By Roger Wallenstein

Tony La Russa has been there before. The path has not always been exactly the same, but in the 14 previous seasons when his clubs have made the post-season, there always has been a plan. Even after being absent from the dugout for 10 years, he knows the drill.
Just in case the 76-year-old isn’t quite as sharp as he used to be – not necessarily an accurate assumption based on some of the moves he’s made this season – he has all kinds of data, along with a more than ample coaching staff, to keep him current. After a sweep of the decrepit and depleted Chicago Cubs over the weekend, La Russa finds himself and his team with a 10½-game lead in the American League Central, its biggest margin of the season.

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Posted on August 9, 2021

By Roger Wallenstein

The old man peered over the top of his newspaper, eyeing his grandchildren and their friends.
“Why did they have to trade Madrigal?” lamented one, “even to get Kimbrel. Nicky was one of my favorite players.”
“Let me tell you a story,” interrupted Grandpa. “When I was about your age, or maybe a few years older, the White Sox had a great, great player. His name was Minnie Miñoso. Just saying his name was exciting. Randy Arozarena would be envious.
“Minnie also was the first Black player in team history which brought him immediate attention. When the Sox traded for him, on the very first pitch he ever saw in a Sox uniform in 1951, he hit a home run. Minnie played for some very good teams in the 1950s, long before even your parents were around. Miñoso was something like José Abreu. No matter how much he was injured and hurting, he played every day.
“Minnie could hit .300. He led the league in triples, and if you think watching a home run is something to see, you should have seen Miñoso slide into third base with a triple. He could steal bases and drive in 100 runs. Oh, did I mention that he was a terrific left fielder? He just never stopped moving, and my friends and I loved him.”
“Did the Sox have a good team then?” asked one of the kids.
“Oh, yes,” replied Gramps. “They won over 90 games a few times because they had other good players like Billy Pierce, Nellie Fox and Luis Aparicio.”
“So they won the World Series?” asked another youngster.
“No, that’s the point of my story,” said the septuagenarian. “There was another team, one with lots of money, the New York Yankees, and they had even better players than the White Sox. And just about every year, they won the pennant and went to the World Series, which they usually won.

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Posted on August 2, 2021

By Roger Wallenstein

As a young adult, we knew a guy of the older generation who, prior to departing for Las Vegas for a couple of days, would say, “I hope I break even. I need the money.”
Of course, if he were alive today, that glib gentleman wouldn’t have to travel to Nevada to attempt to hold onto the cash he already possessed. At last count, 35 states have casinos, and any sports fan can legally open an account on FanDuel, BetRivers, DraftKings or PointsBet, the “Official Sports Betting Partner” of NBC Sports, the local carrier of White Sox games.
Tune in to any Sox game to not only watch a ballclub with a nine-game division lead, but also to learn about ways to make money gambling on Tony La Russa’s charges.

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Posted on July 26, 2021

By Roger Wallenstein

There now. Feeling better this morning? All that worry about the cheating Houston Astros being far, far superior to the White Sox went for naught. All those knee-jerk tweets about the needs for a second baseman, a right-fielder, a catcher and help for the bullpen seem so silly after the events of the past two days. Now it’s José Altuve, Carlos Correa and their buddies who should have their doubts after Tony La Russa’s squad embarrassed them over the weekend.
In case your wi-fi was on the fritz the past few days, the Astros came to town having swept the White Sox four straight in Houston a month ago. And after the local group waltzed through a 7-1 loss on Friday night in front of 34,000 onlookers, the first of three such crowds at The Grate who showed up to boo and berate the visitors as much as anything else, you might have thought that the front-running Sox were destined to become a second-tier ballclub. Of course, that would have been a big mistake.

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Posted on July 19, 2021

By Roger Wallenstein

With one swing of the bat by Adam Engel on Sunday afternoon in Baltimore, the White Sox wound up nestled in about as good a position as anyone could have hoped for going into the All-Star break this week.
Engel’s three-run, 10th-inning blast, his fifth homer in just 46 plate appearances due to injury, overcame a rare blown save by closer Liam Hendriks. Once the potential tying run – a fly ball off the bat of DJ Stewart in the bottom of the 10th – settled into Engel’s glove a foot in front of the centerfield wall for the game’s final out, the South Side crew could breathe easily knowing that a four-day respite loomed ahead.
While Hendriks couldn’t nail down the victory in the ninth inning for what would have been his league-leading 24th save, Matt Foster, he of the 6.15 ERA, registered his first ever. Not only was it a 7-5 win over the last-place Orioles, completing a three-game sweep, but coupled with four wins in Chicago at the end of May, the Sox swept all seven games against Baltimore this season. In the entire 120-year history of the franchise, no Sox team had recorded seven straight wins without a loss in a season series against one team.
But wait. There’s more. Lots more.

