By Carrie Muskat
MLB.com 8/2/01

CHICAGO -- This could have been billed as Futures Game II.
Take two pitchers, 23 and 21 years old, respectively, and let them duke it out. It's the first Major League start for one, the second for the other. They have eight innings of Major League experience combined.
They're probably still overwhelmed by the size of the clubhouse, the meal money, the post game spread. They have their whole big league careers ahead of them.
That first win is big. Danny Wright got his. Chris George is still waiting.
Wright won his first Major League start as the Chicago White Sox beat the Kansas City Royals 7-6 Wednesday night, handing George the loss in his second big league game.
"I've wanted this my whole life," Wright said.
That first start is the one a pitcher remembers forever.
"I got in to my hotel around 1 o'clock (in the morning) and didn't get to bed until four," Chicago's Rocky Biddle said of the night before his ML debut last Aug. 10 against Seattle at Comiskey Park. "I had to be at the field at nine in the morning. It was a noon game. I didn't have any time to think. I just went out there to pitch."
Biddle tried to calm his nerves by telling everyone he knew that he was in the big leagues.
"I was calling people all night, letting them know I made it," Biddle said. "It was a thrill, something I'll never forget."
George won't be calling too many friends Thursday.
The Royals left-hander gave up five runs on six hits -- including two homers by Jose Canseco -- and two walks over three innings, striking out one. He had lasted five innings in his first start July 26 at Seattle.
"I'm still learning the ropes up here," George said. "At no point did I feel out of control. I just made some bad pitches and they hit him and I'll just try to learn from that and do better the next time out."
Wright fared better, serving up four runs on seven hits and three walks over five innings, striking out three. He threw 101 pitches -- 53 for strikes. Not a good ratio. George threw 65 pitches, 42 for strikes.
Wright was an unknown.
"What does Wright throw?" Kansas City manager Tony Muser asked before the game, staring at the stat sheet in hopes of finding a clue.
The Royals figured out quickly. Four of the first five Kansas City batters got a hit off Wright, including a two-run double by Mike Sweeney. Add a sacrifice fly by Joe Randa and the Royals led 3-0.
George then gave up hits to the first two batters he faced in the Chicago first but retired the next two and had a 0-2 count on Canseco. Then he hung a curve. Canseco launched it for his seventh home run, quickly tying the game at 3.
With one out and a runner on in the Chicago third, Canseco hit his second homer off George to give the White Sox a 5-3 lead. George used to collect Canseco baseball cards when he was growing up.
"I tried to put that out of my head. I don't think about (who he's facing) when I'm pitching," George said of his high profile opponent. "It's more watching on TV that it hits me. Nobody can step in the box who is going to intimidate me and I wasn't sure how that was going to work. I wasn't sure if that was going to be the case when I got up here. But I've been happy with myself and kept my concentration and have not let anybody intimidate me."
The Royals closed to 5-4 on Gregg Zaun's two-out RBI double in the fourth and Kansas City loaded the bases, prompting another visit from Contreras. Wright must be a good listener. He got Carlos Beltran to ground out and end the threat.
There is no rookie hazing before a starter's outing. Usually, guys reserve that for after, depending on the results.
"You let him go about his business. He has a routine. That's what got him up here," Biddle said. "We're always pulling for somebody who just comes up. He'll be fine. He's a grown man."
Wright's pregame rituals were slightly off. Someone stole the batteries from his CD player so he couldn't listen to country music before the game and had to settle for watching sports on TV.
Wright did get the celebratory beer shower after the game from his teammates. He is making the jump from Class AA to the big leagues. Chicago's Mark Buehrle did that last year, and was 3-1 with a 3.53 ERA as a reliever and 1-0 with a 5.74 ERA in three starts. "In Buehrle's case, he really has the instincts for pitching," White Sox manager Jerry Manuel said. "In Wright's case, he probably has more stuff than instincts. His stuff has been so dominating at that (Class AA) level that we wanted to see what he can do at this level."
The bullpen time was considered necessary to ease Buehrle into the big leagues. But the White Sox also are aware that both Buehrle and Biddle ran out of gas at the end of last year. They totaled more innings than ever before in their young careers.
Wright is young. He had 25 friends and family members present among the 15,620 at Comiskey Park.
"I had butterflies. I was pretty nervous trying to get the ball down over the plate in the first inning," he said, clutching the lineup card in his hand, a souvenir from his first win.
"It seemed like he was a little nervous," White Sox catcher Sandy Alomar said. "He just battled and went with the things that were working for him. It's hard to judge him on tonight because he was erratic." Manuel even hinted that Wright may not stay in the rotation if he starts to rack up too many innings in the final two months. "It depends on how he's performing," Manuel said. "If we see glimpses of good stuff like we saw in Boston, we might let him start to get him acclimated to the big leagues."
The right-hander made his Major League debut in relief July 27 at Boston, giving up a solo homer to Mike Lansing, the first batter he faced. He retired nine of the 10 batters he faced over three innings.
In 20 starts at Class AA Birmingham, Wright was 7-7 with a 2.82 ERA, striking out 128 over 134 innings.
Wright is the fourth under-25 pitcher in Chicago's rotation now that James Baldwin has departed. Jon Garland, 21, took Baldwin's spot and Wright is replacing Biddle, who struggled as a starter.
George was 11-3 at Class AAA Omaha, and won his last seven decisions. He is the 10th youngest player in Royals history to start a Major League game, making his debut at 21 years 10 months 10 days old.
He tuned up for his first big league outing by starting the Futures Game at Safeco Field during the All-Star festivities. Coincidentally, his first MLB start also was at Safeco but he lost to the Seattle Mariners.
"Any time a young guy comes to the big leagues, they're kind of in awe," Muser said. "They don't know what to expect. Just to get them to be themselves is a difficult thing."
Muser has seen enough of George that two outings won't taint his opinion of the left-hander.
"One of (George's) best attributes is that he has ice water in his veins. He does not panic," the Royals manager said. "He has a very good presence on the mound for a young kid."
Let them grow. Hopefully, both George and Wright have several more starts ahead of them. It's early in their big league lives.

