Tag Archives: White Sox

Saturday flashback: My memories of Bo Jackson’s Major League debut

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Below is the preview for tonight’s new 30 for 30, You Don’t Know Bo (ESPN, 9 p.m. ET).

I was there for Bo Jackson’s Major League debut, and it ranks among my favorite and most memorable sporting events in 30-plus years on the beat.

Special bonus question: What pitcher gave up Jackson’s first big league hit? Hint: He was a 300-game winner.

I was the White Sox beat writer for the Chicago Tribune. The team just happened to be the opponent on Sept. 2, 1986 when the Kansas City Royals called up a minor leaguer named Vincent Edward Jackson.

The hype was considerable for Jackson. When he stepped into the batting cage for the first time, I saw something I hadn’t seen before. Players from both teams stopped to watch. White Sox players, who were done with BP, actually hung around the dugout instead of going back to the clubhouse.

Jackson didn’t disappoint. He put on quite a show, launching one missile after another into the fountains at Royals Stadium. Players were in awe of the power display by Jackson.

The anticipation carried over to the game. Batting sixth, Jackson came up in the second inning to face Steve Carlton. Yes, Steve Carlton actually pitched for the White Sox late in 1986. Nearly all of his immense skills were gone, and he had become the sad image of a future Hall of Famer just trying to hang on with a team that was way out of the race. Still, every once in a while, Carlton could summon some of the old greatness. That game in Kansas City was one of the nights.

I found my game story for the Tribune. My lede went:

The 322-game winner overshadowed the Heisman Trophy winner Tuesday night. Bo Jackson made his major-league debut, but he couldn`t help the Royals overcome Steve Carlton, who led the White Sox to a 3-0 victory at Royals Stadium.

Jackson, though, was the story. His first at-bat was a stunning demonstration of his power and speed. He hit a tremendous shot estimated at 425 feet that just went foul. Then with the crowd still buzzing, he dribbled a bouncer that barely got past Russ Morman at first. Second baseman Tim Hulett gloved the ball in the hole, but Jackson easily beat the throw to first with his speed. Everyone was just amazed watching him run down the line. Jackson’s first hit was in the books off of Carlton.

Jackson went 1 for 3 on the night. Afterward, we went to the Royals lockerroom. He did his interview without a shirt.

I had just covered Walter Payton during the Bears’ Super Bowl year in 1985. I thought he had the best physique I had ever seen for an athlete.

Jackson, though, was in another category. Layers of dense muscles and massive legs. He was the closest I’ve ever seen to Superman, with the possible exception of the hip that eventually betrayed him.

“I didn`t go out there expecting to do something spectacular,“ said Jackson. “ I like the majors and I`m happy to be here.“

It was only the beginning for Jackson. Spectacular was just ahead.

 

 

 

 

 

New book: How much did dealing with ‘media nonsense’ impact La Russa decision to retire?

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I covered Tony La Russa during what had to be the low point in his career. In 1986, I took over as the White Sox beat writer for the Chicago Tribune.

That was the year Ken Harrelson assumed the role of general manager. Let’s just say it was a bad marriage. It resulted with La Russa being fired in June of that year.

Given what La Russa went on to accomplish in Oakland and St. Louis, there’s little question why Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf called it the one decision he regrets the most.

I had a good relationship with La Russa during that season with the Sox and several years thereafter when he was in Oakland. I always found him to be fair, interesting and accomodating. I do recall I have never seen a coach or manager suffer more after a defeat.

Yet through the years, I have heard some writers complain about dealing with La Russa. It appears the feeling was mutual.

In his new book, Tony La Russa: One Last Strike, has a couple of interesting passages about his relationship with the media. Co-written with Rick Hummel, the Hall of Fame baseball writer with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, he says the media element of his job wore him down. It was a factor in his decision to retire after winning the title in 2011.

Here’s La Russa:

***********

The media evolved over the years to the point where second-guessing and a lot else besides recapping the games took over. I want to make it clear that I understand that media people have to make a living and that, like me and our players, they have to survive in a highly competitive environment. Still, just because I understand all that doesn’t mean that I enjoyed it. It was more like I tolerated it as part of the dues you pay to stay in the game.

One consequence of media proliferation was it seemed as if some members of the media were trying so hard to make a name for themselves that they began to compete with the very players they were interviewing for the attention of the public. Toward the end of my career, these competitive individuals were becoming more the rule than the exception, and as in most competitions, hostilities were a natural result. Being stuck in the middle between the players and the media when this occurred was a taxing and irritating part of my job.

