The now-late Jim Bouton gave us the lasting memory of 'Chicago Shirley'

I couldn't help but notice the reports Thursday about the death of one-time major league pitcher Jim Bouton at age 80.

Back in the days when Bouton was a future star

The one-time New York Yankee who is probably better known for his diary of the 1969 baseball season -- when he was struggling to hang on in baseball with the expansion team Seattle Pilots -- got his attention even though his death wasn't really a shock. He suffered a stroke in 2012, then later was diagnosed with a condition that could cause brain vessels to burst under pressure.

BUT I COULDN'T help but reach out to for my copy of "Ball Four," that diary from a half-century ago when Bouton offended much of the baseball world for telling the truth about some of the antics of the jocko world.

Such as the practical joke once played on fellow pitcher Fred Talbot, who hit a grand-slam home run in a ball game, then got a phony telegram purporting to be from a fan who won $27,500 in a local radio contest tied to the ballgame.

Supposedly, the "fan" was willing to share $5,000 of the prize with Talbot. Yeah, suurrre!

Which, by the way, happened 50 years ago this very week.

What Bouton will most be remembered for

SOME PEOPLE CLAIMED that such insider stories were an embarrassment to baseball. While others felt they offered some color by making ballplayers seem a tad more human -- rather than so jock-ish.

I actually re-read the book every spring. The coming of a new season always makes me want to revive a few past memories.

And I always get my kick out of his entry for June 15 -- which became an essay about the availability to ballplayers of women, particularly stewardesses,, who were a step up on the social scale from "baseball Annies" (a.k.a., groupies).

Where it seems the ultimate "Annie" was a woman known as "Chicago Shirley," who even held orientation briefings for rookie ballplayers to make her services known -- and Chicago was supposedly the best city because we have ballclubs in both leagues. Maybe that's why our ballclubs went for so many years champion-free.

  -30-

Women’s and men’s national soccer matches didn’t attract the same fans

It was quite a day for those of us who consider ourselves fanaticos de futbol, but for very different reasons.

Women's win topped men's loss locally

For this Sunday saw the women’s national team play for the World Cup – and WIN!!! Team U.S.A. beat the Netherlands 2-0 in a championship match played in France, which also was quite the feat because this is the second consecutive World Cup the U.S. women have won.

IT REINFORCES THE very notion that when it comes to women’s soccer, the U.S.A. rules. Our women are better than the women of any of the other 200 or so nations of the world that play soccer.

But later in the day, the men’s national team had their own championship to play for – as in the Gold Cup, the every-other-year tourney for bragging rights across North America and the Caribbean.

Our men took to the pitch, and right here in Chicago. As the Gold Cup championship match this time around was scheduled for Soldier Field. Where the other Team U.S.A. tried to win bragging rights – only to lose 1-0 to Los Tricolores of Mexico.

Which feeds off of one of the most intense rivalries in the world of soccer, as much of the political tension that exists between the neighboring nations spills over onto the pitch.

In L.A, Mexico tops all

DON’T DOUBT THAT for the sizable Mexican-American population of Chicago, they were on hand to see the Mexican nationals issue a symbolic whomp over every nitwit who tries to use the red, and blue as some sort of evidence of their natural inferiority. One-time soccer star Landon Donovan pointed out during the broadcast of the match that the crowd in Chicago seemed to be leaning toward Equipo Mexico.

While a lot of the people chanting “U.S.A., U.S.A.” every chance they got were hoping for a men’s team victory as further evidence of superiority – and perhaps evidence that Donald Trump isn’t a total whack job every time he shoots his mouth off.

Which is a totally different vibe than one got from people whose interest was in watching the women’s team take on the World.

For the women's team, it really is!

I was at a “watch party” where people gathered to see the Women’s World Cup final who were eager to see a U.S. victory as further evidence that Trump is the ultimate whack job for all his rhetorical nonsense.

FOR TRUMP HAS engaged in his own comments being critical of the women’s national team, because he thinks some of its players don’t conform to his ideal of what an “American woman” ought to be.

