On July 4, 2008, the Chicago White Sox will wear special camouflage uniforms for some reason, presumably to honor American troops in a home-game setting (they’re in Cleveland on Memorial Day). This is a nice gesture, and hopefully results in a uni that doesn’t look as heinous as what the Padres sport; if done right, and if the Halfway to St. Patrick’s Day tradition is any indication, this will also the easiest $140 to $190 the Sox ever pry away from anyone.

The jersey news came out of SoxFest, which concluded yesterday in a flurry of excellent PR and almost a total lack of vindictive fan rage towards Kenny Williams, which is kind of shocking considering that last year’s team was the worst one fielded on the South Side since 1988. To be sure, Ed Farmer got into it with a fan Friday afternoon, but something tells me it’s not that hard to almost get into a fight with Ed Farmer. Jermaine Dye is in love with the new team. Mark Buehrle couldn’t be more ecstatic about the new bullpen. Paul Konerko says the guys who sign his $230,769 paychecks every Friday made some great baseball moves. Williams and Ozzie Guillen both say the team is vastly improved.

These things all sound great, of course. Who doesn’t want to hear that the players are excited to play? Who doesn’t get that warm sense of reserved Pale Hose optimism to think that maybe, just maybe, this ragtag group of castoffs and nobodies could rise to the top of the heap?

I hope the sarcasm wasn’t lost on you.

I mean, when representatives of the Sox organization, speaking to Sox fans at a Sox convention while Sox merchandise is available for sale in every corner of the Palmer House Hilton and Sox reporters are converging on Sox Mecca to give the Sox free publicity in their respective sports media outlets, it would be suicide to come out and talk about things like a 1-2-5-5-5 rotation, or a lineup with four clean-up hitters, or a bullpen that in all honesty is probably just as much of a gamble as last year’s edition (but with admittedly slightly better odds).

Are the Sox improved? Of course they are, but that’s only because the only way to get any worse would have been to actually bring back that 1988 squad, and unfortunately most of that particular team’s players, what with their collective .244 batting average and all, have since found management jobs with this company in Bridgeport. But hey, you know, those camouflage jerseys might look pretty cool.

If that’s not a reason for blind faith and unfounded optimism, I don’t know what is.