For gift-wrapping the AL Central title to the Minnesota Twins and losing 12 of their last 15 games, the Chicago White Sox get our firm Bitch Slap of the Week courtesy of all baseball fans who were expecting to see a battle in that AL Central race.

On Tuesday night, Chicago ended their season in rare format; losing eight games in a row. If that’s not embarrassing enough, the ChiSox managed to get swept by two divisional rivals in less than a week and were outscored 50-23 during that stretch. These series were played at a crucial time and weren’t ordinary losses, but total ass-kickings.  

But hey, at least that whole Manny Ramirez thing worked out in their favor (sarcasm). Before his much-publicized arrival, the White Sox were a mere 3.5 games out of first place. Since his acquisition, the Sox have fallen 12 games behind the Twins and are now planning off season October vacations or whatever they do on their time off.

And let’s just say that Manny did everything in his power to contribute to this downfall.

In his 60 plate appearances, Manny has recorded only one home run, which happens to be his only extra-base hit and his only RBI for the White Sox. In his last 10 games, he has gone hitless 4 times and struck out a total of 12 times. (The White Sox lost 9 of those games by the way.)

It seems like $3.8 million is a bit too much to pay for absolutely nothing. Regardless if it is or not, that’s exactly what White Sox GM Ken Williams has paid Manny Ramirez to do… absolutely nothing.

And even though we would like to solely blame Ramirez for this slump, he is by no means the man at fault here. After all, he has only been a part of the team for about a month now.

The Chicago White sox made two critical mistakes this season. The first mistake was assuming that Manny would be the answer to their struggling offense. Clearly he was not the answer, but that’s because the White Sox were asking the wrong questions.

They should have been asking: “How do we throw strikes, catch the ball, throw to first base, turn a double play, touch home plate, hold onto a lead, and win ball games?”

Only after those questions were answered, should they have then looked into adding an out-of-prime hitter to the lineup.

The second mistake the White Sox made was deciding not to play baseball the second half of the season.

Going into the All-Star break, the ChiSox were in first place and had won 8 games in a row and 25 of their last 30. Unfortunately, Ozzie’s crew forgot that the baseball season does not end there, and pulled a complete 180 to finish the year.

With a few weeks left in the regular season, the South Siders are now looking at a .500 season and a possible battle for third place in the AL Central with the Detroit Tigers (who have beaten them 6 times in a row this month).

At least the White Sox made it to September, August, July before falling apart this year; that’s better than the Cubs can say. And to Sox fans, that’s all that really matters.

No one really expects a World Series ring for another 50 years or so anyways. Chicago fans know better. And for their spiraling rough landing in 2010, the Sox get the Bitch Slap of the Week.

Used with permission of the author.

Logan Rhoades is a Los Angeles-based writer and contributor to Sports Climax. With an extensive knowledge of ESPN topics and celebrity gossip, he is known for mixing sports and pop culture to entertain his readers. Check out his blog and Follow him on Twitter @loganrhoades.

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