September Call-Ups

First I would like to thank CK for letting me contribute to this blog, what I can contribute is to be determined, as I have never done this before, but I will bring what I can to the team, I'll be a swiss army knife of sports thoughts, as I dabble in most major sports. I also like long sentences with many commas, and that will be apparent to all readers very quickly.

I think to do my first blog, I am going to list something I like, and then something I don't like, maybe to give the readers a taste of what to expect from my blog posts in the near future.

I LIKE the Chicago Cubs.

I DON'T LIKE when a team underachieves so bad that my first thought about attending a game in September is "oh well, it's only 5 bucks" instead of "I hope this is the team that makes a run deep in the playoffs"

I LIKE honesty from management.

I DON'T LIKE when a team makes moves and acquires players at the trade deadline, and then the hour or two before newly acquired players have to be on a team to be elgible for the postseason, you go and get rid of as many guys as teams would take. I am talking about the White Sox, who got rid of Thome and Jose Contreras (reports said they were trying to ship Jermaine Dye somewhere else as well). Now getting rid of Contreras is fine, but getting rid of guys just to save a little bit of money is like giving the old Cubs motto to your fans, "There's always next year." The Cubs also tried to get in on some of this action, not making as much noise at the trade deadline as the Peavy acquistion, but tried to get rid of some players, and then could not come to terms with the teams trying to acquire Rich Harden and Aaron Heilman, respectively.

I LIKE good quarterback play.

I DON'T LIKE when the media uses attitude problems as a guy's weakness. Jay Cutler is an absolute beast. 23 for 34 passing, with 265 yards and two touchdowns in the last two preseason games, but when the Bears traded for him, people in the media like Tony Dungy questioned how much the Bears gave up for a guy who demanded a trade out of Denver. The Bears gave up multiple 1st round picks for a 26 year old who has already been to a Pro-Bowl, and has a career completion percentage of 62.5%. So far, the critics have been put to shame by Cutler's performance in the preseason, and I believe, based on what I have seen so far, (although in preseason action only with the Bears,) will continue to eat their words into the regular season. For a team that has never had a good quarterback in my lifetime, or anyone's lifetime who wasn't around for Sid Luckman in the 40's for that matter, I can't wait to have a known commodity like Cutler lead the Bears for what I can only hope is a long, fruitful relationship between Cutler and the Bears.

I LIKE Fantasy Football.

I DON'T LIKE people who think they know a lot about Fantasy Football, but in reality don't know nearly enough to be able to hold an even slightly knowledgeable fantasy discussion. This could be applied to all sports, not just the stat-heavy fantasy leagues, but when you talk about Fantasy Football, you have to numbers or reasons to back up your argument other than "Player X is garbage, Player Y is much better." This is not a valid argument, you have to state why that player is better, it would be like me saying all Packers are bad in fantasy because they play for a team I don't like. Also, this is the first year in some time where picking a running back in the first and second round is not a sure thing, because of the rise in number of teams splitting carries and goalline backs in the NFL, only the elite runners see the bulk of their team's carries. Where, on the other hand, the number of elite WRs and QBs can each be counted on one hand. So a pick outside the top 5, towards the end of the round, could see you taking an elite WR and an elite QB over a top 10 player in a very deep position, running back.

In closing, I think about what a difference a year has made here in Chicago. Last year at this time, the Cubs were cruising through the final full month of the regular season, gearing up for what everyone thought would be something special in October, while the Bears were picked by many to be worse than the Lions, and the only people who thought the Bears would do anything were Bear players themselves. Where now, this year, the Cubs have all but eliminated themselves from postseason play and the Bears are favored by most, nationally as well as locally, to win a very good, deep NFC North.

Oh what a difference a year makes.

Today, I'm taking a break from White Sox misery (Dye .186 in August, Beckham .183 since August 5th, Rios .192 with White Sox, Jose Contreras, etc.) to present some fine oddball trivia that I came across today as I pored over the 2009 Red Sox media guide.

Even the most casual baseball fan is familiar with Joe DiMaggio's 56 game hitting streak, but not nearly as often do you hear about the AL and NL consecutive game RBI streak record holders.

After a one game trial in 1920 with the Red Sox, Ray Grimes burst onto the scene with the Cubs in 1921 with a fine .321 average over 147 games. The next season he did even better, posting a .354 mark, adding 14 HR and 99 RBI. In the second game of a doubleheader June 27 vs. Pittsburgh, Grimes knocked in Charlie Hollocher with a single, and would record at least one RBI in the next 16 games as well. He led the Cubs in RBI that year, and would only record another 80 in his career, which ended with the Phillies in 1926 at age 32. His son Oscar played from 1938-46, mostly during wartime, and made the 1945 All-Star team with the Yankees.

