The Chicago White Sox posted their lineup Monday afternoon for that night's game against the Toronto Blue Jays. A new catcher, Kevan Smith, would be batting ninth and making his major league debut.
"It's awesome," Smith told reporters before the game, "and it's going to be a great experience."
Before batting practice, though, his experience turned sour. Smith felt back spasms while the White Sox stretched, and he was scratched from the game. Smith was placed on the disabled list and has still not officially appeared in a major league game.
Smith had been hitting well at Class AAA Charlotte, with a .345 average and 2 home runs in 8 games, so he would seem to have hope of coming back. But returning to the majors, after coming so close, is no guarantee. Smith, 27, will hope to avoid the fate of Larry Yount.
The Houston Astros called on Yount to pitch the top of the ninth inning against Atlanta on Sept. 15, 1971. Yount, who had not thrown for a week while fulfilling a military obligation, felt elbow pain while warming up. Because he was announced, Yount was officially listed as having played in the game. But he was removed before ever throwing a pitch and never returned to the majors.
A few years later, though, Yount's brother, Robin, did play in the majors for the Milwaukee Brewers. He ended up staying for 20 seasons, collecting 3,142 career hits and earning a spot in the Hall of Fame.
An ode to Blackie
Blackie Sherrod, a Dallas-area sportswriter who endeared himself to his Texas readers, was a shrewd analyst of the games who delicately toed a line as an appreciative nonworshipper of the people who played them. He referred to the Dallas Cowboys (and their blindly adoring fans) with a bit of snark as "Your Heroes," and to Tom Landry, the impassive and often impenetrable longtime coach of the Cowboys, a man he liked and admired, as Mount Landry.
Once in the 1960s, when Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach rescued a last-minute victory with a deft final drive after playing poorly for most of the game, Sherrod described the feat as "like putting a cherry on a glass of buttermilk."
Sherrod died Thursday at the age of 96.
Oops!
It ain't over until a team is sure the umpire has signaled the final out.
A Dallas-area high school softball team lost a district championship game Friday night by celebrating too soon while three runs scored after an umpire called a runner safe when the team thought it had gotten the final out.
Video from the stands shows Wylie High School's second baseman thinking she had a force play with the bases loaded on a throw from the shortstop and rushing to celebrate an apparent 6-4 victory with teammates while tossing the ball toward the pitching circle. But the umpire had signaled safe.
The tying run had scored behind the lead runner for McKinney North about the time some Wylie players figured it out. A frantic throw home was wild, and the third runner sprinted to the plate, sliding in for the unusual 7-6 walk-off win.
Coach Walton
"Luke Walton is going to be the new coach of the Lakers," wrote Janice Hough of leftcoastsportsbabe.com. "Well, Luke was at that awkward age, too old to still be an assistant, too young to play for the Spurs."
Sports on 05/01/2016