No trade, no buzz, just more of the same for Sox

The White Sox should have made a trade Sunday just for the heck of it.

You know, just for the fun of it. Just for the activity of it. Just for the pulse of it.

What would the Sox have to lose?

They have been loitering at around 2 games under .500 and 4 games out of first place for a couple of months now.

There just isn’t any magic at Comiskey Park, and Sox fans seem to understand that better than the Sox do.

On a summer-hot Sunday afternoon an announced crowd of 28,278 turned out to see the Red Sox beat the White Sox 5-3.

It’s difficult to imagine a close game being this dull. It took 3 excruciating hours, 31 agonizing minutes for Boston to complete the victory.

Even customarily rapid White Sox starter Mark Buehrle slowed down the pace with 105 pitches in 6 innings.

Add that to the reasons Sox fans are disinterested, along with the economy being bad and ticket prices being high.

But the Tigers drew 36,878 Sunday against the Angels in one of the most economically depressed cities in America.

This is the beginning of August, when baseball attendance is supposed to increase for series against teams like Boston.

Sorry, though, there’s still no here here. The White Sox continue to be about as inspiring as — yikes! — the Cubs. And we know how uninspiring they are.

The past week should have awakened Chicago with the A.L. Central-leading Tigers and the A.L. East leading Red Sox in town.

Never really happened. Maybe this week it will with the usually boffo box office Yankees in for four games starting Monday night.

But just as Tigers and Red Sox followers did their best to help fill whatever seats were full, so Yankees fans will have to this week.

Whatever the White Sox are doing to get their own faithful to games isn’t working. It’s time to try something else, whatever that might be.

One answer might be a different team, which is why a trade before Sunday’s 3 p.m. deadline would have been welcome.

It always is said that acquiring reinforcements indicate to fans and players alike that the organization is intent on making the playoffs, or as the Sox like to say be all in.

But the best the Sox could do was save some money a few days ago by exchanging a mediocre starting pitcher and a failed hitter for a decent relief pitcher.

Yawn.

OK, so a deal probably wasn’t there to be made because if there was, hyperactive Sox general manager Kenny Williams would have made it.

Still, the Sox need hitting. Anyone with a heartbeat would be worth a shot if only to shake things up a little.

Yet in the latest loss Sox manager Ozzie Guillen still had to wheel out Adam Dunn’s .164 batting average, Alex Rios’ .207 and overall an entire lineup that just can’t score enough to fashion a winning record.

“We try to make up crazy stuff to get the offense going (Sunday),” Guillen said. “We try to push every button we can, but it isn’t working.”

So the White Sox remain below .500 and in third place and about as unattractive as an allegedly contending team can be.

Sometimes manufacturing a trade just for the sake of making a trade isn’t such a bad idea.

This was one of those times, judging by the current lack of public enthusiasm over this White Sox team.

mimrem@dailyherald.com