The American League record in 14 by Tris Speaker, the Hall of Fame center fielder known mostly for playing the shallowest center field in history, collecting an unheard of 449 outfield assists. Speaker also is the holder of the all time record for doubles, with 792. Speaker also put together a career .345 batting average, and was player-manager for the 1920 champion Indians. But the Speaker that set this RBI streak was the 40 year old in the twilight of his career with the 1928 White Elephants. Spoke only played in 64 games that season, and only posted 11 RBIs other than the 19 he had during his 14 game streak. You would certainly expect him to have set the record during his prime with the Red Sox or Indians, but instead it was with the 1928 Philadelphia squad, the team I would choose if I had to have one autographed team ball.

Yes, it was one season before the 1929 championship team, but this 1928 team not only featured the nucleus of the 1929-31 pennant winners; Mickey Cochrane, Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons, and Lefty Grove, but it also featured Speaker and Ty Cobb in their last seasons. Eddie Collins, the all time second baseman of many, was also on that team. Many other fine players rounded out the team, such as Max "Camera Eye" Bishop, Jimmy Dykes, Joe Hauser, who twice hit over 60 homers in the minors, Bing Miller, Ed Rommel, and ageless wonder Jack Quinn (a youthful 44 that season; he played until 50).

For my money, that's the most impressive team on paper in baseball history.

Meanwhile, on the South Side...

Freddy Garcia made his return to US Cellular Field tonight sporting a fresh #43 uniform as he took the hill against the bottom feeding Royals.

White Sox Slogans
2004: Sox Pride
2005: Win or Die Trying
2006: Again
2007: Back to the Grind
2008: Share the Passion. Show the Swagger

and...

2009: Washed up Latin Pitchers Wear Black

Bartolo Colon has come back, got hurt, came back again, and went AWOL
Jose Contreras has come back, got hurt, owned the world for two weeks, and became bad again.
Freddy Garcia lost to the Royals (nuf ced)

Kenny Williams was last sighted scouring the streets of Miami in search of El Duque Hernandez. He's ripe. And if that's not enough, Kenny's got a big treat for you: Javier Vazquez, the second coming (gotta wait until he gets old; therefore clear up your calendars April 2014).

Homers off HOFers

Today, I was running a log of all multi HR games by Harold Baines in a White Sox uniform (is it really a log if there are only eleven?) and I found that on June 8, 1989, Baines homered twice off the Ryan Express.

I wondered how many players have hit two in a game off of Ryan. Couldn't be many, I would assume. I assumed correct. Only eight. Dick Allen, Jimmy Wynn, Johnny Briggs, Graig Nettles, John Mayberry, Duane Walker, Mike Greenwell, and of course, Harold Baines.

I couldn't help myself. I needed to gauge that against other pitchers. Roger Clemens was next (Why? because the next White Sox HR log I ran was Carlton Fisk, who evidently hit two off Roger Clemens August 26, 1987. Ten other players managed the same.

I repeated with Randy Johnson and Greg Maddux. And Cy Young (only Fred "bonehead" Merkle?!?!).

It was very interesting comparing the list of who hit two in a game off of Clemens and who did the same off of Johnson or Maddux.

Maddux: Kal Daniels, Luis Gonzalez (twice), Benito Santiago, Eric Karros, Scott Rolen, Pat Burrell, Steve Finley, Javier Valentin, Wily Mo Pena, and Charles Thomas.

Nobody really great. Rolen very good. Gonzalez good, Burrell, Finley, Karros, Santiago decent. Overall unimpressive.

How about Johnson: Glenn Wilson, Jesse Barfield, Dave Henderson, Gerald Williams, John Valentin, Jim Edmonds, Greg Norton, Juan Gonzalez, Javy Lopez, Kevin Young, Chipper Jones (Twice... exactly a year apart on Sept. 5, 1999 and 2000!), Marquis Grissom, Eduardo Perez, JJ Hardy, Shane Victorino, and Albert Pujols.

Better. Pujols, two time MVP Gonzalez, MVP Jones, Grissom, Lopez, Edmonds, and a few other all stars.

But compare this to the Clemens list.

Robin Yount, Eddie Murray, Carlton Fisk, Ivan Rodriguez, Fred McGriff, Manny Ramirez, Ken Griffey Jr, Jim Thome, Albert Belle, Damian Rolls, and Josh Phelps.

OK. Toss out Rolls and Phelps. But you have three hall of famers, three other 500 home run club members, another certain Hall of Famer in Ivan Rodriguez, and two incredible players in Albert Belle and Fred McGriff.

Equally impressive is the Lefty Grove list.

Gehringer, Ruth, Greenberg (twice), Simmons, and a pair of all stars in Pinky Higgins and George Selkirk. Wow.

The Walter Johnson list is comprised of Jack Fournier (would have been a monster had he not played primarily in the deadball era) and Lou Gehrig.

Back to Ryan. How about the 8/10/90 game I stumbled across. He gave up two homers to White Sox batters. The 1990 White Sox included Carlton Fisk, Sammy Sosa, Frank Thomas, Robin Ventura, and Ron Kittle, but the two homers were to Craig Grebeck and Ozzie Guillen, whose careers spanned over 8500 at bats and 47 home runs.

I love trivia like this.