A curious thing happened a few hours before the White Sox continued their late-season march on last place with a 5-2 loss to the Texas Rangers at Comiskey Park.
Former outfielder-catcher Carlton Fisk, who has mostly been watching games and not been happy about it since the team started playing Ron Karkovice two weeks ago, was walking past Jim Fregosi`s office while the manager was talking with reporters.
”Hey, Pudge,” yelled Fregosi, whose relations with Fisk have been strained. When Fisk came into the office, Fregosi asked: ”Do you have an outfielder`s glove?”
Fisk, who has publicly expressed his displeasure at his recent benching and being forced to play left field earlier in the year, said he did.
”Would you like to play outfield tonight?” Fregosi asked.
Fisk seemed puzzled, not only to be called in by the manager with reporters present, but about the question.
”Are you being serious?” Fisk asked.
”Yeah,” Fregosi said. ”Dead serious.”
As it turned out, Fregosi was joking about the request for Fisk to play left field Friday, but he hasn`t been in a joking mood about the way Fisk has been complaining about his role with the Sox.
”I`m sick and tired of hearing about Carlton Fisk,” Fregosi grumbled.
But it was Fregosi who decided to play out that little scene in front of reporters, which was apparently meant to show Fisk who was boss and that Fisk could find himself any place in the lineup at the whim of the manager.
That apparently was made clear to Fisk early Friday afternoon as Fregosi clearly established his league lead in meetings by getting together with Fisk. ”I had a conversation with Mr. Fisk,” Fregosi said before meeting with nine selected young players for reasons he declined to disclose. ”Mr. Fisk will do anything that I ask him to do to help this ballclub. Whether it`s playing first base or left field or catching or anything else. I will use him just about any place.”
To that, a contrite Fisk, who had complained earlier in the week about being mistreated in his golden years in baseball, responded: ”We had a nice conversation. I`d like to stay and play and contribute and help out.”
Friday, though, with Joe Cowley on the mound in front of 13,280 fans, what it meant was that the Sox needed pitching help the most.
The erratic right-hander, who lasted less than two innings in two of his last three starts, reached the fifth inning this time.
After leaving runners in scoring position the first three innings, Cowley was knocked out in the fifth when Texas scored four runs.
