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The Tony LaRussa Era Has, Once Again, Come To An End

White Sox manager Tony LaRussa, who has been out with a health issue since August 29th, announced his retirement today, ending two years of controversy and underachievement.  In a written statement, LaRussa admitted to a second health problem, one he had been putting off until this offseason. and the necessary recovery time as to why he would not be returning.  His two-year stint, following a ten-year retirement, ends with one division title, one playoff victory, and a possibly one of the most disappointing seasons in the history of the franchise.  LaRussa, who turns 78 tomorrow, leaves the game for a second time as the second winningest manager in Major League history.

The announcement officially starts a new search for GM Rick Hahn, who had his plans for a new manager kiboshed two years ago when owner Jerry Reinsdorf insisted on LaRussa, who the team had fired in 1986 and which Reinsdorf considered one of his biggest regrets.  Among the likely candidates to be considered are current bench coach Miguel Cairo, who has been the acting manager in LaRussa’s absence, former big league managers Bruce Bochy, Joe Girardi, or Joe Maddon, the hot bench coaches of the moment, and, based on past history, former White Sox players with no professional coaching experience like A.J. Pierzynski, Jim Thome, or Paul Konerko.

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Book 43 (of 52) – Verity

Verity – Colleen Hoover

A struggling author accepts the job offer of a lifetime: finishing the last three books in a successful series following an injury to the original creator on behalf of her publisher and husband.  She moves into the family’s home, hoping to find outlines or character sketches in the wife’s office that will help her complete the next three books.  Instead, she finds herself falling for the husband after finding a manuscript for the wife’s autobiography.  Troubled by her situation, the author tries to navigate her feeling of dread while falling hard for the husband.

Verity is my first exposure to Colleen Hoover’s work, with the majority of it seemingly falling in the romance genre.  She spins a compelling, if somewhat unbelievable, tale with plenty of twists and turns to keep the reader engaged.  If there’s more like this in her backlog, I’ll be sure to try and track it down.

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Travelling The 50 States – Georgia

Over my 47 years, I’ve done my fair share of travelling across these United States.  I thought it would be an interesting experiment go look back at those trips to each of the 31 states I have visited (62% isn’t bad, is it?) and see if, and when, I may be returning.  Working in alphabetical order, we continue today with the 4th state to be added to the Union: Georgia.

State: Georgia
Joined the Union: 1788
Visits: 4

All four of my visits to the Peach State came as part of driving to Florida, either stopping for food or staying overnight in a hotel to break up the long drive.

The first two trips would have come during our family drives to Florida in 1988 and 1990.  The only clear memories I have are passing by the old Atlanta-Fulton Country Stadium and getting a California Raisin figurine from a restaurant, though I couldn’t tell you which one.  My two most recent visits came during my drive to and from Florida in 2021.  I stopped in Atlanta on the way down, spending the night in a local hotel after a long drive.  The next week, I stayed in the same hotel on the way home, but this time I had a more of a purpose.

The Braves were scheduled to battle the Yankees that night, so I made the early stop on the drive home ttro take in another stadium.  My hotel claimed to be within walking distance of Truist Park, which it was but they forgot to mention that it was uphill.  After I managed to drag myself to the park, I headed to the upper deck, which was the only seats still available.  After snagging a couple souvenir cups, I left the game a little early for the hike back to the hotel.  Thankfully, it was all downhill this time.  After a night’s sleep, I went to the local supercharger in the morning, topping off the batteries before heading out for the long drive home.

Will I return?  Maybe.  I would like to see more of the park when I’m not pressed for time, so I may follow a local team down at some point.

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Book 42 (of 52) – Stay Awake

Stay Awake – Megan Goldin

Two years ago, Liv Reese had it all: a loving boyfriend, a best friend roommate, and a high-profile job.  If only she could remember what happened between then and now.  Every time she falls asleep, Liv resets to answering a phone call at her desk two years ago.  With no memory of what she’s been doing, she threads a distrust of the police with the knowledge that she needs help, because someone has framed her for a murder she’s pretty sure she didn’t commit.

