Throwback White Sox Playing Like It’s 1959

This is another story about baseball in Chicago. So you know it’ll be grim, somewhere.

They’ll put Ryne Sandberg in the Hall of Fame this summer, another reason to open the taverns in Wrigleyville, where, otherwise, another season is destined to pass fruitlessly, if not uneventfully.

The Chicago Cubs are a couple of years from bending their pathetically hopeful aphorism to “Wait till next century,” but if anyone really minds, they don’t speak up much about it. As any Cub fan worth his groundless optimism understands, it could be worse; he could have been raised a White Sox fan.

The White Sox haven’t been World Series champions since 1917 and haven’t even been there since 1959, which sounds pretty bad unless the standard is the Cubs, who last won in 1908 and last attended in 1945.

And, yet, in a city whose residents have little incentive for baseball debate over the local franchises -- It’s a tie, again! -- the White Sox long have been viewed as less competent, less lovable and a farther drive through a dumpier neighborhood.

Even modern White Sox teams have been doomed:

* The 1993 team lost three home games in the American League championship series, ace Jack McDowell lost twice, and the White Sox lost in six games to Toronto.

* The 1994 team was perhaps the best in the American League, and didn’t go to the World Series because there wasn’t one.

* The 2000 team started fast, limped to the finish and lost dismally in the division series, in three games to the Seattle Mariners.

The good teams of the last decade were overtaken by better teams in Cleveland, and the so-so teams of this decade were overtaken by emerging teams in Minnesota, the same power-heavy, pitching-thin rosters leaving the White Sox vulnerable and, ultimately, well short in the bad years and just short in the decent ones.

The White Sox also lugged around an exhausting history of Black Sox and White Flags, Disco Demolition Night and a new ballpark so unlike the homey, retro parks built over the last 20 years -- and so unlike Wrigley Field -- it became known locally as “the Ballmall.”

Mostly, in Chicago, they suffered from not being the Cubs. And, really, what sense does that make?

It speaks to the rigorous climb over organizational flaws and local apathy left to General Manager Kenny Williams, who late last June began his remake of the White Sox and today has his club leading the American League Central.

In eight months, barely a heartbeat when trying to turn a 25-man roster, Williams has remade the pitching staff, deepened the bullpen and given Manager Ozzie Guillen a lineup that is faster on the basepaths, brighter in the batter’s box and quicker into the outfield gaps.

Based in part on Williams’ values and in part on circumstance, the White Sox were redone with pitching and defense, which, Assistant General Manager Rick Hahn granted, “seems a little odd in the American League.”

Since last June 27, Williams has acquired starters Freddy Garcia, Jose Contreras and Orlando Hernandez, closer Dustin Hermanson, designated hitter Carl Everett, left fielder Scott Podsednik, right fielder Jermaine Dye, catcher A.J. Pierzynski and second baseman Tadahito Iguchi. Gone are Magglio Ordonez, Carlos Lee, Roberto Alomar, Jose Valentin, Sandy Alomar and Scott Schoeneweis, among others.

And by this morning, going on a quarter of the way through the season, the White Sox were sporting the best record in baseball, 27-10, and were six games ahead of the second-place Twins.

“You can dream of doing things like this,” said Roland Hemond, the longtime general manager now serving as Williams’ executive advisor. “But it’s not often a club is reconstructed in such a short period of time. The key is to be unafraid to pull the trigger on your convictions. Kenny is very solid. He doesn’t get flustered by the criticism that takes place with that kind of job, and so has the courage to move along with the plan.”

The payroll is $75 million, most in the division, and nearly $20 million more than the Twins’. For his vision and owner Jerry Reinsdorf’s investment, Williams had all but chosen Cito Gaston to replace outgoing manager Jerry Manuel before the 2004 season. Reinsdorf suggested his former shortstop, the spirited Guillen, but left the decision to Williams.

In an interview two winters ago, Williams had asked Guillen, “Are you mature enough?” Guillen had said he was.

