Between the wet weather and the shutout at the hands of the Royals, Saturday's reunion of the 1993 White Sox felt a touch muted.
It deserved better conditions, because that team helped hook a a generation. At least if my example isn't an outlier, anyway.
The 1993 team was what pulled me to the White Sox for good. Before then, I was more of an Oakland fan, just because they had the guys who were fun to imitate in the backyard -- the Bash Brothers, Rickey Henderson, Dave Stewart, Dennis Eckersley, etc. I also rooted for the White Sox because it was the family thing, but those A's teams captured my imagination in the way the Sox didn't. The 1993 team hooked me into the White Sox for good, as they gave Hawk Harrelson a ton of homer fodder (and I mean that as a selling point).
We'd seen plenty of Frank Thomas, Ozzie Guillen and Bo Jackson over the years. Tim Raines and Joey Cora coached in the recent past. The reunions are cool for seeing guys like Lance Johnson, Craig Grebeck and Warren Newson, as well as coaches well-regarded (Walt Hriniak), and those with maybe a more negative association (Terry Bevington).
There were a few notable omissions, including four of the top 10 1993 White Sox according to bWAR.
- Frank Thomas, 6.2
- Lance Johnson, 6.1
- Alex Fernandez, 5.4
- Robin Ventura, 5.3
- Jack McDowell, 4.4
- Tim Raines, 3.8
- Ron Karkovice, 3.2
- Ellis Burks, 2.9
- Jason Bere, 2.6
- Roberto Hernandez, 2.6
Fernandez was overshadowed by McDowell during his time with the Sox, but he was every bit the workhorse. Karkovice was Not Carlton Fisk, but he peaked at the right time. Burks was part of a productive revolving door in right field. I imagine when trying to get everybody into one place on one date across the country, it's just a fact that some guys are not going to be able to attend.
Ventura's omission stood out the most, because in terms of White Sox history, he was just here. Plus, Barry Jones was there, and it wasn't right for his partner in menswear advertising to abandon him:
The Sox said that Ventura had a trip planned with his son, which might be true. It seems just as likely that Ventura decided the weekend of July 14 would be perfect for a trip after the Sox informed him of the reunion, because I can't imagine he'd have much interest in answering the questions he'd be sure to receive. During his farewell press conference, my lingering thought was, "He's not going to be at SoxFest for quite some time."
Which is a shame. Ventura failed as a manager, but it's not his fault the Sox set him up to fail. I don't blame him for taking the challenge, and I don't blame him for not giving up despite the mountain of evidence begging for a change of command. The front office botched it all around.
I don't think he would've been booed had he attended, since 1993 capacities seemed to be front and center. During Saturday's broadcast, Guillen made no effort to talk around Bevington being a terrible manager, but he praised his work on a coach on Gene Lamont's staff. That's the spirit of the whole party.
I'm hoping Ventura's playing career will return to the center of his White Sox existence in the near future, because he's one of the best players to suit up on the South Side, and an especially vital figure in the New Comiskey Era. His presence shouldn't be controversial at any point.
I suppose that's one benefit of rebuilding. Ideally, this process should produce such a strong system that even Ventura could've taken them to the postseason multiple times (see the recently fired Mike Matheny). The team that is supposed to result from the overhaul won't have any real connection to the Ventura era, and will hopefully generate enough goodwill that dwelling on the mistakes of the previous decade would be pointless.
