A five-day break might not be the best thing for players who have won 12 of their last 13 games, but it might come in handy for a staff preparing to win its first World Series since 1917.
That’s the feeling of former Arizona manager Bob Brenly and star player Luis Gonzalez, each of whom reminisced about experiencing the same break before their 2001 World Series championship.
“The way the White Sox are pitching, I don’t know if that [break] is going to help them,” said Gonzalez, who got the Series-winning hit in Game 7 against the New York Yankees’ Mariano Rivera. “When you’re on a roll like they are, you want to get the next series going and get that adrenaline going again.”
Gonzalez, a former Cub, has a pretty good pulse on the passion of a city that hasn’t played host to a World Series since 1959, when the Sox lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
“The fans’ emotions will help carry them through the layoff,” Gonzalez said.
The Sox won’t resume workouts until Wednesday morning after beating the L.A. Angels 4-1 in the American League Championship Series. They arrived home early Monday morning and hope to maximize their free time before returning to U.S. Cellular Field.
The Sox have 12 players with postseason experience, but only four have played in a World Series–Jose Contreras, Jermaine Dye, Orlando Hernandez and Timo Perez.
But the biggest task may involve keeping the roster sharp after using only one pinch-runner (Pablo Ozuna) and one reliever (Neal Cotts) in the ALCS.
“It wasn’t that difficult for me because I had such a veteran team,” Brenly recalled. “Those guys didn’t seem to be rattled by anything. I think we took one day off and then gradually got our work in.”
The Sox will need to set up their rotation for the World Series, and left-hander Mark Buehrle would appear to be the favorite to start Game 1 because of his home success and because he would have pitched Tuesday if the ALCS had gone to a sixth game.
But the Sox achieved great success by bringing back Contreras to start Game 1 of the AL Division Series and ALCS and not starting 18-game winner Jon Garland until Game 3 of the ALCS on 12 days of rest.
The major benefit to a long break is allowing a team to set up its rotation for the World Series, which did wonders for the 2001 Diamondbacks. The Angels also had a five-day break before the 2002 World Series–and welcomed the layoff.
As the Sox advance, so will their demands.
“They will have time to handle any distractions,” said Gonzalez, who flew his mother from Tampa in 2001 to attend the Series games in Arizona.
Sox traveling secretary Ed Cassin repeatedly has kept the traveling party informed of the travel plans, and ticket and hotel requests well before each series.
“We just told our players to be adjustable and go with the flow,” Brenly said. “But do what you have to do. I didn’t see anyone complaining.”
