DETROIT — Jake Burger was with Triple-A Charlotte when he got a phone call Wednesday as it became apparent Yoan Moncada (oblique strain) was headed to the IL.

“It’s crazy,” Burger said Friday morning before starting at third base for the White Sox against the Tigers on Opening Day. “We opened up in Norfolk [Tuesday], and how many guys can say they played Triple-A Opening day and then MLB Opening Day in the same year? So that’s really exciting.”

Even more exciting was Burger, batting ninth, dropping a two-out double into the right field corner to start a two-run second inning. He scored on a single to right by AJ Pollock, who scored on a double to left by Luis Robert, giving the Sox and right-hander Lucas Giolito a 3-0 lead.

Burger might get two starts in the series with two Tigers lefties starting, La Russa said.

Cease in good place

Saturday starter Dylan Cease enters the 2022 season in a good place.

Cease said he found the feel for his pitches after about 10 days into spring training, liked how his fastball worked, was hitting his spots with his curve and said his changeup was “the best it’s ever been.”

Which is saying a lot. Cease’s fastball, curve, slider arsenal is among baseball’s best, stuff wise. And his changeup has been a plus pitch, too.

Lance Lynn’s injury moved Cease up one spot in the rotation, and as some predict he’ll be the Sox’ best starter this year, Cease said he’s putting no extra burden on himself to shoulder the burden of the team losing Lynn.

“I just try to be the best version of myself every time I pitch,” Cease said. “That is always what I try to live up to.”

Memorable openers

Left-handers Tanner Banks and Bennett Sousa both experienced being in a major league uniform and Opening Day all at once for the first time. It was something Banks had to wonder if it would ever happen. He is 30, after all.

“I’m still shocked,” Banks said, standing at his locker in the visitors clubhouse at Comerica Park Friday.

Banks said he FaceTimed his wife to share the news Tuesday and broke down crying as the call was going through. Manager Tony La Russa gave him the news after the final Cactus League game.

“It was cool,” he said. “We were sitting on the bench, going over the outing. And Tony came over and looked at Ethan [Katz], looked at myself and said, ‘Do you want to tell him or should I?’ ”

Sousa’s family made the trip to Detroit. His parents were his first call when he got the news.

“There was crying on the phone,” he said.

Sousa was informed by the general manager.

“Mr. Hahn told me I was coming to the big leagues,” Sousa said. “All the coaches were there, [assistant general manager] Chris Getz, it was a cool, exciting moment.”

Sousa was drafted in the 18th round by the Sox in 2018 and Banks was taken by the Sox in x.

Lefty Garrett Crochet having Tommy John surgery and the expanded Opening Day rosters opened the windows for the pair of lefties.

This and that

The Sox’ one-year, $4.2 million deal for veteran right-hander Johnny Cueto is close to being official. He just arrived in Arizona, where he’ll face hitters before going to Triple-A Charlotte and likely ramp up with four or five outings.

*Yoan Moncada and Joe Kelly will need rehab stints in Charlotte before they return. Kelly (biceps nerve) has a sim game slated this weekend in Arizona, with a Charlotte target at the end of the month. Moncada’s expected return from his oblique strain is three weeks the Sox say, and that includes getting at-bats in games at Charlotte.

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I was glad I was sitting when I read a quote from a Blackhawks official in the Sun-Times the other morning. Glad, also, that I didn’t have any cereal in my mouth.

“Our tickets are too expensive,” said Jamie Spencer, the Hawks’ vice president of revenue.

That’s a head-exploding statement from a high-ranking employee of a professional sports franchise, an enterprise whose main goal, besides winning a championship, is making as much money as possible. And I’m guessing that money is the reason for being for any person with the title of vice president of revenue, the way oxygen might be a big deal for the senior director of breathing.

But more amazing than the quote is that it was in response to what the Hawks recently announced – that, after listening to fans, they were indeed lowering ticket prices on 84% of the seats at the United Center. The reductions are expected to be modest, though some tickets could be cut by as much as 20%.

The stated reason behind the markdown is that, with the organization about to go through a rebuild, at least a few years of losing are sure to ensue. And team officials, after listening to fans during months of research, realized that that wasn’t going to fly if they wanted to keep the arena stocked with money carrying human beings. Attendance already had been dipping. So it’s not as if the Hawks are doing this out of the goodness of their hearts.

