posted on Tuesday, July 22, 2008 1:30 AM
by
Jim
Tipping a hat to The Dean
Hate to start this one out on a sad note, but
there's no way around it:
Jerome Holtzman, who went from copy boy to Hall of Famer in a
distinguished career as a Chicago sportswriter, died Saturday after a
long illness. He was 81 and was affectionately known to colleagues as
"the Dean," a term reflecting his stature as a baseball-writing "lifer"
and his numerous accomplishments over four decades.
Like millions of other people, I grew up reading Holtzman in the paper -- Tribune during my time, Sun-Times before that. At the risk of smearing his reputation, he was probably the greatest influence on me, not just as a writer, but as a baseball thinker. I never recalled him overreacting in print -- at least in the last five to 10 years of his career -- and change never seemed to faze him. Instead of leaning on his wealth of experience to show how much better baseball used to be, he tied it to current events to illustrate that the game and its players hadn't changed as much as people thought.
In his final years as a reporter, Skip Bayless joined the Tribune, and he helped me appreciate Holtzman even more.
Anyway, the Trib has a lot of good stuff
here and
here. The Sun-Times only has
an obit right now. But perhaps
this post by former Sporting News columnist Dave Kindred was the most enlightening:
I worked alongside Lewis Grizzard for a few years. We talked about his
brief, sad sojourn as sports editor of the Chi Sun-Times and nominally
Jerome's boss. "I called him back from Arizona spring training to read
him the riot act about cliches in his copy," Lewis said. "He asked me
to name the cliches, and I did. Then he rose, lifted his chest, and
said, 'Those are MY cliches. I invented them.'" After which Lewis did
the right thing. He sent Jerome back to Arizona.
**********************
Mark Buehrle will
pitch on short rest tonight, then head to Missouri for his grandfather's funeral. Clayton Richard will make his big-league debut Wednesday. He joined the 40-man roster, taking the place of Andrew Sisco, who was played on the 60-day disabled list. You remember him, right?
It'll be interesting to see how this turns out. The Rangers don't hit lefties nearly as well as they hit righties -- though somebody should tell that to Boone Logan -- so it makes sense for Buehrle to give it a shot. This is hopefully what those skipped starts in spring training and the first month of the season were for.
I'd gladly take the results from
the last time he went on three days' rest: seven innings of two-run ball in a win over the Red Sox Aug. 15, 2004.
Meanwhile, old friend Freddy Garcia is hoping to pitch sometime this season -- and
he isn't happy with Ozzie Guillen's assessment:
In fact, Greenberg said, Garcia began throwing off a mound in June, and
the agent indicated that while Garcia is a friend to Guillen, he was
"very, very upset" with the manager's comments. Garcia's velocity,
which was 85-87 mph earlier this month, was at 82-84 mph recently, and
Garcia wanted to have some more bullpen sessions to build up his arm
strength.
**********************
Minor league roundup:- Charlotte 6, Indianapolis 3 (10 innings)
- Danny Richar and Cole Armstrong both hit late-inning two-run homers.
- Jason Bourgeois went 4-for-6 with two runs scored, an RBI and two stolen bases.
- Josh Fields went 1-for-4 with a walk and stole his fifth base.
- Tomo Ohka threw three scoreless innings in relief of Carlos Torres.
- Jason Childers closed it out by striking out three over two shutout frames.
- Winston-Salem 7, Salem 6 (10 innings)
- Francisco Hernandez hit a three-run homer.
- Estee Harris had three hits; Freddie Thon and Paulo Orlando had two.
- Anthony Carter was batted around for 11 hits and four runs over 5 1/3 innings.
- Michael Dubee pitched two scoreless innings in relief.
- Henry Mabee gave up two runs in the 10th inning, but still picked up the win.
- Kannapolis 7, Savannah 2
- Levi Maxwell struck out seven over six innings, allowing two runs.
- Charlis Burdie threw two perfect innings of relief; Leroy Hunt pitched a scoreless ninth.
- Mark Fleisher had two hits, including his 10th homer of the year.
- Eduardo Escobar, Jim Gallagher and Christian Marrero joined him with multi-hit games.
- Kingsport 7, Bristol 2
- Jordan Kendall and Jose Vargas had two hits apiece.
- Joucer Martinez suffered his first loss, allowing four runs over two innings.
- Dan Remenowsky pitched two scoreless innings in relief.
- Great Falls 5, Orem 1
- Tyler Kuhn went 2-for-4 with two doubles and two RBI.
- Kent Gerst had two singles, stole his sixth base and scored two runs.
- Kyle Shelton went 3-for-4 with two stolen bases.
- Dexter Carter allowed one run over five innings for the win.