Following up: Mark Buehrle regains ground in Hall of Fame voting

The White Sox posted their list of non-roster invitees to spring training this afternoon, but before I start hacking away at the annual “Who’s Who” post, let’s take this window to touch upon several stories we’d been following this month.

Mark Buehrle’s Hall of Fame case

The Baseball Writers Association of America did not pitch a shutout, as Scott Rolen cleared the 75-percent threshold by a baker’s dozen of tenths, which is the common way of saying 1.3 percent. He’ll join Veterans Committee selection Fred McGriff in a likeable two-man induction ceremony this summer.

Next year figures to have at least two more, as Todd Helton is on the doorstep at 72.2 percent, and Billy Wagner jumped up to 68.1 percent, even if I don’t understand the latter’s appeal at all.

Well down the list is Mark Buehrle, but he’s up from last year. He registered 10.8 percent, which is better than the public ballots tracked by Ryan Thibodaux’s crew (10.2 percent). That should give him some ground to remain in play after next year, which he’ll need since Adrian Beltre, Joe Mauer and Chase Utley will take up anywhere from one to three spots on a ballot.

PERTINENT: Mark Buehrle’s Hall of Fame plaque would have a story to tell

Guaranteed Rate Field’S VIEW BARS

If you had bigger ideas for Guaranteed Rate Field’s 500-level bars than what the White Sox reflected in the renderings, the Chicago Sun-Times’ David Struett says the Sox were right there with you.

Documents attained from the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority in a Sun-Times open records request showed that the White Sox had grander ambitions.

In that permit, issued by the city in November, the team said it planned to install a “premium seating skybox,” estimating the cost at $284,500. But the new renderings released by the team don’t show or mention the premium seating.

Internal planning documents also show the team had planned to build full-service bars that would have required extensive plumbing and electrical work. The bars would have featured large overhead “shrouds” to accent the bars.

An internal email from Nov. 14, 2022, shows the team decided to simplify the bars to meet its budget, four days before its building permit was issued by the city. The revised plan called for bars that are “self‐contained units with minimal requirements for plumbing and reduced requirements for electrical services.”

I wouldn’t blame the IFSA if it refused to indulge the concept of “premium seating” for the 500 level, because that shouldn’t be said, written or read with a straight face.

As for the rest of it, it appears as though the White Sox’s grand plans were scaled down into a half-assed simulacrum thereof in order to “meet the budget,” if you could ever imagine such a thing.

PERTINENT: Three AL Central ballparks getting makeovers

Jason Benetti, Steve Stone officially back

In better news, the White Sox’s broadcast pairing of Jason Benetti and Steve Stone had spent the entire winter without contracts, and while there was no specific reason to believe they wouldn’t return, White Sox fans are understandably conditioned to fear the worst.

Fear no longer: The White Sox announced multiyear continuations for both.

Any delay was probably due to Benetti’s burgeoning status as a national college football play-by-play voice, which might now require a more specific ideas of how many White Sox games he’ll miss due to other commitments.

With the biggest broadcast business taken care of, the White Sox can turn their attention to figuring out what they’re going to do after NBC Sports Chicago runs its course.

RIP, Gary Peters

In the annual tribute to White Sox players who died the year before, I noted in the section covering Joe Horlen’s passing that, since Juan Pizarro preceded Horlen in death the year before, that left Gary Peters as the last stalwart from those 1960s rotations left.

Sadly, that’s no longer the case. The White Sox announced that Peters died at the age of 85.

Peters will have a prominent spot in next year’s “in memoriam” post, where we’ll talk about that run of excellence in the 1960s, not to mention the fact that he was a good-enough hitter to do things like bat sixth and deliver a pinch-hit walk-off homer.

PERTINENT: In Memoriam: The White Sox’s other losses in 2022

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