Zorn: Into a dead week in sports came a bitter national debate about race and gender in sports

... and yes, now it's time to move on

6-6-2024 (issue No. 144)

This week:

• Last week’s winning tweet and winning dad-tweet

• Points and counterpoints on the Sky-related controversy

• News and Views — Hot takes, fully baked

• Land of Linkin’ — Where I tell readers where to go

• Squaring up the news — Where Charlie Meyerson tells readers where to go

• Yard waste and state law. Are Chicago garbage collectors in violation?

• Who’s on “The Mincing Rascals” podcast this week — Not me, for once!

• Quotables — A collection of compelling, sometimes appalling passages I’ve encountered lately

• Cocktail napkins for those of us of a certain age

• A birthday salute to the original publisher of the Picayune Sentinel

• Re:Tweets — The winning visual tweet and this week’s contest finalists

• Good Sports — Another update on the White Sox slide into perhaps historical oblivion

• Tune of the Week — “I’ve Been Looking” by Jesse Clegg, son of Johnny Clegg, nominated by cartoonist Scott Stantis.

Eric Zorn is a former opinion columnist for the Chicago Tribune. Find a longer bio and contact information here. This issue exceeds in size the maximum length for a standard email. To read the entire issue in your browser, click on the headline link above. Paid subscribers receive each Picayune Plus in their email inbox each Tuesday, are part of our civil and productive commenting community and enjoy the sublime satisfaction of supporting this enterprise.

Last week’s winning tweet

I was on a sofa next to my wife who was eating a snack and typing on her phone. I heard my phone ping in the kitchen where it was charging, so I went to check for messages. The text was from my wife. She’d written, "Bring me a drink on your way back.” — @dadgivesjokes

The winner of the occasional bonus “dad tweets” poll was:

Elevators frighten me. I take steps to avoid them.

Here are this week’s nominees and the winner of the Tuesday visual-tweets poll. Here is the direct link to the new poll.

Points and counterpoints on the Chennedy Carter/Caitlin Clark controversy

I have no idea what the most popular view is on the story of the week in sports — Chicago Sky guard Chennedy Carter’s gratuitous, full-body shove that drove Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark to the floor while the ball was out of bounds near the end of the third quarter during Saturday’s nationally televised WNBA game.

Response was largely positive to my posting in the Picayune Plus on Tuesday in which I said I was discouraged and disappointed not so much by how Carter blindsided Clark while calling her a bitch — hey, tempers flare; people lose their cool in the heat of games — but by the subsequent response by Carter and the Sky organization. But my readers tend to be older and, while politically liberal, also somewhat old school.

A Tribune editorial on the incident — “Caitlin Clark’s main ‘privilege’ is one of talent. She must not be allowed to become a target for rule-breakers” — was roasted on Twitter including a tweet from the paper’s own Sky beat writer.

Here are some lightly edited excerpts from a few letters/comments to me that took issue with my commentary.

Alexander Atkins — If one hard foul on one player is enough to sour you on your hometown team I have to wonder if you’re simply a Caitlin Clark fan. There are hard fouls in the WNBA, I’ve never seen you speak on them before. Why the concern now? Carter didn’t swing at Clark. Her play wasn’t even as bad as what Draymond Green of the NBA Golden State Warriors has done on different occasions, and I missed your columns on him. The dead-ball foul wasn’t in the normal course of play, but if you watch enough basketball it’s not that abnormal: Frustration boils over and someone body checks someone else. The referees didn’t even toss Carter from the game, so they didn't think it was that bad. But the (non-sports) media knows better?

This really just exposes who does, and who does not watch sports/basketball on a regular basis. Rookies get tossed around in every sports league. Clark will get over it, you should too. If this incident will sour you on the Sky, you were going to be put off by them eventually anyway. Carter and the other WNBA players are not shareholders, they are competitors, so mentioning “the Caitlin Clark effect” that’s boosted ticket sales and league revenue is irrelevant to them, especially because it comes with weird scrutiny like this. Why should the Sky go out of its way for an opposing player’s comfort? Your expectations of the players and organizations belie what actually happens in most other sports leagues, especially the NBA.

