Tag / Field Of Dreams

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A Change Can Do You Good

New general manager Chris Getz put his first stamp on the White Sox organization yesterday, declining the team’s $14 million option on Tim Anderson’s contract for 2024, making him a free agent.  Anderson, who was arguably the face of the franchise, saw his fortunes fall in the second half of 2022 and continued to freefall in 2023.

Drafter by the White Sox in the first round in 2013, Tim Anderson made his major league debut on June 10, 2016, going 2-3 in a victory against the Royals at US Cellular Field.  Replacing veteran Jimmy Rollins, who would be released five days later, Anderson played 99 games, hitting .283 with nine home runs, and finished seventh in Rookie of the Year balloting.  Showing that he was still a work in progress, Anderson slashed .257/.276/.402 in 2017, with a 2.1% walk rate, the lowest in the major leagues.  Defensively, he led the major leagues in errors, with 28, as well as fielding errors (16) and throwing errors (12).  He showed slight improvements in 2018, with slight improvements in his OBP and slugging percentage, while reducing his overall errors.

2019 was Anderson’s coming out party.  He led the major leagues with a .335 average while raising his OPS to .865, setting career highs with 167 hits, 32 doubles, and 81 runs.  He still had some issues on defense, leading all major league players with 26 errors, leading to the lowest fielding percentage amongst all shortstops.  His hot bat continued into the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, notching a .322 average and an .886 OPS.  He won his first Silver Slugger award while leading the White Sox to their first post-season appearance since 2008.  He thrived in the Wild Card series against the A’s, going 9-14 in the three-game series.

Anderson continued to prove that he his offensive improvement wasn’t a fluke when baseball returned full time in 2021.  He was named to his first All Star team and, on the game’s biggest stage, he hit a walk-off home run against the Yankees in the inaugural Field of Dreams game in the cornfields of Iowa.  Overall, he hit .309 and posted an .807 OPS while hitting 17 home runs and driving in 61 RBIs.  Continuing where he left off the previous October, Anderson hit .368 in the ALDS against the Astros.

Things started to sour for Anderson in 2022, both on the field and off.  Injuries limited him to just 79 games and left him with his lowest OPS since 2018.  Off the field, an Instagram post by a woman who was not Anderson’s wife insinuated they were in a relationship, and he was the father of her unborn child.  Looking for a fresh start, Anderson played with Team USA in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, earning praise from manager Mark DeRose and outfielder Mike Trout.  Unfortunately, those good vibes did not spill over to the 2023 season.  After an early injury, Anderson struggled the entire year, his OPS dropped to a career-low .582 and he managed just a single home run.

Now Anderson will look to rebuild his career outside of the only franchise he has ever known while the White Sox look to find a stopgap shortstop for 2024 until 2021 first round draft pick Colson Montgomery is ready to take the reins.

Anderson’s numbers in a White Sox uniform, both for games I attended and overall, were:

Continue reading →

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If You Build It, They Won’t Come

One day before the Cubs and the Reds are set to battle in the second Field of Dreams game in Dyersville, Iowa, word broke that MLB will not be returning to the site in 2023.  Frank Thomas, the former White Sox star who is part of the new ownership group that owns and operates the site, said that construction plans at the movie site will prevent MLB from returning next year.

Thomas and his partners, who bought the site after the inaugural game last year, plan to put in a youth baseball and softball complex that they hope will begin construction later this year.  The construction work will impact the site’s accessibility.

Will a game return there in 2024?  Too soon to tell, though breaking the inertia of making this an annual tradition will be a hurdle that will need to be jumped.

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By The Numbers – 7

In 1929, uniform numbers appeared on the back of baseball jerseys for the first time, thanks to the Indians and the Yankees.  By 1937, numbers finally appeared across all uniforms, both home and away, across both major leagues.  Since that time, 81 distinct numbers have been worn by members of the White Sox, while the Cubs boast 76.

Today, we continue our look at those players, picking our favorite, if not the best, player to wear each uniform number for both Chicago teams with #7.  88 different players have donned #7 while playing in Chicago, 43 for the White Sox and 45 for the Cubs.

