Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

RON KANTOWSKI :

Cubs vs. Sox: Baseball takes a crack at Cashman

Baseball

Leila Navidi

Las Vegas Convention and Visitor Authority showgirl Tala McDonnough, from left, poses with Mayor Oscar Goodman, White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, City Councilman Gary Reese and showgirl Jennifer Gagliano before the White Sox vs. Cubs exhibition game at Cashman Field in Las Vegas Wednesday.

White Sox vs. Cubs in Las Vegas

Mayor Oscar Goodman reacts after he botches a pitch before the White Sox versus Cubs exhibition game at Cashman Field in Las Vegas Wednesday. Launch slideshow »

Alfonso Soriano drove John Danks' second pitch of the game on a long, looping arc toward right-center field, where it caught a blast of wind and kept going and going and going ... until it intersected with Jermaine Dye's glove a split second before he crashed into the wooden fence.

Bam!

Baseball was back ... with a thud.

It was the Cubs vs. the White Sox and it doesn't get any better than that at Cashman Field, which probably explains why every seat was filled on a raw and chilly Wednesday night better suited to a third Chicago team, the one known as da Bears.

The White Sox won 7-6, but that didn't matter to anybody except White Sox fans, because there is no such thing as a meaningless victory over the Cubs -- even if the winning hit comes off a guy wearing a jersey number such as 64 or 76.

I was reminded of that an hour and a half before the game when the first fan of the 2009 baseball season I encountered was sporting a gray T-shirt that said "Cubs Suck" on the back and "Cubs' Magic Number: 9-1-1" on the front.

White Sox fans are merciless.

Usually, they wait until Memorial Day before putting on their Sunday best.

After Dye nearly separated his shoulder running down Soriano's drive, Ryan Theriot, the Cubs' shortstop, bounced a single into left field.

"You can always tell how the season is going to go by the second batter of the first spring training game in Las Vegas," bellowed a leather-lunged Cubs fan seated a couple of rows behind the merciless White Sox fan.

Everybody laughed and took a draw on their beer and that's pretty much the way it went, at least for four or five innings, at which time managers Ozzie Guillen and Lou Piniella started putting guys with numbers such as 64 or 76 into the game.

This is what happens when you play baseball during pulled hamstring weather. When White Sox slugger Paul Konerko hit a laser over the left field wall in the home fifth, I thought Ozzie might send out a pinch runner for his big first baseman before he got to second base.

A half-inning later, a guy on the Cubs named Doug Deeds (wearing No. 66) hit a sacrifice fly off a guy on the White Sox named Ehren Wassermann, whose pitching motion sort of looked like a rusty gate falling off its hinges. At least he was wearing jersey No. 43.

It was then I had the thought of the night, regardless of what Ozzie Guillen might have been thinking, although I'm sure that was fascinating:

I wonder if all these people realize they spent a minimum of $25 to watch to a guy named Ehren Wassermann pitch to a guy named Doug Deeds?

It wasn't long before Aramis Ramirez, the Cubs' all-star third baseman, managed to leave the game without pulling his hamstring. He was replaced on the hot -- er, brisk -- corner by a guy named Luis Rivas, who might have looked like a major leaguer, were it not for his jersey, which he failed to tuck in. That made him look like an American Legion third baseman.

It wasn't long -- OK, it was sort of long -- until it was the seventh inning. One of the soon-to-be Iowa Cubs threw an eephus pitch warming up that registered 42 on the scoreboard radar gun and a lot of people, mistaking that for the temperature, began climbing the parking lot hill to thaw out in their cars.

My guess is that if the sun comes out today, when the Cubs and White Sox will play an afternoon game, most fans won't leave early, unless they stop serving beer after the seventh inning, in which case they might.

Oh yeah, one more thing: Although he has thrown out more first pitches than Roger Clemens, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman tossed one Wednesday night that was so feeble and traveled such a short distance that at first, I thought he must have dropped the ball instead of thrown it.

The mayor was wearing a tailored suit.

He should have been wearing No. 64 or 76.

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