A.J. just knows how to wrestle away a victory
Maybe you noticed that A.J. Pierzynski likes to be noticed.
Some of it is intentional, like the bleached blond hair he has been sporting lately.
Some of it is - well, no, actually it's all intentional.
Pierzynski would be hard to miss even if he had preppy hair in his natural color. He's the guy messing up, cleaning up, tearing it up, sewing it up, and eventually laughing it up.
To paraphrase White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, "Opponents hate A.J., and we hate him a little less."
In other words, you don't have to like the guy to understand he's a heck of a baseball player who helps his team win.
As I have mentioned here before, it became clear shortly after Pierzynski joined the Sox in 2005 that he is baseball's Benito Gardini.
Benito Who?
Benito Gardini was the prototypical bad-guy professional wrestler a half-century ago. He would hit an opponent from behind, stomp on him when he was down, kick him in his private parts, jump on him from atop the corner, commit all sorts of irregularities to get an edge.
When the referee stepped in, Gardini would throw up his hands, raise his eyebrows and say, "What? Who? Me?"
(For the record, we should point out right now that A. and J. are initials for Benito and Gardini.)
Pierzynski, a pro wrestling devotee, pulled another trick out of his trunks Sunday that resulted in the White Sox' 6-5, 10-inning victory over the Rays.
Something had to be done. Pierzynski made a bonehead baserunning mistake to get caught off second base. Like Gardini caught with a chisel in his shorts, he had to think fast.
"I went from 'What are you doing?' to 'Atta boy!" Guillen said of the sequence.
That's how life is with Pierzynski. You take the bad with the good, the outrageous with the outstanding and the Maalox with the victories.
"Of course," Pierzynski said when asked whether his latest trickeration was intentional.
During a rundown between second and third bases, the Sox' catcher stuck out his arm to initiate contact with Tampa Bay's Willy Aybar. Or if Pierzynski didn't initiate it, he was like a motorist who is never ticketed despite causing pileups.
Pierzynski did his best wrestling-villain imitation by falling down while already motioning for the ref, er, umpire to flag Aybar.
"That's just A.J.," Sox starting pitcher Mark Buehrle said. "It seems he's always in a controversy."
This time Pierzynski benefited from an interference call. After much Tampa arguing and umpire huddling, Pierzynski scored the winning run on Alexei Ramirez's single.
By the way, Doug Eddings was the umpire who awarded Pierzynski third base. He's the ump who also awarded Pierzynski first base on a pivotal dropped third strike in Game 2 of the 2005 American League championship series.
Maybe these two guys can go on the road this winter as a tag team.
Anyway, plays like this were invented for Pierzynski. If they weren't in a rule book, playbook or joke book, somebody would have to add them under "A" for A.J.
"He's a smart player who knows how to win," Guillen said.
That became pretty easy to notice the past four seasons.