All About Your White Sox...

[bjm676]

Found this article from last week. Hope it wasn't posted already. Some stuff we already know, others we don't.

 

A cast of characters

 

National baseball fans will learn that the Sox provide a mother lode of good stories

 

 

BOSTON -- Before his White Sox sent them heading to the exits with their heads down Friday at Fenway Park, manager Ozzie Guillen talked about being recognized on the streets surrounding the baseball shrine.

 

"They know you when you play the big games," Guillen said. "It's nice."

 

Get used to it, Ozzie.

 

The games will get bigger the longer October lasts and the White Sox become more than a national curiosity in the upcoming American League Championship Series and—gulp—possibly the World Series too.

 

For many reasons, the Sox may never be America's team as much as perhaps South America's team, or as well-respected on the East Coast in Red Sox and Yankee country as they might be in the Far East, thanks to Tadahito Iguchi.

 

Iguchi comes from Japan, one of nine countries represented on a Sox roster that resembles a United Nations roll call. It is a roster full of players and coaches whose interesting lives will be dissected by a growing national media contingent looking for a lively bundle of Sox.

 

They will find fascinating tidbits at every locker.

 

Guillen, who accepts criticism as part of the job and enjoys sparring with second-guessers, also has been taken to task back home by some in the Venezuelan media—for coloring his hair to hide the gray.

 

Sox pitching coach Don Cooper threw a no-hitter for the Minnesota Twins' Class A team in Ft. Lauderdale on Aug. 8, 1978, and spent four nondescript seasons in the major leagues as a reliever with the Yankees, Twins and Blue Jays.

 

Third-base coach Joey Cora graduated with a degree in economics from Vanderbilt University, which required more brain power than deciding whether to wave runners home, and played 11 seasons in the major leagues.

 

Hitting coach Greg Walker credits trainer Herm Schneider with saving his life one day in 1988 when, as a member of the Sox, Walker suffered an unexplained seizure that prevented him from breathing until Schneider used a screw device and scissors to keep Walker's mouth open.

 

Bench coach Harold Baines' affiliation with the White Sox organization dates back to 1971, when former Sox owner Bill Veeck spotted Baines playing Little League in St. Michaels, Md., the hometown that now has an annual "Harold Baines Day" every Jan. 9.

 

First-base coach Tim Raines asked former Cub Andre Dawson to be godfather of his son, Andre Darrel.

 

Bullpen catcher Man Soo Lee, in his sixth season with the Sox, earned the nickname "Babe Ruth of Korea" after hitting 252 home runs in 16 seasons in the Korean League.

 

Bench coach Art Kusnyer, the senior member of the staff at 59 who made his major-league debut for the Sox in 1970, is nicknamed "Cave."

 

Trainer Schneider adds a European flavor to the diverse Sox clubhouse: Schneider was born in Amsterdam, Netherlands, before his family moved to upstate New York when he was a child.

 

Mark Buehrle proposed to his fiance, Jamie, on a deer stand in the woods on 1,100 acres of land near his northwest Missouri home.

 

Jose Contreras, the ace of the staff since August whose defection from Cuba has been well-documented, still loves his country enough to have a clause in his contract permitting him to pitch for the Cuban national team if the team is playing outside of Cuba.

 

Freddy Garcia, married to Guillen's niece, loves to sing and dance to a salsa beat and has a weakness for designer shoes.

 

Jon Garland, who dates Team USA softball player Lovieanne Jung, was nearly traded by the Sox to the Anaheim Angels before the 2002 season for Darin Erstad, but a Disney Corp. executive vetoed the deal.

 

Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez, the ALDS Game 3 hero known as a "professor of pitching" by Cooper, gets a lot of credit in the clubhouse for fellow Cuban Contreras' late-season increase in comfort and confidence.

 

Closer Bobby Jenks, who has changed agents three times since his original representative provided damning information for an unflattering ESPN the Magazine profile, credits fellow reliever Dustin Hermanson for giving him advice to picture his favorite Double-A ballpark when he is trying to focus.

 

Hermanson shaves his beard in the design of a peace sign, in part as a tribute to a heritage that makes him part-Cherokee and Seminole.

