Will packed ballpark become a more common site on Sout' Side?

It was a cloudy, overcast, all-around-crummy Saturday in Chicago. Most definitely not the stereotypical image of a beautiful day for a ballgame.

No crummy attendance jokes on Sout' Side -- not Saturday, at least. Photos by Gregory Tejeda

Yet the stands at Guaranteed Rate Field were packed.

I WENT TO that particular ballgame, where the Chicago White Sox managed to get beat up upon by the New York Yankees. Yet the ballpark was packed with people -- officially just over 36,000 people bought tickets.

And even accounting for people who got discouraged from showing up because of the rain (who wants to get drenched, or have to wear a crude poncho to try to keep dry), there were still 30,000 plus people actually in attendance.

Which is significant because Chicago Cubbies fanatics would have us think that the White Sox are the ball club nobody cares about and nobody ever goes to see -- because EVERYBODY feels the need to go out to Beautiful Wrigley Field instead!

Because everybody loves the Cubs. It's only natural. Or so they'd have us think.

PERSONALLY, I'VE ALWAYS felt that the Cubs were the ballclub that managed to draw a solid number of tourists -- thereby inflating their overall attendance figures. If you take actual interest in the two teams, I'd say they come out about even.

A loaded parking lot made me thankful I took the 'el'

Except to the Cubbie fanatics, who want to believe they're the only ones who count. Almost like how Donald Trump's political backers explain away their guy's constant decline in poll ratings. Their people are the only ones who matter, and who should be paid attention to.

Not intimidated by Yanks -- this year, at least

To which I give the giant raspberry. As in ptbthhhhhb!

Or should we call it the Bronx cheer? Which might actually be appropriate because of the way the White Sox this weekend managed to produce what might well be the highlight of 2019 by beating up on the Yankees.

THE BRONX BOMBERS are the ball club who are in first place in their division, despite the injuries to so many key ballplayers, although on Saturday shortstop (and star) Didi Gregorius was back in the lineup.

Real 'South Side Hit Men'

But the White Sox have managed to hold their own, wining two of three games the teams played back in April, then managing to win a majority of games they played this week.

Technically, the White Sox won their "series" this year against the Yanks. Not bad, considering the team started out this season awful -- and it has taken this massive stretch of winning ways (including against the Yankees) just to get back to a .500 (half) winning record.

Is this going to be the beginning of the so-called rebuild White Sox management keeps insisting will turn the South Side Hit Men into a championship calibre ballclub by about 2021 or 2022?

WAS THE WELL-PACKED ballpark on Saturday (all of last week actually) a sign of what we're likely to see in coming years.

Can Sox keep winning Tue. and Wed. at Wrigley?

Or was this just a fluke and likely the highlight of the upcoming decade we're likely to get out of the Guaranteed Rate Field crew.

I did notice one significant change from recent years -- the number of people arriving at the ballpark wearing No. 7 jerseys (for Mickey Mantle) or No. 2 (for Derek Jeter) were on the decline. In fact, the most popular bit of garb Saturday night was worn by the fans who got the freebie promotional Hawaiian shirt -- covered with White Sox logos instead of tropical floral patterns.

And I have to admit to one plus brought about by being forced to buy a seat in the outer reaches of the upper deck -- my seat was sheltered by the upper deck roof. Meaning I remained dry all the way through the Saturday night rainfall that caused a rain delay.

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EXTRA: Two home runs by Eloy; but what about tomorrow's ballgame

Eloy Jimenez may have given us a bit of evidence of just why the Chicago White Sox were willing to give him a long-term, big-money contract before he even played his first major league ballgame.

Playing Friday against the New York Yankees, Jimenez managed to hit two home runs -- the first two of his major league career.

NOT THAT I expect the fans at Yankee Stadium appreciated the historic nature of the moment -- they most likely were disgusted by the 9-6 score against them when the game was delayed due to ridiculously-heavy rain.

So heavy that it really is amazing the ballgame got played at all.

But seriously, it's moments like this (particularly the first home run where another future Sox star, Yoan Moncada, was already on base to be driven in by Jimenez) that the White Sox are counting on in saying they're a ballclub in rebuilding mode -- and one that could make their talk of being a potential champion come 2021 or 2022 not quite so laughable. Friday could very well be the preview of what is destined to occur on the Sout' Side.

Of course, I expect Chicago Cubs fans to engage in trash-talk. They'll probably focus on the fact that Friday's pitching for the White Sox was atrocious enough that it was only the heavy rain that prevented Jimenez' home run blasts from potentially being part of a losing Sox effort. While remembering they were the team that once traded Jimenez away.

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“Tom Terrific” had his great moment w/ Chicago, no matter how some forget

Tom Seaver was one of the great ballplayers of the 1970s – a star pitcher whom some would call the best of the decade. And while he’s in the baseball Hall of Fame for his days with the New York Mets, we shouldn’t forget the stint he had with the Chicago White Sox.

