagerly dreaming of.

Minoso the Cuban past

AND YES, I’M a firm believer in intangibles (unlike those who can’t look past statistics) in determining a ballplayer’s worth to his team.

Some might say that Abreu could bring in a whole slew of talent. However, I doubt that Boston (or any other ball club) would be willing to give up that much in exchange for one slugger – no matter how many dents he could add to the famed left field wall at Boston’s Fenway Park.

Encouraging that Cuban core could be the key to a rebuild that actually works, as opposed to one that merely produces second place teams – rather than the fourth place ball club the White Sox had this year.

Is the pair attending a hockey game in Las Vegas really as interesting as would-be Cuban beisbol revolution?

And it would certainly be more interesting than the dreams of Chicago Cubs fans these days – the ones that say Washington Nationals star Bryce Harper is eager to come to the North Side team to pair up with old high school friend Kris Bryant. Just so they could lose someday to a White Sox-style Cuban beisbol revolution.

  -30-

’17 baseball season is ‘ovah,’ yet fan excitement strong on both sides of town

The Chicago White Sox season for this year stumbled to its end Sunday in Cleveland, with the White Sox being able to say they didn’t lose 100 games and are far from the worst team in baseball (they didn’t even finish last place in their own division).

As for the Chicago Cubs, they managed to pull off a third-straight year of appearing in the playoffs (which begin this year on Tuesday). It’s also the second-straight year of finishing a regular season in first place (something they hadn’t been able to do since 2007-08).

YET FOR THOSE fans of the cutesy Cubbies who are inclined to gloat, I say “Stuff it!”

Because the most disappointing aspect of baseball ending Sunday is that it means we have to wait some five months before we can see more progress in the great rebuild that White Sox management hopes will result in championship ballclubs sometime about 2019 or 2020.

While I’m sure that Cubs fans seriously believe the whole world is rooting for them to achieve a second-straight World Series title this year, there are those White Sox fans who will be anxious to see the rebuild progress. To see the youthful star Luis Robert progress up the minor league route (he may begin next year in Winston-Salem, N.C.) to get closer to Chicago.

Where he could pair up with established Cuban star Jose Abreu (a batting average of .305, slugging percentage of .554, 33 home runs and 102 runs batted in) and rising star Yoan Moncada to create that Cuban baseball revolution that could be the core of bringing a championship to the South Side in the name of the Cuban Comet himself – Minnie Miñoso.

OF COURSE, THERE are no guarantees in baseball. There are a lot of quirks that could come up that thwart a championship season. The “Damn Yankees” could resurrect themselves to a role of dominance during the next few seasons.

But White Sox fans are overly anxious, not wanting to see the on-field action stop because it means they’ll have to wait a little while longer for the title they’re hoping for.

And yes, there are elements of wanting to produce so as to “shut up” Cubs fans and their obnoxious streak of thinking that a lone World Series title now puts them in the same status as the New York Yankees (who have 27 such titles and are going for number 28 starting Tuesday).

In short, April 5 and Opening Day against the Detroit Tigers (the ball club that managed to bottom out and be worse than the White Sox this season) can’t some soon enough.

AS FOR THE Cubs, they now advance to the first round of playoffs against the Washington Nationals in the District of Columbia.

Their spirits would watch over ...

It will be interesting to see how Cubs fans react to not being the team of sympathy and underdog status. Don’t forget that Washington is now the city with baseball teams that have lengthy losing status – no D.C. ball club has won a World Series since 1924 or has even been in a World Series since 1933.

And the current Washington ball club has never won a thing (not even back in their days of being the Montreal Expos).

Yet the Cubs would like to think that their own losing ways still linger – and it would be of some historic significance if a Cubs’ team were to win a second consecutive World Series. Since the only two they ever had won before came in consecutive (1907 and 1908) years.

... any all-Chicago World Series of future

SO IT WILL be of some interest to see if a Chicago ball club can advance past Washington and Los Angeles (that’s what playoffs are for) to make it to the World Series.

Even if not as much interest as watching the rebuild taking place on the South Side that is now on hold for five months.

Because it would put us Chicago baseball fans a step closer to what would be the ultimate experience – an all-Chicago World Series. An experience we haven’t had in 111 years – and counting.

That would be the experience worth getting all worked up over!

  -30-

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

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

From back when he was a Sox 'kid'

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

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

 

Many career highlights for Buehrle

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

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

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

No longer White Sox' "No. 56"

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

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

Will No. 79 someday be retired for Abreu?

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

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

  -30-

Could Chicago White Sox become beneficiaries of Cuban beisbol legacy?

It has been just over two years since the two living icons of Chicago baseball – Ernie Banks and Minnie Miñoso – passed on. Banks, as many have pointed out, didn’t live long enough to see his Chicago Cubs win a World Series.
 

The grandfather of Cuban baseball in Chicago

While Miñoso was around back in 2005. He even was a participant in that World Series parade wending its way from Armour Square through the Sout’ Side and into “da Loop.”

