White Sox fight prospect of worst failure

CHICAGO – Down at Jimbo’s, the mood is decidedly different these days.

Jammed earlier this season with families and friends pumping up the White Sox, the bar-restaurant just two blocks from U.S. Cellular Field is now full of worry warts.

“It’s like they lost their chemistry,” patron Sarah Grady said.

Rarely do baseball fans on the South Side dare to dream. Resigned to being second place in their own city, and without a World Series title since Shoeless Joe Jackson helped them win in 1917, they believed this season was going to be different – until the White Sox headed toward a record collapse, the kind usually seen by the crosstown Cubs.

Leading the A.L. Central by 15 games on Aug. 1 and on the verge of a runaway, the White Sox find themselves hanging on with two weeks to go, trying to hold off the hard-charging Cleveland Indians.

Chicago still tops the league in wins, but the White Sox’s lead is down to 3 1/2 games after their 7-6 win over the second-place Cleveland Indians on Tuesday night. Chicago has lost eight of its last 11 and suddenly, instead of the playoffs, there’s talk about them blowing the biggest lead.

The 1951 Brooklyn Dodgers squandered a 13-game lead on Aug. 11, beaten when Bobby Thomson’s homer doomed them in a playoff with the New York Giants for the N.L. pennant. The 1978 Boston Red Sox wasted a big edge over the New York Yankees and the 1964 Philadelphia Phillies blew it in the final week.

White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen can tell how things have changed from the tone of the e-mails he gets. After guiding Chicago to the best record in the majors for much of the season, he’s under assault from angry critics and frustrated fans.

“A lot of nasty ones,” Guillen said. ” ‘It’s your fault. You stink. I know you are going to choke.’ “

The Indians, meanwhile, won for the 13th time in 14 games Monday night.

“Everybody wants to put the blame on us and say this and that. We haven’t played our best in the second half or since August or whatever,” White Sox first baseman Paul Konerko said. “But at the same time, I tip my hat to (Cleveland).”