Lip Man 1

While Oscar Colás was struggling, you routinely talked to us about what was bothering you about the way he was playing. Fans see, or have the perception of, similar mistakes being made by other players, specifically a lightning rod this year was Tim Anderson with the numbers that he put up. We didn’t hear the same kind of language from you in regards to him or some other players. Fans want to know: What is the difference? “The difference is that Tim Anderson’s been in the league for a long time and he’s done it over and over and over again. And he got ample time in the minor leagues to develop. Oscar hasn’t. ?

https://chicago.suntimes.com/white-sox/2023/10/2/23900562/white-sox-2023-season-could-not-have-been-much-worse

One thing is for sure, if the rumors/reports of massive changes to the coaching staff are true, if (when) the Sox get off to a miserable start next year there aren't any "fall guys" left...save for one...Pedro.

October 2, 1904 - Guy “Doc” White’s streak of 45 consecutive scoreless innings was broken when the New York Highlanders (Yankees) got a run in the first inning of the first game of a twin bill in Chicago. White would pitch in both games, getting decisions in both. He won the first game, lost the second. October 2, 1908 - In the heat of a three-team pennant race it may have been the greatest game ever thrown by opposing hurlers against each other. Cleveland beat the White Sox 1-0 as Adrian “Addie” Joss fired a perfect game. Meanwhile the White Sox Ed Walsh struck out 15 Indians and allowed only four hits. The winning run scored when catcher Ossee Schreck couldn’t hang on to one of Walsh’s spitters with a man on third. An interesting note happened before the game. Joss had finished his warm up throws and was strolling in the outfield when he saw Walsh sitting by himself on the Sox bench. He came over, sat next to him and the two pitchers had a quiet conversation while a photographer snapped their picture. October 2, 1959 - Game #2 of the World Series was looking like a repeat of game #1. The Sox were leading the Dodgers 2-1 in the seventh inning with two out when Chuck Essegian and Charlie Neal slugged home runs off Bob Shaw. Making matters worse was that in the middle of an eighth inning Sox rally, the slowest man in baseball, Sherm Lollar was waived home with what would have been the tying run on a double by Al Smith. He was out by five feet. Instead of having men on second and third with no out, it was a runner on third with one out. The Sox lost the game 4-3. Earlier in the fifth inning Sox outfielder Smith would get hit in the face with a cup of beer knocked over by a fan reaching for Neal’s first home run. It would become one of the most famous photographs of the 1950's. October 2, 1985 – The White Sox named Ken “Hawk” Harrelson as the new Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations, as well as the de facto G.M. replacing Roland Hemond. Harrelson, one of the clubs TV broadcasters and former big-league player, immediately started implementing his vision for the organization. Manager Tony LaRussa was offered a one-year contract but Harrelson fired three of his assistant coaches including pitching coach Dave Duncan. Fellow broadcaster and Hall of Fame pitcher Don Drysdale was named as a pitching consultant. Former Sox pitcher “Moe” Drabowsky was hired as a relief pitcher coach, Harrelson decreed that all Sox minor league coaches were to be former Major League players. He made a series of trades to try to improve a team that won 85 games in 1985. His best was getting outfielder Ivan Calderon from Seattle, his worst was trading outfielder Bobby Bonilla to the Pirates for pitcher Jose DeLeon. He also thought All-Star catcher Carlton Fisk would best be served by moving to left field to make way for prospect Joel Skinner. Bottom line was the Sox went 72-90 in 1986 and Harrelson resigned at the end of the year replaced by Larry Himes. October 2, 2015 – Sox starter Chris Sale broke “Big” Ed Walsh’s club record for most strikeouts in a season. Sale struck out the Tigers James McCann, the future Sox catcher, in the second inning of a 2-1 win giving him his 270th strike out of the year. Walsh’s record had stood since 1908. Sale would finish the 2015 season with 274 strike outs.

Great! They'll resign Elvis to play shortstop now! ?

Just heard from a second source, a member of the mainstream media, that they know Hasler has been fired and have heard rumblings about others being told they won't be back.

You survive the next few years by taking care of yourself and outliving current ownership. Then you see what the next owner does.

