Well, the baseball season is officially over for me. I mention this every year because this is the official time when I slip into a funk until pitchers and catchers report to camp next year. My team - the Chicago White Sox - finished 83-79, 2nd in their division 9 games behind the Twins and out of the Wild Card race by 15 games. To be blunt, they had been out for at least a month and realistically even longer than that. We had the first half of the season and just crumbled in the second half. Everyone did - offense, pitching, even defense. But still, it was a good year.

Baseball is life and mine is in suspension until next year.

*sigh*

Injuries to Ordonez, Thomas cost White Sox big
NANCY ARMOUR
Associated Press

CHICAGO - When Torii Hunter leveled catcher Jamie Burke with a shoulder block at the plate the last week of July, it appeared to be the final, crushing blow to the Chicago White Sox's playoff chances.

But really, Chicago's season had ended weeks earlier, when Frank Thomas and Magglio Ordonez went down with what would be season-ending injuries.

"We had some key injuries, it hurt us big," right-hander Jon Garland said. "But we can't say that's the cause of why we lost. We still had to go out and play baseball, and there were times when we didn't do it."

The White Sox ended the year 83-79, the fifth straight season they finished .500 or better. But that's three games less than they won last year, a finish that cost Jerry Manuel his job. Worse, it left Chicago nine games behind scrappy Minnesota in the AL Central, a bitter disappointment for a team many picked to win the division coming out of spring training.

The White Sox led the division as late as July 24 but lost 11 of their next 13 - including a three-game sweep by the Twins - to plummet out of the race.

"When your goal is to win the division and you don't win it, then there is no silver lining," Paul Konerko said. "That's the way I look at it."

The White Sox do have things to build on. New manager Ozzie Guillen's enthusiasm was infectious, and players and fans alike responded to it. Konerko rebounded from his slump last season to hit career-highs with 41 homers and 117 RBIs. Carlos Lee hit .305 with 31 homers and 99 RBIs, and showed he can be equally dangerous defensively, finishing as the only qualifying outfielder in the major leagues to have a perfect fielding percentage.

Center fielder Aaron Rowand made the most of getting the chance to play every day, hitting .310 with 69 RBIs. And Juan Uribe emerged as a pleasant surprise, showing the consistency he'd lacked in Colorado by hitting .283 and driving in 74 runs.

But without Thomas and Ordonez, the White Sox had little chance of winning their division. Ordonez was hitting .311 with eight homers and 34 RBIs when he had surgery June 5 to repair torn cartilage in his left knee. He came back July 8, but played in only 10 games before a fluid problem forced him back on the disabled list.

Thomas was hitting .271 with 18 homers and 49 RBIs, and leading the American League with 64 walks and a .434 on-base percentage, when he went on the disabled list July 10 with a stress fracture in his ankle.

"When you see Aaron Rowand coming up and then you get Carlos Lee, Paul Konerko, Magglio Ordonez, Frank Thomas - that sits in the back of your mind," Garland said. "I don't care if they're not hitting the ball well, that still sits in the back of your mind. You might not want to fall behind a guy, you might not want to go around a guy to get to somebody else."

"But things happen," Garland added. "That's just the way the game goes."

While Thomas has promised to be back next year, there's no guarantee about Ordonez. He's a free agent this offseason, and contract talks broke off earlier this year with the two sides believed to be far apart. Ordonez made $14 million this year and was looking for a deal similar to the $70 million, five-year contract Vladimir Guerrero got from Anaheim last winter.

The White Sox also have to shore up their pitching. Mark Buehrle was his usual solid self, and Freddy Garcia was 8-4 after being acquired from Seattle. After them, though, the rotation is somewhat shaky.

They traded 21-game winner Esteban Loaiza to the Yankees, getting Jose Contreras in return. Contreras flirted with a no-hitter Sunday, but it was his first win since Aug. 28. Garland finally had his first winning season in the majors, but he was 12-11 with a 4.89 ERA. As for the fifth starter, the White Sox have tried several options with limited success.

The bullpen needs work, too. Shingo Takatsu showed he can close games in the United States as well as Japan, converting 19 of 20 saves. But the White Sox could use another setup man.

"I don't think I'll be able to watch a full playoff game," third baseman Joe Crede said. "It drives me up a wall thinking we should be out there. But it makes you want to get the next season started. It makes you hunger for it more the next year."