EXTRA: Could White Sox get bogged down in N. Carolina political squabble?

How long could it be before the Chicago White Sox find themselves caught up in a political squabble concerning North Carolina’s passage of state laws perceived as openly hostile toward the gay community?

Future Bulls star and White Sox prospect was a Tar Heel

Several government officials across the country have imposed travel bans restricting their ability to do business with North Carolina companies, while Mayor Rahm Emanuel has publicly said he’d like to urge a Carolina-based business to relocate to Chicago – IF they wish to escape the restrictions of the state’s effort to outlaw legal protections for gay people.

WHAT DOES ANY of this have to do with the White Sox?

Just that the Sout’ Side ball club has so much of its minor league operations based in the Carolinas. Their top-level affiliate is the Charlotte Knights, while they also deliberately located two lower-level affiliates in Winston-Salem and Kannapolis.

The idea being that a Chicago team official having to do business with the minor league teams can catch a simple slight from O’Hare International Airport to Charlotte, then rent a car for a short drive to one of the other cities if need be.

Have the White Sox been dragged into a potential political brawl because of the cities they use to try to develop young ballplayers into major leaguers?

COMMON SENSE OUGHT to say “No.” Then again, common sense rarely is used in such situations. It would be too easy to drag the team into the situation to try to score political points.

Sox' AAA, ...

After all, common sense ought to have kept North Carolina from taking on this issue to begin with.

But the idea that some places were passing local laws specifying that gay people had the same legal protections and rights as everybody else strikes some individuals as too radical a concept to tolerate.

Just like those people who want to fight against local laws concerning gun ownership and try to pass laws mandating that everybody own a firearm!

... high A, and ...

WHAT MAKES THIS truly pathetic is the fact that North Carolina officials wound up including provisions regarding restrooms in public schools (presumably, private schools already are segregating). As in transgender people would be told their thoughts about who they are is wrong, and they have to urinate and defecate where they’re told.

... low A affiliates.

No matter how squeamish and uncomfortable it might make them. Honestly, for all the talk about perverts hanging around bathrooms, I’d think the bigger threat is to some clown who thinks he’s acting in Jesus’ name in sticking some “guy’s” head in a toilet bowl because he doesn’t act “manly enough.”

Particularly if it winds up happening in one of the ballparks. Which would truly be a disgraceful incident that would wind up drawing negative attention to the Chicago team indirectly.

Now I don’t know what the White Sox would, or could, do if this situation were to wind up causing problems. I’d like to think that people attending ballgames do so to escape nonsense like this.

Alabama could become point of common sense for White Sox

BUT ALL TOO often, the ideologues of our society insist on bringing their nonsense to places where is truly doesn’t belong.

Although perhaps it would be nice if at least one White Sox affiliate were to be somewhere in the Midwest within range of Chicago (like the Chicago Cubs who have minor league affiliates in Des Moines, Iowa, and South Bend, Ind. – both of which, ironically enough, were once White Sox affiliates).

I don’t know that such a move is in the works. Then again, perhaps we’ll have to see if incidents arise once the Knights’ Opening Day is held April 14.

It would be nice if calmer and cooler heads could prevail.

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Cubs pick up yet another ex-Sox minor league affiliate for organization

I couldn’t help but chuckle when I learned this week that the Kane County Cougars of the Midwest League were no longer going to be a minor league baseball affiliate of the Chicago Cubs.

 

It was with such fanfare that the far west suburban-based ballclub announced it was going to be a part of the Chicago Cubs organization. It would be a chance for Cubs fans to see the future stars of the organization. It would strengthen the brand of the Cubs in the metro area.

 

YET AFTER JUST two years, the Cougars have decided they are better off with the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Cubs didn’t renew their agreement, but instead have chosen to be affiliated with the South Bend Silver Hawks – also of the Midwest League.

 

Which amuses me because I can remember when professional baseball returned to South Bend, Ind., in 1988 – as an affiliate of the Chicago White Sox. In fact, for eight seasons into the mid-1990s, South Bend was a part of the White Sox organization.

 

I can remember when the talk about how decrepit Comiskey Park had become centered around the fact that South Bend’s Coveleski Stadium had nicer clubhouse facilities than the allegedly “major league” ballpark.

 

Many White Sox fans would make the trip to South Bend to catch an occasional game; which is what I’m sure the Cubs are hoping will happen. They want to think it will help them cut into the one part of the Midwest – northern Indiana – where the White Sox have a fan base.

 

WHAT I FIND funny is that this now makes the Cubs an organization with a top-level minor league team in Des Moines, Iowa (the Iowa Cubs) and another affiliate with the Tennessee Smokies of Knoxville, Tenn.

 

I recall the 1970s when it was the White Sox who were affiliated with Des Moines (the team was called the Iowa Oaks back then) and the Knoxville White Sox (the Knox Sox for short, to local baseball fans).

 

It makes me wonder if the day will come that it will be the Cubs will be the ones with affiliates in Charlotte, N.C. and Birmingham, Ala. – which have been combined as a part of the White Sox system since 1997.

 

It also makes me wonder the logic of the Cubs organization – which thought it was making a significant move for the organization by ditching their long-time affiliate with the Peoria Chiefs two years ago.

