Thursday, October 20, 2005
Fearlessness and grit brought success that few imagined this season.
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
CHICAGO -- After a fourth consecutive season without a division championship, general manager Ken Williams showed the same determination he displayed 24 years ago, when he was stopped inches from the goal line in his final football game for Mt. Pleasant High School in San Jose.
Only this time, Williams and his White Sox weren't denied.
The perseverance that longtime Sox employees such as Williams possessed finally paid off as they seized their first World Series appearance since 1959.
The Sox's formula will be placed on baseball's biggest stage Saturday night, when they open the World Series against Houston or St. Louis at U.S. Cellular Field.
Their blueprint might not be trendy enough for a best-selling book, based on the Sox's lack of patience and underwhelming success with runners in scoring position during the regular season.
But the fearlessness and grit throughout the organization brought success this season that few imagined.
"We do it all together," Williams said in the midst of Sunday night's wild celebration in the visitor's clubhouse at Angel Stadium.
"When things go wrong, when it doesn't quite work out the way we envisioned it, yeah, then it's my decision and I'll take the heat for it. But when it goes well, from [assistant GM] Rich Hahn, to [farm director] Dave Wilder, to all our scouts, [scouting director] Duane Shaffer, to the amateur side and pro scouts and guys on the field scouting the Houston Astros, and St. Louis, we get after it and talk together about things. No one person can take credit for this."
As the Sox entered the bottom of the ninth inning Sunday with a three-run lead, only then did the six scouts following the National League Championship Series put a bottle of champagne on ice at their Houston hotel.
Old-school scouting
Despite the new trends in videotape and statistical analysis, the Sox maintain faith in scouting with the naked eye.
It paid off well before they claimed troubled rookie Bobby Jenks on waivers from the Los Angeles Angels earlier this year.
They got away from their slow-pitch softball approach by dealing slugger Carlos Lee to Milwaukee for leadoff batter Scott Podsednik and reliever Luis Vizcaino.
Letting Magglio Ordonez go freed up enough money to sign right fielder Jermaine Dye for just over one-third of what they paid Ordonez in 2004, as well as add versatile reliever Dustin Hermanson and catcher A.J. Pierzynski.
It was a new team with a no-ego attitude.
"Baseball players don't bring fans to the ballpark," manager Ozzie Guillen said before Sunday's AL title-clinching victory. "A team brings fans to the ballpark. They did it [in the past] with Albert Belle and Bartolo Colon. They lose, and nobody shows up."
Williams, with the strong support of Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, placed most of his faith in a deep rotation that experienced a horrendous spring training. After a March victory over Oakland in Tucson, a reporter joked to Williams that his style won out over the Athletics' yuppie "Moneyball" style.
"If this don't work, I might have to take a look at that," Williams said, half-kidding.
Buying into the team
But players bought into the new emphasis on pitching and sacrificing offensive statistics for the good of the team.
The Sox signed Orlando Hernandez to a two-year, $8 million contract loaded with incentives to protect both sides while adding a postseason veteran to the end of the rotation.
Although Shingo Takatsu started the season as the closer, Hermanson and Vizcaino were brought in to add depth and versatility.
And when Jenks took well to a change from starter to closer at Double-A Birmingham, the urge to acquire a closer such as Houston's Brad Lidge or Tampa Bay's Danys Baez lessened.
"I liked our chances from Day One in spring training," said pitching coach Don Cooper. "But for what we accomplished one through 11 [on the pitching staff], they went beyond the call. We got 99 wins in the regular season, plus the AL Division Series and four complete games in the ALCS.
"I know we'll give it all our best in the World Series."