Still Gotta Come Through Chicago
LETS GO BULLS... and Opening Day
Happy Friday Chicago!
Art imitates life, and sometimes life imitates art.
I think I am putting that philosophical idea the right way. People say that, right?
I do know it’s a stretch to call this newsletter art, but after I wrote about myself facetiously as the caricature of an annoying office guy last week, I caught myself doing something horrifying today.
I screenshotted the weather for Friday — sunny and 70 degrees in the afternoon — wrote “that walking path is in trouble tomorrow” and then sent it off to a few co-workers on my team (we go on walks together sometimes).
Good lord.
By the time I realized what I had done, positive responses were already pouring in.
Then I looked at the message again, and saw a straight line from it to a retirement party four decades from now, one where I am commenting on how good the piece of customized cake from Jewel is (it reads Happy Retirement!). I have a celebratory cone hat on, and it that is far too small for my head.
Because my head is too big, the hat’s strap is making an uncomfortable indent on my (now very large) chin. But Jessica from HR went out and bought the cake and hat so I feel obligated to wear it.
There alongside me are my team members. The young ones have simply written “Happy Retirement” on the card, while the old ones write “I’m going to miss those walks!”
I snapped back into the present day, and tried to get my cognitions back within my own power. I grabbed my backpack and basically stumbled out of the office without a goodbye, panting by the time I got outside the doors.
That walking path is in trouble tomorrow. What is happening to me?
But then I thought of last week’s newsletter, and about the life-imitading-art question. Does life imitate art?
The phrasing of the question reminded me of “to be or not to be, that is the question,” from Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
I had to memorize that monologue and present it in high school. I remember it vividly, because of how nervous I was to present it. I remember it visually, too, because a friend cruelly took a video of me. In the video, I have a shirt on that says “You’re in Miami, Bitch” with LeBron James crying on it. (I was reprimanded for that shirt, which my mom bought me.)
That memory evoked a chuckle, and I realized that even if I am going to go on a little walk with my co-workers tomorrow, I am not lost to the corporate world just yet.
Because 13 years ago I was wearing offensive shirts making fun of LeBron James, and tonight I’m watching the Bulls-Lakers, laughing maniacally at LeBron committing costly late-game turnovers.
Life imitating art and “to be or not to be?” don’t have much similarities at all, and the connection I made between the two probably means that I am ignorant to most poetry, classic literature, and philosophy.
Nevertheless, it got me there, and that connection allowed me to stop thinking about the cake in the conference room at my retirement party.
Perhaps this newsletter is what will keep me sane — the musings, the nonsense, the thought that goes into trying to make a White Sox section interesting.
If I stop writing this, I’ll forget what makes me who I am, just maybe. Just maybe, if I stop writing about LeBron James and Josh Giddey, I’ll start dying like Bear Bryant passing away right after he retired as the coach of Alabama.
And with that, here comes another newsletter. Thank you for indulging me.
Unfortunately, I have to keep one foot in the corporate world for now, which means that I will be listening to the Cubs on the radio as I fall asleep tonight. A 9:10pm start? How can anyone stay up for this shit?
I think of my Dad borderline screaming about games not starting on time, my brothers and I laughing at him, and now I think of where I am today: tired and ready to go to bed.
9:10pm.
This means I get to start saying some go-to, old-head bangers, though. Like: “I gotta be up in the morning” or “some people work for a living!” Those, at least, will be fantastic additions to my repertoire.
Maybe if I can merge the two versions of myself — the daytime and the nighttime — I’ll hit the perfect happy medium.
For instance, there’s a ticket raffle at work. The Opera, plays, Bulls tickets, Cubs tickets, Sox tickets, Blackhawks tickets — they’re all available in a raffle almost every day. I plan to eventually overthrow the leadership of this raffle and become the purveyor.
Today’s ticket raffle — Lakers-Bulls. Why do you think you deserve the tickets, Mark? “Ah, my son loves LeBron James.”