 

HAVING A MINOR league ballclub in Peoria benefitted the Cubs by appeasing those fans living in central Illinois. It gave them a sense that they could catch live baseball without having to make the trek all the way to the Lakeview neighborhood.

 

They gave that up for Kane County, where the Cubs already had a strong fan base. They gained little to nothing with that move. Although I’m sure if the Peoria Chiefs weren’t completely satisfied with their St. Louis Cardinals affiliation, they’d be eager to have the Cubs back.

 

Instead, the Cubs are now setting up a system that they say is meant to build championship ball clubs, but instead is seeming to be one consisting of White
Sox cast-offs.

 

How long will it be before the Wrigley Field scene includes a shower head or two erected in the bleachers, or long-time (and now retired) White Sox organist Nancy Faust to play at selected games?

 

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Nothing’s certain when it comes to baseball and minor league prospects

2013 has been a crummy season for baseball fans in Chicago – the Cubs have been as bad as expected, and the White Sox have managed to be even worse.



Restoring the Sox to contender status?

Which is why the past week with its trade deadline has been anticipated – the idea that some established Major League ballplayers could be shipped off for several young prospects who will develop into talent.

TAKING THE REST of this season for a loss could pay off big! In theory.

My point being that minor league prospects are uncertain. There are so many factors that go into determining whether any success they had at lower levels of professional baseball will translate into success in the American or National leagues.

Replacing Ron Santo someday?

There’s no guarantee that Avisail Garcia (acquired from the Detroit Tigers as part of the deal that sent former Cy Young Award winner Jake Peavy to the Boston Red Sox) will be a big hitter for the White Sox – even though he has had some success in the Tigers’ minor league system.

The same goes for Corey Black, whom the Cubs acquired from the New York Yankees’ system in exchange for Alfonso Soriano. Or the slew of ballplayers – Mike Olt, C.J. Edwards and Justin Grimm, along with one or two players to be named later – that the Cubs got from the Texas Rangers in exchange for pitcher Matt Garza.



Best minor league trade payoff ever?

PEAVY, SORIANO AND Garza are all expected to help their new ball clubs be contenders for a playoff spot in 2013. That much is certain.

What is uncertain is whether the newcomers will translate into anything for the Chicago ball clubs? They might, or they might not. We’re not going to know for several years whether these deals were worth doing, or not!

So those people (particularly Cubs fans) who are convinced that they have now restocked their organization to the point where they should be regarded as pennant contenders ought to take pause.

It would be nice if it works out that way. Although trades such as the one in 1977 when the White Sox sent shortstop Bucky Dent to the Yankees in exchange for outfielder Oscar Gamble (who had the best year of his career during his single season on the Sout' Side) and several minor league prospects (one of whom went on to become 1983 Cy Young Award winner LaMarr "Dewey" Hoyt) are so rare.

I REMEMBER THIS 36-year-old deal so much because its payoff was so unique.



No wonder the Cubs haven't won in decades

Some of the biggest-name minor leaguers never translate into Major League success.

I still recall Karl Pagel – a former Texas League and American Association MVP while playing with Chicago Cubs minor league affiliates. I recall how he was supposed to be a power hitter who would be able to take advantage of Wrigley Field’s configuration and become a dangerous major league hitter.

In parts of 5 seasons (48 games overall), he managed all of 1 home run – which he hit while playing for the Cleveland Indians in 1981 after the Cubs gave up on him.

WHICH IS ABOUT the same as the one-time White Sox shortstop Harry Chappas – who had a big year in 1978 playing for Appleton of the Midwest League. That translated into him getting a shot with the Sox – although the only thing that’s really memorable about him was his height.



Remembered solely for his height (or lack of)

Officially, he was 5-feet, 3-inches tall, although some suspect he was more like 5’-6” and might have been more of a gimmick by then-Sox owner Bill Veeck. He did equal Pagel, however, in terms of total home runs hit in the major leagues.

These two cases aren’t the least bit unique. I’m sure other fans could come up with countless more names of ballplayers – both younger and older – who never amounted to their hype.

So are Garcia and Olt future All-Stars at right field and third base respectively for the White Sox and Cubs? Or are they just a few more additions to the list of no-names that gets longer and longer with each passing baseball season?

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EXTRA: Cub Quade to become Redwing? Not if Sox Cox beats him out

I hate to seem like a smart-aleck (Who’s kidding whom? I don’t mind it at all), but a part of me wonders if in a certain sense, Mike Quade is about to move up in life.

Baseball life, that is.

THE FORMER CHICAGO Cubs manager is in the running to become manager of the Rochester Redwings. That’s the International League affiliate of the Minnesota Twins. The Star-Tribune newspaper of Minneapolis reported that the Twins want to talk to Quade, but hope to have a manager in place prior to the Thanksgiving holiday.

It also seems that among the other baseball people seeking employment who are being considered for this particular job is Jeff Cox (one of Ozzie Guillen’s coaches with the White Sox who was let go when he was).

And yeah, as badly as the Cubs played last year under Quade, it may well turn out that he gets a better ballclub in upstate New York than he had last year on the North Side. Unless Cox beats him out for it.

All of which probably means that one-time St. Louis Cardinals infielder Ken Oberkfell will probably get the field manager job, for real.

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