Part way through last season, the White Sox signed Ozzie Guillen to a contract extension. The White Sox were cruising to a division championship, and everything looked good for White Sox fans. I was critical of the extension because I’ve never liked Ozzie Guillen’s managerial style and that he seemed to catch lightening in the bottle with the surprise team of 2005. I was worried they wouldn’t get it done in the playoffs and we’d be stuck with Guillen for an extended period of time.
I was almost right, but not quite in the way I thought. The White Sox almost blew their chance of even making the playoffs. Although once they did, they cruised the playoffs and the near historic choke was long forgotten.
In a lot of ways, Sox fans have reason to be happy because the 2006 version of the White Sox “should” be better then last year’s. Javier Vazquez is a step up from Orlando Hernandez and this year the Sox have two certified mashers in Jim Thome and Paul Konerko. My worry is that Ozzie Guillen tries to coach the 2006 version of the Sox the same we he coached the 2005 Sox. There’s no reason Scott Podsednik should be getting on base then summarily getting gunned down when he has two big bats behind him. Hopefully we won’t see as much bunting either. And if I hear Joe Morgan mention “Smart Ball” one more time, I’m going to vomit.
The point of this column? I’m getting there. White Sox MLB.com beat writer Scott Merkin wrote a column on that undefinable thing called “team chemistry” as if that was what won them their first World Series in 88 years. While it helps that everyone gets along, it’s not the be all and end all. Also keep in mind that most everyone on the team is happy when you’re winning. if the Sox get off to a slow start next year, we’ll see if they’ll be able to “stick together” and get the job done.
