But take heart, fretful Sox fans. The last four Sox teams that advanced to the World Series hardly ranked as defensive juggernauts. The '86 Sox committed 129 errors during the regular season, and Bill Buckner's miscue in Game 6 of the Series remains one of the most painful in franchise history. The '75 Sox rang up 139 errors, while the '67 team logged 142, and the '46 squad checked in at 139.
All may not be lost.
"Obviously, we don't have a whole lot of speed, so you're going to be vulnerable a lot on defense sometimes," said third base coach Dale Sveum, who spends hours a day studying computer data and videotape to prepare the Sox defense for each game. "But one good thing we have on this ball club, which comes around once in a lifetime, is very, very aggressive players. They don't carry one error into the next play. That's the most important thing."
No team in the majors has committed more errors than the Sox, who are deadlocked with the Tigers at 35 (the American League average is 26). The Sox, who have played 38 games, were charged with 25 errors last year over the same span.
Yet the Sox have 124 games to play, they expect to improve with the return of Nomar Garciaparra and Trot Nixon, and they have managed to start the season 22-16. They also have shown resilience.
"The key to it all is, what do you do on the next play?" said Sveum, who played 12 years in the majors as an infielder. "The guys on this team aren't fazed by what happens. That's the way you've got to play this game. We're all going to make mistakes. This is a very special bunch of guys who play by the seat of their pants. It's not going to be pretty sometimes, but they have more heart than any ball club I've ever been part of."
