Lip Man 1

“Jake Peavy made the comment one time, ‘They have no reservations about playing shorthanded.”

If they were smart they word but remember before Liam got hurt the word was out that he wouldn't be traded because he was a "favorite" of JR. ?

Exactly but these are the White Sox with their "crack" medical, training and conditioning staffs! ?

From MLB.com today reviewing the deal just FYI: Of course, that the White Sox were willing to trade a feel-good success story who can’t be a free agent until after 2028 tells you a little something, and there’s no shortage of red flags here; he’s a below-average fielder; his .279 on-base percentage is well below-average; he’s hit .173/.253/.470 over the last two months. Throw in a 32% strikeout rate and he’s the Anti-Marlin in lot of ways, which isn’t a bad thing given their total lack of power, but it’s also possible that the White Sox viewed this as found money, turning a pre-season question mark into a well-regarded 24-year-old Double-A starter who could be in Chicago as soon as next year.

They have done everything but come right out and say they are running it back next year. You know it, I know it, the media knows it and so does the front office.

One year after JR has left the scene.

August 2, 1921 - A Chicago jury found the eight “Black Sox” players innocent of conspiring to commit fraud by virtue of fixing the 1919 World Series. The players expected to go back to the Sox but then Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis permanently banished them, destroying the only team that could have played with the Yankees throughout the 1920's. It also sunk the franchise into a spiral that saw only seven winning seasons between 1921 and 1950. One of the players George “Buck” Weaver maintained his innocence until his death and applied for reinstatement many times without success. August 2, 1968 - The Sox and Senators completed a trade as infielders Tim Cullen and Ron Hansen were exchanged for each other. Why the notoriety? Because the same two players were traded for each other by the same two clubs on February 13th! The players even wore the same uniform number with the White Sox (#4) and had the same identical locker location! Hansen had been with the club since 1963 and played a solid shortstop. August 2, 1979 - Tony LaRussa replaced Don Kessinger as White Sox manager. The Tampa native, who had passed the bar exam in Florida, was only 35 years old. He remained as manager until June 1986. LaRussa posted winning records in 1981, 1982, 1983 and 1985. He won the Western Division title in the 1983 season. LaRussa was fired because of basic conflicts on how the team should be run by new G.M. Ken “Hawk” Harrelson. Owner Jerry Reinsdorf later publicly admitted letting LaRussa go was one of the worst mistakes he ever made and he’d eventually correct it (in his mind) by getting LaRussa out of retirement to come back as manager for the 2021 season that saw the Sox win the division with 93 victories. August 2, 1985 - An incredible weekend in New York started with perhaps the most unusual play in White Sox history. As a national TV audience watched on Friday Night Baseball on NBC, and with pitcher Britt Burns on the mound, Rickey Henderson slammed a double to left center over the head of outfielder Luis Salazar. Yankee runner Bobby Meacham was unsure if the ball would be caught by center fielder Salazar or left fielder Reid Nichols, so he went back toward second to tag up before reversing course, and then stumbled slightly. Meanwhile, Dale Berra (Yogi’s son) had taken off from first and didn’t hesitate as Meacham had. So, when the ball finally came to rest on the warning track in deep left field near the 411-foot mark, only about 20 feet separated the two runners. Salazar picked up the ball and fired it to shortstop Ozzie Guillen as Meacham and Berra rounded third. Third-base coach Gene Michael tried to get Berra to hold up at third but it was too late. Guillen relayed the ball to catcher Carlton Fisk in plenty of time to tag Meacham, who didn’t slide and instead tried unsuccessfully to knock the ball out of Fisk’s glove. Fisk did a ‘matador’ on Meacham for the first out of the inning. Meacham did succeed in twirling Fisk around slightly so that he wasn’t facing the field, but he recovered in time to tag Berra, who also did not slide. It was scored an 8-6-2 double play. That’s two for the price of one at home plate! To cap things off the Sox won the game 6-5 in 11 innings. August 2, 1990 - In the first game of a double header first baseman Frank Thomas made his Major League debut in Milwaukee. The greatest hitter in franchise history went 0-4 in his first game. The next night Frank narrowly missed a home run in the seventh inning when his line shot hit the top of the wall in right field and went for a triple. It would be his first Major League hit. The Sox would sweep five games from the Brewers that weekend. A bit of trivia; when Thomas came up with the Sox, he did not wear #35. His first number was #15. August 2, 2016 - When White Sox outfielder Charlie Tilson was helped off the field in Detroit he became, incredibly, the fourth player making their Major League debut for the club to be injured and not be able to finish the game that season. Catcher Kevan Smith injured his back in pregame warm up’s and was placed on the disabled list, outfielder Jason Coats suffered a cut lip and a mild concussion after a collision, infielder Matt Davidson broke a bone in his foot running the bases and was placed on the disabled list and Tilson tore his left hamstring, he also went on the DL.

“Most of the fan interaction that I’ve had in recent months is fan question-and-answer sessions,” he said. “You can feel the frustration and you can feel the disappointment. They feel better for having been heard." - Rick Hahn You mean like at Sox Fest? ?

https://chicago.suntimes.com/2023/8/1/23816609/mlb-trade-deadline-white-sox-news-gm-rick-hahn-spins-another-tale-about-a-lost-season

19 straight innings being shut out...and counting.

They have a good chance to make the playoffs unlike the Sox.

