May 06--It started out like a typical White Sox pregame scene.
Jeff Samardzija was playing classic rock on the clubhouse stereo Tuesday and Adam Eaton was giving his state-of-the-Spanky press briefing.
The revamped Sox are one of the biggest disappointments in baseball so far, but no one seemed too worried over the five-game losing streak or the possibility of getting their manager fired before Memorial Day.
Coincidentally, Queen's old-school sports anthem, "We Are the Champions," blared over the stereo as the Sox were getting ready for batting practice. But a few minutes later, the stereo was hijacked by an unknown someone, and a profane, misogynistic rap song began blasting at full volume.
The song is unprintable, even the title, and there were more bleeps than a Bryan Price news conference, though no one in the media paid attention. We're all inured to hearing stuff like that, and if anyone was offended they could always leave the clubhouse.
But executive vice-president Ken Williams was paying attention. Williams heard the song's lyrics while walking through the clubhouse, immediately apologized to a reporter and sought out a clubhouse employee to turn it off.
No one had complained, and Williams was probably more upset than the reporters. He said "common sense" was warranted by whoever chose the song.
There's nothing wrong with listening to hip-hop in the clubhouse, of course. But I wondered what kind of person would choose to get ready for the biggest series of the season by listening to that particular song. Was he saying that he also does not "give a (bleep)?" And if that was the case, why was he even there?
Players are more entitled then ever these days. They make too much money to care about what anyone else thinks. Management coddles them and shrugs it off whenever the N-word or slurs against women are blasted over speakers before or after games. The ballpark is considered their workplace, and management wants its players to feel comfortable.
The Sox aren't alone. During the summer of 2013, the Cubs played a profane, misogynistic song over the P.A. system at Wrigley Field during batting practice with children inside the park. That was too stupid to believe, so I mentioned it briefly in a story, prompting a Cubs spokesman to go postal. He claimed it was an edited version, as if that made it more kid-friendly. The Cubs stopped using the song for B.P. after that day while never taking responsibility for playing the inappropriate song in the first place.
So it was good to see Williams get visibly upset. At least someone understands that a song denigrating women doesn't belong in the workplace of a team representing our city.
Ventura watch: The ball definitely is not bouncing the White Sox's way this season.
On Sunday, it was a one-hopper that bounced off the behind of reliever Zach Putnam in Minnesota for an infield single. On Tuesday, it was a deep fly ball to left field that bounced off the glove of a leaping Melky Cabrera and over the fence for a home run.
Even when it does bounce the right way, there's a good chance they'll pick it up and throw it away.
But there's still plenty of time to get it together, and the series-opening win over the Tigers on Tuesday was a good start.
"In baseball, anything can happen," Avisail Garcia said. "You can have the best team on the planet, but you're going to lose some and you're going to win some. You don't know what's going to happen this year."
What has to happen is the Sox have to play up their hype. Robin Ventura is already getting the bulk of the blame for his team's poor fundamentals and general lethargy, prompting GM Rick Hahn to take the offensive Tuesday.
"Everyone who signs up for these jobs gets that," he said. "It's part of what makes this game so accessible is fans have opinions and want to voice their opinions accordingly. Unfortunately, right now it's an opinion of frustration and anger and we get that."
Hahn said the accountability should be shared by the players, coaches, manager and front office. He's right, and perhaps Hahn didn't factor in clubhouse chemistry when putting together this team. It's seemingly a collection of nice players without the necessary sparkplug. When Eaton struggles, as he has, there's no one else to pick up the torch.
"Everybody's frustrated," Ventura said. "We're frustrated, too. You understand that but in the end we gotta focus on what we're doing right here, and I get it. I'm frustrated. You understand where people lash out and why they do it. Again, that doesn't stop what we're trying to do here and the focus on playing the Tigers."
The players all said the right things about Ventura, as players always do in these situations.
"Robin's a great leader," Garcia said. "The players have to do something to get that feeling. We're not going to point fingers. It's nobody's fault. Just have to play harder, and play intelligent."
Actually, it's everybody's fault. The Sox were supposed to be hanging with the Tigers, Indians and Royals in the American League Central, allegedly the best in baseball. But they don't seem to have the baseball IQ, making stupid baserunning mistakes and showing a glaring lack of fundamentals.
"You have to be careful that you don't start passing judgments on a season based on a month into a year," Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski said. "I remember I was with the White Sox back in 1983 and we were 16-24, and we won 99 games.
"It's cold. You're not playing every day. Some guys react differently to the cold weather. Some guys just start out slower. But we said in the beginning we think this is as tough a division as there is in baseball, and I still feel the same way. In fact, everyone was looking at four clubs, but Minnesota has jumped up there, too. They've played pretty well.
"It's a good division, and the Sox have a good club. So do the Indians. They've just gotten off to slow starts, but there's a long way ahead of us, too."
Garcia agreed that this is a "big series" for the Sox, so Wednesday night's start by Chris Sale is huge.
They may have worn the '83 Sox uniforms Tuesday, but any resemblance between the two teams is purely coincidental.
