Were they all here for the right reasons? Bob Rook, 69, wasn’t sure.
Thousands streamed past Rook’s information booth toward Guaranteed Rate Field Thursday afternoon to see if the Chicago White Sox would make the history books by breaking a modern-day MLB record with a 121st defeat.
Not a single cloud marred the early autumn sky. Tailgaters lazily sipped beers while their children ran wild around the stadium’s parking lots. Waitresses of a nearby restaurant hurriedly set tables, bracing for one final rush of the season.
“This week sucked because people came here hoping that the Sox would lose,” said Rook, a Beverly resident and a Sox fan for more than six decades.
But alas, history was not on the fans’ side Thursday — or, rather, for those fans who wanted to see the team slide into the history books. The Sox swept the Los Angeles Angels with a 7-0 win in the final matchup of their three-game series this week.
The Chicago White Sox wouldn’t be playing at home again until March. The whole reason people go to the ballpark is to have fun, Rook said, but unfortunately on Thursday, the fun they had in mind was seeing the Sox accumulate the most losses in major league history.
Tommy Jakovich, 66, attended 29 Sox games before Thursday’s matchup against the Angels. He saw the team lose 24 times. Jakovich, who was born and raised on the South Side, said he was so much of a Sox fan that he took several Xanax on the day of the Cubs’ 2016 World Series parade and went to sleep from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Jakovich said he attended every game of the Sox’s series against the Angles, hoping to witness the team make history by losing their 121th game of the season.
“On Monday, we were hoping for history. They won 3-2,” Jakovich said. “Yesterday, we were praying for history. They won 4-3.”
Nick Brewster, who grew up on the South Side but now lives in Little Italy, said he planned to go to the final Sox game of the year well before they were in position to make history. Brewster said he would stand by the Sox win or lose on Thursday.
“It’s my team, and if we are going to lose, I’m going to lose with them,” said Brewster, 35. “I’m going to be right here with them.”
Erin Nielsen, 29, was selling Sox merchandise out of a trailer in a parking lot near the stadium before the game.
Nielsen said she initially didn’t want the Sox to break the loss record, but ultimately changed her mind.
“If you’re going to do it, do it today,” said Nielsen, who lives in Andersonville. “You break it with your home crowd. Don’t go up to Detroit to break it.”
Octavin Jones, 54, was selling peanuts, water, Gatorade and Sox merchandise to fans getting off the Red Line and walking to the ballpark.
“They are going to charge you an arm and a leg on the inside. I’m only going to charge you a finger and a toe on the outside,” Jones shouted at fans walking to the stadium.
For a business standpoint, Jones was having a much better season than the Sox, he said. With so many fans in attendance Thursday, Jones expected to make around $1,500, he said.
“I’m not going to say this was a bad, bad year,” said Jones, who lives in Roseland. “It was sort of good.”
Rook said he can’t wait for next season to start because the White Sox’s losing streak has had an adverse effect on team employees like himself.
Employees, he said, are affected by the mood of the fans.
“You can see it in the fans’ faces. They’re not happy when you look at them,” he said. “You want a happy atmosphere.”
