Dawson to find himself in middle of Hall of Fame '20 fiasco over Jeter?

The world of professional baseball just had its Hall of Fame induction ceremonies for this year, yet it seems that a prominent Chicago ballplayer will find himself in the middle of a stink over next year’s rituals.

Forner MVP in middle of Jeter affair

At stake is that the Hall of Fame usually invites all of its living members to attend the ceremonies each year. That would include Andre Dawson, who was inducted back in 2010 for his seasons of excellence with the Montreal Expos, but whom some fans prefer to remember for his stint with the Chicago Cubs.

WINNING A MOST Valuable Player award while wearing Cubbie blue can have that effect.

But now it seems that Dawson, along with one-time Cincinnati Reds star Tony Perez, are saying they may not bother to show up for the 2020 induction ceremonies.

Although we won’t know until year’s end, there are those who are convinced that next year’s Hall of Fame ritual will wind up being a celebration of New York Yankees star Derek Jeter.

Who as it turns out went from being the toast of Manhattan to being an owner of the Miami Marlins. He’s now baseball management. His own team, and in a city of tropical glory.

IT’S JUST A shame, in a sense, that the Marlins haven’t played worth squat during the years he has been in charge.

Still bitter about losing his job?

But as it turns out, back when Jeter became a part of Marlins’ management, both Dawson and Perez had been working for the Marlins as coaches. Both were amongst the people who lost their jobs because Jeter wanted to dump the ‘old’ way of doing things – and perhaps add an overtone of New York Yankee-style glamour.

For what it’s worth, both were later re-offered their jobs, but at significant pay cuts. Along with demands that the two stay out of the team clubhouses and not show up in uniform during spring training camp.

Which must seem a significant blow to the athletic egos of the two, both of whom seem to still hold a grudge. Dawson says he probably won’t attend because he, “doesn’t have a sense or feeling like I want to sit on that stage to hear what (Jeter) has to say.”

PEREZ IS MORE blunt, saying he doesn’t want to be a part of any day that celebrates the big star of the New York Yankees’ dominance over baseball in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Yankees glamour diminishing

“It wasn’t nice, what happened at the end,” he said.

So will Dawson or Perez be missed if they turn out to be no-shows? Maybe not! Chances are good that the baseball fan-types who will make the trek to Cooperstown, N.Y., because of Jeter aren’t going to notice who doesn’t show!

It will be a celebration of their guy, and nothing else. And as for the out-of-town (as in non-New York) fans, they’ll probably just think of it as another moment of dissing the Yankees – which is something they’re used to doing every moment they get.

IT MEANS WE won’t have to hear again the stories of that 1987 MVP award that Dawson won even though he was playing for a Cubs’ ballclub that won only 76 games and finished dead last in their division.

Will Jeter top Jordan as management failure

It also shows just how much of a blow that the Jeter image has taken with the fact that his Marlins’ teams, which in 2018 finished with a 63-98 won/loss record – which is actually even more pathetic than that Cubs team that had Dawson’s big bat to make things interesting.

It seems that some guys are not going to be interested in leeching off the Jeter persona on his big day. Because Jeter’s persona may have dived down even deeper than that of Michael Jordan.

For the Charlotte Hornets of the National Basketball Association have had way too many pathetic seasons since 2006, when Jordan transitioned from being the Hall of Famer of the Chicago Bulls into management. Almost as though Jordan is determined to take over the athletic losing ways of the Chicago Cubs – unless Jeter can top him in Miami.

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Ditka tops Guillen in ranks of former Chicago sports guys turned goofs?

There are those people who like to rag on one-time Chicago White Sox shortstop and manager Ozzie Guillen as some sort of irresponsible goof – somebody who despite his significant athletic accomplishments for Chicago ball clubs is just too much of a goof to have around.

How does not seeing racial oppression ...

But after learning of one-time Chicago Bears tight end and head coach Mike Ditka’s latest railing on national television, I can’t help but think that Ozzie is nowhere near as absurd.

