IF YOU FOLLOWED the White Sox last Expected to contend for a title, the team didn’t even make the playoffs, sputtering to a .500 record. Everybody (OK, almost everybody) got injured, and the manager was prone to issuing intentional walks on 1-2 counts. That manager, of course, was Tony La Russa, who was unable to finish his 35th season as a major-league skipper due to heart issues.
This year a new face will be calling the shots: first-time manager Pedro Grifol, 53. He comes from the Kansas City Royals, where he was on staff for 10 seasons, most recently as bench coach, about his Cuban heritage, his devotion to a certain author’s self-improvement books, and why catchers (Grifol’s former position) make good managers.
