Hard Times for Sox/ 1967 Sox

I have been a Sox fan since 1965 and have had some great times and bad times with the team. The pinnacle had to be the 2005 World Series Championship, despite an August and September that were just plain HARD.

Currently, times are hard on the team which is mired in a losing streak, 2-8 in the last ten games and a miniscule team batting average. It's not just one or a few guys, it's the whole team, except Jim Thome, who is at .277, but has been hurt a lot of the season.

AJ Pierzynski is second highest with .251, Kornerko .229, Dye .228, Crede .216, and Uribe .215.

The team has dropped below .500 and that is definitely not a good thing in a division with Detroit, Cleveland, and Minnesota.

There was an article in the Chicago Tribune sports section yesterday about this hitting malaise and it compared today's team to the sixties White Sox. This bought back memories when I read the names of some of the players from those years.

It mentioned the light-hitting players such as Ken Berry, Don Buford, Tommy Agee, Tommy McCraw, and Al Weis. Back in the 60s, managers Al Lopez and Eddie Stanky had head groundskeeper Gene Bossard store baseballs in a cold, damp room. This made it more difficult to hit the ball out of the park, which was ok since the Sox relied on singles, the occasional double, sacrifice flies, bunts, walks, and wild pitches to score. The other teams had the guys who could hit it out.

The 1967 White remain my all-time favorite Sox team and had these players on it.

Several old Sox were interviewed. Tommy McCraw said, "Heck, we'd come in, score five runs in a three game series and sweep it. You know, 2-1, 1-0, 2-1, that's it, see you later."

Back then though, the big difference was the great pitching staff and a reliever corps of Hoyt Wilhelm (the great knuckleballer who taught it to Wilber Wood how to throw it), Bob Locker, Eddie Fisher, and Don McMahon.

Pete Ward, interviewed from his Oregon home said that it will just be a matter of time before the big guys start to click. "If a guy's a good hitter, in his mind he believes he's going to be a good hitter forever. He's thinking, 'If I'm at .220, I'm going to get hot here real soon.' "

I went to the Baseball Almanac site (which has more stats and stuff from all teams from all time than I knew could exist) and looked up my all-time favorite Sox team, the 1967 crew that literally blew a trip to the World Series when they lost all five of the final games of the year to the two worst AL teams, the Washington Senators and Kansas City Athletics. All they had to do was win two games, but it wasn't to be. They broke my heart.

Some of those players Tommy Agee (my favorite player then), Ken Berry, Pete Ward, Rocky Colavito, Walt "No Neck" Williams, Smokey Burgess (pinch-hitter supreme but was so slow he had to hit a double to get to first), Bill Skowron (at first I thought the fans were booing him until I learned his nickname was "Moose" and they were yelling "Moose, Moose!"), J.C. Martin, Ron Hansen, Tommy McCraw, Al Weis (who at one time had the highest priced rookie card in baseball cards because he was on the same one with Pete Rose), and Don Buford.

Then there was that great pitching staff: John Buzhardt, Cisco Carlos, Dennis Higgins, Joel Horlen (I remember the Sox blowing a game against the Tigers and a good friend, Neil, rubbing my face in it, then the next day, Horlen pitched a no-hitter!), Tommy John, Bob Locker, Gary Peters, Hoyt Wilhelm, and Wilber Wood.

MY HOW THINGS HAVE CHANGED:

1967 Salaries

Rocky Colavito- $60,000
Ron Hansen- $30,500
Tommy Agee- $16,500
Wilber Wood- $12,000
Al Weis- $14,500

2006 Salaries (for those guys batting .220s)

Jim Thome- $14,166,000
Paul Kernerko- $12,000,000
Javier Vasquez-pitcher- $12,000,000
Jon Garland-pitcher- $7,000,000
Joe Crede- $2,675,000
Boone Logan- lowest-paid- $327,000

Could it be that they have too much money in their pockets to run down to first?

Thing that Make You Go Hhhmmmnnn. --RoadDog

THIS DAY IN HISTORY-

1942- The Battle of Midway ends. This is considered to be the turning point in the War in the Pacific. After this, the Japanese were on the defensive. They lost four aircraft carriers (several of which had taken part in the attack on Pearl Harbor). The major US loss was the carrier Yorktown.

--RoadDog