Virtual reality
Nobody’s sold. Well, at least not many outside the physical enormity we call Chicagoland.
First-rounders, they say, victims of an easy Oakland, Boston, or Los Angeles rout. France has a better offensive attack, others opine. Yet they keep on winning and disproving their critics, week after week.
The Chicago White Sox are 74-39 (a .655 winning percentage), lead their division by 12 games over the Cleveland Indians, and yet they get less props than a poor man’s Gallagher. They’re destined to be the No. 1 seed this fall in the American League playoffs, and still the same question pursues manager Ozzie Guillen week after week:
Are they Fa Real?
Heck, it took taking two out of three this week in Yankee Stadium to convince a good number of people. Then again, not to take anything away from a great series for the White Sox, but the Yankees are a team that was swept by baseball’s worst — the 38-76 Kansas City Royals.
Perhaps a bigger and better test for these small-ball slapsters is this weekend, when they arrive at Fenway Park for a three-game series against the Red Sox, who have won 11 games in a row at the confines. The top two teams in the American League (as determined by an unbiased avenue we call the record, A’s fans) go head-to-head in a series that could finally form a national identity for the White Sox.
Touting the AL’s best pitching staff, with possible Cy Youngers Mark Buehrle and Jon Garland, the Sox (Blanche) need to use the weekend as a barometer for just how good they can be come October. If they can hold the Sox (Rouge) offense, the best in baseball, in check, it will go a long way to proving to the rest of baseball that they’re determined not to become the 2005 equivalent of the 2001 Seattle Mariners, a team that choked come playoff time after winning a record number of regular season games.
The AL’s best pitching against the AL’s best hitting. That, my friends, makes for a tantalizing weekend. Cue the ubiquitous “Possible Playoff Preview” alarm.
The last time they met, of course, the Sox and Sox split a four-game series in the dump formerly known as Comiskey. The Pale Hose scored 19 runs in that series (as opposed to six in their just-completed three-game set at New York), a departure from the norm. The White Sox are batting just .261 as a team, 11th in the American League.
In fact, it’s the reason even many of their fans look at the White Sox and start thinking about the Bears and Blackhawks for reasons we can’t even begin to understand. We’ve seen all-pitch, no-hit teams in the playoffs before, and it’s not pretty. You need pitching first and foremost to win in October, but there has to be a balance. You need the timely hit. You need the heroic home run. Scott Podsednik ain’t delivering a 12th-inning blast, we’ll tell you that much.
For that reason, there’s talk of the team picking up Ken Griffey Jr., provided they can sneak him through waivers and by the Yankees (Brian Cashman has said they won’t put in a claim). A Chicago columnist — apparently desperate for either a story or to hear a lot of more ridiculous Hawk Harrelson, “Put it on the boooooooard….yes!” homer-to-the-11th-degree exclamations — suggested the White Sox may want to go out and get Rafael Palmeiro. Doesn’t Carl Everett do enough finger-pointing already?
Look, Buehrle and Garland are studs, Freddie Garcia is back on his game, and Orlando Hernandez has pitched well, even at the age of 76. The bullpen is solid, but can anyone in their right mind imagine Dustin Hermanson (even with 30 saves under his belt,) being what Keith Foulke was a year ago? Chris Deluca of the Sun-Times even suggests the White Sox try out Double-A’s Bobby Jenks this weekend in place of the aching Hermanson.
Is Everett Chicago’s David Ortiz? Podsednik IS their Dave Roberts, but Joe Crede, whenever he’s done dropping foul popups, is nowhere near their Bill Mueller.
Paul Konerko is having another solid power year, and Jermaine Dye is serviceable. But the White Sox don’t have a single batter over .300. The offense on the whole is serviceable, yet dysfunctional, and goes a long way to illustrating just how damned good the pitching has been.
If today were Oct. 3, the White Sox would face the Angels in the ALDS, while the Red Sox would get (gulp) the Oakland A’s. That’s all subject to change, of course, something the charging Beane-eaters seem poised to do.
But head down to the hustle and bustle that is Kenmore on game night and ask 100 people (provided you can find 100 that are non-biased and / or sober) which team of those four they think will go to the World Series, and I guarantee less than seven percent answer, “The White Sox, of course.” Seven. Mark it.
That’s a level of respect that the White Sox can’t seem to attain, no matter how many games they win. Winning in Fenway Park, where the home team is dominant, is a different story, however. If Ozzie’s boys finish the week taking four of six from the Red Sox and Yankees, people will be talking on Monday, I assure you.
The talk will shift from a general fear of Oakland to the White Sox and small-ball. And suddenly, the South Side Boys will be For Real.
Of course, if we’re still not convinced, watch out for that first-round loss as well.
