Reader M all
Dear Mr Baseball,
In last year's th rillin g Nt West pennant race,
the Giants won over 100 games, and s t ill were
runners-up How often does this happen?
Mr M Olsen
Arch Cape, Or
Mr Olsen
One hundred win second place f imshes have
occured seven times previous to 1993 Here's the
lis t
09 Cubs(104-49)
15 Tigers (100-54)
42 Dodgers (104-50)
'54 Yankees (103-51)
61 T igerS ( 1 0 1- 6 1)
62 Dodgers (102-63, w /2 -1 play-off loss to
Giants)
80 Orioles (100-62)
And we got a le tte r from a loyal reader Dan
landando of Astoria, who once again provides a
southside counterpoint to the Second City
hardball scene It s lengthy, so permit me to
paraphrase
Mr Baseball
"My grandparents came over from Italy to
settle in the soul-less area (of Chicago) It was
L ittle Italy My folks had the luxury of
knowing English, and could afford to become
Americans fir s t and Italians second
w ith that
came a choice, you gonna be a Cub fan or a Sox
fan? Most of us followed our parents Cub fans
begat Cub fans, etc My cousins and uncles were
all Cubs fans My father passed on when l was
four, but Mom told me he loved Cominskey and
lived and died w ith the Pale Hose Naturally. I
was a Sox fan For a while we lived w ith in
walking distance of Wrigley and I'd s it in the
bleachers sometimes, but it didn't do much for
me I belonqed on 35th Street, not Addison and
Clark
My relatives tore me up They hounded me all
through '69 until the Cubs self-destructed
I
told them the Sox lost pennants because of the
Yankees, the Cubs lost em because they stink
They shook their heads, I was hopeless When I
told my Uncle Len the 67 Sox were the most
exciting team ever, he stopped talking to me He
knew I was right, I think
Marsha in Chicago needs to understand that
play-off baseball fans are not true ball fans
They are the ones who show up during winning
seasons to see what all the excitement is about
They don't understand how the 67 Sox were a
better team than the 83 Sox would ever be They
can't
These days the game has changed and soon it
w ill be as soul-less as Pro Hockey It s barely
worth watching anymore and the best baseball
for my money Is being played by amateurs in the
Pan-Am Games and Olympics At least they love
the game, not the endorsements
D Landando
A Sox fan for better or worse
P 5 Once you wrote that you would do a story on
the '83 Sox Don t waste your tim e (Actually I
believe I mentioned chronicling the virtues of the
,959 'Go-Go' White Sox I really hated the 83
team -Mr Bb) 'Do the 67 Sox
they were
beautiful losers
they never quit, they just ran
out of ta le n t' -DL
]
UfTLH LtfT W&t KKRCH JW
Mr Landando
I m convinced that most of us orthodox
citizens, if suddenly and w ith no good
explanation were thrust, w illy - n illy , into the
role of a Chicago baseball fan. we would end up
w ithin days, naked on a clock tower w ith a deer
rifle , screaming "Top o' the world, Ma1 *
I have before me a complete roster of the 67
White Sox, all 45 players, 23 of which were gone
by the next year Out of deference to the folks in
the type setting room, I won t print it
The title of "most exciting team ever' appears
kind of shakey But. so what? The team of my
youth was the early 60 s Portland Beavers, and to
th is day, I swear that Danny O sinski was a b e tte r
pitcher than Sam McDowell or Luis Tiant
Although I doubt many aspects of the irony of
Chicago Baseball are lost on Marsha Morgan, I
agree entirely w ith your condemnation of the
front-runner play-off syndrome And it's only
going to get worse w ith the new format More on
that later But really, look at these chumps as an
opportunity for major laughs Take 83 for
example, you turn to the mouthy jerk on your le ft
and say, ‘ Sure Luzmski's got the long hall, but
we re down two in the 7th, so maybe we need to
use Paciorek for the hit and run, or hell, maybe
just a safety squeeze on Dybzwski, but ya gotta
watch S p litto rff's balk move and the pitch-out
from Wathan Whatta ya think?'
The Game of Baseball is much like this great
experiment in the republic we live in It requires
constant vigilance by the body it serves The
Game is particularly vulnerable now, as it
languishes without the head of a Commissioner
for the fir s t time since Kenesaw Mountain
Landis Our Republic suffered a great hurt in
1981 when we fe ll asleep at the sw itch as a
responsible body for twelve years, a damage our
grandchildren are sure to damn us for ,9 8 , was
also the fir s t year baseball labor and
management put lust for gold before the Game,
and the result was a protracted lock-out
Understand this Neither the owners nor the
players call the shots, unless the fans allow
them to The Game of Baseball was invented,
developed, perfected and 99 times out of 100 is
played, by the American Non-Professional The
Major Leagues reap vast p ro fits from this
'National Pastime* at the sufferance of the fan,
in the form of depreciation on taxes, municipal
franchise extortion, and most im portantly, the
infamous Congressional exemption from the
Sherman A nti-Trust Law
Make no mistake doze off for the briefest
moment, and you w ill awake to Eight team
Play-offs, Inter-League play, and unlim ited
substitutions
Dan, don't give up on the Sox l can hear B ill
Veeck pleading w ith you from here
RIP - Pat Crawford, 92. last surviving member of
the 1934 'Gashouse Gang" World Champion St
Louis Cardinals (Kingston, N C I /2 S /9 4 )
And don't forget - Your cards and letters in the
Mondo Team and Stadium Name Contest Time is
dear
C oyote
D l i t r l b a t 1«a
W h in y o u
QUIZ
9 ) Who is the only pitcher
to h it home runs in four
consecut ive games?