Sox won't forget Seaver anytime soon

Seaver popped up back in the news this week when his family made an announcement that, at age 75, he has been diagnosed with dementia. He’s going to suffer the malady of memory loss in his old age – to the point where the Seaver family says he’s through with having a public life.

HE INTENDS TO live out his days at the vineyard he has operated in California, doing some work, but mostly trying to enjoy a retirement.

Yet thinking of Seaver brings back to mind the stint he did with the White Sox in the mid-1980s.

It was only by pure fluke, and Mets mismanagement, that he came to Chicago at all for the 1984 season. Under the rules that existed then, the Mets left Seaver unprotected on their roster – mostly figuring that at his late-30s age, no one would try to claim him.

But the White Sox had just won a division title in 1983 and came close to making a World Series appearance, and also had the fairly new ownership of Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn who were eager to try to stir up attention for the ball club.

HENCE, THE WHITE SOX made a claim to Seaver, and he wound up deciding to come to Chicago after all – leaving the Mets where he was considered something of a team legend.

The baseball logic of the move was that a veteran pitcher like Seaver could help put the White Sox over the top and make them champions. It didn’t quite work out that way.

Seaver in 1984 won 15 games – the most of any White Sox starter that season. But the rest of the team slumped to a 5^th place, 74-win, 88-loss record. The previous season’s Cy Young Award winner as best American League pitcher Lamarr Hoyt finished with a losing record, and eventually was traded away for future star shortstop Ozzie Guillen.

Seaver pitched for the White Sox through early 1986, and wound up winning 33 games during his time wearing the “license plate SOX” uniforms whose design the team still loves to pay homage to on Sundays.

On receiving end of Seaver achievement

AND WHILE SOME people like to go out of their way to minimize the fact that Seaver ever pitched in Chicago, one can’t ignore the fact that one of the highlights of his overall career came during those years.

I’m referring to Aug. 4, 1985 when Seaver pitched a complete game victory against the New York Yankees – which turned out to be the 300^th victory of his career. The shorthand statistic that verifies Seaver’s place as one of the best pitchers ever.

Perhaps it was only so appropriate that the White Sox played that game on the road at Yankee Stadium. Meaning so many of the Mets fans who had cheered Seaver on 
throughout his peak years got to see his great moment – and took to rooting for the White Sox to whomp the Yanks on their own home turf.

Throughout their baseball history, the White Sox have had more than their share of aging ballplayers who did a stint in a “Chicago” uniform. Take Steve Carlton – the man most often tossed up as challenging Seaver for “best pitcher” of the ‘70s.

IN 1986, CARLTON pitched for three teams, including the White Sox, for whom he won four of the nine victories he achieved that season, before the Sox let him go to.

His Hall of Fame moments outside of Sox

Carlton’s mediocrity bordering on forgettability in a White Sox uniform is more typical than that of the Seaver story – who has earned himself a place as possibly the best star ballplayer for another team to enhance Chicago.

Some, I’m sure, will argue it’s really Carlton Fisk – the one-time Boston Red Sox catcher who wound up playing for the White Sox through the 1980s and into the early 1990s. Who, by all coincidences, was the catcher in Seaver’s 300^th victory.

It’s a moment that will live on in baseball highlight videos, and perhaps that’s good. Because it’s not likely Seaver himself will be able to recall much of the great baseball moment, as the passage of time and the frailty of the human body takes its toll.

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Who will pay more for Machado?

Spring training camps for many major league baseball clubs, including Chicago’s own White Sox and Cubs, begin Tuesday for pitchers and catchers, with everyday players expected to show up at training camp by Sunday.

MACHADO: Type of image some want to see

So even though we don’t know yet where potential future Hall of Fame ballplayer Manny Machado (at least some want to fantasize) plans to play in 2019 and for the next several years, there’s still some time for things to settle themselves out.

I COULDN’T HELP but be amused by the weekend’s activity, which mostly centered around the latest rumors about how much money Machado is being offered by certain ball clubs who’d like to have him come play for their team.

All because the speculation is that Machado is a super star and will continue to be a super-duper super star for the next several seasons. Meaning it could be a big deal for whichever team he chooses to play for.

The feeling has been all along that Machado, who has spent the bulk of his time playing in Baltimore for the Orioles but also was a Los Angeles Dodger for part of 2018, wants the bright lights of the Big Apple.

He wants to be a New York Yankee. Which is why the reports on Saturday that the Yankees made him an offer of some $220 million for the next seven or eight years. Which is bigger than the past previous offer made by a ball club – the $175 million over seven years by our very own Chicago White Sox.

OF COURSE, I couldn’t help but notice that just a couple of hours after the report of the Yankees’ offer, there were reports saying the White Sox boosted their offer to $250 million for eight seasons of play.