Especially forward Megan Rapinoe, who has taken her own pot shots at Trump and even got quoted in the New York Post as saying her presence on the team is an “F You” to our president.

Which the Post tried to write up as evidence of those whacky, soccer-playing broads, only to find many people followed the World Cup specifically because they liked the idea of someone standing up to Trump.

Of course, this whole Soccer day must be miserable for those of us who actually take anything Donald Trump says seriously.

Donald Trump's nightmare front page?

BECAUSE NOT ONLY did the women win (and one of the players managed to drop a U.S. flag on the ground), the men lost – AND to Mexico!!!

Which was actually a happening I enjoyed seeing – the goal in the 73^rd minute by Jonathan dos Santos must have been as agonizing to the ideologues as that of Rapinoe being the hero of the game. And winner of the Golden Boot!

I don’t doubt those people are going to go into overtime with the rhetoric about how soccer is an abomination and how it really doesn’t matter. They weren’t watching anyway. Which means they missed a heck of a show – particularly the portion that occurred at Soldier Field and saw people paying hundreds of dollars per ticket for the right to watch (I had to view on television).

Or perhaps many were like one woman I encountered at a watch party, who while viewing the women’s team going for the glory on behalf of the United States could only generate a great big raspberry for the evening’s activity by the men.

  -30-

Chicago out-conned by Rio de Janeiro?

For all the rhetoric we hear about how venal and corrupt the inherent character of Chicago truly is, I couldn’t help but wonder if the real problem is that our city is run by a batch of goo-goos.

The 'games' that never were

It was the thought that popped into my head when I read reports about the bribery and corruption that is being alleged, tied to the decision more than a decade ago to stage the 2016 Summer Olympic games in Rio de Janiero.

THE OFFICIAL RHETORIC was that the International Olympic Committee decided it was FINALLY time to stage an Olympics in a city south of the equator.

But now, we have a former governor of Rio saying he paid the U.S. equivalent of over $2 million to committee members in order to ensure they voted for Rio over any of the other cities around the world that were competing for those games.

In short, bribes were paid. The process was rigged.

Now how truthful should we think all of this is? Well there’s the fact that former Governor Sergio Cabral already is convicted of criminal acts and is serving a lengthy prison term – at 200 years, it is one he may never be free from.

SO WHAT REASON would Cabral have to lie? It seems he has nothing to gain, or lose, by coming forth now with the testimony he offered in court last week. Or it could be the ultimate reason – political revenge.

There are other officials who will have trials coming up soon – and this could be a desire on his part to take down those officials to make them suffer the same fate that he is now enduring.

Daley's soul supposedly too black, but … 

Attorneys for those officials, by the way, claim it’s all trash-talk on Cabral’s part. He’s got no proof! Or so they say.

Now how is any of this the least bit relevant – or interesting – to those of us in Chicago? It’s because those 2016 Olympic Games were the ones that then-Mayor Richard M. Daley was determined to bring to the Second City. Remember the plans for a stadium to be temporarily erected in Washington Park?

REMEMBER THE GLOBAL battles between Tokyo, Madrid, Rio and Chicago? Remember the sentiment that this was a fight for Chicago to win so as to show our global dominance?

… was Hizzoner really too honest to prevail?

Remember the thousands of people gathered in Daley Plaza on that date in 2009 when the Olympic site was chosen – with fanatics chanting “We’re Number Four” (Chicago’s place on the four-city ballot) only to be suddenly silenced when it was learned that Chicago’s bid was the first to be knocked out of the running.

We really were number four – in terms of actually getting those games. The visions of Barack Obama presiding over an Olympics held in his home city turned out to be fantasy.

Mayor Daley was so disgusted by the city’s failure to win the Olympic games that the city has pretty much given up on attracting the International sports scene. It’s a large part of the reason why the 2026 World Cup tourney for soccer will be played partially in the United States – yet none of the matches will be held in Chicago.

EVEN RAHM EMANUEL had enough of the bad aftertaste to not want to bother with the international sports scene.

