White Sox: Turned Down By The Pretty Girl Again

Before the All-Star game I was watching a local show that put the Chicago baseball perspective on the game. The host of the show brought up Roy Halladay and the chances that he would accept a trade to the White Sox.

“Well they’d have to sell him, even more than they did with Peavy,” the reporter responded. “He wants to go somewhere where he knows he can win right now.”

I shouldn’t have taken offense to this. I’m just a fan and I don’t represent the team. But after hearing this, my immediate reaction towards the current Blue Jays ace was "You can stay in Toronto and keep being fourth best."

The Sox might not be “perennial winners” such as the Yankees, Red Sox, and Dodgers (the teams mentioned in the report as possible landing spots for Halladay). But the Sox are no pushovers. Heck, they’ve won a World Series more recently than the Dodgers and the Yankees. Add that to the fact that their GM Kenny Williams refuses to go into a strict rebuilding mode, and you can assume that the Sox will more than likely always be at least competitive for a division title as long as Williams is in charge.

I’m curious if fans of other teams that aren’t considered “winners” have had this reaction when they’ve been spurned by star players. With the current state of players contracts, nearly every star player has the right to some sort of list of teams he does and doesn’t want to go to. Inevitably this is going to lead to hurt feelings for the fans of the teams that the star player won’t play for.

After this and the Peavy fiasco, as a Sox fan I’m left feeling like the White Sox are not only the “Second team in the Second City” but that they’re the second choice amongst the haves and the have nots.

If you’ve experienced this with a player turning down your favorite team in any sport leave a comment. I’d love to hear that this happens to other teams!