FOR THE RECORD, Ditka (who led the Chicago Bears to their only Super Bowl victory ever back in 1986) was on the Westwood One pregame show prior to the Monday Night Football game featuring the Bears against the Minnesota Vikings felt compelled to ignore the questions about the Bears’ ongoing struggles to find a competent quarterback.

Instead, he wanted to rant about the fact that many professional football players feel compelled to SUPPORT the protests taking place in recent weeks during the National Anthem rituals that take place prior to pro football games.

Those protests started last year with one player trying to express his concern about harassment of individuals based on race. When President Donald Trump felt compelled to get involved in this issue with his nonsense talk about “firing” football players, those players started showing solidarity with their colleague.

Ditka made a point of saying he’d “bench” anybody who dared do such things on any team he coaches. But the part that gets the national attention was Ditka’s claim that, “There has been no oppression in the last 100 years that I know of,” adding later, “I don’t see all the social injustice that some of these people see.”

... compare to 'respect' for Fidel Castro?

IT’S NOT SURPRISING to learn that a professional athlete lives his life in a cocoon that isolates himself from the daily realities of our existence. I also don’t doubt these guys think their physical skills in playing a ballgame at a high level somehow makes them worthy of living life in such isolation.

He may be the guy who doesn’t read the papers, except for the sports section so he can know which sportswriter to complain about for writing something he chooses not to agree with.

But it would be an exaggeration to say we haven’t had oppression in the past 50 years – although at least now the law is such that the people who try to pull off the most extreme instances can be prosecuted, rather than thinking the law is on their side.

These two youngsters likely never realized ...

Or maybe Ditka is just one of those types who thinks that certain people are supposed to accept the fact that they’re entitled to receive a certain level of harassment from society as a large?

I THINK THIS puts Ditka in a comparable category with Guillen, who led the White Sox to a World Series title back in 2005 – a moment that for some Chicago sports fans is more significant than that Bears Super Bowl title.

Remember all the loudmouth incidents when Ozzie played for, and managed, Chicago. Like Ditka, Guillen later got a one-year stint managing/coaching elsewhere (Miami for Ozzie, New Orleans for Ditka) and now is to the point where his only sporting value is as an occasional commentator for broadcasts.

Sports fans in Miami still haven’t forgiven Ozzie for his saying all those years ago that he actually had a certain level of respect for Fidel Castro – which I’m sure they feel is as absurd as Ditka trying to claim that no one has been oppressed in this nation. Personally, I always thought of Fidel as more of a third-rate, petty tyrant than a true world threat.

Just because many of the individuals who are oppressed belong to groups whom Ditka and people like him would prefer not to have to acknowledge. Which is the truly offensive part of all this cheap talk.

 

... the highs, and lows, they would reach

PERSONALLY, I’M MORE offended by Ditka, merely because his rant is so ridiculously simplistic – as in it’s difficult to believe anybody could think of life as being so basic. I couldn’t help but notice a report that one-time star quarterback Joe Namath responded to Ditka by saying “da coach” ought to look up the meaning of the word “oppression” to realize it has occurred.

It makes me wonder if Ditka is now material for Saturday Night Live – the show where he once was idolized in those “Super Fans” sketches. Would those same fans now ponder whether Ditka has gone goofy in his old age?

Just like some are pondering whether Guillen has lost it in his middle age, to the point where the most recent report I saw about Ozzie was speculating whether he’d be considered for the Detroit Tigers managing job that is now open.

He’s not in line for it, no more than any team would seriously want Ditka hanging around their sidelines during game time. A sad ending for two of the most intriguing ballplayers-turned-coaches to be a part of the Chicago sports scene in our lifetimes.

  -30-

EDITOR'S NOTE: One major Ditka/Guillen difference -- Ditka is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, whereas few people took seriously Guillen for the Baseball Hall of Fame the one year he was actually on the ballot. Which most likely is evidence that the baseball version in Cooperstown, N.Y., deserves more credibility than the football version in Canton, Ohio.