For what it's worth I got an e-mail from a source dated Monday morning just after midnight that said most of the coaches were told after the loss to San Diego Sunday they were going to be let go. The e-mail specifically named Boston, Hasler, Castro, Johnson "and others". We'll see. I haven't been able to find out anymore info in this regard. I'm guessing we'll all know in the next few days.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/white-sox/2023/10/1/23898927/white-sox-coaching-staff-changes-pedro-grifol

By the Numbers… If the White Sox are being honest with themselves they’ll find there is not one…single…area where they can say, “We’re OK here, this is something we can build on…” Consider: The offense is terrible. Doesn’t draw walks, doesn’t hit home runs, strikes out far too much The are “baseball-stupid” when it comes to fundamentals The manager is clearly in over his head The front office is new and have to do “deep dives” into all the problems They at best may have two starting pitchers The bullpen is made up of has been’s, retreads, injury-prone guys and cast offs The minor league system is thin at best This has been my 63rd season following this team as a fan and then as a Sox historian. The time period from 1968-1970 was bad…but not this bad. There are so many areas that are crippling starting with ownership that is ossified. Just some numbers that show some of the issues: The 101 losses is tied for the third worst in the history of the franchise. They scored three runs or less in 87 of 162 games played. That’s 53.7% They were 5-10 in extra inning games (lack of fundamentals/bad bullpens). They allowed 10 or more runs in a game 20 times. 19 times they had a lead in the 7th inning or later…and LOST the game! Here is the pitcher breakdown (in some cases it was two pitchers in the inning who lost it): Kelly-5 (7th/5-27); (9th/5-28); (9th/6-10); (8th/7-1); (8th/7-4) Graveman-3 (7th/3-31); (9th/6-11); (9th/7-9); (9th/7-23) Lopez- 2 ½ (7th/4-14); (9th/4-21); (8th/5-4) Santos-2 ½ (7th/7-22); (9th/8-16); (9th/9-5) Crochet-1 (8th/9-22) Diekman-1 (7th/3-31); (7th/4-14) Lynn-1 (7th/4-29) Scholtens-1 (7th/8-12) Shaw-1 (7th/9-18) Banks- ½ (10th/7-23) Middleton- ½ (7th/7-22) With Reinsdorf already publicly setting limits on what Getz is going to be able to do in free agency, and with it being a mediocre free agent class to start with, plus not a lot of valuable trading assets I simply don’t see how this club is going to be significantly better next year, even in a bad division. In the winter of 1970, at least Roland Hemond had some valuable trading assets (Aparicio, Berry) he was able to move to get back multiple pieces and he had some good players (John, May, Melton, Wood) already producing on the roster. That’s how the Sox went from 56 wins to 79 in 1971. That’s not happening here.

Thank god this disaster of a season is over. Next year could be worse. Sell Jerry Sell!

I never said it would do any good. Just said it was something fans cling to, in an effort to hope for change.

He is not going to deliberately destroy the value of his franchise (which is what you wrote) in the hope he can sell it to Montreal, Salt Lake City or Portland. Please...just stop. He's keeping the team until he dies, Period. Full stop. His family will then sell it as per his wishes/instructions.

It's driven by the hope that only through complete and utter embarrassment JR may be impacted enough to actually move the franchise in a positive direction. I don't blame the fans for thinking that way, you have to have something to cling to hope-wise.

Small consolation but at least Cub fans can't gloat given their team choked away an almost sure playoff spot by collapsing the last three weeks.

