Fix this, Tony, quickly -- before you lose the clubhouse -- and what should be a very special season, too

Photo credit: Jordan Johnson - USA TODAY Sports

There's a lot of ground to cover this morning, but we have to start with baseball. Because the Sox game starts at noon today and we need to fix this ASAP.

It all started two nights ago, when Yermín Mercedes, the hero of a feel-good Disney movie which will surely go into production soon, turned a 15-4 rout of the Minnesota Twins into a 16-4 rout by clouting a home run in the top of the 9th inning. He hit it off a Twins utility man, Willans Astudillo, on the mound only because the Twins did not want to further tax their already beleaguered bullpen.

Astudillo's pitches were so slow that the official speed gun could not record all of them. The eephus pitch that Mercedes demolished clocked in at a stately Sunday drive pace of 47.1 mph.

It is an article of faith among baseball afficianados (and physicists too, for that matter) that the harder a ball is thrown, the further it can be hit. A softly thrown lob shouldn't get hit very far or very fast. But Mercedes hit the ball 429 feet, to the deepest part of Target Field. According to the official MLB statistics, the ball reached an exit velocity of 109.3 mph. By comparison, Nick Madrigal's first career homer, earlier that evening, achieved an exit velocity of 99.9 mph -- off a 90.6 mph J.A. Happ fastball. Danny Mendick's subsequent grandslam, hit off an 85 mph slider from Derek Law, had an exit velocity of 102.6 mph.

Mercedes' blow was immediately controversial. White Sox announcers Jason Benetti and Steve Stone chuckled that Mercedes would probably lose half his salary in "kangaroo court" for "swinging 3-0 on Astudillo." The Minnesota announcers were not chuckling; they were incensed.

So too -- strangely -- was White Sox Manager Tony La Russa.

OK, I get it: Mercedes swung despite being given a 'take' sign. And maybe, listening to La Russa, it wasn't just a sign, it was a shout, because he could see the killer gleam in Mercedes' eye. Something like that, anyway.

I thought -- I hoped -- that maybe La Russa was talking about "consequences" for Mercedes in an effort to spread a healing balm on troubled waters, forestalling any possible Minnesota retaliation against the most suprising star of this young season.

But, then, last night, retaliation came: Twins reliever Tyler Duffey threw behind Mercedes in the 7th inning, or threw at Mercedes' behind and missed. Either way, he was promptly ejected, as he should have been.

And, after the game, which the Sox ultimately lost, and looked bad in so doing, Hall of Fame Manager Tony La Russa said he did not have a problem with how the Twins handled the retaliation. Maybe, I'm guessing, because they did not throw at Mercedes' head.

Now I'm really worried about retaliation.

Not about the Sox throwing at a Twins player today. Or further nonsense from the Twins. I'm worried that the Sox clubhouse will retaliate against La Russa. I'm worried that they will start treating him like a crabby old man who tells the neighborhood kids to get off his lawn. If they haven't already done so, they will begin to ignore, and maybe even defy him. I'm worried that he will escalate from there. And what could and should be a glorious White Sox season may go swirling down the drain.

Admittedly, I am a lifelong Chicago sports fan. As such, I am always worried about everything. But this, it seems to me, is potentially very serious.

Now, if you've come with me this far, you may say, Jack, you're out of your lane again. There are no judges in this story. Not even any lawyers.

But, friends, Mr. La Russa is (was, anyway) a lawyer. When he was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2014, I wrote about how Phil Zukowsky and I covered the story of La Russa's passing the Florida bar exam for Loyola Law School's Blackacre back in 1979. La Russa was the "boy wonder" manager of the White Sox then. I was younger, too.

So, speaking lawyer-to-lawyer here, Tony, let me say you have to fix this. Fix this now. Start a peace circle. Sing Kumbaya. Hug it out. I offer my services as mediator, if it would help. Howard Ankin has probably offered his services, too. Actually, the line of willing mediators would probably go around Guaranteed Rate Field more than once.

Whatever you do, do something soon. Otherwise, you will not only wind up as the 'heavy' in Yermín Mercedes' Disney movie, you'll jeopardize this magical season.