Former White Sox closer and member of the 2005 WS champion White Sox passed away at the age of 44. It sounds as if his particular form of stomach cancer was exceptionally unpleasant. Hopefully, the Sox and their fans will celebrate his life, career and character at the upcoming 20th reunion.

While I didn’t have a horse in the race, I could appreciate what he did from afar. He overcame a lot both on and off the field but seemed to be a good guy. Of greater personal importance, I didn’t have to sweat out any of his appearances. Because of the nature of the job, closing out games, the closer is going to take the blame for late inning failures, forget about kickers on NFL teams. Yet, most fans look differently at other teams’ closers and their failures.

In discussing Jenks’ career with a Sox fan friend, he pointed out that he didn’t have complete trust in him due to a WS “misfire”. If it seems callous, I’ll argue that it’s only human nature to recall the flubs.

For the better part of nine years, I’ve had to listen to non-Cub fans tell me how wonderful Aroldis Chapman is was and always will be and that the Cubs would not have won it all in 2016 without the hard-throwing Cuban. I counter with how he did his best to give the Indians the title when he offered up the game-tying homer to Rajai, Aha, Davis in game 7. He swooped in a like a vulture to earn the win, but it was Mike Montgomery who saved the game and the day.

Successive Brewers closers, Josh Hader and Devin Williams both had spectacular regular seasons, but flopped in the biggest moments in the postseason. Without either of them, they wouldn’t have gone as far, but in the end, they failed when it mattered most. And unless your name is Clayton Kershaw, the media and most fans don’t blame early inning failures by the starters in WS, the way we do with closers.

And despite his overall greatness, I’ll never forget the part Mariano Rivera played in the Yankees loss to the Diamondbacks in 2001, or Joe Table’s aka Jose Mesa’s disaster against the Marlins. I rooted for Wade Davis when he closed out games for the 2015 Royals and thought he’d do the same for the 2017 Cubs based on his history, but unfortunately remember his flop in the postseason.

One’s team need not reach the World Series for fans to stress out over every appearance. Most closers at some point seem to thrive on the stress they cause their fans. Rod Beck and Mitch Williams did a fine job of walking the highwire for the Cubs. I don’t think their antics did much for their managers’ blood pressure, but it did probably improve beer sales.

R.I.P Bobby Jenks!