High, Hard One
I see the Indians develop young, stud starters such as Jaret Wright and Bartolo Colon, I’m thinking, what has Ron Schueler been doing all these years?
Oh. Wait. I forgot. Scott Ruffcorn.
Just asking
At what point does a former pitching coach such as Schueler figure out how to get players who can, I don’t know, actually catch the ball?
Definition
The worst thing the Sox could have done in trying to be fan friendly is continually talk about how they want to be fan friendly. Whatever “fan friendly” means.
“Be nice to fans,” Robin Ventura clarified, “and don’t throw things at them.”
By definition
Funny how Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf brings in a convicted wifebeater and conveniently determines that “fan friendly” has nothing to do with moral character, just playing hard, like players can’t figure that out for several million dollars a year.
Just asking
Another thing, Chairman Reinsdorf: If “fan friendly” is just a matter of “playing for the fans,” as you say, why do you force your players to sign autographs before certain games?
Ventura’s highway?
It would be just like the “fan friendly” Sox to finally make a deal for starting pitching this year by trading Ventura, who’s only the most popular player on the team.
Voice mail
Guess I wasn’t the only one who thought White Flags Chairman Reinsdorf sounded silly with that tripe that Chicago fans “would rather see a team that plays hard and doesn’t win than a team that just sort of lollygags and does win.”
Get a load of this from an aggravated caller identifying himself as “White Sox Bob”: “This guy has no clue. He has absolutely no grip on any reality of what White Sox fans want. Get a leadoff man, a team that can field and some pitching. Because he’s from Brooklyn he knows something about baseball? That’s like saying every yahoo in Houston, Texas, can run the space program.”
But wait, there’s more
Reinsdorf made that statement and others based on White Sox polling and surveys.
And in case you’re interested, Reinsdorf has surveys that agree with his surrender trade of Wilson Alvarez, Roberto Hernandez and Danny Darwin when his team was 3 1/2 games out with two months to play.
And he has surveys that show that Sox fans don’t think he’s a bad owner, that he wasn’t one of the major voices in forcing the players into a strike in a 1994 season that Sox fans believed was going to be theirs, and that he’s not to blame for the team’s crappy image and bad attendance.
He has more surveys on other things.
You just can’t see them.
Just asking
What would surveys of lapsed Sox fans show as blame for the team’s status and standing?
Blame game
When coach Craig Hartsburg says the story of the Blackhawks this year is that “we make one mistake and it’s in our net,” then he’s indicting the front office’s pathetic job of getting players who couldn’t overcome one stinkin’ mistake.
But Bill Wirtz probably got his $5 million profit from his precious “season-reservation holders,” so forget about it.
Quotable
Indiana coach Larry Bird, on whether he asked advice from former teammate Danny Ainge, the Phoenix Suns coach: “I would never consult Danny on anything. The only thing I ever told him was I wished he’d do something on the court so his man would quit defending me.”
