A lazy summer is lulling us to sleep in Chicago, though it could be the underachieving baseball teams and their nonexistent offenses.
Whichever team you rooted for, nothing was really worth watching last week. That’s a good excuse to go to Plan B: a Sunday column of non sequiturs.
As late, great Tribune columnist Terry Armour liked to say: “Dot-dot-dot is a columnist’s best friend.”
Heard on the White Sox telecast
The “good news” from Friday’s 10-0 loss to the Seattle Mariners, according to announcer John Schriffen, was that only two relievers were used after Drew Thorpe was knocked out in the eight-run first inning. Good line — only he wasn’t being sarcastic.
Heard on the White Sox postgame show
Host Chuck Garfien announced they had postgame video of Sox manager Pedro Grifol talking about the loss, then added it would air after the commercial break. Co-host Ozzie Guillen responded: “Thank you. I don’t want to hear him.”
Can we just cancel the games and go straight to the postgame show for our entertainment?
Dot-dot-dots, Part I
Will Kyle Hendricks step immediately into the Cubs front office when he retires, or will he have to intern in Boston under Red Sox GM Craig Breslow? … Roger “The Sodfather” Bossard was spotted dining over the All-Star break at the Union Pier Social Club in Union Pier, Mich., taking a much-needed holiday from the Sox. After not having to put down the tarp for a rain delay in 2023, Bossard was already in double digits in the first half of ’24. The Sodfather is the only Sox untouchable.
Sky is not the limit
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred confirmed to me that baseball writers need to “be able to see” the games they are covering.
The topic came up at the All-Star Game in Arlington, Texas, when Manfred addressed the Baseball Writers Association of America. I asked him about the recent trend of owners locating press boxes to places with poor views, a trend White Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf began with the renovation of the former new Comiskey Park. The Rangers’ Globe Life Field press box is located in the highest deck of the ballpark.
Q: “I don’t know if you’ve been in the Texas press box, but it’s kind of like in the stratosphere. What do you think of teams moving press boxes to views that are very, very bad for baseball writing?”
A: “We have tried to work with it. But look, clubs control their program in the ballparks. It’s their ballpark. We’ve never had a particular rule about (press box) placement. (MLB has) worked really hard with clubs to try to remind them how important the working press is to the marketing of our game. And for that relationship to be positive and helpful in terms of marketing the game, you’ve got to be able to see. And we will continue to do that.”
In other words, go get some binoculars.
Toasting Kenny Mac
Kudos to Chicago’s very own superutility man Kenny McReynolds, who will receive the Sam Lacy Pioneer Award at this week’s NABJ Convention in Chicago. “Kenny Mac” has covered everything from high school sports to MLB during his long TV and radio career in Chicago and has won more awards than I can count.
But this one means a little more to McReynolds because of what it represents. Lacy, the first Black member of the BBWAA in 1948 and a former Chicago Defender reporter, was one of the first and only Chicago sportswriters to publicly advocate for the desegregation of Major League Baseball. Lacy wrote several letters to the Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis. None was answered.
Minireview
A four-part documentary on Pete Rose currently is airing on HBO. To save time, I skipped to the last 20 minutes of Part 4, when Rose was still complaining about not getting into the Hall of Fame and Cincinnati media members still praised him. Rating: One star.
#TeamJesse
Cubs manager Craig Counsell was visibly annoyed last week by a question from ESPN.com’s Jesse Rogers, who asked about the approach of Christopher Morel, comparing his at-bat to “swinging for the lake.” Counsell told Rogers his opinion was a “bad take,” and their back-and-forth was replayed ad nauseam on sports radio.
Counsell’s overreaction suggests he’s feeling some pressure in his first season in Chicago, where the media is quite different than the one in small-market Milwaukee. Chill out, dude.
Olympic dot-dot-dots …
While watching the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, it was easy to understand why France considered Jerry Lewis a genius. … It’s a travesty “Saturday Night Live” talking head Colin Jost was given the assignment of Olympic surfing commentator over 1980s surfing legend Jeff Spicoli. Remember, it was Spicoli who coined the phrase “tasty waves” and also told sportscaster Stu Nahan: “Surfing is not a sport, it’s a way of life. It’s no hobby. It’s a way of looking at that wave and saying, ‘Hey, bud, let’s party.’ ” … Were you thinking the same thing as me when you watched Snoop Dogg carrying the Olympic torch? Yeah, I thought so. … It’s hard to root for the U.S. men’s basketball team in Paris after they left a guy like DeMar DeRozan off the roster.
Chicago-style bullpenning
Entering Saturday, the White Sox had lost 39 games after leading, and Sox relievers had a major-league worst 25 blown saves. The Cubs were third-worst with 19 blown saves.
Amazingly, the Rangers bullpen tied for the worst in the majors last year with 33 blown saves. Then they won the World Series.
Someone please inform Schriffen.
Waiting on Liev
Inquiring minds want to know what mode of transportation “Hard Knocks” narrator Liev Schreiber will use when arriving at Halas Hall to meet the Bears. Last year Schreiber arrived at New York Jets camp in a helicopter as cameras rolled. He then asked Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers: “So tell me, how come nobody wants to do the show?”
Rodgers said players felt it was a “distraction,” though he called that a “misnomer.” When Rodgers proceeded to gush over Schreiber’s narration, the actor admitted: “I’m just ripping off John Facenda,” referring to the legendary NFL Films narrator.
One last dot-dot-dot …
This week marks the 20th anniversary of the four-way trade that sent Boston’s Nomar Garciaparra to the Cubs. The Red Sox ended their championship drought in 2004 and won the trade, while the Cubs imploded in the final week. In honor of former Red Sox GM Theo Epstein’s wheeling and dealing, we’re suggesting a five-way trade by some of Epstein’s former employees now running teams — Breslow, Detroit Tigers President Scott Harris, Arizona Diamondback GM Mike Hazen, Pittsburgh Steelers GM Ben Cherington and Cubs President Jed Hoyer. … Sorry, but I miss hearing Bob Costas on Olympics broadcasts. So sue me.
