How crazy was the White Sox 2017 season?

*Abreu paced American League first basemen with 102 RBI

*Narvaez tied for sixth among American League catchers with 38 walks

In the wake of Tuesday’s loss, here are some White Sox Opening Day nuggets … @SoxNerd style:

*Skipper report: Rick Renteria became the first man to manage an Opening Day game for both Chicago franchises on Tuesday.

Johnny Evers, the first baseman of the famed double play combination,  is the only other man to skipper the Cubs and the Sox.

After managing the Cubs in 1913 and 1921, Evers was hired to guide the Sox in 1924 but didn’t start until May because of illness.

*Skipper report II: Renteria is 0-2 in openers. The Cubs dropped his managerial debut 1-0 in Pittsburgh in 2014. … The last Sox full-time manager to win his first game with the club was Jerry Manuel in 1998. Robin Ventura lost his debut in 2012 while Ozzie Guillen dropped his in 2004.

*Tyler talk: Tyler Saladino was 2-for-4 with a run and a walk leading off and playing second base in his first big league Opening Day assignment.

Counting his minor league days, Saladino boosted his average to .444 (8-for-18) in Opening Day games.

Saladino singled and eventually scored to lead off the game and the season. The last time that happened for the Sox was in 2015 with Juan Pierre ina 15-10 win at Cleveland. Prior to Saladino, the last time a Sox player led off the season with a hit and scored in Chicago was Pablo Ozuna, who doubled and crossed on Darin Erstad’s homer, in 2007.

*Hail Colombia: Jose Quintana joined Julio Teheran as the only Colombian pitchers to start an Opening Day game.

Quintana made his first start in an Opener for the Sox on Tuesday while Teheran made his fifth Opening Day start for the Braves on Monday.

*On ‘Q:’ Quintana became just the second pitcher in big league history whose last name starts with ‘Q’ to start an Opening Day game.

The other? “Long” John Quinn for the Boston Red Sox in 1922 and for the Brooklyn Robbins in 1931.

*Abreu file: Jose Abreu was 2-for-4 with an RBI on Tuesday, jacking his Opening Day average to .429 (6-for-14).

Abreu has hit safely in all four of his big league season premieres with a home run and three RBI.

*New guys: The White Sox had six players starting in their first Opening Day game for the club on Tuesday: Saladino, Tim Anderson, Omar Narvaez, Quintana, Jacob May and Cody Asche.

The previous two times that happened, in 2005 and 2000, the Sox reached the postseason.

The last time the Sox had more than six starters making their first Opening Day start for the club was in 1981, the first year of the current ownership.

*May day: Jacob May, the Sox third round pick in the June 2013 draft, made his big league debut in Tuesday’s Opener.

He is the nephew of Carlos May, who was the first Sox draftee (1966) to make an Opening Day start for the club in 1969.

Also Tuesday, May joined Daryl Boston (1985), John Cangelosi (1986), Mike Cameron (1998), Aaron Rowand (2003-05) and Brian Anderson (2006) as the only Sox draftees to make an Opening Day start for the club.

*One for Skilling: Monday marked just the 10th time the White Sox scheduled Opening Day game was “weathered out.”

The last time the Sox lost their starter to Mother Nature was in 2009 when the forecast of high winds, cold, rain and snow prompted the team to call off the game vs. the Royals early and reschedule (and play) it the next day.

*Draft class: Anderson joined Lee “BB” Richard (1971), Bucky Dent (1974-76) and Harry Chappas (1978) as the only players drafted and signed by the Sox to make an Opening Day start at shortstop for the club.

Anderson was the Sox first round pick in 2013.

*Catching on … not: J.C. Martin is still the only catcher to start an Opening Day for the Sox and the Cubs.

Geovany Soto had a chance to do it but he did not start for the Sox on Tuesday. Soto was the Cubs Opening Day backstop from 2008 to 2012.

Martin started Sox curtain-raisers behind the plate in 1963 and 1964 and for the Cubs in 1970.

*Historical link: Melky Cabrera did not homer for the Sox on Opening Day but he has in the past.

Cabrera hit the final Opening Day home run in the original Yankee Stadium in his first Opening Day game in 2008. The first Opening Day home run in the “House that Ruth Built” was hit by … Babe Ruth, of course! The Babe went deep against the A’s in the 1923 inaugural in Yankee Stadium. 17 days to Opening Day, White Sox fans!

Tim Anderson, the White Sox next star, was overall pick No. 17 in the June 2013 draft.

Anderson is fighting an uphill battle as a Sox overall pick at 17. The other Sox selections at 17 were busts Ken Piesha and Scott Christman.
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