Having to manage the media, though not my full-time job, took up a considerable amount of time and energy and also took some of the enjoyment out of managing.

********

(Later he wrote)

Now, I don’t want to paint with too broad a brush here, because looking back at the span of my career, I have known plenty of appreciative and respectful players, as well as media members who were responsible and loved the game. Call it the squeaky wheel syndrome, the bad apple or whatever; but human nature being what it is, you tend to remember the really good and the really bad, and the big middle becomes kind of blank….

When I added in all the rest–the media nonsense especially–I thought that if I wasn’t getting the same enjoyment even under the best of circumstances with this team, then it really was time to get out at the end of the year.

*****

“Media nonsense”? Yeah, don’t think La Russa misses dealing with the media.

 

 

 

Stone clarifies plans: He’s staying with White Sox and Harrelson

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Steve Stone plans to be back with Ken Harrelson and the White Sox next year. Like a marriage, for better or worse.

Less than a week after his comments about Harrelson sparked speculation about his future, Stone clarified his plans Tuesday morning on the Mully and Hanley Show on WSCR-AM 670 in Chicago.

Stone said: ““My plans are very simple. I plan to stay with the Chicago White Sox through this contract and hopefully beyond. Regardless of what you might have read or heard or people speculated on or blogged (about) or anything else, I will be back. It’s 100 percent. Hopefully, as I said, for many years. In looking at it, this is, in my estimation, the best big city in the country.”

It all became an issue because of what Stone said last week on WSCR: “When you have any type of partner in any business, you’re going to have some periods where things are really good, some periods where they’re not so good, some periods where things are frustrating, some periods where they’re exhilarating. I think a baseball season is like that. I think late in the season, you just realize it’s a roller coaster, and it’s not just a roller coaster for the baseball team. It’s a roller coaster for all of us who follow it that closely on a daily basis.”

Stone must have decided it was worth another ride on the rollercoaster.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are Harrelson-Stone breaking up? Stone talks candidly about relationship in Sox booth

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My antenna was raised this morning when I saw a small item in the White Sox notebook by the Chicago Tribune’s Mark Gonzales:

“Sox television announcer Steve Stone, who is in the midst of a multiyear contract, is expected to receive interest from other media outlets but would need permission to get out of his current pact.”

Hmmm, what’s that all about? I have covered team beats, and I know that item didn’t come out of nowhere.

Then WSCR-AM 670, the White Sox’s flagship station, played a clip of Stone as he signed off on their season finale Wednesday.

Stone said: “There are a lot of lessons to be learned, and one of them is that the clock is always ticking. You’ve got to enjoy what you do.”

Was that a dig at his partner Ken Harrelson? There was a long pause and Harrelson said, “Alright..”

Stone then appeared on the McNeil and Spiegel Show on SCR. He was frank about his relationship with Harrelson, which definitely appears to be strained at best. And he wasn’t definitive about whether he would be back with the Sox next year. Here are some of the highlights.

On returning to the Sox in 2013: I’m pretty sure I am, but you never know what next year will hold…(Harry Caray) used to say as you get older, time moves more quickly. You’d like to slow it down, but you can’t. You have to enjoy what you’re doing.

On working with Harrelson: When you have a partner in any business, you are going to have periods where some things are good and some not so good. Some periods where things are exhilarating and some when they are frustrating.

Hawk is the face of the franchise. The booth is named after him. He might be the ultimate fan. When things are not going so well, he gets grumpy. Grumpier than the normal person would get doing that particular job.

When things are going well, he’s absolutely ecstatic. For those of us who don’t have those phenomenal highs and exceptional lows, it becomes a bit difficult at times. But that’s the kind of person he is.

I understand the game of baseball. Some of the times when things didn’t go so well in the partnership were a direct result of how the team was doing at the time and how he felt stressed about this thing starting to slip away.

Do you want to be back with the Sox?: I want baseball and broadcasting to be a part of my life. (McNeil then pressed him for an answer).

I have a contract with the White Sox. They’ve been wonderful to me. I fully expect nothing will change.

Our job is really easy when things are going well. For 118 days, when the team was in first place, our job was easy. Our difficulty came when things get negative and the team didn’t perform the way it should or you expected. That’s the time when you have to go to the vaudeville act.

*******

I’ve known Harrelson and Stone for a long time. Both men are very good at what they do. They also have significant egos and have a certain way of doing things.

Did that interview sound like someone who wants to return to the same situation in 2013? At the very least, both men will have to go through some couples counseling.

