The Bernstein Brief: Now Chris Sale Is Blaming Robin Ventura?
By Dan Bernstein--
CBSChicago.com senior columnist
(CBS) Ace left-hander Chris Sale thinks pitching in an ugly jersey would make the White Sox less likely to win, apparently, so he cut all the shirts up in a bizarro tantrum for the ages.
He also thinks the whole ordeal is manager Robin Ventura's fault, because of course he does. There's something really off about Sale, a deluded hot-head who told MLB.com why he initially unleashed a tirade directed at Ventura before Saturday night's game.
In Sale's warped mind, Ventura didn't advocate hard enough on his behalf against team officials to postpone or move the uniform promotion, so that's why the slashings had to happen.
"Robin is the one who has to fight for us in that department," Sale said. "For them to put business first over winning, that's when I lost it."
Sale said he had made it clear both in spring training and on Friday night that he wanted to avoid wearing the 1976 throwback, and he blew up when his immediate bosses couldn't or wouldn't get that done.
How an untucked jersey has anything to do with winning remains unclear, but what is now obvious is that the enabling of Sale through multiple episodes of temper-fueled misbehavior has created a player who feels empowered to act like a child.
When he can curse out the team's executive vice president with no consequences, we can't be surprised he'd dare to say the manager's inaction was the reason he lost his mind again.
Dan Bernstein is a co-host of 670 The Score's "Boers and Bernstein Show" in afternoon drive. You can follow him on Twitter @dan_bernstein and read more of his columns here.