Woeful White Sox Wrapping Historic Year
ALSO: HtP COLUMNIST PAUL SEMENDINGER DELIVERS ROUSING BOOK TALK
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Pregame Pepper
Did you know…
En route to a certain and perhaps unanimous MVP award, Shohei Ohtani went 6-for-6 with two doubles, three home runs, and TEN runs batted in as the Dodgers battered the hapless Marlins, 20-4, in Miami yesterday . . .
Also yesterday, the Braves became the first team to hit four three-run homers in one game during their 15-3 rout of the Reds at Cincinnati’s Great American Ballpark . . .
Each of the two Japanese-born pitchers on the Dodgers has his own interpreter but Yoshinobu Yamamoto uses Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter during mound meetings because he apparently has a better understanding of baseball lingo . . .
Speaking of meetings, future Hall of Famer Buster Posey not only sits on the six-man Giants board of directors but was instrumental in convincing slick-fielding third baseman Matt Chapman to stay in San Francisco . . .
Kudos to Giants rookie star Heliot Ramos for becoming the first right-handed batter to hit a ball into San Francisco Bay . . .
Yes, he’s still playing: at age 38, former slugging third baseman Pablo (Panda) Sandoval, out of the majors since 2021, made his first start as a pitcher for the Staten Island FerryHawks (Atlantic) and threw 5 1/2 scoreless innings (four hits, four strikeouts, one walk) . . .
Nobody remembers it but the 1973 Atlanta Braves had a final-week rainout that was not made up during Hank Aaron’s drive for 715 home runs. He had to worry all winter that some crackpot would prevent the Race With Ruth from resuming in ‘74
Leading Off
Inside the Numbers on the White Sox’ Historically Awful Season
By Paul Banks
The Chicago White Sox are currently 36-117, as we head into the final three series of the season. Unless they go 7-2 or better, they will tie the 1962 New York Mets for the most single-season losses in the modern era of baseball.
And with six of those nine games coming against teams with winning records, well, you know how this story ends.
When you're historically bad, like this, there is a whole lot of fun to be had with records, numbers and statistics.
Today, we will do just that.
Pitchers Who Rake
The Sox have a team slugging percentage of .340. Pitcher Zack Greinke had a career slugging pct. of .336, so there is still time for the Sox to fall back down below him.
We're Going Streaking!
The White Sox have three double-digit losing streaks this season, of 21, 14 and 12 games, respectively. If you were to magically subtract those three losing streaks from their record (47 games), the team would be 36-70. That would be "good" for a winning percentage of 34%, which, over the pace of a full 162 game season, STILL gives you a record of 55-107.
Sox vs Their Own Deadball Era Starters
While the Sox have 36 wins as a team this season, Hall of Famer "Big" Ed Walsh won 40 games all by himself in 1908. He also won 27 games in 1911 and 1912. Meanwhile Eddie Cicotte, the ace of the staff of the "Black Sox Scandal” team, won 29.
And, as you might have learned from the book and/or movie Eight Men Out, Cicotte could have easily won 30+ that season, as management intentionally benched him down the stretch of the season. Historians dispute the reason behind that benching.
Not the Flex You Think It Is
On Sunday, Sept. 8, Sox starting pitcher Chris Flexen threw six strong innings, allowing just two earned runs, striking out six and walking only one. While Flexen got a no-decision, the Sox won, 7-2.
That marked the first time that the team won a game Flexen had started since May 8. It also broke a streak of 20 consecutive starts by a single starting pitcher that his team had lost.
Bullpen Blowing It
The only real positive aspect of this season for the Pale Hose is this: they have been reasonably competitive much of the the time. Of their 117 losses, the Southsiders have held a lead in 55 of those games. And 22 times, they had a lead after the sixth inning.
Wake Me Up When September Ends
The Sox have five wins in September, along with 11 losses. The three "local" college football teams, Northwestern, Notre Dame and Illinois, have seven wins combined (Yes, we're counting Aug. 31, the opening day for college football, as "Sept" this month).