Plenty of fans were disgusted with the way the team ignored the sexual assault of one of its top prospects. The scandal and the hit to its once-lofty reputation had to have played a role in the price reduction. But it really doesn’t matter what the rationale for it is.

Teams talk a good game about loving their fans, but they often treat them like pack mules whose sole purpose is to transport saddlebags of cash to corporate coffers. The Cubs are embarking on their second rebuild in about a decade yet still have one of the highest prices in baseball for “game-day experience.” According to Time2Play, an online gambling site, the average price of a general-admission ticket, parking, two beers and a hot dog at Wrigley Field in 2021 was $110.17. If you’re going to a game, I pray you don’t have a family of six.

Whatever happens with the Bears and a stadium, whether it be a new facility in Arlington Heights or a better deal at Soldier Field, you can bet all you’re worth that you’ll be paying a ton more for tickets in the future. That’s just the way it is. Kings make plans. Loyal subjects fund those plans.

If a team is going through a rebuild – and that’s been all the rage the past 10 to 20 years in American professional sports – fans should be protected. Athletes have agents. Collectively, they have unions that bargain for them against the big, bad owners. But fans have nobody. Doesn’t seem quite fair, does it?

They do, of course, have the ultimate power. They can decide not to attend games. Some Hawks fans have taken their money and stayed home. But most fans can’t help themselves. They want to be where the action is. Franchises count on that urge.

If fans understood the weight they carried, if they understood that all they had to do was click their ruby slippers together, they might get teams to knock it off with the highway robbery. But if you’ve seen the giddiness people bring to a stadium on game day, you know how magnetic the draw is. Maybe you’ve felt it. I mentioned earlier that fans need to be protected. They need to be protected from themselves, too.

Six years after winning a World Series that ended a century plus of fruitlessness, the Cubs should still be the toast of Chicago. But they’re not. They thought they had a lifetime license to print money. They continue to think that, even as they slash their player payroll and settle in for a few more years of planned losing.

Now, I realize that lowering ticket prices is good PR for a team. The Cubs had a price decrease for some seats this season, and I’d like to think it’s because they realized that the perception of them as money-grubbing is the main perception of them these days. But I don’t recall anyone in the organization uttering the words, “Our tickets are too expensive.” There’s a decent chance that would be punishable by death.

Maybe the Cubs should hire whatever research firm the Hawks used. They’d find out the same thing: Fans are angry.

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The Bears signed tight end Ryan Griffin to a one-year deal Friday.

Griffin, who turned 32 in January, spent his first six years with the Texans, who drafted him in the sixth round out of Connecticut. He spent the last three years with the Jets, starting 31 times. Griffin has caught more than 34 passes in a season only once — he had 50 for 443 yards in 2016.Last year, he caught 27 passes on 41 targets for 261 yards and two touchdowns, starting 12 games.

In his career, he’s caught 206 passes for 2,158 yards and 14 touchdowns.

At 6-6, 264 pounds, Griffin could be an intriguing red zone option. The Bears have only two right ends on their roster: Cole Kmet, who is the unquestioned starter, and Jesper Horsted. Jimmy Graham is unlikely to return, J.P. Holtz signed with the Saints and Jesse James is a free agent.

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Game 2 of the Cubs’ season will have to wait.

The Cubs announced their afternoon game against the Brewers on Friday at Wrigley Field has been postponed due to inclement weather. It’s scheduled to be made up on Monday, May 30, when the Brewers come back to town for a three-day series.

The first game of the series was originally scheduled for 1:20 p.m. on May 30, but it will be moved up to 12:05 p.m. The makeup game is scheduled for 6:40 p.m. The Cubs will require separate tickets for each game.

The postponement pushes back the Cubs’ rotation by a day. Left-hander Justin Steele, who was originally scheduled to start Friday, is set to take the mound Saturday. Right-hander Marcus Stroman’s Cubs debut has been moved to Sunday.

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The window of opportunity for high school basketball prospects to shine and raise their stock was severely shortened over the past two years.

In particular, each of the past two spring NCAA “live periods,” a time where college coaches and talent scouts evaluate prep talent, was wiped out due to Covid-19.

But it’s all back in 2022. The calendar is packed with one club basketball event after another in the months of April and May.

Last weekend marked the tip-off for grassroots basketball across the country, while the two live periods this spring will be April 8-10 and April 22-24.