After wearing #12 when he was first called up to the big leagues, Tim Anderson switched to #7 starting with his second season in 2017.  Showing that he was still a work in progress, Anderson slashed .257/.276/.402 in 2017, with a 2.1% walk rate, the lowest in the major leagues.  Defensively, he led the major leagues in errors, with 28, as well as fielding errors (16) and throwing errors (12).  He showed slight improvements in 2018, with slight improvements in his OBP and slugging percentage, while reducing his overall errors.

2019 was Anderson’s coming out party.  He led the major leagues with a .335 average while raising his OPS to .865, setting career highs with 167 hits, 32 doubles, and 81 runs.  He still had some issues on defense, leading all major league players with 26 errors, leading to the lowest fielding percentage amongst all shortstops.  His hot bat continued into the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, notching a .322 average and an .886 OPS.  He won his first Silver Slugger award while leading the White Sox to their first post-season appearance since 2008.  He thrived in the Wild Card series against the A’s, going 9-14 in the three-game series.

Anderson continued to prove that he his offensive improvement wasn’t a fluke when baseball returned full time in 2021.  He was named to his first All Star team and, on the game’s biggest stage, he hit a walk-off home run against the Yankees in the inaugural Field of Dreams game in the cornfields of Iowa.  Overall, he hit .309 and posted an .807 OPS while hitting 17 home runs and driving in 61 RBIs.  Continuing where he left off the previous October, Anderson hit .368 in the ALDS against the Astros.

On the north side of town, Peoria-native and Northwestern graduate Joe Girardi made his Major League debut for the Cubs on April 4, 1989 wearing #7.  He batted .248 with a home run and 14 runs batted in (RBIs) in 59 games as the surprising Cubs took home a division title. Getting more consistent playing time in 1990, he hit .270 with a home run and 38 RBIs.  Limited to only 21 games in 1991, he managed just a .191 average with only 6 RBIs. In 1992, he rebounded to play in 91 games, hitting .270 with a home run and 12 RBIs.  Following the season, he was left unprotected in the expansion draft and was selected by the Rockies.

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If You Build It Twice, Will They Still Come?

Following last week’s inaugural Field of Dreams game in Dyersville, Iowa, where the White Sox defeated the Yankees in thrilling fashion, word leaked that a second go-around would be slotted for the 2022 season, with the Cubs and the Reds on tap.  Neither team has a direct tie to the movie, but both have tangential ties to either the movie or the area: the Reds were the opponents of the 1919 White Sox that were the focus of the film in the thrown World Series and the Cubs have located their Triple A franchise in Iowa since 1981.

Can the second installment reach the heights of the first?  It’s hard to imagine.  While the novelty of playing in a cornfield in Iowa will remain, the grandeur of having Kevin Costner lead the teams out of the cornfields in to the stadium may come of as hokey if it is done a second time.  Given the success of the first game, a second was all but assured, but sometimes it is ok for a thing to just exist and be a hit.

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Here We Go Again

Tomorrow’s scheduled game between the Cardinals and the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field, which originally was tonight’s scheduled game in Iowa at the Field of Dreams site, has reportedly been cancelled as yet another Cardinals staffer has tested positive for the corona virus.  The current plan is for the Cardinals, who have played a grand total of 5 games so far this season, to arrive in Chicago on Saturday, by rental car if necessary, and play a double header against the White Sox, followed by the normally scheduled game on Sunday.

Assuming that goes off without a hitch, they would stay in town to face the Cubs, adding an additional double header to make up one of the games missed last weekend.  At this point, the chances of the Cardinals completing a “full” 60-game season seem rather remote, even if everything else goes as planned for the rest of the year.

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If You Build It, Nobody Will Come

The White Sox were scheduled to participate in next week’s “Field of Dreams” game in the cornfields of Iowa, first, against the Yankees pre-pandemic and then against the Cardinals once the schedules were re-jiggered.  Now, the game, slated for Dyersville, Iowa, near the filming location of Field of Dreams, has been called off due to logistical issues brought on by the corona virus.  Not directly blamed, but probably a contributing factor, is the outbreak of infections that the Cardinals suffered this past weekend, pausing their season.

The game, considered a home game for the White Sox, will likely be moved back to Guaranteed Rate Field, assuming the Cardinals are back in action.  The game in Iowa is expected to be pushed to 2021, with the White Sox playing an opponent to be determined.