Could Manny be as important to Sox … 

But I also noticed some news entities went out of their way to ignore the latter report. It’s almost as though some are taking sides as to which ball club they want Machado to wind up with. As though some think the White Sox aren’t worthy of buying a big-name ballplayer.

I don’t know how truthful that sentiment is. Only to say that Machado is going to wind up being paid a disgustingly large sum of money, regardless of which team he ultimately chooses to play for.

There is some thought that Machado’s wife, Yainee, is an influence. As in the Miami-area native likes the idea of life in New York City. As does Manny himself. Which could be a good part of the reason the free agency negotiations have extended from November all the way to the days before the beginning of spring training camp.

… as Luis (above) or Luke?

BUT COULD IT be that the White Sox, who still plan to have Machado’s brother-in-law, Yonder Alonso, and their childhood friend Jon Jay, both of whom are major league ballplayers in their own right, may wind up with the Miami-native star of Dominican ethnicity, could wind up with Manny?

Could it be those family ties will matter one bit? While helping to overcome the sentiment that Yankee pinstripes are more prominent than the White Sox version?

I don’t know what to think about where Machado will wind up, or if this situation will even be resolved by week’s end. My understanding is that Machado is a bit peeved that he’s not being offered something more than the current record-setting contract – the $325 million for 13 seasons that Giancarlo Stanton of the Yankees is receiving.

No matter how much Yanks offer, not likely to top Jeter in team history

He may well believe that the contract offers he has received are a gross insult – particularly since at age 26 he probably has more than a decade of playing time left at a star level.

WILL ANY OF that be played with the old-English script spelling out “S-O-X” on his jersey’s left breast. Will the day come when baseball fans seriously put Machado’s name up there with Luis Aparicio or Luke Appling (both Hall of Fame players in their own right) as the team’s best shortstop ever.

Could Manny become the next Garland?

Then again, could Machado go to the Yankees and find out he’s NOT the team’s best shortstop ever – falling behind such peloteros as Derek Jeter, Phil Rizzuto or Tony Kubek.

It will be interesting to see how the situation plays out, and how quickly? Because this could otherwise become a distraction for so many ball clubs. And a massive problem if Machado turns out to be the 21^st Century baseball equivalent of Wayne Garland – the one-time Baltimore Orioles pitcher who got a 10-year “big money” contract from the Cleveland Indians, only to suffer career-ending injuries after playing only two seasons.

It also will be intriguing to see whether Machado becomes someone who gets the cheers of the Bridgeport faithful in coming seasons, or becomes Enemigo Numero Uno for Sox fans who heckle him mercilessly every time his ballclub makes the trip through Guaranteed Rate Field.

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Rebuild of the Chicago White Sox,or clique developing within the ballclub?

The key to the rebuild of the Chicago White Sox? Or development of the clique that could demolish any hopes of a championship in the near future?

Will trio be the key to 2020s White Sox? Photo by The Players Tribune

Those are the thoughts running through my brainpan on Tuesday, as I learn of the deal the White Sox pulled off this week to help strengthen their outfield.

JON JAY, WHO played last season with Kansas City and Arizona but was part of that Chicago Cubs championship team of 2016, will be a part of the White Sox this season – whose spring training begins in just over a month out in the Phoenix suburb where the Arizona (and one-time Chicago) Cardinals play.

Theoretically, he could be a piece of the White Sox’ outfield equation this year. He has some skills. But what is more noteworthy are two of Jay’s best friends within the world of professional baseball.

Those friends are Yonder Alonso, whom the White Sox recently acquired in trade from Cleveland, and Alonso’s brother-in-law. Who happens to be the baseball star Manny Machado – the infielder who currently is free-agent and is trying to get the big-money, long-term contract that will ensure he’ll never have to work for real so long as he lives.

The White Sox are in competition with the New York Yankees, the Philadelphia Phillies and possibly other teams that might want to give themselves an injection of talent for the near future.

IT HAS BEEN reported that the White Sox have made a definitive offer to Machado that falls short of the so-called $300 million over a 10-season period that Manny supposedly wants.

Could it be that the White Sox are gambling Manny will be eager enough to have his brother-in-law and long-time friend as teammates that he’ll take a Chicago offer? Helped by the fact that even though Machado has hinted he’d love New York, the Yankees themselves don’t seem too eager to kiss his behind to get him in their version of pinstripes.

Could the White Sox of the 2020s be reliant on the Machado clique for their on-field talent? Could Jay become the guy who played for both the ’16 Cubs championship team, along with whatever winner the White Sox produce?

Will Machado clique work well w/ Abreu batch?

Or is this a lot of wishful thinking?

