EXTRA: “Historically bonkers?” Playoffs nothin’ compared to ‘67 AL

The American League pennant race this season is getting some people worked up because, besides Boston, Cleveland and Houston leading their respective divisions, the New York Yankees are the best second-place team and eight other teams are within 3 ½ games of a wild card spot.

That makes for 12 of the league’s 15 ball clubs (but NOT the Chicago White Sox) having a shot at a playoff spot. “Historically bonkers” is how The Sporting News (the one-time Bible of Baseball) described the current conditions.

YET I CAN’T help but think that all it means is there are many teams that ought not to think of themselves as pennant contenders are being deluded into thinking they have a chance to achieve something of significance this season.

I’ve been thinking about this because of the fact that it has been 50 years since the American League really DID have a bonkers-type season. 1967, which might be the Summer of Love to some people, was also the year that the American League nearly finished in a four-way tie for first place.

The Boston Red Sox have been having ceremonies this week to mark the fact that they ultimately won the league championship.

Just this Wednesday, many old ballplayers turned out at Fenway Park – including our very own Ken Harrelson – the Hawk took time out from his duties as Chicago White Sox broadcaster to remember that year when he joined the Red Sox in mid-season and became a key part of why the team was able to rise from a Ninth Place finish the year before to a league championship in ’67.

HARRELSON MAY HAVE fond memories of that year. We all know he’s shared many a Red Sox-inspired tale during his broadcasts throughout the decades.

But we in Chicago have less-pleasant memories of that summer when I turned 2 years old – the White Sox wound up being the team that finished in fourth place out of the four teams.

Albeit only 3 games behind the Red Sox (with the Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins finishing in a tie for second place 1 game behind Boston).

That was the season where the four teams went into the final weekend with a very-real chance of a four-way tie for first place. Only the White Sox had to pick then to go on a losing streak – including getting beaten in both games of a final-day-of-the-season double-header, losing to the Kansas City Athletics.

WHO IRONICALLY ENOUGH were the worst team in the American League that year. Tenth place, and in fact they moved from Kansas City after the season to their current locale in Oakland, Calif.

The Kansas City Athletics got to end their existence with a bang – being the team that knocked the White Sox out of contention.

Although for what it’s worth, one White Sox ballplayer that year was outfielder Tommie Agee. He being the same guy who two years later got his chance at World Series heroics and made an outfield catch that New York Mets fans still remember to this day.

So for as much as some people like to bash about Harrelson for being too much of a “homer” who favors the White Sox, keep in mind that his glory days may well be those back in Boston.

THE FAILURE OF ’67 may also sting because that year was the end of a 17-season streak of winning seasons the White Sox experienced. For 1968 was the beginning of a losing period that we’re once again recalling now because of how badly the White Sox are playing this season. The Sox may come close to losing 106 games this year like they did in 1970.

As for Detroit and Minnesota, each had their own odd Chicago connections.

For the Twins, it was their top pitcher Jim Kaat, who by the early-to-mid 1970s became a White Sox pitcher of some talent. While the Tigers had as one of their top pitchers Denny McLain – who actually was a native of suburban Markham and the one-time son-in-law of former Cubs broadcaster Lou Boudreau.

And who went on to his own notoriety in baseball when he managed in 1968 to win 31 games – the last pitcher to come close to that level.

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EXTRA: The Garcias, and a 2-1 victory for the Sox playing up in Minneapolis

Admittedly, it’s not quite as unique as back in the mid-1960s when the San Francisco Giants on occasion had all three of the brothers Alou (Matty, Felipe and Jesus) as their outfield.

Will we see the Garcia trio take the field this season in Chicago? Photograph provided by Chicago White Sox

But the Chicago White Sox on Friday had an all-Garcia outfield as they beat the Minnesota Twins 2-1.

THAT’S THE OUTFIELD of Willy in left field, Leury in center field and Avisail in right field. No, they’re not related. They’re not even of the same nationality or ethnicity (Avisail is from Venezuela, while Leury and Willy are from the Dominican Republic).

Los hermanos Alou when they were the Giants' outfield

But Garcia is such a fairly common Spanish surname, and this is yet more evidence of how strong the Latino presence is in professional baseball these days.

And for the record, the three of them got four hits in 10 at-bats combined. Willy got a double, but also hit into a double play, while Leury got caught trying to steal a base.

By the way, this win gives the White Sox a winning record (5 wins, 4 losses) for the season. We’ll see how long that lasts before mediocrity takes over this season at The Rate.

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EXTRA: Cub Quade to become Redwing? Not if Sox Cox beats him out

I hate to seem like a smart-aleck (Who’s kidding whom? I don’t mind it at all), but a part of me wonders if in a certain sense, Mike Quade is about to move up in life.

