In an effort to update our sports metaphors to meet the changing times, we no longer will be comparing the Chicago White Sox’s voyage of doom to the Titanic.
As the Sox near the 1962 New York Mets’ modern-day record of 120 losses — with 117 and counting heading into Friday’s series opener in San Diego — a more fitting maritime disaster to describe the 2024 season might be the Titan, the submersible that imploded last year while exploring the wreckage of the Titanic.
According to reports, nearly 120 equipment problems were discovered in the years leading up to the Titan implosion, giving ample warning to all concerned that something was very wrong.
While the stakes were comparatively trivial, the Sox also were warned of a coming disaster when PECOTA projections in February gave them a 0.0% chance of winning the American League Central. The projection ruffled the feathers of then-manager Pedro Grifol, who said: “That motivates the heck out of me. This is a division that obviously no one is scheduled to run away with, so why not us?”
Similarly, the final text from the crew of the Titan to the support ship above the surface suggested there was nothing to worry about:
With nine games remaining, the Sox hope to avoid the most embarrassing moment in franchise history, or at least since a shirtless father and son attacked a Kansas City Royals coach on the field during a home game in 2002.
Breaking the all-time record has seemed inevitable since their American League record-tying 21-game losing streak in July and early August, and even firing Grifol on Aug. 8 couldn’t stop the downward slide.
It’s difficult to lose 120 games, even when you’re trying to tank, as many teams have done over the last decade or two. Sometimes you’re going to be facing a starter who just doesn’t have it or an overtaxed bullpen running on fumes. Once in a while your own starters will look untouchable, and you’ll need only a couple of runs.
And sometimes you just get lucky and win a game you’re supposed to lose. Every team has a streak in them, even if it’s for a week or so.
But the Sox have been the exception to the rule, a team that has perfected the art of losing. Only a rare three-game winning streak this week against the Oakland A’s and Los Angeles Angels, their first such streak since June 27-29, prevented the Sox from a shot at breaking the record on the current West Coast trip.
The worst the Sox could do is tie the record by getting swept by the Padres, a team fighting for a National League wild-card spot. The Sox return home to Guaranteed Rate Field on Tuesday for a three-game series against the Los Angeles Angels, their final home games of the season.
The Sox have a home-field disadvantage that defies belief. They just snapped a franchise record 16-game home losing streak Saturday against the A’s and are 4-30 over their last 34 games on the South Side, a .118 winning percentage.
After Wednesday’s heartbreaking, 13-inning loss to the Angels, the probability of the Sox finishing with fewer than 40 wins was at 86.1%, according to James Ciecka, a professor of economics at DePaul University. If the Sox lose Friday, the probability rises to 90.7%. They need to finish 7-2 to fall one loss shy of the record with 119.
So the chances of the Sox breaking the mark at home are increasingly good. But they will be playing the lowly Angels, a franchise so inept it wasted the prime years of two generational players — Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani. Suffice to say it would be a matchup between a very stoppable force and an extremely movable object.
May the worse team lose.
Either way, it’s all setting up for a finish like no other for angst-ridden Sox fans, at least the ones who have ignored their better instincts and continued following this team the last three years through thin and thinner. Bandwagon-jumpers and rubberneckers no doubt will show up for a chance at being eyewitnesses to history.
The Sox can either break the record and go down as the worst team ever or escape infamy with some last-minute heroics. That sounds implausible, but remember the Detroit Tigers were in the same virtual boat in 2003 with 118 losses and only six games remaining. They somehow managed to win five of those last six to finish with an AL record 119 losses.
If the Sox do manage to hang tough and go 4-2 against the Padres and Angels, they could take it down to the final weekend in Detroit.
The Tigers, left for dead weeks ago, are still vying for an AL wild-card spot and would be extra motivated to win. They’re 9-1 against the Sox. Tigers play-by-play man Jason Benetti, who left the Sox job for Detroit last winter after feeling disrespected by the Sox organization, rejected the theory of a “Curse of Benetti” in June, telling the Tribune: “This has nothing to do with me leaving.”
Record or not, the Sox would like nothing better than to ruin the Tigers’ season. As ace Garrett Crochet said in mid-August: “Let’s screw it up for everybody else.”
Crochet didn’t mean the media, but if the Sox did manage to avoid setting a record for ineptitude, they also would screw up the plans of many media outlets preparing stories about their expected fate. The national media already have begun pointing fingers, and Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf has a bull’s-eye on his back.
The Athletic on Thursday ran a well-resourced article that painted Reinsdorf as a frugal, backward and uninformed owner who ignores modern analytics and metrics and appeared oblivious to the huge challenge of rebuilding that lies ahead for the Sox.
“No one can project a timeline to winning,” Reinsdorf told The Athletic via email in response to questions. “But there are many examples of organizations, some very recently like Kansas City and Baltimore, that have rebounded very quickly.”
Of course it took several years of losing for both of those teams to enjoy success, which Reinsdorf easily could’ve looked up on baseball-reference.com. Instead, he chose to take a more optimistic view, much like the doomed crew of the Titan as it headed down to the ocean floor.
All good here.
