Advocates celebrate Polish Heritage Night with the White Sox Tuesday

Limited vacation coverage continues on FWIW....

If you don't want to do another installation dinner (see item below), the Advocates Society is participating in the White Sox Polish Heritage Night at Guaranteed Rate Field. Here's the flyer for that one:

More information available at the Advocates events page.

My beloved, but very inconsistent, White Sox need all the support they can get.

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.

Ron Blomberg headlines virtual Jewish sports program on May 25

Ron Blomberg hit only five home runs in just 61 games with the 1978 Chicago White Sox, but one of these came on Opening Day, when it was hoped (by White Sox fans and underfunded owner Bill Veeck alike) that Blomberg would make us all forget about the departed Richie Zisk. I remember the home run in particular because I'd just made some wiseacre remark about Blomberg to Phil Zukowsky when the ball was struck -- seemingly right at me. And, no, I didn't come up with the ball.

Baseball-Almanac.com says Steve Stone started that game for the White Sox, going seven innings, but not figuring in the decision. I didn't remember that.

Anyway, the Decalogue Society and the Jewish Judges Association of Illinois is bringing in Ron Blomberg (baseball's first DH, whose success with the Yankees prompted Veeck to anoint him as the 1978 Rent-A-Player) for a virtual program on Tuesday, May 25, at 7:00 p.m. Also on the program are Appellate Court Justice Robert E. Gordon and Greg Harris, the creator of the 24" x 36" iconic artwork, "Jews in Baseball," liberally sampled above.

Everyone attending the Zoom presentation will receive a $150 discount certificate to buy the artwork.

Door prizes with a gauranteed value of $25 will be given to all attendees -- 40 copies of Ron Blomberg's latest book -- and framed pictures of players for everyone else.

Tickets for the event are $10 each. To register, visit the Decalogue site or click here.

Congratulations to Tony La Russa, Esq. on his enshrinement in the Hall of Fame

Phil Zukowsky and I were the editors of the Loyola Law School newspaper, Blackacre, in 1979-80. We knew that the then-White Sox manager had taken the Florida Bar Exam, and we'd heard that the results were in, and we were putting the current edition of paper together. Somehow -- and I can't remember how -- we managed to get a call into the Florida Board of Bar Examiners. In those long-ago days that involved getting a long distance line from the Loyola operator and there may have been some begging involved.

However we got the call made, when we got through we found out that, indeed, Mr. La Russa had passed the bar. Passing the bar was very much on our minds in those days. We presumably ran a small item.

Hey, you have to grab onto greatness when you can.

Little did we know then -- little could we know -- how great La Russa would turn out to be. Tito Landrum wasn't yet a phrase that could make strong men (well, strong men who were also White Sox fans) weep. Mr. La Russa's three world titles could not have been imagined then either. Nor could we have imagined his enshrinement in Cooperstown.

A number of commissioners were lawyers -- Fay Vincent, Bowie Kuhn, Happy Chandler -- Kenesaw Mountain Landis was a federal judge in Chicago when he became the first Commissioner of Major League Baseball. All except Vincent are in the Hall of Fame. But, surely, La Russa is the first lawyer-manager to enter Baseball's Valhalla.

Hey, you have to grab onto greatness when you can. Especially when you can make a blog post out of it.

Woman sues N.J. Little Leaguer for errant throw

While the AP story (on the USA Today website) doesn't say whether Elizabeth Lloyd was at a New Jersey park in May 2010 to watch a Manchester Township Little League game, Nicholas Huba's story in the Asbury Park Press says that Lloyd, who recently sued young Matthew Migliaccio, was there to watch her son play.

Ms. Lloyd was apparently seated at picnic table adjacent to a fenced-in bullpen area where 11-year old Migliaccio was warming up a pitcher. That's young Mr. Migliaccio in the accompanying photo, sitting on the bench where he says Ms. Lloyd was sitting when he uncorked a wild throw. Instead of hitting the pitcher's glove, Migliaccio's ball sailed 10 feet over the other kid's head, hitting Ms. Lloyd in the face.

