Bob Nightengale said WAT??

Sunday morning was a bit of a blur for the old BeefLoaf. I was capping off a wonderful weekend in San Diego, as part of the #108ing / SoxMachine takeover. From what I recall of Saturday night post-game cocktails, I think Josh Nelson was pretty pleased with the minimalist version of this sort of gathering, as there was no large event planned in conjunction with the game and bar meet ups and we still got a very decent crowd of both the Chicago crew and the more local contingent (stretching from Arizona to Cali). Expect more of these lo-fi meet ups in the future.

Anywho, as Chorizy-E coaxed me to drink some coffee and get my order in for breakfast, twitter was ablaze with the latest column from USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, which you can read in it’s entirety HERE.

I usually don’t read national media about the White Sox, truth be told, I’m pretty careful as to what if any media about the White Sox I actually read. At this point, most outlets allow the teams to control what they are telling us anyways (either directly or indirectly) and the rest, well, sometimes it just isn’t that interesting, but I digress. This fine morning, I saw Jim Margalus had written something so I had to take a look and subsequently read the entire article.

There’s tons of wild assumptions in Bob’s article that don’t line up with the reality I have been living for the past 24 months, but there was a particular statement that stood out as so ridiculous I had to do a double take.

It Would Have Made No Difference…

When I read this shit, the accountant in me couldn’t believe what I was reading. Of course choosing anyone else would’ve made some difference. They are different people, with different styles of management, making different decisions. You know, the butterfly effect bullshit. Someone else in this seat had to make SOME difference.

I know, this is a piece directed from the owner, trying to tell the world that the GM’s choice would’ve been just as bad as his choice turned out, so my outrage was both directed at the absurdity of the claim on a micro level and also the idea that the owner is trying to tell you the fan what to think about this whole thing.

But what about on a macro level? Was Bob……..RIGHT?

Was Bob Nightengale……..RIGHT?

AJ Hinch’s managerial record when he is not managing the team of the best organization of the last decade (the Houston Astros) is 230-301 .433 winning percentage, that doesn’t exactly seem like he’s baseball Bill Belicheck. Also, this year’s team in Detroit has been basically as disappointing as our White Sox, although without the same expectations. I have bragged incessantly about betting the under on the Tigers Regular Season Win Total (Chorizy and I did a video to discuss our bets pre-season).

I’ve had this bet won for basically a month as the Tigers are currently 65-93. The White Sox much like the Tigers were betrayed by rosters that weren’t quite as deep as advertised, with injuries hurting them more than expected. It’s a similar story, really.

So as wild and crazy as much of the bullshit we read in the National Media about the White Sox is and no matter how hilariously slanted a story may be to protect CERTAIN PEOPLE. Sometimes the details are pretty much true at a macro level.

-BeefLoaf