Who's Laughing Now?

Errors of their Ways
The White Sox were the worst fielding team in the American League through Sunday, ranking 29th in the majors in fielding percentage and second in errors committed. (Only the Padres were worse in each category.) Yet Chicago was still leading the American League Central and could become only the sixth team since 1900 to finish in first place while placing last in its league in fielding. —David Sabino
TEAM	ERRORS	CHANCES	FIELDING PCT	STANDING
2000 White Sox	54	2,063	.974	Led AL Central by 1 � games
Shortstop Jose Valentin was tied for league lead at his position with 13 errors, while second baseman Ray Durham was second among the league's second basemen with seven.
1995 Dodgers	130	5,505	.976	Lost NL Division Series
Lopsided left side: Third baseman Tim Wallach led the league in fielding, but Jose Offerman committed 35 errors—15 more than any other shortstop in the majors.
1995 Red Sox	120	5,579	.978	Lost AL Division Series
Mike Greenwell , Troy O'Leary and Lee Tinsley were responsible for 16 of Boston 's league-high 23 errors in the outfield.
1971 Giants	179	4,364	.972	Lost NL Championship Series
At first they didn't succeed: Willie Mays committed II errors in 48 games at first base while Dave Kingman and Willie McCovey botched another 18 chances.
1965 Twins	172	6,308	.973	Lost World Series
Shortstop Zoilo Versalles made a career-high 39 errors; the first of three straight seasons in which he led American League shortstops in bobbles.
1925 Pirates	224	6,170	.964	Won World Series
Weak up the middle: Centerfielder Max Carey (20), second baseman Eddie Moore (36) and shortstop Glenn Wright (56) combined for half of Pittsburgh 's miscues.

Three years ago Chicago White Sox senior vice president and general manager Ron Schueler had a nasty epiphany: He didn't like the players on his team. Oh, there were nice enough guys here and there—Ozzie Guillen had a smile for everybody, and Robin Ventura was always good for a laugh—but certain things grated on Schueler as though he were a wedge of parmesan regianno. He hated that many of his players didn't acknowledge the fans. He hated that they didn't sign autographs. He hated the sounds of silence prevalent in the clubhouse. Above all he hated that baseball, the love of his life, didn't seem so lovely to the men he was paying millions of dollars to play it. "To tell you the truth," Schueler says, "our fans didn't like those guys either."

Those guys included outfielder Albert Belle and righthander Jaime Navarro , surly veterans who, while often productive, exhibited all the effervescence of Kenneth Starr . The White Sox ' slogan was GOOD GUYS WEAR BLACK! but it should have been GET OUTTA MY FACE, CHUMP! "So we made a decision," says Schueler . "The toughest decision I've ever made: Scrap the whole thing and build around our kids."

On July 31, 1997, with Chicago trailing the first-place Cleveland Indians by three games in the American League Central , Schueler finalized a trade that instantly altered his Windy City reputation from shrewd personnel man to 100% moron. The White Sox sent lefthander Wilson Alvarez , their No. 1 starter; righthander Roberto Hernandez , one of the league's top closers; and steady long man Danny Darwin to the San Francisco Giants for five minor leaguers and a struggling rookie righthander named Keith Foulke , who was 1-5 with an 8.26 ERA. Sports talk radio callers had a field day. Columnists ripped the organization for weeks. Opposing players thought it was a joke. Chicago , the team that quit the pennant race, was the laughingstock of sports, and with good reason: The White Sox finished the season six games behind the division champion Indians . "It wasn't about the players we were discarding, and it wasn't about the players we were receiving," says Schueler. "It was about putting a product on the field that people would enjoy and relate to."

Because Schueler and White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf took such an extraordinary amount of abuse over the dismantling, it is only fair to concede the following: They were right. Any nonbelievers need only look at what first-place Chicago has done over the past two weeks, during which it took two of three from Cleveland , then took two of three from the American League West-leading Seattle Mariners and two more from the Houston Astros . There was centerfielder Chris Singleton, 27, acquired from the New York Yankees for minor league lefthander Rich Pratt before the 1999 season, delivering an RBI single against Cleveland . There was leftfielder Carlos Lee , 23, a lightly regarded free-agent signee in '94, blasting a seventh-inning two-run homer to left in Cleveland . There was first baseman Paul Konerko , batting .279 with nine homers and 32 RBIs through Sunday. Discarded by the Cincinnati Reds , Konerko, 24, is the poster child for the new White Sox : thrilled to be there.

