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July 11, 2005 The Art of the Steal: Podsednik Keeps Pitchers on Edge By IRA BERKOW CHICAGO, July 10 - Last Friday, on a night the gods conspired to make perfect for baseball - shirt-sleeve summer weather, the flags fluttering only slightly in the breeze, the grass sparkling under the lights - the 33,623 fans at U.S. Cellular Field watched Scott Podsednik lead off the first inning for the hometown White Sox against the Oakland Athletics. In typical fashion and with the shot-from-a-cannon speed that has made him the premier base thief in all of baseball, with 44, and a newly minted All-Star as well as the American League leader in infield hits, with 25, Podsednik beat out a slow roller to the right of the mound. Podsednik, who causes pitchers and many who try to pronounce his name (Puh-SED-nik) equal consternation, took a rather long lead off first base, wearing the lightweight black baseball shoes he carefully selects, cutting out the tongues, he said, for "less drag" when taking flight. The pitcher, the right-hander Kirk Saarloos, glanced over his shoulder as he assumed a stretch position. The look in his eyes was nothing if not baleful. He understood that the lean 6-foot, 190-pound player with the knee-high black socks who was crouched on the infield dirt several yards away, staring at him with possible mischief on his mind, had the potential to make this beautiful evening a rotten one for him. The modus operandi for the White Sox, who possess the best record in baseball, at 57-29, is that Podsednik gets on base, and then he steals a base. Then maybe there's a base hit or an infield out and the runner advances to third, and maybe another of the same and Podsednik scores. The opposition finds itself swiftly and, in frequent cases, irrevocably in the hole. While the White Sox have some power in the lineup - Frank Thomas, Paul Konerko and Jermaine Dye - the team relies on speed, on defense, and on pitching in, well, underwhelming, but nevertheless whelming, the opposition. Going into the weekend, the White Sox led their opponents in runs scored in the first inning, 64-34, and no small part of that substantial difference was one Scott Podsednik. They also lead at the All-Star Game break in winning one-run games, with a 22-9 mark, and stolen bases, with 91. "On offense," White Sox Manager Ozzie Guillen said, "our most valuable player is Scott." Saarloos, before throwing his first pitch to the second batter, Willie Harris, threw to first base, to alert Podsednik to the fact that he was not forgotten. A valentine of sorts. Then Saarloos threw quickly a second time to first. And a third. And he still hadn't pitched to Harris. A smattering of sardonic boos came from the White Sox fans. "Oh, he's disruptive," said Lou Piniella, the manager of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, whose team had played the White Sox earlier in the week. "He makes the pitcher really concentrate, and he takes attention away from the hitter. And then, because of fear of him stealing, the rest of the batting order sees more fastballs than breaking balls. And then the infield has to shift a little differently, open wider holes in the defense. That's what speed can do for you. And a good leadoff batter - and Podsednik is one of the few really good ones in baseball - is the catalyst for any team. "I tell my pitchers: 'Just don't let him get on base. Make sure you don't walk him. He's going to have to hit his way on if he's going to get on.' " And while Podsednik had been caught stealing 12 times going into the weekend, six of those times he had been picked off first base, three when he was fooled by the pitcher and was eventually thrown out at second. And what does the manager say when Podsednik is picked off? "I tell him, 'Get on base and get picked off again,' " Guillen said. "You can't be a good base