Memories

The White Sox celebrated the 25^th anniversary of the 1993 Western Division championship team, and everybody appeared to be on their best behavior, from Frank Thomas and Jack McDowell to Ozzie Guillen and hitting coach Walt Hriniak.  Outside of some general talk about “what might have been” if not for a players’ strike ending the 1994 season that August, nobody said anything in the least bit unpleasant.  So, allow me.      

The 1993 team was the product of general manager Larry Himes, who over the course of four straight years (1986-1990) drafted McDowell, Robin Ventura, Frank Thomas and Alex Fernandez.  In other words, Himes secured a HOF hitter, an excellent third baseman (if crappy manager) and two first-rate starting pitchers.  Only Himes got the boot at the end of the 1990 season for reasons that have never been made public beyond talk from Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf about the needing someone who could take the team from Point A to Point C.

You could already see how good the team was after Thomas and Fernandez were brought up in August of 1990, the last year of Comiskey Park.  The ’93 team played in the mall that Reinsdorf had the public build for him.  As I recall, there were complaints during the ALCS with Toronto that the atmosphere of the new park lacked excitement.  What mall is ever exciting?

I also recall Reinsdorf as a hardliner, if not the hardliner, among owners during the strike; here was one owner who wasn’t going to be dictated to by players.  Because McDowell was something of a free spirit unconcerned with what an owner wanted or believed in (like relatively short contracts for starting pitchers), he was traded to the Yankees at the fairly young age of 28; eventually, all the other pieces assembled by Himes would be traded or allowed to walk.  After the strike ended and Reinsdorf’s hardline stance was rejected, the Sox owner responded by signing Albert Belle in 1996 to what was then the largest contract in MLB history.  Albert Belle and Jerry Reinsdorf, a marriage made in heaven.

I honestly didn’t root for the Sox in ’93.  I opposed the team abandoning Comiskey Park and didn’t care much for how Reinsdorf behaved as an owner.  That’s the thing about kids; they don’t have your baggage.  My daughter, born in November of 1991, identified with the Sox almost as soon as she could watch a game, so I did too, again.  It’s too bad Clare doesn’t remember the ’93 club.

Those guys were pretty good.