EXTRA: Guillen turns to ace Buehrle?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Not sure who gets to “championship” level first – Guillen or Ventura

I’m starting to wonder if the Chicago White Sox are determined to make me look like a “genius” when it comes to baseball prognostication.

For I’m the guy who used this very weblog last November to predict that Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen would have a championship-level ballclub before either Chicago team would.

THE CHICAGO CUBS have done their part to make me look like I know what I’m talking about. But it has been the White Sox who threatened to make me look bad.

For while the Marlins are in last place in their division, and there is speculation in Miami that Guillen could lose his job at season’s end because of the dismal performance, the White Sox are in a pennant race.

Sort of!

I don’t know what to make of this ballclub that seems absolutely determined to throw away what could be a playoff-bound team and turn itself into a second-place team that nobody will remember.

AND NO, WHITE Sox fans aren’t like those of the Cubs. Nobody will remember 2012 with the same “aura” that Cubs fans think the 1969 team deserves for collapsing in September to the New York Mets.

This was literally a team that managed to go from a 3-game lead over the Detroit Tigers one week ago Monday to a team that is on the brink of baseball destruction -- they've literally lost their last five ball games.

A 3-game lead with 2 ½ weeks in the regular season to go ought to be safe. It ought to be a case of just running out the clock, so to speak. Just keep playing winning ball.

Which certainly didn’t happen this weekend with the White Sox this weekend in Anaheim, Calif., with the Los Angeles Angels showing why they still deserve to be thought of as contenders in their division while the White Sox have us scratching our heads wondering, “Wha’ happened?”

TWICE THIS SEASON, the Tigers have managed to “catch” the White Sox and tie them, only to have the White Sox suddenly surge back into the lead. Could the third time be “the charm” for Detroit? Or do the White Sox really have what it takes to put Guillen’s spirit in their past?

The only reason Detroit isn’t in first place all by themselves right now is because the Minnesota Twins managed to whomp on the Tigers in the first of two games they played Sunday, then pull off a second victory in extra innings. Thank the almighty for the Twins that the White Sox can claim to have a one-game lead over the Tigers.

My prediction would turn out to be completely wrong if the White Sox win their division this season, while the Marlins lose so badly and Guillen winds up having to take the blame for a dismal season (which really shouldn’t be blamed on him, but will be anyway).

I make that latter comment not because I’m an Ozzie-apologist, but because I comprehend the scattershot approach to baseball often taken by the Marlins’ organization.

THIS IS THE team that employed one-time Chicago Cub catcher Joe Girardi as their manager for a season and he did well enough to be National League manager of the year. Yet he got fired for displeasing owner Jeffrey Loria – the same man who now is looking for someone to blame for the crummy ballclub that likely turned off people from wanting to visit their new stadium.

And as for those who will want to claim that Guillen will be gone because of what he said earlier this season about Fidel Castro, that’s nonsense. A 66-87 won-loss record as of Sunday is more significant than anything else. It’s the old baseball adage proven true – you’re only as smart as your batting average (or earned run average, or winning percentage).

But what about the White Sox and if they manage to fall short this season?

One-time third baseman-turned-manager Robin Ventura will be back in 2013 regardless of what happens – although many of the veteran ballplayers likely will be let go as part of a cost-cutting/youth movement.

WHICH COULD COMPLICATE Ventura’s chances of overseeing a winning ballclub in future seasons. This season may well turn out to be Ventura’s best chance of turning his White Sox stint into a winning ballclub.

That makes me wonder if there’s still a chance my 2011 post-season prediction can come true!

For Joe Girardi went on to manage the New York Yankees, who won a World Series title under his leadership in 2009 and remains the head of a perennially-contending ballclub.

Could Guillen wind up going somewhere else and leading that team to a championship before the White Sox can finally get their act together for an entire season – instead of five-sixths of one like they seem to want to do in 2012?

  -30-

No first-place battle in Chicago; will Cubs revitalize Ozzie’s Marlins?

