Chicago Sports

It was Tony La Russa’s 34th season as a manager, but it was also his first.

His first season back after a nine-year hiatus following a retirement in 2011 that came after he pocketed his third World Series championship ring.

It was a year-plus ripe with controversy, starting with his surprising, stunning hire on Oct. 29, 2020, which preceded the revelation that chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, his longtime friend, knew La Russa had been arrested on DUI charges in February of that year but hired him anyway.

It was a rough restart. And La Russa would remain a hot topic during the season, and not just because he has the second-most managerial wins of all time and a Hall of Fame ring — jewelry not meant for people in uniform.

La Russa was initially slow reacting to replay challenge decisions, was exposed for not knowing a rule that surfaced in an extra-inning loss in Cincinnati in May, admitted to leaving a pitcher in too long and was embroiled in an old-school versus new-school back-and-forth about baseball’s unwritten rules when he called out rookie Yermin Mercedes for missing a sign and swatting a home run on a 3-0 count.

La Russa, who will manage at age 77 in his second year of his second coming in 2022, was — no shocker here — on the old-school side of that debate. He made no excuses for the missteps but was anything but a failure as a manager, though, guiding a well-equipped Sox team to a 93-69 record and the American League Central title but falling short of doing what Reinsdorf hired him to do — lead the White Sox beyond one round of the playoffs.

A 3-1 ALDS loss to the more experienced and just plain better Astros in October ended the season, leaving La Russa in a grumpy, combative mood as he was shown the door from the postseason.

“Just leaves a bitter taste in your mouth and in my gut,” La Russa said.

La Russa acknowledged that the better team won but said Sox star Jose Abreu was hit intentionally by Astros reliever Kendall Graveman.

“There’s a character shortage there that they should answer for,” he said. “It is stupid, too.”

La Russa will admit he’s a sore loser. His day depends on the outcome of the game. Ask him before one how he’s doing and he’ll tell you to ask him after the game.

“Losing sucks. I don’t think people understand how it feels,” he has said.

Those who observed La Russa on a daily basis in 2021, at 76, came to the understanding that it still feels awful to him.

“When he loses, he’s miserable, and when they win, he’s the happiest guy,” said former Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, who played for La Russa during the 1980s, managed against him in the 2000s and watched him closely last season as a pregame and postgame host on Sox television broadcasts.

Everything hinges on a day’s win-or-lose outcome for La Russa, even in his advanced years. A month after the season ended, a cooled-down La Russa sat behind the last row of seats behind home plate at Salt River Fields, watching Sox prospects at an Arizona Fall League game. He was much more relaxed, and already looking forward to his second season with his team as he reflected on the first.

“There was a lot of pressure last year — a lot of negatives,” he told the Sun-Times. “I felt pressure with the A’s job [when he managed the Athletics after Sox GM Ken Harrelson fired him] and going to the Cardinals [whom he managed from 1996 to 2011]. But you embrace it — you make pressure your friend.”

As he looks ahead, La Russa will feel every bit the same weight in 2022. Expectations for the Sox, in the prime year of their competitive window, will be high. He still has a lot of people to win over, even after a winning season.

“I was taught not to let anybody down for not doing your best,” he said. “When you manage, you have the owner, front office, fans, teammates . . . I’ll do my best. That’s good enough. It’s corny and simple, but it’s true.”

There is no reason to believe La Russa’s best can’t be better. At spring training last year, he was an observer, watching players he was unfamiliar with, laying eyes on many of them for the first time.

“He didn’t know anybody on that ballclub,” Guillen said. “He went into spring training naked. To me, this year, he will manage a lot better because he knows his players and he will get the best out of his players.”

Off to Oakland and St. Louis

La Russa’s first spring training was in 1980 with the Sox in Sarasota, Florida. He had been promoted from manager at the organization’s Triple-A Iowa Oaks club to manage the Sox when Don Kessinger resigned with a 46-60 record during the 1979 season, three weeks after Disco Demolition Night. La Russa, at 34 the youngest manager in the major leagues, guided the Sox to a 27-27 record down the stretch.

Unbeknownst to La Russa at the time, general manager Roland Hemond stayed away from camp for the first 10 days, demonstrating confidence in the young manager and allowing him to gain his own. Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn bought the Sox the following year, decided to keep La Russa on as manager, and by 1983, La Russa won the first of four Manager of the Year awards after leading the Sox to the AL West Division championship.

A Hall of Fame career was off the ground, and it couldn’t be sidetracked by general manager Ken Harrelson’s regretful firing of La Russa and pitching coach Dave Duncan in 1986 after the Sox got off to a 26-38 start.

“I’ve known Tony since 1962 when he joined us in [Class A] Binghamton in the Eastern League when he signed for a big bonus,” said Harrelson, who slugged 38 home runs for the Triplets that season while La Russa — an infielder who, to this day, jokes about his undistinguished playing career — was batting .186 in 12 games. “He was more towards a man as a 17-year-old than most guys. He was an impressive guy. Not so much as a player, but he carried himself really well. I always liked Tony, as most guys did.

“When I was GM and he was managing the club, I didn’t fire Tony because he was a bad manager. What I fired him for is going to the grave with me — and him, probably. I’ll never say anything about it. I just thought a change had to be made.”

The Athletics hired La Russa and Duncan three weeks later — Harrelson said he put in a good word to the A’s after letting La Russa go — and the A’s went 45-34 with that pairing after a 31-52 start. La Russa managed the A’s to World Series appearances in 1988, ’89 and ’90, defeating the Giants in ’89.

In La Russa’s tenure in St. Louis, he won seven division titles and made three World Series appearances, winning in 2006 and 2011.

After he served in various roles with MLB, the Angels, Red Sox and Diamondbacks from 2012 to 2020, Reinsdorf hired him to replace Rick Renteria in the dugout after Renteria’s 2020 team lost to the Athletics in the wild-card series following the 60-game abbreviated season due to COVID.

La Russa was 76 but insisted he had plenty left to give.

“I didn’t retire because I was out of gas,” he said. “There were other issues. But I had plenty left to go. I don’t play. I just sit there and make some decisions.”

The fuel gauge shows more than half-full.

“Dunc would say, ‘I don’t know how you do it,’ ” La Russa said. “You play every game like it’s the last game of your life, the urgency of the moment. If you take that attitude and that’s who you become, it’s really not that tough. You look in the mirror.”

“The basics of baseball hasn’t changed”

Thanks to support from players such as shortstop Tim Anderson, whose reservations about La Russa when he was hired subsided after he got to know him, the concerns that La Russa wouldn’t relate to the modern player became a non-story as the 2021 season unfolded. La Russa won his players over with his knowledge of the game and attention to detail but with constant communication, whether by conversations or text messages. It wasn’t unusual to see players sharing light moments with him in the dugout before games. He preached team as family, and players, noticing how he cared about the 29th man on the team as much as Anderson and Abreu, bought in.

“I can honestly say he exceeded my expectations as a person,” a Sox staffer said. “Something that really struck me was how caring a person he is.”

Aside from Mercedes, La Russa rarely, if at all, criticized players in the media. That’s one thing Guillen would like to see change.

