The Chicago White Sox have done their part.

They’re in first place in the American League Central. They’re the hottest team in baseball with an eight-game winning streak.

Paul Konerko leads the majors in batting average. Adam Dunn (16 home runs) and company are driving balls out of the park on a consistent basis. Jake Peavy and Chris Sale have been two of the game’s premier starters this season. Addison Reed appears to be the closer of the future.

The question now is whether the White Sox’s fans will do their part when the team returns to U.S. Cellular Field on Friday and begins a nine-game home stand.

White Sox fans haven’t shown their team much support so far this season. The White Sox rank 27th with an average paid attendance of 20,662 a game. Only the Oakland Athletics (20,218), Tampa Bay Rays (19,426) and Cleveland Indians (16,637) are drawing fewer fans. The White Sox are one of 11 teams drawing less than an average of 25,000 fans this season.

The fans’ reluctance early in the year to gather at U.S. Cellular Field has been somewhat understandable. Last season was a disappointment. The White Sox finished under .500 and 16 games back in the division. Dunn, who had been acquired in the offseason, had his worst year. Peavy continued to be inconsistent. As a team, there wasn’t much to get excited about.

Fans have taken a wait-and-see approach this season. There were a number of variables -- Dunn, Peavy, a young bullpen, Sale moving to the starting rotation, etc. -- the White Sox needed to find answers to if they were going to succeed.

Through 51 games, all has gone in the White Sox’s favor. There’s no guarantee they’ll remain atop the Central; everyone seems to feel the Detroit Tigers will make a run at some point. But it is a large enough sample size now to believe the White Sox are legit, and it’s safe for their fans to get behind them again.

The White Sox would love to have more fans to show up for the obvious purpose of making their home field a pleasure for their team and less of one for their opponent. But as White Sox general manager Ken Williams also told the team’s beat reporters earlier in the week, the more fans they draw, the more money he has to use to improve the team.

The players are quite careful when asked about the team’s attendance. Although they’d obviously like more people in the ballpark, they choose their words wisely or simply avoid the question in order not to offend their fan base.

After Wednesday’s win over the Rays, manager Robin Ventura and a handful of players were asked if they hoped their recent success would jumpstart the home attendance.

Ventura: “I hope so. You can’t really control it. What we can control is how we play. It’s always better to have our home crowd there.”

Konerko: “I don’t know. It’s not really a concern of mine.”

A.J. Pierzynski: “I can’t answer that. You have to ask Kenny (Williams) that one.”
Whether it’s because Reed is a rookie or he is just more honest, his answer seemed to be closer to what most players are probably truly feeling.

“Any time you can play in front of more fans, it’s just that much more fun,” Reed said. “I’m sure they’ll start coming out. It’s just a matter of time. Fans or no fans, we’re still going to go out and play and try to win ball games. Hopefully, they’ll start to come, but if they don’t, we’ll continue playing.”

Come Friday’s 7:10 p.m. game against the Seattle Mariners, the White Sox will take U.S. Cellular Field as a first-place team in June. That’s for certain. The uncertainty is how many fans will be there to back them. We’ll find out soon.