Mike Vasil: The wizard hat hides a player aching to pitch

Oct 6, 20265 min read2 views

Mike Vasil stood Sunday afternoon inside the visiting clubhouse at Progressive Field wearing a charcoal cutoff shirt that reads "Southside Magic." In the center of the shirt, a caricature of himself grins back — a wand-waving, trash-talking wizard who has served as both mascot and minister of culture for the White Sox.

From the stands, the act is pure spectacle: the wizard hat in the dugout, the makeshift spells, the soundbites that draw the ire of opponents. It is easy to forget there is a three-dimensional person beneath the hat.

So perhaps it was not surprising Vasil said something Sunday he had not quite uttered into the public sphere before. His effort to be the energy guy, a bringer of vibes and a clubhouse comedy king, has in a way been a response to the anguish of missing the game.

"There's been so many moments this year where I've wanted to be playing," Vasil said. "I've had to mask that. You can't really show (those feelings) if I'm going to be that type of guy."

But the mask does not stay on forever.

"But when I go home at night and I'm with family or friends or whoever, it's like, 'Hey, I'm kind of going through it right now.'"

THE INJURY THAT STARTED IT

Vasil is in this position because of a spring-training game that turned in a matter of pitches. He walked two batters in a row and felt a strange pulling sensation in his arm.

In the immediate aftermath, he tried to bargain with himself. He didn't want to believe the worst could happen to him.

But he woke up the next morning and could tell something wasn't right. He soon learned he had torn his ulnar collateral ligament. He would have to go under the knife. He would miss the whole season and then some.