Jim O'Donnell: Who's fighting for fans as lax White Sox quickly play into another April fog?

LAST APRIL, TONY LA RUSSA and a White Sox team brimming with high expectations steamed into Cleveland with a 6-3 record.

The Sleepy Señor and wayward travelers promptly lost three straight to the Indians and set an alarmingly poor tone for their season. That mood held to an extraordinarily deflating 81-81 finish.

“I did not have the team prepared for this series,” La Russa said afterward. He may as well have extended it to, “Nor do I have this team prepared for this season.”

As La Russa's successor, is professional nice guy Pedro Grifol already merely carrying on a new franchise tradition?

THE '23 SOX OPENED surprisingly well at Houston (2-2) and then were bombarded at home. They got shelled while losing 2 of 3 to the Giants. Mike Yastrzemski and San Francisco matched a team record dating to Willie Mays and 1961 with 13 home runs in a three-game series.

The series ended with position players pitching late-inning batting practice at major league prices.

Friday's 13-9 beatdown at Pittsburgh continued the acute lack of sustained focus by the Fail Hose.

Sox fans are already being mistreated by a team with only Dylan Cease rising above a band of unprepared starting pitchers, poor decision making all around and a dire hint of an outfit — just like last year — lacking any consistent will to win.

A COMPLIANT ATTENDING MEDIA isn't helping.

When lordly Jerry Reinsdorf briefly appeared to chitchat late at spring training, he said he would answer only “noncontroversial” questions. What kind of ground rule is that from a tax attorney who has made more than $1B as the lead promoter of two major general sports partnerships in Chicago?

The goo-goo doll fan boys bowed and acquiesced.

JASON BENETTI HAS MADE the Sox TV booth the best of breed in an uneven four-hut town. But already, he and Steve Stone appear to be pulling punches.

Postgames on NBCSCH, Ozzie Guillen is giving off bad vibrations that he's traded in his knowledgeable baseball passion for Catskills-friendly schtick. Maybe he read a biography of the great Mexican comic Cantinflas during the offseason.

No one is holding the feet of Reinsdorf and spring softies to the fire. Where are the sharp fan advocates who are supposed to people media row?

To think that the new White Sox season is already rudderless is yet another cynical entry on the Reinsdorf/ Kenny Williams/Rick Hahn MLB vitae.

Sox fans are once again being made to look like dupes.

But in The Captive Sports City, that's hardly an exclusive club.

STREET-BEATIN':

Yes, Sir Nick Faldo is an excruciatingly pompous sort, worthy of fronting Jethro Tull with a flute or a sand wedge. But his criticism of Rory McIlroy over a decision to be mic'd up by CBS during final prep for The Masters — the first golfer ever — was spot on. The grand event maintains it uniqueness through the maintenance of tradition and mystique. Plus, McIlroy's focus clearly didn't benefit from the stunt. ...

Hardly a ten-bell monthly update, but ratings for Chicago's two sports talk radio stations continue in the dumper. The latest Nielsen Audios have WSCR-AM (670) drifting down to No. 23 and helpless WMVP-AM (1000) tied for 25th. Daytime swap-o-rama programming live from a Logan Square flea market featuring Cheryl Burton might draw more listeners. ...

As if Mike McCarthy and staff don't have enough swill to bail, the Cubs' underachieving Marquee Sports Network has been revolving in and out of a three-man booth with Jon “Just Visitin'” Sciambi, Jim Deshaies and periodic drop-in Joe Girardi. More discerning fans are simply following the audio of Pat Hughes, whether he's doing radio or TV. ...

Twenty-nine years ago this weekend, Wayne Messmer was shot in the throat by midnight creeps near Taylor Street after working a Blackhawks game. The unsinkable “Voice For All Reasons” will dedicate his Easter Sunday program on WDCB-FM (90.9) to Dr. Seth Krosner and the Emergency Trauma Unit at Cook County Hospital who saved his life. Airtime is 7 p.m. ...

Buoyant Jeannie Pomaro — who is married to one of the most intense White Sox fans on the planet — is happily home and on the mend. For decades, Cook County Judge Nick Pomaro, now retired, was one of the few blind jurists in America. (“The Judge” once did an inning of radio color alongside John Rooney on a Sox-Royals game.) ...

In 2003, Chris Chelios and wife Tracee bought a beachfront home along Malibu's fabulous Paradise Cove for $6M. Now The Wall Street Journal is reporting the Pacific Ocean sand digs is being listed for $75M. (That's a lot of Cheli's Chili; Jay Mariotti plays tennis less than two miles away and has not negatively impacted the asking price.) ...

Tremendous that Roger Powell Jr. has been hired as the men's head coach at Valparaiso. If “The Reverend” can show signs of mastering the more challenged rungs of the transfer portal, he is an absolute natural to one day restore class and March tournament success to his old Fighting Illini. ...

And erudite Denny Dickens, on news that LSU basketball princess Angel Reese will accompany her NCAA championship teammates to the White House: “This isn't exactly Pablo Casals playing the East Room for the Kennedys.”

• Jim O'Donnell's Sports and Media column appears Sunday and Thursday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com. All communications may be considered for publication.