Daily Herald Article

[retro1983hat]

It's in the Buehrle Breaks Foot thread, but it might get lost on page 23. It's pretty good.

 

 

 

By Mike Imrem

Daily Herald

 

The earth didn’t shake Monday morning when word circulated that Mark Buehrle injured his foot shagging flyballs.

 

I mean, this wasn’t the Cubs. It was the White Sox. It wasn’t Mark Prior. It was Mark Buehrle. It wasn’t People glitz and glamour. It was Popular Mechanics nuts and bolts.

 

Nothing might symbolize the relative statuses of Chicago’s baseball teams better than the responses to their respective recent pitching crises.

 

Prior and Kerry Wood went down with ailing arms last week. When they were scratched from the season-opening series at Arizona, you would have thought the pope and president were spitting up blood.

 

Buehrle? Pending the outcome of further tests, he might be scratched from Opening Day and maybe longer. It would be as big an “Ouch!” for his team as a Prior or Wood absence is for his.

 

Maybe bigger, in fact. Maybe big enough that when Buehrle is absent, somebody finally notices him. Until now he could have been the object of the country lyric, “How can I miss you if you never go away?”

 

Buehrle has been one of baseball’s most unspectacularly outstanding players the past few years, quietly becoming a No. 1 pitcher if not an actual ace.

 

But Buehrle’s reputation didn’t precede him to the big leagues. He didn’t burst onto the scene with a $10 million signing bonus. He doesn’t throw hard enough to wow you with 20 strikeouts in a game. All he does is sneak up on hitters as well as victories.

 

If Buehrle were a Cub he would be glorified as a cerebral, crafty, consistent winner. He would be Greg Maddux, or at least the next Maddux, or possibly the left-handed Maddux.

 

Instead, he’s merely the current Buehrle, which is plenty good enough for the Sox. He won 65 games for them over the past four seasons, never less than 14 or more than 19.

 

Yet probably only serious Sox fans experienced chest pains when word circulated that Buehrle suffered a possible hairline fracture of his left foot. The news didn’t reverberate throughout Chicago as if Buehrle were Wood, or throughout baseball as if he were Prior.

 

When Prior and Wood were shut down recently, it became the stuff of “SportsCenter” segments. The Cubs’ hardship was discussed on “Pardon the Interruption.” It was serious, by golly, because they are the Cubs, by gosh.

 

Never mind that Buehrle has been more reliable than either Prior or Wood. He has done more for longer than Prior and accomplished more with less than Wood.

 

But Buehrle barely dented Monday’s 5 p.m. “SportsCenter” and I missed it if he was mentioned at all on “PTI.” He is as anonymous there as he is walking down Michigan Avenue.

 

“Doesn’t that guy look familiar ... didn’t he fix our toilet last week?”

 

Buehrle might prefer it this way. He is pretty low-key, not unlike Maddux. Then before anybody realizes it, each records double-figure victories and usually finishes with closer to 20 than 10.

 

Hopefully for the Sox, Buehrle’s foot isn’t as badly hurt as first diagnosed and he won’t be out as long as first feared. If that’s the case, it could turn out to be a positive.

 

Maybe then when Buehrle pitches again, the masses won’t take him for granted, like he was while throwing a league-high 245º innings last year.

 

Mark Buehrle should be appreciated at least as much as less successful pitchers around baseball and around town.

[KevHead0881]

As a fellow Daily Herald employee, I read Imrem all the time. He usually has little insight to offer, and I'm generally unimpressed by his columns. This one on the other hand is right on the money.

 

It's about time Buehrle gets some pub in this town, and it's nice that someone in the media had the balls to tell the truth: that Buehrle has accomplished much more than those who have been so overhyped on the northside.

 

Edited March 22, 2005 by KevHead0881

[mreye]

Thank you. Excellent article. Yes, I did miss it on page 23. I quit reading that at around 19.

[retro1983hat]

It all comes down to one thing for the Sox to get respect.

 

Just WIN!

 

If the Sox were to make it to the World Series, they would get all the coverage and respect. It's just that simple. Unfortunately, we don't have a well-publicized CURSE or 26 World Championships behind us, so we need to earn our notoriety.

[Rex Kickass]

Glad you reposted it. After the ninth page of a broken foot, I'd moved on. Speaking of which - it's still 4-6 weeks, right?

[WSFAN35]

Glad you reposted it. After the ninth page of a broken foot, I'd moved on. Speaking of which - it's still 4-6 weeks, right?

 

He's expected to miss one start in spring training, and if all goes well he'll be ready for opening day.

[WHarris1]

I read the Herald everyday at school, 1st period.

Imrem is an idiot, I hate that guy.

 

But this was a great article and for once I think he is dead on.

 

 

This guy predicted Illinois would lose to Nevada, and is constantly bashing ILL.

 

But this is a GREAT article.

[Gene Honda Civic]

I read the Herald everyday at school, 1st period.

Imrem is an idiot, I hate that guy.

 

But this was a great article and for once I think he is dead on.

This guy predicted Illinois would lose to Nevada, and is constantly bashing ILL.

 

But this is a GREAT article.

Guess where he graduated from?

[WHarris1]

Yeah, Illinois.

 

For some reason he decides to show he has 0 basketball knowledge.

Edited March 23, 2005 by WHarris1

[YASNY]

As a fellow Daily Herald employee, I read Imrem all the time.  He usually has little insight to offer, and I'm generally unimpressed by his columns.  This one on the other hand is right on the money.

 

It's about time Buehrle gets some pub in this town, and it's nice that someone in the media had the balls to tell the truth:  that Buehrle has accomplished much more than those who have been so overhyped on the northside.

 

 

 

I read Imrem a lot as well, but I don't think he's the sharpest tack in the box either. But he did put things in a proper perspective for a change. Wood and Prior get all that hype and compared to Buerhle, they've accomplished little.