Dahleen Glanton — C’mon Eric. No one said a word when Alyssa Thomas grabbed Reese by the neck and threw her down, then was ejected from the game a couple weeks ago. But Caitlin Clark gets hit and everyone is outraged. I’m a new ticket holder this season and I’ve been surprised at what I’ve seen. Clark is no saint — she already has three technicals this season for cursing at the ref and almost starting a physical altercation on the court. She hit Carter in the face hard during an earlier play, and that wasn’t called. It’s all part of the game. Relax and let us enjoy the sport.

William Watts — You missed Clark’s earlier elbow to Carter’s face, and you didn’t mention that she was clearly flopping when Carter bumped her. Clark wasn’t hurt in any way. Fouls like that happen a lot in the NBA, and many are not called because people bump right back instead of flop. In 2021, Nikola Jokić took Markieff Morris of the Miami Heat out for months with a blindside hit off the ball. In March, DeMar DeRozan of the Bulls crashed into Jalen Green of the Houston Rockets because he was upset about a noncall. A newbie casual like you thinks a hard foul is an assault. It was one play, move on.

Let me take on these and other frequently made arguments in defense of Carter or in an attempt to minimize the incident.

It was just a hard foul, and hard fouls are a fact of life in professional and, increasingly, college hoops

The key difference is between hard, even flagrant fouls in the course of play and dead-ball fouls committed with only retribution in mind, and no obvious basketball purpose.

The former is inevitable as players in the heat of a game become way too aggressive going for the ball or for position, and I’d agree with anyone who says those who regularly commit such fouls ought to suffer escalating penalties to reduce the number of incidents, prevent injuries and preserve what’s left of the integrity of the rules.

In the example above, Alyssa Thomas was ejected from the game and her team hit with a flagrant 2 foul. Bulls fans will remember that Milwaukee Bucks goon Grayson Allen was ejected, given a flagrant 2 and a suspension when he all but threw Bulls guard Alex Caruso to the ground in early 2022 and broke Caruso’s wrist attempting to block a layup.

Jokić was ejected, fined and suspended for his hit on Morris; DeRozan was ejected and fined, in part for the fisticuffs that followed his hard foul.

Excessive dead-ball fouls are preventable if the NBA, WNBA or any other sports league lowers its tolerance and refuses to let their sports start to resemble hockey, where hand-to-hand combat after the whistle is almost encouraged.

Caitlin Clark does not deserve special treatment

This is absolutely true, though I’m not sure of the relevance to this dispute.

Opponents will and should focus their defensive efforts on her, and referees should not and have not tolerated her unsporting behavior — her three technical fouls so far were leading the league last I checked. She is the main reason why there is such increased interest in women’s hoops this year — WNBA ticket sales are up a reported 93% this season — and the reason Saturday’s game was nationally televised.

Other players may be envious of the attention and endorsement money she’s getting and suspect that she’s benefiting unduly for being white and straight. But while those sentiments may be animating the current conversation, they have no place on the court, where the only color that should matter is not green, Black or white, but the color of the jersey.

Critics are holding Carter, the Sky and women’s basketball to a double standard

It’s hard to say whether a similar national conversation/argument would have broken out if a white player had gratuitously shoved a Black NBA superstar to the floor with the ball not in play, been allowed to stay in the game and then refused to talk about it in the postgame news conference. There’s long been plenty of hand-wringing and finger-wagging about dirty play and cheap shots in the NBA, but I’ll stipulate that the reaction and the reactions to the reaction here have been particularly strong.

One reason is that a lot of new fans are just getting to know and taking the measure of the WNBA. It’s important not only that they like the style and pace of the games — different than the high-flying NBA — but that they like and even admire the players on their favorite teams. Every pro sports franchise knows this. That’s why players do interviews and otherwise burnish their images — to make themselves more than just skilled athletes, but personalities whom fans want to identify with.

