Lip Man 1

It's called they are "baseball-stupid" when it comes to fundamentals. And that wins or loses games.

They've been doing that for a few weeks now. Ozzie said he doesn't even like to take about Grifol because "it aggravates him..." That he "doesn't know" what's going on with guys.

It's now official 14 times this year the Sox took a lead into the 7th inning or later...and lost the game. Six times they lost the lead in the 9th inning, Graveman had it happen to him three times now (June 11, July 9 and today). The highest paid bullpen in baseball. ?

By the way just to clarify I reached out to Rick about his 130 million payroll figure and he clarified that he was just counting the guys currently on the 26 man roster. If you add up all the guys under contract and injured it's closer to 180 million.

If they go on to lose it will be the 14th time this year they had a lead in the 7th inning or later and lost the game. It would be the 6th time they lost the lead in the 9th inning. Graveman has been responsible for 3 1/2 of those blown 14 times again assuming the Sox lose. It would be the third time he would have coughed up the lead in the 9th inning. The highest paid bullpen in baseball!

Dropped this afternoon at the Sun-Times. He calls it like it should be: https://chicago.suntimes.com/white-sox/2023/7/23/23804872/in-jerry-reinsdorfs-bizarre-world-its-wonderful-life-where-no-one-gets-fired-white-sox-rick-hahn

The other factor is this, a comment from a source told to me this past off season for my "State of the Sox" story: “JR is 86 and he’s in great shape, he looks good, still drives himself around but I just think at this point he simply doesn’t want to be bothered with having to bring in a new front office, maybe he thinks in a few years it won’t matter anyway.”

His ego won't allow him to admit he has screwed things up.

Garfein has reported that JR is "miserable" and won't go through another "rebuild." That means a "retooling" or whatever phrase you wish to use. The problem, of course, is that the payroll is going to be dramatically reduced and with the team refusing to take risks and go after "superstar" free agents difference-making help isn't forthcoming even through JR is "miserable." Nothing changes until new ownership steps in. Anything else, even if Hahn, is canned or booted upstairs is simply cosmetic.

July 23, 1986 – It was one of, if not the worst, deal made by G.M. Ken “Hawk” Harrelson as he sent Bobby Bonilla to the Pirates for pitcher Jose DeLeon. Bonilla, selected by the Sox in the Major League draft in December 1985, showed flashes of brilliance in his half season on the South Side. He’d eventually turn into a complete, dominating, five tool type player with the Pirates during their divisional title runs in the early 90’s, although he was a handful because of his attitude. July 23, 2009 - It had only happened 17 times before. On this date the Sox Mark Buehrle became the 18th pitcher to ever throw a perfect game when he shut down Tampa 5-0. Buehrle was helped in the top of the ninth inning when Dewayne Wise, an otherwise mediocre player, made the catch of his career, leaping above the wall in left center to snare a ball hit by Gabe Kapler with one out. On the way down he started to lose the ball then snatched it out of the air with his other hand. Buehrle completed the task in 2:03, the exact same amount of time as his no-hitter in 2007. He became only the fourth pitcher to ever throw a perfect game and a no-hitter joining Cy Young, Sandy Koufax and Randy Johnson. July 23, 2016 - It was certainly a strange and bizarre situation for the Sox. Chris Sale, arguably the best pitcher in the American League and one of the best in baseball went on a pregame rampage before his scheduled start against the Tigers at U.S. Cellular Field. Sale was upset that he had to wear a throwback Sox pajama style jersey as part of a promotion for the game. Sale reportedly said it was uncomfortable. With the heat index over one hundred degrees wearing a dark blue/black jersey probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do either. Sale decided to take matters into his own hands, as during batting practice, he destroyed all of the game jerseys the team was supposed to wear by cutting them up with scissors. He also said publicly the White Sox were more concerned with public relations and uniforms than winning games. He would be suspended for five games for the incident.

"I don’t like our mental lapses. Our baserunning needs to be better. Our inconsistency in discipline at the plate needs to be better." - Pedro Grifol to DVS of the Sun-Times. Been saying the same things ad nauseum for months yet nothing has changed.

Ball's lawsuit was thrown out of court although I think there was some sort of settlement.