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Posted on July 12, 2021

By Roger Wallenstein

The Yerminator has been terminated, and we should have seen it coming.
Not only was Yermín Mercedes never going to hit .300, and perhaps not even close to it, but changes in today’s game were stacked against him from the very beginning.
Please understand. When the White Sox former-Designated Hitter started the season with eight straight hits and was clipping along with a slash line of .415/.455/1.113 at the close of April, he had created a burgeoning legend. His energy, confidence, demeanor, and that strong stocky frame, energized the team and its fandom the first month of the season. He closed the gap that the devastating injury to Eloy Jiménez had left in the middle of the club’s lineup.
This was an unexpected, exciting development, and if you got caught up in the overt joy and the I-can’t-believe-it passion of it all, you were not alone.

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Posted on July 5, 2021

By Roger Wallenstein

The downpour finally subsided, moving on to the east, and Sunday showed promise. The suspended game from the night before would be resumed before a seven-inning contest to put a capper on the day. A perfect opportunity for the White Sox to get well against a still-developing Seattle Mariner outfit.
So we headed to the ballpark.

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Posted on June 28, 2021

By Roger Wallenstein

In case you didn’t notice, the sun did rise again this morning. Thankfully, the rotation of the Earth is far more predictable than the White Sox starting rotation as displayed last weekend in Houston. Judging from some of the reaction on social media, this item requires reinforcement.
The consternation and hand-wringing resulting from the four-game thrashing administered by the Astros should be expected, but let’s be realistic. Had most fans been told prior to the season that on the first day of summer, despite the extended absences of Eloy Jiménez and Luis Robert, the Sox would be 14 games above .500 with a 2½-game lead in the AL Central, back-slapping, high fives, the pouring of another shot likely would have been in order.
It matters not that the team has battered opponents with less than .500 records to the tune of 26-6 while going 17-23 against the stouter fellows. A win is a win, no matter if it’s by a run – the Sox are 8-9 in those nail-biters – or a blowout of at least five runs in which the Sox are 14-5.

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Posted on June 21, 2021

By Roger Wallenstein

This “next man up” might not be so much hooey after all. At least not yet.
But what’s Tony La Russa, Rick Hahn, and the minions in the dugout supposed to say about the staggering injuries that this year’s edition of the White Sox have endured? We heard the mantra once again last Wednesday when second baseman Nick Madrigal suffered a proximal tear of his right hamstring trying to beat out a slow grounder to third base. The Sox wound up losing the game 6-2 to Toronto, the team’s only loss of the week. Madrigal had been on a roll recently, raising his batting average to .305 while 16 of his 61 hits have gone for extra bases. In the previous nine games, Nick was slashing a rousing .353/.389/.948 with a home run and six RBIs. Clearly his loss would hurt.
But not so fast. The team hasn’t been beaten since Nick went down. Danny Mendick and Leury García will be the replacements for the foreseeable future, and beginning with Thursday’s 5-2 victory over the Blue Jays prior to the weekend’s three-game sweep of the Tigers in Detroit, that duo has combined for five hits, four walks, three RBIs, a two-base hit, and an on-base percentage of .529. Mendick also made a superb play on Friday, cradling a hard ground ball behind second base for the final out in the bottom of the tenth inning, preserving a 5-4 Sox win.

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Posted on June 14, 2021

By Roger Wallenstein

Driving down North Avenue on Sunday for the first time in months, I had to double check to make sure that I wasn’t on Division or Ohio. New high rises stood in places where taverns and eateries used to dwell. Crossing Elston was a new experience since the fruits and vegetables of Stanley’s had turned into a pile of bricks and rubble. Remember that place kitty korner? The one with the surrey out front? Long gone. Thankfully Art’s Drive-In remained to slap me back to reality.
And talk about rapid change! On Saturday, Tony La Russa was getting roasted once again for having Danny Mendick bunt in the bottom of the sixth at The Grate. Having just scored two runs to trail 4-3, runners stood at first and second with no outs. Poor Danny bunted into a force at third base, the beginning of the end of the rally as neither team scored again the remainder of the afternoon.
“I think that’s the play,” said the White Sox skipper later. “I felt really good about bunting them over.”
And the Twitter world lit up.

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Posted on June 7, 2021