Baines' HOF Announcement a Stunner, But It Shouldn't Be

"Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far." - President Theodore Roosevelt, in a letter dated January 26, 1900

Few did this better that former White Sox designated hitter and right fielder Harold Baines.

Pay attention, kids. History class is in session.

I will be the first to admit that when I heard the news of Baines being elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans' Committee, I was as stunned as anyone. 

Not because I feel he isn't worthy of the Hall, but instead, because I'm likely in the minority when it comes to sports writers who feel he belongs. I never thought I'd see the day, at least not in my lifetime, where this happened.

Before I go any farther, be forewarned. I'm not going to turn this column into a silly referendum on what's right or wrong, or how this player or that player has been snubbed over the years. Or how guys who allegedly cheated the game belong.

 

That's not happening today.

Instead, my case for Baines is made up of Baines' numbers and Baines' numbers alone. They speak for themselves, even during an era where Internet math wizards and Millennials will throw sabermetrics in your face like a 96 MPH Nolan Ryan heater up and in.

And ironically, it was Baines' unique hitting style in which he was almost as far away from home plate in the batter's box as you can possibly be --- and miraculously was only hit by pitches 14 times in 11,092 plate appearances during his 22-year career --- that allowed him to thrive like few others before him.

Baines was an offensive beast. A hit machine as consistent as they came. During 22 seasons with the Sox, Orioles, Indians and A's, he racked up a whopping 2,866 hits. Only 45 players who have ever lived have accumulated more career hits in the Majors. And every single one of those 45, with a handful of exceptions, are in the Hall.

Their names are Adrian Beltre, Ichiro Suzuki, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and Albert Pujols, who aren't eligible yet. And Omar Vizquel, who is. The other three are Pete Rose, Barry Bonds and Rafael Palmiero, all three of whom have serious ethical question marks hovering over their respective careers. 

The list of Hall of Famers Baines has more hits than is a staggering one, as well. Harold has more hits than:

Ted Williams, Willie McCovey, Joe DiMaggio, Willie Stargell, Mike Schmidt, Enos Slaughter, Mickey Mantle, Kirby Puckett, Ryne Sandberg, Frank Thomas, Jim Thome, Ernie Banks, Reggie Jackson, Joe Morgan, Tim Raines, Lou Gehrig, Billy Williams, Chipper Jones, Andre Dawson, Luke Appling, Brooks Robinson, Roberto Alomar and Ken Griffey Jr. 

According to Baseball-Reference.com, 19,183 players have been in the Majors since 1871. At No. 46 all-time, Baines isn't just a 1-percenter. He's in the top TWO-TENTHS of the top one percent in career hits.

I know what everyone's argument against Baines will be. He was a designated hitter.

I don't care. Hitting a baseball is perhaps the single hardest thing an athlete can try to master. And Baines didn't make up the DH rule. He just played by that rule.

Consistency was Baines' trademark. No, he never had a 200-hit season or scored 100+ runs. Nor did he win a World Series ring, despite posting a career .324 postseason average and .378 on-base percentage in 113 plate appearances. But Baines was feared and respected by pitchers like few others, as evidenced by his 187 career intentional walks.

That's an average of 8.5 intentional passes a season. 

From ages 23-30, Baines had eight consecutive seasons with 72 or more RBIs. He was a career .289 hitter with a .356 OBP who hit better than .280 in 16 different seasons. And the lone reason he wasn't an all-star more than five times was because MLB didn't elect a DH to the all-star team until nine years after he retired.

Like a fine wine, Baines got better with age. From ages 32-40, he posted 63 or more RBIs seven times, including during the 1996 season, when he returned to the White Sox at age 37, and posted a .311 average and .399 OBP --- to go with his 22 homers and 95 RBIs. 

One of my fondest memories of Baines came back on May 8, 1984. I was only seven years old. But I remember it like it was yesterday. 