BUT IT’S ACTUALLY a shame the ballplayer, whose many nicknames included being called “the Cuban Comet,” isn’t still with us. Not that he didn’t live a long-enough life (about 90).

But it would be a sight to see if Miñoso could be present if the modern-day attempt by the Chicago White Sox to rebuild into a winning ball club were to succeed with all the Cuban talent the team has managed to obtain.

That talent appeared to have been bolstered this weekend (it won’t be official for a few more days) with the signing of Luis Robert, a 19-year-old who is among the Cuban national team’s stars and who has decided he wants to have a baseball career in the United States.

That led to a bidding war amongst several ball clubs, although is appears the fact that the White Sox have developed a reputation as being Cuban-friendly led him to want to play in Chicago.

Wore No. 9 in Cuba, but in Chi, that's Minoso

ALTHOUGH LET’S NOT make a mistake; he’s going to be paid well. The still-a-teenager living in Cuban poverty now will be paid some $25 million to play the next couple of seasons for Chicago White Sox minor league affiliates – possibly resulting in him working his way to Guaranteed Rate Field by about 2019 or 2020.

That is about the time the White Sox’ rebuilding effort is supposed to be complete. It is an effort that will include Yoan Moncada, who is the big Cuban star whom the White Sox obtained during the winter and could become a part of the Chicago baseball scene by this season’s end.

Robert and Moncada could join ...

It also may include the star slugger Jose Abreu, who when he broke into U.S. baseball did so with a jolt, winning Rookie of the Year and showing himself to be a consistent slugger in U.S. baseball ever since. And yes, it seems that Abreu was a part of the effort to sway Robert to want to come to Chicago (or at least to the South Side) on the grounds the White Sox "get" Cubans and what they go through to adapt to life in this country.

... w/ existing star Abreu for Cuban trio

With Abreu often saying he’s happy with the White Sox because of the large number of peloteros Cubanos they have employed throughout the years. Including Miñoso, who was around to see Abreu play, and many of the other Cubans such as former shortstop Alexi Ramirez, outfielder Dayan Viciedo and the two pitching stalwarts of that 2005 World Series-winning team, Jose Contreras and Orlando Hernandez.

THE LATTER OF whom gave what I still consider one of the most amazing pitching performances I have ever seen, in the ’05 playoffs against the Boston Red Sox, when the pitcher known as “El Duque” came in relief that one game and pitched three shutout innings right at a point when Boston was threatening to retake the lead, and momentum, in that playoff round.

Yankee had his moment in White Sox 'sun'

I’m still trying to figure out who looked most ridiculous – Johnny Damon swinging at that “Strike Three!!!!!” in the dirt, or Manny Ramirez an inning later looking totally hopeless as he struck out.

This Cuban connection of sorts leading his old ball club to a championship is something I’m sure Miñoso would have liked to have seen. Although to be honest, those of us beisbol fans who enjoy the growing Latin American presence will also get our kicks if this phenomenon becomes a reality.

A tie between Venezuelan and Cuban Sox heritage

Which, I’m sure, means there’s some xenophobic type out there who’s teeth are gnashing and his “I (heart) Trump” pin jiggles on his chest as he rants about the need to tighten the immigration laws AND undo the efforts former President Barack Obama made to improve U.S./Cuba relations.

A recent Cuban Sox star

SO WE’LL HAVE to see how all this plays out, particularly if it turns out to be that a Cuban influence helps rejuvenate the White Sox into a championship ball club.

Who’s to say the Chicago Cubs don’t have another championship run in them as well, and we really could get that all-Chicago World Series our city has dreamed of, yet been denied since 1906.

Will Ernie, Minnie quarrel in heavens?

Those Cubs with a Puerto Rican presence in the form of infielder Javy Baez taking on the Cuban- and Venezuelan (Chico Carrasquel and Luis Aparicio to Ozzie Guillen to Magglio Ordonez to today’s Avisail Garcia)-influenced Sox.

That really would make a Chicago “city series” into a World-Wide spectacle the World Series likes to think it is – something for us to look forward to in coming years. Even if Miñoso won’t be around to see it; he and Banks will have to watch from that realm above.

  -30-

EXTRA: Enjoying while it lasts! White Sox in 1st AND better than Cubs

The baseball fan of Chicago in me couldn’t help but get a kick out of Saturday.

Dos jonrons against los Tigres de Detroit

The Chicago White Sox continued the winning streak they seemed to have slipped in and finished the day with a record of 13 wins, 9 losses. Which, by the way, puts them in first place in their American League division.

CERTAINLY NOT A place that some baseball pundits would have expected the White Sox to even experience a taste of this season. Particularly those who were determined to believe Chicago’s Sout’ Side ball club is the worst in the game.

Created a souvenir for Boston baseball fan

It also is a place that Chicago Cubs fans would despise, because it’s supposed to be their ballclub that is on the verge of a dynasty that will win championship after championship for Chicago. But on Saturday, following their win over the Boston Red Sox, the Cubs have a record of 13 wins, 10 losses.

It’s early in the season; nobody should be paying serious attention to standings until the Memorial Day weekend at the earliest. And yes, things could change drastically (and completely) by Monday.

