“Unmatched vibe, unmatched relationships, family type of environment, it’s the best [team I’ve been on] all the way through,” Goodwin said.
The White Sox are the fifth team outfielder Brian Goodwin has played for in six major league seasons, and he says it’s not even close.
“This is the best team I’ve been on,” Goodwin said.
On the field, in the dugout, in the clubhouse. Players, staff, manager, everyone.
“Unmatched vibe, unmatched relationships, family type of environment, it’s the best all the way through,” Goodwin said.
Winning will do that, and the Sox are 71-51 after taking three of four games from the Athletics, who salvaged the last game of a series Thursday.
Their lead in the AL Central is so big that Goodwin can’t even give you the number.
“We never really look at the lead, the records, the lists, the rankings,” he said. “Just keep our eyes off it and keep our heads straightforward, to the next game. See them when they get here and beat them. The mentality hasn’t changed since i got here.”
All the while, these Sox enjoy themselves, which is plain to see from TV shots into the dugout, or watching players interact with fans. Goodwin, a 30-year-old veteran cut by the Pirates in spring training, says “pinch me.”
The environment on the South Side “makes coming to the park not seem like a job,” he said.
“These last couple of months, I don’t even know how long I’ve been here, but it’s flying by,” he said. “It’s still the same excitement I had since day one, and I’ve been embraced like family since I got here.”
Signed to a minor league contact after the Pirates let him go during spring training — an event that motivates him every day, he says — Goodwin was signed by the Sox when Luis Robert went down with a hip injury the first week of May. Eloy Jimenez and Adam Engel were also injured, thinning the outfield dramatically, and Goodwin debuted with the Sox on June 12 at Detroit.
He homered and drove in five runs that day.
Welcome to the club.
He quickly found it to be free-spirited environment, one the flourished under manager Rick Renteria last year — it can’t help be anything but with personalities like Tim Anderson and Jimenez in the house — and carried on with 76-year-old manager Tony La Russa not standing in the way of letting it thrive when he was hired in the offseason.
“He still has a lot of old school philosophy but he has a personality that fits in pretty much with any crowd or generation,” Goodwin said of La Russa. “Baseball takes care of itself because we’re all on the same page there, and he has a great personality off the field, so he covers all the bases, right?”
Goodwin has played all three outfield positions, batted in six different spots in the lineup including fourth 16 times and stuck on the roster after Jimenez and Robert returned, outlasting free agent offseason signee Adam Engel, who was DFA’d last month. His hitting line is doesn’t show the knack for big moments, most recently a go-ahead homer in the 10th inning against the Cubs on Aug. 7 and his first career walk-off home run against the Indians on Aug. 1.
“He’s awesome, he shows up with great energy every day,” assistant hitting coach Howie Clark said. “He’s a huge asset. A guy that’s been around, who can help the young guys, and he’s come up big for us with a lot of big hits. He doesn’t let situations overwhelm him.”
Getting cut by the Pirates certainly didn’t phase Goodwin. To the contrary, it spurred him on.
“Never goes away and I don’t think it ever will,” he said. “It definitely worked out for the better.”
from Chicago Sun-Times - All https://ift.tt/3AVXgtj
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