October 1, 1950 - Luke Appling got his final hit with the White Sox in 4-3 win over St. Louis. The future Hall of Famer spent 20 years and 2,422 games in a Sox uniform. He’d later come back as a coach for the club in 1970 and 1971. Appling had 2,749 hits, all with the Sox in his career and won two batting titles. October 1, 1959 - After 40 years, the wait was over and the Sox were back in the World Series facing the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Sox reacted in game #1 like they were trying to win the title in a single afternoon, burying L.A. 11-0. Ted Kluszewski slammed a pair of home runs and tied a series record with five RBI’s. The Sox assaulted Dodger starter Roger Craig early and often to give Cy Young award winner Early Wynn a lot of breathing room. October 1, 1970 - It was the end of the worst season in Sox history and as it turned out the final game ever called by longtime Sox announcer Bob Elson. “The Commander” began his White Sox career in 1930 and for the next 40 years called games in good times and bad. His style simply no longer fit the environment and with the Sox needing to make drastic changes everywhere, he was let go. The Sox closed out a 106-loss season in Anaheim losing to the Angels 5-4 in 15 innings. They lost their last seven straight to end the year. Elson found work for 1971 calling the Oakland Athletics while the A’s announcer, Harry Caray took over for Elson with the Sox! October 1, 1975 – Sox owner John Allyn appeared on Johnny Morris’ sports show on WBBM-TV. While talking about the pending sale of the club he said if he did own the team in 1976, Harry Caray wouldn’t be back as lead announcer. Allyn was tired of Caray and wanted to fire him which he actually did later on. The next day Caray had this retort, "I can’t believe any man can own a ball club and be as dumb as John Allyn. Did he make enough to own it or did he inherit it?" As it turned out neither man had to worry, Allyn sold to Bill Veeck and Veeck immediately rehired Caray who continued in his broadcasting role for the rest of Veeck’s ownership. October 1, 2015 – In the seventh inning of a game at U.S. Cellular Field, Jose Abreu’s two run single gave him 100 RBI’s for the season, the night before he collected his 30th home run of the year. Both milestones came off Kansas City’s Luke Hochevar. Abreu thus became only the second player in Major League history with at least 30 home runs and at least 100 RBI’s in their first two seasons. He joined Albert Pujois in that exclusive club.

Together, it’s an odd dynamic in which solemn pledges to improve are matched by vague details on how it all will be repaired after some of the worst baseball seen in this ballpark. ‘‘Wherever we end up, we end up,’’ Grifol said. ‘‘That’s not where we’re going to be next year, so I don’t get too caught up.’’--Grifol ?

Please...just stop

I'll have more on this in the next few days i.e. By the Numbers but seriously there isn't one single area that I can find where the Sox can say, "OK...at least we are in good shape here..." The offense is a joke (more than half their games this year they scored three runs or less), the pitching is a disaster with few starters and a bullpen made up almost entirely of cast off's, retreads and has been's, terrible fundamentals from "baseball-stupid" players, an incompetent, dysfunctional and inept front office who is new to the carnage, an ossified owner who has already put limits on the free agent situation publicly and a poor minor league system. What could possibly go wrong in 2024? ?

Congrats to the White Sox for accomplishing something at least this season! ?

That's up to the individua. As for me being born and raised on the South Side that is not an option.