Stay tuned.

Here’s the podcast. The Stone segment comes at the 25-minute mark.

 

 

White Sox lead Cubs in TV ratings in Chicago; Cubs’ rating was 163 % higher in 2008

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Interestings news in Chicago.

Rick Telander of the Chicago Sun-Times notes the White Sox, still struggling to draw at home, have topped the Cubs in one key category: Local TV ratings.

Telander writes:

And there has been this thought, floated about among reasonable people, that Sox fans don’t go to the ballpark  because they’re economically strapped and prefer to watch the games on TV.

And you know what? That could be true.

‘‘The Sox have had a 2.0 rating recently on CSN,’’ said Jeff Nuich, senior director of communications for Comcast SportsNet Chicago.

‘‘That’s up over 10 percent from last year.’’

That 2.0 equals about 70,000 households, with, obviously, more than one viewer per household.  Unless every household is like the one from ‘‘Psycho.’’ Two-point-oh is a decent, if not great, number.  But here’s the kicker — it’s higher than the Cubs.

‘‘The Cubs are at a 1.9 rating,’’ Nuich said. ‘‘That’s down about 11 percent from last year.’’

WGN, which also broadcasts Cubs and Sox games, has similar stats. Its recent Sox ratings were 3.6, up 33 percent from earlier August ratings. Cubs broadcast ratings also have been up from earlier this summer (Who knows why? Sadism?), but they are no better than Comcast’s. They are an identical 1.9.

That’s a huge development in Chicago, where the Cubs always have ruled on the TV side too. But then again, who can watch the Cubs these days? It got me to wondering how far have their ratings fell since 2008?

The Cubs were at their peak, winning 97 games en route to a second straight NL Central title. Everyone, and I mean everyone, was on the bandwagon.

The local TV ratings show how many people have dropped off. Back in 2008, the Cubs pulled a 5.0 rating on Comcast Sports Net. For those keeping score at home, the 2012 rating of 1.9 represents a mammoth 62 % decline.

I don’t have the WGN overall numbers, but it has to be similar. In 2008 and 2009, the Cubs were pulling double-digit ratings for some of their games on WGN. 10s, 11s, 12s. Now they can’t average a 2.

Ah yes, Cubs fans had such high hopes as they entered the opening of the 2008 playoffs against the Dodgers. Then they got swept, and it’s all been downhill from there at Wrigley Field.

 

 

Author Q/A: Is there method to the madness, or is Ozzie just crazy?

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I barely finished the question.

“Yes,” said Rick Morrissey quickly in reply to whether he wished his deadline was a few months later for his book, Ozzie’s School of Management?

Morrissey’s last chapter covers Ozzie Guillen’s first spring training with Florida. That was pushing things for a book due out in May.

However, no sooner did the book go to press than Guillen found himself in major trouble for incredibly stupid statements about Fidel Castro. Now that would have been a fun chapter for the book.

“Yes, I wish I could have gotten into that, but that’s life,” Morrissey said. “Frankly, with Ozzie, if the deadline was two months later, there would be something else.”

Morrissey, who covered Guillen first as a columnist for the Tribune and now with the Sun-Times, hardly was lacking in material. He uses the backdrop of Guillen’s final stormy season in Chicago to paint a portrait of a most unusual, complex and compelling man.

Morrissey attempts to explain Guillen’s approach to baseball and life. However, I found this line from him to be telling:

Sometimes there’s not a method to Guillen’s madness. Sometimes, there’s just madness.

Here’s my Q/A with Morrissey.

What does the title say about what you’re trying to accomplish in the book?

The title is a bit tongue-in-cheek. It’s like you’d see in one of those bestseller self-help books. Let’s take a crazy manager and see how he does his job. Obviously, there’s the perception that Ozzie is a wild and crazy guy. I think he is a victim of that big personality. People don’t take him seriously.

But there’s more to him. I wanted to see how he does his job.

Is Guillen crazy or is there a method to his madness?

We had several discussions where I said, ‘Ozzie, you’re doing things for effect.’ He said, ‘No, I’m not. I say what I think.’ I do think he likes the attention. He says he doesn’t. However, some of the things he does are borderline ridiculous. You don’t put yourself in that many situations to be criticized if you didn’t want attention.

You didn’t do this book in partnership with Guillen. What kind of cooperation did you get from him?

It’s interesting. He never said, ‘I don’t have time for you.’ If I thought I was bothering him, he’d say, ‘Don’t worry about it.’

