The aggressive arrogance of the mediocre

Justin Casterline/Getty ImagesBrett Ballantini has written about baseball, basketball and sometimes hockey for the NBA, MLB, NHL, and Slam, Hoop, Sporting News, the Athletic, Sports Illustrated, South Side Hit Pen, Sox Populi, SB Nation and others. He was CSN Chicago’s Blackhawks beat writer when their 49-year Stanley Cup drought ended in 2009-10, and moved to the White Sox beat after that. Brett has run South Side Sox since 2018.

The White Sox were defeated on Tuesday in Cleveland’s home opener, in embarrassing fashion: 1-0, lost in a punchless bottom of the ninth that saw the highest-leverage reliever in the bullpen give up a single and three walks to hand the game to the Guardians. The…