“Obviously, it was his first year with the club and he wanted to be wanted and loved by the players,” Guillen said. “This year, I don’t want to say he has to be the Tony of the ’80s or the ’90s because he never will be that type of guy, but I believe he has to be harder on the players. Not [bad-mouthing] them, just get the best out of them. Players don’t have to like Tony. Don’t think about what the players will say about the decisions he has to make.

“Nowadays, you can’t be Earl Weaver or Billy Martin or Sparky Anderson or Jimmy Leyland — you have to be [more sensitive] like, ‘OK, guys, come on, let’s go.’ But he has to show people who is the boss. I don’t think he has anything to lose if players like him or not. He wants to win. If he’s a badass, what are you going to do? He’s a Hall of Famer, he has maybe a couple more years to manage and go back home. If they don’t like you, [screw] it, you get paid to win games.”

La Russa will have much the same personnel to deal with this season, with the same coaching staff and a full year’s worth of knowledge on players’ strengths, tendencies, weaknesses, quirks and personality traits.

While in a getting-to-know-you stage, La Russa did well by believing rookie first baseman Andrew Vaughn could learn to play the outfield on the fly. And by mixing and matching players into the right spots, he got production, in varying degrees, from outfielders such as Brian Goodwin and Billy Hamilton after injuries to Eloy Jimenez and Luis Robert shelved the young stars for months.

As a veteran AL Central scout said, the 70-something version of La Russa “is slower” than the previous version, “and he doesn’t have the same coaches he relied on for decades.”

“Everyone questions his present versus his past, including fans,” the scout said. “But they have a really good team, and even if he’s not up to par, they can still win. Winning washes away other issues.”

But as Guillen said, La Russa wasn’t an old manager sitting on the end of the bench dozing off in 2021. He is still engaged to the fullest. Coaches and staff cite his attention to detail.

In part because of Sox injury woes — Anderson missed 39 games, Robert was limited to 68, Jimenez got hurt in spring training and played 55, and Yasmani Grandal played in 93 — La Russa received Manager of the Year consideration, finishing sixth in balloting.

“Our clubhouse really impressed me, getting ready to play for six winning months,” he said. “Now the next thing is we go forward and understand that we get better. The only way we get better is to work at it.”

Guillen had hoped to be considered for the job when Renteria was fired, but not getting it was easier to accept when he learned La Russa was the choice. Guillen approved of the hire “a thousand percent.”

“You want to bring the best manager in the history of the game,” Guillen said. “People said, ‘Aw, he’s too old’ or this or that, but the basics of baseball hasn’t changed. I believe this year will be way easier for him.”

La Russa would never say “easy.” The regular season is a grind.

“The reality is the hardest thing to do is win the division — it’s the hardest by a lot,” La Russa said in November. “Trials and tribulations, ups and down. But the most exciting thing is the playoffs, a short series that can be determined by one pitch or play. We talked about it after the season: Be fair to your team and just do your best. If your best isn’t good enough, then it’s, ‘How do we make our best better?’ ”

And will that be enough?

Ask him when the season is over.

Read More

Any manager who has been in Major League Baseball long enough will have wild stories to tell. Cubs manager David Ross didn’t even make it through a full spring training before things got weird.

Ross’ first 21/2 years on the job have featured a 60-game season, a trade deadline that sent out a third of his Opening Day roster and the second-longest work stoppage in MLB history.

What a way to start a new chapter in a career.

Ross has received rave reviews from his employers for the way he has handled the circumstances. He was a National League Manager of the Year finalist in his first season on the job in 2020. But 2022 will be the first season he is set to manage under, if not entirely normal circumstances with the season delayed, something approximating the usual.

The season should shed light on the potential the 45-year-old manager has.

“He is already an excellent manager,” Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said late last season, “and he has a chance to be really special in this job.”

The return to normalcy might have several effects. Ross might flourish with his attention devoted to baseball, rather than being pulled right and left by health protocols and dramatic turnover. Or sharper scrutiny — too many larger factors were at play the last two seasons to put Ross under a microscope — might reveal some blind spots. Some of both also might prove true.

One thing is for certain: Ross knows how to adjust to the unexpected. When navigating the COVID-19 shutdown and related protocols became a big part of his job in 2020, Ross joked that it hadn’t come up in the interview process.

Ross, who had played for the Cubs in the last two seasons of his career (2015-16), was with a familiar organization and managing former teammates in his first season at the helm. But the job would have been an adjustment even without a pandemic halting spring training, banishing fans from ballparks and shortening the season.

He was hired, in part, to hold his team — and former teammates — “accountable.” And at his introductory news conference, he got to work disassembling the “Grandpa Rossy” narrative, which painted him in a softer light.

“I think the biggest thing with Rossy is just his energy,” pitcher Jon Lester said when baseball returned in 2020. “The presence that he brings when he’s in a dugout or in a clubhouse, he demands respect. He demands attention to detail. And guys know that when we show up every day.

“So when we’re out doing our work, you kind of feel like he’s always watching you. Not in a bad way, but you want to do the right things to keep the line moving offensively or keep the line moving as far as our rotation.”

When the Cubs brought in Ross, they didn’t know they also were hiring him to guide his team through an unprecedented season altered by a global pandemic. But he earned high marks for that, too, leading the Cubs to the NL Central title and a 34-26 record.

”The mental aspect of this season is something that I don’t think we talk about enough, with what these guys are having to go through every day,” Ross said late that season. ”It definitely takes a toll.”

The Cubs looked good on the field, for the most part, until a late-September skid and an offensive collapse in the playoffs. The veteran team, with its championship core still intact, was swept in a best-of-three wild-card series by the Marlins.

The Cubs’ offense fell flat. But the same thing had happened to the same group under Joe Maddon, Ross’ predecessor, suggesting an issue in roster construction. When power hitting dried up, so did run production.

In his second season, Ross faced a whole new set of unexpected challenges.

The Cubs’ front office had made it clear that the team was heading toward a transition phase. So many of its stars were approaching free agency that a breakup of the core was inevitable. But it wasn’t clear as the season got underway that the Cubs were heading toward a sell-off at the trade deadline.

Ross essentially managed two teams in one season.

To start the season, he had a veteran group that included Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo and Javy Baez, all 2016 World Series champions. After the deadline, all three were gone, along with closer Craig Kimbrel, setup men Andrew Chafin and Ryan Tepera, leadoff man Joc Pederson, speedy outfielder Jake Marisnick and starting pitcher Trevor Williams.

A late-June/early-July tailspin, which featured an 11-game losing streak, was the writing on the wall. It was marked by shaky starting pitching.

Ace Kyle Hendricks often starts the season slowly, but he put together his worst April performance in 2021. The veterans the Cubs thought they could bring the best out of in a new environment — Jake Arrieta and Williams — posted ERAs of higher than 5.00 before the deadline. And Zach Davies, the only big-leaguer whom the Cubs got back in the Yu Darvish trade the previous offseason, had the worst season of his career.

Still, the Cubs had a chance to tie the Brewers for the top spot in the NL Central when they visited Milwaukee in the last week of June.

Instead, the Cubs lost all three games. Adding insult to injury, in the last game of the series, they blew a seven-run lead in the first inning.