This is a pivotal, first-impressions year for the WNBA. Therefore, relatively minor incidents like this one — Clark herself basically brushed it off — become magnified.

Clark is no angel

True enough. She’s known for trash talking, and this video clip is making the rounds and shows Clark during a college game against Purdue University Fort Wayne shoving an opposing player to the floor for no obvious reason:

Extended video from Saturday’s game shows Clark swinging an elbow and hitting Carter as players scrapped for a rebound on the play just before Carter shoved her.

Fans will debate forever whether she flopped after Carter shoved her, but the blow was no mere tap.

It’s unfair and racist to characterize Carter’s blindside body check on Clark as an ‘assault.’

Such a characterization is certainly inaccurate. Coming up behind someone and deliberately knocking them to the floor in anger — just about anywhere, for any reason — is battery, not an assault.

Assault refers to the wrong act of causing someone to reasonably fear imminent harm. This means that the fear must be something a reasonable person would foresee as threatening to them. Battery refers to the actual wrong act of physically harming someone. (Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute)

Excuse my pedantry.

But in the context of sports, the law has always allowed a lot more room for aggressive contact that violates the rules. The legal theory is that players consent to a certain amount of extracurricular violence — if that’s not too strong a word — when they take to the field or the floor. There are a few exceptions:

In 2000, when Boston Bruins "enforcer" Marty McSorley viciously clubbed an opposing player in a National Hockey League game. With less than three seconds remaining, and the Bruins losing, 5-2, McSorley skated up from behind, reached back, and swung his stick like a baseball bat at the opponent's skull. The blind-sided opponent fell back from the two-handed blow, hit his head on the ice, suffered a concussion, and was carried off unconscious on a stretcher, with his neck in a brace and blood flowing from his nose. A Canadian court properly convicted McSorley of assault, and he was sentenced to probation. (MomsTeam)

In 2004, a game between the Detroit Pistons and Indiana Pacers led to a historic brawl involving players and fans. Five Pacers players were charged with misdemeanor assault, which resulted in pleas of no contest and sentences of probation and community service. (NBC News)

Also in 2004, Todd Bertuzzi of the Vancouver Canucks pleaded guilty to assault for sucker punching Colorado Avalanche center Steve Moore and driving his head into the ice.

But in no way did Carter shoving Clark to the floor come close to the line established in these and similar cases where criminal and legal sanctions have been imposed. The Tribune’s editorial observation, which I quoted, was “outside of a sporting contest, it would have been seen as an assault,” italics mine. Which is true of every hockey fight, ever baseball scrum, every out of bounds hit in football … I won’t go on.

It’s asking too much of Carter to suggest she express regret

I’ve heard no one demand that Carter offer an abject, humble apology for losing her cool. But most pros know that a few easy banalities at post-game news conferences along the lines of “heat of the moment, I meant no harm, we’re both intense competitors, it’s nothing personal” go a long way toward minimizing distracting controversies.

Instead, she said “next question” when asked about the altercation, added, “I ain’t answering no Caitlin Clark questions” and went on to throw shade at Clark on social media. Two days later, she said she had “no regrets” about what had transpired.

Carter was asked Monday if she felt her foul had crossed a line in any way.

“There is no line,” Carter said. “I’m competing. If you’re going to throw punches first, I’m going to compete. It’s all love. It’s basketball. This happens in the NBA.” (Sun-Times)

No regrets? There is no line? Committed fans eat that up. Carter received a strong ovation from the hometown crowd when she entered Tuesday night’s game at Wintrust Arena. But casual, curious fans who are checking out the WNBA this year to see what all the hype is about are likely to be turned off. I’ve certainly heard from many of them this week.

Only sportswriters or fans deeply steeped in basketball and the WNBA are qualified to have an opinion here

Nonsense. It takes dedicated fans to argue intelligently about, say, the balk rule in baseball or the permissible level of hand-checking in basketball, but this situation is fairly straightforward and plays into general social expectations about provocation, mild violence, apologies and consequences. Add racial and gender politics into the mix, stir in a heaping cup of whataboutism and you have a recipe for a recriminatory controversy in which experienced and inexperienced observers weighed in.