But now, we hear the whole thing may well have been rigged. We may well have lost that political fight to Rio de Janeiro because we weren’t corrupt enough. As in maybe we would have attracted the Olympic games and all the international attention that Daley wanted to bring to Chicago if only we were as corrupt as some of the political ideologues would want to insist we are.

The 'facility' that never became!

Not that I’m claiming we in Chicago should have loosened up our wallets and come up with more cash than the International Olympic Committee demanded from the Brazilians.

But it makes me wonder how much those ideologues are choking on their rhetoric at the notion that Chicago was out-corrupted by somebody else. And that it may well have been a Daley who got out-hard-balled politically for being too honest.

  -30-

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.

  -30-

EXTRA: History amidst mediocrity

The Chicago White Sox gave us evidence this week that one can find moments of excellence even in the pile of mediocrity that, in all honesty, describes this year's ball club.

If it turns out that the White Sox do manage to rebuild themselves in coming seasons into a championship quality club, Wednesday's 9-4 victory against the Houston Astros may be remembered as an early moment of what was yet to come.

POTENTIAL FUTURE STAR Eloy Jimenez hit two home runs, while Charlie Tilson hit his first home run ever -- and it was a 'Grand Slam' (and no, I don't mean breakfast at Denny's).

But there also was the triple play that got the White Sox out of a jam -- and also made the game only the fourth in Major League history since 1969 where a team pulled off a Triple Play AND a Grand Slam in one evening!

It seems the old axiom is true that even the worst ballclubs are capable of giving out beatings, and even the best ballclubs are capable of getting their butts whomped on any given night!

Which only makes me wonder, just how bad will this weekend's play be to compensate for the great moments we saw Wednesday? This is, after all, a team playing just under .500 (22 wins, 26 losses as of Wednesday) baseball.

  -30-

‘white’ Sox the ones willing to meet with Donald Trump at White House

I’ll have to confess to experiencing a second or two of confusion when I learned of the blurb circulating on Twitter about how it was the white Sox who were willing to meet later this week with President Donald Trump.

Red Sox shortstop-turned-manager won't go

Actually, it is the Boston Red Sox who are making the trip to the White House on Thursday to fulfill the sporting tradition that a championship sports team gets to meet the president, shake hands and experience some of the aura of being at the presidential mansion.

IT’S SORT OF like the athletes who joke about “going to Disney World” to celebrate their sporting success.

But in the case of the Red Sox, it seems like it’s going to be a split squad of ballplayers who actually make the trip to the District of Columbia – which was timed to coincide with the Red Sox’ trip to nearby Baltimore to play the Orioles,

News reports out of Boston indicate that all of the Red Sox players who are black or of Latin American origins (with the exception of J.D. Martinez, who is of Cuban ethnicity) are the ones making a point of skipping a trip to see Trump, and his orange dye job that we’re supposed to pretend is a natural tanned complexion. Team manager Alex Cora, who is Puerto Rican, also is not participating, because he thinks Trump has been disrespectful to the Caribbean island commonwealth.

Whereas the white players, who probably think they’re being all-American, are the ones who will show up and allow themselves to be used by the president to build up political good will.

Ortiz wouldn't go, if he were still playing

OR WILL IT be the partial ballclub that is using the presidency to try to throw some sense of legitimacy to themselves? As though their World Series championship of 2018 isn’t enough praise in and of itself.

Personally, I always thought that sport teams visiting with politicians was just a bit phony. Since when it comes to professional athletes, we’re usually talking about the kinds of guys who could care less about politics.

They probably figure the politicos were the kinds of people who couldn’t hit a curve ball, so why should they care.

While some political people wind up going so overboard with their fandom and drooling for a taste of athletic glamour that they tend to embarrass themselves in the presence of ballplayers.

Bryant WAS willing to go, back in 2017

OF COURSE, THERE was the happening when the 2016 champion Chicago Cubs team managed to gain dual White House appearances. Outgoing President Barack Obama made a point of squeezing in a ball club visit in the final weeks before he departed the White House.

Then, Trump would not be deprived, He offered up a second visit – which saw a partial Cubs squad consisting mostly of the white players (Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant and Jon Lester were among those who attended) participate in the presence of Donald Trump.