At last weekend’s NY2LA Swish ‘N Dish event just outside Milwaukee, there was plenty we already knew and have seen before.

Cameron Christie of Rolling Meadows showed off the multiple ways he is capable of scoring the basketball, while Lake Forest’s Asa Thomas did his deep-three-draining thing.

St. Rita’s Morez Johnson continued to show why he’s arguably the best player in the state in the Class of 2024, and Darrin Ames of Kenwood showcased his dynamic scoring ability.

But there were others, players who haven’t generated a lot of headlines — or at least not big enough ones just yet — who provided a hint of what’s to come.

The biggest eye-opener among emerging prospects in Illinois was Burlington Central’s Drew Scharnowski.

Playing for a very good but out-of-the-way Burlington Central the past three years, it was going to take some time for the 6-8 Scharnowski to be noticed. College coaches and evaluators will soon be noticing an intriguing prospect who is just starting to grow into his game and his body.

Burlington Central coach Brett Porto saw it early. But he’s also been able to see up close the progression and where it’s headed.

“In our final scrimmage, before the start of the season, you could see him taking it to our seniors,” said Porto of a successful and senior-dominated team. “It was eye-opening.”

But throughout the early part of the season Scharnowski deferred to those veterans, Porto said. As the confidence and comfort level grew in his third varsity season, there was a definite shift that continues today.

“All the work he put in gave him more confidence,” Porto said. “Something clicked coming out of our game with Peoria Notre Dame.”

That was the championship game of the Plano Christmas Classic in late December, a game in which he struggled. But the second half of the season was a big step in Scharnowski’s development and consistency.

The skill set he flashes at his size, thanks to a combination of shooting, ball handling and fluidity in all that he does at 6-8, grabs your attention. That is also what makes him a legitimate Division I prospect despite not even averaging in double figures this past season.

This past season he averaged 9.2 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.2 assists.

Scharnowski was a point guard in middle school and then grew into a 6-2 varsity performer as a freshman. That is where the perimeter skill set first emerged.

As he sprouted past 6-7, Scharnowski maintained his skill level and is now an emerging stretch 4-man who down the road will create mismatches with his shooting and size. How his game evolves from being an impactful role player this past year to a go-to player this spring and summer will tell us all a lot about his future.

“He’s just a multi-faceted player who can score inside and outside while also bringing the ball up the floor,” Porto said.

Scharnowski, who plays with Breakaway Basketball on the club basketball circuit, has a world of talent he seems to be just starting to tap into.

In addition to Scharnowski, here are a few others set to break through and raise their stock in the coming months.

There are several players in line for a sizable leap when it comes to their individual recruitments and name recognition.

Brock Harding, Moline

He emerged as a Hoops Report favorite last summer and gained more steam and statewide cred over the course of his junior season. He was named a City/Suburban Hoops Report first-team all-stater this past season.

And while he already has some serious suitors and a few impressive offers, the interest is set to soar for the purest point guard in the state. Several mid and mid-plus programs extended offers last year, including Drake, Illinois State, Bradley and Colorado State, while Loyola offered last week.

He’s a mid-major and mid-major plus dream recruit. But he will catch the eye of a high-major program at some point due to all that he brings to the table at the point guard position.

Both composed and capable of playing with basketball speed, Harding brings impeccable playmaking skills, feel and instincts. He creates opportunities for teammates that most players simply don’t see, thanks to an innate ability to read a defense.

The three-point jumper has improved immensely where he’s now at least a threat when left alone and coming off the ball screen.

Harding is a fun player to watch who plays with spunk and confidence.

Ahmad Henderson, Brother Rice

Locally, Henderson has a name that is very familiar to high school basketball fans. He led his team to 24 wins while averaging 15 points and four assists a game.

But with just a few offers that have been extended, he is still a player who has a lot to prove.

Here’s banking on Henderson proving it this spring and summer.

Henderson was offered by Wisconsin-Milwaukee, a staff that was recently fired, along with MAC offers from Northern Illinois and Kent State. Those all came last year. Look for Henderson to be a player in the class who generates a whole lot of interest and offers in coming months.

The hang up is simple: size.

At just 5-9, Henderson is a small-scale point guard in size who makes up for it with some true offensive punch. He has shooting range and competency, though it must become more consistent, and a pull-up game that keeps defenses on their heels.

