By Roger Wallenstein

Meeting the person sitting next to you and enjoying a three-hour ball game together makes each trip to the ball park a unique outing.
Occasionally you have some dope in the next seat who 1) knows nothing about the game, 2) talks incessantly about matters other than baseball, or 3) simply grates on your nerves.
But far more often – at least in my experience – I meet someone who shares a passion for the Sox, actually knows that Gordon Beckham is good field-no hit, and realizes when Ozzie needs to replace Humber with Crain.
Furthermore, this random guy in the next seat could be a CEO, a teacher, or a traveling salesman. He might live on the North Side (not very likely) or in Bridgeport. One thing is certain: He (or she) won’t be a carbon copy of me.

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Posted on August 15, 2011

By Roger Wallenstein

The train wreck of a homestand that ended mercifully last Thursday was no surprise to anyone following the White Sox this season. Maybe it’s arrival came later than one might have figured, but sooner or later our beloved athletes were destined to plummet in a strikingly similar fashion to the stock market last week.
It wasn’t complicated by unemployment, the debt ceiling, or trouble with the European economy. This crisis is plain and simple: The boys have an offense that’s broken. For months the sublime message to the starting pitchers has been, “Okay, guys, there’s your one or two runs. Now go out there and try to be perfect.”

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Posted on August 8, 2011

By Roger Wallenstein

So long, Edwin. We hardly knew ye!
Three days short of his one-year anniversary as a member of the White Sox, Edwin Jackson was dispatched to the Blue Jays last Wednesday. In turn, the Jays dealt Edwin to the Cardinals, Jackson’s sixth team in his nine years in the big leagues.
Luckily, Jackson has long been accustomed to moving around since his father was a military man. Edwin actually was born in Germany, although he attended the same high school in Columbus, Georgia, as Frank Thomas.
So what’s wrong with this guy? He gets swapped almost as often as Big Papi spits on his batting gloves.

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Posted on August 1, 2011

By Roger Wallenstein

A number of theories and suggestions have been made to explain the inconsistencies of the White Sox this season. However, as yet, I’m not aware that anyone has said that maybe our guys – with the possible exception of A.J. Pierzynski – are just too nice and friendly.
Just within the Central Division – the one that counts most for the Sox – is it unreasonable to question the goodwill and lovey-dovey exchanges between the Sox and the opposition?
It’s no secret that Ozzie and Detroit’s Miguel Cabrera, fellow countrymen, are close. In addition, the accolades and plaudits flow freely from Chicago to the Twin Cities about all the fundamentals that the Twins do better than anyone else.
Jim Thome wears a Twins uniform, but he was very popular in the White Sox clubhouse and remains pals with Paulie and others. And, of course, Gordon Beckham let the world know that he and the Royals’ Chris Getz – another former teammate – remain buddies by his infamous message scrawled in the Cell’s infield dirt a few weeks ago.
Oh, how times have changed.

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Posted on July 25, 2011

By Roger Wallenstein

Former first baseman Keith Hernandez, who played 17 seasons and had a lifetime .296 batting average, wrote a book (with baseball writer Mike Bryan) 17 years ago called Pure Baseball. All Hernandez did was analyze each and every pitch of two major league games from the 1993 season – Braves vs. Phillies and Yankees vs. Tigers – one in each league taking into account the use of a DH.
The “battle of wits and balance of talent between the pitcher and the hitter is baseball,” states Hernandez at the outset. “Everything else is secondary.”

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Posted on July 17, 2011

By Roger Wallenstein

It was one of those period pieces, a plastic maroon Motorola radio about the size of a small shoe box; say, size 5.
Two knobs dominated the front: the left one controlled on-off and volume, and the right tuned in the ballgame. No FM dial and certainly nothing to adjust the tone or quality of sound.
Sox games even then were carried on AM 1000, but it was WCFL, not ESPN. “CFL” stood for Chicago Federation of Labor. If that doesn’t tell you how times were different, then consider there were few McDonald’s and no Starbucks.

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Posted on July 11, 2011

By Roger Wallenstein

“I can see why they call this place the Confines,” commented Sox fan Doc from his seat in Aisle 237 Sunday at Wrigley Field. “But I wouldn’t call it friendly.”
Doc was sitting next to Ted, a lifelong Cubs fan, and as often happens at the ballpark, the two hit it off about as well as one could expect considering their rooting interests.
“I’m friendly,” countered Ted. “What are you talking about?”
“Claustrophobia, that’s what,” said Doc. “It took me 15 minutes just to get through the gates to get in here. And the aisles and tunnels made the trip to these seats seem like one of those climbing walls at REI. And what’s that netting above me?”

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Posted on July 3, 2011

By Roger Wallenstein

I kept rewriting this week’s report because things got weirder and weirder at The Cell over the weekend. Of course, I’m referring primarily to Adam Dunn, who is in an indescribable funk. Rehashing here what already has been covered elsewhere doesn’t make sense. However, the South Side has never been witness to this kind of phenomenon, making it difficult to ignore.
Sure, there was Dave Nicholson, who struck out 175 times for the Sox in 1963. Nicholson was part of a trade with Baltimore that sent Luis Aparicio to the Orioles. Dave had signed a bonus contract with Baltimore which proved to be a waste of money, and they gave up on him at age 22. He had a reputation for hitting gigantic home runs so the Sox took a chance.
Is this relevant to Dunn? Well, sort of. For one, Nicholson’s 175 whiffs have remained unmatched for the past 48 years in Sox annals. But the mark clearly is in jeopardy now that Dunn has fanned 100 times – with seven strikeouts in eight at-bats over the weekend.

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Posted on June 27, 2011

By Roger Wallenstein

Rick Telander’s column about Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban in the Sun-Times last week stirred up memories of former White Sox owner Bill Veeck. The teaser on the back page of the print edition claimed that “Cuban might have been better suited to change Cubs’ fortunes than Ricketts family is, but baseball didn’t want him.”
According to Telander, the commissioner and owners (he named Jerry Reinsdorf as being a mover and shaker) didn’t approve of Cuban. Too unpredictable; a loose cannon; not to be trusted. And ya think Reinsdorf wanted the likes of Mark Cuban only 70 blocks away via the Red Line?!?
The owners didn’t want Bill Veeck either. When he put together a syndicate to purchase the Sox in the mid-’70s, the lords were similarly unimpressed. Even though (or should I say because?) Bill had owned and operated the Cleveland Indians (1946-49), St. Louis Browns (1951-53), and the White Sox (1959-61), he was an outsider for some of the same reasons as Cuban.

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Posted on June 20, 2011

By Roger Wallenstein

I had to walk up and down aisle after aisle last Thursday at The Cell looking for them. You can still find a few, but they are scattered throughout the ballpark, whereas years ago finding people penciling in scorecards was as easy as locating empty beer cups.
“It’s a lost art,” lamented Ed Wiklak who grew up just a few blocks from Comiskey Park. “I score every game. One time I missed in the last 50 years was because it was raining.”
We’ll forgive Ed for this omission, especially since he figures that he has 600-700 games stashed away at his Wheeling home. Decades ago he graduated from the scorecards sold at the park to a scorebook that he purchased at Sports Authority.
Wiklak likes detail. Even before the first pitch – the exact time of which he accurately records – Ed pencils in the temperature (it was a frosty 50 degrees for Thursday’s 9-4 victory over the A’s) and the names of the umpires. After the game, he tapes his ticket stub on the corresponding scorebook page, and he clips the box score from the next day’s paper and attaches that as well.

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Posted on June 13, 2011