CHICAGO — Classic White Sox. They can’t even lose right.
We gathered here at Guaranteed Rate Field this week to see them crowned as the worst team in baseball history. All they had to do was lose one time in a season where they had already lost 120 games, tying the 1962 Mets’ modern-day record for losses.
We came to see them break the record at their home ballpark. We went to the South Side for a little history.
But they just wouldn’t cooperate. No sense of the theatrical, I suppose.
Instead, the Sox won three in a row, with the culmination a 7-0 blowout victory over the Los Angeles Angels. It was the Sox’s second series sweep of the season and their first since late April. It’s only the fifth time this season they’ve won three in a row (one of those times includes their season-high, four-game winning streak), though it is the second time it happened in the last 10 days.
GO DEEPER
White Sox watch: Chicago sweeps the Angels to avoid infamy at home
Of course, they didn’t do it by themselves.
We can safely say their opponents for the team’s last homestand are currently the worst team in baseball. It was the Angels who made history Thursday, setting a new franchise record with their 96th loss. If you remember the 2005 ALCS, just think of the exact opposite and that’s what we saw.
For the second night in a row, the White Sox avoided losing their record-setting 121st game.
What did Ozzie Guillén think about the win?
“It can be one of the worst games I’ve seen in a looong, loong, long time…This is big leagues, bro.” pic.twitter.com/X5KxUAM547
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 26, 2024
The Sox’s quixotic quest to be considered the worst team of all time is not over yet. They would have to sweep a series in Detroit against the hottest team in baseball to avoid a tie with the ’62 Mets.
But man, the Sox really botched the moment, didn’t they?
Impairment Sox fans cheered the Angels and booed their team in the Sox’s rare comeback win Tuesday. It was an awkward scene. After that game, the Sox players we talked to said they understood the fans’ collective angst and how they displayed it. But on Thursday, Garrett Crochet admitted it was annoying. I don’t blame him.
Crochet, after a long pause, on fans rooting for the White Sox to lose and get to 121 the last two nights: “I don’t love it. That’s all I’m going to say.”
— Scott Merkin (@scottmerkin) September 26, 2024
The vibe in the ballpark (mostly) shifted to positive Wednesday when the Sox won in 10 innings, albeit with the customary “Sell the team!” chants aimed at the wildly unpopular chairman Jerry Reinsdorf.
And on a sunny matinee finale Thursday, the crowd delighted in the Sox’s rare show of dominance as they scored a season-high seven runs in the fifth inning. The Sox shut out another team for just the sixth time this season, compared to the 19 times they’ve been shut out. They won a series for the ninth time and improved to 23-58 at home.
The sweep negated some of the anger surrounding the team and their season. It reminded me of when a beloved position player pitches at the end of a blowout loss. Sure, the result is the same, but isn’t it funny to see a first baseman on the mound?
On Tuesday, the Sox scored their first late comeback win of the season, improving to 1-94 when trailing after seven innings. (They are 0-102 when trailing after eight innings.)
On Wednesday, they won for the first time in a Davis Martin appearance (through 11 games) and just the second time in a Michael Soroka appearance (in 24 games).
On Thursday, Chris Flexen started and got his third win of the season and first since May 8. In 24 appearances (23 starts) from May 14 through Sept. 21, Flexen went 0-12 in decisions, while the Sox went 2-22.
Everyone, it seems, was due. Flexen got a standing ovation as he walked off the field after pitching 6 1/3 scoreless innings.
“It was awesome, especially after the last couple of nights, hearing boos after winning a game,” he said. “It’s been tough, but to get that ovation was pretty special.”
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The mood in the Sox clubhouse, when the media is present, is typically subdued because they’re often coming off a loss or ready to absorb one. But when we walked into the victorious postgame clubhouse Tuesday, they were playing Petey Pablo’s “Freek-A-Leek” at an ear-splitting volume. On Wednesday, they went old school with C+C Music Factory’s “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now).” On Thursday, it was DJ John Summit’s “Deep End.”
The national spotlight was on the White Sox over the past week or so. The Athletic and ESPN did deep dives on the franchise’s many issues. The New York Times Magazine tried to put the team’s misery in perspective. The Washington Post covered the people covering the disaster.
It felt a little like the 2005 playoffs, when the sporting universe discovered the White Sox existed. The context this time was 180 degrees different.
Sox fans can be a prickly, provincial lot, but they’re accepting of the negative attention in this case. They’re angry at ownership and management, not the media.
On Wednesday, I ran into Sox fan Jacob Swartley on 35th Street before the game. Swartley, who goes back the nom de guerre MySoxSummer as part of the “From The 108” fan collective, was more annoyed by the longtime fans who were booing the home team Tuesday. I was sitting near him that evening when it started.
“There were a lot of old heads who came out and they were kind of dancing on the Sox’s grave,” he said. “But they’re not dead yet.”
Though a lot of fans, including his friends, wanted to see the team break the record at home and for Reinsdorf to have to wear the indignity of having it happen at his ballpark, Swartley decided he wanted to see the Sox stretch this out for a little while longer and maybe take it to the last day in Detroit, where the Tigers have something to play for.
“Let’s ruin someone else’s year rather than just ruining our own season,” he said.
Two games later, his dream of being a spoiler is still alive. It probably won’t last beyond Friday, but you never know.
After Thursday’s game, Reinsdorf got into a crowded elevator and a reporter joked, “Saved the best for last, right, Jerry?”
He turned his head sideways, paused and said, “I understand what you mean, but I wish we saved our best for first.”
(Photo of Bryan Ramos running toward home plate during the fifth inning: Kamil Krzaczynski / Imagn Images)
