BASEBALL PLAYOFFS : Desperate White Sox to See What Bo Knows : American League: He will be designated hitter tonight, but team wasn’t happy about his comments after Game 2.

The name is Bo.

There’s no need to further identify him with a last name. White Sox coach Terry Bevington doesn’t even bother putting the last name of “Jackson,” when he posts the daily lineup card. He is the only player in the White Sox lineup whose last name never appears.

“I think everyone knows who we’re talking about,” Bevington said. “He doesn’t need a last name. I’m not even sure everyone in here even knows what it is.

“I mean, I’ve never heard anyone say, ‘Hey, Jackson.’ ”

Bo Jackson, who once was acclaimed the world’s greatest athlete, and today is considered a modern-day phenomenon, now is being asked to perform perhaps the greatest feat of his life.

Bo is being asked to resuscitate the White Sox in these American League playoffs, and as his own teammates will attest, pulling this off would be the upset of all upsets.

The White Sox trail the Toronto Blue Jays, two games to none, in this best-of-seven championship series, and in what the White Sox are calling their biggest game in 10 years, they have turned to Bo for help, making him the designated hitter tonight.

Bo has sat bored on the bench these last two games, as the White Sox have failed in key situations.

“They haven’t even looked like the same team,” said Joe Carter, Blue Jay right fielder. “Pressure just has a certain way of doing different things to different individuals, and the White Sox didn’t know what to expect as far as the nervousness and anxiety.

“That’s a very tight team right now, and it didn’t help them at all with their own fans booing them.

“As a player, you actually feel kind of sorry for them.”

Well, anyone who feels sorry for Bo soon lives to regret it.

“I love to sit back and listen to people talk about me,” Bo said, “and then go out and do what they say I can’t or won’t do. I love proving people wrong.”

Seattle linebacker Brian Bosworth, who figured it was impossible to play two sports, was left flattened in the end zone on “Monday Night Football.” Nolan Ryan, who thought Bo was simply a football player in a baseball uniform, brushed him back and then watched Bo hit a 461-foot homer.

The medical world, who deemed it impossible for a man to play professional baseball after undergoing an operation that left him with an artificial hip, is rewriting its journals.

“Bo is the only baseball player that you can sense can do whatever he wants,” White Sox left fielder Tim Raines said, “and you can’t wait to see him do it.”

Jackson, who might be playing his final major league season, made it clear that he wasn’t too wild about sitting on the bench during these playoffs. Instead of defusing any controversy Wednesday when he was not used as a pinch-hitter in the ninth inning for Joey Cora, he magnified it.

“We’ve been playing for two days with one man short,” Jackson said after the game, “and it shows.”

Was he surprised Manager Gene Lamont didn’t relent when the crowd was chanting for him?

“Maybe he didn’t have his hearing aid turned on loud enough,” he said.

Clearly, Jackson’s remarks were a shot at first baseman Dan Pasqua. He was playing only because Lamont was employing Frank Thomas as the designated hitter, being cautious with Thomas’ tender triceps.

It became quite apparent Thursday that Jackson’s remarks hardly were appreciated, drawing anger from his teammates and a rare reprimand by Lamont.

“I would think that if Bo struck out four times in a game,” Lamont said, “no one would have said, ‘We played one man short tonight.’ The reason I don’t like comments like that is that they’re directed toward the player.

“We win together and we lose together.”

The players, many of whom consider Jackson one of their closest friends, appeared even more irritated than Lamont. Sure, Pasqua was hitless in six at-bats and committed an error. Yet, the entire team was hitting only .095 with runners in scoring position this series, and their Nos. 4 through 6 hitters have stranded 36 runners.

“‘He’s not a one-man show,” White Sox shortstop Ozzie Guillen said. “He’s not the whole team. If we’re one man short, I hope we get Babe Ruth.”

Said Raines: “I think everybody here should be upset. I don’t think that’s right. There are so many things that go on for nine innings, not any one player loses games.

“I feel bad for Pasqua, and bad for the team.”

Jackson refused to discuss the subject again Thursday after the White Sox’s workout, which was delayed 2 1/2 hours when their chartered flight had mechanical problems in Chicago. He showed little elation returning to the lineup and promised nothing.

“Y’all the ones who put this label on me,” said Jackson, who hit the game-winning home run in Chicago’s division-clinching game. “I don’t consider those things being heroics or dramatics. I just try to play some ball.

“I’ll probably be excited (today). This is a first for me, you know. I’ve been to the playoffs with the Raiders, but never in baseball.

“I really don’t know what to expect.”

Ken Gonzalez, the scout who signed Jackson in 1986 when everyone gave up on the idea that he would ever play baseball again, made no predictions. Yet, he says, don’t be surprised if something magical happens, either.

“I’m not leaving that TV set,” said Gonzalez, who will be in his Wichita hotel room. “There’s something about that man. When he’s in the spotlight, he has that dramatic flair.

“Bo’s been waiting a long time for this night, and I’ve got a feeling we might all be remembering this one.”