- Paul Boucher
- The future for the White Sox: Avisail Garcia and Jose Abreu, after Garcia homered in August against the Orioles
Chicago baseball fans who wish they could say that at least their team’s better than the chumps on the other side of town will have to wait till next year.
The Sox have one of the best hitters in the game in Jose Abreu, who should be a unanimous pick for Rookie of the Year. On Saturday night, after the retiring Paul Konerko was honored, the 27-year-old slugged his 36th homer, surpassing Ron Kittle’s 1983 record for Sox rookies. Abreu hit .317, drove in 107, and led all of baseball in slugging (.581). The south-siders also have a promising right-fielder, 23-year-old Avisail Garcia. They have Chris Sale, whose 2.17 ERA was second in the American League, just behind the Mariners’ Felix Hernandez (2.14). Sale, who’s still only 25, will soon be joined in the rotation by the team’s top draft choice this year, southpaw Carlos Rodon, whose explosive slider has scouts buzzing.
A final note about Dunn. I mentioned earlier this month, after the Sox traded him to the A’s, that he led active big-league players in games played without ever making it to the postseason—he’d played 1,978 games at the time. He’s planning on retiring after this season, so this was his last chance. Yesterday the A’s beat the Rangers, 4-0, to squeak into a wild card berth by a game over the Mariners. Dunn was zero for three with a strikeout. But he’d finally made it to the playoffs, precisely on his 2,000th game. If Dunn can do it, maybe one year soon the Sox or Cubs will too.
