The sports-talk radio hosts are fond of speculating on whether “Good Frank” or “Bad Frank” will show up this year. That is, will Frank Thomas have an MVP-caliber campaign, as he had annually through 1997 and again in 2000, or a disappointing season like the ones in 1998 and ’99, and then last year when he was injured? Thomas’s leadership qualities are often questioned in the media, but for better or worse, the way the White Sox play as a team has reflected the uneven, all-or-nothing quality of his career. So one can wonder as well whether the “Good Sox” or “Bad Sox” will show up; they take turns from year to year–the surprising 2000 team making the playoffs and last year’s also-rans stumbling out of the starting gate–and even from day to day.
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I went out to Comiskey Park last Thursday full of high hopes and eager to see Jon Rauch, the team’s cornstalk-high pitching phenom. At 6-11, Rauch is the tallest player in major-league history, topping Randy Johnson by an inch; but as a pitcher he isn’t as intimidating as the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Big Unit. The lefty Johnson throws sidearm across his body with a motion that must make left-handed hitters feel he’s trying to throw strikes right through their navels. The right-handed Rauch, by contrast, brings his hands high over his head, kicks, and then tilts to the left in mid-delivery, so that his arm comes straight overhand. For all his size he’s not a flamethrower; instead, he puts that overhand motion to use with a curveball that breaks almost straight down. But the same delivery can leave his fastball with little movement left to right. On this night Rauch was facing the Seattle Mariners, whose efficient lineup mixes power with speed, and the lack of movement on his fastball was critical. He plunked pesky leadoff hitter Ichiro Suzuki in the thigh with his first pitch, and Bret Boone whacked the very next offering–a high straight fastball on the outside corner–into the right-field seats. Mike Cameron, a product of the White Sox farm system long ago traded for Paul Konerko, hit a fastball to straightaway center for back-to-back homers, and Rauch was on his way back to being the tallest player in the minors. A double, an error, a single, a bunt single, and another single followed before Rauch got the last hitter in the order to hit a sacrifice fly to right field for the first out, and Seattle led 6-0. Manager Jerry Manuel had seen enough. He summoned the diminutive Jim Parque, the Jeff to Rauch’s Mutt, from the bull pen. But Parque was destined to suffer the same fate as Rauch–both in surrendering back-to-back homers to Boone and Cameron before the first inning was over and in having his ticket punched to Triple-A Charlotte before the night was through. When the top of the first finally came to an end the Mariners were up by ten runs, with eight of them charged to Rauch, five earned, in his third of an inning. He sat in the dugout looking shell-shocked. The Bad Sox had shown up, with their young and suspect pitching, and the final score was 15-4.
On April 22, a critical early season stretch of 13 games began against the archrival Cleveland Indians, the Mariners, and the Oakland Athletics–all among the best teams in the league. Ace Mark Buehrle lost the first game 4-2, but in what was probably the most important game of the year thus far, Todd Ritchie outdueled Cleveland ace Bartolo Colon to win 5-1. The Sox went on to win three of four against the Tribe, and a week later the first two games of the Comiskey series with the Mariners before getting clobbered in the finale. If that debacle rattled the confidence of Sox fans–play had to be halted in the calamitous first inning when a broken broom handle was thrown into the outfield–it seemed to have little effect on the Sox themselves.
I predict that when the regular season ends Konerko will have more homers, more RBIs, and a higher batting average than Cameron. Then we’ll see who goes deeper into the playoffs.