Now, it seems that the national sense of hostility that is characteristic of this Age of Trump is making this the trend of all such athletic visits.

Although I also suspect many of the Trump supporters who are sports fans don’t object in the least – they probably see the Red Sox visit as consisting of the “real” American players, and probably fantasize about having the “foreigners” up for deportation the moment the lose a mile or two on the speed of their fast balls.

Would Abreu be welcomed at future visit?

WHICH REALLY IS a shame, in that professional athletics once was thought to be a place within our society where we could put aside the ideological nonsense of partisan politics.

Instead, it allows politics to stage a hostile takeover, of sorts, of sports.

There is one semi-humorous aspect of the pun that the white Sox are visiting the White House. For anybody who’s paid any attention knows the Chicago White Sox are still quite a ways away from the championship that we’re being told will result of the ballclub’s rebuild and would warrant a White House invitation.

Trump can only dream

But with the degree to which this team is counting on Latin American talent to bolster itself (Jose Abreu, Yoan Moncada and promising minor league star Luis Robert are all Cuban-born, just to name a few), would that create a future White Sox championship team entirely unwilling to be seen in the company of The Donald? Or would Trump snub the ball club altogether?

  -30-

“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.

  -30-

White Sox being cheap? Or is it just petty people looking for something else baseball-related to gripe about?

The Chicago White Sox this past winter tried to portray themselves as major players to attract the big-star ballplayers who were available on the open market; yet the end result was failure.

Was there ever a chance that Manny Machado or … 

Neither infielder Manny Machado nor outfielder Bryce Harper wound up regarding White Sox offers seriously – which has a certain segment of baseball fans now going out of their way to lambaste the Sox as cheap or amateurish.

… Bryce Harper would have played in Chicago?

SOME EVEN MANAGE to come up with language much more blunt and vulgar – to the point where I wouldn’t feel compelled repeating it here.

Yet I can’t help but think those people are being ridiculous. In part because I suspect many of the same individuals are the same people who spent the winter months when ballplayer negotiations took place lambasting the very idea that these two men were somehow worthy of the big-money, long-term deals they were demanding.

As it turned out, Machado went with the San Diego Padres – which offered him a 10-year, $300 million deal. Harper this week got an even bigger contract; some $330 million over 13 years with the Philadelphia Phillies.

Who, of course, were the baseball franchise whose ownership said they were prepared to spend “stupid” money in order to give themselves an injection of talent that could make them a sudden championship contender.

THE WHITE SOX never made a definitive offer to Harper, while the Machado deal was for some $250 million – with other clauses that could have boosted the overall cost to $350 million.

From journeyman outfielder to nondescript VP?

In theory, Machado could have made more money coming to Chicago, but chose San Diego because he wanted the guaranteed payoff rather than the possibility of more money.

Which has some baseball fans determined to badmouth the South Side ball club by saying the Sox were too amateurish to negotiate firmly – instead acting as though they hoped to get some sort of discount to get Machado in the black-and-white pinstripes of the Sox; rather than wearing the occasional brown-and-yellow throwback uniforms that lead fans to joke about Taco Bell.

I think such criticism is ridiculous – and not just because some of the same fans seem like they’d criticize the Sox for doing a deal AND for not doing a deal.

IT ACTUALLY MAKES me think that White Sox executive vice president Ken Williams had a point when he told the Chicago Sun-Times that, “it’s a shame if it’s being portrayed that we were on the cheap on this thing. That’s really interesting because, holy shit, that’s a quarter of a billion dollars we offered with a chance to be higher than what he’s getting.”

Then again, there probably is an element of a baseball executive trying to downplay the fact that he got beaten out for a ballplayer he wanted to acquire – not only for his on-field talents but also for the large amount of publicity his acquisition would have brought to Chicago.

Which, I suspect, is what has many people eager to bad-mouth them. Or at least those people whose baseball leanings make them delusional enough to root, root, root for the Cubbies.

