Differing circumstances for pitching pair not toiling on opposite sides of Chi

Yu Darvish is the Japanese/Iranian star ballplayer whom the Chicago Cubs picked up for this season – expecting him to be a star pitcher who helps the North Side ballclub get back to a second World Series in three years.

One-time Japanese star; now just a Cub

Instead, he’s become the 2018 baseball bust for Chicago – no wins and three losses in six games he’s pitched, with an awful earned run average of 6.00 thus far.

ADMITTEDLY, IT’S STILL early in the 2018 season (not quite one quarter of the way through a 162-game schedule), but now he’s on the disabled list. And for something that is bound to make him the subject of mockery from many a true baseball fan.

Yu has the flu.

Yes, Darvish missed his Tuesday start against the Miami Marlins after being diagnosed by a doctor with the parainfluenza virus. Which is the way the Cubs made sure to word it on their official statement confirming that Darvish is now on the 10-day disabled list – retroactive to Monday.

We won’t see Darvish pitch again this week or early next. We definitely won’t see him pitch when the Chicago White Sox make their annual trip Friday through Sunday to the North Side ballpark for an interleague series.

OF COURSE, WE’RE not going to see Danny Farquhar pitch either. In fact, we won’t see him pitch again at all during 2018.

But unlike Darvish who has the flu and (admittedly) probably feels a little bit drowsy and has nausea, Farquhar has a much more serious condition to cope with.

Farquhar is the ballplayer last month who was pitching for the White Sox and collapsed in the team dugout.

Could he be back for 2019?

Rushed to the Rush University Medical Center (located not far from the site of the original West Side Grounds where the Cubs used to play ball more than a century ago), he was diagnosed with a brain hemorrhage caused by a ruptured brain aneurysm.

BUT WE LEARNED this week that Farquhar was released from the hospital and is now resting at home with family.

The bad news is that his neurosurgeon says he has therapy to undergo in coming months, and that he’s through playing baseball for 2018.

But the statement the White Sox issued also made sure to say that the neurosurgeon believes there’s a good chance that Farquhar someday will take to a pitcher’s mound and play baseball again.

As in he could be back for Spring Training of 2019 in Glendale Heights, Ariz. He could be back with the White Sox at some point when all the supposedly star prospects will have developed and could be a part of a contending Chicago White Sox ball club.

THE POSITIVE SPIN for Danny is that he may miss out on a 2018 season that, in all likelihood, is going to be one of drudgery on the Sout’ Side of Chicago – a .281 winning percent and fewer than 10 victories during the season as of Tuesday.

If (and when) that day comes when Farquhar is called upon by the White Sox to pitch, I’m sure it will be a moment of a great emotional joy for fans everywhere (except, of course, for those deluded enough to root, root, root for the Cubbies).

Perhaps it is one of the reasons why I’m finding the White Sox more appealing, even in this particular era when the Cubs are deluding themselves into thinking they’re a ball club of historic significance like the New York Yankees and some fans are buying into the hype that it will be interesting to see how the Farquhar saga plays out.

Won't see either Danny or Yu this weekend at Wrigley

As opposed to the Cubs, whose “big money” pitcher is missing some ballgames because he has a headache and “the sniffles.”

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Let’s not panic, okay?

I’m not trying to downplay the significance or risk of the Ebola virus that is starting to show traces of cropping up in the United States.

But I also sense that there are some people who are way too eager to panic and predict an epidemic of the virus that can kill. When we start to panic, we look for people to blame for the problem.

AND THAT’S WHEN we as a society become inclined to act stupid. Please people, let’s not be stupid; particularly when there’s potential for illness and fatality.

For the record, the virus was once thought to be a product of the nations of the western portion of the African continent. Some 4,500 people are known to have died from Ebola.

Of course, many of us cared less about this fact. It wasn’t until recent weeks when U.S. citizens who are doctors who were on humanitarian relief efforts in Africa started showing signs of the virus that many of us even gave Ebola a second thought.

Now, we have one person dead, and two nurses infected. One of those nurses had direct contact with the person who died. While another supposedly was on a flight from Cleveland to Dallas, and has now been isolated at a medical facility far from either locale. It has people panicking about how easily this virus could spread.

IT HAS HAD some people wondering how long it will be until this spreads beyond Dallas and winds up in Chicago – along with the rest of the country. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide (or so sang Martha and the Vandellas, could that be the new theme song for those inclined to panic?).

I couldn’t help but notice the Chicago Tribune, which reported about how nurses across the Chicago area are skeptical that their hospitals are equipped to deal with Ebola. They’re wondering if the so-called safety equipment isn’t safe enough to protect them from the fluid-spread virus.


Although I have heard reports indicating that the infected nurse with contact might not have been wearing the proper gear.