In 1969 Art Allyn had a handshake deal with Selig to sell the club and move it but that's when John Allyn stepped in. He told his brother that if he wanted to sell the club and move it that he would have to present his reasoning for doing so to the company (Artnell) board of directors. John insisted on this. Art decided not to do that and instead sold the club to John (which is what John wanted to do all along) More detailed info on this situation can be found in the book: "Chili Dog MVP, Dick Allen, the 1972 White Sox and a transforming Chicago."

Holes in the rotation, little depth, significant decrease in team payroll, injuries continuing. We already know next season is going to be brutally bad regardless if Eloy is with the club or not. Him playing 75 or so games again in 2024 will not make one iota of difference.

13th time this season the Sox took a lead into the 7th inning or later...and lost the game. 13 times...(and counting) The most expensive bullpen in baseball! ?

“Accountability around here is not a problem.”- Kenny Williams 4/25/23

He's made it clear he is not selling while he is alive.

"Therein lies the rub" as Shakespeare once wrote "once healthy" He's spent a considerable amount of time of the IL.

“The White Sox playing shorthanded started in 2007 when Jermaine Dye got hurt and Kenny Williams refused to call up Brian Anderson or Ryan Sweeney. Maybe they were cheap, maybe they wanted to protect Herm’s record of keeping guys off the DL.” (Author’s Note: Herm Schneider was the Sox longtime head trainer and for years the Sox were among the league leaders in keeping players healthy.) “Jake Peavy made the comment one time, ‘They have no reservations about playing shorthanded.”

The question moving forward is WHAT will he produce? Hard to produce much when you can't stay healthy is it?

July 22, 1941 - Slick fielding Sox first baseman Joe Kuhel tied a Major League record set in 1905 by recording 40 putouts in a double header against the Philadelphia Athletics. Kuhel recorded 17 putouts in the first game and 23 in the second one. The Sox split the two games played at Shibe Park winning the first 14-0 and losing the nightcap 3-0. July 22, 1959 - An afternoon game at Comiskey Park saw the Sox down Boston 5-4, to move into first place for good in the American League. The Sox rallied from a 4-2 deficit with two runs in the seventh and the game winner in the ninth inning as Sherm Lollar’s single to left scored Nellie Fox. July 22, 1962 - Sox outfielder Floyd Robinson got six hits in six at bats in a game against the Red Sox. The White Sox would win 7-3 in Fenway Park. Floyd went 6 for 6 with one RBI and one run scored. He was the third player in franchise history to get six hits in a game. That season despite hitting only 11 home runs, he drove in 109 RBI’s along with hitting .312 July 22, 1991 - Former Sox owner Bill Veeck was enshrined into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Veeck also owned the Indians and St. Louis Browns. He revolutionized the way baseball marketed their product and he was decades ahead of his time in his thinking on revenue sharing and baseball’s option clause which caused some other owners to, in some cases, despise him but he was beloved by fans especially in Chicago where he’d often walk around the stands during games interacting with the patrons. July 22, 1995 - In a game in Chicago then Brewers manager Phil Garner and then White Sox manager Terry Bevington got into a fist swinging brawl near the third base bag. The brawl was touched off when Ozzie Guillen shoved Jeff Cirillo on a play at third base. Garner, who managed Milwaukee from 1992 to 1999, had incidents with the Sox before. Many of those were prompted by some of his acerbic comments including refusing to refer to the Sox by name, using the moniker ‘big city’ The Sox would win this day 4-2.

As has been quoted someone else in this thread in a defense of Eloy DID compare him to Thomas.

According to a story tonight by DVS of the Sun-Times. This is what happens when you rush guys back from TJ surgery: "Left-hander Garrett Crochet returned from his rehab assignment at Charlotte with a recurrence of the shoulder inflammation that landed him on the injured list June 21. Since returning from Tommy John surgery this season, the 2020 first-round draft pick has appeared in 10 games, posting a 3.60 ERA with 10 strikeouts and 11 walks in 10 innings."

The inability for Eloy to seemingly go a month without injuring himself and missing games is PART of the issues with this club. I repeat, he could be the second coming of Aaron, Mantle, Musial, Frank Robinson or Mays but I've yet to see a guy able to hit from the bench, a hospital bed or in a walking boot.

They may get a bag of balls for Lynn but that's about it. These guys know they are headed out of town soon and I'm guessing they can't wait.