chisoxmike
04-11-2005, 10:22 PM
Boozin' with the GM, so this is why they were flat today...
/sports/baseball/whitesox/cs-050411soxbrite,1,1969849.story?coll=cs-home-headlines
Williams: This team has a different spirit
By Mark Gonzales
Tribune staff reporter
April 11, 2005
CLEVELAND -- Team Harmony recruited another member Saturday night—Ken Williams.
The White Sox general manager was returning to his Minneapolis hotel after a postgame dinner when he walked by a tavern.
The leery Williams was talked into stopping for some hydration and socializing by 10 of his players.
"They waved me in and insisted on me staying," Williams said Monday. "You just don't see that very often. It's a different spirit, not in comparison to last year's team. It's in comparison to many, many teams."
Yet the distance between the 2005 Sox and the 2004 team that included since-departed Magglio Ordonez, Carlos Lee and Jose Valentin appears to be widening.
"We had good players," manager Ozzie Guillen said. "We didn't have a good club.
"Everyone had a different way to play the game, a different way to go about their business, and it was the wrong way. It's my opinion, and I don't try to hurt anyone's feelings, but this team on and off the field will be the same.
"And we spend too many days together, we'd better get along with each other."
It also helps that the Sox won their first two games in dramatic style, with various players sharing the credit.
"The way we're going to play, we're not going to beat ourselves," Guillen said. "That didn't happen in the past. They don't beat us, we beat ourselves. Make an error, throw the wrong pitch, have the wrong guy in the wrong position.
"I want to see this team when we struggle. But I have that confidence that we'll stick together when we struggle."
Williams also was encouraged that his batters are committed to moving runners, as opposed to the all-or-nothing slugging approach of last year. He also says the Sox's starting rotation can stand up to any rotation.
But the players' attitude merely fuels Williams' confidence in the team he reconstructed in the off-season.
"I'm a little less hesitant to talk about it because it's an indictment of people who are no longer here and deserve more than that," Williams said. "I prefer just to say that for whatever reason, this group of guys is just different from last year."
The team will spend Tuesday night at a popular steakhouse—on their day off.
Copyright © 2005, The Chicago Tribune
/sports/baseball/whitesox/cs-050411soxbrite,1,1969849.story?coll=cs-home-headlines
Williams: This team has a different spirit
By Mark Gonzales
Tribune staff reporter
April 11, 2005
CLEVELAND -- Team Harmony recruited another member Saturday night—Ken Williams.
The White Sox general manager was returning to his Minneapolis hotel after a postgame dinner when he walked by a tavern.
The leery Williams was talked into stopping for some hydration and socializing by 10 of his players.
"They waved me in and insisted on me staying," Williams said Monday. "You just don't see that very often. It's a different spirit, not in comparison to last year's team. It's in comparison to many, many teams."
Yet the distance between the 2005 Sox and the 2004 team that included since-departed Magglio Ordonez, Carlos Lee and Jose Valentin appears to be widening.
"We had good players," manager Ozzie Guillen said. "We didn't have a good club.
"Everyone had a different way to play the game, a different way to go about their business, and it was the wrong way. It's my opinion, and I don't try to hurt anyone's feelings, but this team on and off the field will be the same.
"And we spend too many days together, we'd better get along with each other."
It also helps that the Sox won their first two games in dramatic style, with various players sharing the credit.
"The way we're going to play, we're not going to beat ourselves," Guillen said. "That didn't happen in the past. They don't beat us, we beat ourselves. Make an error, throw the wrong pitch, have the wrong guy in the wrong position.
"I want to see this team when we struggle. But I have that confidence that we'll stick together when we struggle."
Williams also was encouraged that his batters are committed to moving runners, as opposed to the all-or-nothing slugging approach of last year. He also says the Sox's starting rotation can stand up to any rotation.
But the players' attitude merely fuels Williams' confidence in the team he reconstructed in the off-season.
"I'm a little less hesitant to talk about it because it's an indictment of people who are no longer here and deserve more than that," Williams said. "I prefer just to say that for whatever reason, this group of guys is just different from last year."
The team will spend Tuesday night at a popular steakhouse—on their day off.
Copyright © 2005, The Chicago Tribune