It also was interesting to see the Chicago Sun-Times report that officials are considering designating Rush University Medical Center as the official treatment center for Ebola.

AS IN ANYBODY anywhere near Chicago who shows signs of the virus and can document that they were in contact with someone who had the virus would wind up at Rush, rather than having them scattered around the dozens of hospitals in the Chicago metro area.

A concentration would reduce the likelihood of more people being exposed.

It was interesting to see President Barack Obama on Wednesday create the image of taking on the issue – he spent a couple of hours meeting with Cabinet members to try to figure out some sort of national strategy for addressing Ebola in this country. On Thursday, he gave authorization for National Guard units to be called into action to serve in west Africa to support U.S. operations that are trying to control the virus.

It also was curious to see the Washington Post report that Obama acknowledges a need to help try to deal with Ebola at its root – meaning the west African region where we once thought the virus was contained.

THAT DOES MAKE sense. But I wonder how long it will be until we hear the ideologues screeching and screaming about how we ought to focus on our own ill, instead of someone else’s.

The grandchildren of the isolationists of old can rant and rage as loudly and strongly as their ancestors. Even when it is that isolationist strain of thought that can cause panic that leads to short-sighted actions.

For now, I plan to try to relax. There isn’t much we can do, other than try to avoid irrational exposure that we probably wouldn’t do anyway. That, and turn down the dial for the mental volume I have set for the rest of the world – including when our own City Council feels compelled to hold (as yet unscheduled) hearings about Ebola virus spread.


Talk about the ultimate in individuals who will want to scream and panic when it is fairly certain they have a clue what they’re talking about!

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A DAY IN THE LIFE (of Chicago): How many parades do we need?

Better in pictures, than in person?

Call it the controversy amongst Chicago’s Puerto Rican community that is likely to spill over toward all of us – activists are fighting about the Puerto Rican Day parades, which it seems this year will be a singular parade.

For officials reached a decision last week by which the funds that go toward a Puerto Rican parade along Columbus Drive near downtown will instead be put toward supporting a parade in the Humboldt Park neighborhood.

PERSONALLY, I THINK this is a smart move, because I have always thought those downtown parades lost something significant in character when they were moved from Dearborn Street (in the actual downtown area) off to the drive where it felt like they were cut off from the city proper.

I’d be for taking all the ethnic-oriented parades that are held in Chicago and converting them into events held out in the neighborhoods – particularly if there is an ethnic character to the specific neighborhood.

Everybody these days knows that the St. Patrick’s Day Parade along Columbus Drive is generic, compared to the South Side Irish Parade along Western Avenue. If the Puerto Rican activists in Humboldt Park can’t put on a worthy event, then that is to their own discredit.

The same goes for just about any event. Mexican-oriented parades in the Little Village and South Chicago neighborhoods always manage to top the generic feel to a Mexican Independence Day march along Columbus Drive – to name the ethnic events that I would have any personal interest in.

NOW I REALIZE some are going to criticize me for being naïve, or clueless. Although I should say I appreciate the political considerations involved here. For many of the people who want a downtown parade are more opposed to cooperation with the activist-types who put together the neighborhood parade.

A lot of it does tie into the fact that there isn’t a consensus amongst Puerto Ricans as to whether their Caribbean island homeland ought to be the 51^st U.S. state, an independent nation or just keep its commonwealth status.

I’ve actually heard the phrase “Communist” tossed out by the downtown parade proponents to describe the neighborhood activists – which may well be an overstatement to try to lambast anyone who doesn’t agree with them.

What else is of interest as some people contemplate a Puerto Rican pride parade held a few miles further away from the shores of Lake Michigan come June?

 

I doubt any paper I wrote for will give me this sendoff

WORKING TO THE VERY END:  I never actually met Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert, but he’s been around for so long that it felt like he was invincible.

Of course, no one is. Ebert himself succumbed last week to cancer – the same condition that took his voice several years ago, but didn’t stop him from being a heck of a communicator in his final years. Funeral services are scheduled for Monday at Holy Name Cathedral.

 

Much of the remembrance we’ve read in recent days tells tales of all those interviews with film business moguls throughout the years and how much influence he and Siskel actually had in terms of whether a film would achieve any commercial success, I must admit that I’m more impressed with his recent years. That, and his animated appearance on The Critic.

But the real significance of the Ebert life story is in the way in which he kept up the quality work, when many people would have decided it was time to pack it in. I’d like to think I could handle myself in a similar manner if I were confronted with his circumstances – although another part of me is honest enough to admit that I (and most of us) probably couldn’t even come close!



How would Lord Jeff of Amherst do...

MICHIGAN/LOUISVILLE WHO??!?:  Amherst College’s Lord Jeffs men’s basketball team beat Mary Hardin-Baylor 87-70 on Sunday, giving the Massachusetts-based college the national title for Division III this year – and their first since they pulled off titles in 2007 and ‘08.



