caulfield12

https://www.mlb.com/video/tatis-jr-s-four-hits-in-return?t=best-performer

This team would be at 4 games over .500 without him. Without LaRussa, we'd be at +14 or +16.

But they really DIDN'T want to...they just went through the motions, like Jon Garland back in the day being ordered by Ozzie to hit someone and MISSING the batter.

There has to be a video somewhere of him SUPPOSEDLY making some motions or shouting "TAKE TAKE TAKE" from the dugout....since he's emotive as the Corpse Bride so far this year, rarely venturing out of the dugout, just having a hard time believing he was suddenly so demonstrative about this of all things in a blowout victory...when there's been hundreds of bad umpiring calls on balls and strikes to at least make an occasional appearance about to stick up for your pitchers and hitters.

Even the Twins and Baldelli are not so obtuse as to realize that Yermin's having his 15 minutes of fan...maybe longer. They're not going to really try to hurt someone so "fun loving" as Mercedes or Eloy Jimenez that everyone loves to be around. He's just exuberant and excited to have an opportunity to be on a major league roster each and every day. It's probably surreal. This is a kid who went something like a decade putting his time in, and was THIS CLOSE to being out of the game a number of times, if not for the fact that teams (even INDY ones) always need catchers, if for nothing else than bullpen work. This isn't an established star like TA taking advantage to pad his stats. It's a rookie who still doesn't know what the limits ARE, because he's just enjoying being in the spotlight too much. That's why it's such a great (national) baseball story that can inspire kids all around the world who don't fit the mold of what a traditional baseball, basketball or soccer player looks like.

Tiger Woods in the 1997 Masters or one of those 1999-2000 Grand Slams he won by something like 8-10 strokes...he should have just let up on the gas and allowed all of his opponents back into the tourney in order to make it more exciting for the fans watching at home?

IN all of this, you're missing the point that TA and Yermin and Fernando Tatis (grand slam against Texas on a 3-0 count against Juan Nicasio last summer) are making. It's that baseball is a sport, its played for fun, and it's played for the fans, especially young kids...the next generation. Do you think those young fans would prefer that Yermin took 3 49 mph eephus strikes (which, in and of itself, was at least SOMEWHAT disrespectful to the game, and created a clown-ish sideshow environment in the first place) and sit down and "GRAB SOME BENCH" because of the lead or HAVE SOME FUN SWINGING AGAINST HIS FRIEND that just so happened to be pitching in that anomalous situation...a once in a lifetime opportunity? Will sitting down for three strikes or running out the clock when you're team's up 45-10 with the ball in the final minutes....or running the old North Carolina four corners offense to end the game excite anyone about playing the sport of baseball? PROBABLY NOT. Baseball increasingly is about ENTERTAINMENT. Entertaining the fans, who pay the bills to watch the product. The product is exciting players and their exploits, not crusty old school managers hanging on for historical wins as a manager records.

You're getting as spicy as the fried chicken down in Nashville these days...maybe need some Krystal/Waffle House instead? Zaxby's? Between Ray Ray, yourself and Chitownsports, things have been getting a bit chippy. Can't we all just get along (at least while we're in first place), haha?

Knights hold Wander Franco 0/5 but lose 5-4 in extras. Struggle of a game for Burger.

He took the $18.5 million qualifying offer this year...want no part of him next year as a full-fledged FA. He will get one of those Eovaldi-like deals.

Matt Zaleski (AAA pitching coach) and LHP Nik Turley both ejected in bottom of the 9th, game tied at 3-3. Turley must have been upset with ball/strike calls, walked two runners. Wes Helms (former Brave) gone too. More coaching ejections in one minor league game than the entire White Sox season so far.

By the way, has Tony been going to Rudy Giuliani's hair stylist/salon? Those roots...past dye job, in major need of a touch-up or revitalizing rinse.

