The other side of the tracks
While Cubs roll, Sox keep fading into irrelevance
I’m not the only one here, but it feels like it. Why, you wonder, is anyone here at U.S. Cellular Field on a raw, cold October Saturday evening when this White Sox season ended months ago? Never got started, really.
Chris Sale breaking the team’s season strikeout record is all it will be remembered for, and that happened Friday night.
Oh, wait, Jose Abreu reached 30 home runs and 100 RBI for a second consecutive season— fine work. The Cubs’ Anthony Rizzo, with similar numbers, is being touted as an MVP candidate. Abreu has had another nice, quiet year.
No-impact quiet. Because winning matters.
It’s appropriate that the Tigers are the Sox’ opponent for the final act of a futile season. The loser of the series could be cited as the American League’s most disappointing team, then face the Nationals to settle that title for all of baseball. You know, steal a little thunder from the Cubs’ upcoming playoffs.
Nah, that might be fun, or innovative.
Innovation doesn’t fit among all the status quo in the Sox’ tool box— Ed Farmer will be back for another year of monotone droning as radio play-by-play man. And if anyone thought this season was fun, next year could be a scream because it looks like more of the same.
Oh, wait, Mark Parent was launched as bench coach, and Harold Baines moves from assistant hitting coach to team ambassador.
Problems solved. A truly thorough overhaul should begin with a new bench coach, and team ambassadors are like quality bullpen arms— you can never have enough.
Robin Ventura— excellent player, genuinely good guy— would be a wonderful team ambassador. Whether he’s any good as a manager remains in question after four ineffectual seasons. The Sox bringing him back suggests they don’t hold the foreman responsible for his crew’s shortcomings.
What they’re really saying is this crew is so flawed, it doesn’t much matter who the foreman is, so let’s keep Ventura around and get him some help in the form of a bench coach who will be less plainspoken than the crusty Parent, preferably in Spanish.
Besides, managers are overrated. What has Joe Maddon done for the Cubs? Better question: What hasn’t he done? New players will help much more than a new bench coach, though their origin isn’t known. And who will be in charge of procuring them, Rick Hahn or Ken ‘‘Al Haig’’ Williams? That needs to be settled.
Trayce Thompson has given the Sox a nice six weeks and looks like a keeper, and Carlos Rodon could be Jon Lester to Sale’s Jake Arrieta. But the more we saw of Carlos Sanchez and Tyler Saladino, the less certain we became, especially of their hitting.
And is there a Kris Bryant in the group? An Addison Russell? A Kyle Schwarber? A true differencemaker?
I do not and never have bought into White Sox-Cubs as an eitheror proposition, but when two teams are competing for the same market’s patronage and loyalty, comparisons are inevitable.
And right now there is no comparison. It’s like Packers-Bears. The Cubs have flooded the field with dynamic young talent that’s going to be good for a while. The Sox trot out Adam LaRoche and John Danks, a true competitor but a shot fighter.
Being a bad team is bad enough. Bad and boring is worse. The games take forever. The play is not sharp. There is no life anywhere, on the field or in the stands.
The whole production seems tired, dated, and the broadcasts don’t help. Hawk Harrelson, I get — he’s a cult figure, the ideal guy if your tastes run to daffy absolutes (“Cooperstown is full of guys who weren’t in shape”), junk science on the epidemic of oblique strains and, of course, Yaz references. Steve Stone is wasted as his silent partner.
Silent? Farmer ought to try it sometime. I listen to Sox broadcasts in spite of Hawk and Farmer, not because of them. The byplay between the Cubs’ voices is more natural and informative, a better listen.
There you go again with that Cubs stuff. Sorry, but it’s relevant to the discussion. They’ve put a terrific young team on the field, they’ve transformed Wrigley Field into a baseball shrine with amenities— they’re setting a standard.
The status quo won’t cut it for the Sox. Advance sales fueled by last winter’s false optimism halted an eight-year attendance decline, but what do they sell next year? Irrelevance looms if they don’t figure it out.