By Jim Coffman
“Well,” I thought to myself last Thursday afternoon, “I’ll never convince him to be a Cub fan now.” My 10-year-old son Noah had attended Mark Buehrle’s perfect game with fellow campers and counselors from his day camp and it seemed clear the experience would seriously strengthen the foundation of his Sox fandom. His dad the Cub fan wasn’t excited about that of course but the boy had witnessed baseball history – the kind that only happens a time or two every decade.
And Noah is the kind of kid who could at least start to appreciate what he’d seen. As I waited to pick him up, I saw some fellow campers I had met previously and greeted them with things like “You saw a perfect game! There have been only 17 of those in 120 years of major league baseball! Congratulations on witnessing one of the biggest things ever for the White Sox! A few of them perked up a bit but they were also battling the after-effects of a long bus ride back from U.S. Cellular.
Noah was on the final bus and while he didn’t exit the vehicle jumping for joy, he did have a big smile on his face. “People kept saying the no-hitter was still going and I told them, ‘it isn’t just a no-hitter, it’s a perfect game,'” he said.
I had worried going to the pick-up site that perhaps the day hadn’t proceeded perfectly. But it quickly became clear that all was well, especially when he confirmed that he had kept his ticket stub.
I must admit I have struggled with just how much of a hard time I should give the boy for his fondness for the South Siders. Shortly after Noah achieved major league baseball consciousness, one of the teams in Chicago won the World Series. The games ended way after his bedtime and we didn’t go to the parade, but he still felt the excitement day after day.
He also identified a favorite player – Scott Podsednik. In the intervening years, Podsednik has continued to be his No. 1 guy despite his departure from the scene relatively shortly after the World Series run.
And so his return to prominence for the White Sox this season seems almost miraculous. Injuries initially cut short his Sox tenure and seemed to have cut short his major league tenure before all of the candidates for the South Side centerfield job struggled earlier this season, prompting the signing of Podsednik as a free agent.
Meanwhile, we’ve been going through what would be described as the Golden Era of Cub fandom but for post-season flameouts in three of the last six years (but at least they made the playoffs in three of six years! We would have killed for that when I was a kid).
Still, there was that delightful century of losing milestone we passed last year and with that, there was a little bit of a question of, “I should rag on my kid for deciding not to sign up for this?”
He still goes to a half-dozen or so Cubs games a year with me and he’s not wearing black to Wrigley (not that I would let him if he wanted to sit in our seats). There’s still a ways to go before we’ll have a final decision. But perfect games don’t help. Maybe if the Cubs could somehow find a way to win a playoff game this year, then I might dial up the recruitment effort.
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If the Sox had managed to lose Sunday’s game, that would have completely killed off the last little bit of buzz resulting from the perfecto, wouldn’t it? It was too bad they not only had to play the day after Buehrle’s gem, they had to play a twin-bill. And while Clayton Richard gave them a boost Sunday, they were back to their under-achieving (especially with the bats) ways on Monday in the Twin Cities. I wonder how long Ozzie’s going to wait before he moves Beckham up in the lineup. They need for him to have more at-bats with guys on base.
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How ’bout those Cubbies. Everyone will play up Soriano’s 13th-inning game-winning grand slam last night, especially after he didn’t run out a ground ball to third earlier in the game. He seemed to have thought it had tipped off the protective pad covering his lower leg, but the ump didn’t see it that way and as Soriano stood there, he was thrown out at first, eliciting some boos (Bob Brenly pointed out on the TV broadcast that “You’ve at least got to sell it.” In other words, the least Soriano could have done was to grab his leg and roll around on the ground for a while).
But the play that set up the final rally was Derrek Lee easily going from first to third on Aramis Ramirez’s no-out single, forcing the Astros to walk Milt Bradley to set up a force at home and bringing Soriano to the plate.
Manager Lou sent Lee on two straight 3-and-2 pitches to Ramirez and it paid off on the second – Astro shortstop Miguel Tejada might have had a chance to flag down Ramirez’s single through the left side of the infield if he hadn’t been cheating a bit toward second.
Piniella sent Lee despite the concern, also voiced by Brenly, that a running Lee could distract Ramirez. Piniella also made one of his coolest calls off the season earlier in the extras when he called for Mike Fontenot to try to put down a suicide squeeze. It didn’t work, but it surprised everyone. A little more exciting baseball like that and maybe even Noah will take notice.
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Jim Coffman rounds up the sports weekend in this space every Monday, except when he does it on Tuesdays. He welcomes your comments.
Posted on July 28, 2009