FOR I CAN’T help but notice that much of the “Rebuild of the White Sox” talk has focused on the large number of Cuban exiles the White Sox have been able to obtain – with hopes they’ll develop with minor league affiliates into stars.

With those peloteros Cubanos eager to play baseball for Chicago someday because they see existing White Sox star Jose Abreu as their leader on-field.

Have the White Sox set up conditions for dueling cliques – with one group of Cubanos convinced this is the team of Abreu and which might be counting on the beisbol fan base in Havana to give the White Sox an international cheering base?

Or are we going to have a team with the Abreu people and the Machado people – with the latter figuring that he’s the one getting the big money so he’s the one who should dominate the ball club’s attention?

IT WILL BE interesting to see how the two factions (should Machado decide to come to Chicago) co-exist, because supposedly his wife Yainee (also Alonso’s sister) really, really wants to live in New York. Would this Miami girl with ethnic origins in the Dominican Republic regard Chicago’s Latino population that is heavily Mexican and Puerto Rican just a bit too different?

Could Jay be champ on both sides of Chicago?

Then again, ballplayers don’t necessarily have to like each other personally. Take the Oakland A’s of the 1970s that won three straight World Series despite constant infighting amongst themselves. But they had their mutual contempt for owner Charles O. Finley to unite them – and that contempt is what ultimately broke the ballclub up.

But it could be said that the Machado clique that considers Miami to be its home base could unite with the many Cubans who regard Miami as their home in exile.

Could a future White Sox championship team wind up getting just as many cheers in Miami as on the South Side? We’ll have to wait and see how it all shapes up – and if it is meant to become a reality.

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EXTRA: From Bridgeport to the Bronx

I couldn't help but be amused Wednesday night while watching the American League's Wild Card game -- won by the New York Yankees 7-2 over the Oakland Athletics.

With such a big lead and seeing Yankees relief ace Aroldis Chapman (also a one-time Cubbie) shutting down the Athletics, I couldn't help but detect the chant coming from the Yankee faithful -- the chorus from Steam's lone hit song "Na Na Hey Hey Goodbye."

AS IN THE musical chant that has been a part of the Chicago White Sox baseball scene since the days of the South Side Hit Men ball club of 1977. Has the chant (usually a way of rubbing it in to a ballclub that you're about to beat them big time!) become that generic to the sports scene.

Or will Yankees fandom try to claim they originated the chant? Who's to say! They are the ones who think their longtime broadcaster Phil Rizzuto originated the phrase "Holy Cow!," even though we all know Harry Caray was a baseball broadcaster using that phrase back when Rizzuto was just a kid ballplayer.

Now, as we Chicagoans bid adieu to baseball for the season (I suspect many will give the remaining ballgames a cursory glance), here's a reminder of what we have heard on many an occasion at Comiskey Park and other homes of the White Sox.

And here's hoping it won't be too long before White Sox fans will have the chance to sing it against some National League maroon in the World Series.

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EXTRA: In memory of a long-ago ‘fro

He began his time as a major league ballplayer with the Cubs and ended with the White Sox. Arguably, his best season ever was 1977, when he was one of the ‘big bats’ that comprised the South Side Hit Men and made that 3rd place version of the White Sox one of the most interesting teams ever in Sox history.

The Oscar Gamble of our memories

Yet let’s be honest. Nobody’s going to remember Oscar Gamble for any of that.

WHEN IT COMES to Gamble, a hard-hitting outfielder of the 1970s who died Wednesday at age 68, he’s known for the ‘fro – as in the incredibly huge afro hairstyle he wore back in the days when such hair was stylish.

In Gamble’s case, he wore his afro huge. Various reports indicate his hair stuck about eight inches out from his head. It gave the impression of an incredibly huge head – almost as though Gamble were a real-life, African-American version of those bobblehead dolls that are popular with many baseball fans.

Which is kind of ironic that Gamble wound up playing two stints with the New York Yankees – a team notorious for their restrictions on ballplayers and their hairstyles. They made him cut it.

Which means during that one year Gamble was with the White Sox, we got to see a version of the ‘fro that was trying to re-grow itself.

Afro untethered by ball cap

WE CERTAINLY NEVER got to see anything close to what was depicted on that 1976 baseball card showing Gamble traded from the Cleveland Indians (where his hair grew free and wild) to Yankees pinstripes.

For what it’s worth, Gamble was part of Yankees teams that won American League championships in 1976 and 1981. He was that guy who rotated between playing outfield and designated hitter, which allowed the Yankees to fit more ballplayers into the lineup than usual.

Following that first stint, Gamble was traded to the White Sox (along with assorted minor league ballplayers including future Cy Young Award winner LaMarr Hoyt) in exchange for shortstop Bucky Dent – who helped the Yankees win a pair of World Series titles and created his own baseball iconic moment that causes his name to be taken in vain in Boston.

