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Catching Fire

By Roger Wallenstein

By the time the White Sox’ $54 million closer Liam Hendriks strode to the mound in the top of the ninth inning last Saturday on a chilly night at The Grate, the contest between the local club and the Texas Rangers displayed the kind of drama that makes the game so compelling.
Sox starter Dallas Keuchel had pitched into the seventh inning, allowing seven hits. Two runners got as far as third base but advanced no further. Keuchel fanned just two batters, but the key to his success was that he walked no one. When he departed, his teammates led 1-0.
The lone run had scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the sixth after two outs and no one on base. A couple of base hits and a walk followed before catcher Jose Trevino was unable to corral a breaking ball from Kyle Gibson as Yoan Moncada raced home. The wild one was one of six Texas misfires during the weekend series in which the Rangers were swept by Tony La Russa’s surging forces.
Last season with Oakland, Hendriks gave up a home run in the first of his 24 appearances. It was the lone round-tripper he yielded over 25⅓ innings in the entire COVID-shortened season.

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Posted on April 26, 2021

Where Quarterbacks Don’t Die

By David Rutter

Former Bears quarterback Jim McMahon at least has the efficiency not to launch himself 240,000 miles to the moon as Neil Armstrong did only to say the wrong profound quote when he got there.
So when McMahon last week spit insultingly across the ethernet chasm at the Bears, Bears quarterbacks, Bears fans, and Bears management and owners – plus virtually the entirety of Chicago and Bozo The Clown – at least he didn’t have to travel off-planet to send his missive.
Chicago is “where quarterbacks go to die,” he told the Fat Mike Chicago Sports podcast show this week. Yes, another reason you just love to hate podcasts.
As for the bodies of dead quarterbacks, you see them everywhere. Their corpses are buried under Michigan Avenue and Bronzeville and Streeterville – and maybe a few in Winnetka and Minooka – and some are left floating in Lake Michigan like marker buoys. The bodies of these deceased Bears pocket gassers and gimpy scramblers are everywhere.

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Posted on April 20, 2021

A Box Of No-Hitters

By Roger Wallenstein

No-hitters come along about two a season, and they come in a variety of shapes and forms. Sort of like a box of chocolates. You bite into one hoping for something sweet like caramel or strawberry, but occasionally you get an unknown foreign substance which requires the nearest trashcan for relief.

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Posted on April 19, 2021

Not To Worry, White Sox Fans

By Roger Wallenstein

Had we been told before the White Sox season began that after nine games the starting pitchers would have covered 47-plus innings with a 3.02 ERA, we’d have burst with optimism, assuming that the club had six or seven wins.
We knew that Lucas Giolito, Dallas Keuchel and Lance Lynn were solid, whereas Dylan Cease and Carlos Rodon needed to prove that they could fortify the end of the rotation. So the good news 12 days into the season is that those five hurlers, who have fanned 60 batters while walking just 19, compose one of the better starting staffs in either league.
Included in those numbers, of course, was the complete game masterpiece spun by Lynn last Thursday, blanking the Kansas City Royals 6-0 in the home opener at The Grate. Lynn walked no one while striking out 10 – only the ninth time in team history that a pitcher has recorded double digits in strikeouts without walking anyone in pitching a shutout. Hall of Famer Ed Walsh was the first to do it in 1910, and Giolito accomplished the feat in 2019 against the Twins.
This is all fine and dandy news. So what is the explanation that instead of racking up lots of wins in this young season, the ballclub has struggled to post a disappointing 4-5 record? The answers are not at all complicated.

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Posted on April 12, 2021

The NFL’s COVID Warning For Baseball

By Alex R. Piquero and Justin Kurland/The Conversation

Baseball season is here, and thousands of cheering fans are back in the ballparks after a year of empty seats.
Most teams, still cautious of the COVID-19 risk, are keeping their stadiums to less than 30% capacity for now.
Only the Texas Rangers packed the ballpark for its home opener on April 5, 2021, a move President Joe Biden criticized as not being responsible.


Many of these attendance decisions are being made with minimal data about the heightened risk that players and fans face of getting COVID-19 at stadiums or arenas and spreading it the community.
There is one large-scale experiment that can offer some insight: the National Football League’s 2020 season.

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Posted on April 7, 2021

The Yerminator Has Landed

By Roger Wallenstein

Five years, 10 years, 25 years from now, few will remember the botched fly balls and blown leads, but the legend of Yermin Mercedes will remain alive.
Chances are, even a century into the future, his eight hits in as many at-bats to kick off the season will remain as the hottest streak ever for a ballplayer’s first two games of a new campaign. The Yerminator has landed.

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Posted on April 5, 2021

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