From the Locker Room: James McCann Sizes Up Another Ring?

For a hot minute, the White Sox catcher thought he'd be catching another Giolito no-no.
From the Locker Room: James McCann Sizes Up Another Ring?
From the Locker Room: James McCann Sizes Up Another Ring? /

After catching that phenomenal, six-perfect-inning outing by Lucas Giolito in Game 1, naturally I had to ask James McCann if there was any moment in the game where he was looking down at his hand and sizing up another ring. As I asked, McCann threw his head back, and smiled.

"The thought crossed my mind," he said. "I looked up at the scoreboard in the fifth inning, I saw no hits. I thought, "He hasn't walked anybody either, right?' If we had gotten through the seventh, I would have thought about it a bit more. But it didn’t cross my mind the way it did [during the no-hitter this year] against the Pirates."

Another fun moment came when I asked McCann about Giolito's so-called (actually, Tim Anderson-called) "bully stage" on the mound, when he's locked in and more machine than man.

McCann sees it, too.

"I can see it in his eyes, in the way he goes about his business," he said. "His mentality, that locked-in stage."

Then, McCann added a funny, big-brother anecdote from yesterday morning.

"I told [Giolito] on the day before, if you’re snoozing in the morning, you’re going to be in trouble; if I find you napping on the bus, you’re going to be in trouble," McCann said. "But he wasn't. He was ready."

---

James McCann footage courtesy of the Chicago White Sox.


Published
Brett Ballantini
BRETT BALLANTINI

Actor (final credit: murdered by Albert Einstein in "Carnage Hall"), musician (Ethnocentric Republicans), and Nerf hoops champion, Wiffleball aficionado and onetime bilingual kindergarten teacher, Brett Ballantini also writes about baseball, basketball and sometimes hockey, for the NBA, MLB, NHL, and Slam, Hoop, Sporting News, the Athletic, SB Nation and others. He was CSN Chicago’s Blackhawks beat writer when their 49-year Stanley Cup drought ended in 2009-10, and took over the White Sox beat after that. He currently is the editor-in-chief of South Side Hit Pen and beat writer for Inside the Rays. He also wrote a book about Ozzie Guillén but is running out of space, so follow him on Twitter @BrettBallantini and he'll probably tell you even more about himself than you ever wanted to know.