Afro trying to restore itself

Dent wanted big money contracts, more than then-owner Bill Veeck was willing to pay. Of course, Gamble also wanted a big money contract, and Veeck couldn’t afford that either. Which caused him to label Gamble and outfielder Richie Zisk as the original “rent-a-players.”

IN GAMBLE’S CASE, it worked for the White Sox. His .297 batting average, with 31 home runs and 83 runs batted in were a key part of that ’77 White Sox team that stayed in first place through mid-August.

He then went to the San Diego Padres because then-owner Ray Kroc gave him the big money contract that he played under for the rest of his ballplaying career.

Oscar, in the beginning

Which began in 1969 when he played part of the season with the Cubs (one of many ballplayers signed by scout Buck O’Neil whom the Cubs foolishly let get away) and ended in 1985 when he returned to the White Sox for one final season.

I remember Gamble for his ability to mash the ball. Not exactly a guy who you’d put in the field for stellar defense. But someone who could put runs on the scoreboard with his 200 career home runs and 666 runs batted in, along with 610 bases on balls.

BUT THERE ALSO was the hair. The afro that causes his memory to live on whenever people discuss what became of professional baseball during the 1970s and the game, in many ways, finally started catching up to trends of society at-large.

Gamble, at the end

I’m sure the reaction to the sight of Gamble’s hair back in those days said more about you as an individual rather than anything about Oscar himself.

Which is why it was always humorous to see photographs of Gamble in more recent years. He went bald.

But the memory of the ‘fro will linger on in the minds of those of us to whom the Bicentennial was a reality of life – and not just something we learned about while skimming a history book.

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Cubs still in the running for baseball ambidextrous (sort of) man from Japan

Shohei Ohtani shook up the world of professional baseball this week when he let it be known that he’s not the least bit interested in playing for the New York Yankees, or just about any other ballclub along the East Coast.

Can Ohtani continue to do it all in U.S.?

But among the few teams that the 23-year-old Japanese native is willing to consider is the Chicago Cubs – a move that still shocks me, even though there’s really nothing about the whole Ohtani process that ought to be considered predictable.

OHTANI, FOR THOSE not in the know, is the star of the Nippon Ham Fighters of Fukuoka who now wants to take a crack at playing professionally in the United States (a move that, if it works out, will result in Ohtani making many millions of dollars more in coming years than he would playing ball in Japan).

What makes Ohtani different from all the other Japanese ballplayers who have come to this country during the past two decades is that Ohtani is a pitcher who also is capable of hitting. A move that the Nippon Ham ballclub has indulged him in, and one that Ohtani has said he expects any U.S. team he plays for to do as well.

As I understand things, the list of ball clubs that Ohtani is interested in considering are all the teams along the West Coast (except for Oakland, Calif.). Although he’s also willing to contemplate the Texas Rangers, and our very own Cubbies.

The Babe a one-time star pitcher ...

Under the rules that exist in which U.S. ball clubs are limited as to the amount of money they can spend on trying to acquire foreign talent, the Rangers are the team that could actually offer Ohtani the largest salary.

WHEREAS CUBS MANAGER Joe Maddon has enough of a reputation for screwball on-field tactics that perhaps Ohtani feels he’d get the least bit of resistance pitching and hitting for the Cubs than he would any other team.

... who gave it up to be a slugger

It certainly wouldn’t be because of the money. Those rules in place would limit the Cubs to a $300,000 bonus they could offer Ohtani for signing with them. Which would be the same amount the Chicago White Sox could have offered.

But the White Sox have blown much of their international money on acquiring Cuban talent. Perhaps that made the White Sox seem a little too foreign to a Japanese kid. Although perhaps it means the Sox will be the team of choice amongst the Havana baseball set?

Can Ohtani match feats of Double Duty?

How much would the Cubs – a team that still thinks it’s a legitimate contender for a National League championship following their 2016 success, even though they fell short in 2017 – be willing to muck up the structure of their team just to accommodate Ohtani?

THEN AGAIN, WITH the Cubs expecting to lose pitcher Jake Arrieta, perhaps they think Ohtani is his replacement in the starting rotation – while also serving as a spare outfielder.

It will be curious to see if Ohtani is capable of pulling off his double duties of pitching and hitting. Considering that most pitchers stink with a bat and that American League teams don’t even let their pitchers touch lumber (they have the designated hitter), it will be a radical move.

Consider that even the great Babe Ruth (whose name is repeatedly brought up by people discussing Ohtani) ultimately gave up pitching so he could focus on being the big bat in the Yankees lineup. Is Ohtani really unique enough to pull off this move? Or will Ted Radcliffe of the old Negro league Chicago American Giants, who was both pitcher and catcher, retain the uniqueness that gave him the nickname “Double Duty?”

Will we wind up seeing him make a decision come June to focus on one side, or the other, of baseball?

