Before the game, Joe Nossek was asked the question of the day: What were his thoughts on the long season ahead?
“We’re going to have to wait and watch,” said the White Sox veteran, who’s beginning his 25th season as a major-league coach. “But we’re going to be exciting.”
Nine innings later, after the Sox had come from behind for a 5-4 victory over the Texas Rangers, Nossek was pleased with his prediction.
“I told you we were going to be a fun club to watch,” Nossek observed. “A lot of good things are going to happen.”
What happened had been predicted even before the Sox had assembled for spring training. To win, they would have to overpower the opposition to compensate for mediocre pitching.
Jaime Navarro, who made the start, gave up four runs in the first two innings. The Sox eventually caught up, and tied the score in the fifth on a home run by rookie Magglio Ordonez and then went ahead to stay two innings later on Ordonez’s bases-loaded single.
“Sometimes, it’s going to take us a while to get our offense going,” bullpen coach Art Kusnyer observed. “We’re going to give everyone a run for their money. But there will come a time when our bullpen will have to hold ’em.”
And the Sox did just that–responding with five scoreless innings. Matt Karchner got the last three outs for the save, with the help of Albert Belle’s good running catch in left-center that robbed Lee Stevens of an extra-base hit for the second out.
The victory snapped a five-game opening home-game losing streak and was played in chilly weather before a disappointing Comiskey Park paid crowd of 25,358, the Sox’s smallest Opening Day crowd since 1975.
Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, watching from his skybox, conceded he had been hoping for a near-sellout.
“I don’t understand it,” Reinsdorf said. “But I don’t think I should be talking about it. The important thing is we won and our young players came through.”
No question that Ordonez, rookie shortstop Mike Caruso, second baseman Ray Durham, first baseman Greg Norton and center-fielder Mike Cameron made major contributions. This seemed to prove the truth in Robin Ventura’s spring observation in which he emphasized that the veterans would “feed off” the younger players.
“They’re going to have a lot of energy and will be a big part in our success,” Ventura predicted. “That’s one of the good things when a club has a good mix of veterans and younger players.”
It was the first time in Comiskey Park for rookie manager Jerry Manuel and he understandably was pleased with the victory, even more so because it was achieved without major help from sluggers Frank Thomas, Belle and Ventura. Together, they had four of the club’s 11 hits but drove in only one run.
“Maybe they’re going to be our table-setters,” Manuel said, with a laugh.
Before the game, Manuel expressed surprise the Sox had been booed on the road. Ventura was booed in Texas and Belle got the raspberries in Tampa Bay.
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“I don’t think that’s going to happen here, not before our home fans,” Manuel insisted.
Navarro was booed as early as the first inning when the Rangers raked him for three runs on four hits and a walk. He had to face eight batters before he got the third out.
Said Navarro: “I could hear some grumbling. I can’t say I blame them. I had to tune them out. When I hear that I know it’s up to me. I have to go out and do it.”
Navarro didn’t quite do it and was taken out after he had thrown 98 pitches in four innings.
Navarro wasn’t surprised he was taken off the hook.
“We have some good hitters on this team,” he said.
It’s a good thing too. Sometimes, but not always, the best defense is a good offense.