By Roger Wallenstein

To rebuild or not to rebuild? That is the question.
If the White Sox do rebuild – or whatever you wish to call it – the experience will be a new one for a franchise which has had other sub-.500 stretches that are very reminiscent of the current situation. A fourth consecutive losing season seems likely even after the Sox won two-of-three over the weekend against the Oakland A’s, a club even more in limbo than the local contingent. Losing twice in a three-game set earlier in the week in Cleveland resulted in another 3-3 week, not exactly what’s needed as the fellows hope to at least break even for the season.
Perhaps the closest the franchise has come to sacrificing the present for the future occurred at the trade deadline in 1989, when fan favorite and 10-year Sox veteran Harold Baines was traded to Texas for infielder Scott Fletcher, minor league pitcher Wilson Alvarez, and a skinny rookie named Sammy Sosa.

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Posted on August 22, 2016

By Roger Wallenstein

Driving east on Division one morning a few weeks ago, I crossed Dearborn and spied a familiar figure on the Northwest corner. There in full Cub regalia, including a batting helmet rather than a hat, stood Ronnie (Woo Woo) Wickers, reading a newspaper, minding his own business, and attracting not so much as a honking horn or a high five from passing pedestrians. The guy could have been invisible.
Not so long ago, Ronnie would have been engaged in goofy exchanges, and he might even have offered a “Rizzo, woo! Bryant, woo!” to entertain the gaga fans, who would immediately text their friends, “You’ll never guess who I just saw.”
But those days are long gone. Whether fans found guys like Ronnie totally annoying or pleasingly entertaining, there was no arguing that he was part of the scene on the North Side. He usually found friendly fans to provide him with a ticket to the bleachers where he led cheers. When his decayed front teeth resulted in a wide gap in his uppers, fans took up a collection so that he could be outfitted with dentures.

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Posted on August 15, 2016

By Roger Wallenstein

During the White Sox’ recent road trip to Seattle, Hawk Harrelson lamented that Jose Abreu has swung at more pitches outside the strike zone this season than any other major league batter.
Then on Thursday right, before Abreu hit his first home run since June 23rd, a two-run shot in the second inning to help the Sox beat Detroit 6-3, Harrelson and Steve Stone had this exchange.

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Posted on August 8, 2016

By Roger Wallenstein

The Crosstown Classic, Cup, Showdown or whatever you want to call it garnered plenty of attention last week as the Cubs and Sox split the four games, each team winning a pair in their home park. Despite the fact that the games count in the standings thanks to interleague play, the stakes were arguably higher when the teams met many years ago.
From 1903 until 1942, the Cubs and Sox participated in what was known as the City Series, usually a best-of-seven confrontation played parallel to the World Series. If either Chicago team won its league pennant to advance to the World Series, the local showdown wasn’t played, like in 1917 and 1919 when the Sox won pennants. And in 1906 when both clubs were league champions, they met in the World Series with the Sox emerging victorious four games to two.

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Posted on August 1, 2016

By Roger Wallenstein

According to general manager Rick Hahn, the White Sox are “mired in mediocrity,” but when it comes to crazy off-the-field, clubhouse shenanigans, they’re leading everyone. And Chris Sale is the ringmaster under the Big Top.
After Sale’s spring training tirade aimed at vice president Kenny Williams following Adam LaRoche’s bizarre walkout – as opposed to a walk-off which LaRoche failed to register in his one season on the South Side – the ace left-hander again went ballistic Saturday evening after being instructed to wear the uniform made famous by the South Side Hit Men 40 years ago.
Before examining exactly what is happening with this team and its best pitcher, let’s review the attire in question.

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Posted on July 25, 2016

By Roger Wallenstein

Before he died a couple of years ago, Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner told the story about his contractual negotiations with the legendary Branch Rickey when both were employed by the Pittsburgh Pirates. Of course, Rickey is best known as the general manager who courageously brought Jackie Robinson to major league baseball when Mr. Rickey was general manager of the Dodgers.
While acknowledging Rickey’s monumental contribution to the game, Kiner had another view of the man known as The Mahatma. Without a union or an agent, each player negotiated his own contract, and Kiner disclosed that Rickey was determined to hold on to as many dollars as possible. Rickey’s concept of player compensation was, politely, frugality. Kiner saw him as cheap.

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Posted on July 18, 2016

By Roger Wallenstein

196-173.
49-27.
17-12.
You won’t readily recognize these numbers, but they’re the scores of the last three All-Star games for the NBA, NFL, and NHL, respectively.
Actually the NHL score is from 2015. After that folly, the league decided upon a new three-on-three format. It got that bad.

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Posted on July 10, 2016

By Roger Wallenstein

In this Jekyll-and-Hyde, manic-depression, alive-dead season, Sox fans can be excused if they’re just a bit confounded this Fourth of July. If Butch Cassidy were a Sox fan, he would likely ask, “Who are those guys?”
Winners of their last nine of 13 games, accounting for four consecutive series wins, can this be the same band of South Siders who previously dropped 26 of 36 decisions? Say it ain’t so, but it is.

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Posted on July 4, 2016

By Roger Wallenstein

Amid Brexit, a Civil Rights era style sit-in in Congress, the end of a proposed Star Wars museum on the shores of Lake Michigan, and the very, very historic unveiling of luxury suites at The Donald’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland, our White Sox tip-toed back to respectability.
Don’t be mistaken. The Cubs’ six losses in seven games last week will attract far more attention. However, the athletes at 35th Street displayed their most resilient persona in the past six weeks as they took three of four in Boston before returning home to master the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday and Sunday, sandwiched around a puzzling loss Saturday when they hit a franchise-tying record seven home runs. All of which left the White Sox even at 38 up and 38 down.

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Posted on June 27, 2016

By Roger Wallenstein

“The only thing this circus is missing is a top on it.”
So said Matt Underwood, the Indians’ play-by-play TV voice, amid the devastation Saturday during the second inning in Cleveland as the Tribe took a 7-0 lead. The seventh run crossed the plate in the person of ex-Sox favorite Juan Uribe, who had singled to chase current Sox non-favorite James Shields, who retired just five of the 15 hitters he faced prior to his departure.

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Posted on June 20, 2016