Wright's stuff good enough
Rookie gets win, Canseco 2 homers

By Paul Sullivan
Tribune staff reporter
August 1, 2001 11:25 PM CDT

The White Sox keep drifting along in the American League, managing to keep themselves on the edge of contention despite playing .500 ball since the last week of June.
"We're not in the middle of a pennant race," manager Jerry Manuel said. "We're on the outside looking in."
But with rookie Dan Wright earning his first major league victory Wednesday in the Sox's 7-6 win over Kansas City, the Sox remained in the hunt for a wild-card spot.
They moved to within 7 1/2 games of wild card-leading Boston, the closest the Sox have been to a playoff spot since June 25, when they were 7 1/2 games behind Minnesota in the Central Division.
Jose Canseco hit home runs in his first two at-bats off Royals rookie Chris George and drove in five runs. Wright (1-0) earned the traditional beer shower from his Sox teammates that goes along with his first major league win.
He allowed four runs on seven hits and three walks in five innings, and was uncharacteristically wild, throwing only 53 strikes out of 101 pitches.
Kansas City greeted a jittery Wright with a three-run first, before Canseco tied it up in the bottom of the inning with a three-run homer that landed in the first row in left field.
In the third, Canseco blasted a two-run, opposite-field homer, handing the Sox a 5-3 lead.
Royce Clayton added a solo shot in the fourth, and Aaron Rowand's RBI single increased the lead to 7-4 in the sixth.
Wright left with a two-run lead after five innings, and Rocky Biddle, Alan Embree, Gary Glover and Keith Foulke held on the rest of the way.
Rebounding from Tuesday's loss, Foulke pitched 1 1/3 hitless innings, getting Gregg Zaun on a grounder to first to end it for his 25th save.
The Sox moved to one game under .500 at 52-53, and have won 6 of 8 against the Royals.