"Big mistake," La Russa said. "The fact that he's a rookie, and excited, helps explain why he just was clueless. But now he's got a clue." La Russa was in full get-off-my-lawn mode during his video conference with reporters the next day. "I took several steps from the dugout onto the field, yelling, 'Take, take, take,'" La Russa recalled. "The way he was set up, it looked to me like he was going to swing. "I was upset because that's not a time to swing 3-0. I knew the Twins knew I was upset. . . . He missed a 3-0 take sign. With that kind of lead, that's just sportsmanship and respect for your opponent." And . . . "I'm certain that will not happen again with Yermin," La Russa said. "It's a manager's responsibility. It's a teaching moment. You want them to understand why there's a take sign in that situation. "I'm absolutely certain the guy is not going to swing 3-0 in another situation." Tipsheet isn't so certain that Mercedes won’t repeat this breach of baseball etiquette. He insisted he wouldn't change his playing style. "I'm always doing Yermin," Mercedes said. "For that reason, I'm here right now. For that reason, you guys are talking to me right now. If I'm not Yermin, if I'm not doing that, nobody wants to talk to me, nobody wants to know what I'm doing." https://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/jeff-gordon/tipsheet-la-russa-insists-on-enforcing-baseballs-unwritten-rules/article_ee6f7865-1299-5f1c-a87f-a5bed569f412.html

And now for a brief moment of levity on TLRTalk, a word from one of our many valued sponsors, Jim Beam Whiskey:

Tony La Russa doubles down on HR controversy while his players send different message on social media https://www.yahoo.com/sports/tony-la-russa-doubles-down-on-hr-controversy-while-his-players-send-different-message-on-social-media-170429453.html Mercedes has since gone private on Instagram. Those messages don't criticize La Russa directly, though Anderson and Mercedes make it clear they don't agree with their manager's ideology. None of this bodes well for La Russa. Anderson is one of the team's best players and its most recognizable national superstar. Mercedes is only a rookie, but he's been arguably the best hitter on the White Sox this season. Those voices —especially Anderson's — carry significant weight in the clubhouse. La Russa may want to consider that the next time he decides to weigh in on Mercedes' home run.

Is there ANYONE taking LaRussa’s side? Carlton Fisk? Harrelson? Pujols? Molina/Wainright? Well, besides Rocco Baldelli, of course.

ARKK/Cathie Wood? Soros is the one playing 5D chess, definitely not the Sox front office.

Padres are joining in on the party at +10, and SFG could be all alone at +11 depending on Cincy results.

Take your irrational ire to its source, Elon Musk, or the Chinese govn’t .?

And his bullpen actually closed out games...granted, it was Colome, but nothing like the current situation.

Does anyone honestly think LaRussa is actually doing this intentionally to unite the team and take all the attention/focus off the players and put it all on himself, like Ozzie consistently did until the end? I’ve got some Bitcoin, Dogecoin and tons of Shiba Inu that I’d just love to offload. Great investment opportunity, far better than boring old gold.

In the end, this isn’t about a rookie “missing” a sign — or downright ignoring it; it’s about a manager that has lost touch with the game. Today’s game. He said that Mercedes isn’t playing his game; he’s playing Major League Baseball, in response to Mercedes saying that he only knows how to play his way. Well, Tony, you’re right; he’s playing Major League Baseball. It’s just not your Major League Baseball, and that’s what you continue to fail to comprehend. If Tony La Russa insists on playing the fun police role, and he insists on throwing his players under the bus in the name of dinosaur-age unwritten rules, then his career is going to suffer the same fate of the dinosaur age… extinction. Get with the times. After all, the team you’re managing has donned “change the game” as their marketing slogan for the past two seasons. Maybe it’s time their manager gets on board before he “gets run over,” as Tim Anderson said a couple of years ago about people offended by the evolution of baseball. https://whitesoxdaily.substack.com/p/here-we-go-with-the-unwritten-rules?r=ku3nf

Can we say spaz now? Tiger Woods got hammered for this...

That has been just a little bit...lacking.

“It's just one of those things where people are going to get their ideas of how they should do things,” Lynn said. “I’ve been in situations last year where [Fernando] Tatis did the 3-0 grand slam off of a pitcher that had 10 years in the big leagues [Juan Nicasio] and didn't throw another pitch in the big leagues after that, and everyone seemed to think that was fine. “You're damned if you do, damned if you don't, it seems like. But I think everybody should just play the game as hard as they can and do all that, and don't worry about anything else." https://www.mlb.com/news/white-sox-blow-lead-lose-walk-off-to-twins