Meet the Sox

Scott Podsednik

Right now, when I think of Scott Podsednik, I think of the bad jumps and worse throwing arm.  The wet newspaper for a bat.  The balky groin muscles that rendered him ineffective for weeks at a time.  The ill-fitting buzz cut at the end of his term.

Give me a year or so, and the first thing that will come to mind is Pods pumping his fist while rounding second after his game-winning homer off Brad Lidge in Game 2 of the World Series.

We can say all we want about Pods' shortcomings -- and Lord knows I've done my share -- but in the end, he has a blue seat in his honor at U.S. Cellular Field.  That alone makes his White Sox career among the most successful in franchise history.

More than that, Podsednik made people pay attention to the White Sox.  He was the poster boy of the 2005 team for most of the season, and that Ozzieball was ultimately misconstrued as small ball is immaterial.

Pods became the talk of the industry when Kenny Williams used Carlos Lee, a very valuable trading chit, to acquire him along with Luis Vizcaino.  When the Sox burst out of the gate, Pods made the magazine covers, often with an arm wrapped around second base.

He even won a nationwide popularity contest when he was voted into the All-Star Game, even though he was the least deserving candidate of the five.  Torii Hunter, Carl Crawford, Derek Jeter and Hideki Matsui all had superior numbers ... except when it came to votes.

The way the 2005 White Sox played resonated with a lot of baseball fans, and Pods somehow became the team's representative -- even though he had zero of the 200 home runs the longball-dependent Sox hit that year.

Fortunately, he joined the party at the right time.  He struck first in the first game of the playoffs, hooking one inside the right-field foul pole during the 14-2 blowout of the Red Sox.

Fast-forward 19 days, when Podsednik stepped into the batter's box against Brad Lidge in the bottom of the ninth of World Series Game 2.  The Astros tied the game in the top of the inning by taking advantage of Podsednik's weak arm.  Jose Vizcaino lined a single to right, and Chris Burke hadn't even rounded third when the ball got to Pods.  Nevertheless, he still slid in just ahead of the throw to tie the game at 6.

He more than made up for it.  On a 2-1 count, Lidge grooved a fastball and Pods ripped it to the gap.  It looked like a double -- Pods was thinking triple.  Instead, it cleared the wall, and Podsednik, who hadn't homered in 524 regular season at-bats, became the owner of what might be the biggest home run in White Sox lore.

Looking back, it seems like Pods, who was perhaps overappreciated during the regular season, was overshadowed during the playoffs.  The Sox's four starters stole the spotlight in the ALCS, along with Ozzie Guillen and his utter disregard for "the book."  Joe Crede would have won Defensive MVP had such an award existed, and Paul Konerko and Jermaine Dye took home the actual individual trophies.

Underneath it all, however, Podsednik probably played the best baseball of his career.  At the very least, he never hit the ball better than he did for those four weeks.  He transformed from a Punch and Judy hitter to a guy with legitimate gap power, hitting ropes and running like hell.

He wasn't able to maintain it, which was unfortunate.  Although some of it is illusion, there is some truth to the idea that the Sox machine ran better when Podsednik did.  He just couldn't stay healthy, and during the rare times when he played at 100 percent, he weighed himself down mentally.  In the end, he became way too high-maintenance for a team in dire need of an overhaul.

Still, there are no regrets in the Podsednik era.  He had his flaws, and the Sox probably kept him a year too long, but it's hard to find somebody more deserving of overstaying his welcome.