The expression "two-sided winner" may be obscure for younger readers: It refers to the days when hit records could be purchased as singles on 7" 45 rpm disks. (Those were the ones with the big holes in them, for those struggling to remember.) The "good" song was on Side A. On Side B there was something that was usually awful and sometimes worse than that.
However, occasionally, a brave DJ on a top-40 station would turn over a record and play the other side and discover... with surprise and pleasure... a quality song on Side B. Both songs would then get air time and the record would sell a lot of units and, I always imagined, somebody at the record company lost his job for putting out on one 45 what should have been divided up into two.
That last bit is speculation, of course.
But I'm not speculating about the trade that is sending incumbent AL Cy Young Award Winner C.C. Sabathia from the Cleveland Indians to the Milwaukee Brewers. This looks like a deal that couldn't be better from a White Sox perspective.
Why? First, thanks to the unbalanced schedule, the White Sox play Cleveland about 875 times a year. Sabathia always seemed to start about 500 of those games, sometimes (seemingly) twice or three times in the same series. And while the Sox beat him occasionally... it seemed to be all too infrequently. He's good.
So... the Sox and their fans win because Cleveland has bid Sabathia adieu.
That's Side A.
But on the flip side, Cleveland has sent Sabathia to Milwaukee, home of the Brewers, and already contenders for the National League Central Division title.
That's the division in which the Chicago National League Ball Club, a/k/a the Cubs, plays... and they have an unbalanced schedule in that league, too.
Which means -- Side B -- not only will the Sox miss Sabathia about 350 times more this season, the Cubs will have to face him.
Mean spirited?
Probably. And the way the Cubs are playing this year, they'll probably beat Sabathia like a bongo drum. But, today at least, Cleveland's loss looks like a two-sided winner for White Sox fans.
3 comments:
As an Indians fan, I saw somw trade coming. I think Stevie Wonder could see this coming.
With Jake Westbrook and Fausto Carmona on the disabled list, that was 2/5ths of the rotation. Victor Martinez and travis Hafner is also on the DL. Also take into consideration that the bullpen has imploded, it has long been stick a fork in it time.
C.C. should enjoy playing in the National League and will probably be playing on the west coast next year. No need for him to be lying to Cleveland media like others have done.
Until major league baseball institutes a salary cap, medium market teams, such as Cleveland will have to do this to their talent to stay competitive.
Problem is now Mark Shapiro is trading pitching to get hitting.
I'm liking NASCAR more.
Why do fans really care about the Tribe's trade? It is the business of baseball - they wouldn't pay him what he wanted, and besides, Sabathia didn't pitch and Cleveland play so well when it mattered in last year's ALCS. And, perhaps, the prospects Cleveland gets might become great players...against the Chisox, naturally!
Thinking about the Central division, it seems that one of the teams go into the dumper and this year happens to be Cleveland's turn(again).
Shapiro had built this team with pitching and now he is getting rid of some of the pitching in favor of hitting. Go Figure.
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