In their eternal quest for peace, prosperity and Point C, the White Sox are guaranteed nothing.
It was Jerry Reinsdorf, the team’s chairman, who devised this alphabetical method of charting progress. That is, you start at Point A, then fire the general manager who can’t get you past Point B, then fire the manager until he reaches Point C, presumably a championship of some sort.
Anyway, when the Sox succumbed passively to Toronto Tuesday night, Reinsdorf likened them his other account, the Bulls. They huffed and puffed before finally shaking the Detroit Pistons, after which the Bulls went on to three consecutive NBA titles. The young and restless Bulls grew and matured until they became polished and unbeatable. In other words, the Roman Colosseum wasn’t built in a day. And it didn’t even have super suites.
Unfortunately for the Sox half of this equation, basketball is more stable. The Bulls’ roster, as George Bell would say, is only about 48 percent as large as a baseball team’s. Basketball has salary caps and stability. Baseball is an industry of transients. Point C for players isn’t necessarily a World Series ring. It’s arbitration and free agency. This year’s Toronto Blue Jays contain 11 different names from last year’s cast that won it all.
Take the 1984 White Sox, please. After winning their division by 20 games the previous season, the Sox added Tom Seaver to their rotation. No less an authority than Eddie Einhorn pronounced their starting pitchers as the greatest in horsehide history. The White Sox were a lock to win again. Nobody warned, however, that it would take 10 years. The White Sox went down the toilet and almost went down to St. Petersburg, Fla., too.
After botching their assignment against Toronto, the White Sox repeated a familiar refrain. Defeat is terrible, but the future is terrific. Well, it is and it isn’t. We’ve seen how things change. In spring training, the White Sox carried too many designated hitters, but it was deemed a nice problem to have. Now, after six games of futility versus Toronto, the White Sox have another problem with designated hitters. Too few. Unless Frank Thomas becomes a $44 million man without a glove.
“Don’t think so,” General Manager Ron Schueler was saying Wednesday. “Frank’s too young to be just a DH. We’ll talk, but there are other ways to go.”
A left-handed batter with some power would help, but first basemen Will Clark of the San Francisco Giants and Rafael Palmeiro of the Texas Rangers needn’t apply. After the White Sox are finished with their IOU’s, their 1993 payroll will come to something like $38.5 million. Schueler wants to pare that to $32 million. He doesn’t discount entering the free-agent marketplace, but binge buying seems out of the question. Reinsdorf, remember, is an apostle for financial responsibility. He likes to win games and not lose money, which doesn’t make him a bad guy.
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Sometime soon, Reinsdorf will meet with Jack McDowell to discuss prospects for compatibility. Money will matter more than love. McDowell prefers to remain in Chicago, but he’s not all that sure about the organization’s commitment to excellence. What the White Sox offer him will influence that opinion. Sound like Greg Maddux revisited? The Cubs let him escape, imagining they could find another No. 1 pitcher among their collection. The Cubs were wrong.
The White Sox possess a splendid array of young and strong arms, but a franchise interested in achieving Point C invites trouble by failing to retain its ace. If Alex Fernandez or Wilson Alvarez beats McDowell out of that role, it should be through a natural succession, not a vacancy. Big difference.
Reinsdorf says the winter will mean fine tuning. Schueler forecasts several changes. White Sox fans, meanwhile, feel either disappointed or detached. They can be as unforgiving as Cubs fans are lenient. Rest assured, though, that St. Petersburg would have loved a ballclub of its very own to boo Tuesday night.