In a move sure to rock this winter’s baseball landscape, White Sox outfielder Dewayne Wise declared free agency today, thus making the 31-year-old career .216 hitter free to explore employment options outside the city of Chicago. Wise, as readers of this site will recall, has assembled a fine portfolio on the South Side, including one catch, one single and not giving a **** what you think of him.

So what, we ask, comes next for D-Wise, that most Tenacious of D’s?

Perhaps a free-spending glamour team, frustrated by their lack of subpar, reserve backup outfielders, will swoop in with the offer of a lifetime. Unphased by the discouraging economy around the game, these suitors will surely stop at NO COST to get their man.

Or perhaps a wayward ballclub, grown complacent after years of solid fielding, timely hitting and prodigious offensive output, will see in baseball’s newest unattached commodity a glimmer of hope that they too can bobble fly balls soaring on over their head and watch third strikes sail down the heart of the plate.

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Yesterday’s Cubs-Sox game at Wrigley Field was a microcosm of each team’s season. To wit:

+ The Sox have marched out everyone and their uncle to fill the last spot in the rotation this season. Fitting that Carlos Torres took the bump yesterday afternoon at Wrigley Field. What wasn’t so fitting was that he actually pitched rather well, giving up no runs on five hits in seven innings of action.

+ Fitting that Dewayne Wise protected the shutout with his defensive assist in the seventh. The man has been known for his defense this season, eh? Jake Fox should not have tried scoring on that hit to right field, but Wise still needed a pretty good throw to gun him at the plate.

+ Fitting, too, that the Cubs struggled offensively. This is a team that is better than it’s shown all year at the dish. The last at-bat of the game, in which Alfonso Soriano swung at three outside pitches in a row in his strikeout had to be incredibly frustrating for Cubs fans to sit through. But that’s Soriano for you: he’ll chase and chase and chase.

+ The Sox lead the AL in errors with 100. Though they didn’t commit a fielding error, Scott Podsednik took it upon himself to try and advance to third on a hit back to the pitcher in the first inning. He got in a pickle and was thrown out. So did Gordon Beckham, who tried advancing from first to second while Pods was in his pickle. It was boneheaded all the way around. The Cubs, however, had two errors in the field. The highlight came in the top of the eighth, when Soriano slipped a bit and missed an A.J. Pierzynski ball he should have certainly caught. Cubs fans booed; they threw down what I think was a towel on the field at him. The Sox win the series 4-2 on the year, and now both teams and fanbases go into hibernation until Spring Training.

Just as he was when he tossed a no-hitter in 2007, Mark Buehrle is in a giving mood after Thursday’s perfect game. There’s apparently a painting of DeWayne’s Wise’s catch that he’s gifting as well, but here’s a first glance at another present for his teammates: a bottle of Crown Royal XR:

As you can see, this is Wise’s personal bottle from Buehrle. And a shot of the total package:

Thanks to the fine folks at Crown Royal for sending these along.

Mark Buehrle’s appearance on the “Late Show with David Letterman” last night was about what you’d expect: funny enough, but not the greatest delivery in the world. (Buehrle saves his best stuff for the mound.)  DeWayne Wise and Josh Fields get a cameo on No. 6.

My favorite? No. 5.

Also see: BLS

In case you missed it. Hurry up and watch before it gets ripped down from YouTube.

UPDATE: It’s down. You can see the video of the catch on MLB.com here.

Part-time wrestler, Joe Cowley, wrote an article in today’s Sun-Times with this lede:

White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen knew the e-mail box would fill up when the announcement was made Monday.

So when the club recalled Carlos Quentin from his rehab assignment with Class AAA Charlotte and Brian Anderson was sent down over Dewayne Wise, sure enough, the ”Ozzie is a racist” comments were fired.

Guillen follows by saying if he didn’t like Anderson, the center fielder would have been out a long time ago, because he is almighty and powerful and can boot guys on a whim like that. He continued to reiterate the entire organization does indeed like Anderson. Fair enough. There’s been plenty of rumblings over the years that Anderson is perpetually in Guillen’s doghouse, but he’s still around, so I suppose that does counts for something. Nick Swisher, if you remember, was not liked, and was gone after one year.

But the bottom line is this: Brian Anderson and DeWayne Wise are not everyday MLB players. Neither of them has proven that over the course of their careers. So Guillen went with what’s going to suit him off the bench: Wise has more speed, and he’s been a more effective fielder by UZR. That’s what you want off your bench in the late innings: a pinch runner and a defensive replacement. Neither of these guys can really hit, so if Wise happens to add that too, all the better.

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It’s been a bit of a weird season for DeWanye Wise: he was the Opening Day starter in center, then suffered a shoulder injury early on, and after seven weeks, was rushed back to the Majors because of Carlos Quentin’s injury.

And, he’s a bit tired of what he’s perceiving as fans not giving him a fair shot. Really. Listen: