Rauch to stay with Sox organization for now

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Rauch to remain in Sox organization

 

 

 

By Dave van Dyck

Special to the Tribune

 

May 30, 2004, 10:07 PM CDT

 

 

Ken Williams wasn't in a forgive-and-forget frame of mind Sunday, but neither was he in a giveaway mood.

 

AWOL pitcher Jon Rauch remained in the White Sox general manager's doghouse, but he also will remain with the organization.

 

 

 

 

"He's going back to [Triple-A] Charlotte and back into the rotation," Williams said. "If an opportunity presents itself to get better [through a trade], yes, but we aren't in the business of giving away that sort of talent."

 

One day after Rauch walked out of the White Sox clubhouse during the game without permission or explanation, Williams had calmed down but would not back down from his incendiary statements.

 

"It's the first time I've ever had a player option himself down," Williams said. "He left me a message … saying that there was a misunderstanding. I don't know what the misunderstanding could be. It's a long-standing rule that you stick around until the end of the ballgame."

 

Rauch also received no slack from manager Ozzie Guillen, even though Guillen was in Florida at the time of the apparent transgression.

 

"It's going to be tough for the kid to come back here and contribute for us," Guillen said. "It's a funny thing about the way your teammates feel about you.

 

"I cannot feel anything about the kid because I was not here."

 

While saying he accepted Rauch's apology, Williams admitted he may have been wrong in asking teams to call him if they wanted Rauch.

 

"To a large degree my comments [saturday] were a reaction more along the lines of a player than they were as a general manager," he said. "As a general manager I'm fully aware if I'm going to trade someone, it's a good idea not to announce to the world that this person is not in the greatest of standing with your organization. I'm fully aware of that.

 

"There has been such a good, solid feeling of togetherness. It's one of those cliché words that teams and organizations throw out there, family, but I really feel that to such a degree this year that I haven't felt since I was a player in Toronto. That has to be paramount in our thinking."

 

Williams said he won't decide whether Rauch can return to the White Sox "until I go out and get the pulse of the guys in the clubhouse, his teammates, [see] how they feel.

 

"My reaction to [saturday's] event stems from the frustration of him not being out there to support his teammates in the event of a comeback. When a Frank Thomas comes out of the game for whatever reason or a Magglio Ordonez comes out of the game, you see them on the bench. Frank's been darn near at the top step on such occasions. What gives anybody with a lesser standing the right to leave before the ballgame is over? There could have been a brawl. There could have been an injury of some sort."

 

The most ironic part of Rauch's early clubhouse exit, during his 5-1 loss, was that Williams discovered his absence while trying to praise him.

 

"I came down at the beginning of the ninth, but from what I understand Jon was gone well before then," he said.

 

"I was coming down to offer (him) encouragement and to tell him, 'You're going to go back (to the minors) at this point, only because we don't need that fifth starter until June 12. If we didn't have the off days, he was going, in my mind, to have made the next start. I had seen enough in him. As it was, the message was going to be a positive one. 'Go down, make another solid start, and you'd be back on the 12th.'"

 

Now the question is, will Rauch ever be back?

Copyright © 2004, The Chicago Tribune

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Now the question is, will Rauch ever be back?

 

How the f*** should I know?

 

I hate it when reporters write stupid over dramatic rhetorical questions.