The next week in Philadelphia, the Cubs’ losing streak stretched to double digits and Ross was ejected from a game for arguing balls and strikes.

“When you’re going through what we’re going through right now,” Ross said then, “not hitting up to our capabilities and things don’t go your way and you get to look back at them, there is some frustration.”

The Cubs’ trade-deadline action bolstered their farm system, which they had depleted during their championship window, but those moves didn’t do much to replace losses on the big-league side.

Ross faced the final months of the season with an inexperienced team free-falling down the standings. And, on the personal side, he just had said goodbye to former teammates and friends.

“There was a moment there where I switched gears to, ‘OK, let’s see what we’ve got,’ ” Ross said after the trade deadline. “Let’s see who can impact us. Let’s see who’s going to make their reputation and start to impact this uniform — this organization — in a positive way to get back to where we want to be and play championship-caliber baseball.”

The Cubs didn’t get back to playing championship-caliber baseball. They went 21-37 after the deadline and failed to make the playoffs for only the second time since 2015.

Even so, the second half of the season had its feel-good storylines. Third baseman Patrick Wisdom, who was in the Rookie of the Year conversation for a while, continued to show off his power, finishing with a team-leading 28 home runs. First baseman Frank Schwindel, who was claimed off waivers before the deadline, reached cult-hero status, thanks to a red-hot August and September.

Though the Cubs had another double-digit losing streak in August, they pulled off a seven-game winning streak in September and won four of their last five games.

“David has done a fantastic job as a manager,” Hoyer said after the season. “He’s learned a ton on the job. Even while learning, I think he’s excelled. He’s kept morale good. He’s run the staff very well. I love having him as a partner. Our hope certainly is that David’s here for a long time.”

Hoyer clearly expects the experience of the last two seasons to pay dividends for Ross. Either way, whether it pans out the way Hoyer hopes or not, Ross already has a trove of managerial stories to tell.

Read More

Somehow, against all odds, both these things are true:

A) The White Sox made it through an entire season with Tony La Russa as their manager.

B) The world did not end.

If you had asked me before the 2021 season whether life as we knew it was over because of the La Russa hiring, I would have answered C) Absolutely! And I wasn’t alone. The move seemed crazy to a large number of people who thought a 76-year-old senior citizen (yes, we went there) — one who hadn’t managed in nine years — was a terrible idea.

I’m not here to tell you that La Russa was a rousing success last season. I’m here to tell you that . . . you know, it wasn’t so bad. Maybe the decision to hire him wasn’t the worst thing in the world. Maybe he still can manage a little bit.

But, boy, we were not a fun group to be around, pre-enlightenment. La Russa was the soup that had repelled us as a child, the one we had vowed never, ever to like. That’s where many of us were emotionally during spring training. Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf had lured La Russa out of retirement, hoping to make amends for what he considered his biggest mistake: letting general manager Hawk Harrelson fire La Russa during the 1986 season. Was this Major League Baseball or Major League Conscience Cleaning?

Guess what? The soup turned out to be palatable. If that sounds like faint praise, understand how far some of us had to travel to get there.

After a Sox loss early in the 2021 season, it took a sportswriter to inform La Russa of a new rule that would have allowed him to use someone other than closer Liam Hendriks as a 10th-inning baserunner. It was a horrible look for someone who needed to prove to the fan base that he still had it.

Two weeks later, he criticized rookie Yermin Mercedes for ignoring a take sign on a 3-0 count and hitting a home run with the Sox leading the Twins 15-4 in the ninth inning.

“I heard he said something like, ‘I play my game,’ ” La Russa said. “No, he doesn’t. He plays the game of major-league baseball, respects the game, respects the opponents. And he’s got to respect the signs.”

Mercedes’ shiny stats eventually plummeted, and the Sox demoted him to Triple-A Charlotte five weeks later. In July, he wrote on Instagram that he was taking a leave from baseball but returned to the Knights the next day. No one can say definitively that La Russa’s criticism negatively affected Mercedes’ confidence. The stats might suggest that, but it doesn’t make it true. Critics wondered whether the incident would lead to a revolt in the Sox’ clubhouse. It didn’t. The players seemed to like the manager.

La Russa is old-school at a time when old-school is not considered a good thing to be. In terms of wins and losses, his love of tradition didn’t seem to matter a whole lot last season. That might chap the hide of those who consider themselves modern thinkers, but it doesn’t play a role in whether he can do the job. And the truth is that he was into analytics before many in the analytics crowd were even born.

Despite all the craziness of 2021, despite the pandemic and the controversies, he guided his club to the playoffs. Please don’t try to argue that a young Sox team won despite its manager. Young teams, by definition, need guidance. La Russa guided. You can criticize him for the way the Sox bombed in the postseason (a 3-1 American League Division Series loss to the Astros), but you can’t criticize him for getting his team there. Remember, lots of us predicted regular-season disaster precisely because an out-of-touch manager would be leading them. Instead, he shepherded the team through a rash of injuries, which robbed the Sox of the services of Luis Robert and Eloy Jimenez for long stretches. They won 93 games and the AL Central title.

What did we learn about La Russa last season? That he still knows a ton about baseball. And that, for better or worse, he’s going to do Tony things.

We didn’t see much of the boorish behavior he exhibited while he was in St. Louis. He was mostly gracious with the media, answering questions without a snarl and actually showing a pleasant side. He tried. He could have been unapologetically Tony, but he tried not to be. I didn’t think he had that in him.

The fervor is still there. When Sox star Jose Abreu was hit by a pitch in July, La Russa ran out of the dugout and confronted Indians catcher Roberto Perez. Actually, it was more of a shuffle than a run. He was ridiculed, again, but the players couldn’t help but notice, again, that he cared.

He’s not the perfect manager, but he’s not the debacle lots of us anticipated him being. I don’t know how 2022 will play out for the Sox, but I expect the planet will continue to orbit the sun, no matter what their 77-year-old manager does.

Read More

Before there was the Cubs-White Sox rivalry we know and love, before one side made fun of the other for its small crowds and the other side clapped back about frat-boy fans drinking in a baseball beer garden, before one catcher punched another in 2006, before interleague play and many years of the exhibition matchups that preceded it, before “Crosstown this” and “Crosstown that,” there was Al Capone.

The legendary gangster was in the front row at Comiskey Park for an exhibition between Chicago’s baseball teams in 1931, just a few months before he was convicted on income-tax-evasion charges and sent to prison. Captured in an iconic photo from that day is Cubs catcher Gabby Hartnett signing a ball for Capone’s son as the bad man looks on and bodyguards in white hats sit a row behind. More than 80 years later, one can get lost studying their faces.

So there’s that. Most images chronicling the North-South rivalry’s history aren’t quite as deliciously evocative.

But there has been no shortage of unforgettable stuff since (anybody remember it firsthand?) the Sox beat the Cubs in the 1906 World Series, still the only one of its crosstown-Chicago kind. Maybe, just maybe, there will be another Fall Classic between the teams — Red Line magic — someday. Short of that, we can revel in memories of regular-season moments and outcomes that have counted since interleague play took hold in 1997.

