CHICAGO — During a postgame news conference last June at Guaranteed Rate Field, Chicago White Sox manager Tony La Russa showed up wearing a T-shirt with the word “FAMILY” spelled out in capital letters above the team’s logo.
It was clearly a message of unity during a trying time for both the Sox and La Russa, who was in the spotlight for some head-scratching in-game decisions.
During a June 11 home game against the Texas Rangers, the first volley of “Fire Tony” chants was heard at the ballpark.
“They are coming to the game and they can say whatever they want,” infielder Jake Burger said afterward. “I know this clubhouse is a family and we are going to stick together no matter what. You can have outside opinions, but this clubhouse, we are tight and it’s a family.”
La Russa is gone now and the Sox “FAMILY” T-shirts are collectibles. The players themselves didn’t actually believe they were a family, it turns out, but they kept it top secret while the T-shirts were on sale.
Maybe that’s the lesson from the 2022 season: You can’t always believe what you read on a T-shirt.
Did everyone “Keep On Truckin’” in the 1960s when the R. Crumb T-shirt became a fashion trend? Were we all smiling in the ‘70s when the “Have a Nice Day” smiley-face T-shirts became ubiquitous?
There was no reason to believe the Sox were a family just because they shared a clubhouse, just like you and your fellow office workers might have disagreements from time to time. Teams throughout baseball history that fought each other and won are legendary, including the notorious Oakland A’s bunch that pulled off a three-peat in the early ‘70s.
You don’t have to be a family to win. And truth be told, no Sox fan cares if players consider themselves a family as long as they’re winning.
This season’s Sox can change the narrative under new manager Pedro Grifol, who has been tasked with getting everyone on the same page without the benefit of a T-shirt-friendly motto.
From my brief interactions with Grifol at the start of Sox camp, he seemed to be a very serious man who has a very rigid schedule and an urgency to prepare the right way. He promised a “loose environment” once the work gets done, insisting he’s “having a great time” in spite of his serious disposition.
“And you know I’m having a great time because I’ve got a great staff. We’ve got morning meetings, we’ve got like 25 to 30 guys in there,” he said. “They’re extremely creative, they’re working and I’m just a reflection of them.”
Deferring to his coaching staff suggests Grifol doesn’t have a sensitive ego and understands the team’s hoped-for success will be the culmination of a group endeavor. It’s not all about him.
The players have responded to the change at the top of the family, which is to be expected. When La Russa arrived in camp in 2021, he got a ringing endorsement from shortstop Tim Anderson, who said he was behind his new manager “110 percent.”
“I can tell him anything I want to,” Anderson said with a grin. “I ain’t afraid of him. Tell him that.”
New year. New manager. Same Anderson.
“We’re creating new energy, creating a new culture,” Anderson recently told MLB Network. “And I think it’s led by the right man as well. I think the biggest thing is communication.”
Grifol’s strength as a communicator was stressed by general manager Rick Hahn when he hired the 53-year-old Kansas City Royals bench coach, who had no major league managerial experience and was unknown to the majority of Sox fans.
“In Pedro we are hiring someone who is a renowned communicator, a modern baseball mind who is seeking to build a cohesive and inclusive clubhouse environment and one where the attention to detail and the accountability will be priorities,” Hahn said at the introductory news conference.
“At the end of the day, after (Chairman) Jerry (Reinsdorf), (executive vice president) Kenny (Williams) and I sat down with Pedro, it was very clear to all three of us he would be the unanimous choice to address some of the things we needed to improve.”
Through no fault of his own, Grifol immediately had to deal with some controversy when pitcher Mike Clevinger was allowed to participate in camp in spite of an MLB investigation into domestic violence and child abuse allegations made by the mother of Clevinger’s daughter.
Clevinger then threatened in a Chicago Sun-Times interview to sue WSCR-AM 670 for defamation over further allegations the mother made in an on-air interview. For a team in desperate need of a cultural change, it couldn’t have started any worse.
But now that MLB has closed its investigation with no disciplinary measures taken against Clevinger — and no lawsuit has been filed by the pitcher — we’ll see if normalcy can be quickly restored.
Clevinger is scheduled to start in his first Cactus League game Saturday as he prepares for the regular season, which begins March 30 in Houston. He agreed to submit to evaluations by the joint treatment boards of MLB and the MLB Players Association and to follow any recommendations, according to MLB’s statement.
Though the investigation may be closed, Hahn’s signing of Clevinger will be scrutinized the rest of the season. Will Sox fans embrace him? That question probably won’t be answered until after his first home outing.
Grifol has many more worries than whether Clevinger can succeed as a fifth starter. He needs rebound years out of Yasmani Grandal, Yoán Moncada, Lucas Giolito and others. He needs to find a reliable closer while Liam Hendriks recovers from non-Hodgkin lymphoma. And he needs a healthy and motivated group to avoid another season like the disappointment of 2022.
What he doesn’t need is a T-shirt showing what a tight-knit group they are.
If the 2023 Sox really are a family, they can prove it on the field.