Huba writes that the table was five feet away from the bullpen, down the third base line; the caption to the photograph (which is taken from Huba's article) puts the bullpen behind Migliaccio in the photograph. (None of the articles I reviewed address the height of the fence separating the bullpen and the spectator area at the time of the incident. It would be interesting to know, for example, whether that ad sign was in place when all this happened.)

In an article posted June 26, the Newark Star-Ledger quotes Migliaccio in an interview with Good Morning America as saying, "I went over to see if she was okay, and she said that she was fine and not to worry about it." But Huba's account for APP.com says Lloyd "was taken to a hospital emergency room after the May 2010 incident – [she] had to undergo reconstructive surgery and suffers from headaches." Lloyd is alleging "multiple fractures," Huba writes.

And Lloyd is alleging that Migliaccio hit her intentionally, according to Huba. Huba quotes Riaz A. Mian, Lloyd's attorney, as charging Migliaccio threw "his best fast ball over the bullpen into the picnic area, striking my client in the face."

According to the linked AP account:

The lawsuit filed April 24 alleges Migliaccio's errant throw was intentional and reckless, "assaulted and battered" Lloyd and caused "severe, painful and permanent" injuries.

A second count alleges Migliaccio's actions were negligent and careless through "engaging in inappropriate physical and/or sporting activity" near Lloyd. She continues to suffer pain and anguish, incur medical expenses and has been unable to carry out her usual duties and activities, the lawsuit says.

And Lloyd's husband, in a third count, is suing for the loss of "services, society and consortium" of his wife.

At this distance, it's easy to be snarky: Can the mother of a Little Leaguer not know that it's a bad idea to sit anywhere near the area where catchers are warming pitchers? (It's also a good idea not to sit behind the first baseman when he tries to warm up the infield.) Can a typical 11-year old Little Leaguer really throw hard enough to break glass, much less someone's face?

But even assuming Ms. Lloyd really was seriously injured, why would she sue a little kid?

I don't pretend to know what the law may be in New Jersey, but -- in Illinois -- there may have been no one else to sue.

In Illinois, the Baseball Facility Act, 745 ILCS 38/1 et seq., and the Recreational Use of Land and Water Areas Act, 745 ILCS 65/1 et seq., would operate to severely limit Ms. Lloyd's choices about whom to sue.

And this isn't just a blogger speculating: Debbie Vaughn was hit by an 11-year old's errant warm-up throw in 2005 while watching her son's game at West Frankfort Park in downstate Franklin County -- and the Illinois Appellate Court found that these statutes barred her claims against the West Frankfort Recreation Association and its alleged agent, Jarrod Barton, the coach (and father) of the kid who uncorked the errant throw. Vaughn v. Barton, 402 Ill.App.3d 1135, 933 N.E.2d 355 (5th Dist. 2010). However, just because there may not be a statute (yet) immunizing kids from the consequences of making bad throws while warming up to play baseball doesn't mean it's a particularly good idea to try and sue a kid.

If you look at the news coverage swirling around the Migliaccio case, you'll note that the young man's father and the young man's attorney are both angry that Little League is not coming to the boy's defense. The important part of this, though, is that the Migliaccio family's homeowner's insurance will be providing a defense for this suit.

And bringing a motion to dismiss in rather short order, I expect.

New on Page Two: The Return of Palehose

Cartoonist Carl Skanberg dares to dream the impossible dream. Let's hope his dream becomes a nightmare for Cleveland and Detroit.

Cell-ular degeneration

Results of yesterday's doubleheader at the Cell:

1. Twinkies 20, White Sox 14
2. Twinkies 14, White Sox 0
3. Bears Training Camp opens July 27
   

We'll always have 2005... but it looks like it's all we'll have for a little while longer.