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Pain and Misery on Chicago’s South Side




NOTE: This article was first published online at The Sports Column on Sunday, September 1, 2024.

There's no fun baseball being played on Chicago's South Side, as the White Sox are closing in on the 120-game loss record held by the 1962 New York Mets. They already lost over 100 games, and on August 8th their manager Pedro Grifol, bench coach Charlie Montoyo, third-base coach Eddie Rodriguez and assistant hitting coach Mike Tosar all were fired. 


White Sox general manager Chris Getz told the media at the time of the firing that "obviously there was something that was broken."


The 120 games loss record by the 1962 Mets is something that no team wants their name tied to, and several teams came really close: the 2003 Detroit Tigers lost 119 games, the 2018 Baltimore Orioles lost 115, and again the 2019 Tigers lost 114. Getz also said that regarding the 120-loss mark, it is "certainly something that we would like to avoid… No one wants to be associated to a record like that," he said. "Now, with that being said, it has not been the highest priority -- being that we just went through a trade deadline and moved on from players that obviously were attractive to other clubs."


White Sox fans are wearing brown paper bags over their heads at games to signify how bad the season is. They also took to social media, venting their frustration at the embarrassment that the White Sox are displaying on the field. To entice fans to come to the ballpark, the team also dropped the price of tickets to $7.00 and, towards the end of the season, to $1.00. The Mets in 1962 saw the opposite, as 922,530 fans still went to see them play. That attendance mark ranked them sixth in the National League that year, which was surprising for such a bad-playing team with a losing record.  In New York, it was the first season for the new Mets franchise, which didn't have a National League team since the Giants left for San Francisco in 1958.


The headlines in the local Chicago newspapers and online media outlets also display how bad it is for the White Sox. 


Some of the headlines read: 


Chicago Tribune: "Chicago White Sox GM Chris Getz is trying to keep his head when everyone else is losing theirs," and "A tough baseball month is ahead in Chicago as Cubs tease and White Sox wheeze."


South Side Sox: "The sadness of being a White Sox fan."


Chicago Sun Times: "White Sox just as bad under Grady Sizemore, but players love him — and the feeling is mutual."


The fans at Guaranteed Rate Field also showed how bad it is for them, holding up signs like, "C'mon guys, just win one. Please," and "Sell The Team." 


How bad it was for the 1962 Mets and their fans, the same can be said for the White Sox. Last season, they finished with a record of 61-101 in fourth place, and in 2018, they finished in fourth place with a record of 62-100. The only signs of hope were back in 2021 under manager Tony La Russa when they finished in first place with a record of 93-69 and made it to the ALDS where they lost to the Houston Astros. Their last World Series Championship was with manager Ozzie Guillen back in 2005, when they beat the Houston Astros in a four-game sweep. They finished the season in first place with a record of 99-63. 


Sports Illustrated even had a story on how the fans are noticing how bad it is for the White Sox. In one game, while warming up, second baseman Lenyn Sosa didn't see the ball thrown to him and got hit in the face. The fans took to X with one fan posting: "I have never seen a pro sports team this bad. Nailed in the face and robbed of a walk-off HR in the same day. By which greatly increasing the odds of being the worst team in MLB history. I don't know what the fans did to deserve this. Can't even pick above 10 this year. Atrocious."


With that said, it pretty much sums up the 2024 White Sox season.



— Joe Boesch 

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