{"id":7925,"date":"2015-04-30T07:23:13","date_gmt":"2015-04-30T13:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/?p=7925"},"modified":"2015-04-30T20:47:29","modified_gmt":"2015-05-01T02:47:29","slug":"157-bob-james","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/2015\/04\/157-bob-james\/","title":{"rendered":"#157 – Bob James"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"james\"<\/a>Name:<\/strong>\u00a0Bob James<\/p>\n

Rank:<\/strong>\u00a0157<\/p>\n

Position:<\/strong>\u00a0P<\/p>\n

Years With White Sox:<\/strong>\u00a01985-1987<\/p>\n

Bob James was acquired by the White Sox on Decmber 7, 1984 from the Expos in exchange for Vance Law. \u00a0James was installed as the team’s closer for 1985 and helped to return the White Sox to a contending club. \u00a0Manager Tony La Russa said, “We’ve had a decent bullpen since I’ve been here, but, with Bob, our bullpen can compare with anybody’s in the league.” \u00a0Broadcaster, and Hall of Fame pitcher, Don Drysdale agreed. \u00a0“They have a guy down in the bullpen now who they haven’t had for quite a few years. . .a stopper,” Drysdale said. \u00a0“Without James, I don’t know where they would be.”<\/p>\n

The White Sox finished the season in 3rd place, with an 85-77 record, but James finished with an 8-7 record, a 2.13 ERA, and 32 saves, behind only Royals reliever Dan Quisenberry. \u00a0Things appeared to be looking up for the White Sox heading in to the 1986 season.<\/p>\n

Sadly, things went a bit crazy in 1986, both for James and the White Sox. \u00a0While new GM Hawk Harrelson turned the organization on its head, James lost any semblance of effectiveness that he had showed the previous year. \u00a0In early August, James went down with triceps issues and was lost for the season. \u00a0His final numbers were nightmarish: a 5-4 record but an ERA of 5.25 and only 14 saves in 49 appearances.<\/p>\n

James continued to struggle in 1987, and in May, he lost his position as the team’s closer. \u00a0“I told him he`s not throwing as well as he could be,” manager Jim Fregosi said. \u00a0“I’m going to use him as a long man so he can get back to where he`s throwing well.” \u00a0Shoulder problems put him out of commission in July, and he finished the season with a 4-6 record and a 4.67 ERA.<\/p>\n

The White Sox released James in December, but looked to resign him to an incentive-laden deal the following spring. \u00a0“We’ve had several talks with him,” general manager Larry Himes said. \u00a0“He’s looking at other places. The Sox are interested, but he knows the conditions. We’re willing to pay for performance. Bob James has not performed up to our expectations the last couple years.” \u00a0James ended up not signing with the White Sox, or anyone else, and his major league career came to an end.<\/p>\n

James’s\u00a0numbers in a White Sox uniform, both for games I attended and overall, were:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/tfoot>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Name:\u00a0Bob James Rank:\u00a0157 Position:\u00a0P Years With White Sox:\u00a01985-1987 Bob James was acquired by the White Sox on Decmber 7, 1984 from the Expos in exchange for Vance Law. \u00a0James was installed as the team’s closer for 1985 and helped to return the White Sox to a contending club. \u00a0Manager Tony La Russa said, “We’ve had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[5562,5564,5563,259,44,3697,2369,2210,2428,5063,49],"class_list":["post-7925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baseball","tag-bob-james","tag-dan-quisenberry","tag-don-drysdale","tag-expos","tag-hof","tag-jim-fregosi","tag-ken-harrelson","tag-larry-himes","tag-tony-larussa","tag-vance-law","tag-white-sox"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7925"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7963,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7925\/revisions\/7963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

Wins<\/span><\/th>\nLosses<\/span><\/th>\nERA<\/span><\/th>\nSaves<\/span><\/th>\nIP<\/span><\/th>\nHits<\/span><\/th>\nRuns<\/span><\/th>\nER<\/span><\/th>\nWalks<\/span><\/th>\nStrike Outs<\/span><\/th>\nHR<\/span><\/th>\nHBP<\/span><\/th>\nAppearances<\/span><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
1<\/span><\/td>\n0<\/span><\/td>\n0.00<\/span><\/td>\n0<\/span><\/td>\n2<\/span><\/td>\n0<\/span><\/td>\n0<\/span><\/td>\n0<\/span><\/td>\n0<\/span><\/td>\n1<\/span><\/td>\n0<\/span><\/td>\n0<\/span><\/td>\n2<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
17<\/span><\/td>\n17<\/span><\/td>\n3.56<\/span><\/td>\n56<\/span><\/td>\n222.333<\/span><\/td>\n205<\/span><\/td>\n99<\/span><\/td>\n88<\/span><\/td>\n63<\/span><\/td>\n154<\/span><\/td>\n23<\/span><\/td>\n10<\/span><\/td>\n161<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n