Megan Goldin has become something of a regular over the past year or so, having read three of her books since last June.  To her credit, each one has had its own unique voice, with no overlap in plot or story structure.  Stay Awake is her latest, written during the COVID-19 pandemic and seemingly feeding on the anxious feeling we all had during lockdown.  She’s got two more novels that I have yet to read, and I assume they will show up on my Kindle sooner rather than later.

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RIP Coolio

Rapper Coolio, who came to prominence in the mid-90s with hits like Fantastic Voyage and Gangsta’s Paradise, died unexpectedly on Wednesday.  He was 59.  The 2-hit wonder, who won the 1996 Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance, was tied for 178th in my latest look at my iTunes rankings.

After his music career stalled, he moved into the acting world, appearing in 53 films between 1996 and 2021.  He also appeared in numerous television shows, usually appearing as himself.

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What Went Wrong

After winning a Wild Card slot in 2020 and running away with the Central Division title in 2021, the White Sox looked like an easy lock to make a third straight post-season appearance this October.  Unfortunately, something (or somethings) went wrong along the way and after a long season where nothing ever seemed to click, the team was officially eliminated on Sunday after dropping six straight against the Guardians and the Tigers.  So where did things fall apart?  Let’s take a deeper look.

Injuries

After injuries rocked the White Sox in 2021, they revamped their strength and conditioning staff, hoping a new program would help stem the tide.  Unfortunately, the lockout prevented the new staff from working with the players, leaving them to their own devices.  GM Rick Hahn said in June that, between the lockout and the shortened spring training, the new program “got stymied a little bit this offseason” and that it would “be difficult in-season to perhaps change the results over the next few weeks and months in terms of health.”  Boy, was he not kidding.

Things started at the end of spring training, when lefty reliever Garrett Crochet went down for the year with an elbow injury requiring Tommy John surgery.  Two days later, starter Lance Lynn left his final spring tune-up with a bum knee, putting him on the shelf until the middle of June.  Finally, before the White Sox arrived in Detroit for their season opener, Yoan Moncada suffered an oblique strain that knocked him out for a month and may have sunk his entire season.  Relief pitcher Joe Kelly, signed during the offseason, also started the season on the IL rehabbing an injury from the year before and wasn’t activated until May.

Outfielder AJ Pollock left the second game of the year with a hamstring injury, missing over three weeks.  The same day, Lucas Giolito was placed on the IL with an abdominal strain, keeping him out for nearly two weeks.  The day he was activated, Eloy Jimenez was placed on the IL with a strained hamstring suffered that day against the Twins.  It would be two and a half months before he returned.  This was all before the calendar turned to May!

Things never let up.  Andrew Vaughn missed time in May after getting hit in the hand by a pitch.  Aaron Bummer suffered a right knee strain that kept him out for two weeks.  Lucas Giolito and Luis Robert both missed time in May thanks to bouts with COVID.  Joe Kelly went back on the IL with a hamstring strain.  Tim Anderson missed three weeks with a groin strain, the same injury that kept Vince Velasquez for two weeks.

Aaron Bummer suffered another injury in mid-June which kept him out until September.  Yasmani Grandal was felled with lower back spasms for six weeks.  A right forearm strain put Liam Hendriks on the shelf for nearly three weeks.  A strained hamstring took down Yoan Moncada for nearly three weeks.  Adam Engel fell victim to the same injury for two weeks.  On July 6th, Jake Burger went down with a bruised hand following a hit by pitch, Vince Velasquez was felled by a blister on his right index finger, and Danny Mendick was lost for the year with a torn ACL.  We just now are getting to the All-Star break.  Shall I keep going?