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2019: The Year In Movies Part 2

Movie_Reel_22158 different people starred in the 89 movies I saw last year (starring in being the first two named stars, a tradition dating back to the old Chicago Tribune TV guide which populated the early days of my database), and a whopping 9 of them were in more than 1 film. Those 9 thespians are:

Films Per Actor Per Year
Actor Name Films
Liam Neeson 3
Sandra Bullock 2
Tom Cruise 2
Samuel L. Jackson 2
James McAvoy 2
Melissa McCarthy 2
Ryan Reynolds 2
Kiernan Shipka 2
Bruce Willis 2

Now let’s take a look at the remaining movies that I saw in 2019, following up on last Friday’s post.

The Silence (2019)
A very similar tale to A Quiet Place, but apparently based on a book which pre-dates last year’s hit movie.

Eighth Grade (2018)
A coming of age story for a young girl trying to navigate the last year of middle school and the social pressures therein.

The Captive (2014)
A father suspected of killing his young daughter continue to look for her years later, and eventually finds her.

A Simple Favor (2018)
A woman befriends another mother at her child’s school and finds herself drawn into mystery and intrigue.

Can You Keep A Secret? (2019)
A woman starts dating her boss after accidentally telling him all of her secrets on a flight.

Broken Star (2018)
A woman under house arrest has an interesting neighbor.

The Curerd (2018)
When a cure is found for a zombie outbreak, not everyone is willing to forgive and forget.

All The Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006)
A high school girl becomes popular after “maturing”, but her new friends start dropping like flies.

Horns (2014)
Based on the book by Joe Hill, a man grows horns and gains powers when his girlfriend is murdered and everyone assumes he did it.

Free Solo (2018)
A documentary about a crazy man who likes to climb mountains by himself without ropes. Continue reading →

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Looking Ahead To 2020

Major League Baseball released their tentative 2020 schedule earlier this week.  While the local squads have differing goals in mind as 2019 winds down, with the Cubs struggling for their 8th straight trip to post-season and the White Sox playing out the string in year three of their rebuild, it’s time to turn our attention to next summer for both teams.

For the third year in a row, the White Sox open their season against the Royals, but will be at home for the first time.  They follow that with a trip to Cleveland and Boston.

The interleague schedule pits the White Sox against the NL West, with trips to Colorado, San Francisco, and San Diego and home series against the Rockies, Diamondbacks, and the Dodgers.  The rivalry with their north side foes continues with a 2 game series at home and a 2 game series at Wrigley Field, both in July in the weeks surrounding the All Star Break.

In August, they will travel to Iowa to battle the Yankees in the first Field of Dreams game, hosted where the film of the same name was filmed in 1989 and played in an 8000 seat stadium that will be inspired by the original Comiskey Park.

The season ends with 10 games against their Central Division rivals, which hopefully will be important.

On the north side, the Cubs open their season up north in Milwaukee, before returning home the following Monday to kick off the home portion of their schedule against the Pirates.

The interleague schedule pits the Cubs against the AL East, with trips to Baltimore, New York, and Toronto and home series against the Orioles, Red Sox, and the Rays.

In June, they will head to London for a two-game tilt against the Cardinals

The Cubs end the year with a 16 of their final 22 games against the NL Central, with 13 of those coming against the Pirates and the Cardinals, who are likely to challenge them for the NL Central crown.

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Book 15 (of 52) – Shoeless Joe

Shoeless Joe – W.P. Kinsella

W.P. Kinsella’s seminal book, which graced the big screen as Field of Dreams, tells the tale of an Iowa farmer who, listening to a mysterious voice that only he can hear, builds a baseball field on his farm for Shoeless Joe Jackson and the rest of the 1919 White Sox, drives to New England to kidnap J.D. Salinger, then heads to Minnesota to find Moonlight Graham, who played a single game for the New York Giants in 1905, before returning home to his family, his farm, and his field.

In what may seem to be a weird fact, due to my baseball fandom, I have never seen Field of Dreams.  I was familiar enough (or so I thought) with the main themes of the movie, but never was interested enough to go ahead and actually watch it.  So when I saw the book on sale through Amazon’s Kindle Store, I surprised myself by buying it.  I enjoyed the book enough to consider watching the movie, should I come across it.  I don’t know if I would go out of my way to find it, though.