There was Sox slugger Carlos Lee’s walk-off grand slam — the first one in interleague play across the big leagues — off Courtney Duncan at Comiskey in 2001.

“El Caballo!” Ken “Hawk” Harrelson roared into the night.

There was Sox first baseman Paul Konerko homering twice — after being hit by a pitch — as the Sox rallied from an 8-0 deficit to win at home a year later.

And Cubs third baseman Aramis Ramirez belting a leadoff homer off Scott Linebrink in the ninth at Wrigley midway through the 2008 campaign, with both playoff-bound teams in first place.

“Ballgame over!” Len Kasper shouted. “Cubs win!”

Don’t forget then-Sox manager Ozzie Guillen kicking Cubs catcher Geovany Soto’s mask after being ejected in 2011. Fortunately for all involved, Soto wasn’t wearing the mask at the time. And who could forget Cubs catcher Willson Contreras’ sky-high bat flip in 2020? Up, up, up . . . did that really happen?

There have been light moments, such as one hilariously bad Chevy commercial after another in which Guillen and former Cubs skipper Lou Piniella — friendly foes — starred together. And heavy moments, too, such as Harrelson’s tearful 2018 goodbye, ending 33 seasons as a Sox broadcaster, after a game against the Cubs at Guaranteed Rate Field.

“And this ballgame is ovah,” he said.

“Very much, I have enjoyed it. I’ve loved it. And I will never forget it.”

But we can go back further than the beginning of the interleague-play era. Much further.

Through most of the first half of the 20th century, the teams played a yearly City Series against each other. And these weren’t just one-off exhibitions; many of the series, held after the season, were best-of-seven or even longer than that.

Post-World War II, the teams played an annual Boys Benefit game, a midsummer exhibition to raise money for the Chicago Park District’s baseball programs. This lasted until 1972, with the city’s baseball fans always turning out in big numbers.

The in-season exhibitions from 1985 to ’95 weren’t exactly big deals — especially, it seemed, to the Cubs, who somehow managed never to win one. It’s sad but true: They went 0-10-2.

“It seems like the Cubs were always trailing,” Andre Dawson says now. “For us, it was like a spring-training game. Play a few innings, shower up, go home.”

Well, no wonder.

“We took it more serious than the Cubs did,” Guillen says. “Why? Because Tony La Russa demands to go out there and play it right. Even after he was fired [in 1986], it was still his team because he raised us. No matter who we [played] against, it was all about winning.”

One time, in 1994, the Sox even employed a secret weapon: a little-known right fielder by the name of Michael Jeffrey Jordan. With a pair of run-scoring hits — off Dave Otto and Chuck Crim, bless ’em both — Jordan carried the Sox back into what ended as a 4-4 tie at Wrigley. Who says winning NBA Finals MVP is a bigger deal than making the Budweiser Play of the Game?

The pregame interview on the field between giants Jordan and Harry Caray is one of the forgotten gems of the long Cubs-Sox story.

“I want you to know,” Caray said, “I’ve been around this game for 50 years, and this is the biggest thrill of my life, just seeing you in a baseball uniform.”

Answered Jordan: “If I ever develop the skills to be [in the majors], then great. If I don’t, at last I fulfilled a dream of at least trying.”

But once the games got real in 1997, the rivalry really began to flower. It took hardly any time. Whatever it was officially called, it was us vs. you, North vs. South, Addison Street vs. 35th Street, blue vs. black, good vs. bad, bad vs. good. It became a huge deal, often as close as Chicago baseball got to something resembling playoff baseball.

“Cubs-White Sox games are very special,” longtime Cubs radio man Pat Hughes says. “Just the feeling in the ballpark, no matter what side of town, it’s a very special atmosphere.”

Guillen takes it a step further. Then again, doesn’t he always?

“I don’t know about now — maybe it [has gotten] a little less important to the players — but for a lot of years it was amazing,” he says. ”I mean, so important for the White Sox and Cubs fans. To me, it’s the closest thing you can be to being in the World Series. It’s that intense. The fans are into it, the media’s into it, all the town is into it. I [bleeping] love it.”

Capone would have loved it, too. We’d tell you how we know that, but then we’d have to . . . you know what? Never mind.

Since the start of interleague play, the Sox have a 70-64 edge — 35-32 on each side of town — over the Cubs. Hmm, that’s pretty close. It certainly doesn’t seem very conclusive. Guess the teams will just have to keep hooking up on the field — four times in 2022, Lord willing — and see how this thing plays out.

No-no? Oh no!

Not to be melodramatic, but Kasper was wracked with fear.

Fear of missing out, more specifically.

“FOMO” wasn’t even part of the lexicon yet, but Kasper was swimming in it. He was 39, in his sixth season calling Cubs games on television, and something huge was developing at Wrigley Field — where Kasper wasn’t.

“Oh, my God,” he says now, “I was going to miss it.”

It was June 13, 2010, and Cubs lefty Ted Lilly was dealing. Sox righty Gavin Floyd was dealing, too. Both pitchers had no-hitters into the seventh inning; Floyd gave up a two-out double in the bottom of the frame to Alfonso Soriano, who would be knocked in by Chad Tracy in a 1-0 victory. But Lilly took his no-no into the ninth — three outs from the first no-hitter at Wrigley since the Cubs’ Milt Pappas spun one in 1972.

The game, on ESPN, was one of 10 or so all season Kasper had off. Watching from home in Glencoe, scorebook in hand, he sat. And fretted. And got up and paced the room. And texted back and forth with broadcast partner Bob Brenly, who was experiencing much of the same thing.

All these years later, Kasper can’t admit it without laughing: As much as he was pulling for Lilly, a big part of him was desperate for a Sox hit.

“I thought, ‘Ted’s going to throw a no-hitter, and it’s going to be the first one at Wrigley since ’72, and I’m sitting at home,’ ” he says. “It’s your team — you root for your guy — but it’s very mixed feelings because when you miss a game like that? It kills you. I was rooting for Ted, but I wanted to call the next no-hitter at Wrigley.”

There is no truth to the rumor Kasper danced in the street after Juan Pierre singled to center leading off the ninth. But, sure, he felt some relief.

“Any broadcaster could understand,” he says. “I was probably 50-50 on what I wanted the outcome to be. At the end of the day, you kind of view the world through your own prism. I mean, 40,000 people at Wrigley, and I’m sitting at home?

“In the back of your mind, you’re like, ‘This can’t happen. I’m not there.’ But you realize your importance — or lack thereof — to the way things are. If you get hit by a bus today, they’re still going to play the game tomorrow.”

Kasper is now the Sox’ radio play-by-play man, in part because he didn’t want to miss out on calling any of the biggest moments. And he has missed his share. He was in the car when Cubs catcher Michael Barrett slugged Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski in 2006, in the stands for the Cubs’ division clincher against the Cardinals in 2008 and racing for the dugout to assist the Cubs’ radio broadcast when Jake Arrieta no-hit the Dodgers — lucky ESPN — in 2015. Kasper didn’t get to call Jon Lester’s walk-off squeeze bunt against the Mariners in 2016, the 18-inning game (an interleague record) against the Yankees in 2017 or David Bote’s walk-off grand slam against the Nationals in 2018.

