By Roger Wallenstein

By the time Nick Swisher hit the blast halfway up the right-field bleachers off Addison Reed around 12:30 a.m. early Saturday morning, there were no f-bombs, airborne shoes, groans or moans in my man cave. I’ll admit maybe to a grimace, but then laughter. What else could you do?
In 137 years of major league baseball, no two teams had ever played as long as the White Sox and Indians on Friday night and continuing into the wee hours of Saturday morning.
While doubleheaders are pretty much a part of baseball history – this one only was necessary because of an earlier rain-out – there have been thousands of them over the decades. The seven hours, 37 minutes – featuring 46 runs, 59 hits, 18 pitching changes, and, of course, two Sox losses – wound up just before 1 a.m., factoring in a 25-minute rain delay added to the scheduled half-hour break between games.
The attendance of 28,628 no doubt included some of the revelers who made their way to the South Side after joining almost two million of their closest friends for the rally to honor the Blackhawks. Possibly others simply wanted to witness this sorry bunch of White Sox create new, innovative ways to blow a ballgame.

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Posted on July 1, 2013

By Roger Wallenstein

The ball was hit fairly hard, but Alexei Ramirez still had time to get into position to field the bouncer off the bat of Alcides Escobar. Getting a force at second base would end the Royals’ eighth-inning threat and preserve a victory – and a three-game sweep over Kansas City – for the stumbling White Sox.
Sorry, folks. This is 2013, and what used to be more or less routine has presented unprecedented challenges for this season’s edition of the White Stockings. If you watched yesterday, Ramirez let the ball go through him into left field, two runs scored, and the Sox lost again 7-6.
Ramirez made 12 errors last season in 158 games. Yesterday’s blunder matched that total, and we’re still three weeks away from the All-Star game.

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Posted on June 24, 2013

By Roger Wallenstein

The White Sox got lucky Saturday night.
Sure, they lost again on the road to the awful Houston Astros. And the game’s final play set a Sox 2013 “first” when it comes to unique and sad maneuvers to close out all hope in yet another one-run loss. Pinch runner Jordan Danks, representing the tying run, got himself picked off second base by closer Jose Veras to end the 4-3 game.
So what’s lucky about that?
At least no one was watching.
Danks picked a fortuitous time to lose his concentration. Just as he was being called out, the Blackhawks and Bruins were heading toward overtime in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals. So Danks and his mates were able to blow another one in virtual anonymity.

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Posted on June 17, 2013

By Roger Wallenstein

The two little guys sitting down the right-field line on Family Sunday immediately caught my attention. There they were with identical black t-shirts bearing the number 32 on the back with the word “Dunn” unabashedly resting across their shoulders.
Sitting with their mom and dad on one of the first truly comfortable days for baseball at the Cell were Bryan, 6, and his brother Boedy, 8.
“I see you’re wearing Adam Dunn t-shirts,” I said. “Is he your favorite player?”
Both nodded affirmatively.
“Why do you like him?” I asked.

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Posted on June 10, 2013

By Roger Wallenstein

When Phil Lucas’s daddy jumped a train in Alabama in October of 1946 heading to St. Louis for the National League playoff between the Cardinals and Dodgers, he couldn’t have known that his escapade would have long-term repercussions for his unborn son.
The Cardinals beat the Dodgers 4-2 that fall afternoon, and two days later they wrapped up the NL pennant by thumping Brooklyn 8-4 in the best two-of-three playoff.
Although Lucas, a history professor at Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa, grew up outside of Philadelphia, listening to his father talk about that 1946 playoff resulted in Phil becoming a lifelong Cardinal fan.
Not only that, Lucas has had a passion for the game’s origins, history and role in American society almost as long as he’s cheered for the Redbirds. Lucas’s expertise is American history from colonial times through Reconstruction, but he’s managed to share his love of baseball by offering a course, Baseball: The American Game, once every three years since 1984.

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Posted on June 3, 2013

By Roger Wallenstein

Despite missing his turn in the rotation last week as the White Sox made a mad dash to the .500 mark, Chris Sale did receive some publicity. It had nothing to do with his ability to mow down American League hitters as one of the league’s best pitchers.
No, this was about his culinary habits as described by the Wall Street Journal’s Brian Costa under the headline “Baseball’s Greatest Metabolism.”
To wit:

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Posted on May 27, 2013

By Roger Wallenstein

“Welcome to Orange County,” the Southwest flight attendant blurted over the PA as the aircraft bounced onto the tarmac last Thursday.
The airport sits in the city of Santa Ana; we were looking forward to watching the Sox play in Anaheim. We had hotel reservations in Garden Grove, and before the two days had ended we think we may have been in Tustin, Irvine and maybe even Costa Mesa.
It’s all Orange County, home of the Los Angeles – located in Los Angeles County – Angels of Anaheim. No wonder these guys are 10 games under .500. They’re confused. They don’t know who they are. Not Albert Pujols nor Josh Hamilton nor Mike Trout can make sense of this.

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Posted on May 20, 2013

By Roger Wallenstein

Compared to the thousands of people who use the Red Line to get to work every day, Sox fans really have little to complain about.
Starting Sunday, the CTA will close its nine southernmost stations on the Red Line, including 35th-Sox, which lets fans off just a half-block from the Cell. Five months from now, the CTA promises that the new tracks will make travel “faster, smoother, better.”
We’ll see about that, but in the meantime, fans going to U.S. Cellular on the “L” can use the Green Line – after transferring at Roosevelt – which lets them off two blocks further east. Judging from comments to a Sun-Times article posted on Friday, this will be a minor inconvenience. Sox vice-president of communications Scott Reifert went so far to say, “We really don’t think it will have a huge impact on us.”
The way the team has been playing, you wonder if Reifert was saying, “Impact? What impact? Why would anyone travel – on the ‘L’ or otherwise – to see this miserable team?”

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Posted on May 13, 2013

By Roger Wallenstein

The discussion focused on Pete Reiser and Tony Conigliaro, two talented ballplayers of bygone eras, whose careers were cut short by injury.
I was privy to this conversation last winter as an old Dodger fan talked about Reiser, who broke in with Brooklyn in 1941 as an outfielder at the age of 21. The next season he led the National League with a .343 batting average while legging out 17 triples, 39 doubles, and scoring 117 runs.
In 1942 he was sailing along at a .388 clip when he had his first encounter with an outfield wall. Reiser, you see, gave chase to deep flies the way Joakim Noah approaches loose balls. And in those days there was no padding on the bricks.

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Posted on May 6, 2013

By Roger Wallenstein

If the White Sox were a Chicago public school, they very well might find themselves on the list of 54 schools slated for closing because of low achievement and an empty building.
The Sox rank 26th – out of 30 major league teams – in runs scored, 28th in batting average, and dead last in on-base percentage. After Sunday’s 8-3 loss to Tampa Bay, they had outdrawn only three other franchises at home (and they are the league’s worst draw on the road).
However, things are not as bleak as they might appear.

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Posted on April 29, 2013