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Sox on the same page

احدث اجدد واروع واجمل واشيك Sox on the same page

How the final chapter ends for the $130 million novel that is White Sox Baseball 2011 is anyone's guess.

There will be ups and downs, there will be drama, and throw in a couple of tweets now and then to make it interesting .  .  .

The prologue, however, was written last week on the baseball fields of Florida International University in Miami. No media, no opposing team on the field, no nonsense. Just eight players getting together on their own dime at "Camp Cora'' to write that first page.

More important, to make sure they were all on Page 1 at the same time.

"I got the sense that they are excited about the possibilities of this year,'' bench coach Joey Cora said in a phone interview. "They really have the team to compete and be good. It wasn't about, 'Oh, we spent so much money,' or 'What about [manager Ozzie Guillen's expiring] contract?' It was about concentrating on baseball and what has to be done. That's what was talked about. They feel like they have the weapons to compete, the ammunition to go to battle with the rest of the division. Nothing else matters to these guys right now except baseball.

"It was about no distractions.''

Music to the ears of everyone associated with the Sox.

The Sox are the only organization in sports that works on dysfunction drills somewhere between pitchers' fielding practice and shagging balls when spring training starts.

They can't help it — it's their DNA.

But all of a sudden, '11 seems different. "Camp Cora'' is the first indication of that.

In 2008, Cora decided to take Alexei Ramirez under his wing and work on the young Cuban's defense to make it major-league ready. Then third baseman-in-waiting Josh Fields heard about what was happening in Miami and signed up to meet with Cora.

Four camps later, it was the usual infielders attending to work on their defense — Ramirez, Gordon Beckham, Brent Morel and Dayan Viciedo. But also paying their own way to get early work in were catchers A.J. Pierzynski and Ramon Castro, as well as outfielders Juan Pierre and Alex Rios. Heck, pitcher Chris Sale even wanted to make a trip in, but the weather wasn't conducive for the young lefty to start chucking off the mound.

"You get all those guys together — eight out of 25 [on the roster] .  .  . I was surprised, but in a good way,'' Cora said.

It wasn't the only time he was surprised throughout the week.

Cora was surprised that Beckham, Pierre and Ramirez showed up in such good shape. He was surprised to see how Pierre was helping Beckham with base-running tips. He was surprised how well Beckham, Morel and "The Missile'' looked defensively.

"They did some [bleep] here in camp that if they do that in the regular season, they'll be in highlights all over the country on a nightly basis,'' Cora said. "Morel, he gets it, he's ready. Defensively, he's a natural. It doesn't seem like he's forced in anything he does. I don't want to compare him to [former Sox third baseman Joe] Crede. I mean, Crede won a World Series for us. I wouldn't do that to him. But he's just very fluid. It's nice to work with a guy like that.

"As far as 'The Missile,' he looked like he just played yesterday, didn't miss a beat from the season.''

There's no doubt this is a crossroads season for the franchise. Guillen, general manager Ken Williams and the coaching staff are all under scrutiny. Patience on the South Side is as thinly stretched as the payroll.

The only remedy? Winning, and winning early.

You don't spend all that money on a starting staff, re-sign Paul Konerko and Pierzynski and then mix in free agents such as Adam Dunn and Jesse Crain only to watch the Twins take champagne showers again in October.

"The week ended with the sense that everyone wants spring training to start tomorrow,'' Cora said.

Maybe the most important Page 1 written since 2005.

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