But a Wrigley no-hitter against the Sox? An instant classic of that magnitude? The celebration in Glencoe would’ve been bittersweet.

Stone vision

Sox television analyst Steve Stone just might have a better feel for the rivalry with the Cubs than anybody. After pitching on both sides of town, he has been a Chicago broadcasting fixture — first North, then South — since joining the Cubs’ TV booth in 1983.

Stone, 74, has seen it. Lived it. Often loved it. Who better to share his top three moments over decades of crosstown clashes? Here they are:

The Air apparent — April 7, 1994

The teams still were playing a single exhibition game each year, but this one was gigantic because No. 23 — oops, make that No. 45 — was in the Sox’ lineup. Hello, Michael Jordan.

Jordan wouldn’t make it to the big leagues with the Sox, but he was a legend for a day at Wrigley Field, playing right field, batting sixth, going 2-for-5 with a double and two RBI and driving the house wild.

“Fans got a chance to see him in a completely different role,” Stone says. “And then on top of that, he got a couple of hits. The people in the seats were either White Sox fans or Cubs fans, but they were all Bulls and Jordan fans in those days. It was that rare occasion when the entire fandom could cheer one guy. I think that was as unifying a -moment as you could have.”

Catchers go awry — May 20, 2006

Everybody remembers it. And if they don’t, they’ve seen the video. And if they haven’t, they’d better get on it right the heck now.

Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski tags up, beats the ball to the plate and barrels over Cubs catcher Michael Barrett. Then he slaps the plate, gets up and bumps Barrett, who returns the favor with a hard right fist to the face.

“And now all hell breaks loose,” Stone says. “Another highlight.”

Eloy arrives — June 18, 2019

Eloy Jimenez was supposed to hit his first Wrigley home run — and hundreds more — as a Cub. But that was before he was traded to the Sox in 2017. When he finally blasted off there two years later, it was mighty dramatic. In a 1-1 game in the ninth inning, with a runner on, Jimenez broke his bat on an inside pitch from Pedro Strop but still parked a game-winner 10 rows deep into the bleachers in left.

“That was literally a thrilling moment,” Stone says. “The excitement that engendered, I remember it like I was still there watching it.”

Triple play

The words still ring in his ears:

“Along with Hall of Famer Harry Caray and Cubs legend Ron Santo, it’s Pat Hughes at Comiskey Park.”

It was June 16, 1997 — the very first Cubs-Sox game in Year 1 of interleague play across the major leagues.

Hughes, 66, called that one and has called every Cubs-Sox game since. But there has been no topping the first time, which came in his second season on Cubs radio at the tender-ish age of 42. The most memorable part about it? His boothmates.

“You have to kind of stop sometimes and say, ‘What am I doing here? How did I get here? How did I get in the same booth with Ron Santo and Harry Caray?’ ” he recalls.

The game itself was interesting enough. It was, after all, the first crosstown matchup that counted since the 1906 World Series. But the Cubs were a bad team, having started 0-14 en route to a last-place finish. The Sox were uninspiring and would, a month and a half later, cry uncle with the infamous White Flag trade.

The Cubs won 8-3 as Kevin Foster outdueled Jaime Navarro, who allowed seven earned runs in the first three innings but still pitched into the eighth. Ryne Sandberg and Brian McRae each had three hits as a crowd of 36,213 looked on.

But the superstar of the show was, as Hughes saw it, the 83-year-old treasure seated to his left. Caray had the day off, with Sox TV partners Ken “Hawk” Harrelson and Tom Paciorek handling the call on WGN, but he wasn’t one to stay home and miss a good time. On such an occasion, Hughes was delighted to have a third man in his booth. Caray — who would die eight months later — was one of his favorites.

“Harry was an old radio man from his days in St. Louis, so he always loved to join Ronnie and me,” Hughes says, “and I was thrilled to have him in our booth, no matter if they were playing the White Sox or anybody else.

“But what I remember about that day is Harry Caray having the time of his life. Every time the Cubs would score, there would be Cubs fans there cheering and Harry would laugh and bellow out in delight, ‘Listen to this crowd!’ And he just had a great time. That’s the most vivid memory I have of the Cubs-White Sox series, the thrill that I had to work with him.”

‘A pride deal’

The most amazing thing about Tony La Russa as the Sox’ manager isn’t that he returned to the dugout at 76 years old. No, it’s an older story than that. Often forgotten but still kind of wild: When La Russa was hired by the Sox the first time around, in 1979, he actually replaced a player-manager.

That would be Don Kessinger, who forever might be the last person to serve in that dual role for an American League team.

But Kessinger, now 79, is much better known for his time — from 1964 to ’75 — as a Cubs shortstop. For most of that stretch, he met the Sox on the field once a year in what, from 1949 to ’72, was known as the Boys Benefit Game. Held at Comiskey Park or Wrigley Field, the benefit game was a midsummer exhibition and fundraiser for the Chicago Park District’s baseball leagues.

“Back in the day, we didn’t play each other at all other than that because the Cubs trained in Arizona and the White Sox trained in Florida, so the benefit games were really a big deal,” Kessinger says. “Certainly, they were a bigger deal than we, as players, needed them to be. The games didn’t count, but you had so many fans at the games — in pretty equal amounts [supporting] each team — and, I’m telling you, they were serious about whom they wanted to win.”

The players were serious, too. Pretty serious, anyway.

“We’d try to win the game,” Kessinger said, “and they’d try to win the game. I think it was a pride deal, to some extent — and certainly the benefit for the city was very good — and there was some pressure to win it because of the fan involvement. But it’s not like it was the World Series. Then again, what would I know about the World Series?”

Ozzie Guillen goes commercial

Andre Dawson hardly could believe the sound. What kind of person made that kind of racket? Did it ever shut off? Did that mouth ever stop moving?

It was during batting practice at Comiskey Park on May 18, 1987 — Dawson’s first “Windy City Classic” since signing with the Cubs — that he first laid eyes and ears on young, chirpy and sometimes hilarious Sox shortstop Ozzie Guillen.

“I thought, ‘Who is this clown?’ ” Dawson says. “But he came up to me and introduced himself, and I liked that.”

If there’s such a thing as the loudest person in the history of the Cubs-Sox rivalry, it only can be Guillen. He played when the Sox almost always won, even though the games didn’t count in the standings. He later managed the South Siders for 11 seasons, during which the rivalry was at its fiery best. He talked, swore, insulted, swore some more — and that was before he got around to ripping the hell out of a not-yet-renovated Wrigley Field.

“It’s 1000% better now,” says Guillen, 58.

Yeah, well, everybody knows that by now. But not everybody knows these five things about Ozzie:

1. He wasted no time humiliating himself: Guillen was the American League Rookie of the Year in 1985, but on April 29 of that year, he was still a relative nobody. And then he spotted the reigning National League MVP — none other than the Cubs’ Ryne Sandberg — in the visitors’ dugout at Comiskey.

The Cubs were about to take the field for batting practice. Guillen, a really big fan, couldn’t pass up the chance to say hello.

“Hey, Jim!” Guillen yelled as he approached. “Jim Sundberg!”

