John Danks

For 17 seasons, Derek Jeter has been the best reason to keep believing in baseball. His throwback approach has yielded daily excellence in the middle of the Yankees infield. He has kept life simple off the field, and that never seems to be a bad idea....

Robin Ventura leads with his heart. That's why he was flying into home plate on that awful night in Sarasota, Fla., 15 years ago. It's why he pushed himself beyond exhaustion in his recovery from an ankle damaged so bad it would ultimately require a rare...

ARLINGTON, Texas — It wasn't worse than a noogie from Nolan Ryan, but losing his first game as White Sox manager to Ryan's Rangers hurt Robin Ventura. Not that Ventura showed it. There are Mandarin dictionaries easier to read than Ventura. "I...

The bad news has come in for Gavin Floyd, just like it did for John Danks last August. Floyd will have season-ending elbow surgery Tuesday, meaning the White Sox will get no more return on the $9.5 million they’ll pay Floyd this season, just as...

Talking baseball while hoping Kirk Hinrich gets well soon: 1. At some point every July, I make this point: The odds are always with the teams selling talent at the trade deadline, not the ones giving up prospects to try to meet short-term opportunities....

You have to hand it to Kenny Williams. While the White Sox general manager didn't land Zack Greinke, like the Angels' Jerry DiPoto, who did, he has found ways to improve on the fly. Williams filled major holes when he traded for Kevin Youkilis and Brett...

Rick Hahn and Dayton Moore know one of the biggest realities of baseball and wasted no time acting upon it. If you're going to go to the playoffs, you better have a strong starting rotation. Last year, eight of the 10 postseason teams were in the...

More than most Aprils in the city, baseball's opening day arrives open for interpretation. Baseball romantics see the rebirth of something wonderful on both sides of town and anticipate a rush of summer babies named Robin or Theo. Baseball realists...

They don't give away Comeback Executive of the Year awards. But as the first-place White Sox start a four-game series Thursday at Yankee Stadium against the best team in baseball, consider that Adam Dunn and Jake Peavy aren't the only professionals on...

As Robin Ventura found out during his first trip to jolly old England, any torture the White Sox felt at The Cell in September paled in comparison with what poor blokes used to endure inside the Tower of London. "The history of that spot is just mind-...

For a minute there, I was wondering if there would be any fighting among the cast members of VH1’s upcoming reality show, “Mob Wives Chicago.” There were no signs of tension when I spent an afternoon observing the five women in March and...

On the drive to Wrigley Field early Sunday morning, Adam Dunn glanced at Lake Michigan and noticed something he immediately wanted to share with his carpool buddy, Jake Peavy. " 'Look at that lake, 'Peaves,' '' Dunn told Peavy. "The thing is glass.''...