Are they In? Are they Out? Or are White Sox destined to be an 81-81 ballclub?

It’s days like Sunday that can be maddening for a fan of a professional baseball club.

The Chicago White Sox managed to defeat the Minnesota Twins 7-0, with pitcher Jake Peavy showing why he was once the best pitcher in the National League (Cy Young Award, 2007) and what he could still be for the White Sox.

THAT VICTORY COMPLETED a three-game sweep of the Twins in their own Minneapolis stadium. Typically, beating up on a division rival would be a significant step toward winning their division title for this season.

But this three-game series victory comes right after the White Sox GOT swept in a four-game series by the New York Yankees, which came right after losing two games of a three-game series to the Boston Red Sox.

People were all too ready to write off the White Sox as dead for this season.

Now, some people are going to speculate that perhaps there’s still life in the baseball corpse at 35^th and Shields (although to be honest, the only reason the 55-58 White Sox are in contention is because their American League Central division is weak).

IF THE WHITE Sox do win their division and qualify for the playoffs come October, they will still deserve to be the first team knocked out of post-season play.

If anything, it is the maddening aspect of 2011 that will be remembered – the year in which slugger Adam Dunn (who was supposed to be the big bat that ensured this would be a championship season) is likely to have the worst hitting season ever for a regular, every-day ballplayer (a batting average as of Sunday of .163 with only 11 home runs, rather than about 30).

Just as watching last week when the White Sox won a series against the division-leading Detroit Tigers, then took the first game against the Red Sox. It looked like this was the beginning of the surge that would put them into the lead, and general manager Ken Williams made comments about how there would NOT be any last-minute trades to jettison salary).

Then came the losing.

OR PERHAPS IT was like back in June when beating up on the Cubs put the White Sox at a perfect .500 won-loss record. That, too, was the beginning of a losing streak.

So what do we have to look forward to this season? A perpetual fight to reach .500? Will we literally end 2011 with a final-week winning streak that brings the ballclub to a perfect record of 81-81?

That would be even more maddening than the Chicago Cubs, who after going through two-thirds of the season looking like they wouldn’t have a single three-game winning streak actually managed last week to win seven games in a row.

But at 49-66, the Cubs make the Kansas City Royals look good.

IT ALL HAS me waiting for the winter leagues.

The thought of beisbol being played in November and December in the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Venezuela sounds appealing, while wondering if White Sox spare outfielder Alejandro de Aza (a .308 batting average with 1 home run and 2 runs batted in during 26 major league at-bats this season) will once again play ball in the Dominican League.

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Chicago, particularly Cubs organization, will be a part of the Caribbean Series

Round about the time that many of us in Chicago were coping with 20-plus inches of snow that fell overnight by watching bad day-time television, there was evidence of more civilized activity.

I’m referring, of course, to the Caribbean Series – the annual early-February tournament played by the champions of the professional baseball leagues in the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and the Pacific League that plays during the winter months in Mexico.

IT BEGAN WEDNESDAY at 2 p.m. our time when the Dominican and Mexican champions played each other, and will come to an end on Monday with one of those four countries being proclaimed the champions of Latin American beisbol for the year 2011.

Part of the reason I get a kick out of following the tournament each year is that it is a sign that winter’s end is approaching – a more reliable one than the fact that Punxsutawney Phil on Wednesday proclaimed that winter is at an end.

That must sound like a sick joke to those of us who are shoveling our way through thick, well-packed snow (personally, I had to help my brother Wednesday morning when his car got stuck in the snow about a half-block from where we live).

But the sight of championship baseball being played in the Caribbean (this year’s tournament is being held in Mayaguez, P.R.) means that spring training for U.S. professional baseball is only a couple of weeks away (at least for the pitchers and catchers who report early). Springtime is on the way.

BUT THE PROFESSIONAL baseball leagues in Latin America that take advantage of equator weather to play ball during our winter months also give the various youthful ballplayers who are trying to make it with major league teams in this country a chance to gain some more experience.

So yes, there will be a Chicago presence on the rosters of all four teams partaking in the tourney – although it won’t be the big stars.

The Chicago White Sox will have an outfielder, Alejandro de Aza, who played in 19 games for the Sox (a .300 batting average, but only 2 runs batted in), in addition to the bulk of 2010 for the Charlotte Knights, on the roster for the Toros del Este, who were the Dominican League champions and who will represent their home country.

The Chicago Cubs, meanwhile, will NOT have a chance to create any kind of curse on any one ballclub playing in the Caribbean Series, since they have four members of their organization playing – one on each of the four teams.

EVERY CARIBBEAN CHAMPION will have a touch of “Cub-ness” going against them when they play ball in coming days.

The Dominican champions also have Welington Castillo, a catcher, who played the bulk of 2010 for the Iowa Cubs, but actually got into 7 ballgames for the Chicago Cubs – with 1 home run in 20 at bats.

Among the other teams, each has a member of the Cubs organization, although not a ballplayer who has ever worn an actual Cubs uniform at the major league levbel.

In Mexico, the champion Obregon Yaquis will carry pitcher Marco Carillo – who during 2010 played for Cubs affiliates in Daytona Beach, Fla., Knoxville, Tenn., and Des Moines, Iowa – on their roster, while the Venezuela League champion Anzoategui Caribes will have pitcher Eduardo Figueroa.

NOT TO BE confused with the Ed Figueroa who pitched for the New York Yankees during the 1970s (and was the first Puerto Rican native to win 20 games in a single season), this Eduardo accumulated a won/loss record of 2-3 with a 3.63 earned run average while playing in 2010 for Cubs affiliates in the Arizona League and the Boise Hawks of the Northwest League.

Then, there is the Puerto Rican champion Caguas Criollos (considered by some to be the favorites to win this year’s tourney because of the home-field advantage). Luis “Lou” Montanez was originally signed by the Cubs in 2000, but played in 2010 for Baltimore Orioles affiliates in Bowie, Md., and Norfolk, Va. (and also played in 26 games for the Orioles themselves, hitting .140 with 3 runs batted in).

He was released by Baltimore in November, and the Cubs have signed him – making it likely he will play the 2011 season for a Cubs minor league affiliate.

So for those of you who feel the need to have a “local” angle in order to watch a ballgame (personally, I’ll find the Caribbean Series action on Sunday to be more interesting than the Super Bowl), enjoy one.

CHECK OUT SOME of those more obscure cable television channels you don’t usually watch; the games are televised.

Because, let’s face it, a little taste of beisbol and the sight of sunshine and people enjoying themselves will be a nice diversion from the not-quite-record-setting winter slop we got hit with this week.

It’s either that, or we ponder the fact that Farrah Fawcett’s iconic red bathing suit will now be on display at the Smithsonian Institute as an authentic cultural artifact.

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