Joey Cora and Joe Hall were back with the White Sox on Friday. Both, however, are still on various disabled lists-Hall with a slowly recovering hamstring, Cora with rapidly healing strained ribcage.
Of the two, Cora-who threw for the first time since the June 29 injury-was the most upbeat.
“Hopefully, I’ll start hitting (Saturday) and Sunday and, supposedly, go to Peoria (with Class A South Bend) Monday,” said Cora. “That’s still being debated.”
Barring the unexpected, he’ll play somewhere next week, then come off the DL on time next Friday. Meanwhile, he’s become an expert on a certain celebrity inquiry.
“There’s nothing on TV during the day but O.J.,” Cora said. Did he do it? “I don’t think he did.”
And Hall? He, too, will be eligible to come off the DL next weekend, but no one is guessing on that one. He’s been stuck on .393 since May 11. A little frustrating? “Not a little,” said Hall.
It’s the only thing: Robin Ventura was 2 for 23 before getting two hits Thursday night, including his 14th homer. There have been a few of those periods in the first half.
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“I can live with whatever I do, if we win,” Ventura said Friday. “It doesn’t make me feel any better to get three hits and we lose. Of course you want to get hits-but you’re not going to get them all the time. That’s the way it goes. Hopefully, you did something that day to help your team win. That’s all you can do.”
Rad report: Scott Radinsky, undergoing treatment in California for Hodgkin’s disease, is about finished with his scheduled chemotherapy, manager Gene Lamont said Friday. Radiation followup treatments are next. “We’re not counting on him” this year, Lamont said, “but it would be good for him if he could come back. That’s not really up to us. It’s up to Rad and the doctors.”