CLEVELAND -- Few things could probably lessen the sting of Thursday’s tough loss as the sight of White Sox rookies in costume for the team flight, including Carlos Rodon in a revealing nurse outfit.
Rodon was one of a dozen White Sox players and personnel who partook in the tradition where travel clothes are replaced with outrageous costumes.
While the 6-foot-3, 255-pound rookie was dressed as a nurse, Frankie Montas was Superwoman, Erik Johnson was Popeye, several players were dressed as pirates and Trayce Thompson was dressed like fictional basketball player Jackie Moon. Infielder Tyler Saladino, who was dressed as a geisha, said he only needed between 5-10 minutes to prepare his costume.
“I’m pretty good with makeup, I guess,” Saladino said. “It’s nothing but a bunch of white paint smeared all over your face, throw some red on the lips.”
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While Saladino and Thompson felt like they got off easy -- “I kind of had an easy costume but they wanted to go with the whole basketball theme,” Thompson said -- others weren’t afforded that luxury.
Asked about his outfit, Rodon grunted as he walked by and shook his head several times. Fellow southpaw John Danks followed by telling Rodon he’d ask doctors to pull the plug if he was his nurse.
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Veteran players were assigned the task of finding costumes for their younger counterparts. White Sox manager Robin Ventura declared catcher Geovany Soto, who picked the costumes for Saladino and Thompson, the victor.
He agreed the tradition offered some levity after a difficult 4-2 loss to the Oakland A’s.
“They did a good job,” Ventura said. “There were some good ones in there we haven’t seen before. Yesterday it helps. As tough as the game was, they can put it behind them and find a way to have a little fun going on the road, and they made the most of it.
“Geo was really the big winner.”
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The experience included a team dinner Thursday night and Saladino enjoyed it even though he had to apply makeup, which he did without the aid of others. He felt fortunate his outfit wasn’t skimpy like that of Montas, Micah Johnson, Carlos Sanchez and Rodon.
“My outfit wasn’t too revealing so I don’t know exactly how some of them felt, but everyone was in good spirits,” Saladino said.
“(Rodon is) a big boy getting fixed up in something they make for a petite girl is probably not the most comfortable. But we all had a lot of fun.”