My advice to baseball fans is not to even look at standings until the Memorial Day holiday weekend. By then, one-third of the season is complete, which is enough time for things to have settled down to the point where we can accurately assess how good (or bad) things will be.

Anything any earlier than that is purely freakish.

TAKE WHAT COULD have occurred in upcoming days here in Chicago.

If the Baltimore Orioles had managed to win on Sunday against the Toronto Blue Jays, they would have been in first place by themselves in their American League division. Meanwhile, the White Sox (by their loss to the Detroit Tigers) fell one-half of a game out of first place.

Naturally, that means Baltimore is making its only visit to Chicago this season for a four-game series against the White Sox beginning Monday. Whodathunk either of those teams would even sniff “first place” this season? Let alone at the same time!

How much of a conniption would the world of professional baseball be having if this week’s early season series turned out to be a battle between two first place teams?

OF COURSE, IT’S not working out that way, and it would be ridiculous to think of it that way (although I’m sure Ken Harrelson would have had no problem getting all worked up in announcing such a series).

It’s just early-season baseball. It’s nice to see (particularly those who say Adam Dunn’s swing doesn’t seem as mucked up as it was last year – maybe those two doubles Sunday are evidence of good things to come?).

But there’s still just over 150 ballgames to play.

And without the “battle for first place” taking place on the Sout’ Side, we can shift our attention to Miami – where Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen will return Tuesday to his 4-6 ballclub (last place in their National League division) just in time for a three-game series against the equally-awful 3-7 Chicago Cubs (who are battling with the Pittsburgh Pirates for the “honor” of “worst” in their division).

FORMER WHITE SOX ace pitcher Mark Buehrle is tentatively scheduled to start Wednesday’s game against the Cubs.

If Ozzie’s ballclub can’t even beat up on the Cubs these days, THAT is something he should be more ashamed of than anything he said (or meant) about Fidel Castro.

  -30-

EXTRA: Miami boycotting Ozzie? He’s only as smart as his won/loss record

For all the cheap, trashy rhetoric that came from the mouth of Ozzie Guillen when he was manager of the Chicago White Sox, I can’t recall a single moment when anyone seriously contemplated boycotting the White Sox on account of him.

But now he’s in Miami and we’re dealing with the Cuban exile community, which is one of the most humorless batches of people who take themselves excessively serious. They're definitely not a group that wants to hear that someone “loves” Fidel Castro.

SO I SUPPOSE we shouldn’t be the least bit surprised that Vigila Mambisa is talking about a boycott of the Miami Marlins until they get around to hiring a new manager.

Fire Ozzie!!!!!!!!!!!!! And we're not even a week into the season. Then again, White Sox fans were always going to be the most forgiving group toward Guillen because we have known him for so long! That peachy-faced rookie depicted in his baseball card above seems like he was here just yesterday.

Venezuelan native (and U.S. citizen since '06) Guillen may well have put a permanent wedge between himself and the group that Marlins officials were hoping would be the heart of their fan base (considering that their new ballpark is located in the Little Havana community). No one in Miami  is going to be thinking in terms of "retiring" Guillen's jersey number the way some White Sox fans believe that "13" should be put up on the outfield wall in tribute.

As for the rest of us baseball fans? We’ll probably wait to see if the team breaks out of the rut (a 1-3 won/loss record) with which it has started the 2012 season. If they do, he’ll be forgiven. If they don’t, the call for a boycott will take on a multi-ethnic, multi-racial characterization.

  -30-

Stuck in the past, is what Sox are

How depressing is the Chicago baseball scene going to be this season?

Ozzie Guillen, who due to his career as an All-Star shortstop and World Series-winning manager, is always going to be associated with the Chicago White Sox.

YET GUILLEN FINALLY makes the cover of Sports Illustrated for the first time in his athletic life – because of his new job as manager of the Miami Marlins. Seeing Guillen in that black uniform with rainbow-colored trim is about as odd as the pictures of Babe Ruth in the uniform of the Boston Braves (or Ron Santo with the Sox).