Luis Robert was shut down with blurred vision.  A lower back strain put Reynaldo Lopez on the shelf.  A torn finger ligament knocked out Tim Anderson for the remainder of the year on August 9th.  Another lower back strain took down Leury Garcia.  A bum knee sent Michael Kopech to the IL, while another hamstring strain stopped Yoan Moncada for the third time this year.  Kopech was felled again with a shoulder strain on September 7th.  Finally, after suffering with a wrist injury for nearly a month and a half, Luis Robert was shut down and placed on the IL on Saturday with the 2022 title all but wrapped up for the Guardians.

Aside from the sheer number of injuries, this meant that the White Sox were very rarely at anything approaching full strength.  Some piece of the puzzle was always missing, and usually two or three pieces.  The bullpen injuries led to some early overwork for guys like Kendall Graveman, which impacted his performance in the second half.  Because of this, the White Sox never seemed to gel or to be able to string wins together to pull ahead.

Lack of Power

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FB8 – Week 35

After the disappointment of last week, a late surge helped put me back above 30,000 steps for the week.  Things got off to a slow start on Sunday, where I finished with 3800 steps.  Monday fell off quite a bit, dropping to 2800 steps.  Tuesday saw a very slight increase as I ended the day 4 steps away from 2900.  Wednesday was the week’s low point, finishing with only 2200 steps.  Things started to improve on Thursday, where an after-work trip to the local grocery store helped push me over 5600 steps.  A trip to Guaranteed Rate Field on Friday left me with 5200 steps.  My best day of the week came on Saturday thanks to a trip down to West Lafayette for Homecoming, which left me with 9400 steps.

Total steps: 32.078

Daily average: 4582.6

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FB8 – Week 34

After a week off of work, it was back to the grindstone for a horrible, horrible week.  Things got off to a decent enough start on Sunday, where I finished just 37 steps shy of 4500 thanks to some chores around the house.  Things began to go off the rails on Monday, as I missed 2800 steps by a single step.  Tuesday was somehow worse, finishing with just 2300 steps.  Wednesday saw a very slight improvement, rising up to 2400 steps.  Thursday saw another slight increase, finishing with 2500 steps.  Friday was the low point in a week full of low points, falling 32 steps shy of 2000.  The week wrapped up on Saturday with 4100 steps.

Total steps: 20,617

Daily average: 2945.3

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Travelling The 50 States – Florida

Over my 47 years, I’ve done my fair share of travelling across these United States.  I thought it would be an interesting experiment go look back at those trips to each of the 31 states I have visited (62% isn’t bad, is it?) and see if, and when, I may be returning.  Working in alphabetical order, we start today with the 27th state to be added to the Union: Florida.

State: Florida
Joined the Union: 1845
Visits: 10 (at least)

At some point in the mid-1980s, my grandparents bought a condo in Clearwater, Florida, which has helped make the Sunshine State one of my most visited states.  I’m fairly certain my first trip there would have been in the summer of 1988 and my most recent was last year, with a number of visits in-between.

From what I can recall, my first trip to Florida came the summer of 1988, following my eighth-grade graduation.  I’m pretty sure a collection of seven family members got in the car the day after Mike Tyson’s 91 second knockout of Michael Spinks for the two-day drive to Clearwater.  I’m not clear on exactly how long we were there, but I know there was a one-day excursion to Disney World.  Aside from that, we saw all of the tourist attractions that my grandparents thought were interesting.  Which means nothing that was really all that interesting.

We made another trip two summers later.  I don’t remember much of this trip, aside from the trip home where we came up through southern Illinois and listened to the White Sox somehow beating the Yankees 4-0 despite being no-hit by Andy Hawkins.

My sister and I made a return trip over Christmas break in 1991, our first time on an airplane.  Again, I don’t have many vivid memories of the events of this trip.

My fourth trip to Florida came during March of 1997.  I had an interview with GTE Data Services and turned it into a mini-vacation during spring break, staying with my grandparents.  The highlight of the trip, aside from nailing the interview and getting a solid job offer, was a trip to Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota to watch a spring training tilt between the White Sox and the Twins. Continue reading →