⚾ Crash course on the White Sox

Plus: It's Hiroshima Day. [View this email in your browser]( [READER Logo]( Daily Reader | August 6, 2024 As part of my mission to keep Reader readers up on sports (not always an easy feat) allow me to tell you about the Chicago White Sox. That’s the baseball team on the south side, readers. (Hey, I learned long ago to take nothing for granted.) They’re awful. How awful? Let me count the ways . . . On Monday, the A’s beat them 5-1. This was the White Sox’s 21st loss in a row. As I write this, the team’s record is 27-88. They’re on their way to losing upwards of 130 games—which would be the worst record ever. That’s ever, as in . . . ever! Currently the modern-day record for most losses in a single season belongs to the New York Mets, who lost 120 in 1962, their charter year as a team. (Of course, for you baseball historians, the 1899 Cleveland Spiders still hold the all-time MLB record for most losses in a single season: 134.) The `62 Mets were known as lovable losers. Stocked with quirky characters with colorful names (Choo Choo Coleman, Harry Chiti, “Marvelous” Marv Throneberry), they were coached by Casey Stengel, one of baseball’s greatest legends. By the time he started managing the Mets, Casey was in his 70s and known less for managing than for spinning outrageous yarns and dropping fabulous quotes. Like . . . “The secret of successful managing is to keep the five guys who hate you away from the four guys who haven’t made up their minds.” And . . . “The trouble is not that players have sex the night before a game. It’s that they stay out all night looking for it.” And my personal favorite . . . “If anybody wants me, tell them I’m being embalmed.” Jimmy Breslin wrote a book about the ’62 Mets. It’s called [Can’t Anybody Here Play This Game?]( The title comes from yet another Stengel quote. I have that book on my shelf. In my opinion, it remains one of the greatest baseball books—ever. I say all of this to cheer up my fellow Sox fans. Though at the moment I can think of nothing remotely colorful, witty, or funny about this year’s team. Pedro Grifol, their beleaguered manager (who’s expected to be fired), is certainly not as entertaining as Stengel. I wanted the Sox to hire Ozzie Guillen (who comes close to Stengel with his commentary). Alas, the Sox don’t listen to me when it comes to personnel decisions. So there’s really nothing positive to say about the 2024 White Sox. On the other hand . . . In 1969, just seven years after that disastrous opening season, the Mets were World Series champs. That’s correct. You can look it up (to paraphrase another Stengel quote). Down ten games in August, the Mets went on a hot streak and stormed past a choking first-place team to win their division. Eventually, they defeated Baltimore in the World Series. A great book came out of that season, too. It’s called [The Year the Mets Lost Last Place]( by Dick Schaap and Paul D. Zimmerman. And, yes, it’s also on my shelf. And do you know which choking first-place team the Mets stormed by to win the division? The Chicago Cubs, that’s who! That’s the north side baseball team, readers (again, I take nothing for granted) that Sox fans love to hate. And so, if the future copies the past . . . In 2031, the Sox will break the hearts of north siders by beating the choking Cubs to win the World Series. Just a little something to look forward to, Sox fans. We might even get a great baseball book out of it. 🎙 [Listen to The Ben Joravsky Show]( ◈ [The Angel of Rome and Other Stories]( by Jess Walter: a fabulous collection of short stories by one of my favorite writers. ◈ [Dilpreet Raju]( for the Reader: Dreaming of disarmament ◈ [Ben Joravsky]( for the Reader (2021): on Cubs and White Sox uniforms. ◈ [Nicole Cantello]( president of American Federation of Government Employees Local 704: Trump’s war on federal employees ◈ Alderperson [Nicole Lee]( Asian American politics in the Kamala era ◈ Entrepreneur and political strategist [Mike Nellis]( #WhiteDudesforHarris [Dreaming of disarmament]( Seventy-nine years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed, the U.S. still possesses thousands of nuclear warheads. by [Dilpreet Raju]( | [Read more]( → [Wagyu pastrami melt by Morgan Street Snacks]( [Monday Night Foodball hits the terrible threes]( Check out the brand-new late summer schedule for the Reader’s weekly chef pop-up at Frank and Mary’s Tavern. by [Mike Sula]( | [Read more]( → [a scene from marvel movies deadpool & wolverine]( [William Warren drummed on one of the greatest blues recordings ever made]( On Hoodoo Man Blues he’s overshadowed by Junior Wells and Buddy Guy, but the talents he honed on Maxwell Street should’ve made him a star. by [Steve Krakow]( | [Read more]( → [War of the words]( Wells and Welles brings two titans together in a pithy and thought-provoking world premiere. by [Albert Williams]( | [Read more]( → Our Free Chicago Kickstarter is still open! 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