Long Night Worth It for White Sox

May 28, 2014 @ admin → No Comments

Random thoughts (well, more random than anything, but you get the idea) while wondering whether the day will come when all baseball parks will have retractable roofs:

Video below of Rosette Mogomotsi — for those who care (even for those who don’t).

* About the only thing Cubs fans could gloat about to their White Sox counterparts Monday was the Cubs night contest in San Francisco ended sooner than the South Siders’ game at U.S. Cellular Field. Thanks in part to a rain delay in Chicago and thanks in part to no need for a bottom of the ninth in San Fran with the Cubs losing their game 4-0. Something says Sox fans will take the late night as long as it comes with a victory, as it did 2-1 against the Cleveland Indians.

* On the bright side for the Sox (other than winning), the game did end before 1 a.m. (12:54 for those of you scoring at home — or elsewhere) — even if that means broadcaster Ken “Hawk” Harrelson’s beauty rest Wednesday might not be as long as usual.

* Cubs third baseman Mike Olt went 1-for-3 to raise his batting average to .174 and on-base percentage to .248. He also struck out twice. He has whiffed 47 times in 121 at-bats (38.8 percent of the time). And for those who say those numbers are bad, you are correct. But the Cubs apparently don’t have room for him at Iowa, where he likely would be compiling good stats and exciting Cubs fans about what a great big-league ballplayer he will be.

* Also striking out twice was Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo, who has as many strikeouts (37) as he does walks. Yes, that’s the same Anthony Rizzo who is just going to get better season after season — as long as you don’t look at his statistics and demand evidence of such improvement.

* Speaking of strikeouts, Sox catcher Tyler Flowers struck out twice to give him 56 in 146 at-bats (38.4 percent of the time). Flowers’ redeeming stats are a .301 batting average and .363 on-base percentage.

* Ex-Cub of the night: San Francisco center fielder/leadoff hitter Angel Pagan went 2-for-4 and scored twice. He is batting .319 with a .362 on-base percentage.

* Ex-White Sox player of the night: Toronto left-hander Mark Buehrle (isn’t this guy a regular for this?). He won his major league-leading ninth game in a 9-6 victory vs. visiting Tampa Bay. Buehrle (9-1) did allow four runs (three earned) in 6 2/3 innings as his earned-run averaged skyrocketed to 2.33.

* Speaking of the NBA postseason (OK, so nobody around here has been even since the Bulls were eliminated), Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook had 40 points, 10 assists, five rebounds and five steals in a 105-92 victory that even the Western Conference finals against San Antonio at two games apiece. Westbrook is the only player with such stats in a playoff game other than the Bulls’ Michael Jordan in 1989. What’s most amazing about those numbers is the number of years since Jordan’s accomplishment. Funny how a quarter-century goes by, isn’t it?

***

Here is where to go for a daily dose of non-gratuitous video (thanks to the editorial and video departments at ElliottHarris.com and the delightful definition of gratuitous):