stealer and be afraid." Podsednik, the White Sox' left fielder, echoed those sentiments. "You can't be afraid of failure," he said. "Once you become hesitant, you've lost the edge." Podsednik has the green light from Guillen to try to steal a base whenever his heart is set on it. "I go by instinct, and when I feel I have the pattern of the pitcher down," he said earlier in the day, sitting on the dugout bench. "I study the pitchers, in films and on the bench. Each one has his own rhythm." Podsednik's study has been so good that he has almost single-handedly (leggedly?) brought back the art of stealing bases and is on pace to steal 90 this season after leading the major leagues with 70 last year. Once the province of wondrous players like Maury Wills and Lou Brock and Rickey Henderson, base stealing seems to have faded to a great degree in contemporary baseball. "One reason is that when young guys watch 'SportsCenter,' they see diving catches and guys hitting home runs," Podsednik said. "They don't see guys doing the little things that day in and day out win ballgames: laying down bunts and running the bases, especially stealing bases." A few other reasons include smaller ballparks, which make hitting home runs a greater temptation, and the notion that singles hitters don't get the big bucks that sluggers do. Podsednik, who is 29, played nine seasons in the minor leagues. "Sure, there were times when I thought I would quit," he said, "but then I thought, what would I do? I don't know, detail cars? " He finally made it full-time with the Milwaukee Brewers in 2003. He hit .314 that year with 43 stolen bases and was named the National League's rookie of the year. "I realized that my legs were my living and started cutting down on my trying to power the ball," he said. Last winter, the White Sox made a stunning trade, sending Carlos Lee, who had hit 31 home runs and driven in 99 runs, to the Brewers for Podsednik and the right-handed relief pitcher Luis Vizcaino. "We took a lot of flak for that trade," White Sox General Manager Ken Williams said. "But we needed to revamp our lineup, and get more speed, and build the team around defense and pitching. People said, 'Where are you going to get runs from?' Well, we've found a way." The trade turned out well for both teams. Lee, hitting .266 with 22 homers and 76 runs batted in, and Podsednik batting .293 with no homers and 17 runs batted in but having scored 49 runs, made their respective All-Star teams for Tuesday's game in Detroit. Podsednik made it as the last of 32 players, with an on-line vote by fans, beating out five others, including Derek Jeter of the Yankees. The White Sox promoted him with "Vote for Scott" T-shirts and buttons, and even his teammates, including pitcher Mark Buehrle, made public-address announcements on the field before games to remind fans to vote for Podsednik. "I voted 25 times for him," said Jerry Reinsdorf, chairman of the White Sox. "Well, you know, this is Chicago, where the slogan is, 'Vote early and vote often.' And it would cost me money. He's got a clause in the contract that if he makes the All-Star team he gets a $100,000 bonus. But it's worth it." Podsednik said: "Even if I didn't make the All-Star team, I was happy just for the opportunity to be in the running. After nine years in the minors, you come to appreciate such things. And if I hadn't made the All-Star team, I still would have gone home over the three-day break with a smile on my face." And so he goes to Detroit, instead of home to Dallas. Oh, in that first inning against Saarloos of the A's, Podsednik stole second. His next time up, in the third, he singled again and stole second again. Neither time did he score. Unusual, and the White Sox lost, also unusual, 4-2. But tomorrow was another day and Podsednik, with his green light bright, continued to lead the White Sox in their march toward the playoffs.

