For this post, the title serves two purposes. First, to re-announce my presence with authority. This is no comeback, just the end of a necessary break - I've let the Herald slip, but for good reason. The Hawks took us all on an amazing ride to the Cup, so my writing time was fully committed to my hockey blog (Commit 2 The Indian). Can you blame me? It wasn't exactly as magical as 2005, but it was damn close for me, as the Hawks are about the only thing that come close to my Sox fandom.
But I've also let the Herald slip because the Sox sucked. Yeah, it was that simple - this team just wasn't worth writing about. And it wasn't worth you all reading about. Sure, I had thoughts along the way, but they boiled down to the same thing over and over - this team has the talent, but boy are they playing bad baseball. I had some theories why - bad luck, a poor organization-wide approach to hitting, too many mentally soft hitters, and some others.
Still, it was hard to carve out time simply to bitch about a team that looked good on paper but had never shown any hint of actually being good. So while I had faith in the make-up of the roster, I didn't have any actual proof to support this faith. It wasn't like this team was doing well and then sucked. They sucked from Day 2 (Opening Day was cool). They sucked in April, sucked in May, sucked for the first week of June.
And that leads us to the second reason this post title is awesome - because it perfectly nails how pumped up I am about these Sox. Not so much in a literal sense (actually, you can call it a pretty damn sweet comeback), but in the way the line gets a kick-ass song started in a kick ass way. Check it out here. Don't tell me that song didn't get you going. And don't tell me the fact that the Sox are sitting in first place at the Break doesn't have you jacked up.
At some point even I gave up my optimism - this team was too bad for too long not to have. I hadn't given up hope, I just quit having much faith in that hope. But before that point, when people asked me about the Sox and I felt a need to throw a light at the end of the tunnel, I always pointed to the same thing.
That every single year one or even two teams start out terrible, maybe even hit the All-Star Break as another also-ran, and then somehow just put it all together. They don't just play good baseball, they go absolutely on fire for a long stretch - weeks and months of absurdly impressive win-loss records.
My hope, and I think it was shared by the Sox themselves, was to have the team have a mini-run to at least get back to respectability, give the players a little something to build on, give us fans a little something to care about. Then just as everyone forgets about us, have it all come together and dominate the second half or last month or two or whatever. Be one of "those teams" that comes out of absolutely nowhere to set the MLB on fire. One winning streak ends, another starts up. 20 wins in 25 days. Huge swaths of ground in the standings made up in a single week.
But the Sox had other ideas. They weren't about to wait around for that second half run, after they were officially left for dead. Instead, fittingly, the night the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup, the White Sox became the hottest team in baseball. Wednesday, June 9th. That's the day Toews lifted Lord Stanley's vaunted chalice, and it's the day the Sox started a modest 4-game win streak.
At the time, the highlight of that streak was that it ended with a pair of Ws over the Cubs in Wrigley. Sure both teams were brutal, but we held the bragging rights for that first series. What else could we possibly have to play for this season?
Turns out, a hell of a lot. After losing the Sunday Night finale against the Cubs, the Sox won 11 straight, not losing until they played the Cubs again in a Sunday finale. June had been great to the Sox - with only one 6-game road trip (not counting the games in Wrigley), the Sox had fattened up on home cooking and were suddenly within sniffing distance of first place. Not that they were gonna get there any time soon, but at least they were back in the mix.
But just as we all were starting to get a little confident again, the Sox went into KC and loss two of three while the Twins and Tigers played each other. A great chance to make up more ground was pissed away and the remaining schedule featured a road trip down to the first place Rangers followed by a four game home set against the always tough Halos, then three more against those pesky Royals.
Admit it - you were wondering if the hot June run was a tease, if the other shoe was gonna drop now and our high water mark had already been achieved. I certainly was. And that's why winning that first game down in Texas was so huge. It meant we had a real good shot to take the series and get back to our winning ways. Which we did with a great W on Sunday.
Back home we came, with another chance to bumble... turned into a time to shine. Four straight against the Angels, four straight Ws. Minnesota was scufflin, but the Tigers were playing decent ball. The Royals were in town, the lead was surmountable, but it meant we had to take care of business.
And did we ever - three more against the Royals made it 8 straight. And after taking the first two from the Twinkies, the Tigers finally lost on Sunday, allowing the Sox to move into sole possession of first place by a half game (tied in the loss column) with a comfortable 3.5 game lead (4 in the loss column) over those always tough Twins. I know you're feeling it! This team has earned that from you. Do you see the light!?!
So how the hell did we go from 9.5 back on June 9th to leading on July 11th? I'm looking forward to writing more about the specifics this week and next, but I can give you a quick list of where we improved:
- Everywhere.
Combined with a cooling off of both Detroit and Minnesota, the Sox have been able to make up 10 games in the standings in a hair over a month. Un-freakin-real. And what better time to do it then on the day before the All-Star Break? Nothing is better then heading into a 96-hour stretch without a Sox game on the wave of an 8-game win streak that leaves you alone in first.
Yeah, there's a long way to go yet. We start off the second half at Minnesota for four. Not gonna be easy, that one. Then it's four straight series against the Ms and As, both teams we have to beat the crap out of to build up a bit of a lead. Then the fun starts in August, as probably two out of every three series after that will be against tough teams in the form of Min, Det, NYY, and Bos. If we're still standing come October, it's because we've earned it against the best.
For now, let's relish in one of the best stretches of White Sox baseball we've seen in a long, long time - probably since October of 05. And what the heck... let's start dreamin about another run like 2005's. Even without Peavy, this team has the pitching. And when you have the pitching, everything else is a toss of a coin. I'll take that.
So sing it with me so they can hear ya in Detroit and Minnesota:
"I'm gonna knock you out - huh! Mama said knock you out - huh! I'm gonna knock you out - huh! Mama said know you OUUUTTT!!"
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