A) Lon War nek e
B) Ken Brett
C) Don Newcombe
D) Rick Rueachel
1) Who was the firs t
sw itc h -h itte r tocollect 100
hits from each side of the
plate tn one season9
A) Gerry Templeton
B) Ozzie Smith
C) Pete Rose
D) W illie Wilson
2) Since Gehrigs 1927
season, only one placer has
sur passed his put - out total
for one year ( Gehr iq
-1 6 6 2 , this guy -1 6 8 2 )
Who is this guv9
A) Steve Oarvey
B) Ernie Banks
C) Keith Hernandes
D) Don Mattingly
, 0 ) Which two guys hold
the record for runs scored
in a season Tor the Cubs and
the White Sox?
A) King Kelly and Luke
Appling
B) Hack Wilson and Fielder
Jones
C) K ikiC u yle r and Chico
Carrasquel
D) R.xjer s Hornsby and
Johnny Most 11
3) Which of these two
pitchers had the best and
worst strikeout to walk
ra tio for the White Sox
(1 0 0 0 IP)?
A) I lCT/d Bannister and
Thornton lee
B ) Juan P i/zar o and Orval
Grove
C) B ritt Burns and B ill
0 let ric h
0 ) fd Walsh and Tod
Blankenship
1 1) We all remember Mike
Scott author ing a no- hitter
against the Oiants to clinch
the Nl West title in 1986
Who was the firs t to t w ir l a
no- no to secure a pennant
30« years e a rlie r?
A) Sal Maglie
B) Ed Lopet
C) A llie Reynolds
D) Robin Roberts
12) We ell think of Satchel
Paige as the Wor Ids Oldest
Rookie, but no This
patr larchal Pirate broke in
at the age of 43
A) Coot Veal
B) Diomedes Olivo
C) J u lio Got ay
D) Victor Cruz
4) Any tyro knows Connie
Ma.k lost more games than
any manager Who places
second9
A) Caoey Stengel
B) Bucky H arris
C) Gene Mauch
D) John McGraw
13) Who was the last
junior c irc u it fir s t sacker
to lead his league in trip le s?
A) Vic Power
B) Joe Pepitone
C) Cecil Cooper
D) Mike Hargrove
5 ) Befor e Wilson Alverez.
who was the last White Sox
hur ler to pitch a no- h itte r9
A) LaMarr Hcyt
B) Richard Dotson
C) Joe Cowley
D) Dennis Lamp
14) Or eg Maddux has now
won four consecutive Gold
Olove awards Before that,
who was the last NL pitcher
to gar ner four straight?
A) Bob Oibson
B) P hil Niekro
C) Bobby Shantz
D) Harvey Haddix
6 ) Of all the players w ith a,
least one swipe, who has the
lar gas, homer to stolen base
rat io?
A) Dick Stuart
B ) Jim Gentile
C) Del Rice
D) Steve Bilko
7) Who purloined the most
bags for the Pale Hose in a
campaign?
A) W ally Moses
B) Luis Apar icio
C) Rudy Law
D) Oary Redus
15) Who was the only
slugger to pund out 100
rb i's every year for his
in itia l ten years in the
Majors?
A) Jim m y Foxx
B) Goose Qoslm
C) Frank Robinson
D) AI Simmons
8 ) The feat of collecting two
taters and six r ibbies in one
frame has been accomplished
m or" than once Who was
the last player to do th is 9
A) Jesse Barfield
B) Oary Gaetti
C) Dave Parker
D) Dale Murphy
Extra Credit
Frank Thomas was A1 MVP
last season Who wore the
other White Sox to win the
-twar d?
Baseball is the
only thing besides
the paperclip that
hasn't changed
B i l l Veeck
MIKES HIKE SHOP
( .MI.'O 1.16 1266
w a n t th e
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p.o. m t\ s i t
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C A N N O N B EA C H - T H E C IT Y T H A T M A D E
M C T A R N A H A N ’ S ALE F A M O U S !
^\CA/y
M ore M c T arnahan ’ s A le
in
C annon B each
is sold
per capita than
ANY OTHER CITY IN THE WORLD,
2 1 0 *9 4 *4
F .O .
S I»>
F w r t la w d OK t 7 » « e - a i » a
according to
C annon B each
RESIDENT ‘ MAC” MACTARNAHAN.
WHO EARNED A GOLD MEDAL WITH
I never hurt nobody but myself and
th at’s nobody's business but my
own
B illie Holidey
his
S cottish
ale .