Perhaps they didn’t like the idea of the White Sox flirting with baseball relevance – and reminding people that Chicago IS a two-team town. No matter how much some Cubs fans are insecure at the thought of anyone paying attention to any team other than themselves.

NOT THAT I’M intending to write an anti-Cubs diatribe here. It’s just that I’m not bothered much by the fact that Machado turned down a White Sox offer and didn’t get serious in trying to win over Harper.

Wasn't good enough to bring championship to Chgo

I still think that if all the rhetoric about the White Sox rebuilding themselves into a serious championship contender has any truth to it, it’s going to be because a significant share of those young minor leaguers already in the Sox system actually turn out to be as good as speculated.

Acquiring either of them would not, by itself, have turned the White Sox into a championship team.

All it would have done was created a deal that would have financially strapped the White Sox for years to come – possibly thwarting any serious efforts to improve the team in the future. As though what the Sox really need is to come up with their own version of Ernie Banks – a star ballplayer whose career was wasted away playing for Cubs teams that never won a thing.

  -30-

Were the White Sox just six some decades ahead of the pack with sirens?

Sept. 22, 1959 is regarded by some sports-minded fans as a day of infamy.

Could anyone outside Soldier Field hear the sirens?

That’s the date the Chicago White Sox managed to clinch an American League championship with a victory over the Indians in Cleveland. Back in Chicago, city Fire Commissioner Robert J. Quinn acknowledged the achievement by ordering the city’s air raid sirens to blast away.

FOR FIVE MINUTES, the warning sign of some alien attack or coming tornado rang out, scaring much of the populace who either were Cubs fans clueless as to the championship won that day – or else just overly paranoid and willing to believe the worst was coming.

There may even have been some who thought it natural – that the White Sox winning a championship of any sorts was evidence of the End of the World as We Know It.

To this day, Quinn’s reputation takes a knock from people who say he grossly over-reacted. Even though technically, he was merely acting in reaction to a City Council-approved ordinance that said, “there shall be whistles and sirens blowing and there shall be great happiness when the White Sox win the pennant.”

So what should we think of the Chicago Bears; who on Sunday beat the Green Bay Packers and included amongst the revelry at Soldier Field an air raid siren blasting away.

Lost to Indianapolis, of all cities

THE BEARS, AFTER all, are NFC North Division Champions!!!!!! They’re going to the playoffs for the first time in oh so many years. The hard-core of gridiron fandom in Chicago likely is already dreaming of the Super Bowl victory party to be held in Millennium Park.

All the more reason for pandemonium to run amok, and for us to have “whistles and sirens blowing” and “great happiness” even if it is for the Bears – because we honestly don’t have a clue when again the White Sox will give us occasion for such celebration.

Now I’ll admit this was merely a sound effect within the stadium. The rest of Chicago (many of whom likely watched the game on television) didn’t get woken up out of a deep sleep and scared into believing that disaster was impending.

The original siren blarers

And the Chicago Tribune managed to find a few fans who were offended by the ringing out of sirens, although team officials insist the sirens are merely part of the overall effects offered up at modern stadiums to try to get the crowd all excited.

HENCE, WE’RE LIKELY going to keep getting the sirens blared at future games as the Bears try to work their way through the various rounds of the playoffs toward a Super Bowl.

If anything, that’s the reason I can’t get quite too excited about the Bears phenomenon of 2018.

Literally half of the National Football League manages to qualify for a playoff spot each season. The real issue at stake isn’t whether the Bears are good enough to win the whole deal this year.

It’s really one more of how could they have been so god-awful pathetic that they couldn’t even qualify for a playoff spot in recent years. Not even one of those one game and done early in January.

AS FOR USE of a blaring siren, I can’t help but think it’s become a cliché, similar to shooting off fireworks in the sky to celebrate a sporting something.

Ultimate deities of Chicago sporting scene

What was considered outlandish some 59 years ago is now routine. An air raid siren ringing out to the skies to let people know something extraordinary has just happened.

Just as those ’59 White Sox ultimately lost the World Series that year, I wonder what it will feel like if the Bears can’t quite make it to the big game (to be played Feb. 3 in Atlanta)?

