How strange it is, Opening Day in the middle of summer, on July 24.
White Sox starting pitcher Lucas Giolito experienced the thrill of pitching a scoreless inning in the All-Star Game last July, and now he gets his first Opening Day start when the Sox host the Twins in an empty ballpark Friday. This isn’t how Giolito would have dreamt it, with cutout fans, fake crowd noise and all sorts of oddities affecting baseball during a pandemic.
“I just got my two pets out there, so they’ll be with me, cheering me on kind of,” Giolito said of his cutouts in the seats at Guaranteed Rate Field seats this weekend. “But the environment is not exactly like a major league baseball environment playing in front of tens of thousands. Just being able to find that focus, find that rhythm and tempo without having that same level of crowd noise and that environment, I think that’s the biggest challenge for everyone.
“But we’ve been practicing. We’ve had our intrasquads and exhibition games with no fans, and it’s still baseball at the end of the day.”
As openers go, this one has heightened significance and not just because only 59 games follow in a shortened season. The defending AL Central champion Twins are the prohibitive favorites to repeat, and the Sox have designs on their first postseason since 2008.
The Sox looked like a team on the edge of postseason play with 10 teams making the playoffs but their chances increased significantly when MLB expanded the playoffs to 16 at the last minute Thursday. They can easily make it now without overtaking the Twins.
“From a selfish White Sox standpoint I’m in favor of it just for the mere fact that it enhances the possibilities this group is going to get exposed to October baseball,” general manager Rick Hahn said.
This is the first year in Hahn’s rebuild the Sox might surpass .500.
With an infusion of veteran offseason acquisitions and a contract for rookie Luis Robert that ensured his being in uniform Friday, the Sox came to spring training buzzing with youthful optimism, only to have it shut down March 12 by the coronavirus. After three months in limbo, they gathered at Guaranteed Rate Field for three weeks of summer camp, still buzzing despite the weirdness, concerns and two positive tests for the coronavirus.
“Perhaps the most remarkable part of this last three weeks here in summer camp is the fact that the players and coaches really did just pick up where they left off in terms of their energy, commitment and focus on playing championship-caliber baseball for a long time,” Hahn said.
The opening ceremonies will be settling for a virtual first pitch by Mayor Lightfoot – the Cubs have Lightfoot, a Sox fan, live – and will include a tribute to the late Ed Farmer and a salute to coronavirus front line heroes.
And there will be visuals to support the fight against racial injustice, violence and inequality.
“We have permission to put things on our cleats, and I know we have [MLB approved] patches going for tomorrow,” Giolito said. “We’ve had team discussions about that. The way we see it is we are all a family here, White Sox, top to bottom. Obviously, there are differing viewpoints, which is OK. That’s America. It’s OK to have those. All the discussions we have had have been very civil. We’re able to express our opinions freely, and that’s just the perfect kind of environment as far as an organization I want to be in. You can expect [Friday] for players to express themselves supporting organizations, issues, continuing to raise that awareness around the country.”
And there will be baseball.
Play ball.
