Welcome to Sliders, a weekly in-season MLB column that focuses on both the timely and timeless elements of the game.NEW YORK – Ask Sam Antonacci if it hurts to be hit by a pitch, and he looks at you as if the question makes no sense.“No,” he said, impassively. “Not really.”Fear of the baseball — the very rational anxiety that drives away so many hopefuls when the pitching gets tough — does not compute for Antonacci, a rookie pest for the upstart Chicago White Sox. The franchise dates to 1901, and in all that time, no player in the major leagues has been hit by a pitch so often in so few games.It took Antonacci only 48 games to be plunked 15 times. He flinched just once, on June 7 in Philadelphia, when the Phillies’ José Alvarado drilled him on the elbow guard with a 100-mph fastball. Antonacci needed a minute to collect himself and assure the manager and trainer he was fine.Otherwise, he has been an expert in “Tubthumping”: he gets knocked down, but he gets up again. Off the shoulder at 97 mph, off the calf at 93, a cutter to the hip, a sweeper to the kneecap, no problem. Antonacci was recently drilled in four consecutive games, and achieved a franchise first by getting hit twice in the same inning on May 22.
For years, the White Sox took their lumps. Now they found an expert in Sam Antonacci
Plus, the prospect who honored his dad by homering four times in a game this week and more timely and timeless elements of baseball.
3,101 words~14 min read