Will the air raid gesture seem like overkill? Instead of a victory party, will Bears fandom wind up holding the equivalent of a funeral procession for the team? And will the ’85 Bears (the ones who beat New England in the Super Bowl) be elevated even further in the pantheon of Chicago sporting history?

  -30-

“Harold, Harold” – Baines will force many to reassess their baseball thoughts

Long-time Chicago White Sox outfielder-turned-designated hitter-turned coach and now team ambassador Harold Baines is now a Hall of Fame member, and that fact is confounding the way many people view the game of baseball.

Which, more than anything, is the reason why so many seem to be so miffed that Baines will get the national pastime’s version of immortality – a bronze plaque at the Hall of Fame museum in Cooperstown, N.Y. that will proclaim him to be a significant figure within baseball history.

WHILE TOO MANY more likely didn’t pay much mind to Baines back in the 1980s – when he was a star outfielder with the White Sox. One who managed to keep playing all the way through 2001 as he bounced around the American League as a designated hitter with the Texas Rangers, Oakland Athletics, Cleveland Indians and two returns to the White Sox, along with three stints with the Baltimore Orioles.

Where his performance was significant enough that the Orioles themselves inducted Baines into their team's personal Hall of Fame back in 2009.

When combined with the fact that Baines had his uniform number “3” retired by the White Sox back in 1989, it seems that Harold played a significant part of baseball history – and that too many of us, for whatever reason, missed it.

But rather than admit that we might have missed out on something special, we’d rather claim it really didn’t mean a thing.

I’LL BE HONEST. I was surprised Sunday night to learn that Baines actually was chosen to be a Hall of Fame member. I knew his name was up for consideration, but I figured the baseball-types who made the decision would overlook him.

I can even comprehend why he was regarded as a long-shot for induction. His most significant statistic was 2,866 – as in the number of base hits he got during his athletic career.

It’s not far from 3,000 – which usually is regarded as an exalted figure whose achievement makes one Hall of Fame-worthy. But it still falls short, so I’m sure there are those who figure Harold Baines came close, but just wasn’t good enough.

Although back in 2014 when manager Tony LaRussa became a Hall of Famer, he actually gave Baines a plug for Cooperstown-induction by saying Harold suffered from extensive knee injuries which were the reason he had quit playing the outfield full-time.

“IF HE HAD kept his knees together, he’d have had his 3,000 hits,” said LaRussa – who apparently meant what he said because he was amongst the people who had a vote on Sunday and not only used it for Baines, he also lobbied his colleagues on Harold’s behalf.

Of course, the news reports from Sunday also indicated Chicago White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf also had a vote – causing some to claim this is merely more Chicago-style politicking and perhaps as outrageous as that 1919 White Sox team that saw eight team members indicted for criminal conspiracy to throw the World Series.

Perhaps it’s because some paid too much attention to those years where he bounced around the American League – rather than the ‘80s when he got Most Valuable Player votes every season from 1982-85 and was a top hitter for the 1983 White Sox team that was the first Chicago ballclub to ever make it to a postseason playoff spot.

Either that, or they were paying way too much attention to the Chicago Cubs – and maybe they’re miffed that Cubs star relief pitcher Lee Smith from that same era will have to share his “big day” of Hall of Fame induction with Baines.

ONE THING WILL be interesting – how much of an induction speech will Baines deliver? Since as a ballplayer, he was so low-key and quiet that part of the reason he isn’t better remembered by fans is that his ego was way under control to the point where he was easily ignored.

Although it should be noted that on Sunday when interviewed, Baines actually became choked up emotionally and had to fight back tears.

There is one thing that baseball fans will have to change – one of the stories commonly told to mock the White Sox of the Bill Veeck era was how back in 1977, they did not use their first pick in the nation for amateur ballplayers to pick a future superstar like Paul Molitor – who went on to have a Hall of Fame career with the Milwaukee Brewers – but instead picked a player whom Veeck had seen play as a local Little League star, which turned out to be Baines himself.

