Two honeymoons are ending. The Seaver-like arrival of one honeymooner will end the three-season grace period of the other. Welcome, David Wells. Good luck, Jerry Manuel.
Manuel’s dugout seat just heated up considerably–if not unfairly–for those chilly April nights. New GM Ken Williams just out-bargained the rival Indians and the Mets for what Manuel said last season was “the one thing we don’t have.” Now when you say Ace on the South Side, you won’t mean the hardware store.
Wells is a bona fide All-Star Game-starting ace. The Orson-sized Wells is literally and figuratively larger than life. Wells was once the bar-hopping toast of New York. Wells is the biggest pitching acquisition on the North or South Side since the White Sox brought Tom Seaver to Chicago in 1984.
Before throwing a pitch Wells has accomplished a sizable feat, making the Sox a bigger story than the Sammy-Kerry-Wrigley Cubs. Wells will bring star power and swagger to a rotation that was arguably the least impressive ever to make baseball’s postseason. Wells will dwarf doubts about fifth starter Kip Wells.
On the NFL’s semifinal Sunday, Wells became the talk of Bearsville, raising eyebrows, hopes and Manuel’s bar.
No longer is Manuel, who won the award last season, a manager-of-the-year candidate. Now the team picked a distant second to Cleveland last season could be the division’s consensus favorite. No more taking the Indians and Yankees by surprise–or shock. This time this team will be expected to win early.
No longer will the Second City’s second team be able to buy time for Manuel with its relentless ad campaign of, “The Kids Can Play.” Now skeptical Sox fans have a new battle cry: “The Blimp Can Pitch.”
Now a Wells outing at Comiskey will be an even bigger event than a glove-popping Kerry Wood concert at Wrigley. Now Sox fans who despised Jerry Reinsdorf and the traffic-snarled ballpark he built will come out of their closets and give this team another chance.
If it lets them down, they won’t blame Reinsdorf. They’ll train their sights on a more visible target, his Gandhi-reading manager.
Manuel is a good man. Customers prefer a good manager. Regrettably, Manuel did not distinguish himself during Seattle’s three-game playoff sweep of his Sox.
He turned pacifist, failing to argue questionable calls and missing Carlos Guillen’s foot on home plate as he illegally executed the series-ending bunt. Manuel put closer Keith Foulke in a hole by calling a pitchout after counterpart Lou Piniella theatrically walked out and whispered in the ear of baserunner Mike Cameron. Cameron didn’t go, but Foulke’s next pitch did. Edgar Martinez’s homer won Game 1. The Sox never seemed to recover.
Manuel talked and managed as if he was just happy to have gotten to the playoffs. He made excuses for injuries and inexperience. Now he won’t be allowed any even if he deserves them.
As overpowering as his new ace can be, Wells is an overweight 37-year-old with a bad back and short fuse. Nos. 2 and 3 starters Cal Eldred and James Baldwin are coming off arm surgeries. Add soft-tossing Jim Parque, who’s not quite butter, and you don’t quite have the answer to the Yankees’ four-ace rotation of Mike Mussina, Roger Clemens, “El Duque” Hernandez and Andy Pettitte.
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Foulke isn’t to be confused with Yankees closer Mariano Rivera. Fellow reliever Bob Howry is coming off arm surgery, as is Sean Lowe, who nearly wound up in the playoff rotation. Veteran reliever Bill Simas has been lost to surgery.
Now one of baseball’s most flexible rosters could be a mind-bender for Manuel. Does he have enough innings and at-bats to keep so many same-position players happy? Does Herbert Perry, Joe Crede or Jose Valentin play third? Does Chris Singleton, Julio Ramirez or Valentin play center? St. Louis manager Tony La Russa once traded shortstop Royce Clayton in part because he didn’t like his selfish attitude. How will Clayton fit into last year’s one-for-all clubhouse?
Speaking of former Sox manager La Russa, Seaver at 39 was added to his ’83 team that ran away with the division but ran out of gas in the playoffs, losing to Baltimore three games to one. With Tom Terrific, the ’84 team tied for fifth and the ’85 team finished third. La Russa was fired nine days before Seaver was traded in June of ’86.
Manuel, who studies the past, is now in position to make or be history.