By Marty Gangler

Okay. So, if you are reading this right now, you probably read last week in The Second Basemen Report that I said that Darwin Barney “should never be starting on a major league roster.”
So, first, what I said kinda makes no sense because he should never be starting, or never be on a major league roster – it should be one or the other, right? But my point pretty much was, he shouldn’t be a consistent starter.
But then we have to go out to San Francisco and see that Ryan Theriot is the starter at second for the Giants. And on top of that, Barney went out and had a really solid week at the plate – even more solid when you think about how bad the Cubs are at hitting.
Which made me think: I might be wrong.

Read More

Posted on June 4, 2012

History hangs in the air the same way that the kudzu hugs the trees. Sitting in the first base grandstand, I closed my eyes for a few moments last Wednesday afternoon and tried to visualize Satchel Paige standing on the mound as a 20-year-old rookie in 1927. If that sounds somewhat peculiar, blame it on Rickwood Field.
Billed as the oldest ballpark in America, Rickwood’s turnstiles first spun in 1910. Its rich tradition and history are a part of Birmingham, Alabama, where the steel and iron industries highlighted its early economy and where the civil rights movement gained a foothold, signaling genuine change in America.
For the past 17 years, the Birmingham Barons, the White Sox’ Double-A affiliate, have staged the Rickwood Classic, a regular Southern League contest characterized by vintage uniforms, brass bands, and a few thousand fans – the announced crowd Wednesday was 7,180 – eager to hold onto and honor the past.

Read More

Posted on June 4, 2012

A Field Guide

* Winning two in a row seems like an accident.
* You go to closer-by-subcommittee.
* You have Blake Lalli and Koyie Hill on the same roster.
* Memorial Day is for reflecting on a season already lost.
* Your best pitcher has a 2.14 ERA and is winless in eight starts.

Read More

Posted on May 30, 2012

By Jim Coffman

How are we going to convince the good-time sports fans in this town to put a little more discretion in their discretionary spending?
Because something must be done. When the competitive and scorching hot White Sox draw all of 21-, 27- and 22,000 fans Friday through Sunday for big games against their division-leading rival and then the Flubs return home having capped off a 12-game losing streak with a remarkable run of ineptitude in Pittsburgh to find 38,000 waiting for them for a matinee with the stinky Padres on Memorial Day, well, that is just unacceptable.

Read More

Posted on May 29, 2012

By Marty Gangler

As this season progresses, Cub fans just have no choice but to look at the future. I mean, you could watch this team now and hope they turn it around. But you’d be kind of insane to do so. Nope. As it’s been written and talked about all year, the 2012 season is all about the 2014-and-beyond season. Read that again, this is just weird.
With this being the given, what is there left to say about the worst team in baseball in 2012? Why, it’s what we’ll get out of being so horrendous! It’ll be the number one pick in the 2013 draft. The baseball draft. We’re not even talking about the NFL draft. We’re talking about the baseball draft. It’s like talking about practice. It’s the draft. In baseball. The baseball draft.

Read More

Posted on May 28, 2012

By Roger Wallenstein

He was two months short of his 17th birthday when he left his California home and headed to Chicago for what Jim Derrington says was a “dream come true.”
Thanks to the Bonus Rule and his electric left arm, Derrington spent the final two weeks of the 1956 season – and the entire 1957 season – as a member of the White Sox. On the final day of the ’56 campaign, a year when the Sox went 85-69 and finished third in the American League, manager Marty Marion named Derrington to start against the Kansas City A’s. “I was the youngest pitcher to ever start a major league game,” Derrington, now 72, recalled in a phone conversation last week.
Derrington lasted six innings in that historic, but long forgotten, game in Kansas City and was tagged with a 7-6 loss.
None of this would have occurred if wealthy, greedy teams like the Yankees hadn’t begun to sign and stockpile hot prospects right after World War II, outbidding the competition any time they thought a guy had the potential to become a big leaguer.

Read More

Posted on May 28, 2012

By The Beachwood Vs. Affairs Desk

First the Kennedy Curse struck again. Then the Cubs Curse struck again. Which got us to thinking.
Kennedy Curse: Evil family patriarch named Joe.
Cubs Curse: Evil family patriarch named Joe.
Kennedy Curse: Family got rich bootlegging alcohol.
Cubs Curse: Family hopes to get richer slinging overpriced alcohol.
Kennedy Curse: Family members have history of depression.
Cubs Curse: Team is always depressing.
Kennedy Curse: Alcoholism run amok.
Cubs Curse: Alcoholism run amok in the bleachers.
Kennedy Curse: Family tainted by a suspicious drowning.
Cubs Curse: Team tainted by continual choking.

Read More

Posted on May 25, 2012

By The Beachwood Vs. Affairs Desk

“Chicago’s next turn in the global spotlight promises just as much of an economic jolt as the NATO summit – with a fraction of the headaches,” Crain’s reports.
The 2012 Ryder Cup rolls into the Windy City on Sept. 25 – 30 with expectations of $135 million in economic impact – on par with the $128 million the city expected from the summit, according to the DuPage County Convention and Tourism Bureau.
As protester-in-chief Andy Thayer might say, we’ll have some of what they’re smoking.
There are similarities, however, between the two events. Let’s take a look.

Read More

Posted on May 24, 2012

By Dan O’Shea

If you somehow haven’t heard, it has been a bad year for closers – you probably have at least one active RP on the DL and another with five blown saves. One way to deal the mess is by filling that RP slot with pitchers that have dual SP/RP eligibility.
There are solid SP/RP choices every year, though it is usually difficult to know at the beginning of the season who the best ones will be, since it is an eligibility designation often earned by relievers who are asked to start to fill a hole in the rotation and end up have unexpected success. For example, Ryan Vogelsong, now merely a starter for San Francisco, was arguably last season’s best SP/RP pick-up, winning 13 games with a 2.71 ERA.
We did enter this season with at least one great SP/RP candidate, Matt Moore, who earned the final spot in the Rays’ rotation and was so highly touted after he came up to the majors in late 2011 that I listed him as my No. 1 pre-season RP this year. However, Moore has disappointed, going just 1-4 so far, with a 5.20 ERA.
As with most years, the most effective SP/RP thus far have been surprises, and a few of them are still available in many fantasy leagues:

Read More

Posted on May 23, 2012

By William Walsh

Fans south or north of Madison,
April swagger through September woes,
Ascend the passageway slope,
Emerge with undying hope,
Breathe the vast green expanse – repose.
A century both sides of Madison,
A city sprouts among these two lot,
Grainy black-and-white clips,
The scorecard page flips,
A ‘W’ hoisted? Sometimes – most times not.

Read More

Posted on May 22, 2012