It was a moment that called for damage control, and the Sky, top to bottom, failed to meet it. The result has been a bitter, recriminatory debate over issues that many fans use sports to escape from.

This was no big deal, move on

It was a big deal only in that it provoked an extended angry national conversation about gender, race and privilege in sports — a conversation we could all, in our ways, get our minds around no matter how familiar we are with basketball customs and lore. And it happened during a week when very little else of interest was going on in sports.

We’re already moving on, but how quickly we move on will depend on the coaches and players, not the critics and defenders.

News & Views

News: “The Sunrise Movement, a national organization of young progressives that helped President Biden shape his 2020 climate agenda, is withholding its endorsement of him in 2024” because its members are not fully satisfied with his environmental record or his role in the Israel-Hamas conflict.

View: I sigh in despair at the insufferable stupidity of the purity police on the left. One of two elderly men is going to be elected president in November. Biden will not and has not perfectly served your agenda. Trump will be an unmitigated fucking disaster for it. Sitting on the sidelines and pouting should not be an option. Wake up. Understand the stakes on these and other issues.

News: Donald Trump declares that Russian President Vladimir Putin will release imprisoned Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich if and only if Trump is elected in November.

View: Trump’s now open about colluding with Russia. Listen to his words:

The reporter for The Wall Street Journal will be released almost immediately after the election but definitely before I assume office. He will be home. He will be safe. Vladimir Putin, president of Russia, will do that for me. And I don’t believe he’ll do it for anyone else.

At best, this is a form of blackmail. At worst, it makes Trump complicit in Gershkovich’s continued captivity and, in effect, a party to his continued unjust imprisonment.

News: “A Democratic-led effort to advance legislation protecting access to contraception fell short in the Senate on Wednesday” because only two Republican Senators supported it.

View: I tremble at the transparent agenda of the Trump-besotted social conservatives in the Republican Party.

Land of Linkin’

• ProPublica/Capital News Illinois: “‘No Schoolers’: How Illinois’ hands-off approach to homeschooling leaves children at risk.” “Under Illinois law, parents may homeschool even if they would be disqualified from working with youth in any other setting; this includes parents with violent criminal records or pending child abuse investigations, or those found to have abused children in the past.”

• I was today years old when I first learned the term “photoaging” to describe the way exposure to the sun causes wrinkling and other effects that can make one look older. It appears in “Here comes the sun(screen): Nuances in effectiveness, safety, and more” in the Your Local Epidemiologist. “Here’s what we know about sunscreen, what we don’t know, and what it may (or may not) mean to you.”

• The Allstate Mayhem Insurance Guy: What Happened to Him? (Way.com) “The character had been missing since the middle of 2020. But now (he’s) returned to Allstate’s advertising.”

• Marketplace answers the question, “Why doesn’t cereal come in resealable bags?” In a nut’s outer covering: “The amount it would cost to manufacture cereal in a resealable bag vs. a conventional bag in a box might cost around 5% to 15% more depending on the vendor and the equipment.”

• In this article about a management shakeup at the Washington Post, we learn that the paper lost $77 million last year.

Squaring up the news

This is a bonus supplement to the Land of Linkin’ from veteran radio, internet and newspaper journalist Charlie Meyerson. Each week, he offers a selection of intriguing links from his daily email news briefing Chicago Public Square:

■ Popular Information: “All the arguments against Trump’s convictions, debunked.”

■ If you prefer a visual approach to the same subject, cartoonist Tom Tomorrow surveys “Trump Felony Conviction Talking Points from the GOP.”

■ “Michigan Avenue … is now a depressing mess.” Longtime Chicago journalist Carol Felsenthal has had it: “Sidewalks are stained with what looks like old vomit, and spit-out chewing gum leaves behind black spots. Pigeons poop on sidewalks and heads. Graffiti sticks around, inviting more graffiti.”

