Imrem: White Sox blow chance to impress fans

The White Sox are a Major League Baseball franchise just waiting to happen.

Waiting to happen big-time. Waiting to be rediscovered. Waiting to become more than an afterthought again.

Who knows what it will take for the happening to happen: New ownership, new department heads, new players …?

New everything maybe?

New luck probably, along with better timing?

There has to be a way to get Sox fans - the invisible, anonymous ones sitting at home - to visit what still is perceived as a bad location for a ballpark.

Friday was a terrific opportunity for the Sox to impress people at their home opener when a decent number of fans did show up.

The Sox came back to U.S. Cellular Field with a 3-1 record. All seats and many standing-room-only tickets were sold, though the weather scared many from attending.

So go ahead, White Sox, show off a little on a day when many more than normal were watching.

Or don't.

The crowd booed the Sox when an error gave the Indians 2 unearned runs in the first inning. The boos became louder when Avisail Garcia was picked off first base in the second inning.

This act took place in the game's first half-hour, though Sox fans had seen it too frequently the past half-decade at least.

The Indians proceeded to win 7-1 and by the end Sox fans had lost interest and the ballpark was nearly empty.

"You always want to win the first one," Sox manager Robin Ventura said. "But there's a game tomorrow."

Yes, there is one today and one Sunday and the Sox might wind up winning this best-of-three series from the Indians and might even wind up winning the AL Central this season.

But the home opener was a chance on one day to win the hearts and souls and confidence of a large number of fans.

Instead the Sox squandered the opportunity to build on a budding buzz and feed some simmering enthusiasm.

It says here that there are a considerable number of people out there who are Sox fans, others who would become Sox fans, some who don't want to be Cub fans … but they can't find a reason to fall deeply enough in love with this South Side institution to visit the Cell on a regular basis

I know, I know, the notion that a lot of fans are out there for the Sox to capture or recapture goes against popular opinion.

The Cubs are the hot item around here now and were hotter than the Sox even when the Cubs weren't all that hot.

As someone who grew up here when Chicago was a legitimate two-team town, I have been among those fearing that the Sox were becoming irrelevant.

Crowds at the Cell, along with radio-TV ratings, dwindled since the Sox won the World Series in 2005.

Yet something told me lately that the Sox have the potential to become much more than they have been.

All that's required is someone currently in the organization - or someone new brought into the organization - to find the key to combating public indifference, waking the franchise from a slumber and shaking it from the doldrums.

I'm telling you, seriously, more White Sox fans are out there than you can imagine.

Too bad for this franchise that the Sox didn't seize Friday's home opener to inspire some of them to give them a longer look.

mimrem@dailyherald.com