The new ad campaign for the White Sox is “Share the Passion, Show the Swagger,” and it hits all the right notes, as far as those things go.
But I would like to go on record as saying “Show Some Life, For Crying Out Loud” didn’t get a fair shake.
It really doesn’t matter, though. The next time a marketing campaign spurs a team on to a great season will be the first time. It’s usually the other way around.
“This isn’t a sport where you can talk your way into winning or intimidate people,” Sox first baseman Paul Konerko said. “It’s just an everyday thing. You have to have the goods to get it done.”
The Sox had the goods last season, but there was the lingering feeling — lingering in the way that a 72-90 record lingers — that they were short on intensity.
They didn’t need a slogan. They needed an energy stimulus package.
“We as a staff — (manager) Ozzie Guillen, myself and all the coaches — we had to look at ourselves in the mirror and reassess some of the things we had done,” general manager Ken Williams said. “We won the World Series and we came back and followed that up with 90 wins. OK, we were a veteran team, so we said, ‘Go out there and play. You know what it takes to get yourself prepared.’ Well, it got away from us.”
It got away the way Little Bighorn got away. People who knew how to hit forgot how to hit. Pitchers struggled. So did the coaching staff.
A malaise settled over the club, and it never went away. It was as if the entire season were one big shrug.
It was why, early in spring training, Williams very publicly jumped on newcomer Nick Swisher for not hustling to first on a grounder. The two enjoy kidding with each other, but Williams wanted to make sure the message was express-mailed to the team: A lack of effort will not be tolerated.
“He’s a guy who brings a lot of energy, brings a lot of fire,” Swisher said of Williams. “I like it. Hopefully, that set a tone. So far this spring, we’ve been playing our tails off.”
You can see it in the way the Sox are running things. It’s not a football camp, but you can see Williams’ football background coming to the forefront. I hate to say there’s a more businesslike attitude here, because that has become a sports cliche. So let’s call it a perpetual Casual Friday.
“Sometimes in spring training there can be a lot of standing around, a lot of dead time, kind of wasting time,” Konerko said. “The staff has come up with a really good program. We go out and get our work in. We’re out there for two hours, but we’re constantly moving. It’s just good, the best since I’ve been with the White Sox.
“And then the games. I can’t remember the past few years, even in ’05, where we played good baseball during the spring. We’re actually playing pretty solid baseball. Any time there’s a seven-run or less game out here, it’s actually almost a pitchers’ duel.”
The Sox beat the Rockies 5-2 Wednesday, with Mark Buehrle throwing four sharp innings.
This is an 85-victory team. Shortstop Orlando Cabrera will help. So will Swisher, if his oversized personality doesn’t grate on his teammates. Guillen says he’s going to be his loud self again this year, though no one could recall his resorting to whispers last year. At minimum, 2008 should be more entertaining.
“Anybody who is here this year from last year, there’s definitely this thing, ‘OK, we’re not going down that road again,'” Konerko said. “It’s kind of like the fear of that miserable-ness that was last year. There’s definitely a little more urgency — not so much to win the World Series, but to be good.”
Funny what a little embarrassment will do for you. That’s the best motivator of all. The Sox are embarrassed about 2007, as they should be. The important thing now is what they’re going to do about it.
“There’s a little different focus and intensity,” Williams said. “One of the best things that maybe could have happened was some of the criticisms that were levied against all of us during the off-season. Guys showed up in shape ready to go.
“I like that in the second game of the [spring] that Orlando Cabrera turns around to the rest of the bench and says, ‘Hey, let’s go. Spring training or not, I’m here to win.’ Nick Swisher said something similar.”
Wait a second. That sounds suspiciously like passion. Or swagger. Or both.
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rmorrissey@tribune.com
