How important was this game that Alex Fernandez pitched for the White Sox Thursday night?
So big that he might never pitch a bigger one if he pitches with them forever, an unlikely scenario considering the possibility he might be pitching for another team as soon as next year.
More Top Picks Best Organic Mattresses
“Despite what Jerry Reinsdorf thinks,” said B.J. Surhoff, “there will be no deal with owners unless we get service time.”
So goes baseball, 1996. Even on an evening when the Sox and Fernandez beat the Baltimore Orioles 11-3 to stay close in the wild-card frenzy, there was talk of management’s ongoing taffy pull with labor. He’s a key player, Fernandez is, in this collective-bargaining disagreement.
If players are granted service time they lost during the strike of 1994, Fernandez will qualify for free agency. He can sell himself to the highest bidder.
Baltimore. Florida. Cleveland. The Cubs?
“Nah,” said Randy Myers, formerly a Cub, now an Oriole. “They don’t want to win in Chicago. They just want to fill Wrigley Field and be competitive, whatever that means.”
If Sox Chairman Reinsdorf and some of his fellow owners have their way, however, the athletes will get nothing for their job action, and borderline individuals such as Fernandez will remain hostages of their current clubs.
“Never going to happen,” continued Surhoff, an Oriole who is a considerable presence with the union. “I mean, I’m not in on every meeting because we’re trying to win a pennant here, but Reinsdorf is leading the hard-liners again.”
Speaking of hard-liners, how about that Fernandez? He walked the first Baltimore batter, Brady Anderson, and then served a long home run to the second batter, Roberto Alomar. Orioles 2-0. Then Todd Zeile came up and lofted a fly ball to right field.
That’s where Danny Tartabull zigged instead of zagged on Bobby Bonilla’s bases-loaded triple Wednesday night, when Tartabull entertained cable viewers on SportsChannel and ESPN. An equal opportunity butcher, Tartabull gave Zeile three bases before WGN-Ch. 9 audiences.
Give Danny Tartabull 22 minutes, he’ll give you an adventure.
But then, just as the Orioles and their usual sellout crowd seemed poised to sweep the Sox out of Camden Yards, Fernandez struck out Rafael Palmeiro, Bobby Bonilla and Cal Ripken. Not exactly Moe, Larry and Curly.
Also, that wasn’t Shemp on the mound for Baltimore. Mike Mussina had been on a roll, winning eight of his last nine starts, and he owned a 2-0 lead toward his 20th victory. The Orioles couldn’t have asked for a better circumstance.
Well, go figure. The Sox made crabcakes out of Mussina. Three straight singles, and then up came Pat Borders in a potential bunt situation. Mussina certainly seemed more ready to field than pitch, but Borders was swinging. He killed it for a three-run homer, and Tartabull, bless his asbestos glove, collected a home run of his own in the third inning.
If it sounds easy, it wasn’t. Don’t be misled by the score. This was Alex Fernandez’s show, from start to finish. He did both, saving the Sox bullpen that occasionally needs saving with his fifth complete game on a staff that owns only six.
Should the Sox somehow achieve a playoff berth, they will remember Thursday night, the night Fernandez wouldn’t let the season end.
Meanwhile, Mussina was dismissed and the Sox were facing Archie Corbin, who was cut by the Reynosa Broncos of the Mexican League earlier this year. Even with a $50 million payroll, the Orioles are like all other teams.
Nobody has enough pitching anymore, except maybe the Reynosa Broncos.