Sandberg looked at him as though he had two heads. Sundberg was a longtime AL catcher who, ironically, would become Sandberg’s Cubs teammate in 1987.

“I just got so excited, so nervous to meet him,” Guillen says. “I said, ‘Oh, I’m sorry — Ryno!’ That was one of my most embarrassing moments in baseball.”

2. Home cooking could be a very bad thing: It’s possible no Cubs manager has wanted to beat the Sox as much as Guillen wanted to beat the Cubs. With Dusty Baker and then Lou Piniella in the other dugout — and working on the side of town Guillen swore got more love and attention from the media — Guillen, even after winning the 2005 World Series, wanted to be recognized.

“I wanted to be the best [bleeping] manager in town,” he says, “at least for a week or a weekend.”

Guillen was 23-23 against the Cubs as manager. Oh, well. Win some, lose some?

“Man, that series was huge,” he says. “I liked to win, especially against the Cubs.

“We had rules in my house: If we beat the Cubs, we eat at a restaurant; if we lose, Mom has to cook. Because I don’t want to go out and be around people if we lose. We lose to anybody else, I’m a miserable man. We lose to the Cubs, you can triple it.”

3. He has a regret … kind of: Guillen really blew it in the bottom of the eighth inning at Wrigley on May 19, 2007. With the bases loaded, he went to the bullpen and got lefty Boone Logan. Piniella responded by sending in righty slugger Derrek Lee — who wasn’t expected to be available — to pinch-hit.

Bye-bye, baseball. Grand slam. The Cubs scored six in the frame for a comeback victory.

Guillen isn’t proud of the answer he gave a reporter who asked after the game why he’d made the move to Logan.

“Do I remember what I said? Yeah, I remember,” he says. “I said, ‘Because I’m the [bleeping] manager, that’s why I made it.’ That was not the best answer. Maybe I shouldn’t have said that.”

4. He has no regrets about this: On one rainy day at Wrigley, Guillen’s criticisms of the ballpark had blown up into a bit of a controversy. Guillen thought local media were full of it by not agreeing with him publicly. When it was time for his daily pregame briefing — the rain picking up — he insisted on doing it in the dugout, even though it wasn’t big enough to provide cover for all the reporters and cameras.

“I say to the media, ‘You want to say the same thing as me, but you don’t have the guts,’ ” he says. “It was a terrible place for them to work.

“Half of them were soaking wet. I told them, ‘See? If this happens at another place, you’re not so wet.’ Some guys laughed, some guys hated it, but I made my point.”

5. The best part of the rivalry: Believe it or not, Guillen says he looks back most fondly on all the truly ridiculous commercials he did with Piniella. Recalling the ads — fishing, rapping, pretending to race cars — still cracks him up.

“All the commercials I did with Lou, all of it was amazing,” he says. “It was the funniest part of being a manager in town. I would just show up and look at Lou’s face and just die, man. He made the funniest faces when he tried to act. I love Lou Piniella.”

Brawl over the call

The day after Cubs catcher Michael Barrett punched White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski at the plate in 2006, there almost was another brawl at the Cell.

No, not between the crosstown rivals. Between Pierzynski and the Sox’ then-TV analyst, Darrin Jackson.

Let’s take it from the top. The famous fight was during a telecast on Fox, with Jackson working alongside play-by-play man Thom Brennaman. Because it was a national game, Jackson’s intent going in was to show no bias. But he wasn’t about to blame Pierzynski’s face for hitting Barrett’s fist.

As Jackson remembers it, Brennaman asked repeatedly about Pierzynski’s role — barreling into Barrett, slapping the plate after Barrett fell, bumping into him again after both rose to their feet — wanting to know if the punchee had been the -instigator.

“Finally,” Jackson says, “I was like, ‘Thom, it’s possible.’ “

Jackson had been involved in the previous most-famous moment in modern Cubs-Sox history: the Jordan game in 1994. Most long have forgotten — if they ever knew — that Jackson was the man Jordan drove home on his first hit in that exhibition game at Wrigley Field.

“What a memory,” Jackson says. “What a conversation piece for my involvement.”

But now, 12 years later, Jackson was at the center of the rivalry’s new most-famous moment. An article had been written that portrayed Jackson as having put the onus for the Barrett incident on Pierzynski.

So, again, the day after: Jackson entered the Sox’ clubhouse.

“A.J.!” he yelled, approaching.

According to Jackson, he was met with an outpouring of F-bombs. Aside from that, Pierzynski said he wouldn’t be speaking with him.

“I said, ‘First of all, don’t you ever talk to me like that again. Secondly, you owe me an apology. I defended you,’ ” Jackson says.

But Pierzynski was all lathered up, and it almost got ugly. Fortunately, it didn’t. Jackson moved to Sox radio in 2009 and has been there ever since. More than 20 years in as a Sox broadcaster, he is a South Side fixture and part of a small fraternity, so to speak, of prominent figures with baseball roots on both sides of town.

A day-after fight might have changed all that. It would have been a disaster. But Jackson and Pierzynski were able to squash it. Good thing, too.

Read More

LAS VEGAS — Forward Sam Lafferty recently has looked a lot like the 2021 version of Brandon Hagel.

Lafferty this season and Hagel last season came relatively out of nowhere to become impact players for the Blackhawks. Fueled by a tenacious work ethic and using a combination of speed and puck-winning ability, they made their presences felt all over the ice nightly.

But neither finished chances or amassed points at rates that reflected their quality of play.

Through 30 games with the Hawks, Lafferty has scored on only 5.7% of his shot attempts (four goals on 70 attempts). Hagel’s surge last April lifted his final percentage to 6.3%, but he was at 3.8% (three goals on 80 attempts) in his first 30 games of the season. He grew exasperated several times about questions related to not finishing his chances.

And although Hagel took more shots last season than Lafferty has this season (12.0 vs. 9.8 per 60 minutes), Lafferty has generated more scoring chances than Hagel did last season (8.1 vs. 7.4 per 60 minutes).

Hagel, of course, figured out his finishing issues this season, scoring on 12.0% of his shot attempts — and on 22.3% of his shots on goal — en route to 37 points in 55 games before he was traded to the Lightning on March 18.

That leads to an interesting — and potentially exciting — question: Might Lafferty experience a similar takeoff next season?

His play this week lends credence to the possibility. He singlehandedly produced seven scoring chances against the Ducks and Kings and finally converted one in sleek fashion against the Kings (although he was much quieter Saturday against the Golden Knights).

The difference in their ages — Hagel was then 22, Lafferty is 27 — is one solid counterargument. And the Hawks would have to re-sign Lafferty; he is a pending unrestricted free agent.

But interim coach Derek King said Thursday that management ”might want to lock this guy in because he’s what you need here.” And Saturday, he seemed to support the Lafferty/Hagel comparison, too.

”I don’t know if he’s going to be able to throw in 20, 30 goals, but I’m not telling him not to,” King said. ”He has been playing real good, solid hockey, working hard without the puck. And he’s managing the puck a lot better; he’s not overhandling it as much. He’s going to the net and obviously showing some good hands on that goal [against the Kings]. When he does shoot the puck, he’s got a pretty good release.

