Highland

I know it would have been a great honor for Cease, but I'd rather see him get the rest. It would be the Sox luck if Cease got a line drive in the face in a meaningless game.

I thought I had seen at least two "turning points" in the season. I saw hope when they almost overcame a 6-0 lead in the ninth inning against the Angels. I also thought that when they played well against the Yankees in New York. There have been no turning points. They need to play consistently, and they have not shown they can do that yet. They should win the division, but that doesn't mean they will.

The Sox should win today and tomorrow because they are the better team. Perhaps someone should tell them that, or maybe they should start believing it.

Regarding his post-game press conferences: If I was in the FO, I'd be embarrassed. Here is a guy who publicly representing your organization and he can barely get his words out. And here is your post-game showing this stuff on every show. If not embarrassed, I'd be concerned. Is there something physically wrong? But the Sox just go on and on and pretend nothing is wrong. Yes, it's the fans. But this is what happens when you hire a friend.

17 years is a long time, and the Sox have won a grand total of three post season games since then. And, of course, they lost every post season series since then. 2025 is just around the corner, and it will be 20 years since this team has appeared in a World Series. And JR and the same front office will still be running the team and they still will be making the same mistakes. But he'll tell you he really wants to win.

I'm old enough to remember this, too, although it is something I'd like to forget, like this season.

No, you can't, and the state of denial will continue. The FO can lash out at fans, but the team is under .500 at the season's mid-point, and there is no denying that. No, no one tells JR what to do no matter how many stupid things he does.

LaRussa was fired at mid-season, but that was more Hawk than JR. In fact, one condition that Hawk to be hired as GM was that he had to keep LaRussa. Regardless, the LaRussa firing was handled as bad as it could have been handled. If Hawk was going to be GM, he should have been able to pick his own manager in the beginning. Right now, there is no one to challenge JR. The ship is sinking, but the yes-men are circling the wagons and pretending nothing is wrong. The FO puts its reputation on the line with the rebuild, and it isn't working. The future doesn't look so bright. So, yes, the whole LaRussa thing in 1986 is one reason we are in this current position.

I think Frank is right. I've noticed Abreu winching when in his position at first. Yet, he leads the Sox in homers. What does that say?

Right now, I don't have the high expectations of a sweep. I'd like to see some good defense, no running gaffes, and getting runners in from third with less than two outs. Then we can go from there. Sweeping any major league team in four games is hard, even when that team is bad. And it is hard for a team under .500 to do that.

Face saving win. Shows how this offense can be when Eloy and Luis are clicking at the same time. Eloy made a good defensive play, too.

1969 was not a disappointment for me, but it is something Cub fans of that generation never got over. They didn't just think their team was great, they thought it was the greatest of all time. They had their entire infield on the All-Star team. Ken Holtzman threw a no-hitter. Everyone seemed to be having a career year. Then they lost it to a lesser team. Should the 2022 team rank that high as a disappointment, or did we just over-estimate them?

Let's hope you are right. But what ex-Sox player will be named as manager?

Hahn is a symptom of the problem. Big changes should have been made in this organization back in 2011, and it didn't happen. Instead, we got Robin Ventura and then Tony LaRussa. We know who is in charge. The wagons are circling. All we can hope for at the moment is that the team finally starts hitting. But, even with that, the long-term future doesn't look good.

This year the Sox have had one long losing streak, and one long winning streak. Other than that, it has been a losing struggle to get over .500. I don't think this club is now capable of an 8-2 or 9-1 run. Even if they win today, they let the Twins come into their ballpark and take the series. At this point, I don't know how the Sox are going to turn things around.

All I hope from Eloy is for him is to play the rest of the season without injury and work at becoming a real major league hitter. If he ignites the team with some power, good. But I don't expect it. I expect little from him and this team at the moment.

My wife, a very casual baseball fan, watched the post-game show with me after the second Twins loss. Like everyone else, she noticed that LaRussa was slurring and mumbling his words during his press conference. She also had the impression that Ozzie really wants his old job back. Regardless, the press conference was so bad, she speculated that LaRussa might have had a recent stroke. Putting Harrison in to pitch was a joke. No, it wasn't at likely the Sox were going to come back from an 8-2 hole. But this was giving up. Maybe giving up on the season as well? Like with the 1997 White Flag Trade. This is pathetic. While the White Sox are burning, JR and his enablers are playing the fiddle. This team is going nowhere. Not now, or in the near future.

You are right about the Sox being baseball stupid. And they have been that for a long time. But when JR only hires managers and coaches who are his friends, it is not shocking that this continues to happen.

If the Sox are not in first at the end of the stretch, they will not be going anywhere this year. It's no longer early. The weather is fine. No more excuses.

Paul "sully" Sullivan had another whiny column on the Fourth. He was offended by an analysis of Wrigley Field by Red Sox rookie pitcher Josh Winckowski. Winckowksi said: "A little underwhelming. Fenway has a presence to it. I really didn't get that here, to be honest. I said to my mom last night, this place was very stock standard." By the end of the column, Sullivan threw a personal insult at Winckowksi. For a minute there, I thought the Tribune Company still owned the Cubs.

If the White Sox think they are the best team in the AL Central, now is the time to show it.

I am happy with the wins in San Francisco, but the offense is still struggling to get into double digits in hits. Banks did look very good. Kelly and Graverman did not.

You know things are not going well when organization in-fighting makes into the media. Makes me wonder how powerful LaRussa is if Hahn is saying is frustrated by LaRussa's in-game decisions. It would be informative if there was a political-type leak from someone in the organization. While fans are calling for LaRussa's head, maybe Hahn is the one who ends up going.

In reality, the White Sox have been an organization that has provided little access to the press. Jerry Reinsdorf stopped giving interviews a long time ago, and when he did, he put tough restrictions on them. From the start, he has felt that the media didn't treat him fairly. Tough questions can be asked, but they won't be answered. Ask too many, and you will be a reporter with next to no access. Instead, JR tries to control information through his TV and radio people. He never releases any statements himself in any form. As a result, during the 80s and 90s, the Tribune saturated the market with Cub propaganda, and it was like Chicago didn't have another baseball team. All we heard was that Wrigley Field was a shrine, and what great fans the Cubs had. The Cub fan base grew; the Sox fan base shrunk. Nothing has really changed.

I am not even going to speculate on what needs to be done. I have no faith in this organization. We can only hope injured players can get well and start producing. This franchise stopped caring a long time ago.