Wrong answer, buddy. You know who I like? I like the Bulls, because I’m not some rotten, fair-weather punk like that kid of yours. Who’s next?
At this point, Jessica from HR and I will have a good rapport built up. She’ll give me a slap on the wrist now and then, but ultimately she’s happy I’ve taken on the initiative of running the raffle. I never question the people that want the Opera tickets too hard, either.
You want the Cubs tickets, Jeff? Question for you: Do you think I guzzled beers like a madman and dominated Wrigley Field back in the day, in my younger years? “Uh, yes I do.” Right answer, Jeff, you and your family have a great time tonight at the game.
But I’ve got a long way to go to get there. Until then, I remain the purveyor of one thing: this newsletter. And you, my dear readers, are worthy constituents.
The Bulls are the hottest team in the NBA, the Sox have already won their first game of the year, the Cubs are on, March Madness is still in full swing, and, you guessed it — we got a lot to get into.
So let’s get into it.
LETS GO BULLS!
That’s 9 of 11 for your Chicago Bulls, bitch! I’m listening to Migos in my apartment tonight, disturbing the neighbors, after they just beat the Lakers for the second time in a week.
But tomorrow, I’ll be outside the UC singing them some Eli Young Band: Crazy Girl, don’t you know that I love you? I wouldn’t dream of going nowherreee. Silly woman, come here let me hold you. Have I told you lately? I love you like crazy, girl.
I never went nowhere, baby! Come here.
The Bulls mounted a 16-point comeback in the fourth quarter last night, thanks to Coby White, Kevin Huerter, and finally, Josh Giddey on a 50-foot buzzer-beater.
Giddey had a 25-point triple double, and Coby White had 26 points, following up on 35-, 36-, and 37-point performances. White is becoming, without hyperbole, one of the 20 best offensive players in the league. Giddey has been one of the best players in the league for three weeks.
The Bulls hit 10 three pointers in the fourth quarter alone last night.
Matas Buzelis had 31 points in Los Angeles Saturday night to boot, and Kevin Huerter hit five three pointers Thursday.
And, believe it or not, there’s still some good in the world. The UC was rocking with the Bulls tonight. An electric atmosphere drowned out the losers in Laker caps and LeBron/Doncic jerseys, the ones who splurged for basketball tickets but are late on their car payments.
The best detail yet? It was LeBron’s turnover with seconds left that gave the Bulls the chance to win.
By the time this newsletter goes out, the Cubs will either be 0-3 and the sky will be falling, or they’ll be 1-2 and everything will be back to normal.
Most important is how Justin Steele looks in his second outing after a rough start to the season in March, both in Arizona and in Japan.
There are a few things I’ll be paying attention to throughout the season, but especially during this brutal start that MLB baseball has put forth for the Cubs.
It’s not his fault, but Kyle Tucker was traded for Cam Smith, who has been so good in Spring Training with Houston that he made the team at just 22 years old. He’ll make the Cubs rue the day they got rid of him if Tucker is not re-signed to a long-term deal.
But for now, we have to control the controllables. Tucker is still one of the best players in baseball, and if he plays like it this year, that will at least temporarily ease the pain of losing Smith.
The Cubs haven’t had one of the best position players in baseball since Javier Baez in 2018. It will be a thrill just to watch Tucker in a Cubs uniform this year, and I think he will deliver.
These decent teams have been frustrating to watch over the last couple of years. If this team is better than decent, Tucker will likely be the reason why.
Watching a bad MLB team makes for an agonizing summer, but watching a decent team may be worse. You stay up for those 9:10 p.m. starts only to watch Ian Happ going 0-4 in his yearly slump, someone like Mike Tauchman playing heroics, and then the bullpen blowing the lead.
Your blood pressure is high and it’s time to go to bed at midnight.
Watching a collection of decent players weave in and out of hot streaks has been the Cubs of late. Tucker alone has the proverbial and literal power to change that, but he will also likely be a multiplying force to the rest of the players in the lineup.