The White Sox were in the bottom of the 25th inning against the Milwaukee Brewers, and my father, who was in the Navy at the time, stood in our driveway repairing his car. He had the Sox game on the radio while cranking that heavy silver wrench back and forth under the hood with his right hand.

Baines cracked a walk-off game-winning homer in the eighth hour and sixth minute of the contest, which still marks the longest game in MLB history. My dad, a Sox fan, went absolutely berserk.

The other thing I recall about Baines, whom teams began scouting in Maryland at age 12, is that he rarely, if ever, talked. Hence my quote at the beginning of this column. 

One sunny afternoon about a decade ago, long after Baines had retired, I walked down toward the field behind home plate at then-U.S. Cellular Field, and attempted to take a photo of Baines when digital cameras were still all the rage.

Baines, who had sunglasses on and a scowl on his face, took his sunglasses off before I could snap a picture, then spoke to me for the first time ever.

"What the heck do you think you're doing?" Baines asked me. 

I was immediately taken aback, and completely caught off-guard, which almost never happens.

"Can I take your pic---," I said.

But before I could get the final word out, he interrupted me, then let out a smile that almost blinded me. I'm not sure who Baines' dentist is, but he or she should get a huge raise.

"I'm just messing with you, dude," Baines said. "Go ahead."

That joke connected in a huge way with me, much like his bat connected with the baseball countless times over the course of his 22-year career. Baines, you see, never struck out more than 67 times in a season during his final 11 years.

In an era of launch angles, and MLB executives always trying to find new and creative ways to measure a player's heart and talent to get a competitive edge, Baines just flat-out produced, routinely striking the ball crisply to the opposite field more than almost any player I've ever watched.

Even in today's game, I don't know of a better opposite-field hitter than Baines was.

It wasn't flashy. He didn't flip his bat when he crushed one of his 384 career longballs. He didn't tap his chest, flash peace signs or blow kisses to the crowd after homering under questionable circumstances, either.

Harold Baines was the epitome of what you'd want from a ballplayer in your dugout. Never mired in scandal. Never overwhelmed by the moment. He just let his play do the talking.

Frankly, this generation could use a few more Harold Baines' in their locker rooms. 

Bears' lack of killer instinct cost them in epic fashion

For 30 glorious minutes during Sunday night's Bears-Packers game, it was 1985 again.

First, the Bears forced a Green Bay punt on their opening drive. Then, there was a brilliant first quarter counter-drive that saw the Bears march down the field using seemingly everything in new head coach Matt Nagy's playbook, including a T-Wing formation with two running backs, a fullback, and a quarterback in the backfield, multiple five receiver sets, and more motion than a rocking sailboat on stormy seas.

That Bears' opening, 10-play, 86-yard march chewed up over six minutes of clock the way Mike Ditka used to chomp on bubble gum while stalking the sidelines, and before we knew it, it was 7-0 Bears.

The Bears then forced the Packers into a three-and-out punt situation, and responded with another nine-play, 60-yard gem that ended in a field goal, and a 10-0 Chicago lead early in the second quarter.

Out came the boo-birds at Lambeau Field, in what was an almost unfathomable start to a game for the visitors that only got better.

Enter recently-signed superhero/franchise savior-in-the-making Khalil Mack, who sacked Packers backup quarterback Deshone Kizer, forced a fumble, and recovered it, stalling a lengthy Packers drive that made Aaron Rodgers having to leave the game moments earlier with a leg injury almost a side note.

But Mack wasn't done. With 1:09 left in the first half, he picked off a Kizer pass in Green Bay territory, and with his left arm holding the ball out cockily, took it up the left sideline to the house for a score to put the Bears up 17-0 at halftime.

Things were going so well, in fact, even first-round draft pick Roquan Smith had a sack on his first NFL snap ever. Making matters worse for the home team, Chicago got the ball to start the third quarter, trotted down the field yet again, and added three more points.

