Lip Man 1

"The Sox have prioritized handedness matchups in the first inning all season, with Wednesday being their MLB-leading 31st use of an opener, and show no signs of backing down. “It’s an approach that we feel strongly about, specifically with Fedde,” said manager Will Venable. “Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. But it’s something we feel strongly gave us the best chance today.”

Fingers crossed, good luck.

It appears the Sox pitching staff as a whole is about as healthy as they were heading into the playoffs in 2000 and of course everyone knows the situation in 2020.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/white-sox/2026/09/23/white-sox-still-want-the-division-title-but-earning-a-playoff-berth-would-be-everything-davis-martin-chris-getz-jin-wong-miguel-vargas-grant-taylor-will-venable

Then I think it is disingenuous for some people to rag on Montgomery and others for striking out 200 times a year. But this of course explains the Sox poor lack of situational hitting.

SEVEN factoids today: September 24, 1919 - A 6-5 win over the St. Louis Browns clinched the pennant for the White Sox. Eddie Cicotte got the win. “Shoeless” Joe Jackson’s double in the ninth drove in the game and pennant clinching run. The Sox would beat out the Indians by three and a half games for the title and finish with a record of 88-52. The key to the season came in mid-August when the Sox reeled off a 10-game win streak. September 24, 1961 - Sox star pitcher Billy Pierce won his 186th and final game with the team as he threw almost seven innings in relief in an 8-7 win over Baltimore. Pierce would be traded to the Giants the following off season after 13 years on the South Side. He represented the Sox in seven All-Star games and started three of them for the American League, a White Sox record for pitchers. September 24, 1969 - Sox owner Art Allyn sold the club to his brother John Allyn thwarting moves made by Kansas City Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt and Milwaukee’s Allan "Bud" Selig to buy the team. Hunt wanted to move it to Dallas, Selig to Milwaukee. After Art had a handshake agreement with Selig to move the team to Milwaukee, John stepped in and issued an ultimatum that if he wanted to move the club he would have to get approval from the Artnell Company Board of Directors. Art declined to do that and sold to John. September 24, 1977 - Sox infielder Jack Brohamer had the game of his life as he became the second player in franchise history to hit for the cycle. The game took place in Seattle. Brohamer went 5 for 5 with two runs scored and four RBI’s in the 8-3 win. He homered in the first, doubled in the third, doubled in the fifth, singled in the sixth and tripled in the ninth inning collecting 12 total bases. September 24, 2000 - Despite losing to the Twins at the Metrodome, the Sox clinched the Central Division championship beating out Cleveland by five games with a record of 95-67. Owner Jerry Reinsdorf showed up in the locker room and said that “I’m sure all Sox fans are now happy the team made the White Flag deal.” Because of injuries to the pitching staff, primarily the starters, the Sox were not in good shape heading into the playoffs and were swept out in three by the Mariners. Offense was the key to the season as the Sox had the most prolific one in the American League led by the devastating one-two punch of Frank Thomas (143 RBI’s) and Magglio Ordonez (126 RBI’s). September 24, 2023 – In a disaster of a season for the White Sox one person at least had a memorable year for all the right reasons. When Luis Robert stole his 20th base of the year in the first inning of a rain-shortened 3-2 win in Boston he joined Magglio Ordonez as the only players in team history with at least 35 doubles, 30 home runs and 20 stolen bases in a season. He also is the only Sox player in team history with 35 or more doubles, 35 or more home runs, 75 or more RBI’s, 85 or more runs scored and 15 or more stolen bases in a single year. September 24, 2025 – An 8-1 loss to the Yankees in New York was the 100th on the season for the White Sox. It marked the first time in the 125-year history of the franchise they had ever had three straight seasons with at least 100 losses. It was also the fourth time in the last eight years. The American League record for most consecutive 100-loss seasons is held by the Washington Senators. They lost at least 100 games every year between 1961-1964. The Major League record is five straight years held by the Philadelphia Phillies from 1938-1942.

Sox are the Sox if they have to go to Houston for three next week.

Figures on the night Cleveland loses, the White Sox do the same. Sorry I simply don't see the need for "openers". But that's just me. Regarding Colson and strike outs, for what it's worth had a nice talk with a good friend of mine who has been connected to the Sox organization for decades today talking about Don Cooper's passing. He had lunch with one of the Sox national scouts a few months ago. He told me the scout told him that all they are teaching now at all levels (and I inferred this meant all teams not just the Sox) to players to just "swing as hard as you can, try to hit a home run." That and 'launch angles.' This person said the Sox really only have two players Antonacci and Meidroth who try to use the whole field. I have a feeling that if they don't win Thursday regardless of what Cleveland does, they aren't winning the division.

That may very well happen but for the Sox to go from 102 losses to a winning season and get into the playoffs at all is pretty remarkable and noteworthy.

Dustin Hermanson pitched in the playoffs for the Sox

Will is part of the issue but not the biggest. The pitching staff doesn't have it in them to go very far. Plus the "home run or nothing" offense doesn't leave a lot of room for error.

Don't want to play Houston without any chance of a home game or two. They own the Sox and have for years.

Here's Cooper's White Sox trivia note: October 4, 1981 - Jerry Hairston’s grand slam helped beat the Twins 13-12 setting off Bill Veeck’s original exploding scoreboard for the last time. The blast came off future White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper. The Sox trailed in the game 12-5 before scoring eight unanswered runs in the final two innings with Hairston driving home the game winner. The victory gave the Sox their first winning year since 1977 at 54-52. The game also marked the end of broadcaster Harry Caray’s association with the Sox after 11 seasons.

Just got off the phone with a good friend of his. Don died of a heart attack. His friend said he lived life to the end still with a beer in his hand and a chew in his mouth. His friend had known him literally since they were kids.