Reporters always are looking for the one-on-one interview, but I soon learned he was better in a group situation. The stories were better and he was more engaged. I knew there’s no way writers could write about most of this stuff. I found I got a lot of insights into how he does things when he was talking to a group of us.

Were you surprised about Guillen’s statements about Castro?

I was surprised in the sense that he would go there. He’s a Latin guy and he’s a smart guy. He knows there are things you don’t say when you’re managing in the Cuban capital of America. I don’t think he meant to say what he said. I’m not apologizing for him, but I think it was more along the lines of ‘I can’t believe this guy still is in power.’ But that doesn’t change that he said what he said.

Do you think the harsh reaction will change him?

I thought he looked very contrite. I had never seen him shaken like that. However, I don’t think you can change him. Maybe in the short term, but not in the long term. That’s his personality.

Guillen is the king of F-bombs. You decided to use all of his language in its colorful glory. Why?

I did think about the kids who might pick up this book. But swearing is as much a part of Ozzie as breathing. I thought if I took it out, I wouldn’t be painting a complete portrait of him.

So what kind of portrait did you paint of Guillen?

That’s a good question. I think I painted a portrait of someone who is a lot more than the cartoonish depiction of him in many circles. There’s always a lot of, ‘That’s Ozzie being Ozzie.’ It is him, but there’s more.

It’s about how he handles his players. He’s a better game tactician than people give him credit for.

It’s also about someone who is very needy in terms of attention and affirmation. He wanted that (contract extension) from Jerry Reinsdorf last year, and he didn’t get it. Then he left. That sums up a lot about Ozzie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Explaining, defending Ken Harrelson

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I’ve known Ken Harrelson for 26 years. Back in 1986, the Chicago Tribune dropped me without a parachute into the White Sox beat. I was 26-years-old and woefully inexperienced; the year before I actually covered the Illinois state high school badminton tournament.

To top things off, the Sox made Ken Harrelson their general manager. It proved to be a wild season, with Hawk eventually firing Tony La Russa. Yet through it all, I still have fond memories of working with Harrelson that year. There never was any BS with him and that definitely holds true today.

I’m saying all this because it helps explain why Harrelson went off like he did Wednesday in Tampa. The video has gone viral, and he even got some play on SportsCenter.

It is a quite a rant. Epic, even.

Yet this is what White Sox fans come to expect of Harrelson. In fact, this homerish approach even predates him. During the 1970s and early 80s, Harry Caray was blowing up people left and right while calling Sox games, and many of his targets were Sox players. Then it went over the top when Caray was joined by Jimmy Piersall, easily forming the most outrageous broadcast team of all time.

You think yesterday was crazy? Just check out some old clips from Harry and Jimmy.

Back to Harrelson, as I saw first-hand 26 years ago, you need to know he lives for this team, and he will do anything for its owner, Jerry Reinsdorf. He has more than 30 years invested in this franchise. The loyalty runs extremely deep.

It is all genuine with Harrelson in the booth. When the Sox lose, it’s hard to say who takes it tougher: Hawk or Sox GM Kenny Williams.

I tried to call Harrelson this morning, but he explained in a radio interview on WSCR-AM 670, he has decided to turn off his phone. However, don’t think for one minute he will back down from yesterday’s comments.

From WSCR’s site, which has audio of the entire interview:

“First of all, I still have a headache because I got so upset yesterday,” he said. “I took four Advil after that inning was over and then I had to take four more on the plane and then when I got home last night I had to take four more. Also, when I got up this morning, I had to take four more.”

As for the play, his stance hasn’t changed.

“We had two guys drilled, none of their guys got thrown at, none of their guys left their feet and then all the sudden we throw at Zobrist, which was below the belt about knee high behind him, and he throws Quintana out? Give me a break,” the broadcaster said.

ChicagoSide also ran an interview by Daniel Dorfman this morning on Harrelson’s 30 years in Chicago. It included this quote:

…On being a homer

HAWK:That to me is the greatest compliment that can be paid to an announcer. I want the White Sox to win. When they win there is not one person happier than I am. When they lose there is no one more down than I am. I have some detractors, as every announcer does, and I have fans who love the Hawk, and I think one of the reasons why is that I am a White Sox guy and I give the other team credit but I want the White Sox to win.

When I am doing a game and I have to bite my tongue, they know by my silence, which is the greatest communicator of them all.

Indeed, at age 70, Harrelson isn’t about to change, and most Sox fans are fine with that. Expect more clips like the one he produced Wednesday.