CHICAGO – All seemed right on the South Side of Chicago last Monday.
The White Sox had just registered a dramatic, come-from-behind, 5-4 victory over the Angels in the bottom of the ninth inning. The sellout crowd of 38,685 left this sun-splashed Memorial Day game happy. Slugger Frank Thomas returned to the lineup after 10 months away. Manager Ozzie Guillen had been rewarded with a contract extension that would keep him at the helm until at least 2008.
But there was no celebration in the White Sox clubhouse. Instead, Guillen was dressing the team down. He did not like what he had seen.
“Most managers do a team meeting after they lose,” Guillen said. “But I was really disappointed how we played. I wanted to let the players know how I was feeling. I want to make sure they know what I want. Just make sure you don’t get too comfortable and [let it] carry over – and over and over – and all of a sudden it’s too late.”
Some would call the move unconventional but then little that Guillen does is by the book. So far, White Sox fans are not complaining. The team entered the weekend 35-18, the best record in baseball, and has taken on many of the characteristics of its manager – scrappy, tough and unpredictable.
The new attitude is the result of a makeover the team has undergone in the last year. Guillen and general manager Kenny Williams decided to concentrate on speed, pitching and defense rather than hitting the ball out of the park.
“We had to make some tough decisions,” Williams said. “We were in first place last June and really felt good about our club. We wanted to upgrade the pitching but not only for last year but going forward. We wanted to make that the priority.”
Williams dealt for pitchers Freddy Garcia and Jose Contreras before the trading deadline. Then, this winter, he decided not to bring back Magglio Ordonez and made what has been among the most effective trade of the offseason, dealing Carlos Lee to the Brewers for speedy Scott Podsednik, who led baseball with 27 stolen bases. In the process, Williams added $10 million in payroll, bringing the team’s total to $75 million.
“The most difficult decisions came this offseason when you decide to move a guy like Carlos Lee, who you know is going to go to the other league and you’re going to be watching in the All-Star Game,” Williams said. “You lose a lot of sleep.”
The team has cooled slightly lately, but its fast start (17-7 in April) has given it enough of a jump in the standings that it should be in playoff contention come September.
The Sox’ success has come despite a lineup as flimsy as a wet paper towel. They have hit .255 (ninth in the AL) and have gotten consistent performances from only Podsednik and Taduhito Iguchi. With the lineup slumping, it has been left to the pitching staff to carry the Sox, and they’ve done the job. Sox pitchers have a 3.51 ERA, second in the AL, and the team has gotten some surprising performances from starter Jon Garland (a league-leading eight victories) and closer Dustin Hermanson (11 saves in 11 chances).
“We haven’t been swinging the bats as well as I think we can swing [them] but our pitching staff’s given us opportunities to win games,” said first-base coach Tim Raines. “I think it’s just a matter of time before we get clicking offensively and start winning games going away.”
The Sox have always been the second team in the Second City and even their ever-growing win total has not changed that. They have drawn 22,858 fans a game, 24th in MLB, still struggling to get out of the shadows of the Cubs on the North Side. Wrigley Field draws scores of fans each day while locals derisively refer to U.S. Cellular Field as the “ball mall.”
“Never,” Guillen responds when asked if his team can become Chicago’s team. “We have to win first, then maybe it will be a White Sox town. This town has been a Cubs town for so long you cannot turn the switch in two weeks.”
A trip to the World Series may do the trick for this town starved for a baseball title. While Boston grabbed more attention with its futility, the real title drought is here. The Cubs have not captured the crown since 1908 and the Sox since 1917. The Sox have not even been to the Series since 1959 and there is nothing cute about their struggles like a Bambino, billy goat or black cat.
Now, the team and the city pin their hopes on a 41-year-old Venezuelan manager who preaches the gospel of small ball and team chemistry and punctuates his sentences with language saltier than a soft pretzel. Guillen has become the face of the franchise, and the former shortstop was given a contract extension last week after a not-so-2005 negotiation that took 10 minutes on the team’s plane ride home from Texas.
“I’ve been in this town for so long they know what they’re going to get from me,” Guillen said. “I don’t feel like I’m part of the White Sox organization. I feel like I’m part of Chicago. I played here for so many years and now I’m driving the boat.”
Sox fans are enjoying the ride.
