Monday, July 25, 2016

Like Bart Conner on the pommel

Ok, ok, ok.... I may as well address this being that a) he's a member of the White Sox and b) I'm one of the first to have a binder of throw back uniforms.

I won't rehash the story. If you don't know how to Google (cuz Bing is for losers), then you will have to learn about the situation from Saturday. Let's address the facts that we know.

First - Sale was slated to start Saturday's game against the Tigers. On that day, the White Sox were running a promotion where the first 20,000 fans would receive a throwback jersey to the White Sox 1976 duds. When the game started, the Sox were wearing their Sunday 1983 throwbacks. The uniforms that were promoted were not worn. Sale was scratched from his start with the White Sox issuing a statement that his actions in the clubhouse were the reason he was replaced on the mound Saturday. These are the facts. Now for the mostly facts:

Sale destroyed the uniforms the Sox were supposed to wear on the field. The number destroyed is unknown, but enough that the team could not take the field all attired in a similar fashion. He took scissors or a knife to the uniforms. His statement was that the Sox were putting "PR and jersey sales" above winning. (I'll come back to this).

Was Sale's actions childish. Sure. I'll give you that one. He could have handled it in a better way. There isn't a player or a manager that hasn't thrown one tantrum or another and wished they could take their words and/or actions back. Except, maybe, Bobby Knight.

INCOMING!
Now, here's my opinion and what I think was Sale's issue. This is not the first time the White Sox have worn 1976 throwbacks. They did it about 11 months again against the Mariners.


A fun fact about the uniforms the Sox wore from 1976-1982: they are the only uniforms worn in MLB that were designed to be worn untucked. Yup. What you see is what they were always intended. Now, the version the Sox were scheduled to wear this past Saturday were the road version. The colors were flipped: navy top, white pants and the same white socks you see. At least, I believe the pants were going to be white - not 100% sure on this. But one big change was going to be the fit. GM Hahn (fire that dude) stated they thought the uniforms in 2015 were too baggy and had them tailored to fit better. People think these closer fit uniforms would be the issue. I'm not buying that 100%.


Here's Chris pitching in two throwback designs. These are actually the only throwbacks he has ever worn while pitching. Every other time since 2012, Sale's first year in the league, Chris has not been on the mound pitching in any throwback except the Sundays. And if you look, they are pretty tailored. That 1983 is not in a Manny Ramirez cut. They have also said Sale had an issue with the collar. I might agree with that, but I think the two images are missing the obvious difference.

Sale is a pajama pants guy.

I cannot confirm completely, but in all the images I have seen of the '76 throwbacks from 2015, everyone on the Sox went high cuffed. I would love to find an image of Sale sitting in the bullpen that day, but have yet to find it. I bet the uniforms coming up this past Saturday all has short pants. No option to wear your pants low. And I think that is the discomfort Sale was dealing with. Factor that with the Sox on a bad skid (3-7 in the last 10 and just 4 wins in the last 14 games) and his passion to win got the best of him.

One thing is clear - any of the other 29 teams in MLB would love to have Sale on the roster. Best left hander in the AL, and you can argue the best lefty in baseball right now with Kid K on the DL.

So that's my take. Topps didn't put any of the '76 uniforms from last year on cardboard (jerks), so who knows if this year's would have made it. Maybe as a Topps Now.

(off soap box)

Here's a card to make this a legit post.


From 2015 Update. Five quarters off ebay. I have a long way to go to collect this insert set, so if you have any, let's trade.

3 comments:

  1. Did you hear the running joke in the Cubs clubhouse once they heard about the incident? It went something like:
    "What did the White Sox do with the remaining jerseys that were not cut to pieces? They put them on Sale."

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  2. I get Sale's gripe but he needs to shut his mouth. With a little planning they could have probably got around the issue. He was being a tad bit of a diva.

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  3. Do you have a list of the throwbacks you are looking for? I have 239 Iglesias from the Update series if you need it.

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