■ ‘If He Wins.’ That’s Time magazine’s cover story: An in-depth interview with President Biden. It’s accompanied by transcripts and fact-checking.

■ How Millennium Park happened. Chicago magazine assembled key players to reconstruct “a drama-filled inside account” of the creation of “one of America’s great urban parks,” which debuted 20 years ago next month.

You can (and should) subscribe to Chicago Public Square free here.

Yard waste and state law. Are Chicago garbage collectors in violation?

I recently posted an item about seeing Chicago sanitation workers throwing those big paper yard waste bags into the maw of their trucks along with household garbage, meaning that the well-meaning composting efforts of many city residents is for naught unless they call 311 to arrange for special pickup.

Several alert readers then linked me to Section 5/22.22 of the Illinois Compiled Statutes that deals with “landscape waste.” It begins:

No person may knowingly mix landscape waste that is intended for collection or for disposal at a landfill with any other municipal waste.

I asked Chicago Streets and Sanitation Department spokeswoman Mimi Simon about this. Her response:

The Department of Street and Sanitation picks up yard waste year-round as per City policy to keep yard waste separate from the general waste stream. Residents are encouraged to call 311 and Ward Superintendents pick up as requested. Ward Superintendents are also reminded daily to address the yard waste pick-up requests.

Here is a sample of the daily email to City Ward Superintendents.

Good morning all,

Complete and close out the open Yard Waste request in 311 for your grid. Use a pickup truck if you can. There is a designated box in each grid for yard waste. All yard waste pickups should be dropped in the designated box at the grid location, no Ward Supt should be taking yard waste to the dump. Use the yard waste truck if you have one.

Minced Words

Guest host Jon Hansen welcomes Cate Plys, Austin Berg, Brandon Pope and Marj Halperin to the panel for this week’s episode of “The Mincing Rascals” podcast. Topics include preparation for the upcoming Democratic National Convention, the Chicago Sky controversy and the Plow the Sidewalks pilot program. Subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts. Or bookmark this page. If you’re not a podcast listener, you can hear an edited version of the show at 8 p.m. most Saturday evenings on WGN-AM 720.

Quotables

A collection of compelling, sometimes appalling passages I’ve encountered lately

Couldn’t even try on my new Trump sneakers because they will not admit da feet. — @RickAaron

If you believe in states' rights, except when a jury in that state convicts your nominee for president, you might be in a cult. If you claim you back the blue but want to defund the police when the police go to your nominee's house to retrieve national security secrets, you might be in a cult. If you're supporting a guy whose felony convictions prevent him from getting a security clearance, you might be in a cult. And if the guy you're supporting for president has felony convictions that prevent him from going to Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Kenya, Macau, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, New Zealand, Peru, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, and the U.K., you might be in a cult. — U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-California

Some of our colleagues in the United States House of Representatives seem to want to drag your name through the mud. They're treating you, Dr. Fauci, like a convicted felon. Actually, you probably wish they were treating you like a convicted felon since they treat convicted felons with love and admiration. — U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Maryland

Hi I'm from the Party of Small Government. Here is a list of books to take out of your library and of medications we're banning. — @MichaelTrying

The folks against any background checks for purchasing guns are celebrating Hunter Biden sitting in court this week for inaccurately filling out a background check for purchasing a gun. — Betty Bowers

(Republicans) have nominated a convicted felon, now, who can't own a gun, would lose a security clearance if he was in the military, and would be discharged from the military right now. I'm sorry that you nominated this guy as your frontrunner. But it doesn't mean you now have permission to stand in front of the American people and lie to them. — former Illinois Republican U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger

I think President Biden is the worst president in the history of this country — U.S House Speaker Mike Johnson

(Kamala) Harris is — by far — the most unqualified, uninformed, and incompetent vice president in history. — U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas

Of course (Manhattan’s Democratic District Attorney Alvin Bragg) should be — and will be — jailed. … Investigations (will) include (Democrats') media allies. — former top Trump adviser Steve Bannon in an interview with Axios

I WILL APPOINT A REAL SPECIAL “PROSECUTOR” TO GO AFTER THE MOST CORRUPT PRESIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE USA, JOE BIDEN, THE ENTIRE BIDEN CRIME FAMILY, & ALL OTHERS INVOLVED WITH THE DESTRUCTION OF OUR ELECTIONS, BORDERS, & COUNTRY ITSELF! — Donald Trump on Truth Social

Cocktail napkins for those of us of a certain age

This is really a thing!