Was any of this even real?

At the risk of sounding cliche, if Hollywood had been handed a script of what took place up to that point, they would have laughed, then threw it back in our collective faces.

Even after Rodgers returned from the locker room and decided to play hurt to start the second half, engineering a 12-play, 46-yard drive that ended in a field goal with 5:37 remaining in the third quarter, all of Chicago giggled, knowing the Bears still were ahead by 17, which is a three-score advantage they had no chance of blowing.

Except they did.

In such grandiose, spectacular fashion, it still almost defies logic half a day later.

All Rodgers, who just signed the most lucrative deal any QB has ever seen in league history, did, was proceed to score three fourth-quarter touchdowns, capped by a ridiculous defensive breakdown and 75-yard score by Randall Cobb with just over two minutes to go.

At that very moment, Cheesehead backers could hear the sound of Bears fans nationwide simultaneously emptying the contents of their stomachs everywhere.

For whatever reason, as good as Rodgers was --- and boy, was he ever --- Nagy put the training wheels back on his offense the last quarter and a half, turtled up, and tried to babysit his big lead. That's how you lose games. Ask the 1996 Chicago Bulls if they would have ever sat on a lead.

No, they went for the knockout punch every time, like they were the heavyweight champs.

Speaking of Jordan-related things, there were too many Jordan Howard runs up the middle when they needed Nagy to be the creative genuis he touted himself to be all preseason, most.

That was Followed by more Howard runs and draw plays up the middle, short screen passes to Taylor Gabriel, one pass to rookie Anthony Miller, which actually produced a first down, and several incomplete passes in the vicinity of tight end Trey Burton and Allen Robinson.

And when the Bears faced a huge 3rd and 1 deep in Green Bay territory with a chance to ice the game, Nagy inexplicably tried to get cute and go for the home run in the end zone with Tarik Cohen on a wheel route that failed miserably, rather than telling his linemen to man up, block someone, and get a single, lousy yard.

The same Tarik Cohen who is perhaps Nagy's biggest game-breaker and huge-play threat, yet for reasons we may never know, he was only on the field for two or three plays the entire fourth quarter.

It wasn't Nagy's first epic collapse. In fact, during last year's AFC playoffs against the Titans, he choked on a virtually identical double-digit lead in a stunning loss to Tennessee as offensive coordinator of the Chiefs.

But Nagy wasn't alone in the blame. The same Bears' defense that looked unstoppable early couldn't generate a pass rush on a hobbled Rodgers, and making matters worse, defensive coordinator Vic Fangio suddenly forgot the word "blitz" existed in his playbook.

There was also what would have been a game-ending, surefire pick-six drooped by top cornerback Kyle Fuller. There was Mitch Trubisky, who looked strong going 11 for 14 in the first half, looking like a deer caught in headlights down the stretch when his team needed him most.

Even after all that, when all Chicago needed was a field goal to win, and had the ball near midfield following a boneheaded personal foul by Packers linebacker Clay Matthews, the Bears still rolled over and played dead anyway.

It was the biggest fourth quarter comeback in Packers history. It also felt like the most epic collapse in Bears history, given the fact Chicago looked like the old Monsters of the Midway for more than half the game, and had a chance to send message so big on opening night with a victory, it even had LeBron James fired up and tweeting about them several times.

Forget the metaphors. Forget moral victories. Forget the fact this Bears team might actually be pretty darn good.

Someone let the air out of the Bears' balloon the same way Tom Brady allegedly let the air out of .... ahh, nevermind. I said no metaphors.

After all, metaphors don't win games. Playing smart, aggressive football for four quarters does. That's the only lesson here. Literally.

Somewhere, the ghost of the 1985 Bears was rolling over in its grave, wondering when we can finally, one day, move on from their three-decade-plus shadow.

Mack signing a blockbuster game-changer for the Bears

When the city of Chicago woke up Saturday morning and pulled back its curtains and shades, a gloomy sky greeted it as rain steadily fell throughout the area for hours.