... against Tommy Titan of IWU?

Watching those academically-inclined (but in many cases physically-challenged -- few 7-footers play Division III basketball) student/ballplayers out there on the same court that the Atlanta Hawks play on (and where the nationally-televised Division I game will be played Monday) convinced me all the more that small-school ball isn’t as inferior as some would want to believe.

A part of me was wondering how much nicer it would have been if my alma mater, Illinois Wesleyan University, were playing instead. Amherst got to the final by beating North Central College of Naperville, who were the ones that knocked the Titans out in the Sweet Sixteen round of the DIII tournament. Oh well, maybe next year -- which we've been saying every season since 1997!

But it was still an enjoyable experience to watch Sunday’s game (even at the point when the game had to be halted for a bit because some of the arena’s lights went out). I got more of a kick than the masses will get from watching Michigan take on Louisville.

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A DAY IN THE LIFE (of Chicago): $75 now the price for getting cab sick?

I sympathize with the thought of a taxicab driver who has to take time out from what could be a busy night picking up passengers and making money to clean up a mess caused by a passenger who gets sick during the ride.

I say so because I remember one incident about two decades ago when I was that passenger.

MY STOMACH WAS feeling a bit queasy, but I thought I could keep it in until I got to a commuter train station in downtown Chicago. But instead of being the guy who threw up in a men’s room toilet, I wound up doing it within a half block of the train station, in the back seat of a cab.

I recall giving the driver an extra $20, in addition to paying the fare. It seemed the least I could do.

So imagine my reaction to learning that the cab drivers are seeking increases in various fares and fees associated with riding a cab – and one of the changes they want made is the right to demand $75 from anyone who gets sick inside the cab.

Fat chance they’ll actually be able to collect it. Or will it now become a police-worthy offense (as though they’re not busy enough already) to puke one’s guts up in the back seat of a cab?

I RECALL THAT night so long ago that I gave him $20 because it was all the cash I had on hand. Are cab drivers now going to start screening their potential passengers based on who looks like they might be carrying enough spare cash on hand that they could afford $75 if they become ill?

Or will they now “profile” people to avoid those individuals whom they think will become ill? Considering that we encourage people who become intoxicated to avoid driving and rely on a taxicab instead, it seems like a contradictory move.

Not that I’m excusing my behavior that night (as I recall, it was a night at the Billy Goat Tavern after a day’s work at the now-defunct City News Bureau of Chicago, and I took a cab to a train station because I was feeling too queasy to just walk). But there has to be something more practical than this proposal – which is something the City Council will get to consider in coming weeks.

What other events are occurring on the southwestern shores of Lake Michigan on this second day of Hanukkah?

THIS IS WALSH’S BIG ISSUE?:  Rep. Joe Walsh, R-Ill., is grossly offended that he’s not allowed to use his official Congressional newsletter to wish people a Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah.

RUSCITTI: The anti-Walsh?



The House rules that have been in place since the days when Congress was preoccupied with Watergate don’t want taxpayer dollars being used to promote anyone’s religion in particular. So they tell members of Congress to use general holiday greetings.

That has Walsh outraged, although I suspect much of his outrage is for show to get the kind of people who want to perceive a culture war against themselves to think of himself as the guy they should consider voting for come March 20, and again on Nov. 6.

I’m sure Walsh thinks he’s preparing for a general election fight between the winner of Raja Krishnamoorthi/Tammy Duckworth in the Democratic primary for the vacant congressional seat. Personally, I’d get a kick out of seeing GOP primary opponent Darlene Ruscitti (the regional superintendent of schools for DuPage County) beat Walsh, just so we could be spared his ideological nonsense come the general election.

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION ’12 – WHO DO WE HATE MORE?: It really seems that people are preparing to vote against someone for president in next year’s election cycle.

OBAMA: For, or against?

I couldn’t help but notice the poll released Tuesday by the Gallup Organization. In hypothetical elections of Barack Obama against Mitt Romney, and against Newt Gingrich, Obama wins 50 percent to 48 percent – which is so close that it amounts to a statistical tie.

But Gallup claims many people say they’re voting against the opponent, rather than for the person they picked. Only 18 percent of those surveyed picked the Republican because they want either Romney or Gingrich to be president. By comparison, only 39 percent picked Obama over Romney because they want Obama. The same goes for the 34 percent who picked Obama over Gingrich.

That makes 30 percent (29 percent if it’s Gingrich) who are voting AGAINST Obama, with 11 percent (15 percent if it’s Gingrich) voting against the GOP. What do we get from an Obama/Gingrich battle? 44 percent of the people voting for the candidate they can’t stand.

Only in America!

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