MLB Trade Deadline: 14 Years Later, White Sox's White Flag Trade Still Smarts

The Chicago White Sox are in a tenuous position in the 2011 season with the trade deadline just days away. An under performing club is hanging on to hopes of an AL Central title and is just three games behind Detroit going into a weekend series with Boston.

It's hard not to turn back the clock and remember one of the club's more controversial decisions.

We're over a decade removed from the White Sox infamous "White Flag" trade, and the conditions are eerily similar to the waning days of July 1997. It may be a bumpy ride, folks, but journey back to that summer.

The White Sox still had several members of the team that won more games in the '90s than any club in the majors over that span.

Robin Ventura was just returning from a dislocated ankle in spring training after most thought he was done for the season. Frank Thomas was enjoying another monster year and was an MVP candidate.

Ozzie Guillen wasn't making out the lineup, he was in it (usually at the bottom). Harold Baines had returned to the South side and was batting .305 as the DH. 

Albert Belle was disappointing in his first year with the club but still hit 30 homers. Magglio Ordonez made his debut late in the season.

We had Tony Pena on the roster, but he was a 40-year-old reserve catcher and not an injured reliever.

The team struggled early in the season (sound familiar?), picked it up with a seven-game winning streak in June and another in mid-July and were within striking distance of Cleveland for most of the summer.

Late in the month, management pulled the plug.

The first move came on July 29, when Ron Schueler sent Baines to Baltimore for a player to be named later. Two days later, with the White Sox just three games out but just 6-11 since the July streak, Schueler dropped the bomb.

Wilson Alverez and Danny Darwin, the top two arms in the Chicago rotation went to the Giants. Closer Roberto Hernandez was also San Fransisco bound.

Six Giants prospects, including Keith Folke, Bob Howry and Mike Caruso, came to Chicago in the deal. Folke went to the bullpen, and the rest went to the minors. The White Sox were officially gutted.

Darwin, a long-time vet, said that he had never seen an owner give up on his team like that. Guillen, perhaps taking a managerial stance even then, said he understood the move in the face of waning attendance.

Fans were left mouths agape, unable to comprehend Jerry Reinsdorf's cries of uncle. The club promptly lost six of their next seven games. Miraculously, they were still in the race, just 4.5 games out.

A four-game win streak got Chicago to within 2.5 games of Cleveland but faltered in September and fell out of contention. Still, the White Sox finished 80-81, good enough for second place in the division, six games behind the Indians.

At the time, Schueler was quite certain that he wasn't going to sign the three pitchers and did not want to lose them with no compensation. It was a move for the future. What did that future bring?

Howry soon joined Folke in the bullpen (where the two traded closers duties for a while) and were big parts of the 2000 division winner.

Caruso teased big time, replacing Guillen at short in 1998 and finishing third in the Rookie Of The Year voting with a .306 average. He regressed badly the next season and never appeared in Chicago again.

Lorenzo Barcelo appeared in 22 games for the White Sox in 2000 and saw action in the next two seasons. Pitcher Ken Vining had a cup of coffee with the team in 2001. 

Outfielder Brian Manning never made it out of Double-A. Incidentally, the player Chicago eventually got in the Baines deal, Juan Bautista, was a career minor-leaguer.

The trade Kenny Williams made this week was designed to cut payroll but is a far cry from the surrender of the white flag trade. That's not to say it can't still happen.

I remember being upset when Baines was sent packing, but I still retained hope right up to the punch in the gut two days later.

It looks like he is going to take it day by day, but I think it will be hard for a competitive GM like Williams to just throw down his guns.

Still, it remains to  be seen if Williams is or isn't winding up for a similar stomach punch.