 

Catcher A.J. Pierzynski wears amber-colored contact lenses during games, a special product developed for athletes by Nike and Bausch&Lomb to cut down on glare and improve clarity on small objects such as a baseball.

 

First baseman Paul Konerko was taken by the Dodgers with the 13th selection of the first round of the 1994 amateur draft, after Nomar Garciaparra (12), Todd Walker (8), Josh Booty (5), Hermanson (3) and Ben Grieve (2).

 

Second baseman Iguchi homered for Japan off former Sox pitcher Jim Parque in the eighth inning of an 11-2 victory over the U.S. in the semifinals of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, one of the moments that convinced Iguchi he could hit major-league pitching.

 

Shortstop Juan Uribe signed a pro contract at the age of 16 with the Colorado Rockies after a tryout in the Dominican Republic, on the recommendation of countryman and Cubs shortstop Neifi Perez, only after his father, Juan Sr., was convinced he wasn't being sold.

 

Third baseman Joe Crede, whose name is pronounced CRAH-dee in his hometown of Westphalia, Mo. (pop. 320), had a cousin, Dennis Higgins, who pitched for the Sox from 1966-72.

 

Right fielder Jermaine Dye, who missed a July series against the Red Sox because of spider bites, originally was drafted out of high school by the Texas Rangers as a pitcher who threw in the low 90s and spent most of his college career at Cosumnes River (Calif.) Community College on the mound.

 

Left fielder Scott Podsednik, whose fiance is Fox Sports broadcaster Lisa Dergan out in Hollywood, hails from tiny West, Texas, and toiled so long in the minor leagues that he turned to substitute teaching in the winters to make extra money.

 

Center fielder Aaron Rowand gets cheered for crashing into walls but was cursing himself after crashing his dirt bike in November 2002 in an accident that broke his left shoulder and cracked a couple of ribs.

 

Designated hitter Carl Everett, who doubts dinosaurs ever existed and man's walk on the moon, would be worth Larry King's trouble if he could get him to sit down for 60 minutes.

 

Reliever Neal Cotts, a Belleville, Ill., native who played at Illinois State, turned to baseball only after breaking two bones in his left leg on the soccer field during his junior year in high school.

 

Reliever Damaso Marte never served a three-game suspension for his part in a 1999 brawl as a member of the Seattle Mariners, which involved Marte punching former Dodger and Cub Todd Hundley, because the Mariners immediately sent him down to the minors and later traded him. (After loading the bases Friday, many Sox fans would like to see him start serving it during the ALCS).

 

Reliever Cliff Politte, a 54th-round draft pick of the St. Louis Cardinals in 1995, started to blossom only as a pitcher in junior college after he gave up his favorite sport in high school, soccer.

 

Reliever Luis Vizcaino, the fourth of eight children from Bani, Dominican Republic, was so highly thought of in the Oakland A's organization during his rookie year in 2000 that general manager Billy Beane labeled him, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito the team's only "untouchables."

 

Brandon McCarthy, left off the postseason roster for the ALDS, left Wrigley Field after his first major-league start against the Cubs in June wearing a pair of blue culottes and an orange blouse as part of rookie hazing.

 

Outfielder Timo Perez knows the Sox's double-play combination well. His off-season neighbor is Uribe, and he played against Iguchi from 1994-99 in the Japanese League.

 

Backup infielder Willie Harris mourned the death of his 10-year-old daughter's mother for a week in May when Guillen allowed him to return home to Cairo, Ga., to attend the funeral and take care of his family.

 

Utility player Geoff Blum, who keeps four gloves and has started games at all four infield positions, has his hands full at home with 5-month-old triplets—Ava, Audrey and Kayla—and their 22-month-old big sister Mia.

 

Infielder Pablo Ozuna was part of the 1998 deal that brought the Cardinals shortstop Edgar Renteria, who is now the Red Sox's shortstop.

 

Backup catcher Chris Widger, burned out by the politics of baseball after the St. Louis Cardinals replaced him on the roster with first-base coach Dave McKay's son, Cody, played in a softball league for two months in the summer of 2004 before returning to hardball in an independent league.