CHICAGO (AP) — Grady Sizemore felt like a kid playing video games as he filled out the lineup card for the Chicago White Sox as they prepared to host the crosstown Cubs on Friday. The stakes, of course, weren’t quite the same.
“This is on a different level, a different scale, but it’s still fun and I can’t wait to go out there and compete,” he said.
Sizemore found himself in a position he never really envisioned in his first game as interim manager, a day after the White Sox fired Pedro Grifol with the team on course to finish with the worst record of baseball’s modern era.
The switch came two days after the team ended a 21-game losing streak that tied the American League record. Chicago entered Friday’s game 28-89 and on pace to finish 39-123, which would be the worst major league record since the National League’s Cleveland Spiders were 20-134 in 1899.
Sizemore, a three-time All-Star and two-time Gold Glove center fielder with Cleveland, spent last year as an intern with the Arizona Diamondbacks under general manager Mike Hazen after several years away from baseball. He joined Grifol’s staff as a major league coach this season.
General manager Chris Getz has said the White Sox will hire a manager from outside the organization after the season and it would be someone currently in a major league uniform. That’s fine with Sizemore.
He said he is “grateful for the opportunity” and “never saw that coming.” He didn’t get back into baseball with an eye on leading a team.
“I didn’t come in this to manage,” he said. “There was no appeal factor there. It was really getting to know these guys, building trust, trying to build relationships and make an impact. I started this because I enjoyed working with some players and I enjoyed the feedback I get from them when I was able to help. That’s what I’m trying to lean in to.”
The White Sox are headed toward their sixth 100-loss season, which would be the first time in franchise history it has occurred in consecutive years. Their worst winning percentage (.325) was in 1932, when they went 49-102-1.
“I want to help any way I can,” Sizemore said. “I have a feeling that part of the reason Chris asked me to do this was the guys in the locker room. I owe it to them to do my best to get this team going in the right direction.”
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