A new season began Friday night on the South Side, where the post-Pedro Grifol era of the Chicago White Sox started in their City Series matchup against the Cubs.
It should be an interesting stretch run for the Sox, a team with nothing to lose and nowhere to hide.
Interim manager Grady Sizemore had absolutely no pressure on him, knowing that general manager Chris Getz already announced the next guy in his seat will come from outside the organization. While some took Getz’s declaration as preemptive strike to stop any campaigning for or by Ozzie Guillen and A.J. Pierzynski, the criteria also would seem to exclude Sizemore.
Maybe Sizemore can change his boss’ mind with a late-season rush toward mediocrity?
“My focus really is on tonight,” Sizemore said before Friday’s game. “I have so much to go through right now, there’s a lot on my plate. It would be foolish to look past today.”
One day at a time? That’s the kind of outside-the-box thinking that could lead to bigger and better things.
Sox players, back home after tying the American League record in Oakland with 21 consecutive losses, have no pressure on them either. Getz and Sizemore told them to forget about individual stats and play for each other.
“I think our big talk is we’ve just got to go do it one day at a time now,” first baseman Andrew Vaughn said, repeating the new mantra. “We’ve got seven weeks left. Let’s push hard. Let’s get 1 percent better every day, have fun out there, play good baseball.”
One percent better is a laudable goal. That incremental increase might even lift their major-league worst average of .216 to a more respectable .220 by the end of the season.
Baby steps.
And it makes sense that if there was no pressure on Sizemore or the players, there certainly was none on Getz, who had the complete backing of Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf in spite of the team’s “March on 120.” Getz has the future of the organization in his hands and a fresh start.
So how important is it for the Sox to avoid that number?
“I don’t think anyone in this organization wants to be associated with having a record we could potentially have,” Getz said at the outset of one of his patented long-winded answers.
Getz reminded the media he already traded Dylan Cease, Erick Fedde, Michael Kopech and Tommy Pham, suggesting anyone trying to avoid such a record would have kept those talents.
“That said, there is always something to play for in this game,” he said. “Grady and I have talked about that at length. We want our players to play for something greater than themselves.”
I think he meant playing for each other instead of trying to compile stats that would lead to a bigger paycheck from a team not owned by Reinsdorf, but I could be wrong. Maybe he thinks they’re more altruistic than the rest of the professional sports world.
Either way, the taint of the Sox’s 28-89 start was allegedly removed Thursday by the dismissal of Grifol, who was replaced by a man who didn’t seem all that interested in managing before he got the call from Getz.
“Never saw that coming,” Sizemore said. “No, never saw that coming.”
Well, who did? Charlie Montoyo was supposed to be the interim, according to most speculation. He was fired in the so-called Pedro purge and left without saying a word to the local media in his two seasons.
Some radio reporter compared Sizemore to Robin Ventura, who was minding his own business in 2011 as an adviser to Sox director of player development Buddy Bell when then-GM Ken Williams asked him to replace Ozzie Guillen.
Coincidentally, when asked who influenced him the most, Sizemore gave two names from his playing days in Cleveland: manager Buddy Bell and coach Sandy Alomar Jr.
Through no fault of his own, Sizemore’s name will now appear alongside Grifol’s in the record books, whether he manages again or not. It’s not fair, but he could’ve hung up on Getz. No one would’ve blamed him.
Column: Real change for the Chicago White Sox can’t happen until there’s a real change at the top
Any thoughts of the Sox breaking the modern-day record of 120 losses was muted in the clubhouse.
“In baseball, the longer you play, you develop a … I don’t want to call it a thick skin,” John Brebbia said. “It’s a thick ear. Like you hear a lot of stuff all the time and you just learn to focus on what you can do.
“You hear it and all that stuff, but at the same time, it’s just noise.”
The Sox reliever known as “Rain Man” couldn’t have said it better. A thick ear is needed by everyone in the Sox organization, from Reinsdorf down to the clubhouse managers. Unlike the 1962 New York Mets, an expansion team that set the record 62 years ago, the 2024 Sox won’t be remembered as “loveable” losers.
Unlike a contender in a late-season stretch run trying to figure out the magic number to get them into October, the Sox’s magic number was 15 — wins needed to avoid 120 losses.
They already are assured of being remembered as one of the worst teams in modern history. The key is not being the absolute worst.
Who said there is nothing left to watch?