Never did Schueler look smarter than during a 4-1 win over Cleveland on May 27, when 30,250 boisterous Chicago fans watched lefthander Jim Parque , drafted by the White Sox in 1997, toss 7? innings of two-run, six-hit ball to catcher Brook Fordyce , 30, who was acquired from Cincinnati before last season for a low-level minor league pitcher. Three of Chicago 's 16 hits came off the powerful bat of rightfielder Magglio Ordo�ez , 26, an undrafted free-agent signee in '91. Three more—a homer, a triple and a double—came from shortstop Jose Valentin , 30, who, along with 32-year-old pitcher Cal Eldred (5-2 with a 4.15 ERA through Sunday), came from the Milwaukee Brewers last January for the since-released Navarro and injury-prone righthander John Snyder. Hard-throwing reliever Bob Howry , 26, one of the six Giants acquired three years back, closed the game with a two-strikeout ninth inning. He and Foulke look more and more like the deadly Mariano Rivera-John Wetteland late-game combo that helped carry the Yankees to the 1996 World Series championship. Alvarez , who will likely miss the rest of this season with tendinitis in his left shoulder, and Hernandez , who has a 5.40 ERA, weren't helping the floundering Tampa Bay Devil Rays . Darwin is retired.

The White Sox , 32-23 through Sunday, aren't the best team in baseball. They probably won't even finish in the top eight. Their pitching staff is third in the league with a 4.34 ERA, but Chicago makes too many errors (a major-league-high 54) and, as evidenced in two losses by scores of 12-4 and 7-0 to the Yankees in late May, can endure prolonged stretches of offensive ineptitude. Yet if the two wins over Cleveland showed anything, it was that the Indians aren't about to steamroll the heretofore weak Central again. From the 1995 season through the '99 season the Indians spent 62 days out of first place, none after June 5. Through Sunday, Cleveland hasn't been in sole possession of first place since April 18—a run of 47 days.

"The guys on Chicago know they're not legitimate contenders unless they beat us," says Indians third baseman Travis Fryman , "and they beat us good. We're seeing a club that has a chance to be an exceptional team in a short period of time. I'm not sure they can play any better than they played against us, but if they can, that's alarming."

The 1999 White Sox are a likable, modestly paid ($31.2 million payroll compared to $54.4 million before the '97 purge began) group. Before their flight from Seattle to Houston last week, reserve catcher Mark Johnson was getting dressed when he discovered a dead lobster in his shoe. No one claimed responsibility for the crustacean, but pitching ace James Baldwin , wearing a lobster bib, was a prime suspect.

In Chicago , where fan loyalty still runs toward the North Side, the White Sox are remarkably anonymous. Aside from first baseman Frank Thomas and maybe second baseman Ray Durham , Sox players could stroll the streets of Chicago carrying flashing neon signs reading I PLAY IN THE BIG LEAGUES! and go unnoticed. In his four years with the White Sox , Foulke (1-0, 0.76 ERA, 11 saves this season through Sunday), who has used a 95-mph fastball to become one of the game's better closers, says that he has been recognized on the streets of Chicago twice. "Neither time did the person ask for an autograph," he says.

Even the righthanded Baldwin , who opened the season with eight victories in nine decisions, gets the Rodney Dangerfield treatment. On the afternoon of May 23, Steve Rosenbloom, a writer for the Chicago Tribune , carried a picture of Baldwin up and down Michigan Avenue and asked passersby to ID the man in the photo. Only six of 50 persons knew he was Baldwin . That evening, manager Joe Torre , whose Yankees would face Baldwin two nights later, was given the same test. "He looks familiar," Torre said. "Is he an old Yankee?"