”For him, he just has to play both ends of the ice [and] not worry about the points or the goals; they’ll come. And they are coming because he’s working right.”

No guarantees

For the second consecutive game, rookie defenseman Alex Vlasic was scratched in favor of Erik Gustafsson.

The steadfast trust King and defensive coach Marc Crawford have in Gustafsson is a bit odd, but that decision is part of a greater plan to make the Hawks’ prospects earn their ice time, even in a rebuild.

”There’s still that accountability,” King said. ”I’m not just going to throw ice time at guys because this isn’t developing.”

King said he thinks Vlasic, at this early stage of his career, can learn from sitting out, too.

”[He should be] watching our ‘D’ — watching Seth Jones and other ‘D’ on the other team — [and] how they play, how their gap is, how they move the puck,” King said. ”Just getting a feel for the league.”

Read More

CLEVELAND — The Bulls know there’s one absolute when it comes to executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas: Expect the unexpected.

He showed that at the trade deadline in 2021, then again when he turned over most of the roster last summer.

That’s why center Nikola Vucevic’s motto is ”control what you can control.”

On Saturday, the Bulls stayed in control of the No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs by holding off the Cavaliers 98-94. It turned out to be no easy task, even though the Bulls led by 18 points at halftime and seemed to have the Cavaliers in handcuffs for most of the night.

With 4:51 left in the game, however, they seemed to have lost that control. Cavaliers guard Darius Garland made an 18-footer to cut the Bulls’ lead to three and forced coach Billy Donovan to call a timeout.

But there’s a reason the Bulls have played well against the Cavaliers this season, and they showed why from that timeout until the final horn. Their experience was the difference.

Vucevic made two free throws, DeMar DeRozan made an 11-foot jumper, Zach LaVine made a basket and the Bulls came up with some well-timed stops and clutch free throws to improve to 43-31.

LaVine finished with 25 points, DeRozan with 20 and Vucevic with 16, and defensive shark Alex Caruso added 10 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and two steals and was a plus-18.

”I thought we were really better moving the ball,” Donovan said. ”When they did make a run, we kind of steadied ourselves, figured out how to make plays. I thought there were a lot of good things that came out of it from a competitive standpoint.”

Which brings us back to Karnisovas and what has been going on with the Bulls in March. How they finish the final eight regular-season games and the playoffs might determine whether Karnisovas will want to bring this core back next season.

Vucevic is well-aware his contract expires after the 2022-23 season and knows a disappointing finish to this season might mean no one is safe this summer. He just doesn’t want to dwell on it.

”That’s something that’s totally out of our control as players,” Vucevic said. ”Our job is to try and go as far as we can, then the front office makes the decision on the team going forward. I was in a limited amount of trade rumors in my time in Orlando, so it’s something I really don’t think about very much. What’s the point of me worrying about that when it’s completely out of my control? That’s how I approach things like that.”

Plus, the way Vucevic sees it, he, LaVine and DeRozan have unfinished business.

”I like it here, of course,” Vucevic said. ”It’s been very good for me since I got here, as far as the way the team accepted me. The players, coaches, front office, the fans, everything has been really good. The cold has been an adjustment. . . . Nah, I’m kidding. It’s been very good here.

“It takes time to build a team when you have so many new players and so many young players. I think we’ve shown that we can play really well. I know lately we haven’t, but that’s part of being a new team, growing together, going through the ups and downs and trying to figure it out. Right now, it doesn’t look great because we’re losing. But things can turn around quickly in the NBA.”

Perhaps the victory Saturday will be the start of that.

Read More

CLEVELAND – Nikola Vucevic wasn’t demanding more shots.

That’s not how the Bulls big man is wired.

What he would like to see is more touches. An opportunity to show his teammates that when the ball goes through him he has the ability to make their lives on the court easier.

Maybe he’s finally starting to be heard.

“To me it’s not the fact of get me the ball to shoot it,” Vucevic said on Saturday. “One thing about me, which I think is one of my best qualities, is I make the game easier for everybody. Lot of times like the way DeMar [DeRozan] and Zach [LaVine] are guarded, getting doubled, getting blitzed, all that, the defense focuses so much on them that I can always be an outlet and make plays out of it.”

So why has that seemingly gotten lost at times?

Even in the embarrassing defeat in New Orleans, Vucevic was 7-for-11 that game, and 2-for-3 from three. The fact that he wasn’t searched out more was not only being discussed during that game, but in the film study on Friday, leading into the game with the Cavaliers.

“As a big man you are dependent on others,” Vucevic said. “I’m outside quite a bit, so I think for guards it’s not always something they’re aware of because with a big man they are just taught that we’re inside. Guards are taught to look for a big inside. I think 80% of them are inside. Few of them are shooting and able to step outside, so it’s just an adjustment for everybody. Definitely something we keep talking about.”

Getting Vucevic involved early like they did against Cleveland was a good sign.

All Vucevic did in that opening quarter was go 4-for-6 from the field for a game-high 10 points.

“I think there’s times we need to move it better,” coach Billy Donovan admitted of his offense. “There’s times I think we need to find Vooch in those situations because he’s such a good connector from one side of the floor to the other. I think we miss opportunities to do that. It’s something we certainly talked about and we’ve got to be better at.”

For those that haven’t been paying attention or simply opted to write Vucevic off because of his inconsistent first half, throughout March he’s been one of the few bright spots, shooting 39% from three – his best month of the year – and also entering the night with five of his last 10 games with a shooting percentage of 59% or better.

Yet, there have been too many moments where his touches have dwindled, especially in crunch-time. Donovan wants to see an end to that.

“They definitely miss him, no question,” Donovan said. “He’s a high-level IQ player and he knows the ones he needs to take and the ones he needs to get off of. It’s more in the heat of the moment, the awareness of making these quick decisions [for our guards].”

Lunch money

Tristan Thompson saw his wallet get a bit lighter, as the NBA announced that the veteran big man was fined $20,000 for directing profane language toward the officials late in the loss to the Pelicans.

Thompson drew two technical fouls when the officiating crew opted to review a play late, and then after they tried booting him he dropped the magic word on all three several times.

Thompson had to be escorted off the court and into the locker room, which didn’t help the optics of the incident.

Read More

PEORIA, Ariz. – In a normal spring, Drew Smyly would have made his first start more than two weeks before opening day. But this spring is not normal.

Smyly, in his Cubs spring training debut Saturday, threw two scoreless innings, allowing a hit and recording two strikeouts in his team’s 2-2 tie with the Padres.

“You get a little extra adrenaline rush the first game of the season, and with a new team, you want to start off on a good note and make a good impression,” he said. “[With] everything that dragged out this offseason, it was nice to finally just get back in a game.”

In addition to the long offseason and uncertainty surrounding the start of spring training, Smyly was still a free agent when the lockout ended. He signed with the Cubs a week ago.

Those factors pushed back Smyly’s ramp-up schedule. He first faced hitters this past Tuesday, throwing live batting practice at the Sloan Park complex.

“Then three days off, and then right into the game,” Smyly said. “So I just came in trying to throw strikes, mix speeds, just try to stay ahead in the count and compete.”

The Cubs open the season in a little under two weeks. Smyly said he could make his next start in a minor-league game on the Cubs’ off day next Thursday, or start Wednesday on short rest.

