By Woodrow Carroll
Thanks to a 3-2 victory over the Boston Red Sox last Sunday, the Chicago White Sox moved over the .500 record in what has already become a topsy-turvy season.
Sunday’s victory over the Red Sox made it six straight in the ‘W’ column for Chicago and upped the White Sox record to 14-13. Making it all the more enjoyable was the fact that the final five victories in that run were on the road. Two wins at Wrigley Field over the Cubs then three on the road in Boston.
An early Up-and-Down for the White Sox! The White Sox opened by winning six of their first eight contests. Then came an ugly eight-game losing streak that saw the White Sox record fall to 6-10. Now, we have the Sox heating up along with the weather.
Major League Baseball has had its share of hot streaks and some truly hot streaks. Last season, the White Sox never suffered through anything worse than a five-game losing streak. And, the club ended up 93-69 and ran away with American League Central Division honors.
One thing in the Sox favor has been the less than stellar play of the other AL Central teams.
Starting this week’s action, the Sox find themselves in second place three games back of the Minnesota Twins in the AL Central. And, if home field is truly an advantage and we need to remember the Sox are on a streak with most of the victories on the road, this week’s schedule is a friendly one.
The Sox have three home games with Cleveland followed by four games with the New York Yankees at Guaranteed Rate Field running through next Sunday. Cleveland may be a divisional rival, yet, its the Yankees that will serve as a benchmark early in the 2022 Season for Chicago in the eyes of most.
In the realm of hot starts to the baseball season, we might take a look at some truly hot starts to the MLB season.
Let us turn back the clock to the 1946 Boston Red Sox.
The 1946 Red Sox opened the campaign by winning 41 of their first 50 games. The fact that it was a 154-game season instead of the 162-game outing we have come to expect meant little. The Red Sox were 10 games up in the American League race after 50 games and more or less put it in ‘cruise control’ from there. Boston romped home winning the AL crown by 12 games over the Detroit Tigers.
How do you deal with a mini-losing streak? The 1946 Red Sox once lost
six in a row. However, the Red Sox in 1946 put together a 15-game winning streak. So there!
When it came to the World Series in 1946, it was another story. The St. Louis Cardinals edged the Red Sox in seven games.
The 1984 Detroit Tigers roared from the start winning 35 of their first 40 contests. At that point, the Tigers were 8.5 in front in the AL East and the division was theirs. The Tigers closed the regular season with a 104-58 record which was good for a 15-game advantage over the second place Toronto Blue Jays.
Unlike the 1946 Red Sox who faltered in the World Series against the Cardinals, the 1984 Tigers breezed by the Kansas City Royals in three games in the AL Championship Series and followed that up by beating the San Diego Padres 4 games to 1 in the World Series.
The 1984 Tigers were managed by Sparky Anderson who managed Cincinnati’s Big Red Machine that won back-to-back World Championships in 1975 and 1976. Anderson, who passed away in 2010, appeared only briefly as a player with the 1959 Philadelphia Phillies. As a manager, it was a different story. And it paid off with Anderson’s selection to the Hall of Fame in 2000.