Category / Baseball

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#383 – Andy Sisco

Name: Andy Sisco

Rank: 383

Position: P

Year With White Sox: 2007

Kenny Williams had a plan for the bullpen in 2007, power arms that had struggled in previous major league assignments.  The hope was that, under the tutelage of pitching coach Don Cooper, the young arms could be harnessed and would give the Sox one of the top bullpens in the league.  As you can probably guess, things did not work out as expected, especially for Andy Sisco.

Sisco was acquired in December of 2006 from the Royals for super-sub Ross Gload.  Sisco had a 7.10 ERA with the Royals in 2006, and despite the best efforts of Cooper and the rest of the Sox coaching staff, that rose to 8.36 in his 19 games before being shuffled back to Charlotte at the end of May.  Following the season, he was granted free agency, and he hasn’t pitched in the major leagues since.

Sisco’s numbers in a White Sox uniform, both for games I attended and overall, were: Continue reading →

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#384 – Todd Ritchie

Name: Todd Ritchie

Rank: 384

Position: P

Year With White Sox: 2002

Following the 2000 playoff loss to the Mariners, Kenny Williams traded for David Wells, thinking a front-line ace would help solidify a promising young staff and lead the team back to the playoffs.  When that didn’t turn out as planned, he turned his attention to Pittsburgh and Todd Ritchie, hoping that after 3 steady seasons with the Pirates, the right hander would stabilize the White Sox rotation.  That move was even worse.

Ritchie was acquired from the Pirates in December 2001, in exchange for Josh Fogg, Sean Lowe, and Kip Wells.  12 months, 1 week, and 1 wildly disappointing season later, he was granted free agency, after which he pitched in 9 more big league games before calling it a career.

He started 23 games for the 2002 White Sox, managing to win only 5, while allowing nearly 100 more base runners than innings pitched with a crowd pleasing ERA of 6.06.

Ritchie’s numbers in a White Sox uniform, both for games I attended and overall, were: Continue reading →

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#385 – Alex Rios

Name: Alex Rios

Rank: 385

Position: RF/CF

Years With White Sox: 2009-Present

Alex Rios has been one of the more perplexing souls to take up residence on the South Side.  He came to the Sox after the trade deadline in 2009, in what was widely assumed to be a blocking move to keep the Blue Jays from trading him to the Tigers.  Toronto, however, was happy to undo their mistake in giving him a 7 year, $70 million contract and let him go on the waiver claim with no compensation.

Rios spent the final 41 games with the White Sox, finishing up with a disappointing .199 batting average and only 9 RBI as the team failed to repeat as champions of the AL Central and missed the playoffs.  He rebounded in 2010, hitting .284 and putting together the fourth 20/20 season in White Sox history.

Last season, however, was a train wreck, as his average dropped back down to .227 with only 13 home runs and 44 RBIs.  Along with Adam Dunn, he was the poster child for the failed All In approach that sunk the 2011 team.

23 games into the 2012 season, Rios appears to have rebounded once again, with a .299 average.  It is extremely early, but hopefully he can keep it together for the rest of the year.  Sadly, he is signed for 2 more years, with a team option for 2015 that I would expect to be declined.

Rios’s numbers in a White Sox uniform, both for games I attended and overall, are: Continue reading →

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#386 – Sammy Sosa

Name: Sammy Sosa

Rank: 386

Position: RF

Years With White Sox: 1989-1991

Before he and Mark McGwire helped heal the remaining wounds from the ’94 strike by smashing Roger Maris’ home run record, before becoming, again with McGwire, the poster boy for performance enhancing drugs and watching his Hall of Fame chances go up in smoke, Sammy Sosa spent 2 1/2 seasons frustrating the Chicago White Sox.

Acquired with Wilson Alvarez and Scott Fletcher at the trade deadline in 1989 in the deal that sent Harold Baines to Texas, Sosa started off strong, hitting .273 with 3 HR to close out the ’89 season.  In 1990, his first full season in the major leagues, his average slipped to .233 and he finished 4th in the AL with 150 strikeouts.

Following the 1990 season, GM Larry Himes, who engineered the trade with Texas, was fired, leaving Sosa without a guardian in the organization.  Unfortunately for Sosa, his 1991 season was even worse, with his average dropping again to .203 and being sent back to Triple A Vancouver for additional seasoning.  In his “autobiography”, aptly titled Sosa: An Autobiography, Sosa blames hitting coach Walt Hriniak for most of his problems with the White Sox and takes no responsibility for his lack of production.

Following the ’91 season, Himes was hired as the Cubs new GM, and near the end of the following spring training in 1992, Sosa was sent to the Northside along with Ken Patterson for a fading George Bell, where his career skyrocketed and then plummeted back down to Earth. But that is a story for a different time.