Yet it is more likely that Guillen will make it back to the World Series before either Chicago ballclub will (the truth is that they’re both so incredibly mediocre this season). The Cubs themselves will only be able to get so much optimism from having a new general manager before fans realize not much else has changed.

Meanwhile, White Sox fans are forced for this season to look to the past – specifically that World Series title of seven seasons ago that is the subject matter of that giant sign that jumps right out at you as you drive on the Dan Ryan Expressway by (or ride the commuter trains by) U.S. Cellular Field. Will we still be “enjoying” that sign sometime about the 2035 season?

First baseman Paul Konerko and catcher A.J. Pierzynski are the only two ballplayers left from that championship team. But it really is going to be a long season of mediocrity – made worse by the fact that the team’s fans literally have to hope for a “blast from the past” for there to be anything of interest happening on the playing field.

BY THAT, I mean the key to whether this ballclub has a long-shot chance of contending (as opposed to no chance) still lies in Adam Dunn -- who even though he motivated his "team" in an intra-squad game played Saturday is still a major question mark.

He’s the former National League slugger who for several years was averaging close to 40 home runs per season. But in his first year with the White Sox (as a big-money free agent) in 2011, he put in one of the worst seasons conceivable of a major league baseball player.

Dunn in 2011 was a weaker hitter than Guillen ever was as a ballplayer. And Dunn the ballplayer never had the defensive skills that Ozzie used to have.

For there to be anything interesting, Dunn will have to hit. The 2011 season has to become a complete aberration.

PERSONALLY, I WON’T be surprised if Dunn someday does rebound and become a solid baseball player (or at least a hitter with power) for some major league team. I’m just wondering if this whole thing is so psychological that such a rebound will never happen in Chicago!

I literally wonder if a trade (to a team that won’t give up much because of how bad he became last year) is the key to the Dunn rebound?  Put him on a “loser,” and maybe he’ll once again become a winner!

Which would make the Dunn saga so typical of Chicago baseball. The White Sox will wind up being the team that pays him significant millions of dollars to play baseball, while some other team gets the benefits of a hitter who helps them win some games.

Or at the very least look a little bit entertaining on the playing field – because the truth is that the other ball clubs that Dunn hit well for (the Cincinnati Reds and Washington Nationals) really were do-nothing teams that didn’t expect to win anything resembling a league championship.

THEN AGAIN, MAYBE with the pressure being off and nobody expecting Dunn to pair up with Konerko at-bat to lead the White Sox’ hitting, Dunn will start hitting again. Now that it no longer matters much. This may be the part of things that some baseball fans have a hard time understanding. But the people who “work” in Major League Baseball realize that a season isn’t a complete loss without a World Series title at season’s end.

Konerko, himself, said as such, claiming that 2012 would still mean something if some young ballplayers developed their skills a little further – increasing the chance of “winning” something in 2014 or ’15. Although Pierzynski came in later and said that such an attitude does not amount to surrender for ’12.

But who’s to say what will really happen this season – other than the fact that some of us will have an extra eye, so to speak, focused on Miami to see whether the Guillen chapter of Marlins history turns out to be the least bit significant. Only one month until it becomes reality.

Because I suspect there are many fans here who (as their favorite ballclub begins its spring training play on Monday with a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers) only want to watch Dunn from his backside – with the doorknob hitting him in the buttocks on his way out of U.S. Cellular Field for good.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

YOU KNOW THEY want to dump him.

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

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

  -30-

White Sox “shorts” aren’t even ugliest thing worn by team, let alone baseball

The Miami Marlins have a new stadium, a new manager (our very own Ozzie Guilen) and now new uniforms, whose use of teal, orange and black seems to be offending some baseball fans.

New uniforms for Miami. How do they rank on the "tacky" scale? Photograph provided by Miami Marlins.

There are a lot of people who are complaining that these outfits for next year are downright ugly. Personally, they don’t move me one way or another.

