Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant picked up the Sporting News NL Rookie of the Year award last Monday. He becomes just the sixth Cub player to win the award, and the first since Geovany Soto in 2008. Bryant should bring home another trophy later this month when the BBWAA announces their Rookie of the Year award. Hopefully, it’s just the start of a long and prosperous career that sees him get many awards, and maybe, someday, even a ring.
With 5 months until baseball in Chicago returns, I thought it would be interesting to look at the all time leaders in both offensive and defensive categories for all 30 teams. We start things off today with the Tampa Bay Rays.
The Rays began life in 1998 as the Devil Rays, dropping the Devil portion of their name in 2008. I’ve seen them play 13 times, 5 as the Devil Rays and 8 as the Rays, including the 2008 ALDS, where they defeated the White Sox.
Home Runs
| Name | Total |
|---|---|
| B.J. Upton | 5 |
| Matthew Joyce | 3 |
| Ben Zobrist | 2 |
Hits
| Name | Total |
|---|---|
| B.J. Upton | 18 |
| Ben Zobrist | 16 |
| Carlos Pena | 9 |
| Evan Longoria | 9 |
Runs
| Name | Total |
|---|---|
| Ben Zobrist | 11 |
| B.J. Upton | 9 |
| Matthew Joyce | 7 |
RBI
| Name | Total |
|---|---|
| B.J. Upton | 11 |
| Carlos Pena | 8 |
| Ben Zobrist | 7 |
Doubles
| Name | Total |
|---|---|
| Ben Zobrist | 3 |
| Evan Longoria | 3 |
| Jason Bartlett | 3 |
Triples Continue reading →
As the calendar turns to November, we celebrate Mr. Danny, who will turn in about 2 weeks. This month’s photo is from last fall, as he sits on the floor while celebrating Angelina’s (and my) birthday.
Name: Danny Tartabull
Rank: 129
Position: RF
Year With White Sox: 1996
On January 22, 1996, Danny Tartabull was traded to the White Sox from the A’s in exchange for Andrew Lorraine and another minor leaguer. Tartabull became the starting right fielder for the White Sox, appearing in 132 games and driving in over 100 runs. Following the season, he became a free agent, ending his White Sox career.
Tartabull’s numbers in a White Sox uniform, both for games I attended and overall, were:
Last Friday, we looked at the leaders in the 39 games I attended this year on the offensive side of the ball. It’s now time to wrap up our look back at the 2015 season with the pitching leaders, starting with everyone’s favorite pitching statistic:
Wins
| Name | Total |
|---|---|
| Chris Sale | 5 |
| Jake Arrieta | 3 |
| Carlos Rodon | 2 |
| John Danks | 2 |
| Zach Duke | 2 |
| David Price | 2 |
| Kyle Gibson | 2 |
Losses
| Name | Total |
|---|---|
| Jose Quintana | 4 |
| Chris Sale | 3 |
| Jeff Samardzija | 3 |
| John Danks | 2 |
| Jon Lester | 2 |
ERA (> 10 IP)
| Name | Total |
|---|---|
| Kyle Gibson | 0.57 |
| David Robertson | 0.68 |
| David Price | 1.13 |
| Chris Sale | 2.89 |
| Jake Arrieta | 2.95 |
Strikeouts
| Name | Total |
|---|---|
| Chris Sale | 76 |
| Continue reading → |
Girls In Pants – Ann Brashares
Last year, I noticed that my collection of unread Buffyverse books was dwindling down. I found a used copy of a hardcover crossover between Buffy and Angel that I had missed, Heat, on Amazon, so I decided to go ahead and pick it up to restock the unread book drawer. Sadly, when the book arrived, it was the dust jacket for the advertised book, but inside was a copy of Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood. After requesting a refund from Amazon, they let me go ahead and keep the book, which sat on my dresser for more than a year until I recently decided to pick it up and try something different. And something different it was.
My only other experiences with the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants saga was watching the two films. Because of this, I had some familiarity with the characters, which made getting through this a little easier. It wasn’t a bad read, but certainly not in my usual genre. Short of another used book mishap, I don’t envision myself going back and reading the previous entries in the series.
A disappointing week, despite being over 10,000 steps above my goal. For the first time in forever, there were two days where I failed to meet my daily total. The week got off to a slow start on Sunday when I managed to surpass my daily goal by a whopping 45 steps. Things picked up on Monday thanks to an afternoon trip to North for coffee. Tuesday managed to surpass 10,000 steps thanks to a post-work trip to Wrigley Field for Game 3 of the NLCS. Wednesday once again had a mixture of work and baseball, though less of the first and more of the second as the Cubs were eliminated from the playoffs. Thursday was back to work for another decent day. Things fell apart on Friday, as I left work before coffee time, and Saturday, as I worked on clearing off the DVR before Comcast makes me replace them.
Total steps: 49,104
Daily average: 7014.9
16 years ago, on my 25th birthday, my lovely niece entered this world. Today, she is legally able to drive. This picture was taken at Christmas 2013, 2 months after she turned 14. Sadly, this will likely be our first birthday where we do not see each other.
Jenks with a deep breath. He OKs the sign. From the stretch, with a runner at second. Here’s the 1-2 pitch to Palmeiro. A ground ball, past Jenks, up the middle of the infield. Uribe has it. He throws. OUT! OUT! A White Sox winner! And a World Championship! The White Sox have won the World Series and they’re mobbing each other on the field.
The celebration is on the mound right now at Minute Maid Park in Houston on Wednesday, October 26th, 2005. The White Sox have won their first World Championship since 1917. And the players are absolutely going wild on the infield. Enjoy the celebration, Chicago. This is long overdue.
John Rooney
10-26-2005
10 years ago tonight, the White Sox ended an 88-year title drought, winning their first World Series since 1917. Sadly, they’ve only returned to the playoffs once in the 10 seasons since and failing to break .500 6 of those years. Much of this year was spent celebrating the championship team, as well it should have been, but hopefully there will be more focus now on winning another. Hopefully it won’t take another 70+ years.
The White Sox announced that they have agreed to one-year contract extensions with Ed Farmer and Darrin Jackson, keeping them in the radio booth next season as the team moves up the dial to WLS. 2016 will be Farmer’s 25th season in the booth, his 8th with Jackson as his color commentator.
Meanwhile, now that the Cubs season has come to an end, more rumors have started to leak regarding their move down the dial from WBBM to the Score, the former home of the White Sox. The team had one opportunity to do so during this offseason, otherwise they would be stuck on WBBM for the remaining 6 years on their deal with CBS radio. While this season was more successful than anyone could have imagined, the fit between the all-news station and the Cubs has been poor. There were even reports of the station cutting away from one of the NLCS games mid-inning for a traffic report. These issues should not occur on an all-sports station like the Score.