That Toddling Town

When I was a kid in the ’70s, my younger sister and I would often spend parts of summers in Chicago visiting my paternal grandmother. She lived in the Northwest part of the city, in Logan Square, a neighborhood dotted with intimidating old churches, monolithic greystones, and creaky courtyards where the city kids would play. Lotsa concrete, very different from my Columbus, Ga.

Despite the fact that grandma could be a bit of a killjoy on a lot of things, there was one order of business on which we could mostly agree: baseball. She was a huge, lifelong Chicago Cubs fan, so much so that she’d very often arrange her schedule (such as it was for a retiree) around the Wrigley Field day games that she’d watch on the local station, WGN. Jack Brickhouse was the Cubs’ TV announcer – Harry Caray was calling the White Sox then – and the big Cubs stars were Ron Santo, Billy Williams and Ferguson Jenkins. For her, everything could wait ’til after the Cubs game, and I was just fine with that.

Like I said, Grandma could be a killjoy and so… even though she loved the Cubs, she absolutely hated the White Sox. No idea why. Watching the Sox on TV (usually at night on Channel 44) was out of the question and she wouldn’t even let me listen to their games on the radio – to me, it was just plain weird…

And it was really a bummer because I grew up in a National League market and getting to see any AL games was somewhat rare. Folks beyond a certain age here will remember a time when you’d only get to see the Junior Circuit regular-season games via Saturday afternoon or Monday night baseball. And these were the White Sox with Dick Allen, Bill Melton & lefty knuckleballer Wilbur Wood – managed by Chuck Tanner. Unlike the crew Tanner later inherited in Atlanta, this was a pretty entertaining ballclub… and one I could never see. I’d just have to read about them in the Chicago Tribune the next day.

Now that I’ve lived in the NYC area for 3-plus decades, I suppose I get it a little bit – the cross-town animosity, I mean. I’ve become acquainted with more than one person who was, say, a Mets fan who detested the Yankees to such an extreme that they’ve never even stepped foot in either of the Yankee Stadiums.

I know one guy whose father (a classic Yankee hater) was given a pair of prime tickets to a Sunday afternoon game in The Bronx back in the ’90s. Dad had never seen a Yanks game in-person, but… good seats, they’re free, take the son – why not? Of course, they go to their one and only contest on River Avenue & they see David Wells throw a perfect game. (Turns out, the old man had also seen Jim Bunning’s perfecto at Shea Stadium in 1964. Buy a lottery ticket, Harvey!) 

Fast forward many years later and I finally got to go to a White Sox home game. While at a Windy City music convention, I was asked to attend a KC/Sox game in a luxury suite, courtesy of Frank Thomas’ (ill-fated) record label. Other than quickly thinking, “Oh, hell yeah,” it occurred to me that The Big Hurt & I shared the same hometown, so there was something very right (& somewhat karmic) about the whole scenario for me. And I sure hope Grandma was watching.

Tonight’s Game

In a battle between 2 division leaders – the Sox assumed first place in the AL Central after last night’s heroics & the Yanks’ sweep at Cleveland – the Pale Hose nipped the Braves 2-1.

It’s the first time all year that Atlanta has lost the initial 2 games of a series – 67 games into the season, I’ll take that. It also represents the third series loss all season. I’ll take that, too.

In this return visit to Chi-Town, our ace Chris Sale acquitted himself well enough – 5.2 IP, 2 R, 6 H, 6 K, 1 BB. But he was bested by White Sox ace Davis Martin, who gave up nuthin’ (6 IP, 0 R, 6 H, 6 K, 0 BB).

Early on, the Braves clogged the bases, but left 6 LOB in the first 4 innings, as Sox ace Davis Martin tap-danced thru some raindrops. Conversely, the Sox wrapped out 4 singles against Sale in the first 3 frames, but shriveled with runners on.

The Sox then broke thru in the 4th with 2 runs. RF Braden Montgomery laced a lead-off double down the LF line & LF Derek Hill lined an RBI single to center. After Hill stole second, a grounder to Olson put him at third, and he scored on Luisangel Acuña’s Baltimore chop – Sale made a nice, sliding play in executing a 1-3 putout. 2-0 Sox.

Bottom 6 with 2 outs, Sale plunked Jacob Gonzalez with his 103rd pitch & WW pulled him in favor of Didier Fuentes, who has become on of our great under-the-radar stories this year. Benefitting from a Gonzalez baserunning error that would’ve earned several post-game laps on my old Little League team, Fuentes took the game to the 7th w/o retiring a batter.

After 6 shutout innings, Davis Martin handed the ball to our old friend, lefty Sean Newcomb, who was greeted with a Jorge Mateo single. He induced an Austin Wynns line-out to 2B, whiffed MHII, then got a tough break when Ozzie roped one underneath 3B Miguel Varga’s glove, an obvious E-5. The ball trickled down the LF line far enough that Mateo steamed all the way home. Good for us. Olson walked to put 2 runners on, but Dom Smith popped out. 2-1 CWS.

Bottom 7, their Acuña reached 2nd when his IF single was thrown away by Riley – Olson couldn’t handle the in-between hop. After Acuña stole third, Riley took a hopper and cut him down at the plate. Enter Dylan Lee, who got the final out.

Sox set-up man Seranthony Domínguez breezed through the 8th inning. Then the Braves summoned fireballer James Karinchak (253 K in 166 MLB IP) to make his first MLB appearance in three seasons. Sporting “00” on his back like Raiders great Jim Otto, Karinchak mixed hooks and heat to induce two flyouts. After allowing a Montgomery double to CF, he whiffed Hill on a big curveball to end the inning. Welcome back to The Show.

In the 9th, the Braves faced 6-foot-8 Sox lefty Bryan Hudson. Mateo grounded out sharply to 2B, Eli White walked on a 3-2 pitch, MHII popped to 2B, Ozzie’s looper was snagged by 2B Chase Meidroth in short RF… and that was that.

It was one of those games where the Braves certainly pitched well, but they hit liners right into Sox gloves, their long drives died at the track or just went foul, and the RISP pretty much just stayed there. Get ‘em tomorrow.

Thursday night at 7:40, Atlanta’s Martín Peréz (4-3, 3.02 ERA) will face a yet-to-be-announced White Sox pitcher. Hopefully, he won’t be as good as Davis Martin was tonight. Go Braves.