White Sox fans are always worrying about something.
If it’s not attendance (How can the Sox get only 32,000 at night for a game with a contender when the Cubs and the awful Padres just drew 38,000 that afternoon?), then it’s Frank Thomas’ truly big hurt (Will his left arm heal in time for Toronto?) or it’s the manager (Will Gene Lamont doze through a key part of the ballgame?).
Admit it. You were worried even Monday night that Lamont was going to leave a seemingly fatigued Wilson Alvarez in too long in that eighth inning. After all, if little Rich Amaral could hit the ball to the wall for a sacrifice fly, then certainly the next guy, Ken Griffey Jr., could hit one over the wall for a game-tying homer.
But forget it. Griffey popped out, and all ended well. And now the worrying can stop-at least for a few days. Instead, it’s time to look back on a satisfying season-albeit a season fraught with worry.
Back in the winter, the concern was pitching. The Sox needed a No. 2 guy to go with Jack McDowell. There was some hope that Alex Fernandez and Wilson Alvarez would pitch to their vast potential and that Kirk McCaskill might get himself straightened out. But hope is for the North Side. Cub fans hope. Sox fans worry.
The worries didn’t go away when Ron Schueler announced, with apparent delight, the signing of a free-agent pitcher, sore-armed veteran Dave Stieb. Great. Another rehab project for Herm Schneider, who was already busy on Ozzie Guillen and Bo Jackson. If they’re going to sign a free-agent pitcher with a bad arm, why not sign a free-agent outfielder with a bad back, like Ellis Burks? Even if they had to wheel him up to the plate, Burks, always a dangerous hitter with Boston, could contribute more than the guys who played right field in ’92.
What do you know? Schueler did indeed sign Ellis Burks.
Well, the season began, with Burks in good health and Stieb on the DL. Soon he was joined there by Tim Raines, who tore a thumb ligament while stealing second during the home opener. That was only one of the bad things that happened that day to offset that afternoon’s special moment-Bo Jackson’s coming all the way back, to a thunderous ovation, with a pinch home run into the right-field seats. The bad? A loss to the Yankees and a grand slam by Jim Leyritz off the troubled Bobby Thigpen.
The Sox moved on reasonably well in Raines’ absence, but few people seemed to notice because the Bulls’ journey to their third straight NBA title took until mid-June. Then the Sox gave Carlton Fisk his night at Comiskey Park, and a week later they gave him his pink slip in Cleveland, of all places. Finally people started noticing the Sox, but for the wrong reasons.
Stieb came and went, Jason Bere came and stayed. Rodney Bolton tried his hand at the No. 5 rotation spot, usually with frightening results. The Sox sputtered along. The concerns returned: How can they only be four or five games over .500 when they should be at least 15-20 over? Why do the fans start “the Wave” when the Sox have the tying run at second base in the bottom of the eighth? Don’t they know there’s a rally going on? Don’t they know there’s a pennant to be won?
And why is it only on Saturday nights, for the fireworks displays, that they can get crowds of 40,000?
An answer for that last one developed soon enough. You start with 44,000 seats. Of those, about 18,000 are in the upper deck. And of those, 10,000 are so far away that they are an extremely tough sell-unless the front office mounts an ad campaign to make them attractive (like, as author Doug Bukowski suggested, “See the stars from the stars”). So you’re down to 34,000. Be happy when the Sox draw 34,000, even if the second-division team on the North Side draws 38,000. And understand, happily, that the Cubs, not the Sox, are Iowa’s darlings.
Undaunted by the soft support, the Sox took off on a six-game winning streak at the end of July to take a five-game lead. They added Tim Belcher as the No. 5 starter (he couldn’t do any worse than Bolton), and all seemed set. But then the lead began to evaporate, the worries returned, and it took three big hits to chase them away.
– Aug. 13, Comiskey Park-With the Royals ahead 4-2 in the last of the eighth and ace reliever Jeff Montgomery poised to nail down the victory that would cut the lead to 1 1/2 games, Warren Newson singled home the run that made it 4-3. And then Thomas, after having struck out three times that night, drilled a two-out, two-run, 437-foot homer to put the lead back to 3 1/2 games.
– Sept. 14, at Kansas City-The Sox had lost the series opener the night before, and the lead over second-place Texas was down to 2 1/2. The Rangers were at home against the lowly Indians. The third-place Royals were ahead 3-2 in the seventh. The Sox tied it on a bases-loaded walk, and Ivan Calderon, back with his old club after an absence of nearly three years, doubled down the left-field line off sidewinder Stan Belinda to clear the bases. The Sox won 8-3, Texas lost to Cleveland. The lead was 3 1/2 again.
– Sept. 18, at Oakland-Texas, 3 1/2 back, was routing California. The Sox were tied 1-1 in the ninth, with Dennis Eckersley on the mound. No chance. The A’s would somehow get a run in their half and the lead would be 2 1/2 again. But Thomas singled to right, and Robin Ventura hammered one over the wall in right-center for a 3-1 victory. And then came the news that the Angels had rallied to beat Texas.
The lead was 4 1/2. The race was over. All that was left was the clincher. That came Monday night.
So now, the worries return:
How bad is Big Frank’s arm? Will he be ready Tuesday night? Has Roberto Hernandez lost something off his fastball? Will Alvarez’s arm fall off sometime next spring? Will they re-sign Raines and Burks? And why cut Donn Pall and keep lefty Chuck Cary to walk left-handed hitters or give up three-run homers to the Bernardo Britos of the world?
So much to worry about, so little time.