The cold is all Wright for Chicago

Sox starter throws complete game in frigid weather

By Jimmy Greenfield / MLB.com

May 16, 2002

CHICAGO -- The kind of cold that brings to mind frozen tundras, the month of November and heated car seats visited Comiskey Park Thursday night.
Braving the 46-degree temperature and 30-mile-per-hour winds were 13,119 daring souls who decided it would be more fun to bundle up for frigid baseball than stay home and comfortably watch Rachel give birth on the season-finale of "Friends."
Bless them, and bless the White Sox and Rangers for needing just two hours, 16 minutes to take care of business.
A driving rainstorm that blanketed the Chicago-area nearly all day didn't deter them, and they were rewarded well as Dan Wright had finest game of his career, a 4-0, complete-game, five-hitter over Texas.
Wright (4-4) had only lasted a combined 7 1/3 innings in his previous two starts but he never wavered in throwing the first complete game and shutout of his career.
"I got in some trouble last week and just couldn't get out of it," said Wright. "I got in a couple jams tonight and got some ground balls, some double plays and that was basically the difference."
One of the few times he was in trouble came in the ninth when Mike Lamb doubled with two outs but Wright struck out Alex Rodriguez looking to end the game.
In becoming the first Sox starter to throw a complete-game shutout since Mark Buehrle did so last August 3 against Tampa Bay, Wright only allowed four singles, one double and walked just one.
"For a young pitcher to keep his focus, keep his rhythm, keep his tempo for 110 pitches is a pretty good sign," said Chicago manager Jerry Manuel.
The Sox infield helped out by turning three double plays to give them 48 this season. Paul Konerko's fourth-inning double gave him a 12-game hitting streak, which began the day after his 18-game hitting streak ended.
Texas left-hander Kenny Rogers (4-2) battled Wright in the early going as neither allowed a hit through three innings. The Sox were able to gnaw at Rogers, however, rallying via infield singles and hit batsmen to win the rubber game of the three-game set.
The first hit of the game didn't come until there was one out in the top of the fourth when Kevin Lamb singled to right. Alex Rodriguez followed with a blooper to short left-center to put runners on the corners, but Rusty Greer grounded into a double play to end the inning.
The Sox didn't get a base hit until Konerko's double with two outs in the fourth, their hit since Konerko had singled with two outs in the fourth the night before.
Carlos Lee followed with an RBI single - the 500th hit of his career - to put the Sox up 1-0 but was thrown out on the play as he rounded first base and the Rangers diverted the relay throw to get him as he scrambled back to the bag.
After three infield singles in the sixth loaded the bases, Konerko drew a walk on four pitches for his team-leading 36th RBI of the season that made it 2-0.
Lee hit into a fielder's choice to drive in a run and Tony Graffanino added an RBI single before Rogers got out of the inning.

Batting Around with Dan Wright

By Jimmy Greenfield / MLB.com

July 15, 2002

DETROIT -- Dan Wright made his Major League debut on July 27, 2001, with a three-inning relief appearance against the Boston Red Sox, but that first outing from the bullpen was his last. Four days later, Wright joined the White Sox starting rotation and hasn't missed a turn since, going 11-11 with a 5.60 ERA in 31 Major League starts.
Wright talked with MLB.com about living in Chicago, getting comfortable on a Major League mound and how he deals with the media.

MLB.com: It's been about a year since you came up to the Majors. Has it gone pretty fast for you?

Dan Wright: Yeah, it really has. I'm starting to get more comfortable and it really has just flown by.

MLB.com: What's the biggest thing you didn't expect about being in the Majors?

Wright: It's been everything I hoped it would be. ... It's tough to expect a lot of things will happen. You know the level of play's going to be better, you know everything's going to be better.

MLB.com: Who has helped you through the transition the most?

Wright: Obviously a lot of the guys I played with coming up have been great. And then this team has a lot of older people that are good with young guys, and really everybody's been a help.