THERE IS ONE aspect I’m pondering about the whole Ohtani affair. Many have speculated that because of the designated hitter, he’d be better off playing for an American League team.

How harshly will Yankee 'bleacher creatures' react?

Yet I’m wondering now with Ohtani having openly snubbed the Yankees, if he winds up playing for another American League team (Seattle or the Los Angeles Angels?), will he wind up receiving the ultimate razzing from the ballpark boo-birds if he shows up at Yankee Stadium.

He could wind up receiving equally hostile reactions from Oakland fans who would be disappointed that they were the one West Coast team he wants nothing to do with. Or the Boston Red Sox faithful who, while enjoying the Yankee snub, probably resent that he doesn’t think they were worthy.

Or, for that matter, the White Sox, whose fans may wonder why this young punk ballplayer would consider the Cubs, and not them, particularly since neither team is capable of offering him much in the way of money. Ohtani may wind up being better off playing in the National League, as he’s likely offended too many American League people.

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EXTRA: No Ohtani frenzy for Chicago

Feel like being totally confused by the way professional baseball operates? Then get involved in following the process by which the latest Japanese leagues star, Shohei Ohtani, jumps to the United States to play baseball here.

Only coming to Chicago as a visitor

Ohtani is a big deal in part because he’s only 24. He still has many years of athletic activity left in him – barring a freak incident.

HE’S ALSO A big deal because he’s baseball ambidextrous – as in he can both pitch AND hit. He is a top pitcher for the Fighters of Nippon Ham, a ball club that plays on the island of Hokkaido – the northern end of Japan.

But he’s also supposedly a top hitter with home run power. Could he be a guy who pitches shutouts one day, then smacks home runs as a designated hitter for the other pitchers the rest of the week?

Something unlike literally the days of Babe Ruth when he both pitched and played outfield for the Boston Red Sox – before being traded to the New York Yankees where he made the shift to being a big bat exclusively.

Early speculation is that Ohtani is of the mental makeup that he has no intention of making a shift. He thinks he can do it all.

AND NOW, ACCORDING to an evolving process by which the American and National leagues in this country co-exist with the Central and Pacific leagues of Japan, Ohtani will get to decide which team in this country he will do it for.

First Japanese ballplayer on a Chicago ball club

But because of baseball rules that are meant to limit the amount of money ballclubs can spend on international talent (so as to circumvent the ballplayer draft that allocates domestic-born talent), there are only 12 of the 30 existing major league teams that can even think of bidding on him.

Neither of them are in Chicago. When Ohtani plays in this city, it’s going to be as a visiting team player.

It particularly amuses me that the Chicago White Sox can’t get into the bidding war that will occur – largely because their activity last year when they signed the big star Cuban ballplayer Luis Robert, they pushed themselves over the limit. He's supposedly a significant part of the rebuilding effort that some dream will bring the World Series to the Sout' Side by 2020.

WHICH MEANS I’M sure White Sox fans will get over this loss if someday Robert hits a game-winning home run off of Ohtani’s pitching.

First Japanese Cub's name made some titter

But it means our city is on the sidelines in this baseball spectacle. Our city’s baseball fans will wait and see which team gets him, then figure out which ballpark they have to travel to in order to boo and heckle him. Not that he’ll care, since I doubt his comprehension of English-speaking “boo birds” is minimal.

So with some of the speculation being that Ohtani is bound to wind up with the New York Yankees, it could well be that Aug. 6-8 will be the dates in 2018 to circle.

The fanatics (a.k.a., overly obsessive nutcases) amongst us can venture out to Guaranteed Rate Field to practice their newly-learned Japanese phrase – Omae ha kusai yo. Which crudely translates to “You stink!”

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Can the Dodgers match the ’05 White Sox postseason accomplishments?

Can 2017 Los Angeles Dodgers ...

Now that we know there’s going to be a Houston Astros/Los Angeles Dodgers matchup come the World Series beginning Tuesday, I can’t help but be reminded of that magical moments of 2005 when it was the Chicago White Sox who managed to “win it all” that autumn.

... match '05 Sox postseason mark?

What was notable about the White Sox’ bid for league and overall championships was that, come playoff time, they became virtually unbeatable.

THE WHITE SOX won the first round of American League playoffs with a three-game sweep of the Boston Red Sox (with Orlando Hernandez making one of the greatest relief pitching performances I’ve ever seen), then lost only one game in the final round of league playoffs.

Then came their four-game sweep of the World Series proper – as they beat the then-National League Houston Astros (watching the Saturday night playoff game against New York at Houston’s Minute Maid Park, I couldn’t help but remember that extra inning home run by Geoff Blum that was a significant part of the White Sox’ ultimate victory all those years ago).

Now why is any of this particularly relevant as we go into the 2017 World Series – one that sees the now-American League Houston Astros try to win their first World Series title ever?

