The White Sox’s season ended Friday in Seattle exactly the way it had begun in Tucson in February: Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf addressed his employees.
In the gloomy postgame clubhouse at Safeco Field, Reinsdorf stood in front of Sox players and did his impersonation of a manager.
He told the players to remember exactly the way they felt after being swept out of the playoffs by the wild-card Mariners and to use it for motivation when the team begins the 2001 season in February.
The sting of the sweep eventually will fade, but whether the Sox will learn any lessons from their division series nightmare remains to be seen.
After spending the last three months of the regular season on cruise control, the Sox lost three very winnable games to Seattle.
“It happened too quickly,” third baseman Herbert Perry said. “If you learn anything from this, it’s to try and focus more at the end and don’t be so happy with winning the division. After we clinched we kind of relaxed and never got back into the flow of the game.”
The Sox entered the playoffs with six losses in their final eight games, and the hitters were already showing signs of cooling off. While pitching and defense were worrisome, it was anemic hitting that ultimately did the team in.
The Sox hit .185 and scored only seven runs in the three games, none after the third inning. In the regular season they hit .286 with a league-leading 978 runs scored, including a .301 batting average with runners in scoring position.
One carryover from the regular season was the sudden dropoff in hitting in day games.
The Sox hit only .274 during the daylight, going 26-30, as opposed to .292 at night with a 69-37 record.
After the Game 3 loss, Frank Thomas said he had no idea why the team didn’t perform as well in the daylight and criticized the postseason TV schedule that had the Sox-Mariners series played entirely in the afternoon so the Yankees-A’s could be in prime time.
Thomas also blamed the shadows at Safeco Field for the team’s inability to perform up to its capabilities in Game 3. Thomas’ critics, silent throughout his MVP-caliber season, likely will label him a whiner.
Truth be told, however, the Mariners also were complaining about the ominous shadows, albeit between sips of their victory champagne.
“We had six hits and they had three hits,” Seattle second baseman Mark McLemore said. “I’m not taking anything away from Aaron Sele or James Baldwin, but come on. You can’t see the ball’s rotation. You can barely see the ball.
“Part of the time you’re going from sunlight into shadow. Part of the time you’re going from shadow into sunlight. And part of the time you’re going from shadow into sunlight into shadow. And he’s pitching from 60 feet 6 inches, and you have one second to swing. Come on!”
Despite the bitter ending for the Sox, their future remains bright. But repeating their playoff run will be more difficult, with Cleveland expected to spend whatever it takes to regain its prominence and Detroit expected to shell out some money as well.
After the All-Star break, the Indians were 51/2 games better than the Sox’s 40-35 record, while Detroit was only a half-game worse than the Sox at 41-37.
An up-and-coming Kansas City team could also join the picture with a little more pitching help.
Carlton Fisk cautioned recently that this year’s success doesn’t mean it will happen all over again in 2001.
“You can’t expect that just because they’re doing it this year they’re going to do it next year,” Fisk said. “I’ve been on that side of the street before, thinking because you have a team that experiences success, therefore you have a perennial contender. That doesn’t always happen.”
The 1983 Sox were supposed to be a dynasty in waiting after acquiring Hall of Fame-bound Tom Seaver before the ’84 season. But injuries and slumping players led to a 74-88 record and the Sox dropped off the map in the late ’80s.
The 2001 Sox have youth on their side. Everyone will be a year older and presumably a year wiser, and the rotation could be strengthened by the addition of 6-foot-11-inch Olympian Jon Rauch, Baseball America’s minor league player of the year.
Catcher Charles Johnson figures to leave via free agency, as the Sox won’t likely give in to his request for a five-year deal, especially at between $10 million and $14 million per year.
Magglio Ordonez, Keith Foulke and Paul Konerko, all of whom are arbitration-eligible, will see their salaries doubled, tripled or even quadrupled in the off-season.
Jose Valentin could be re-signed, but only if he doesn’t price himself out of the market.
The Sox likely will enter the Alex Rodriguez derby and the Mariners’ shortstop says he likes the idea of shortened fences at Comiskey Park.
But unless Reinsdorf can come up with a creative contract that puts the majority of the money at the end of the deal, the Sox won’t be a serious contender for Rodriguez’s services.
Harold Baines said he wants to return, but Baines turns 42 in March and wouldn’t get much playing time with Thomas and Konerko around.
“I’ve always considered this to be home and I enjoy playing for this organization,” Baines said.
He has “no idea” whether the Sox will ask him to return.
“I want to play somewhere,” Baines said. “Who knows what Frank’s situation is, whether he’ll go back to first or stay a DH?”
With an 0-for-9 showing in the playoffs, Thomas will have a long winter to wonder what happened. But this was the first season in which Thomas truly learned to ignore his critics and he’ll spend most of the off-season in Los Angeles, away from them.
“I could care less about that,” Thomas said. “We gave it our all this year, and we gave it our all in the postseason. The bottom line is we just didn’t get it done. I’m not concerned at all. I’ve been poked and prodded too much to worry about stuff like that.”
The Sox wouldn’t have made the playoffs without Thomas’ bat, and they won’t make them in 2001 if he is unable to put the last week in the rear-view mirror.
