Fuck luck! This year’s White Sox are out to be just damn good.
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General manager Ken Williams had every right to be proud of the championship team he put together, yet in his off-season moves even he seemed to acknowledge that luck played a significant role. Instead of standing pat with fan favorites–much as the Boston Red Sox did the previous year, basking in the afterglow of their curse-killing title–he traded the popular Aaron Rowand to the Philadelphia Phillies for Jim Thome, an upgrade on thumper Frank Thomas because he’s slightly younger and slightly less injury-prone and especially because as a left-handed hitter he balances Paul Konerko and Jermaine Dye. Williams also brought in Javier Vazquez, a pitcher capable of winning 20 games, for phenom Chris Young. It was a dear price, for Young may soon put together seasons of 30 homers and 30 steals with the Arizona Diamondbacks, but it reflects Williams’s emphasis on pitching.
“You can’t win without pitching, and hopefully ours stays healthy,” Williams said before Sunday’s opening-night game at White Sox Park. “That’s our plan, and we’re going to stick with it.” Talented as he is, Vazquez seemed almost redundant, though he pushed Brandon McCarthy, who displayed promise starting last season, back to the bullpen. “I don’t believe there is such a thing as an excess of pitching,” Williams explained, adding that he was out to “insulate ourselves against the unforeseen.”
The Sox didn’t want to squander the sold-out crowd, and reportedly the players preferred to wait out the rain than play a makeup on a scheduled open Monday, so everyone settled in as “rain-delay theater” featured the 2005 World Series on the scoreboard TV. Sox fans could again relive their amazing run of luck in the playoffs: the muffs by opposing second basemen Tony Graffanino and Craig Biggio, Pierzynski’s steal of first and his uncalled catcher’s interference, Dye’s foul ball ruled a hit-by-pitch and his seeing-eye single to drive in the only run in the fourth and final game of the Series. When Juan Uribe was seen making the play on the final out, fans ringing the concourse under the shelter of the grandstand cheered.
