October is always a great time to be a baseball fan (even a White Sox fan), as playoff season heats up.
For White Sox fans, October has been a lonely time recently. The team hasn’t seen postseason action since 2008.
However – with just four teams remaining in the playoffs – that doesn’t mean the White Sox won’t be seeing alum getting some playing time this month.
Clearly, the most well known White Sox alum to still be playing this October is Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale. The lifetime starter surprised everyone when he came in for a scoreless inning of relief in the Red Sox’ series-clinching win against the Yankees. It proved to be very necessary, as the Yankees rallied for two runs in the ninth before losing 4-3.
Elsewhere, the Milwaukee Brewers feature several former Sox players.
In fact, with all of the talk about the Brewers’ vaunted pitching staff, it’s worth knowing that three active members of that roster are former Sox players. Two even played for the team earlier this year.
Most notably, Joakim Soria – traded from the White Sox on July 26th – pitched in all three games of the NLDS against Colorado. He gave up just one hit in 2.2 innings for a perfect 0.00 ERA, struck out 5 batters, and earned the win in game 1.
Xavier Cedeno – traded from the White Sox in July in exchange for two minor leaguers – and Junior Guerra are also on the active roster.
Despite never wearing a White Sox uniform, even Game 1 starter Gio Gonzalez has ties to the organization. According to NBC Sports Vinnie Duber:
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"“[T]hey dealt him as part of the trade for Jim Thome in 2005, then reacquired him in the Freddy Garcia-for-Gavin Floyd swap a year later, then traded him away again the following offseason, that time to the Oakland Athletics in the Nick Swisher deal.”"
Of course, this all came way before the impending free agent’s two-time All-Star career began.
The Milwaukee Brewers also have three players on their inactive roster who are Sox alums: Matt Albers, Dan Jennings, and Tyler Saladino.
Elsewhere around the league, the coaching ranks also contain Sox alums. For example, both the Brewers are Astros have ChiSox alum coaching third base.
Although neither played professionally for the organization, Ed Sedar of the Brewers was involved with the Sox’ minor league organization for eight seasons while the Astros’ Gary Pettis was an assistant coach from 1997-2002. Sox fans may remember Astros’ first base coach Alex Cintron from their defending World Series team in 2006.
In closing, it’s fair to say that the
Sox will be spread over the baseball globe this October. For Sox fans, hopefully, their team will do the same in the not so distant future.