Sox have made it clear he is done for the year.

Three factoids today: September 23, 1995 - Lance Johnson got six hits in six at bats in a game at Minnesota. Three of the hits were triples and he drove in four runs in the 14-4 win. He was the fourth player in team history to do this and first to ever get three triples in a game. He had 12 total bases for the night. September 23, 2017 – White Sox slugger Jose Abreu became the third player in Major League history to start his career with four straight seasons of at least 25 home runs and at least 100 RBI’s by virtue of his run-scoring groundout off the Royals Scott Alexander at Guaranteed Rate Field. Jose joined Albert Pujois and Joe DiMaggio in accomplishing this rare feat. Pujols, DiMaggio, Abreu, former Sox outfielder Al Simmons and Ted Williams are the only players to start their careers with four straight seasons of 100 RBI’s. September 23, 2021 – The White Sox beat the Indians 7-2 in the first game of a double header to clinch the Central Division title, their first since the 2008 season. The title locked up consecutive playoff berths for the first time in franchise history as they made the post season in 2020 as a Wild Card. The Sox were the last of the original 16 Major League teams to accomplish that feat. The Sox got after things early with Tim Anderson leading off the game with a home run, then broke it open with a six run, second inning. In that frame Luis Robert, Eloy Jimenez and Anderson again all hit home runs. They’d end the year with 93 wins and a playoff loss to Houston in four games.

Boston could care less right now and Cleveland is smoking hot at the most crucial time of the season. Looking to make it eight appearances in the post season in the last 11 years. That's impressive.

👍

From my story on the history of SportsVision: "Over time both Eddie Einhorn and Jerry Reinsdorf commented on SportsVision, the idea, the execution and the aftermath; Einhorn in particular defended the decision telling Logan, “If you want people to come, you can’t give the product away. That’s the way it’s been done everywhere else except Chicago for years. The best organizations, the ones that draw the most people at the gate, don’t go that way. They have limited TV.” Reinsdorf though understood the reality of the situation when in 2004 at a luncheon promoting the start of the new Comcast Sports Network-Chicago regional channel he said, "Unfortunately, Chicago wasn't ready for us. There wasn't cable of any consequence, and we were on subscription pay-TV. I don't remember how many subscribers there were, but I know that more than that number went to Radio Shack and bought the parts for their own boxes." How to sum up the experiment known as SportsVision? Well you could do a lot worse than to say, ‘A brilliant idea that simply was ahead of its time, limited by historical factors as well as technological shortcomings.’

Fingers crossed...good luck.

Two factoids today: September 22, 1959 - The White Sox clinched the American League pennant beating the Indians 4-2 in Cleveland. Al Smith and “Jungle” Jim Rivera hit back-to-back home runs in the game. Smith also threw out former Sox star “Minnie” Minoso trying to score a run. A crowd estimated by the Chicago Sun-Times at 125,000 was at Midway Airport to greet the Sox when they returned home. All this on a night when Chicago fire commissioner Robert Quinn ordered the air raid sirens turned on to celebrate the title, causing fear and panic in a number of non-baseball fans who thought the Russians were attacking. The Sox would wind up winning the 1959 pennant by five games over the Tribe with a mark of 94-60. While they were near the bottom in most offensive categories the pitching was stellar and the defense had three Gold Glove winners in Nellie Fox, Luis Aparicio and Sherm Lollar. The Sox also won 35 games that season by one run with 15 losses. September 22, 1966 - In a game at Yankee Stadium, pitcher Joe Horlen and his teammates stopped New York to the tune of 4-1. Only 413 fans were in attendance at the gigantic stadium. It’s believed to be the smallest home crowd ever at a Yankee game.

September 27, 1967- The Sox finished the season with the two worst teams in the league, Kansas City and Washington and the fans could smell that elusive World Series in the greatest pennant race ever. However, it all began to fall apart this night as the Sox dropped a double header to the A’s 5-2 and 4-0 after rain postponed the single game Tuesday. The Sox, in the middle of a pennant race, got over three days off, not having played since Sunday afternoon in Cleveland. Pitchers Gary Peters and Joe Horlen got tagged with the losses on “Black Wednesday” but the final embarrassment was yet to come. The normally fundamentally sound White Sox made three errors in the twin-bill disaster and got seven hits. September 29, 1967 - The Sox still had a chance for the pennant before they lost 1-0 to the Senators. The only run was set up when first baseman Tommy McCraw wasn’t able to catch a pop up off the bat of Washington’s Fred Valentine in the first inning. NBC-TV had erected a barrier for their field level cameras in case the World Series came to Comiskey Park and Valentine’s pop fell into that enclosed area near the visitor’s dugout. Valentine then singled driving in the only run. Two errors by the Sox in that first inning led to the unearned run. That season marked the 17th straight year that the Sox finished better than .500 at 89-73.

"Baseball is a funny game" - Joe Garagiola. Expect the unexpected is all I'll say. You just don't know how into it Boston is going to be given they can't change their playoff positioning.

When you have only had five winning seasons since 2007 and have had three straight years of 100+ losses, getting to 82 wins and guaranteeing a winning season is just fine for me. Anything they can do over that is gravy. That being said to be fair when you look at the season if they don't win the division after leading it for over 2 1/2 months would be a disappointment. So the year overall is kind of a mixed bag to me. But you can't minimize how unexpected it would be for them to go from 102 losses to 82 wins. In fact that has never happened in MLB before.

That is one of the three games when all is said and done you can make the case that cost the Sox the divisional title and the #2 seed. The others of course were the game in Boston where they were one strike away from winning and the game in Cleveland Tuesday when the same thing took place. Two more wins for a winning season.