Watching Tucker — the established veteran — and Matt Shaw — the rookie up-and-comer — will make this team aesthetically more pleasing and likely better on the whole.
Miguel Amaya is now a tandem with Carson Kelly behind the plate, and Amaya has the chance to become one of the feel-good stories for the team this year. He was unfortunately rushed up to the majors. He, unlike Matt Mervis, hung on just enough to get to that hot streak late last year.
Now, like the catcher position often is for the Cubs, he too could be the difference between the Cubs being above average or great. A double in Japan and an RBI was a good start. Amaya has been forgotten about as a top Cubs prospect, but I think he has the chance to play surprise in 2025.
He’ll get closer to everyday at-bats, and look to build upon his 2024 second half — where he hit .271, 70 points higher than in his first half.
In July and August of last year, he has a .900 OPS in over 100 at-bats.
I’m also banking on Dansby Swanson, after offseason surgery, turning in a great year. He’s still outperformed the other shortstops that were on the market when the Cubs signed him, but fully healthy, I think he’ll have his best year yet with the Cubs.
We are all aware of the Cubs’ potentially shoddy starting pitching, and I wrote last week that if Steele and Shota Imanaga aren’t a formidable 1-2, there will be trouble.
I believe that.
But, if that is the case, the Cubs need more from their young arms, and particularly guys like Ben Brown and Jordan Wicks. Both guys showed flashes before injuries last year. I’m banking on Brown getting his control together and becoming a reliable starter by year’s end.
All of this is written through a rosy view, as 9:10pm and the daunting schedule is not officially here yet.
But the Cubs should win the division this year. And that means I am fired up to watch some baseball this weekend.
The White Sox, White Sox, Go Go White Sox, are 1-0 after a dominating 8-1 victory over the Angels and corpses of Tim Anderson and Yoan Moncada.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
The White Sox were famously 41-121 last season, one of the worst teams in baseball history.
They aren’t going to be much better this year, though their over/under win total sits at a staggering 53.5, the lowest in over 35 years for any MLB team. I’m not sure which way it’s staggering, either. It’s by far the lowest total in the league, but also suggests the Sox may win 13 more games than they did last year with arguably a better roster.
The White Sox aren’t just bad, they’re totally irrelevant. The Chicago Sun-Times doesn’t have someone covering the White Sox. The local new-media sites like CHGO don’t have people just covering the White Sox (they seem to be covering the Cubs, too). The Tribune has a dedicated beat writer still.
If you go to the Tribune’s White Sox section, though, the first article is: Shooting at White Sox game in 2023 still a mystery with new season opening.
Remember that?
Good stories and coverage of baseball have to have some mystery to them—you have to teach me something I don’t know, and you have to have a good pitch on why I should want to know it.
I’m still somewhat curious how someone got shot at Guaranteed Rate Field and how no one knows what actually happened two years later.
I’m less enthusiastic about learning how the Sox plan to “turn the page,” on last season. They may be on a new page, but they’re certainly in the same chapter. The themes have not changed.
I find the economics around the Sox (and Bulls) fascinating. Ten, twenty and thirty years ago, those teams were their own micro-economies. They supported bars, sides of town, standalone successful blogs, and large sections of each newspaper.
Now, it’s hard for the layman to figure out where to watch each team — if they wanted to. It’s hard for a baseball writer or podcaster to just focus on their beloved White Sox. It’s not economically viable, and it doesn’t even garner interest.
The Sox have lost the die-hards, and they are losing generation after generation of young fans without even realizing it.
In an era where young kids follow superstars as much as they do teams, the Sox and Bulls have done nothing to try to overcome that.
I’d love to know what the Sox are going to do viewership wise on their games this year. Jason Benetti is gone, Steve Stone has one foot out the door, and the games are now on Chicago Sports Network. The team is also projected to win fewer than a third of their games.