DeAndre Craig, Mount Carmel

Much like Henderson, the Mount Carmel point guard has been a fixture on the high school basketball scene over the past few years. And he’s been a rock for coach Phil Segroves, averaging 21 points a game this past season while leading the Caravan to 28 wins.

That production and name recognition in the Chicago area has not resulted in Division I offers. Radford and Akron are the lone offers on the table and those came last summer, which is why he’s considered to be among the most under-recruited players in the class.

There will be more offers coming the more he’s seen on the club circuit and in June with the Caravan.

Craig is an energetic score-first point guard who is dangerous downhill in transition in getting to the rim and a shot creator. He offers an advanced pull-up game from 12-16 feet and offers legit range from the three-point line.

Ryan Cohen, Glenbrook North

Quietly, the 6-1 guard has put together two highly-productive seasons. As a sophomore he averaged 19 points a game and then this past season he put up 15 points a game.

He’s made the move to the Illinois Wolves this off season, teaming up with bigger names in Christie and Thomas, so he will have an opportunity to showcase his greatest strength: shooting the basketball.

Cohen is potentially a game-changing shooter, particularly as a spot-up threat from the three-point line in catch-and-shoot situations. He offers a clean release who gets it off quickly. This past season he connected on 85 three-pointers while shooting a remarkable 46 percent from the arc.

While he has a special knack for scoring, the next step is for Cohen to play at different speeds and begin to generate offense for others.

Look for Cohen to jump on the radar of scholarship programs from the Division II to low-major Division I level.

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The fact that “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” exists is not exactly a mystery.

The first film was a financial success for Paramount Pictures and by the year’s end would hold the distinction of being the No. 2 release in North America. That second fact should be taken with a grain of salt, though. It’s mostly dumb luck: The studio released it in February 2020, a month before theaters closed and studios began jettisoning their films to streamers or later release dates.

Still, sequels have been greenlit on less and “Sonic” didn’t just have dollars going for it. On the forgiving curve of video game properties being turned into potential franchises for studios desperate for a sure thing, it also wasn’t half bad. There were enough genuinely funny moments to make it enjoyable and much of that had to do with James Marsden’s performance as Sonic’s human companion Tom. Marsden is unbelievably natural and charming while acting against a cobalt blue, computer-generated alien.

It should have been a promising development that the entire original team assembled to get “Sonic 2” to theaters, including director Jeff Fowler, writers Pat Casey and Josh Miller, and the cast — Marsden, Ben Schwartz as Sonic, Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik, Tika Sumpter as Tom’s wife Maddie and supporting standouts Natasha Rothwell and Adam Pally.

And yet “Sonic 2” feels extremely rushed. Though it starts off promisingly enough with Carrey’s character marooned on a “piece of shitake” mushroom planet, it soon becomes evident that this outing is a soulless attempt to up the stakes and cash in.

It is a slapdash extravaganza that doubles down on its CGI stars, adding bad guy Echidna, Knuckles (Idris Elba), and a friend/Sonic superfan, Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey), for a globetrotting journey to find an all-powerful emerald, and relegates its human counterparts to the background to its own detriment. Kids may be pleased with the shift in balance, but their parental companions will likely be running for the door (or earplugs).

The humor also feels like it was generated by a game of pop culture mad libs, with snarks about everything from Vin Diesel and The Rock to Limp Bizkit.

For instance, “Oh great, the Winter Soldier,” Sonic deadpans as Knuckles chases after him on a snowy mountain in Siberia. This referential strategy can and has worked when done thoughtfully. Here it just comes across as a first draft at making a PG-rated “Deadpool.” And in the last third, the filmmakers decide to just do a full homage to the opening of “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”

Sonic is also now being positioned as a fledgling superhero who still has a lot to learn. Sure, what else can you really do to stretch this character into a big movie franchise that people care about? But it also takes the air and excitement out of the journey by making it something that we’ve seen many, many times before. Is there nothing else you can do with a superspeed alien hedgehog?

Then there’s Carrey, whose larger-than-life performance isn’t even big enough to compete with the CG action soup. It’s a shame to squander a roster of talented comedic actors who seem game to do anything opposite their alien counterparts. Hopefully there’s time for a little reflection before the next one is fast-tracked to a VFX house to do the brunt of the work. What this franchise needs most at this point is to slow down.