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
Cleaning Up
Paul Semendinger Delivers Terrific Book Talk
By Dan Schlossberg
I love him as a writer. And I wish I had him as a teacher.
I’m talking about Paul Semendinger, a former North Jersey teacher and principal who appeared at Fair Lawn Senior Center earlier this week to talk all things Yankees, deliver a power point presentation, and sell copies of The Least Among Them, about players whose 15 minutes of fame came in the single major-league game they played while wearing Yankees pinstripes.
A regular contributor to the weekend editions of Here’s The Pitch that I edit, Semendinger has also written other books, including a collaboration with former Yankee Roy White.
And he really knows his baseball, even mentioning during his talk that astronaut John Glenn was the wingman for Ted Williams when the Hall of Fame slugger flew wartime combat missions.
What was best about the presentation was not the author’s extensive knowledge of baseball but his obvious energy.
He ran back and forth, once grabbing a No. 9 Yankees jersey while wondering aloud why the team had not retired that number in honor of Hank Bauer and Graig Nettles, and later using a glove and pitching rubber to illustrate how he throws when he plays senior baseball.
Semendinger needed no microphone, though the room where he spoke routinely holds 30 people for exercise classes. He graciously answered questions from the mostly-female crowd, some of whom participate in those classes but many of whom were obvious fans of the Yankees.
He could have continued longer, as the audience was enjoying his humor-filled talk, but time constraints — including the chance to sell some of his books afterward — held his presentation to an hour. There were no pitch-clock violations.
The Least Among Them is a novel concept, since it’s not easy to find information on players whose cup of coffee in the major leagues was still warm when they left.
There was one player, a pitcher named Hal Stowe, whose career was confined to one game because the Yankees replaced his benefactor, Casey Stengel, with no-nonsense coach Ralph Houk. There was another who got into the box score when the regular center fielder (not Joe DiMaggio or Mickey Mantle) suddenly disappeared — as did his career as a Yankee after that day.
My favorite story concerned Elvio Jimenez, perhaps the only Elvio in baseball history. He could hit but couldn’t field and, in the days before the designated hitter, managed to find his way onto “Yankees rookie star” cards in both 1962 and 1969.
Semendinger, who comes from a family of teachers, must have been great in the classroom. He’s energetic, well-spoken, and a born ability to project his voice like a veteran actor (he ditched the mic the Senior Center had provided).
In short, he held my attention — which isn’t easy — and the normally-boisterous audience was patient and reserved.
They did buzz around his book table at the end, however, so he obviously did well in his sales pitch. Way to go, Paul.
Former AP newsman Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ covers baseball for forbes.com, Memories & Dreams, USA TODAY Sports Weekly, Sports Collectors Digest, and many other outlets. He’s also the author of Home Run King: the Remarkable Record of Hank Aaron and is on a book tour of his own. Email ballauthor@gmail.com for more information.
Timeless Trivia: Line-Drive Luis Lights Padres’ Fire
Every contending team needs a leadoff man who gets on base. Luis Arraez is that guy.
As the week began, he had gone 140 plate appearances without striking out — the longest such streak in 20 years . . .
That put him within reach of Juan Pierre, another singles hitter, for the longest streak of the 21st century (Pierre had 147 in 2024) . . .
Arraez last fanned on August 20 while recovering from a thumb injury . . .
The defensively-challenged Arraez, an infielder whose best position is batter, has turned the Padres from a good team to a great one . . .
Nicknamed Line-Drive Luis, Arraez has a good chance to win his third straight batting title — all with different teams — as he does his best Tony Gwynn imitation for San Diego . . .
Longest plate-appearance streaks without a strikeout (since start of Expansion Era in 1961):
• Dave Cash, 223 (1976 Phillies)
• Nellie Fox, 185 (1962 White Sox)
• Bill Buckner, 184 (1972 Dodgers)
• Greg Gross, 173 (1979-80 Phillies)
• Tony Gwynn, 170 (1995 Padres)
Know Your Editors
HERE’S THE PITCH is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [gopherben@gmail.com] handles Monday and Tuesday editions, Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] does Wednesday and Thursday, and Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com] edits the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HTP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.