But you could have fooled Chicago Bears fans.

Their skies were beaming with sunshine during that time, as news their beloved team had just traded for superstar Oakland Raiders linebacker Khalil Mack swept through the sports world the same way a shockwave ripples through the ground during a powerful earthquake.

The bold move by Bears General Manager Ryan Pace, which is reported to include his team sending two future first-round draft picks to Oakland, was enough to make us all rub our sleepy eyes as we awoke to make sure we were, in fact, reading things right.

Stuff like this just doesn't happen in our city. That's where decades of post-1985 Bears glory will take you ... to a culture full of sarcasm, cynicism and perennial doubt.

I'm here to say, it's time to come off the ledge, Bears fans. You have yourself a football team again. One that is going to become must-watch TV this fall and winter.

I'm not saying you should break out your "Super Bowl Shuffle" VHS tapes and start dancing. But what I am saying is, the Bears will be better than they were a year ago, and not only that, I think they are talented enough, barring injuries, to push for a playoff spot.

Many of you sit there laughing as you read that last sentence. Don't. Instead, let the evidence speak for itself.

First, there's Mack, who is a freak of nature that has drawn comparisons to Lawrence Taylor by some top NFL analysts. In four seasons, Mack has tallied 40.5 sacks, 231 solo tackles, four forced fumbles, nine fumble recoveries, and in what is the most telling stat of all, has started all 16 games every season.

Add that to a defensive core that includes first-round pick Roquan Smith, Akiem Hicks, Leonard Floyd, Adrian Amos, Kyle Fuller, Eddie Jackson and Danny Trevathan, and suddenly, you have a group that may actually be worthy of the nickname "Monsters of the Midway."

In a league where offense is king, and fortunes change in the blink of an eye, having a top-tier defense still remains paramount. A year ago, only three NFC teams allowed fewer points than Chicago, and their names were Minnesota, which won the NFC North, Altanta, who went 10-6, and Philadelphia, which won some shiny Lombardi Trophy thing.

Not only do the Bears return most of their core defensive players from a season ago, they have their defensive coordinator, Vic Fangio back, meaning most of the guys will have a strong grasp of his schemes and concepts from the first snap against the Packers Week 1 at Lambeau Field.

Two of the three teams the Bears are chasing in the standings, Green Bay and Detroit, allowed 64 and 56 more points than they did in 2017, respectively.

Naysayers will point out that you need an offense to win. I will remind them the Bears have a running back in Jordan Howard who rushed for 1,122 yards a year ago, and another agile freak in Tarik Cohen, who can potentially break a play for a touchdown every time he touches the football.

Quarterback Mitchell Trubisky will certainly be better, too, thanks to the addition of receiver Allen Robinson, who, prior to missing all but one game in 2017, caught 20 TD passes in 2015 and 2016. Throw in rookie Anthony Miller, who looks like the real deal, at the slot receiver position, and suddenly, Nagy has options this team never imagined a season ago when it came to playcalling.

And I'm not the only one who's suddenly bullish on this squad's chances. When the news broke that the Bears signed Mack, Las Vegas oddsmakers dropped Chicago's odds to win the Super Bowl from 100-1 to 40-1 instantly.

That's not just a leap, that's a canyon-sized jump.

Perhaps the Bears will flail and crash and burn in spectacular fashion again in 2018, as we have been accustomed to.

But if there's one thing I've learned in my years covering football and other sports, it's this.

Most of the time, magical things happen when fans least expect them to. The Eagles and Rams are two examples of teams that went from also-rans to juggernauts a year ago seemingly overnight.

Suddenly, opening night against our hated rivals, the Green Bay Packers, just got a whole hell of a lot more interesting. And meaningful.

And it's been a long, long time since we were able to use the words "Bears" and "meaningful," in the same sentence around here.