A certain former White Sox farmhand appeared on the television
inside Chicago's clubhouse late last Friday night at the
Metrodome in Minneapolis. Michael Jordan's visage loomed there
for all to see as he stood on the brink of leading the Bulls to
their sixth championship in the past eight years. By contrast,
Jordan's former parent club had just lost for the 38th time in
its first 64 games this season. The players were pulling off the
uniforms of a franchise that hadn't won a championship in 80
years—and was well on its way to 81.
Jerry Reinsdorf, who owns the Bulls and the White Sox, can thank
his NBA team for gobbling up most of Chicago's attention in
recent months, but it won't be much longer before the White Sox
will begin enduring direct and humiliating comparisons with the
rejuvenated Cubs, who swept their crosstown rivals in
interleague play two weeks ago. Soon it will become sport in
Chicago to crack wise about that awful smell emanating from the
South Side, from those malodorous Sox. "We stink," said
righthander Jaime Navarro after a recent shutout loss against
the Tigers. "You call this a team? Bull. It's like a cemetery, a
bunch of dead dogs. It's not fun anymore. We've looked like a
Triple A team out there."
To locate one of the team's main weaknesses, Navarro need look
no further than the mirror. Masquerading as the ace of the White
Sox, Navarro had a 5-8 record with a 5.28 ERA at week's end. No
White Sox starter had an ERA below 4.77, and the 5.67 team mark
was the worst in the league. Meanwhile, the team was 12th in the
league in fielding percentage, thanks largely to rookie
shortstop Mike Caruso and second baseman Ray Durham, who have
combined for 24 errors. And on offense, Frank Thomas has often
griped that the umps have unfairly enlarged his strike zone and
that he's seen few good pitches. Also outfielder Mike Cameron,
the team's top prospect, was hitting .207 and nearly got sent to
the minors last week. "If games are won with pitching and
defense, then it doesn't take a genius to add up why we're
losing," third baseman Robin Ventura says. "Bad defense can make
pitchers throw bad pitches, which puts extra pressure on the
offense. The problems tend to snowball." After 67 games the Sox
hadn't had a winning streak longer than two games and were 11
1/2 games behind the Indians in the Central Division and 12 1/2
behind the Red Sox in the wild-card race.
With a mid-range $36.8 million payroll, the White Sox are
receiving precious little bang for the buck. Reinsdorf has
admitted it was a mistake to commit $75 million before last
season to free agents Albert Belle and Navarro, two players the
team would love to be rid of if anybody would take them. What's
worse, those inflated contracts may force general manager Ron
Schueler to trade Ventura, the team's most popular player,
rather than watch him leave as a free agent after the season.
For all of Reinsdorf's rhetoric last year about having a more
fan-friendly team, he still signed Wil Cordero, an admitted wife
beater, and is stuck with Belle, who isn't exactly lovable.
"We're being told to be more fan friendly, but what good does
all that do when you're not winning?" Belle says. "What is there
to be happy about? It's difficult for me; it should be difficult
for all of us."
It's not surprising that the White Sox attendance, which
averages 15,829, ranks 26th in the majors, but it is a little
shocking that the team is being outdrawn by the Chicago Fire of
Major League Soccer. Then again, who wants to watch miserable
men play ugly baseball?
Meanwhile, rookie manager Jerry Manuel, an admirer of Gandhi, is
trying desperately to remain patient, the calm eye in a surly
storm. "We have a lot of young players, and growth is painful,"
Manuel says. "As a tooth grows into a baby's mouth, that can
hurt. We're teething now, and I sure hope that means that we're
growing, because we're in a lot of pain."
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Issue date: June 22, 1998
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