Sixty games – hopefully, possibly, maybe, unless COVID-19 decides to have a word.
Sixty games – hopefully, possibly, maybe more if the White Sox do what they think they can do and make the playoffs.
Sixty games for them to give their fans a real taste of what all the commotion has been about during the past few years of a rebuild.
From zero to 60 in two months. Zoom zoom. Here come the Sox.
Where are they going? Somewhere fast, they believe. We’ll see. We’ll see if man-child Luis Robert can figure out big-league pitching. We’ll see if the Sox have enough pitching. We’ll see if anyone can play defense. We’ll see if manager Rick Renteria has the ability to take his team from Point A to Point B.
We’ll see because, no matter what happens, we won’t be able to take our eyes off the Sox. A roster with Robert, Tim Anderson, Yoan Moncada, Jose Abreu, Eloy Jimenez, Edwin Encarnacion, Yasmani Grandal and more?
Yes, please.
There are two baseball teams in Chicago. The more interesting one resides on the South Side. The Cubs seem to be about all sorts of other things besides baseball these days. An 11th-hour agreement that allows their new network to air games on Comcast. Massive ads where fans used to be in the stands. A franchise that stood pat in free agency during the offseason because of a wealthy owner who cried poor.
The Sox are young and talented and inexperienced enough to believe they have a chance to make the postseason. Kids these days.
Thanks to a schedule trimmed by the pandemic and an intriguing roster, what we have on the South Side is a mixture of concentrated hope and extra-strength belief.
So, yes, the Sox.
The hoopla surrounding them is reminiscent of the excitement surrounding the Cubs before the 2015 season, when fans and some media went gaga over a young team led by manager Joe Maddon. The hype seemed over the top at the time, what with the team’s history of futility and a 73-89 record the season before. The more sober among us shook our heads at the innocence and true belief. But the believers ended up being right, except for the part about multiple titles, a dynasty and Maddon becoming mayor. The Cubs won 97 games in 2015, then won the World Series the next season.
The buzz on the South Side feels almost as strong. Apparently, the Sox have a shot at 97 victories in a 60-game schedule. Who knew?
It’s OK. It’s not a bad COVID coping mechanism to believe in something, anything. And a shortened season could favor the Sox. Opposing pitchers won’t have as much time to figure out hitters who could be in mid-blossom. Perhaps Sox pitchers will start hot and stay that way long enough to push the team into the postseason.
At a minimum, it will be fascinating to watch how an emerging club reacts to all the attention. We’ll find out a little more about Renteria’s ability to lead a team, especially in these difficult times.
The Cubs are intriguing in their own way. It’s not as if we’re watching the end stage of the Fall of Rome. There’s still plenty of pop in the lineup, and if the pitching somehow can hold up its end of the bargain, well, you never know. Not knowing is the fun part, especially in a 60-game season. A team gets off to a hot start, and before you know it, it’s midseason. If there is a midseason.
COVID-19 is the wildest of wild cards. The sound of a ball on a bat is a beautiful thing, especially now, and the coronavirus could silence it at any point. The disease stands over the game like an all-seeing proctor. We witnessed it Thursday, when Juan Soto was pulled from the Nationals’ lineup hours before their season opener after testing positive for the virus. We saw it when Dr. Anthony Fauci walked onto the field before the Nationals-Yankees game. Nothing says “Play Ball!” in 2020 quite like having the country’s leading infectious disease expert throw out the first pitch.
For now, there are no spectators in the stands, unless you count the cardboard cutouts of fans in some ballparks. There might be flesh-and-blood fans in attendance later in the season, but for now, no. And that’s OK, too. Just having baseball is enough. Hard to get all wound up about what’s missing from games when the games themselves have been missing for so long.
We have the Sox and the Cubs to entertain us, captivate us, anger us. To make us forget. We have baseball, for the time being. We’ll take it.