But for the one day, those people who find Chicago Cubs fan braggadocio to be arrogant and annoying can take some joy in a White Sox team is superior. Though they should also note that, for the day at least, the New York Yankees at 15-7 are the best in the game.

AS FOR SATURDAY’S ballgames, I managed to watch both because I have a step-grandmother who, at 95, really shouldn’t be left alone anymore. She also has a new television (HD and all) and cable, and often likes to wile away her time with ballgames.

So I got to see Jose Abreu’s two home runs, and the extra inning shot by Melky Cabrera that gave the White Sox a 6-4 win, despite relief pitcher David Robertson’s best efforts to give away the game to the Detroit Tigers.

A fan in the stands

I also saw that Anthony Rizzo home run that I’m sure made Cubs fans happy despite the 469-foot home run hit by Hanley Ramirez -- the longest-ever at Fenway Park during the Statcast era of measuring such things. Which it turns out dates merely back to two years ago.

Although I have to admit to getting my kick from seeing one-time White Sox all-star Carlton Fisk sitting in the stands in Boston and watching as the other ball club that once employed him took on the allegedly high-and-mighty baby blue bears of the north lakefront!

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EXTRA: A ‘Cuban connection?’ Or Sox' answer to Sutter/Maddux moves!

Baseball is a crapshoot. All those deals and maneuvers ballclubs make to try to improve themselves always come with a definite lack of guarantee. You don’t know what will work until it’s done.
 

Changing color of his socks

That is my attitude toward the deal announced Tuesday that the Chicago White Sox traded away their top pitcher to the Boston Red Sox – who now have fantasies of having the best starting rotation of pitchers in all of baseball.

IN EXCHANGE, THE White Sox got four ballplayers – including two who are supposedly the best prospects in the Boston minor league system.

One of whom is Yoan Moncada – a second baseman who two seasons ago got big money from the Red Sox when he defected from Cuba. Some $63 million in all, out of the belief that he would be one of the Red Sox stars for years to come (since he’s only 21).

But now, he’s a property of the Sout’ Side’s ball club, and will be a heavy factor in the White Sox dreams of again contending for a league championship and World Series appearance in the near future.

When combined with first baseman Jose Abreu also of Cuba, he creates a potential Cuban connection for the White Sox that could wind up making them legitimate contenders. Considering that one of the White Sox’ biggest names ever was t he Cuban Comet himself, Minnie Miñoso, perhaps it’s appropriate.

IF IT WORKS out, that is.

 

Pairing up with Abreu...

Because there always are those ballplayers who turn out to be incapable of making the jump to the “big” club. Minor league stats don’t always mean much.

I remember when Karl Pagel was supposed to be the BIG NAME who would someday lead the Chicago Cubs to the promised land, while Ron Kittle was the guy who hit more than 50 home runs in a season in the Pacific Coast League.

Pagel barely lasted with the Cubs, while Kittle was little more than a journeyman ballplayer during his major league service time. We’ll have to wait and see just how real the “Cuban connection” becomes in Chicago.

 

... to create new Cuban connection?

BECAUSE TRADING AWAY an established ballplayer like Sale always runs the risk of backfiring. The White Sox may well have enriched the chances of the Charlotte Knights (their top minor league affiliate) having a good year in 2017 without anything ever resulting to benefit Chicago proper.

There’s also the chance that the Sale deal could wind up giving the White Sox an answer in incompetence to the front office actions of past years that saw Bruce Sutter and Greg Maddux (both now in the Baseball Hall of Fame) go to other teams in exchange for nothing of significance.

A slew of 'stars' who never amounted to much

I’m not saying for sure that will happen. I don’t know how this deal will turn out for either team.

Because I’m the first to admit I think Sale’s temperament is just a bit too whiny for him to continue to be a part of the White Sox. Perhaps a change of scenery is what he needed.

Twice traded for star Sox shortstops

BECAUSE AROUND HERE, he’ll always now be remembered as the guy who had a hissy fit because of the jersey he was asked to wear and wound up shredding a team’s worth of uniforms. Even though that particular jersey was part of a team promotion that actually worked out to be popular with many fans!

It’s always possible the deal could work out to be good all the way around – similar to how the Chicago Cubs back in 1984 traded away future star Joe Carter, but wound up getting Rick Sutcliffe. As in one of their best pitchers ever. Or the 1977 trade that sent star shortstop Bucky Dent from the White Sox to the New York Yankees in exchange for Oscar Gamble, cash and four minor leaguers -- one of whom went on to become 1983 Cy Young Award winner LaMarr Hoyt (who himself was then later traded to the San Diego Padres for long-time star shortstop Ozzie Guillen).

Best left unspoken

Which is proof that in order to gain something of significance, you have to be prepared to give up something of equal value. That's true whether in baseball or business.

Because the number of times you can give up an aging pitcher like Ernie Broglio and gain a future Hall of Famer like Lou Brock are truly rare – and usually wind up with your team on the losing end of the deal.

  -30-