Now, people are going to have to say the White Sox used their rare opportunity to pick a franchise icon and Hall of Famer himself. Which also will explain how come July 21, the streets of Cooperstown will echo with the “Harold, Harold” chant so reminiscent of the old Comiskey Park itself.

  -30-

SPORTING NUZ; Chicago-style: Who's bigger – Bears, or Wildcats?

I’m not much of a football fan. Yet even I can appreciate just how unique this season is for those of us Chicago-area people who take to the gridiron.

Maybe we could have a fantasy championship at Wrigley between the Bears and the Wildcats?

The Chicago Bears don’t actually suck, for a change. They’re in first place in their division, and it would take a collapse of historic proportions for them to fail to at least make it to the playoffs.

WE’RE GOING TO have people in coming weeks getting all worked up at the thought of a Super Bowl involving a Chicago team. The delusional thoughts will run rampant. They’re not going to dump the ’85 Bears (whose coach, Mike Ditka, these days is recovering from a heart attack) in Chicago’s sporting mentality. But they’ll come close.

Yet let’s be honest. They might turn out to be the second-most interesting local football tale of the year.

For we have the Wildcats of Northwestern University playing absurdly well. They are the top team in the Big Ten’s western division.

And after seeing Ohio State whomp all over Michigan, there will be those eager to see if Northwestern can actually win the conference – which would most definitely put them in line for a significant bowl game.

Wildcats to get better bowl venue than Yankee Stadium

CERTAINLY SOMETHING MORE prominent than the Pinstripe Bowl, to be played Dec. 27 at Yankee Stadium. Can the Wildcats actually manage to steal the thunder away from Da Bears? It’s possible, since a successful Bears season would be not getting totally humiliated in the playoffs, Whereas the Wildcats could actually wind up winning a bowl game.

Even though I’m sure the SEC-types who want to think the world doesn’t extend beyond Dixie will want to believe Alabama is the supreme football power – regardless of how anyone else actually plays.

Although it occurs to me there’s one way that this season tops the ’85 Bears – what if the Wildcats were to win a major bowl game, while the Bears also got into their third Super Bowl appearance ever. More likely than not, it won’t happen – but it’s something for some of us to fantasize about.

What else is notable on our city’s sporting scene these days?

Remembering their '05 victories?

HALL OF FAME FANTASIES: We’re at that time of year where the Baseball Hall of Fame is contemplating which former ballplayers deserve to be inducted amongst its newest members come 2019.

Two of the players getting their first – and most likely only – chance at induction are former Chicago White Sox pitchers Jon Garland and Freddy Garcia. Both of whom were a part of that outstanding starting rotation that enabled the Sox to win a World Series back in 2005.

The ’05 Sox technically already have one of their members in the Hall of Fame in the form of Frank Thomas (the slugger turned Nugenix pitchman), although Thomas actually spent most of that season injured and didn’t play a single game in the World Series.

Or have many forgotten by now?

Personally, I thought it an intriguing sporting happening when, in the final round of the American League playoffs that year, the White Sox beat the Los Angeles Angels – with the four Sox victories being complete game victories and Garland and Garcia ringing up two of them. They’ll most likely have to settle for the memories, rather than a bronze plaque in Cooperstown, N.Y.

MOST MEMORABLE?: Of course, one of the reasons that the two pitchers won’t get their moment of immortality is because of the way some people are determined to think that the Chicago Cubs championship of 2016 is all so significant.

Is this really Illinois history?

I couldn’t help but wretch at the thought of the recently-released results of a survey about Illinois history – asking people to pick the most-significant moments in our state’s 200-year history.

Perhaps it’s a plus that Moment No. 1 was Abraham Lincoln’s funeral proceedings – including the funeral train that took Honest Abe’s body from Washington to Springfield, Ill., while stopping in Chicago and passing through northern Illinois.

But the Cubs’ World Series title ranked No. 2 – as in we have people deluded enough to think that nothing else that has happened in the state other than the moment when the Cubs crushed the hopes of Cleveland Indians fans, who came oh so close to winning their own “first World Series” in 70-something years if only they could have held a lead in the final game.

  -30-