Unless you turn your White Sox blog into a Justin Ishbia gossip blog, updating the masses everyday on how his private equity company is faring and whether anyone has said anything about him becoming the majority owner, there’s not much to grab onto.
Or maybe there is, we’ll see.
Right off the bat, looking at the Sox roster, I had a few “oh that’s right” moments. Mike Clevinger is still on the team.
I forgot our beloved Mike Tauchman has gone from the North Side to the South Side, but unfortunately he’s already hurt with a hamstring strain.
Luis Robert Jr. is what’s left of what was supposed to be the next great Sox team. And he hit well in the spring, slashing .300/.386/.580.
He told reporters that he was glad he was still in Chicago after trade rumors surrounded him for the past year. If he keeps playing well, he won’t be anymore.
As a Sox fan, you’re either rooting for young players to be good or you’re rooting for guys like Robert Jr. to play well just so they can get shipped out for a decent return.
From his perspective, I don’t know why he would want to leave Chicago. He doesn’t seem all that discouraged by piled up losses, and there are zero expectations on him here. A hamstring pull or an ankle twist on the way to first base barely makes a sound.
I’m curious how new manager Will Venable will handle the lows, lows, and lows of the season. Talking to the media is just a small part of the job, unless you’re bad at it, and then it becomes everything. Pedro Grifol probably would still be managing the White Sox if he could just can an answer to the press.
Venable is — on paper — the best managerial hire the Sox have made in a long time. On one hand, taking a MLB manager job is not a leap of faith. There’s only so many of them and if you are offered one, you take it.
On the other hand, his job description is mostly going to be development and Managing Bad Days.
In addition to Venable, I’m curious how Korey Lee will play this year. The catcher was the prize of the Kendall Graveman trade in 2023 with Houston.
He was terrible last year, on the field and at the plate (.591 OPS). But he had a fantastic spring as well, with a .925 OPS in 40 plate appearances. He also had a hit and a walk in the Opening Day win.
Andrew Benintendi owns the richest contract in White Sox history, and through two years, has nothing to show for it. Or, negative to show for it. He has accumulated -0.4 WAR over those two years. We’ll also be on WAR watch this year, can Benny get back to neutral and convince Ishbia to give him another deal next year? He kicked things off with a 3-RBI day.
Finally, if you caught a White Sox game late last year, there was a small chance the guy pitching would make you go, “who’s that?”
The first of that group is Drew Thorpe, and let’s keep up with the good news! He’s getting Tommy John and will be out the entire 2025 season.
OK, who’s up next? Shane Smith.
Smith is an unheralded prospect and was a Rule 5 draftee, but he’s impressed enough to become a part of the Sox 2025 rotation. He’s been fantastic in the minors — he had a 1.96 ERA in 2023 and about a 3 ERA in 2024. He also had a solid spring, but he’s never thrown 100 innings at a high level. I’m curious to see how far he goes into games in 2025, and how it translates.
Johnathan Cannon was a third-round pick for the White Sox in 2022 out of Georgia. He’s worth paying attention to, like the others, because he was born in 2000 or later. He had a 10.32 ERA in spring but will likely have plenty of chances to work through his warts in 2025.
The zombie Ethan Katz, who has somehow made it through three White Sox administrations (credit to him), will have his hands full. And I think, like last year, he’ll find a way to get a veteran on the trade market and also find a way to make one of these young pitchers pop. Thorpe, however, was probably the most likely candidate.
We’ll see who else gets pulled up throughout the year.
For now, rooting for Ishbia’s Shore Capital Partners sounds more fun than rooting for the aforementioned group of baseball players. EBITDA. AI. Return on Investment.
But for now, the Sox are also 1-0. White Sox, White Sox, Go, Go…
Thank you so much for reading another edition of Still Gotta Come Through Chicago. Tell a friend to subscribe, comment below, and I will see you next week!
Jessica sounds like a real piece of work
Do you and your coworkers hold hands while you walk?