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Dewayne Wise's first stint with the Sox in 2008 was a forgettable cup of coffee. He went hitless in six plate appearances, and when the Sox outrighted him to Charlotte, he had no takers.
When he returned to the Sox, he exploded for a .412/.432/.706 line over his first 12 games (and nine starts) back. Although he regressed to his fringe-player status throughout the rest of the season, his skills had proven compelling enough to hang around the rest of the season, and get a good chunk of playing time down the stretch to boot.
Evidently, Wise is great at rejoining the Sox. He drove in four runs against his former team (thrice over) on Wednesday night, which gives him five hits and six RBI in his three starts with Chicago.
He could have come back to the Blue Jays yet again, because they wanted him for a fourth time:
"I was thinking, ‘Not Toronto again,’" said Wise, who broke in with the Jays in 2000 and played 20 games with Toronto last season. "I like Toronto, but I had some good memories playing in Chicago and was hoping they’d call."
They did, and it appears Wise will be along for another tense pennant race. Nothing against Wise, but here's hoping he spends most of the next month and a half on the bench. If he's starting, that means the Sox have another Carlos Quentin situation on their hands. Going Paul Konerko-less for a week is plenty.
Terrerobytes
Melissa Isaacson wrote an excellent column about Kenny Williams' return to prominence. She talks to Williams, as well as John Schuerholz and Brian Cashman, who says Williams is the leading candidate for Executive of the Year. An excerpt from Cashman:
"He took a chance on Dayan Viciedo. We liked him, but we didn't like him as much as the White Sox did. We thought he was really a first baseman and DH and they have him slimmed down and playing outfield, and he has 17 home runs to show for it. They did the same thing with Alexei Ramirez. They liked him a lot more than we liked him and that type of move has worked out for Kenny. He has taken what appeared to be small moves and over time has made them bigger ones."
- Reinsdorf on Harrelson’s style: If up to me, there wouldn’t be homers in booth | The Sherman Report
- Talking Baseball: Jerry Reinsdorf - ESPN 1000
Ed Sherman points to an interview on ESPN Radio with Jerry Reinsdorf, and the Chairman talks about his reluctant realization that Chicago fans like homer broadcasters:
We hired Don Drysdale and Ken Harrelson in 1982. We said, ‘We don’t want homerism. We want you to play this right down the middle, a network-quality broadcast.’
Our fans absolutely hated that. Chicago fans want their announcers to root for their teams.
I unleashed them. I said, ‘Go ahead and root.’
If it were up to me, there wouldn’t be homerism. It’s not up to me. It’s up to the fans and they get what they want.
You might remember the Harrelson quote that 67WMAQ relayed in his FanPost about the ouster of Harry Caray and Jimmy Piersall, "Don and I are, more or less, strictly baseball. If you're gonna be funny in the broadcast, it means you're team is doing horse----."
Another highlight of the interview: Reinsdorf momentarily forgetting the name of Joe West, and describing him as "the little short, fat umpire." It's a pretty good listen all the way through.
For the journalism dorks here, Brett talks about a few devices (and the articles containing them) that got stuck in his craw recently.
Brian Bruney appeared in one game this year. His name is the one that keeps dropping out of mind when thinking of all the guys who have rotated in and out of the bullpen.
- Felix Hernandez, Perfect Game Make Acquaintances - Lookout Landing
- King Gets His Crown: Felix Hernandez Throws Perfect Game - Baseball Nation
It's euphoria over at Lookout Landing, and why not? And the photo on the Baseball Nation story is just the best.
- Seeing an Edge, Then Falling Off the Cliff - NYTimes.com
- Today's Lesson: Players Lie - Baseball Nation
Hernandez's perfect game overshadowed the news that Melky Cabrera was suspended for 50 games after testing positive for testosterone. Both these stories show how difficult it is to consider and report on PED usage. The second story is fascinating, because a reporter actually asked Cabrera about the rumors a month ago. Cabrera denied it, and the reporter apologized for perpetuating the rumor. Which turned out to be fact. Man.
Anyway, I'd meant to post this postgame interview footage with A.J. Pierzynski from Sunday. There's some interesting stuff about catching Chris Sale and going first-to-third on groundouts.