Maybe. Anyway, Williams gave him the job.

While driving the White Sox to aggressiveness and sacrifice, Guillen has criticized former players Ordonez, Lee and catcher Miguel Olivo. He outed veteran Frank Thomas, whose recovery from ankle surgery is at least a month away, as one of the carriers of the “horrible” attitude that soaked previous White Sox teams.

In memorable rants, Guillen responded to countryman Ordonez’s criticisms by saying, “Another Venezuelan ... ! ... him! He thinks he’s got an enemy? No, he’s got a big one. He knows I can ... him over in a lot of different ways.”

Of Lee, he said, “We had a guy go into second base as if his wife was turning a double play.”

Although taking potshots at players is a curious way to prove one’s emotional development, Williams, so far, has not reminded Guillen of his original question, or of Guillen’s response.

In fact, Williams told Sports Illustrated this week, “I didn’t hire someone for Hewlett-Packard, IBM or any other Fortune 500 company. I hired a baseball manager.”

Technically, he hired a third base coach, which was the extent of Guillen’s big league coaching experience when he was appointed. The White Sox have surrounded Guillen with friends and mentor-types; bench coach Harold Baines, first base coach Tim Raines, third base coach Joey Cora, hitting coach Greg Walker and pitching coach Don Cooper.

“Ozzie’s been the same guy since he came into the organization 20 years ago, from what I understand,” Hahn said. “Ozzie’s not going to change and Kenny and Jerry brought him in knowing that, and pleased that he wouldn’t. You always know where you stand with Ozzie.”

It has worked so far, though the quick start has at least as much to do with starting pitching as Guillen’s startling venting.

Right-hander Jon Garland, who appeared to have settled into a career of 4.50 ERAs and .500 records and was projected as the fifth starter, is 7-0 with a 2.39 earned-run average after beating the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday night. Staff ace Mark Buehrle is 6-1, free-agent pickup Hernandez is 5-1, Garcia is 3-3 and Contreras is 1-0. None has missed a start, the staff ERA of 3.28 is second in baseball behind only Florida’s, and they’ve won despite an offense that ranks seventh in the American League in runs.

Remarkably, while waiting for middle-of-the-order hitters Paul Konerko (nine home runs, but a .205 average and Dye (.197) to come around, the White Sox have had a lead in every one of their 37 games, a major league record to start a season.

So, these are the White Sox, the best team in baseball in mid-May. Believe it. Or not. You’re entitled. It’s baseball. It’s Chicago. Maybe the bad stuff hasn’t even started yet.

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Bats and Pieces

Maybe it had nothing to do with it, but Tony Pena was to be subpoenaed to testify in a divorce proceeding in the hours after he quit as manager of the Royals. According to the Kansas City Pitch magazine, Kelly Locke claims Pena’s relationship with his wife, Monica Locke, led to the failure of their marriage.

And maybe it had everything to do with it.

Noted 7-Train straphanger John Rocker, trying a comeback with the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League, told the New York Post he would quit if the incessant heckling continued.

“Some of these people act like they have a personal vendetta against me,” he said. “What have I ever done to them?”

Yeah, the gall of judging people without actually knowing them.

And, to ESPN.com: “I’ve taken a lot of ... from a lot of people. Probably more than anybody in the history of this sport. I know Hank and Jackie took a good deal of ... but I guarantee it wasn’t for six years. I just keep thinking: How much am I supposed to take?”

That’s Mr. Aaron and Mr. Robinson to you, pal.

The third basemen the Dodgers ought to be watching: Mike Lamb, Houston; Alex Gonzalez, Tampa Bay; Placido Polanco, Philadelphia; Tony Graffanino, Kansas City; Joe Randa, Cincinnati; Xavier Nady, San Diego.

The riskier alternatives: Scott Spiezio, Seattle; Aaron Boone, Cleveland; Jeff Cirillo, Milwaukee.