Not sure if this has been posted yet: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/11/sports/b...1podsednik.html?

:rolly Take it to 'em Mark.

I like seeing it move fast though. Hasn't it gone down by 12-13 in the past week and a half? p.s. You would think I would know. Sig and all.

AJ never gets enough love. He has been huge with the success of a lot of our pitchers this year.

Aah, thanks for clearing that up. Much obliged. I was wrong.

Our bullpen has great depth and variety. Very happy right now. Hermie, here's to ya:

QUOTE(Steff @ Jul 8, 2005 -> 01:05 PM) He wasn't selected and if Sox fans didn't vote... he wouldn't be there. True, but every other player, minus the pitchers, was selected by the fans as well. I was just using a popular phrase, being mindful of his selection by the fans. Out of curiosity, who determines the Final Vote canidates? I know the AL was for fielders and the NL was for pitchers so I was confused as to the process.

At first glance I would say that he's not tipping his hand. But that's totally ridiculous. Pods ability to advance as a runner is obvious to every single fan in attendance. In fact, Sox should start a new commercial telling the Detroit crowd to chant "Go! Go! Go!"

QUOTE(Steff @ Jul 8, 2005 -> 11:16 AM) I've never seen this bus thing to Wrigley, but I seriously doubt it's $6 round trip. Maybe next time I venture to Yorktown, where apparently I am not supposed to shop .. I'll ask about it. I haven't seen it either but I do know that the cubs provide a lot of other shuttles at mostly their expense. Part of a deal with the city to alleviate the horrendous parking and train situation around there. I have also seen the double decker bus shuttles from the Ravenswood Metra stop for night games. Seems easier than driving down there. Thats a total pain in the ass.

QUOTE(SoxFan1 @ Jul 8, 2005 -> 10:42 AM) "Hmmmmm, let's see. I can bring him in to play LF in the 6th inning or so. Let's see, he is also a lead-off hitter so where can I put him in the line-up???" Francona IMO, the main reasons he was selected to the All-Star team is his ability to get on base and cause havoc once on. He is the best base stealer on the A.L. team so pinch running seems the most obvious choice. Maybe for Paulie in a late inning leadoff single.

How hard is it to figure out? Seems like one of the easier decisions during the course of the game . . .

Easily, Cheap Trick "Welcome to Budokan" "Hello there, Ladies and Gentlemen! Are you ready to rock!?"

QUOTE(hammerhead johnson @ Jul 8, 2005 -> 12:03 AM) Does "doing s***" mean putting up numbers like these for pitching: Team ERA: 3.68 Team WHIP: 1.23 Team BAA: .246 Hell yeah they're a f***ing surprise. I have no problem with them being on this list. I figured that they were a team on the rise in 04, mostly on the strength of their up-and-coming position players. But strangely enough, it has been their pitching that has them 7 games over .500 I don't watch BBTN, but at this point, they all gotta be acting like they know. I can't imagine that they'd want to dwell on their terrible Sox predictions show after show after show. Hammer head, by far my favorite signature yet. Nice work. 94 Frank, soon to be 2005 Frank (I can wish can't I?)

Lets go John! Shut down the A's and get this started! Time for your 14th win and rolling into the all-Star game!

Welcome from a fellow newbie! Hope to see you around more!

that would actually be 10-11 in the west. soon to be 13-11.

Franks effect cannot be overstated. It's been great to have him back and be another catalyst on the offense. Now pitchers have their head spin with so many different weapons on the opposing lineup.

That sounds better. I forgot how many other players that we have on the team that can speak Spanish. Maybe AJ can take crash courses in Spanish over the All-Star break.

Hey question for everybody in regards to Contreras: Do you think it becomes a big problem that Contreras hasn't learned much English yet? My reasoning behind this question: So much with Contreras' pitching performances seems to have to do with whats going on in his head. As much, if not more, as any starting picther on our team, if he doesn't have his best stuff rolling on a given night, he psyches himself out of the game and gets into serious trouble. I don't know how much English Jose actually is able to speak but it must be hard for Coop and AJ to get points across to him like they can with other pitchers. We have seen through the season how AJ is able to light a fire under some pitchers when they aren't pitching where they are supposed to. (An earlier Freddie game for instance) If this part of AJ's game is taken out, how much does it hurt his ability to calm Jose down? Same with Coop. Now, I know Ozzie is able to talk to him and get him settled down during a game. Jose has complete trust in Ozzie and he said recently that he is the most comfortable in Chicago than he has ever been. Just wanted to know if anybody has thought the same thing and if anybody had any other observations/thoughts about this. Thanks.

To echo Kalapse, I was proud to be involved (albeit newly) with such a great fanbase. I am also very proud with the effort Pods temmates have put toward getting him in the game. Gives you a great sense of the chemistry of this team.

I have a good feeling about this. It all depends how many "Yankee-hater" votes we got.

Or when you get to the "Vote Again" screen after you cast a vote, just hit ALT-Left Arrow. That takes you back and all you have to do is enter the new verification code. No codework needed. Thanks for Soxprideblog for this tip.

Don't forget guys who might be voting for Pods here: Red Sox Nation There is no way they want another Yankee on the team. Red Sox fans!

QUOTE(robinventura23 @ Jun 30, 2005 -> 02:22 PM) This sucks. No Ed and John on MLB Gameday Audio. i GOT 'EM. Make sure you have the home team feed.