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Tuesday, Nov 10, 2009
White Sox and Indians square off in Central Division chemistry showdown! Plus: WNBA Finals, NFL prediction embarrassments.
Sep 19, 2005 | The Chicago White Sox are on the verge of an epic collapse, a historic pratfall, unless they get their act together in a hurry.
Leading the American League Central Division by 15 games on Aug. 1 and nine and a half on Sept. 7, the White Sox have let their lead over Cleveland shrink to three and a half entering a three-game series at home against the Indians Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
If the White Sox don't turn it around, they'll be added to That List. Actually, they won't even get that. It'll be the Indians who get added to That List, the list of teams that have overcome massive deficits.
You've seen versions of That List: The 1914 Boston Braves, 1942 St. Louis Cardinals, 1951 New York Giants, 1978 New York Yankees, 1993 Atlanta Braves, 1995 Seattle Mariners, for example -- teams that have trailed by double digits in the second half of the season and won the pennant or division.
If the Indians add their name, the White Sox will be a footnote, along with the '42 and '51 Brooklyn Dodgers, '93 San Francisco Giants and '95 California Angels, who all lost double-digit leads.
But their lead was so big, so late -- nine and a half games a week into September! -- that the Sox could find themselves mentioned in the same breath as the 1964 Philadelphia Phillies, the gold standard of nosedivery.
How can this be? Well, some observers have been waiting for the White Sox to collapse all year because even when they were playing .660 baseball, they weren't outscoring people like a .660 team, meaning they were probably a little lucky, and luck tends to even out over a 162-game season.
As Chris De Luca of the Chicago Sun-Times put it, if the White Sox can avoid one of the biggest collapses in baseball history, they could end up being the most disrespected team ever to lead wire-to-wire on the way to a first-place finish.
What I'm interested in, as you might guess, is the chemistry question. The White Sox, along with their pitching and speed, had chemistry in spades in the first half. Sure, there was the odd Frank Thomas eruption and the constant fear that Carl Everett would do something Everettesque, but for the most part manager Ozzie Guillen, cocky and loudmouthed, kept 'em loose and kept 'em winning.
Until they started losing, when Guillen turned into a black cloud and started bad-mouthing his team.