Chicago native Granderson to play in Series

It’s because of the Dodgers – the team that for awhile this season flirted with the notion of setting a new record for the most wins (116) in a regular season; and wound up actually winning 104, which is still very impressive.

FOR THE DODGERS are the team who this year went through the first round of National League playoffs with a three-game sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks, then went through the final round of National League playoffs by losing only one game to the Chicago Cubs.

Could it be that the 2017 Dodgers ball club will match the White Sox’ postseason achievement of an 11-1 record, which puts that team in some fairly historic categories.

Blum provided heroic moment in Houston

It’s comparable to the 1998 New York Yankees, who had a three-game sweep in the first round of playoffs, then a four games-to-two victory in the final round, then a four-game sweep of the World Series that year against the San Diego Padres (who nearly two decades later have yet to return to the “fall classic”).

Some say the 1976 Cincinnati Reds deserve recognition because they went through the whole of playoffs and World Series without losing a game. But back then, there was only one round of league playoffs prior to the World Series.

THEIR 7-0 RECORD in beating the Philadelphia Phillies, then the New York Yankees, isn’t quite comparable to what the ’98 Yankees or the ’05 White Sox did. Or what this year’s Los Angeles Dodgers manage to do – if they can pull off a four-game sweep of the World Series beginning Tuesday against Houston.

Just what are the chances of that happening? Is this year’s Dodger team going to be the historic element of the 2017 baseball season? Or is it going to be the notion of Houston becoming the first ball club to ever win championships for both the National and American leagues (which they were transferred to back in 2013, after having been in the “senior circuit” since the 1962 expansion)?

Honestly, I’m an American League fan who feels like the real American League teams all got knocked out of the running – and this year’s World Series will be the equivalent of a mid-season 1970s regular season ballgame of the old National League West.

So in that regard, I almost wouldn’t mind it if the Dodgers were able to pull off not only a victory – but a four-game sweep. It would provide an element of history to what otherwise would be remembered as the Yankees/Dodgers World Series that failed to come to be. Besides, since the Astros this year have shown they don’t really win on the road, the Dodgers (who have home field advantage) will have to be the favorite.

BESIDES, IF A four-game sweep were to become the end result – it means the baseball historians would have to delve into the records of the past to recall all the other ballclubs that suddenly became so dominant come October.

It means we’d have to give a plug to the first ball club from Chicago to take a World Series title in this century.

Which I think would be ironic since the fans of the Cubbie blue were convinced until just a few days ago that ’17 was intended to be “their year” to make some history – and certainly not a time for remembering the city’s “other” ball club.

So as I watch this week’s World Series action, I’ll admit that a key day will be Thursday. While many will think of it merely as a travel day from Los Angeles to Houston, I'll be remembering that moment of 12 years earlier at the same ballpark when White Sox shortstop Juan Uribe fielded that ground ball up the middle, then threw to first base for the final out that finally ended the White Sox’, and Chicago’s baseball championship drought.

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EXTRA: Back to 'Wait 'til next year?'

Are we back to flying the 'L' flag?

The dreams of Chicago Cubs ball clubs capable of winning championships in two consecutive seasons are now down the toilet -- the Cubs' 11-1 loss Thursday ensured the Los Angeles Dodgers will be the National League champions for 2017 and will go to the World Series beginning Tuesday.

It's a low blow to those Cubbie fanatics who were delusional enough to think their fave ball club is now among the league elite and was somehow entitled to a second-straight World Series appearance.

ALTHOUGH IT REALLY shouldn't be. Winning two straight championships in professional athletics is difficult. There are a lot of teams that would consider winning one championship (the way the Cubs did in 2016) to be significant. Nothing takes away that accomplishment.

It will be curious to see now the Cubbie faithful react to losing. Will they become obnoxious in their whining that somehow they were entitled to victory in 2017? Such arrogance is considered tacky when it comes from New York Yankees fans, but then again, the Yankees back up such talk with winning ways.

What I don't see is something along the lines of Bill Veeck during the 1940s stint that he owned the Cleveland Indians. He had them when they won their last (to this date) World Series ever in 1948, and when it became mathematically impossible for the Indians to repeat as champions in 1949, he conducted a ceremony in which he buried the World Series championship banner the Indians had flown that season.

Implying that the championship days were over, and it was time to focus on the future.

WHICH TO THIS date are still World Series-title-less -- to the point where I'm sure Cleveland baseball fans would be thankful to have come as close as the Cubs did this year to repeating (rather than losing to the Yankees in the Division Series round of this year's playoffs). Or Pittsburgh Pirates fans who made playoff appearances, but have been unable to break their own streak of four decades without a championship.

