Beckham's Debut Can't Save Sox

There's been a lot of talk about Gordon Beckham being a possible savior for the White Sox this season, and it really is taking things a bit too far.  At the end of the day, whether he was a first round draft pick or not, Beckham is still just a kid who is going to have to learn how to play in the Majors everyday.

He's not going to come to town and solve all the White Sox problems, and on Thursday afternoon in his Major League debut, he wasn't able to rectify any of them.  For the fourth straight day the Sox faced a rookie pitcher they've never seen before, and as is often the case, they weren't able to do anything with him as the A's took their third straight from the Sox 7-0.

Still, the day for Sox fans was all about Beckham, and his debut in front of his new hometown fans wasn't anything to write home about.  Beckham went 0-for-3 on the day and didn't get many chances at third base, though he did manage to catch a soft line drive hit right at him while avoiding a splintered bat heading his direction.

He was all right with his effort though.

"I felt pretty calm up there," said the rookie. "As calm as could be. I swung at a couple of bad pitches, but I think that came from the anxiety of having my first at-bat in the big leagues."

Now while Beckham seemed to handle the pressure of playing in the Majors, along with some good-natured ribbing from teammates Mark Buehrle and A.J. Pierzynski, somebody who is already tiring of the Beckham hype is his manager Ozzie Guillen.

Turns out that while the Sox skipper likes his new young player, he's not really in the mood to be bombarded with Beckham questions day in and day out.

"That kid will be all right," Guillen said. "But I'm not going to sit down every day and answer questions about Beckham, guys, please.

"It's like Maradona going to the World Cup. It's another player. He had a bad day like everyone else did."

Hopefully for Beckham and his teammates, there are much better days ahead.

Along with writing for NBCCHICAGO.com, Tom Fornelli can also be found contributing at FanHouse, SPORTSbyBROOKS, and his own Chicago sports blog Foul Balls.