White Sox unveil statue of Mark Buehrle at Rate Field
CHICAGO (AP) — Mark Buehrle posed for several pictures with his new statue. By himself. With his family. With a large contingent of his former teammates from one of the greatest years in Chicago White Sox history.
Everyone wanted to hold on to the moment.
A sculpture of Buehrle in his pitching motion was unveiled at Rate Field on Friday night as part of a celebration of the 20th anniversary of Chicago's 2005 World Series championship. The left-hander watched as his family pulled a black tarp off the statue in right field, cheered on by a crowd dotted with No. 56 Buehrle jerseys and shirts.
Buehrle, 46, played for Chicago for the first 12 of his 16 seasons in the majors. Known for working quickly with pinpoint control, he went 161-119 with a 3.83 ERA in 390 appearances with the White Sox, including 365 starts.
He had his number retired by the team in 2017.
'I literally went out there and played just because I love baseball and I love competing,' Buehrle said. 'All the numbers and all that stuff comes of it, but you never think of this number retirement, statue. Like, that's just, I can't even wrap my head around it. Like it just doesn't make sense.'
After the statue ceremony, Buehrle and his family got into a truck and waved to the crowd they traveled around the warning track. Buehrle caught a ceremonial first pitch from his daughter, Brooklyn, and his son, Braden, performed the national anthem before Chicago's game against Cleveland.
Buehrle enjoyed having his family involved with the festivities. All the attention, well, not so much.
'I hate it. I was literally nervous as can be all day today,' he said. 'Got three hours of sleep last night. Couldn't eat all day today. Sick to my stomach. This stuff ... this is not my comfortable zone.'
Of course, Buehrle always looked quite comfortable on the mound. He joined Freddy García, Jon Garland and José Contreras in a formidable rotation that played a major role in Chicago's last World Series title.
Buehrle posted a 16-8 record with a career-low 3.12 ERA in 33 starts, helping the White Sox win the 2005 AL Central. Then he went 2-0 with a 3.47 ERA in four postseason appearances, including three starts.
Buehrle, Contreras, García and Garland each pitched a complete game in the AL Championship Series against the Angels.
'I'll take that team against pretty much anybody,' former White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski said. 'I mean, 11-1 in the postseason. Four complete games in the ALCS, you'll never see that again.'
Asked what it was like to catch Buehrle, Pierzynski responded: 'Fast.'
'Mark was the best,' he said. 'Mark didn't shake. You got the ball. He didn't do scouting reports. He just got it and threw it.'
Buehrle made two appearances in Chicago's World Series sweep against Houston. He pitched seven innings of four-run ball in Game 2. He also picked up a save when he retired Adam Everett on a popup for the final out of the 14th inning in a 7-5 win at Houston in Game 3.
Former White Sox slugger Jermaine Dye called Buehrle a great teammate and leader.
'Definitely someone you would want on your ballclub to lead a pitching staff, and be that No. 1 starter and give him that ball at any point in time,' Dye said.
Buehrle pitched for Miami and Toronto after departing Chicago. The five-time All-Star finished with a 214-160 record and a 3.81 ERA over 3,283 1/3 innings, to go along with four Gold Gloves. He struck out 1,870 and walked 734.
He was reunited with the 2005 White Sox in the wake of Bobby Jenks' death at age 44. The former closer died last week in Portugal, where he was being treated for adenocarcinoma, a form of stomach cancer.
'I'm sure I've lost teammates over the years, but losing somebody like that," Buehrle said. "He's a little kid in a big-man body, always goofing off, always having fun. Not having him here and hearing that news, it hit me a little bit harder than I thought it would when I first heard of it. It's definitely very sad.'
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Los Angeles Times
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(Photo by) More humiliation came after Chisholm's response, when two of the most iconic Yankees players, Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez, ripped the current clubhouse for sidestepping accountability and "making way too many mistakes." That had to be hard to say for Jeter, the Hall of Famer and five-time world champion, who often goes out of his way to praise his old team. Boone's Yankees aren't just being criticized by the media and their fan base, but franchise favorites are joining in the bad press, too. So how did Boone respond to the newest source of criticism? By pushing back in a wishy-washy way. "I would disagree a little bit with the accountability factor," Boone said on Sunday morning before the Yankees' latest loss. "But the reality is we're focused every day on being the best we can be. That's how we have to do it. But I understand when it doesn't happen or we don't have the record I think we should have, or certainly people think we should have, that comes with the territory. It's on us to change that thought." JETER, A-ROD BREAK DOWN YANKEES' RECENT STRUGGLES: 'WAY TOO MANY MISTAKES' Boone added that the perception that the Yankees lack accountability makes him angry sometimes. The Yankees manager is fixated on changing that perception by winning games. It's true, winning changes everything. If the Yankees go on a 10-game winning streak and retake possession of first place, nobody will be nitpicking the players' postgame comments. But, in order for the Yankees to go on that winning streak, they would have to start playing clean baseball. Accountability matters most when teams are losing more than they're winning. After the Yankees fell to the Marlins on Saturday, they were looking up at their rival Red Sox, who took over second place. It got worse on Sunday, when right-hander Luis Gil coughed up five earned runs across 3.1 innings in his 2025 season debut. The Yankees began their road trip by getting swept in Miami. And it doesn't get easier. New York flew to Arlington, Texas on Sunday night for a tough matchup against the Rangers. Texas is just one game back of an AL wild-card spot behind the Seattle Mariners, and the 2023 world champions should be feeling good about their chances of winning the series at home against the Yanks. Part of the reason why fans are so baffled by these recent results is, well, the 26-man roster is stacked. On paper, the Yankees are built to beat anyone. Aaron Judge leads an offense that's ranked the best in baseball (with a 116 wRC+), and he's expected to continue that effort when he returns from the injured list during their Texas series. They have a top ten starting pitching staff in the major leagues, and they just upgraded their bullpen in a significant way at the trade deadline. It's true that, rather than being galvanized by the new talent, those very same additions all suffered missteps in their first game in pinstripes on Friday, which will go down as the worst loss of the Yankees season. But that was supposed to be just one game. Just one bad loss. Despite the ugly performances of the last several weeks, the Yankees are still set up to have a strong stretch run. The question is whether they can stop the bleeding long enough to be viable for it. It starts by cleaning up their act. Deesha Thosar covers Major League Baseball as a reporter and columnist for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Deesha grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar. share
