White Sox Baseball: When One Road Trip Ends a Season
By Cregen McMinn
There comes a time during the season when non-playoff teams realize that they’re non-playoff teams.
For instance, it took the Blue Jays until near the All-Star break to come to terms with the team they had. For the Brewers, it was about a month ago that they decided “going for it” would have meant mortgaging the farm to make an average team slight above average.
For the Nationals, it was opening day.
For the White Sox, it was after game 131. Now that’s not to say you might feel it was after the first game in the past Red Sox series, or some game before that. But looking objectively at the standings, a case could be made that the Sox could still make a run at the division if they turned things around in New York.
That didn’t happen.
Instead of righting the ship, the S.S. White Sox began to take on massive amounts of water. By the end of this weekend’s series against the Yankees, Jose Contreras and the bullpen were actively bailing water INTO the boat.
The Sox now sit at 64-67, three games under .500 and six out in the division. Is it impossible for them to come back? No. Is it impossible for me to be considered the sexiest man in America? Maybe.
The point is that while the numbers say the Sox still have a chance, the “eye test” says it’s okay for them to starting planning their vacations for the day after game 162.
Admitting the Sox season is over in terms of playoff aspirations is not an easy thing to do. I feel the same way about this team as I did about the 2006 team. If they were to make the playoffs, I honestly feel they could compete.
I’m not saying they’d win it all, but they have the veteran leadership and top of the rotation talent to win any series, especially a short one.
Yet talking about what they would do in the playoffs is pointless now. A smart fan looks ahead and hopes that a Dan Hudson is called up when the rosters expand and can get a jump start on his rotation spot for next year.
But I never claimed to be a smart fan. For me, it’s going to take a series or two before as a fan I can come to terms with my team being a non-playoff team.
