Chicago White Sox fans have gone through a lot in their lifetimes, no matter their age.
Winning seasons have been few and far between. The only year the Sox have won a postseason series since their 1917 championship was 2005, when they won the World Series under manager Ozzie Guillén.
If winning it all is the only real measure of success, they’ve had three successful seasons since the franchise began in 1901 — an average of one every 41 seasons.
So if anyone should be immune to the general ineptitude of a professional baseball team, it’s Sox fans. They have seen it all before, and they know they’ll probably see it again in the not-too-distant future.
It’s just the dumb luck of growing up a Sox fan, knowing you’re doomed to deal with adversity from the day you climb out of the crib looking for trouble.
As the Sox prepared for Tuesday night’s potential appointment with destiny, general manager Chris Getz addressed the elephant in the room — the major-league record for losses in a season, set by the expansion New York Mets 62 years ago.
The Sox tied that record Sunday in San Diego with No. 120, and they were scheduled to take the field Tuesday against the Los Angeles Angels with a chance to be all alone among the losingest losers in baseball history.
Are the Sox at all embarrassed by this?
“It’s not something we’re proud of,” Getz said.
Well, let’s hope not.
“There is a myriad of reasons why we stand here today with the record that we have,” he continued. “With that being said, personally I view this as a tremendous opportunity to build something. We’ve identified areas in the organization where we need to improve.
“I’ve never been energized more than I am now, and I know I can speak for our group. Is it an embarrassment? We’re not proud of this. No one wants to be associated with it, but we’re certainly up for the challenge.”
Sox players prepared for Tuesday’s game like normal. The media contingent was much larger than usual with history on deck, so it was too crowded for a pregame pingpong game. But otherwise it seemed like an ordinary day.
Catcher Korey Lee, one of the few players who have been here since opening day, said the upside for him is he has his “dream job,” which counts for something.
“And no matter if you win or if you lose, you still get to do what you love, and I’m fortunate to do that every day,” he said.
The 2024 Sox are so bad, they could wind up as the second team in history not to win a game when trailing after the sixth, seventh or eighth innings. The only other team was the 2020 Washington Nationals, who played an abbreviated 60-game schedule because of the pandemic.
The Sox bullpen has blown an MLB-high 36 saves. The Sox have lost 56 games after holding a lead. The fact they’ve been close and fallen apart at the end of so many games has been heartbreaking.
“Obviously you could take the good out of it,” Lee said of the Sox competing. “It means we’re in good games, we’re playing tough opponents. The team over there, they drive nice cars, they get paid really, really well also.
“Sometimes you’ve got to tip your cap, but obviously you’ve got to take the good sometimes out of the bad.”
Gavin Sheets, who played on the 2021 Sox team that won the American League Central, has seen his share of highs and lows the last four years. He said the Sox have no excuse for the negative attention they’ve received on their road to 120.
“It’s brought on by us,” he said. “It’s brought on by a long season, brought on by our performance. It’s where we’re at right now, unfortunately. … Obviously this is not the kind of attention we want. It’s my fourth year, and we’ve had the really good attention and now the bad attention.
“Hopefully this is something we move on from. The biggest thing for us is getting over this year and making sure it never happens again.”
Getz said it’s the front office’s job to “focus more so on the future, learn from the past and start building to where the White Sox deserve to be for our fans and everyone that works here.” He announced Tuesday that interim manager Grady Sizemore will be a candidate for the job in 2025, reversing his original statement that the Sox would go outside the organization for their next skipper.
Whether the Sox really can learn from their past is a question fans might be wondering to themselves. This isn’t the first rebuild they’ve been through, just the worst start to a rebuild. The difference between this one and former GM Ron Schueler’s rebuild in 1999 and Rick Hahn’s in 2017 is we don’t know whether it will lead to better days ahead.
The Sox won a division title in 2000 and a World Series five years later after Ken Williams replaced Schueler. They made the postseason in 2020 and ’21 under Hahn before things went south in a hurry, leading to their current state of affairs.
Even the darkest days end at some point.
“I think there’s a lot left in the tank in there,” Sizemore said. “There’s a lot of hope. I think we’re not that far off. We still have a lot of work to do and there’s a lot of development that needs to go on. But I see the promise.”
Getz didn’t have a timeline for when the current rebuild might turn the corner, but he said they would spend money in free agency this winter, albeit not for the most expensive players.
The key is how much patience Sox fans have for waiting out this one.
“Our fans certainly don’t deserve to go through anything like this,” Getz said. “I know they pay money to come to games and watch games, and they look to watch the Sox as a positive outlet. We haven’t been able to provide too many positive outcomes throughout the season.”
That was obvious to anyone who sneaked a peek at the Sox, whether from the mostly empty upper deck of Guaranteed Rate Field or the comfort of an easy chair while watching on TV at home.
No one said it was easy being a White Sox fan, a point the team seems intent on proving year after year.
