Going "gangster"

Sure you are, Jerry. Forget the baseball uniform. Just put on the pimp suit.

In case you missed it this week, the New York Mets fired Willie Randolph as manager in the middle of the night Monday/Tuesday and named Manuel the interim manager.

Not surprisingly, Mets shortstop Jose Reyes wasted little time testing Manuel's authority, throwing his helmet when the new skipper removed him from the game Tuesday night.

Manuel, aka Ghandi, responded to the temper tantrum as follows:

"I told him next time he does that I'm going to get out my blade and cut him. I'm a gangster. You go gangster on me, I'm going to have to get you. You do that again, I'm going to cut you right on the field."

Of course, Manuel was joking. Frankly, I wish "Ghandi" would have shown that much personality when he was managing the White Sox.

If he had, perhaps his clubs wouldn't have underachieved so much.

As an aside, can you imagine the forest fire if current Sox manager Ozzie Guillen would have uttered a similar comment?

A columnist at the Sun-Times would have demanded blood to flow down 35th Street, and there would probably be another sensitivity training session required for Ozzie.

Riggleman's back too

Manuel isn't the only former Chicago manager to be back in charge of a team.
Former Cubs boss Jim Riggleman inherits a huge mess in Seattle. The Mariners were 25-47 entering Friday's action. They are the worst team in the American League in every conceivable way.

No chance in hell that team even sniffs .500 the rest of this season.

Guess who Riggleman's bench coach will be......

That's right, it's former Cubs manager Lee Elia, he of the famous tirade.

If the Mariners continue to struggle (and the guess here is they will), the fans and media in Seattle better rip Riggleman and Elia and not the players.

As we all know, you don't want to get on Elia's bad side by criticizing his players.

With Manuel and Riggleman back managing in the bigs, could opportunities for Gene Lamont, Terry Bevington and Don Baylor be soon to follow?

Buehrle back on track

I've been hearing all year about how Mark Buehrle has a sore shoulder and how he's the weakest pitcher in the White Sox rotation.

I disagree.

In fact, Buehrle leads the White Sox rotation with 10 quality starts. In his last three outings, he's gone eight innings each time.

He's 2-0 with a 1.50 ERA during that span. If Buehrle is injured, he's doing a helluva job of pitching in pain.

Gavin Floyd leads the Sox with eight wins. John Danks pitched extremely well Friday on the big stage of the crosstown series. Give those two young guys credit for stepping
up this season.

But Buehrle is still the leader of the Sox pitching staff, and he'll need to continue to pitch at a high level for the Sox to prevail in a winnable AL Central this season.

Remember him?

The Joliet Jackhammers signed former White Sox shortstop Mike Caruso this week.

Caruso is most famous for his game-winning home run that landed in the basket at Wrigley Field in a 1999 crosstown game.

The infielder hasn't played in the big leagues since 2002, when he appeared in 12 games with the Kansas City Royals.

Gotta give the guy credit for continuing to plug along in pro ball for this long.