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Tony Mockus, a Chicago actor for seven decades, helped start a holiday tradition that has entertained an estimated two million theater-goers and this year will mark its 45th anniversary.

In 1978, he directed the first production of Goodman Theatre’s “A Christmas Carol.”

He also starred in countless plays, made TV appearances on shows including “21 Jump Street,” “Chicago Fire” and “Boss” and had movie roles as a fire chief in “Backdraft,” a gavel-pounding judge in “The Untouchables” and a marrying minister in “She’s Having a Baby.”

Mr. Mockus, 92, of Evanston, died April 1 of heart failure.

Onstage, he conjured warmth and authority.

“His voice was both stentorian and protean,” said his friend Joseph A. Morris. “Stentorian in that he could command a room, and his voice would fill it. But it was also a protean voice — it could be soft, it could be hard. He was able to do all kinds of accents.”

He spoke only Lithuanian when he entered St. Anthony grade school in Cicero because his Lithuanian grandmother raised him while his mother worked, according to his wife Mary Lou Mockus.

“He didn’t speak English,” his daughter Judy Hooper said, “yet he became a Shakespearean actor.”

While at St. Ignatius High School, he won a speech competition with a prize of a four-year scholarship to Fordham University in New York. But his mother needed him at home, so he was able to transfer the scholarship to Loyola University.

“It turned out to be a blessing,” his wife said.

In 1949, he landed a role in a Midwest theatrical touring company of “Mister Roberts,” working with Henry Fonda, John Forsythe and Jackie Cooper.

“He said, ‘I could never have had better training, watching those consummate actors,’ ” his wife said.

In 1952, he was gravely injured while clearing minefields in the Army during the Korean war.

“Tony noticed one mine was implanted in a dangerous place,” his wife said he told her. “He was in charge, and he could have sent another man. Instead, he went down the hill. He saw a pebble be dislodged and watched as it hit the trip wire, and the mine exploded.”

She said that, as a result of that, for the next two years, rather than acting in New York as he’d planned, “He was in Walter Reed hospital.”

His weight dropped from 225 pounds to just 128. Doctors thought they might need to amputate a leg. He refused general anesthesia, opting for a local painkiller so he could stay awake during surgery and make sure they saved the leg, according to his family.

After recovering, Mr. Mockus became a leading man in Chicago. He appeared in plays including “Long Day’s Journey Into Night,” “Inherit the Wind” and “The Gigli Concert.”

He was a favorite of Cyd Charisse, Paulette Goddard, Cloris Leachman, Barbara Rush and Elke Sommer when they came to Chicago on the dinner theater circuit.

In 1969, he played the sloppy sportswriter Oscar Madison alongside Tony Randall as neatnik Felix Unger in “The Odd Couple” at the Drury Lane Theatre.

“I’ve never heard laughter like that” his wife said of the response. “It was just glorious.”

When the Goodman decided to launch “A Christmas Carol,” Mr. Mockus “brought a strong and passionate vision to Charles Dickens’ beautiful work that, along with casting Bill Norris as Scrooge, established the production as an annual Chicago holiday tradition,” said Roche Schulfer, the theater’s chief executive officer.

He was “a staggeringly powerful presence on stage and in person yet warm and caring to all he directed and acted with,” said BJ Jones, Northlight Theatre’s artistic director.

His goal was “to reach out and touch another human being, soul to soul,” said his son, also named Tony. He said his father taught others “to do your best, to do it for the greater glory of God, to do it in the service of others and do it beautifully.”

The son, who sometimes acted with his father, said watching movies with him was “a master class,” that he’d make comments like, “Look what Alec Guinness did.”

Tony and Mary Lou Mockus were married since 1958.

“The first thing Tony did in the morning was cut out the ‘Love Is’ [comic] and have it at my place for breakfast,” she said.

“It was a family filled with laughter,” their daughter said.

Mr. Mockus also is survived by five grandchildren.

Visitation is planned at noon Saturday with a 1 p.m. Saturday funeral Mass, both at St. John Cantius Church, 825 N. Carpenter St.

His wife said she treasures a 1991 note to Mr. Mockus from Hal Holbrook, who starred with him in “The Awakening Land.”

After re-watching the 1978 miniseries, Holbrook wrote: “I was moved to tears by your great speeches about the destruction of the wilderness by the white settlers. . . . . You’re a fine man. I’m proud to have known you.”

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