I like tracking the progress of professional and college sports teams, noting their ups and downs, developing certain predictions for their future performance. How they behave, under pressure, is emblematic of our own performances in business and in nearly every walk of life.

Unlike most businesses, however, baseball, for example, is largely visible to its customers. Quite quickly, were told who might be traded or acquired, which minor leaguers are in line for promotion, and whose contract options might be bought out.

Plus, we get to form our own opinions by watching people at work, hitting, fielding, running, managing and coaching.

Will last years World Series Champion Chicago White Sox, snapping about eight decades of failure, come back to repeat its success this year?

As a fan of the team, Ive wondered about this, especially as Ive observed the Sox celebrating their 2005 accomplishments. And my assessment of their 2006 performance, at this point, nearly half way into the season, is that theyre going to have to struggle mightily to prevail again.

How come? Somewhere, in the collective unconscious of the team and its management has been planted the idea that success is permanent, that once you reach the brass ring, your achievement will always be great.

I believe the Sox over-celebrated and started to believe their own publicity, indicating that they were building a team that would withstand the test of time. They forgot that in 2005 they won one game at a time, many of them by a single run, and they never took anything for granted, until that threatening reversal in fortune they sustained toward the end of the season, when the Indians surged.

This year, they started out thinking they were in first place, that they had a head start because they wore last years rings. Not so. Kansas Citys early season victories should have shocked the Sox into their senses, but they didnt.

The incredibly strong and sustained start by the Detroit Tigers should have been an even more jarring kick in the butt, but the Sox still seem groggy from Octobers champagne.

Still, despite their sober sounding pronouncements about their competitive challenges, the Sox havent started to play as if every pitch counts. Theyre still giving away innings and ballgames to lesser opponents.

Now, I sense there is a voice inside that is assuring them: Dont worry; at this rate youll still be in the post-season as the Wild Card team. After all, you have the second best record in the American League, after Detroit.

Not good enough.

Let me repeat that phrase: Theyre not good enoughyet.

This is what they need to start telling themselves, instead of resting on their laurels, expecting that no matter what, their success will be permanent.