BUT THIS HAS caused several sportswriters (most of whom wouldn’t have a clue about fashion) to decide to write about the ugliest uniforms ever worn by ball clubs.

And invariably, everybody is picking  the same getup as THE ugliest outfit ever – those uniforms worn for three games late in the 1976 season by the Chicago White Sox.

You know, when Bill Veeck decided to have his cellar-dwelling ballclub (which struggled to avoid losing 100 games) wear shorts along with their pullover jerseys and the white socks.

U-G-L-Y! Garish! Disrespectful to the game of baseball! And how did those guys manage to slide into second base without scraping up their thighs something fierce?

ALL OF WHICH strikes me as a whole lot of nonsense talk. That particular variation on the team uniform from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s wasn’t the tackiest thing that was worn by a ballclub during that decade (the Cleveland Indians all-red outfit and any of those gold-and-brown combo worn by the San Diego Padres fight it out for my vote).

Are those Hall of Fame knobby knees hiding?

It certainly isn’t the ugliest outfit that the White Sox themselves have ever worn (my nomination goes to the uniforms that replaced them back in the 1980s – the ones with the big stripe across the chest that read “SOX” and uniform numbers on the pants).

Perhaps my real point is that I am weary of pieces that make more of the shorts than they’re personally worth. For they truly were nothing more than a Bill Veeck stunt.

Something that we were supposed to see and get a chuckle from. It was something different from a day at the old ballpark. Which usually was the point of a Bill Veeck stunt – to create an atmosphere where no one really knew what to expect, and where something bizarre could occur on any given day.

Ugh!!!!! (Outfit, not ballplayer)

WHICH WOULD BECOME the motivation to go out to a game.

Personally, the best photograph I ever have seen of the White Sox in those uniforms was one showing outfielder Chet Lemon at first base, with coach Minnie Miñoso standing nearby.

But because of the angle, we only get to see Lemon’s knobby knees – and only a sliver of Minnie’s aging bones. How much you want to bet some clown brings up this moment as “evidence” of why Miñoso doesn’t belong in the Baseball Hall of Fame (he’s up for consideration this year, along with Ron Santo of the Cubs).

But they truly were a stunt. Not a regular uniform. So to claim they were the ugliest uniform? No way.

AND AS FOR those who want to argue that the jerseys worn with the shorts were tacky, I’d disagree.

Preserving the shorts for posterity



I always liked the old-style lettering spelling out “Chicago,” plus the fact that these uniforms had the White Sox wearing white socks (which they haven’t done so in decades). And I always liked the idea that the color scheme (dark blue and white) and general look were meant to copy the original uniforms that the White Sox wore back when they were created in 1901.

A 1970s touch to the turn-of-the-century fashion. It certainly was more intriguing than those efforts to get garish color schemes into the game. The Oakland A’s and Houston Astros succeeded in doing so. But other ball clubs were just downright tacky.

The ugliest Chicago baseball outfit?

I know I’m not the first person to comment on the sight of one-time rotund slugger Boog Powell in the all-red getup of the Indians being a hideous one. But it didn’t do any more for Jackie Brown, or any of his Indians teammates.

IT’S JUST TOO garish, too much of one color – which is also why I am bothered by those multiple shades of brown used by the Padres way back when. Way too overdone. They both make anything the White Sox have ever worn look downright subdued.

Although perhaps it gets topped by those mid-1970s uniforms worn by the Chicago Cubs on the road – the light-blue with white pinstripes. That is the ultimate “ugh” in my mind! Then again, maybe it was just the sight of pitchers Rick and Paul Reuschel wearing them that creeped me out!

Besides, those uniforms with shorts got their own immortalization from Topps Chewing Gum, which when putting out its set of baseball cards for the following season used a White Sox team shot that showed an entire ballclub in short pants. When will you ever see such a sight again?

Which may well mean that Veeck’s stunt must still be considered a success – people are still talking about those otherwise-completely forgettable ballgames from 35 seasons ago?

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