This past Sunday Evening in Chicago, a cross town rivalry resumed days before the covid 19 shortened baseball season got underway.
Jason Kipnis homered for the Cubs in their half of the first inning giving them a one run lead. Kipnis hit 12 homers against the White Sox as a member of the Cleveland Indians. The Cubs added to their lead in the second as Wilson Contreras scored on a sacrifice fly in the second.
The score remained 2-0 until the top of the 5th inning. With one out, Adam Engel who is known more for robbing opposing batters of home runs, robbed Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks of a shut-out by homering himself.
After the Engel homer, Tim Anderson singled and Eloy Jimenezflew out to right field and what happened next could only bedescribed as a good old fashioned 2 out rally. Jose Abreusingle to right moving Anderson to 3rd and removing Hendricks from the game. Jharel Cotton came in to pitch for the Cubs and Andrew Vaughn came into run for Abreu. Yasmani Grandal then doubled in Anderson and Vaughn giving the White Sox the lead.
The south siders were not finished yet. Grandals hit was just the first of three run scring doubles in succession. Edwin Encarnacion who made his major league debut for the Cincinatti Reds in the White Sox World Championship year of 2005 and is right about to begin his 16th season in the major leagues and his first for the White Sox hit a double to left plating Grandal. Then Luis Robert, who has yet to make his major league debut and was 8 years old when the White Sox won it all in 2005 hit a ground rule double to score Encarnacion.
Luis Gonzalez came into run for Robert. Leury Garcia tripled to score Gonzalez. This brought up Cheslor Cuthbert who just came over to the White Sox from the Royals who had the misfortune of making the first and final outs of the inning. But when Cuthbert made out #1 his team was behind 2-0, when he made out #3 they were ahead 6-2.
The White Sox added a run to that lead on a wild pitch in the seventh and the Cubs took that run away in the 8th as David Bote scored Josh Phegley in the 8th ending the scoring at 7-3 White Sox.
Ed Farmer was a hero of mine from childhood and for a few minutes in 2004 I was a hero of his.
The former White Sox pitcher and raidio announce passed away on April 1st of this year. Hear his what his former radio partner Ed Rooney had to say about working with Ed.
Here is a video from last year where farmer relected on his life in baseball.
For Christmas 2003 my wife got me tickets to Sox Fest, an annual White Sox fan event held each January. The Sox had just hired Ozzie Guillen to manage their squad and I was very excited about meeting the players and attending some of the panel discussions. During the panel discussions fans were able to go to the microphone and ask questions. During a White Sox media panel discussion I asked Ed Farmer, whon was a incredible advocate for organ donation and a recipient of a kidney from one of his brothers to talk a little about that. In asking my question I related that I had donated a kidney and appreciated his advocacy for organ donation.
This is when Farmer turned the tables on me. I remember him saying something like let's hear it for this guy, he's a true hero. There in the middle of Sox Fest I got an ovation from a bunch of Sox Fan strangers.
From all I've read and herad about Farmer,this was his way. Heexcelled at relating to people on a personal level. After the panel He talked with me for about 5 minutes even though other people were waiting to talk with Him. Farmer would often address his radio audience as his friends and he seemed to truly treat and deem each person he encountered as a friend.
Farmer grew up on the south side of Chicago in Evergreen Park and was a life long Sox fan.He pitched in the big leagues from 1971 to 1983 in what some have called a nomic career, splitting 11 seasons between 8 teams. Farmer was a career long reliever with the occasional start. He appeared in 370 games starting only 21 times ( 4 in his first season, 4 in his final season with 13 in between).
Prior to 1979 Farmer would fluctuate between the minors and the big clubs. This changed when Farmer came back to the south side for arguably his best 3 seasons. He filled the role of a closer for the Chisox with 54 of his 75 lifetime saves in a Sox uniform. He had 30 of those saves in 1980 where he earned his first and only all star appearance.
After Farmer stopped playing he worked a short time as a scout and then in the White Sox front office and in 1991 started in the radio booth in a limited capacity. In 1992 he became the full time color commentator aside play by play man John Rooney. When Rooney left in 2005 after the world championship season, Farmer became the play by play announcer. In total nearly 30 years behind the microphone.
In August of 1999 I brought our young adult group from church to a Sox game. I had ordered the tickets in advance and had to go into the office to pick them up. While waiting for the tickets A tall lean tanned man strolled into the office talking with a few people on his way to the elevator. It took me a while to realize that this was Farmio. In retrospect I should not have been surprised. He displayed all the warmth , good humor and boyish exuberance that seemed to be his only gear.
I am confident that White Sox baseball will start again after the shelter in place lifts and that games will again be broadcasted on e achieved on and off the field. The few times I saw Farmer in person I was always taken aback about how tall he was. At 6'5 He's nearly a half foot taller than myself and I'm no slouch. Now I realized that he had to be that tall because his personality , zeal , and love for the game would not fit in a smaller package.
Today at my other blog, Home School Dad, I wrote about Old Comiskey Park, the home of the Chicago Whites Sox from 1910 to 1990. Carlton Fisk called Old Comiskey home from 1981 until the historic ballpark bit the dust and by the time it did, Pudge had become the White Sox all-time home run leader.
All told, Fisk hit 214 home runs for the White Sox from 1981 to his ignominious dismissal in the middle of the 1993 campaign. Note: I spent the year of 1993 abroad and it has been well documented (in my mind) that the White Sox would have never pulled shenanigan level antics like that, had I remained stateside. Fisk hit more than 55 % of his 376 Major league home runs with the White Sox. The rest came from the team where he hit this famous postseason home run. If you haven't seen it before you've never watched Good Will Hunting.
Fisk is now 4th most on the list of White Sox Home Runs. Fisks best 2 years for the White Sox, Homerun wise, were in 1985 when he hit 37, and in 1983 Fisks 26 homers helped win ugly. Wearing both colors of SOX, Fisk averaged 24 home runs for every 162 games he played. Carlton Fisk was inducted into Baseball's Hall of Fame in 2000.
I was staying up late working on my other blog, tweeting and watching the White Sox lose yet another extra inning game when I saw a tweet from a former pastor of mine regarding this piece at SI.COM. For whatever reason I felt compelled to link it here.
Maybe it's because my last post here was about the NCAA tournament. Maybe because I remember the 1983 NCAA Finals very well because I graduated high school this year. Maybe it's because Lorenzo Charles was 47 and I'll turn 47 in a few months. Not sure exactly why I am sharing it here. But, like my pastor tweeted, it's a great article by a great sports writer. This is also a golden basketball moment . . .
My thoughts, condolences and prayers go out toLorenzo's friends and family.
Hopefully I'll post here again before another former pastor tweets about some sports moment. I was waiting to post until the Sox got rolling again. As Dr. Phil would ask "How is that working?"
