Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg is serving the third day of his three-day suspension today. It seems Sandberg, manager of the Peoria Chiefs, took exception with an opposing player bunting for a basehit, while his team was leading 6-0. The feisty manager engaged the other manager in a discussion, which led to a bench-clearing brawl.

Some might say, it’s the minor leagues and this player was just brushing up on his bunting skills, a learning process. To which I’d say, you don’t bunt for a basehit when leading 6-0, a learning process. From a Hall of Famer, way to go Ryno!

Tags: Cubs, Hall of Fame, Managers, Minor Leagues by Teddy Ballgame
3 Comments »

I TIVO’ed Playing for Peanuts, a reality TV show about minorleague baseball, that aired its first episode in Chicago Sunday night on CSN. Finally got around to watching it this morning, after a frustrating late night of watching the Halos crunch Mark Buehrle & the White Sox. I needed a reminder that our national pasttime was worth watching. Playing for Peanuts, John Fitzgerald Director/Producer/Editor, was just what I needed to see.

Wally Backman was the manager of the South Georgia Peanuts of the now-defunct SCL. The SCL was an independent league where players/managers hope to get a chance of getting into more organized ball. I remember when Wally Backman was an up & coming youngster in with the NY Mets. Backman was always a scrapper, being a 5′9″ secondbaseman, who’d do anything to win, and win it all he did, with the 1986 Mets over the Boston Red Sox. As a 26 year old Wally batted .320 for New York that year.

After his playing years were behind him, he was on the fast track to a big league managerial job, in fact he landed one, with the Arizona Diamondbacks. But his stint only lasted days, he never got to manage, before it was disclosed he had a DUI, an incident with domestic abuse, and a parole violation, for which the new skipper might have to do some jail time. The D*Backs quickly distanced themselves from Backman, which is why he resurfaced as the manager of the Peanuts.

Looking over the Peanuts roster I saw another familiar face in Mike Caruso. At 21, Caruso was the Chicago White Sox shortstop of the future when he batted .306 as a rookie in 1998. Mike came to the Sox from the Giants in the 1997 fire sale, in which Chicago shipped off Roberto Hernandez, Wilson Alvarez, & Danny Darwin in exchange for Caruso, Keith Foulke, & Bob Howry. The Sox cashed in the present for the future and Owner Jerry Reinsdorf took a lot of heat. The next year Caruso’s production fell off to a .250 batting average, and his bigleague career was pretty much history. A has been at 22, which is the reason he was trying his luck with the Peanuts.

Checkout the Playing for Peanuts website. Hopefully we’ll be able to do a podcast with John Fitzgerald in the not too distant future.

Tags: Uncategorized by Teddy Ballgame
No Comments »

It was nice of the White Sox to let my Angels win one in this series.  ;–)

Seriously, if I were to pick which of these games the Angels were most likely to win, Buehrle vs. Adenhart would NOT have been the one. That’s why baseball is the most fascinating game of all.

Did you know that Buehrle has only beaten the Angels once in 15 career starts? I would think that his skill package would give the Halos trouble. Wouldn’t you? Changing speeds and taking away the stolen base completely.

Tonight is Jered Weaver vs. John Danks. I have referred to Weaver as “a right-handed Danny Jackson.” No one understands that this is a compliment.

“First Pitch - Strike One” is a key for the Halos tonight. They won last night despite NOT doing this. 4 double plays won the game.

Orlando Cabrera had good things to say about Mike Scioscia: “With all due respect to managers around the game, I think that Scioscia is on another level,” Cabrera said. “This guy dominates the opponent, the thinking,
all the things that they do, the scouting reports. He has an advantage. I think he’s the smartest guy in the game right now, no doubt.”

I can sincerely return Cabrera’s compliment to Scioscia. Ozzie Guillen’s in-game baseball strategy, more often than not, is what I would do. I think he is real solid in that area. He can’t field for Joe Crede or get hits for Nick Swisher. The players have to come through to make the manager look good.

DonS.

Tags: White Sox by DonS
1 Comment »