A birthday salute to the original publisher of the Picayune Sentinel

My grandfather, Max A, Zorn, was born 118 years ago Thursday, on 6-6-06. Here he is at age 52 with his ultimate successor along with my grandmother Alice. (Note the link to the history of the Picayune Sentinel has been fussy lately. If the above doesn’t work, try this from the Internet Archive.)

Re: Tweets

In Tuesday’s paid-subscriber editions, I present my favorite tweets that rely on visual humor. Subscribers vote for their favorite, and I post the winner here every Thursday.

First, here is last week’s winner, which I omitted in the editing process:

And here is this week’s winner:

The new nominees for Tweet of the Week:

• “Bake me a cake as fast as you can” is an unhinged thing to say to someone. — @carpeangela

• My 4-year-old uses the word “human” instead of “person.” Like, she’ll say, “There’s a human at the door,” and for some reason it makes everything so much creepier. — @missmulrooney

• I distinctly remember someone asking me to do them a favor and me responding with an enthusiastic “Consider it done!” But that was a few weeks ago, and I can’t remember who asked or what the favor was. — @AnnaDoesntWant2

• They say that violence doesn’t solve anything, but the ladies in this video seem to be getting along just fine after their pillow fight. — @UncleDuke1969

• I don’t remember reading 99% of these books from college, but they seem important and I paid for them, so on the shelf they go. — @Fulkery1

• Don't fall for the “Deep-fry Your Money in Batter” investment scam. That's how I frittered away all my savings. — @OFalafel

• Waiter: And how was your revenge? Me: Warm. Waiter: Very sorry about that. Me: You will be. — @TheDeducers

• I’m making "if you even care..." my professional email signature. — @jpbrammer

• I still say “roll up the window” for God’s sake, don’t expect me to quit calling this place Twitter anytime soon. — @ddsmidt

• I don’t gossip at work. I circle back for important new interpersonal developments regarding workplace associates. — @adamgreattweet

Vote here and check the current results in the poll.

Usage note: To me, “tweet” has become a generic term for a short post on social media. And I will continue to call the platform Twitter if only to spite Elon Musk:

For instructions and guidelines regarding the poll, click here.

Good Sports

In The New York Times last week, opinion culture editor Adam Sternbergh wrote this about the retirement of Ángel Hernández, the widely acknowledged worst umpire in Major League Baseball:

Major League Baseball needs fallible humans like Ángel Hernández. The ump show is as much an essential part of baseball as bone-headed errors, egregious showmanship or players angrily tossing a glove into the stands. The alternative scenario — in which baseball is adjudicated, flawlessly and bloodlessly, by machines — would make the sport less meaningful.

The Automated Balls and Strikes system, or A.B.S., is already in use in Triple-A, and the argument for embracing so-called robo-umps boils down to their accuracy. Yet the element of human judgment, as displayed by human umps, is as intrinsic to baseball as is the element of human skill, as displayed by the players. … The argument that technological proficiency should supersede human fallibility in all arenas is pernicious enough elsewhere in society, but it seems especially wrongheaded when it comes to sports, an entertaining but meaningless forum for human excellence and human foibles.

I disagree strongly with this. I favor replay and all other technological innovations to help officials enforce the rules. Even without rampant sports betting, a lot rides on outcomes of games, and having them subject to the foibles and flaws of nonathletes is madness.

But for a counterpoint, I sought input from my friend Bruce Weber, former New York Times reporter and author of “As They See 'Em: A Fan's Travels in the Land of Umpires.”