MLB.com: Jerry Manuel's always saying that the young pitchers will go through growing pains. Is there a point where you think, well, I should almost be considered a veteran at this point?

Wright: I don't know about a veteran, but you obviously should be comfortable as time goes on. I don't know what the number of days is or anything but I think it's just when you get more comfortable.

MLB.com: You're a pretty soft-spoken guy. Is it tough talking to the media for you?

Wright: No. You know what, the less attention you can draw to yourself the better. As long as you say stuff that's boring and kind of keep a low profile, that's fine with me.

MLB.com: So you're not boring, you just try to be.

Wright: I probably am boring. That's probably me coming out.

MLB.com: You wouldn't throw this many innings when you were in college. Do you feel like the last couple years have taken a toll?

Wright: I've thrown quite a few innings the past two years I guess. I'm really feeling strong, feeling good. I'm feeling like I should at the halfway point and looking forward to the second half.

MLB.com: Growing up in Arkansas and moving to Chicago was a pretty big change. You like living in Chicago?

Wright: I'm getting used to it. I'm starting to figure out where to go and how to get around a little bit.

MLB.com: Where can Sox fans find you on a Friday night in Chicago after a game?

Wright: Probably just hanging out with my wife at home. I don't do too much stuff. Just kind of hang out and take it easy.

08/18/2002

Wright still a work in progress

By John Schlegel / MLB.com

Dan Wright allowed seven runs (five earned)in five innings Sunday. (Miles Kennedy/AP) OAKLAND, Calif. -- These days, wins and losses are still important for the White Sox, but in some ways no more important than impressions, at least for younger players making their mark in the Majors.
Right-hander Dan Wright is one of those players. He has the opportunity to make an impression on White Sox management that he can be part of their rotation a year from now.
And while a solid month of July was a step in the right direction, games like Sunday's can provide seeds of doubt.
Matched against Oakland ace lefty Barry Zito, the big 24-year-old Sox right-hander saw his chances against the A's blow up in a four-run third inning, and he wound up allowing seven runs (five earned) on the day. Wright (8-11) saw his August ERA rise to 8.71, and his season ERA move to 5.85 in 26 starts.
The youngster says his arm feels fine, no different from when he posted a 3.62 ERA in July. The difference isn't physical.
"I'm just making more mistakes and leaving the ball over the plate, and they're cashing in on it," Wright said.
For Wright to cash in on his opportunity to stay in the Sox rotation, it sounds as though he'll have to show an ability to adjust and start pitching well again before the 2002 season is complete.
White Sox manager Jerry Manuel is keeping an optimistic view of Wright, hoping he'll continue to progress this season and be a member of the rotation in 2003.
"I'd hate to think that he wouldn't be because I think he has everything to be a good pitcher," Manuel said. "The key is that hopefully he's learning from this experience. If he's gaining wisdom and knowledge from this, then no doubt he should be one of our pitchers next year."
Wright certainly has no problem learning from the good and the bad, though it might take some time to absorb what happened to him Sunday.
"I hope that's how I approach it until I'm done with baseball. I hope I'm always learning and always taking something from the game," he said. "Days like today are tough to sit back and learn from it, but I'm keeping an open mind and I'm going to keep working hard. I'm still real confident in my ability. I just need to put it together."
However, being able to stay out of a big inning is one quality Manuel says the White Sox will need to see from Wright, and the big inning is something he couldn't avoid Sunday.
As so many big innings do, it started with a leadoff walk. When Terrence Long followed the free pass to Mark Ellis with the first of his two two-run homers off Wright, the damage might have been halted, with the A's taking only a 2-1 lead. But it didn't stop there, as a couple of singles and an error by second baseman Tony Graffanino loaded the bases and the A's wound up scoring two more runs.
"I had the leadoff walk and made a bad pitch to Long, and that's what got it started," Wright said. "After that, I kept battling and they kept hitting it. I made some mistakes in there," Wright said.
How well he learns from mistakes like those will go a long way in determining the role Wright has with the Sox a year from now.