Sosa’s numbers in a White Sox uniform, both for games I attended and overall, were: Continue reading →

by jim

Perfect

Going in to yesterday’s White Sox – Mariners game, there had been only 20 perfect games thrown in the 143 year history of major league baseball.  9 innings and 96 pitches later, there are 21, as Phil Humber becomes the third White Sox hurler, following Charles Robertson in 1922 and Mark Buehrle in 2009, to achieve perfection.

Humber was in control for most of the game, but was clearly nervous as the 9th inning unfolded, hitting ball 3 twice, the only times in the game he had done so.  The final batter, Brendan Ryan, was retired on a check swing dropped third strike, with AJ Pierzynski throwing him out at first while Ryan argued the strike call with the home plate umpire. As Paul Konerko stepped on first base for the putout, Humber dropped to his knees and then stood up in time to be tackled by Jake Peavy and the rest of the Sox roster.

Unlike Buehrle’s perfect game, I was able to watch most of this one live.  Thanks to the outdated backout rules that MLB uses, especially for games broadcast on Fox, not many people outside of Chicago and Seattle were, unfortunately.  Since the Yankees were battling the Red Sox, only 2% of the country were able to see the game as it unfolded.  I guess not everything about it was perfect.

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#387 – Mike MacDougal

Name: Mike MacDougal

Rank: 387

Position: P

Years With White Sox: 2006-2009

MacDougal was acquired in late July, 2006 from the Royals in an attempt to bolster the bullpen for the defending World Series champions after Neal Cotts and Cliff Politte failed to perform to the level they did the year before.  Instead, what the White Sox received was an inconsistent enigma who struggled over parts of 4 seasons spent shuffling between Triple A Charlotte and Chicago, before finally cutting bait at the end of April in 2009.

MacDougal’s numbers in a White Sox uniform, both for games I attended and overall, were: Continue reading →

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New Food Stuffs

There were plenty of articles prior to the start of the season about the new offerings at US Cellular Field and not one mentioned the Bases Loaded helmet, which has a funnel cake base topped with  a giant ice cream sundae in a full sized, inauthentic late 70s/early 80s helmet.  As you can probably guess, this was a big hit with the 12 and under crowd.

Meanwhile, most of the preseason attention was on the Irish Nacho Helmet, french fries covered with cheese, sour cream, chives, and bacon.  What everyone neglected to mention was that the helmet is just slightly larger than the mini-helmets that the normal ice cream sundaes come in.  Slightly disappointing.

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#388 – Jose Paniagua

Jose Paniagua spent parts of 8 seasons in the major leagues, and exactly one game, his final one as it turns out, with the 2003 Chicago White Sox.  He lasted one third of an inning against the Twins, giving up 3 hits, 1 walk, and 4 earned runs, finishing with a 108.00 ERA.  After then-manager Jerry Manuel mercifully removed him from the game, Paniagua went out with style by flipping off an umpire on his way off the field.  He was released the next day.

The only time I saw him pitch in person was against the White Sox as a member of the Mariners in the 2000 ALDS.  In that appearance, he managed to only give up 1 hit and 1 walk over 2 innings.

by jim

Opening Day

Today will be my 15th Opening Day for the White Sox, and my 12th in a row.  The first was in 1985, a blowout win against the Red Sox in rookie shortstop Ozzie Guillen’s first game in Chicago.  Other highlights include the 2005 1-0 victory against the Indians and the raising of the championship banner on Sunday Night Baseball in 2006.

Joining me for today’s game will be my niece and nephews.  A certain mascot should be stopping by sometime during the game to wish Michael a happy birthday.  Hopefully the weather holds out and the White Sox uphold their end of the bargain.

Here’s the results of the previous 14 openers (11-3 record) I’ve attended:

Continue reading →

by jim

Book 6 (of 52) – Sosa: An Autobiography

Sosa: An Autobiography - Sammy Sosa with Marcos Breton

The so-called “autobiography” of Sammy Sosa was put together prior to the 2000 season, when Sosa was on top of the baseball world following 2 straight seasons of 60-plus home runs.  The book itself was given away by the Cubs sometime between 2002 and 2004, which is how I managed to get a hold of it and, 8-10 years later, finally gave it a quick read.

Sosa starts with his upbringing as a poor child in the Dominican Republic, where he saw baseball as a way to provide for his family.  After many false starts, he finally signs with the Texas Rangers and begins his journey to major league superstar, one that took him to Chicago, first the White Sox and eventually the Cubs, where everything eventually fell in to place.  What the book does not cover is the fall from grace that came later, amid accusations of performance enhancing drugs and the overriding theme of selfishness.

Along the way, Sosa admits to having problems, on-the-field issues caused by overbearing coaches and off-the-field clashes caused by petty jealousy, that are always the fault of others who just don’t understand him.  One instance is when he learns that Padre players were upset that fireworks had been set off in San Diego following a Sosa home run.  Of course the home town players would be upset at their team honoring an opposing player, but Sosa saw it as them being jealous of his stature in the game.  This lack of self-awareness continued until his behavior forced his way out of town and, eventually, the league.