September 30, 1904 – Guy “Doc” White fired his fifth straight complete game shutout running his scoreless streak to 45 innings in a 4-0 win over the New York Highlanders (Yankees) at South Side Park. The streak started on September 12 with a win over the Cleveland Naps (Indians). During his shutout run he won two games by the score of 1-0, one of those was a one-hitter on September 16 against the Browns. In 45 innings White allowed only 17 hits. His shutout streak ended in his next start, two days later, against the same New York team when they got a run in the first inning although White went on to win that game 7-1. September 30, 1921 - Sox catcher Ray “Cracker” Schalk tied a Major League record with three assists in one inning. It happened in a 3-2 loss to Cleveland at Comiskey Park. It happened in the eighth inning. Schalk fielded three ground balls, throwing to first to record an out, to tie the mark. September 30, 1949 - Sox G.M. Frank Lane started the connection between the franchise and Venezuela when he dealt two minor leaguers and $35,000 dollars to the Dodgers for shortstop Alfonso “Chico” Carrasquel. “Chico” would be named to three All-Star teams and would become the first Venezuelan to appear in the midseason classic. He’d then be traded before the start of the 1956 season, to the Indians for Larry Doby and to open up the position for another countryman of his, Luis Aparicio. September 30, 1956 - In the season ending game at Kansas City, Sox pitcher Jim Derrington became the youngest person to ever appear in a game wearing a Sox uniform. Derrington was 16 years old when he started against the A’s. He went six innings allowing six runs (five earned) in a 7-6 loss. The teenaged lefty didn’t last long in the big leagues. He pitched a total of 43 innings in the majors, appearing in 21 games, and had a career record of 0-2. He was signed as a bonus baby by the Sox only 18 days before making his big-league debut! September 30, 1966 - The Sox defeated the New York Yankees 6-5 in 11 innings on a single to left by Johnny Romano. It scored Wayne Causey. Why was that important? The loss guaranteed the Yankees a last place finish. It was their first since 1912. They went 70-89-1. September 30, 1971 - When Bill Melton smashed a home run on the last day of the season off the Brewers Bill Parsons in the third inning, he became the first Sox player to ever win a home run championship. Melton hit three home runs in the final two games to pass former Sox player Norm Cash and Reggie Jackson for the title. Typically, White Sox, he only had 33, the lowest total for a champ since 1965. In an effort to give Melton an additional at bat or two, manager Chuck Tanner had the power hitter leading off in the Sox final two games. His homer was the difference in a 2-1 win. September 30, 1980 - For all of his contributions to baseball and to the White Sox organization, owner Bill Veeck was honored with his own night. The ceremonies took place before the Sox would drop a 5-1 decision to Oakland. September 30, 1990 - 80 years of baseball history ended as the original Comiskey Park closed with a 2-1 win over the Mariners. An emotional and capacity crowd, including politicians, musicians, sports and Hollywood figures were in attendance. Among the celebrities in the park were Governor Jim Thompson, Major Richard M. Daley, Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, Ron Howard, George Wendt, John Candy, Wayne Gretzky, Billy Cunningham and Maureen O’ Hara. The Oak Ridge Boys sang the National Anthem and the rock group Styx sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the seventh inning. Bobby Thigpen got his 57th save in the game. The Sox would close out a miraculous 1990 season with 94 wins. September 30, 1997 - After controversies on and off the field (calling for a relief pitcher with no one warming up, a fistfight with umpire Richie Garcia at a steakhouse, a brawl near third base with Brewer’s manager Phil Garner) manager Terry Bevington was fired. No flowers were sent and no Sox fan (or player) shed any tears. September 30, 2000 - Sox infielder Jose Valentin became the fourth player in franchise history to hit home runs from both sides of the plate in the same game. Valentin connected off the Royals Blake Stein and Scott Mullen. He drove in three runs in the Sox 9-1 win. This had only happened six times in franchise history and Valentin did it three times himself! Also, three times this feat happened against the Kansas City Royals. September 30, 2008 - For the first time the White Sox played an extra game to get into the post season. They hosted the Twins in the 163rd contest of the year known as the “Blackout Game” and won 1-0 clinching the Central Division title. John Danks threw eight shutout innings, Jim Thome belted what turned out to be the game winning home run and Ken Griffey Jr. threw out a Minnesota runner at home. The Sox won the division with a record of 89-74. The 1-0 score was the lowest tiebreaker playoff game in Major League history. September 30, 2016 – Sox left hander Carlos Rodon tied the franchise and the American League record by striking out the first seven Twins hitter in a game at U.S. Cellular Field. The original record was set by the Sox Joe Cowley back in 1986 at Texas. Unlike Cowley though, Rodon actually won his game 7-3. Rodon struck out 11 on the night pitching eight innings. September 30, 2023 – It was the final embarrassment to an embarrassing season on and off the field. The White Sox loss to the Padres 6-1, on the next to last day of the season, was number 100 on the year. It was the fifth time in franchise history the team lost at least 100 games. In two years’ time, in the middle of a supposed window of contention, after a three year rebuild, the Sox went from 93 wins to triple digit losses. A number of players were traded at the deadline and then a few weeks after it both Executive Vice President Kenny Williams and General Manager Rick Hahn were fired by owner Jerry Reinsdorf who called the season embarrassing and said that if he were a fan he’d be “pissed off.”

Watson also said this in Fegan's story: But an early show of Watson’s connection to the new Sox leadership was his ability to adhere closely to Getz’s expression of confidence that his team has contention-caliber pieces in place, while also specifying that “we are not going to put a timetable on it.” Tell that to JR.

There is no easy straight forward answer to the cesspool they created. They have zero credibility with the fan base who (rightly) think anything said by the front office is spin and CYA. If they call it a rebuild they publicly admit the initial attempt was a failure and they also alienate what fan base they have left who won't believe the folks in charge will do any better than the previous staff. But that same fan base will see (likely) a half-ass off season trying to patch numerous holes with retreads, has-been's, injury prone players and mediocre free agents. They are between a rock and a hard place. There is only one way out and I'm not being facetious. Fans need to take care of themselves and hope to outlive JR and see what new ownership can bring. Until then it's going to be a lot of misery. Keep those VHS tapes of DVD's of past Sox games from good seasons around...your going to want to watch them.

I was sent an e-mail tonight by a longtime former member of the Chicago media who covered the Sox. They said (quote) "Getz and Gene Watson are disaster hires. I wonder if pro scouts will depart and if Mike Shirley will be promoted."