Kike matches Reggie's 3 homers

What I'm more inclined to expect is Cubbie fan whining along the lines of how 2016 is supposed to live on forever -- and how 2005 (the year the Chicago White Sox won this city's first World Series title in this century) is a year to be forgotten.

It will be this obnoxious attitude that will fuel the dislike that fans of Chicago's two ball clubs have for each other.

And could be the impetus of what could become an ultimate World Series, from the Chicago perspective -- a rebuilt White Sox with a Cuban connection at its core against the Cubs, perhaps by 2019. Which would be the centennial of that World Series that lives in Chicago baseball infamy and is in desperate need of erasure.

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Cubbies create nothing but a yawn from me, but White Sox offer no guarantees

I am a life-long Chicagoan interested in baseball who must confess that the presence of the Chicago Cubs in the 2017 baseball playoffs trying to get themselves a second-consecutive World Series berth leaves me emotionally flat.

Chicago baseball fans debate ...

I honestly could care less what the Cubs do this year. And not just because my interest in the local baseball scene focuses on the chances that the Chicago White Sox’ rebuild, with an intense “Cubano revolution,” will result in success.

BECAUSE OF THE White Sox interest, I’m an American League fan – one whom I must admit as a kid enjoyed the New York Yankees ballclubs of the mid-1970s and still remembers that two of their preeminent ballplayers were former White Sox Bucky Dent and Rich Gossage.

... which World Series relevant

I went into this year’s baseball playoffs focusing attention on the Cleveland/New York matchup, figuring that I’d wind up rooting for whichever team prevailed in that early round to go all the way to win the American League championship – then the World Series.

As for the National League? I check the box scores , but really don’t care which team wins. I only want them to ultimately lose to the American League champions.

If there is Yankee success in '17,...

I only saw the last two innings of that final Chicago/Washington playoff game – and will always believe the Cubs were downright lucky to get that 8^th inning pickoff play ruled in their favor because it put to rest the rally that WOULD HAVE resulted in a Washington victory (and the Cubbie faithful crying in their beers).

BUT REALLY, I’M not rooting against the Cubs at this stage of the playoffs Eventually I’ll root for either New York or Houston to beat up on either Los Angeles or the baby blue Bruins of the North Side – whichever prevails this week.

... it could be due to a trio ...

The part of me that roots for the White Sox during the regular season almost wouldn’t mind a Houston/Chicago matchup. It would be downright funny if the Astros – who only once in their history ever made it to the World Series; losing to the White Sox of 2005 before transferring leagues in 2013 – beat up on the Cubs!

White Sox fans mostly are apathetic about the playoffs (even though Cubbie faithful is deluded enough to think the whole world is obligated to root for their ball club), but would get a kick out of history recording the Houston Astros losing to their team, while beating the Cubs.

... of ballplayers with Chicago ties

Not all of Chicago is getting all worked up over Cubbie-mania. There are those of us with real lives, and those of us who are still living off the memories of that aforementioned ’05 World Series victory that was the first for a Chicago ball club in this century

JUST AS REGARDLESS of what happens with the Cubs against the Dodgers this week, Cubs fans will still have their memories of 2016 how they nearly blew a Game 7 lead to the Cleveland Indians, but managed to win in extra innings.

If Jose Lobaton hadn't been picked off ...

It’s the inherent character of Chicago baseball that fans have their team to root for – and the other might as well not exist.

The only way we’d ever get Chicago united over a post-season round of baseball playoffs is if we were to ever get the proper circumstances for an all-Chicago World Series.

Which is the goal of the White Sox re-build, to put their ball club in contention for a World Series berth at the same time that the Cubs may still have ballclubs in contention. That would be a circumstance that would create memories Chicagoans would talk about for the rest of their lives. Which when you consider how young some baseball fans are these days could easily stretch to the final days of the 21^st Century.

... it's likely the 'L' flag would be flying in the minds of Cubs fans

OF COURSE, THERE’S there’s always the problem that there are no guarantees in baseball – just like there’s no crying (remember the film "A League of their Own?"). Nobody knows just how the baseball season will play out until the ballgames are actually played.

It was just a couple of years ago the Pittsburgh Pirates had contending teams that were supposedly going to end decades of losing. Yet they haven’t won a thing – and their window of opportunity may now be over. Similar to those Seattle Mariners teams of the late 1990s to early 2000s – including the 2001 team that still has a record for the most wins in a season, but no league championship or World Series title to show for it. There also are many American League teams throughout the years that represented Boston, Chicago or Cleveland -- to name just a few examples of teams that came so close to winning it all.

A revival in Chicago?

Or maybe the story of coming years will be the resurgence of the Yankees (who haven’t won a World Series since 2009). What if the Yankees were to beat the Cubs in this year’s World Series, and have continued success that prevented the White Sox from winning a World Series birth in the near future?

Could the “Damned Yankees” be the uniting factor for both sides of Chicago baseball in years to come!

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