Never easy for Sox to create buzz

If a lack of fan support really is preventing the White Sox from pursuing premier pitcher Roy Halladay in trade, a longtime problem has evolved into a crisis.

For decades the mystery has been why the Sox aren't more popular in Chicago.

Monday night the Sox beat the Rays 4-3 in Comiskey Park to move within 1 game of first-place Detroit.

This was a thrilling contest on a beautiful summer night. There are more of each where that came from. The question is whether there are more fans where the 39,024 came from.

"It's fun," Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said of the full house. "You see the electricity in the ballpark."

Don't let the size of the crowd deceive you, however. This was a half-priced night, which at least dispelled the notion the Sox couldn't give tickets away.

For some reason this franchise can't create much of a buzz around town unless they win the World Series.

I never thought I'd be saying this, but the Blackhawks passed the Sox in appeal among Chicago's mainstream pro sports teams.

This remains a Bears town, of course. Next come the Cubs. Remarkably the Hawks have zoomed to No. 3, leaving the Bulls and the Sox at the bottom.

Monday's crowd was the Sox' fifth sellout of the season. Meanwhile, the Bears and the Hawks sell every ticket to every game. The Cubs fill Wrigley Field to 97 percent capacity for 81 games. The Bulls were second in attendance among the NBA's 30 teams last season.

Then there are the White Sox, who fill 65 percent of their seats. At fewer than 27,000 per game they rank 18th in major-league attendance right now - just behind Texas and Seattle and ahead of Arizona and Cincinnati.

Heck, if the United Center were bigger the Hawks would average that many fans.

Anyway, before the Rays game Guillen spotted a large media gathering to cover Carlos Quentin's return from injury.

"I hope Carlos brings some people to the stands like (reporters) to the dugout," he said, obsessed with attendance like everyone else in the Sox organization is.

Now, this local sports popularity contest wouldn't matter except that Sox general manager Kenny Williams said a couple of weeks ago that there wasn't enough fan support to generate enough revenue to pursue Halladay.

Suddenly, whether the Sox are a hot item in town impacts whether they can improve before the trade deadline.

Williams has been fighting the issue since becoming GM. He is a big-market GM, but he's often unable to conduct business like it.

Why are the Sox stuck in this no fan's land? OK, make that not enough fans' land?

Williams has offered a couple of theories: Maybe the Sox haven't played consistently well enough this season, or maybe they aren't exciting enough.

It could be the economy, but it isn't as if baseball's other teams are operating in another economy.

The Sox have a nice ballpark now and over a long period of time have won much more than they lost, including the 2005 World Series.

I don't have an answer. I just know that the Sox better figure it out if they are to become all they should be.

Every mystery has a solution, doesn't it?