The cavalry is back! And then it's not.

In a fit of grinder dust, Darin Erstad made his return to the White Sox lineup yesterday. And as per usual, promptly went down in a fit of tweakiness.

The fact that he went down in the first inning, diving for a ball hit by Mike Fontenot, the second batter of the game, may have been a record for the shortest stint upon returning from the disabled list.

But Juan Gonzalez holds that record, grounding out to third base on the third pitch he saw after three years away from the game and pulling his hamstring on the trot down to first. He never even took the field.

I'm an Angels fan, so I had the privilege to watch, on a daily basis, Erstad's superior level of crapitude and tweakiness for 11 seasons. The 'he's sooo grindy' talk was present in Anaheim, too. In fact, the grindy, grindy, grindy mantra most likely started in its ubiquitous form in 2002 with the Angels' World Series run and the play of the pint-sized Superman, David Eckstein. You should have witnessed how much heart he showed grounding out to short.

And Erstad was part of that, that 'grindy' talk, mostly trumpeted by the worst TV tandem in the history of sports, Steve Physioc and Rex Hudler, a duo that brings (or brought, I thank all that is holy) new meaning to the phrase 'toeing the company line'. For a more encyclopedic list of this kind of silliness, visit FireJoeMorgan.com, particularly on Darin Erstad and David Eckstein.

While it seems a little late in the game, as it were, to critique Kenny Williams for signing Erstad (and they have many more problems than just Erstad), what Sox fans are witnessing right now - if they even care anymore - is, to the letter, a mirror of Erstad's last five seasons.

He came cheap, and may have been worth the risk, but adding this particular brand of tweakiness to a lineup already injury-prone (Podsednik, Crede, Thome) only aggravates the search for even a modicum of consistency, where Kenny rolled the dice one too many times and the reason they're fielding a Triple-A team. Oh, and the fact that their hitting is absolutely brutal.

But Erstad's season averages, taking away his one season that made his name seven years ago (.355, 25hr, 100rbi, .409 OBP), are .273, 8hr, 50rbi with an OBP of .327. In other words, worse than Jacque Jones, way worse, and someone the Sox are rumored to be looking to acquire!

While that trade will never happen, it almost makes sense for centerfield. It's an indicator of just how desperate things are getting and an example of how a seemingly solid signing in Erstad can royally screw up the works.

Odds on what inning Podsednik tweaks something? Fifth inning?