DeLuca is one of the sports editors at the Sun-Times and doesn't often write columns anymore: https://chicago.suntimes.com/2023/8/1/23816609/mlb-trade-deadline-white-sox-news-gm-rick-hahn-spins-another-tale-about-a-lost-season

An excerpt from my story that I posted the link for: "On July 31, according to Schueler, Reinsdorf called Scott Boras (Hernandez’s agent) to see one final time if a contract extension could be reached. Boras said it would have to be at least for four years. Schueler told the Chicago Tribune that at that point, he knew he’d have to make a trade because the Sox would not offer pitchers that long of a deal. (Ironically, after accusing Tapani of faking a hand injury and rebuffing the efforts of Roger Clemens’ agents to have him join the White Sox saying Clemens was “over the hill,” Schueler signed Jamie Navarro to a four-year $20 million deal.) Navarro was an unmitigated disaster. At the time of the Giants trade, he was 8-9 with a high ERA and a disruptive clubhouse presence."

Isn't Ramos a third baseman?

August 1, 1983 - On a nationally televised ABC Monday Night Baseball game, Greg Luzinski drove a Ray Fontenot pitch over the left field roof at Comiskey Park. It was “the Bull’s” second roof shot in 1983 and the first home run ever allowed by Fontenot. The Sox would win the game 4-1 over the Yankees starting a torrid stretch where they went an incredible 46-15 to close out the regular season and finish with 99 wins. August 1, 2003 - The Sox won their 8,000 game in franchise history as they buried the Mariners in Seattle 12-1. Carl Everett had a huge evening going 2 for 4 with five RBI’s including a three-run home run off future teammate Freddy Garcia. August 1, 2005 - Pitcher Mark Buehrle’s streak of 49 straight starts with six or more innings ended when he was thrown out of a game in Baltimore by umpire Brian Gorman. Sox TV announcer Ken “Hawk” Harrelson became extremely upset in the TV booth “You’ve GOT to be kidding me!” over it. Buehrle got tossed without warning for hitting B.J. Surhoff after White Sox hitters were struck earlier in the game. The Sox would get the last laugh however winning the game 6-3 and sweeping the four-game series increasing their divisional lead to 15 games over the Indians.

because like the White Flag Trade it made the Sox a national embarrassment.

They could make an offer but when was the last time JR allowed a nine figure deal? There you have it. Not happening.

Balta: I don't know the answer to that myself maybe someone else has it.

DVS of the Sun-Times takes a closer look at it (and it wasn't good): https://chicago.suntimes.com/white-sox/2023/7/31/23814668/white-sox-focus-loosen-up-have-some-fun It dovetails with what I was told by multiple sources for the story I put together on the "State of the Sox" headed into this year: “The problem with this team is there was no real leadership, nobody to hold guys accountable. No red-asses like the Sox had in the past… Carlton Fisk, Jack McDowell, A.J. Pierzynski. Paul Konerko was a quiet guy but when we weren’t doing well he’d get really pissed. Elvis Andrus tried to supply some leadership when he came and Lucas Giolito tried.” “I’d come into the locker room after a game and you couldn’t tell if they won or lost, just nothing.” “You’d go in the locker room and all the Latino guys would be in one place, the whites in another and the African-Americans someplace else.” “I had heard that groups were apart and not close but part of that could be human nature, language divisions for example. I know the Latin guys were always around Jose’s locker, Moncada was always there. The Sox locker room is a big square so guys aren’t close to start with, the Cubs locker room is circular. I don’t know if that was by design or what but that lends itself to guys getting together.” “The problem is some of these guys just don’t care, they want to win sure but they already have gotten their money with these contracts before they proved anything. Moncada would strike out and just walk back to the dugout like no big deal, he fouls a ball off and now he can’t play for three days? His contract makes him untradable but he needs to go.” “There was a lack of urgency the entire season. People would say the right things but they never translated.” “To me it was the May 9 game with Cleveland, (Author’s Note: The Sox blew an 8-2, 9th inning lead and lost in extra innings which snapped a six-game win streak.) That showed Cleveland that they could play with the Sox but what I noticed was the only person that game seemed to bother was Tony LaRussa. Another one was the Triple Play Game against the Twins. (Author’s Note: The Sox ran themselves into an 8-5 triple play on July 4. They wound up losing the game 6-3 in extra innings) Adam Engel faced the music afterwards, he made a mistake and owned up to it. Moncada who also made a mistake was nowhere, he was already gone. Then the next day he was saying that he didn’t know people wanted to talk with him.” “They were the most disappointing team in baseball. They were consistently redundant, by that I mean day after day they’d make errors, have dumb base running mistakes, take bad approaches at the plate and lack effort. They were the dumbest, laziest team in baseball, I don’t know if they were the most disappointing team ever in Chicago but I’ve used the phrase that the 2022 White Sox were “Trying Barely”… they reminded me of the 2004 Cubs.”

14 times so far the Sox had a lead in the 7th inning or later and wound up losing the game.

Speaking of the "White Flag Trade" a detailed look from both the Sox and Giants perspectives: https://www.southsidesox.com/2022/7/31/23286626/white-sox-white-flag-trade-theres-a-hole-in-the-toe-of-my-white-sox

The most significant change will come when JR is gone and new ownership arrives although no one knows when that will happen so Tony does have a valid point.

They split the four game series.

From what a source told me this past winter: “People, his friends… have tried to tell him what has been going on, “Hawk” Harrelson, the late Ed Farmer… God rest his soul, Darrin Jackson, Scott Reifert (Author’s Note: Scott is the Senior Vice-President for Communications) , Bob Grim and others but it’s just not registering for some reason.”

Exactly, Kenny is not running things, he's got one foot out the door to retirement already.