Raging against the machine was all the rage for Chicago sports fans in 2024, a year that somehow exceeded 2023 as the worst in most of our memories.
Imagine that.
White Sox fans openly rooted for a loss in a late September series against the Los Angeles Angels, just so they could say they witnessed the team’s record-setting 121st defeat.
Outraged Bears fans forced the McCaskeys to end their longstanding policy of not firing a head coach in season.
Bulls and Blackhawks fans complained about the new Chicago Sports Network not being carried on Comcast or YouTube TV, then stopped caring as the losses piled up.
Cubs fans repeatedly voiced their displeasure with the Rickettses and President Jed Hoyer over a fourth straight season without a postseason, only to see ticket prices rise again.
If an entire city of fans could lie in the fetal position and pull up the covers over our collective heads the rest of the winter, we gladly would do so.
Here are some of the things that helped make 2024 another year to forget … with a few notable exceptions.
Chant of the Year
“Sell the team!”
After Sox fans chanted for Jerry Reinsdorf to divorce himself from the team they love during the Angels series, Bears fans picked up the slack Thursday by aiming the same chant at the McCaskeys during the brutal 6-3 loss to the Seattle Seahawks.
Game of the Year
White Sox 3, Angels 2: Sept. 24 at Guaranteed Rate Field
Sox fans cheered Angels second baseman Jack López when he homered to give L.A. a 2-0 lead in the eighth inning, knowing the record-setting 121st loss was imminent. But the Sox rallied for three runs in the eighth to win. The Sox treated the series like it was their World Series.
“It’s huge,” Andrew Benintendi said. “I think if we swept the final series of the year, it would be, not funny, but it’d give us all a chuckle.”
The Sox swept the Angels, then lost No. 121 in Detroit. Chuckle, chuckle.
City of big coaching searches
Sox general manager Chris Getz said his original list of candidates for the team’s managerial vacancy numbered more than 60. The two ex-Sox favorites whom fans cried for, Ozzie Guillen and A.J. Pierzynski, were not among the 60-plus. Getz’s eventual hire, Will Venable, could lose 99 games in 2025 and win the American League Manager of the Year award.
Blackhawks interim coach Anders Sorensen, also promoted from within the organization, is so mellow he makes former coach Luke Richardson look excitable by comparison.
The Bears promoted Thomas Brown, who had recently been promoted to offensive coordinator to replace Shane Waldron, to replace coach Matt Eberflus, who flunked his timeout test by not calling one when he needed to at the end of the Thanksgiving Day loss in Detroit. Brown flunked his test Thursday by calling a timeout with the clock stopped after changing his mind about punting on fourth down with a little more than two minutes left in the loss to the Seahawks. Next up?
Chutzpah award
It was a tie between Comcast — for raising its regional sports fee by 5.5% to $20.25 per month in 2025 despite not carrying CHSN, which televises Hawks, Bulls and Sox games — and Reinsdorf and Hawks Chairman Danny Wirtz for starting CHSN without a carriage deal with Comcast.
Clocked
Bears fans were ecstatic when GM Ryan Poles was on the clock for the NFL draft, knowing USC quarterback Caleb Willams would be the No. 1 pick.
Bears fans were dismayed upon learning Williams was not a student of Clock Management 101, turning the two-minute drill into the three-minutes-and-counting drill in losses to the Lions and Seahawks.
It’s so hard to say goodbye
The Bulls traded perhaps their most popular player, Alex Caruso, just as the Sox traded their most popular player, Jake Burger, one year earlier. Caruso was an undrafted player who made his reputation on hustling and defense. Burger overcame years of debilitating injuries to become a home run threat.
Reinsdorf apparently doesn’t tolerate players who play hard and actually relate to their fan base.
Chess game
Hoyer waited until February to get agent Scott Boras to agree on a three-year, $80 million deal with two opt-outs for Cody Bellinger instead of the long-term deal Bellinger was seeking. Check. Bellinger had a below-average season and then opted in for $27.5 million in 2025, forcing Hoyer into a salary dump on the New York Yankees for next to nothing.
Checkmate.
Top 5 Schriff-isms
The most memorable calls of first-year Sox broadcaster John Schriffen:
- “For all the haters …”
- “South Side, stand up!”
- “Radio losers”
- “We ain’t takin’ that.”
- “I need this win.”
Hall-worthy
OK, not everything was awful in 2024. Former Bears Steve McMichael, Devin Hester and Julius Peppers entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, while the late former White Sox slugger Dick Allen was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame at the winter meetings.
Empty stats
Angel Reese’s double-double record with the Sky versus Caleb Williams’ NFL rookie record streak without an interception. Which was more irrelevant in the big picture?
Adios, acronyms
Sox manager Pedro Grifol’s “FAST” principle versus Eberflus’ “HITS” principle. Does anyone still remember what they stood for?
Singe-worthy debut
In his first home game as Cubs manager, Craig Counsell survived a portable fireworks device outside the dugout that spewed sparks during pregame introductions.
“I cut the corner too sharp I guess, felt a little eyebrow singe,” Counsell joked.
The rest of the season provided mostly duds for Counsell, whose team finished 83-79.
Gone, not forgotten
Former Sox broadcaster Jason Benetti was on the call for a 2-1 Sox loss in Detroit in June when Paul DeJong was doubled off first base to end it.
“How in the world does this happen?” Benetti said on the Tigers broadcast.
Benetti was later on a Westwood One radio broadcast of the Bears’ infamous “timeout” loss in Detroit.
“And the Lions, for the first time since ’16, have won on Thanksgiving, 23-20 the final score,” he said. “How in the world can that happen?”
On both occasions, the Homewood native knew exactly how it happened.
Gone, forgotten
Eberflus, Waldron, Grifol, Teresa Weatherspoon, Velus Jones Jr., Héctor Neris and Martín Maldonado.
Serenity now?
The most ironic Liev Schreiber narration from “Hard Knocks,” the HBO documentary series on Bears training camp: “Serenity is not the same as surrender.”
Hello again, old friend
Anthony Rizzo, Phil Jackson, Jeremy Roenick, Javier Báez, Patrick Kane, Caruso and Jon Lester all returned to their old stomping grounds to much fanfare.
Chicago never forgets its legends.
2024 All-Injury Team
First team
- Eloy Jiménez
- Luis Robert Jr.
- Lonzo Ball
- Nate Davis
- Cody Bellinger
Second team
- Nick Madrigal
- Zach LaVine
- Jaquan Brisker
- Mike Clevinger
- Seth Jones
Fool me once …
For the second straight year, the Chicago Fire’s biggest crowd — 55,385 — turned out to Soldier Field on Aug. 31 to see Inter Miami star Lionel Messi. The Fire drew a record 62,124 against Miami on Oct. 4, 2023, also to watch Messi.
And on both occasions, Messi did not play.
Perseverance award
Tony La Russa
You can take La Russa out of the Sox manager’s seat, but you can’t stop him from hanging around the Sox dugout, batting cage, clubhouse or owner’s suite.
Quote of the Year
Lester on driving his kids around to events during his retirement: “I run an Uber service without the stars. (My kids) don’t give me any positive comments.”
Amen, said every parent in America.
