Imrem: White Sox deserve credit for trying to win now

The White Sox look like real dummies now.

The nice little run they were on was blunted by the visiting Yankees, who beat the Sox twice in three games over the weekend.

Jeff Samardzija, whom the Sox didn't trade by Friday's deadline, was clobbered in Sunday's 12-3 defeat.

Yeah, these Sox are real losers.

Except they aren't.

The Sox have won because of the very impression that they are trying to win. They didn't add on last week, but they didn't subtract either.

"Everybody has a better feel than if (Samardzija) would have been traded," Sox manager Robin Ventura said.

The remark came before Samardzija yielded 9 runs on 8 hits, 2 home runs and 2 hit batters in just 4⅔ innings.

Ventura later said. "That's a tough (Yankees) lineup when you're not at the best of your command."

The manager's mind didn't change, however. He knows he's better off with Samardzija on his side.

Lost sometimes is that trying to win a game is a good thing. There's too much tanking, rebuilding and other excuses to lose going on in sports.

Sox fans in the crowd of 38,840 still were cheering when their team scored twice in the seventh inning to cut the deficit to 9 runs.

Isn't it funny how fans like to see their team play well no matter what the score is?

Maybe the White Sox couldn't find a team to pay a reasonable price for Samardzija. Maybe nobody wanted Alexei Ramirez, Adam LaRoche or any of the Sox' other available players.

But let's give the Sox the benefit of the doubt. Let's say that they kept their roster intact for the sake of pursuing an improbable wild-card.

The idea probably was and is pure folly. The Sox beat up on a couple of bad teams to fool themselves into believing they're playoff contenders.

Still, trying to win something has become a novel concept in Chicago sports. Instead of winning today, teams are perpetually shooting for tomorrow or the day after tomorrow or next year or next decade.

Wasn't one of the reasons the Bulls fired Tom Thibodeau that he tried to win every game instead of coaching the season as a whole?

Lost in the equation is that a lot of fans show up to a game expecting to see their team at least have a chance on that given day.

The Sox could be the Brewers, who flushed good players from their roster last week and then looked impotent over the weekend while being swept by the Cubs.

In contrast, Ventura was able to say, "We go out and feel like we can win on a nightly basis."

They sure didn't play that way on this hot afternoon. Samardzija didn't pitch that way. The revived offense didn't hit that way.

The game felt important. The Sox could have won a series from a first-place team and moved forward with their playoff dreams alive.

Instead, the Sox might start wondering whether they can compete with teams better than the Indians and Red Sox.

There's still time this month to dismantle the Sox during baseball's waiver-trade period, and maybe that's what will happen.

But for however many fans come out to watch the Sox the rest of the season - 20,000, 15,000, down to maybe 10,000 in September - it would be nice if they had a chance to witness a victory.

"We'll put this behind us," Ventura said, "and be ready to go tomorrow."

Maybe the Sox are dummies for not liquidating last week, but there's something to be said for trying to win.

mimrem@dailyherald.com