'Beyond Ugly' fits beautifully as Sox's motto

[greasywheels121]

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sp...cs-home-utility

 

'Beyond Ugly' fits beautifully as Sox's motto

Mike Downey

 

As soon as he said it, I knew the White Sox had their rally cry for 2005.

 

The sizzling South Siders had just won a game from Kansas City 2-1, and they had done it by scoring two runs in the eighth inning without a hit.

 

After it was over, Paul Konerko said, "That was beyond ugly."

 

There it is, I said.

 

Beyond Ugly.

 

Man, how perfect is that?

 

If the toast-of-the-town 1983 White Sox could have "Winning Ugly" for a slogan, then "Beyond Ugly" absolutely has to be this team's motto 22 years later.

 

I know what you think. It doesn't sound like much of a compliment for a team to be called ugly.

 

Relax ... a true Sox fan knows better. And so does a loyal Sox man like the manager, Ozzie Guillen, who more than once has celebrated a Sox success by using the U word.

 

It is a four-letter word that is fit for graffiti—u-g-l-y—so please don't mind how often the salty-tongued Guillen might use it.

 

"Winning Ugly" is a reminder of a time when the White Sox scratched and scrapped for every run.

 

When they won and didn't much care how they looked doing it.

 

When they wore a uniform so ugly, Goodwill and the Salvation Army would have donated it back.

 

Oh, what a fun season. LaMarr Hoyt's 24-win pitching. Kitty Kittle's 35 home runs. Rudy Law's 77 stolen bases.

 

And, oh, the things Comiskey Park's crowds saw: Pudge Fisk's inside-the-park homer. Bull Luzinski's roof shot off Oil Can Boyd. A beauty of a one-hitter by Britt Burns.

 

Each came in the pennant race of August and September.

 

Tony La Russa's club won 99 games. And the Sox drew 2,132,821 at home, the first time they topped the 2 million markat Old Comiskey.

 

Some summer that was. Even with only one All-Star on the team (Kittle), the Sox strutted around town like 25 Hank Aarons.

 

They won a postseason game for the first time since 1959. They took Game 1 from the Orioles 2-1 when Hoyt was able to get Eddie Murray to ground out with Cal Ripken on base.

 

"Winning Ugly" shirts were in every store. I still own mine.

 

It reads "1983 A.L. West Champs," for those of you who don't remember that the Sox of that era were in the West.

 

The team had a silly war cry that the town took to heart.

 

It gave those Sox a down-and-dirty identity, just as 1959 had been the year of those "Go-Go" guys who seemed to hit-and-run and take an extra base at will.

 

Among those Go-Goers were guys like Sherm Lollar and Ted Kluszewski, slowpokes who make Konerko or Frank Thomas look like Carl Lewis.

 

It didn't matter—when a nickname fits, it fits.

 

I suppose the 2005 Hose would prefer to have something a little more handsome than "Beyond Ugly" for a team ID.

 

But lest they forget, the 2004 Red Sox ended an 86-year World Series drought while declaring themselves "Idiots."

 

And 99 years ago, when the White Sox won a World Series, their team was known as the "Hitless Wonders."

 

If the Red Sox can do it, can't the White? Isn't it time for another self-mocking nickname around here?

 

In a Sox box score for Sunday's victory in Toronto, here were the batting averages by each man's name:

 

Podsednik .250; Uribe .277; Everett .269; Konerko .198; Rowand .245; Dye .210; Pierzynski .272; Crede .273; Lopez .286.

 

The nine of whom marched right out to nail down the Sox's eighth victory in a row.

 

Talk about hitless wonders.

 

After scoring twice against Kansas City without a hit, Aaron Rowand said something funny. He said the Sox now were winning with something new: "nothing ball."

 

I thought that might make a slogan. But, no, these Sox do not have nothing. They have something.

 

"Win or Die Trying," the team's new ad campaign?

 

I am a little uneasy with that, particularly after Toronto's Gregg Zaun lost consciousness during Sunday's game with the Sox.

 

Nah, I like Konerko's phrase much better.

 

This team isn't winning ugly. This is beyond ugly. Put it on a T-shirt. Paint it on a wall.

 

Ugly is beautiful, baby.

Edited May 10, 2005 by greasywheels121

[retro1983hat]

The Sox should try to subtly come up with a slogan like:

 

White Sox Baseball: Just Fugly!