“It just depends how I feel and how I’m bouncing back,” Smyly said. “And they don’t want to rush it.”

Schwindel Sunday?

Cubs first baseman Frank Schwindel is nearing a return, according to manager David Ross. He’s been out with lower back tightness. Ross said they were taking a cautious approach to his recovery/

Schwindel played in two games early on in spring training but hasn’t gotten into game action for almost a week.

“He’s still day to day, and he’s feeling better every single day,” Ross said Saturday. “I know he hit a lot yesterday. So, he’s penciled in to maybe get some looks tomorrow, see how he presents.”

Simmons’ shoulder sore

Cubs shortstop Andrelton Simmons has been dealing with shoulder soreness, Ross revealed on Saturday. The Cubs signed Simmons earlier this month.

“Just building back up, jumping into things, and just want to make sure we’re taking care of his arm,” Ross said. “You see him have the at-bats. Just want to make sure he’s fully healthy.”

Simmons has appeared in one game this spring, logging two at-bats as the designated hitter against the Angels on Thursday.

Read More

GLENDALE, Ariz. — White Sox manager Tony La Russa’s lineup Saturday featured almost everyone from the first team but Andrew Vaughn and Yasmani Grandal, who had played the night before.

The designated hitter was Gavin Sheets, who as a rookie last season hit well enough to thrust himself into the DH and right-field picture.

”It was an incredible experience, making my debut and playing in the playoffs,” Sheets said. ”It was an unbelievable season. You want to prove that you belong in the big leagues, and I felt like I did last year. There is stuff to work on but plenty to build off.”

Sheets, 25, showed plenty in batting .250/.324/.506 with 11 home runs and 34 RBI in 179 plate appearances last season. And the postseason moment wasn’t too much for him. His homer in Game 4 of the American League Division Series against the Astros gave the Sox a brief lead.

Sheets arrived at spring training feeling like one of the boys, not a kid finding his way around major-leaguers.

”It’s a different side of spring training I haven’t felt before,” he said.

Sheets’ left-handed bat is a commodity. La Russa trusts him in right, although he might not make the transition to the outfield as seamlessly as Vaughn has. A natural first baseman, Sheets is grouped with the outfielders in camp and is doing extra work with outfielders coach Daryl Boston. He’ll be asked to DH and play right field and first base.

”Yeah, he can play right,” La Russa said. ”And he can hit.”

Like Vaughn, Sheets was thrust into a position he hadn’t played much.

”It was crazy, my first game in the big leagues in right field,” he said. ”But that’s what you do when you have an MVP [Jose Abreu] at first base. You do what you can to get in the lineup.”

Cespedes impresses

Cuban outfield prospect Yoelqui Cespedes is getting an extensive look in Cactus League games and has done something to get noticed in all six he has played.

He has homered twice, gone 5-for-17 (.294), thrown out two runners from center field and made good reads on flyballs.

Cespedes has opened some eyes, but he will get more at-bats in the minor leagues after camp.

”He’s got speed, [and] you can see the arm,” La Russa said. ”He’s not afraid to swing. He’s got to improve in a couple of areas, [learning the] strike zone. But he has some unique, impactful talent.”

Cease catching up

Right-hander Dylan Cease was behind some other starters in camp, but only because he wasn’t facing hitters during the lockout.

”I don’t know if I was that behind,” he said. ”I was throwing up-down, high-effort bullpens. I just didn’t have the opportunity to face batters. . . . When batters step in there, it’s always a little bit of an adjustment, but I feel like I’m in a good spot right now.”

Cease allowed one run and one hit, struck out five and walked one in his first start of the spring Friday against the Mariners and quickly is catching up to the others.

”When he first showed up, he was several steps behind,” La Russa said. ”It shows you his aptitude and his talent.”

Read More

LAS VEGAS — For two periods Saturday, the Blackhawks impressively matched the Golden Knights’ desperation and countered it with clean, crisp execution.

But in the third period, the Hawks’ lingering fragility reappeared.

Four Knights goals in a nine-minute span transformed what was once a 3-0 Hawks lead into a 4-4 tie before Evgenii Dadonov — whom the Knights tried to trade less than a week ago, only to have the move nixed by the NHL over a no-trade clause controversy — fittingly scored in overtime to lift the Knights to a 5-4 win.

“Anytime you give up a three-goal lead in the third period, it’s obviously not good,” Dylan Strome said. “They just rolled the momentum there, and we couldn’t stop it.

“[We needed to] try to relax. [After] they scored that quick into the third, it’s just like, ‘Take a deep breath.’ The building is going crazy — this has to be the loudest rink in the NHL — so they get one, they get two, and then it’s a tough thing to stop.”

Chandler Stephenson, William Karlsson and Jack Eichel all scored within a span of 1:52 to bring the hosts level, then Alex Pietrangelo did so again 47 seconds after Alex DeBrincat’s go-ahead goal to keep the crowd of 18,301 at T-Mobile Arena rocking.

The dramatic two points technically lifted the Knights ahead of the Stars for the Western Conference’s final playoff spot, although they still trail based on points percentage. Those two teams along with the Kings, Oilers and Predators above them and Jets and Canucks below them appear destined for a frantic final month racing to the finish line.

The Hawks, of course, will be nowhere near that excitement as they plod through their final weeks with all eyes on the future.

That makes it difficult to contextualize the inevitable short-term positives and negatives, since neither matter in the long run. And that’s a shame, because there have still been plenty of said positives lately.

They went 2-0-1 on this West Coast road trip, earning five out of a possible six points while admirably avoiding a post-trade deadline emotional deflation.

Kevin Lankinen’s goaltending has looked 2021-level sharp lately, at least until Saturday’s third period. Dominik Kubalik put forth a tremendous effort, scoring in his return from a healthy scratch.

Seth Jones is riding a five-game point streak, and Jake McCabe quietly boasts seven points in his last nine games. Strome, DeBrincat and Patrick Kane’s line has been red-hot for so long it seems permanent.

And the Hawks collectively played one of their best second periods in months Saturday, maintaining excellent structure in the neutral zone — constantly intercepting Knights’ breakouts while cleanly slicing across the blue lines with their own — and demonstrating sharp vision and accurate passing in the offensive zone.

“We were skating; we were getting pucks behind them; we were good on the forecheck; we were patient; the ‘D’ were active,” interim coach Derek King said. “We just played a solid two periods.”

Then all that disappeared abruptly.

“Usually the second period is our worst,” King added. “Now I’ve got to work on the third period, because…all the things we did in the second and the first, we stopped doing in the third. And it’s just like, ‘OK, Strome, get going, get your line out there,’ because they were creating opportunities. [But] you can’t play that line for a whole period. You need other guys to fill in.”

There’s no arguing general manager Kyle Davidson’s aggressive rebuild isn’t the wisest plan. After a relatively feel-good week, the final portion of Saturday afternoon provided another vivid reminder of that.

The Hawks are now 24-32-10 — an awful record from any perspective. And they’ve now proved yet again they don’t have the talent, depth, confidence or composure to keep up, when it really matters, with a playoff-caliber opponent.

Read More