Kick Out the Sports!
by Bob Cook
Bob Cook's weekly ruminations on sports appear Mondays in Flak.
The 2005 Chicago White Sox, in the process of blowing a 15-game lead in
the American League Central, appear ready to join the 1964 Philadelphia Phillies and the 1967 Arabs as chokers of historic proportions. I stole that line from Bill Lee, who as a member of the 1978 Red Sox knows something about chokers of historic proportions.
However, something is keeping the White Sox from joining such a notorious crowd of McFoldy O'Chokensteins — a sense of drama. Compared to their brethren, the 2005 White Sox don't get the bleeding heart beating. They are merely a piece of popcorn down the wrong windpipe compared to the exciting, blue-in-the-face chokes of yore like the 1951 Brooklyn Dodgers and the final episode of "Seinfeld." Were it not for the fact that, starting today, the White Sox host their chokee, Cleveland, for a three-game series, it's possible no one would notice the team's hacking cough.
By the numbers, the White Sox should qualify as one of the all-time chokers. On July 17, the White Sox finished a four-game sweep at Cleveland to put them at 61-29 with a 15-game lead over the Indians in the American League Central Division. The White Sox, naturally, were making the Central race so boring, ESPN and others on the national scene focused their attention on other races, especially Boston and New York in the AL East, not that ESPN in particular needs much prodding to focus on the Red Sox and Yankees.
When the Indians come a-callin' tonight, they're only three-and-a-half games back. Until now, Cleveland's focus has been keeping its slim lead in the wild card race. With a sweep of the White Sox, Cleveland is only one-half game back — and the Indians get Chicago at home the last three days of the season.
Perhaps the two series will get a little bit of buzz, but for right now, most of the rest of the world is distracted, still, by the Red Sox and Yankees.
Why doesn't the Chicago collapse have more juice? There are five reasons.
First, neither the White Sox, nor the rival nipping at their pale-hosed heels, were expected to be that good this year. Heck, even the White Sox fans weren't sold the team was that good even when they jumped to their early lead. It's amazing, really, that the White Sox, even now, have the best record in the American League despite having no one hitting .300 or better.
The last time the White Sox combined bad hitting with good pitching, it was 1967, and they faded away late in that pennant race, too. You don't get a lot more people staring and pointing at you for choking when they figure you're just crashing back to Earth.
Second, neither the White Sox, nor the rival nipping at their pale-hosed heels, are recognized rivals. The 1951 Dodgers blew a 13-and-a-half game lead in three weeks to their intracity rival, the New York Giants. The 1978 Red Sox blew a 14-game lead in 10 weeks to its most hated foe, the New York Yankees. The 1967 Arabs lost to their most hated foe, Israel, in only six days.
Technically, the White Sox and Indians are divisional rivals, but given that those teams have mostly been mediocre or lousy most of the time, their rivalry is no more storied than any involving the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
Third, the White Sox's collapse is just not dramatic enough. The 1964 Phillies, featuring future Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Bunning and his cast of who-dats, were like the White Sox in that their relative lack of talent made you wonder how they were in contention in the first place. But Philadelphia more than made up for it by dropping a six-and-a-half game lead to the far superior St. Louis Cardinals in only 12 games.
The White Sox have hit a few rough streaks, but for the past month they've played at a .500 level — a level made possible only by Jose
Contreras' unexpected (what with Contreras' name in Spanish translating
to "those who walk at least two batters per inning") 6-0 record in that
time, but not necessarily any swoon you'd notice. It's just that the far
superior Indians — whose burgeoning young talent such as
Grady Sizemore, Coco Crisp, Travis Hafner, C.C. Sabathia and Cliff Lee should lead the team to a fistful of division titles — finally got their act together after that last White Sox sweep, carrying the best record in baseball since the All-Star break.
Fourth, the White Sox, as always, are in the Cubs' shadow when it comes
to late-season lead-puking. The Cubs blew a nine-and-a-half game lead to
the very Sox-like New York Mets (good pitching, so-so hitting) in 1969,
but as with any loss, Cubs' fans have fetishized it. Of course, stuff
like a black cat
crossing third baseman Ron Santo's path in the on-deck circle during
the fall helped add that whiff of curse Cubs fans
love. Currently running in Chicago is a Chevrolet ad featuring Santo
waxing nostalgic about how the 1969 season got Chicago fans so excited.
If the White Sox finish blowing their current lead, there is no way in hell their fans will stomach Paul Konerko, 36 years later, in a car ad reminiscing about the great times in 2005. The heirs of William Ligue will jump onto the set and pummel him.
Fifth, and finally, the White Sox collapse has no juice because of the wild card. Not to get all Bob Costas, but past baseball chokes (season-long version, not the Yankees' blowing a 3-0 lead to Boston in last year's AL championship series) meant that there was one playoff team, and one squad going home.
It's possible the White Sox could lose the division lead to the Indians, yet still make the playoffs. Not the optimal way to enter the postseason, but as they say, everybody starts 0-0. If Cleveland passes up the White Sox, Sox fans will start looking at the wild card. Except Ligue, who'll be looking for somebody to hit.
E-mail Bob Cook at bobc@flakmag.com.
