The White Sox lost 4-0 to the Indians last night. That's OK. The White Sox are just all right this year -- not great, not bad, just sort of meh. They're baseball's pita chips: occasionally good, but they're not going to wow you every night. That metaphor was bad, but you know what we mean.
What's crazy about the White Sox is not that they're just OK. It's that when they're just OK they can't stand it. This is a good trait for a baseball team to have. It means the competitive streak is there, that the fire is churning, and all that cliche stuff. It means that the team has fully adopted the attitude of its manager. It's also kind of annoying. For example:
"We're just not good right now, that's it," Konerko said Wednesday after a 4-0 loss to the Indians. "Game on the line, we strike out," Guillen said. "People on base, we strike out. Lead off an inning, we strike out. We have to cut that. That's a big part of the game. You put the ball in play, you have a better chance. We really strike out too much, even the guys who strike out. We have people who strike out more than Jimmy [Thome].
Obviously, these are the comments of a manager and a player not resigned to the team's fate this season, which is, as an aging, declining squad with few top offensive options left -- but some good young talent -- to eek out a few wins here and there but more importantly to build for the future. That's the club's goal this year. That's what Kenny Williams started doing in, like, November. Competitiveness is all well and good, but lamenting your own mediocrity every day just starts to get annoying. We get it, guys. We know you're just OK. We expected it.
It's a long season. The White Sox will have plenty of opportunities to win the ugly AL Central. And even if they don't, well, that was never the goal of the season anyway.
Eamonn Brennan is a Chicago-based writer, editor and blogger. You can also read him at Yahoo! Sports, Mouthpiece Sports Blog, and Inside The Hall, or at his personal site, eamonnbrennan.com. Follow him on Twitter.