I agree with Sternbergh, as you might expect, but I have a new theory. Home plate umpiring has been odd this season, especially on pitches off the outside corner, which are being called strikes, much the same way things got to be in the 1990s. The culprit, I think, is the superimposed strike zone on theTV screen, which is often set so the top of the zone is barely above the hitter’s waist, and sometimes not even that high. Umps have to respond to the way the game is perceived — by the players and the fans — and the top of the zone has, no question, been lowered this year. Seems to me, the umps are collectively giving back that territory on the outside corner. Not a terrible thing, but nobody is reporting it so maybe I’m the only one who has noticed it or else I’m just wrong. It’s happened before.

Whoa, Nelly

Well, I suggested readers set their DVRs for the U.S. Women’s Open last weekend to see if the current No. 1 player in the world Nelly Korda would continue her run of dominance. Whoops! In her opening round Thursday, she took a 10 on a par three hole (watch the excruciating but highly relatable video here), and missed the cut.

The No-No Sox

As long as the race remains close — which it may not — I will offer you comparison standings of the 2024 White Sox with the 2003 Detroit Tigers and the 1962 New York Mets, teams that have defined futility for more than 80 years, and the 1916 Philadelphia Athletics, the worst team in baseball’s modern era (20th century on).

After 62 games:

The roots of this dismal record, made all the more dismal by two blown big leads to the dreaded rival Cubs this week? In the Sun-Times, Daryl Van Schouwen wrote:

The Sox are last in home runs (43) and tied for first with the Tampa Bay Rays in homers allowed (78). They have the lowest batting average (.214), on-base percentage (.276), slugging percentage (.331) and OPS (.607) and are last in total bases (645) and second to last in walks (134).

Elsewhere the Sun-Times reported Tuesday that the Sox run differential of minus 138 is on pace to be worse that the 1932 Red Sox season run differential of minus 349. After Wednesday night’s second consecutive one-run loss, they’re on pace for a run differential of minus 366.

One hundred games to go! If and when the Sox have at least a three-game lead over this ignominious field, I’ll discontinue this weekly feature.

Tune of the Week

I’ve been opening up Tune of the Week nominations in an effort to bring some newer sounds to the mix. I’m asking readers to use the comments area for paid subscribers or email to leave nominations (post-2000 releases, please!) along with YouTube links and at least a few sentences explaining why the nominated song is meaningful or delightful to you. The following nomination is from political cartoonist Scott Stantis, an old pal from my Tribune days.

Jesse Clegg, son of the late, great South African singer-songwriter Johnny Clegg, wrote “I’ve Been Looking” for his father. This video shows them performing the song together on stage in the fall of 2018, less than a year before Johnny Clegg died of pancreatic cancer at age 66. What a wonderful gift for a son to give to his father!

Looking at the sky and I'm wondering how I got here
All I wanna do is tell you 'bout my fear
Standing on the edge and lookin' at your face
To tell you how I feel
To tell you how I feel
These are the things I can't replace

Zorn note — The interspersed archival video of Jesse as a boy makes this song quite moving. Making music with my father — who turns 93 this month! — remains a very meaningful pleasure for me.

Consult the complete Tune of the Week archive!

Mistakes were made

When I become aware of errors in the Picayune Sentinel, I quickly correct them in the online version, but since many of you read just the email version, which I can’t correct after the fact, I will use this space periodically to alert you to meaningful mistakes I’ve made. (Not typos, in other words.)

I inaccurately attributed a New York Times commentary last week to retired Judge Richard Posner. The actual author was Judge Michael Ponsor, a senior judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

In Tuesday’s Picayune Plus, I wrote that Trader Joe’s and Aldi are owned by the same company. This is not true. They are connected in a complicated way, but independent.

The Picayune Sentinel is a reader-supported publication. Browse and search back issues here. Simply subscribe to receive new posts each Thursday. To support my work, receive bonus issues on Tuesdays and join the zesty commenting community, become a paid subscriber. Thanks for reading

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