- AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh
- White Sox shortstop Alexei Ramirez flies around the bases after hitting the game-winning homer yesterday at the Cell.
Any team in baseball would love to have an eighth-place hitter like the one playing for the White Sox. Shortstop Alexei Ramirez leads the American League in hitting—by 35 points. He’s batting .420. The Sox have played 13 games, and Ramirez has hit safely in all of them. He leads the AL in hits, with 21 already, and in on-base plus slugging percentage (1.143). He’s second in on-base percentage (.463), tied for third in runs batted in (12), and tied for sixth in homers (3).
- Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images
- Ramirez comes in for the landing.
During spring training last year, his father-in-law, to whom Ramirez was close, was shot to death in the Dominican Republic. Ramirez made no excuses, but he often appeared troubled and distracted last year, and he struggled in the field. He has only one error thus far, and seems to be thoroughly enjoying himself. After he hit his game-winning homer yesterday, he “flew” around the bases, arms spread like an airplane, then leaped and landed amid his teammates on the crowded home plate runway.
