Can the White Sox Hang On?

There's a little more than a week left in the baseball season and the White Sox are clinging to a 2 1/2 game lead in the AL Central. Just a month or two ago, I would have thought it was impossible for the White Sox to be in this position right now. I would have thought that the Sox would have had the division wrapped up by this point.

But they don't. The face the Twins and Johan Santana tonight and a three game set in Cleveland, against the hard charging Indians looms next week.

I'm holding out hope, but I'm not too optimistic. If the White Sox fail to make the playoffs it will go down as one of (if not "the") biggest collapses in the history of professional sports. Despite the Sox history of futility, they've never done anything along these lines before. Hopefully they won't start it this year.

That's the funny thing about this. If the Sox win the division by one game, no one will ever remember a "collapse". But should the Sox finish with 95 or 96 wins but trail the Indians by one game at the end of the season, all anyone will remember is how the Sox lost a fifteen game division lead.