Baseball life, that is.

THE FORMER CHICAGO Cubs manager is in the running to become manager of the Rochester Redwings. That’s the International League affiliate of the Minnesota Twins. The Star-Tribune newspaper of Minneapolis reported that the Twins want to talk to Quade, but hope to have a manager in place prior to the Thanksgiving holiday.

It also seems that among the other baseball people seeking employment who are being considered for this particular job is Jeff Cox (one of Ozzie Guillen’s coaches with the White Sox who was let go when he was).

And yeah, as badly as the Cubs played last year under Quade, it may well turn out that he gets a better ballclub in upstate New York than he had last year on the North Side. Unless Cox beats him out for it.

All of which probably means that one-time St. Louis Cardinals infielder Ken Oberkfell will probably get the field manager job, for real.

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Thome didn’t ‘do in’ the White Sox

It is a vivid memory from recent baseball seasons past. The two big bats of the Chicago White Sox – Paul Konerko and Jim Thome – both managed to get base hits and are on base hoping that someone can follow them up with a hit that will allow them to score runs.

The problem, however, is that both Thome and Konerko, particularly Paulie, are dreadfully slow. They can’t run worth a squat. They’re the kind of guys who have trouble scoring a run from second base if someone hits a single.

IN SHORT, THEY clog up the bases. Several potential rallies that could have resulted in a few runs scored by the White Sox turned into a run or two – or a pitcher managing to get out of the inning with both Konerko and Thome stranded on base.

It was frustrating to watch. But it is the type of baseball that one gets to see too often when a team thinks that deep fly balls hit over the outfield fence are the key to success. Heck, Chicago Cubs fans know this better than anyone else.

It was the reason why when I learned just under a year ago that the White Sox were not going to bring back aging home run hitter Thome in 2010 for a fifth season on the South Side, I didn’t immediately have an outburst of anger.

When I heard manager Ozzie Guillen say how he wanted some flexibility and some athleticism in being able to put together lineups from game to game, I got where he was coming from. He was sick and tired of the base-clogging that took place in recent years just like many others were.

BUT IT SEEMS that “logic” is being ignored, because way too many people (including too many sports-related pundits) are quick these days to come to the conclusion that the reason the White Sox fell short of winning at least a division title is because they let Thome go.

What makes it worse, as they see it, is that Thome managed to latch on for the 2010 season with the Minnesota Twins, who last week DID clinch the division title. Twins baseball fans are quick to say it was Thome’s hitting that helped them fill the gap when star Justin Morneau was knocked out with a back injury for the entire second half of the season.

There are those people who for years have been getting on Guillen’s case who now want to claim this is the ultimate evidence that Ozzie doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing in running a baseball club on the field.

Sports Illustrated’s latest issue features a photograph of Thome at bat in the act of hitting a home run for the Twins, with a subhead saying that Thome “has the power to bring October magic to Minnesota.”

I’M SURE THE central Illinois native would be happy. If it happens (I’d favor either the New York Yankees or Tampa Bay personally), it would be a first World Series appearance for the slugger approaching 600 home runs in his career for the first time since 1997 when he was a young star with the Cleveland Indians.

But when I look at this year’s White Sox team, I honestly don’t think Thome would have made a difference. In part it is because Konerko has managed to come up with a season where he may wind up with 40 home runs (38 as of Sunday) and over 100 runs batted in. He still provided the team with the big bat that would have been essential to a legitimate contender.

What I see as the White Sox shortcomings is the fact that they lost the pitcher who was supposed to become the team ace half way through the season. If Jake Peavy were still pitching, I think we’d still have a competitive race – instead of a final week of the season that means little.

There also is the fact that those relief pitchers all managed to seem to lose it come August. Not just Bobby Jenks. I still remember the appearances of J.J. Putz back in mid-August – which is the point where in my mind the season really ended because that is where the gap between the two teams became big enough that it would have taken a miracle collapse by Minnesota (something along the lines of what the White Sox did when the two teams played in mid-September) for there to be playoff baseball on the South Side this October.

IF ANYTHING, THE difference between Minnesota and Chicago this season is that when Morneau suffered an injury that could have devastated their chances, Thome was in a position to fill the gap. When Jenks became unreliable in relief pitching, the White Sox came up with guys who became even more unreliable.

Which is my way of saying that had Thome somehow come back to the White Sox in 2010 and paired up with Konerko and the two of them had the kind of seasons they had this year, it wouldn’t have mattered.

The pitching problem would have overcome it.

We’d still be complaining about the White Sox’ inability to hold onto a lead in late innings And we’d definitely be griping about how ridiculously slow Konerko and Thome are on the basepaths – bringing a premature end to way too many a rally.

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