On April 29, 1988, the Baltimore Orioles won a baseball game for the first time all season. The score was 9-0 against — who else? — the White Sox at Comiskey Park. Eddie Murray and Cal Ripken Jr. each homered, leading one to wonder all these years later how a team with two Hall of Famers in the lineup every day could start out 0-21.
That’s still the longest losing streak — 21 games — that any American League team has had in the modern era, which goes back to 1900.
“Nothing could be any tougher than what we’ve been through this year,” said manager Frank Robinson, who’d taken over for fired Cal Ripken Sr. after the team started 0-6. “Everything is apple pie and ice cream from here on out.”
The Orioles ended up 54-107, but a season later they finished only two games out of the lead in the AL East and Robinson, a Hall of Famer himself as a player, was the AL’s manager of the year.
But “nothing” could be tougher? Really? The 2024 Sox would like to have a word.
With their losing streak now at 20 games heading into a series at the A’s, the Sox are coming for those O’s — and then, just maybe, for the majors’ longest modern losing streak of ’em all, the 23-gamer authored by the 1961 Phillies.
On the occasion of 20, we should ask some questions. No, not 20 of them — what a miserable exercise that would be — but a few.
First, what are the Sox waiting for with manager Pedro Grifol? His first Sox team lost 101 games, and his second one is an almost unfathomable 27-87. If we didn’t know months ago that Grifol was in over his head, the whole world can plainly see the man is drowning. There’s no chance he’ll be back for the third and final year of his contract and no reason under the sun he should be. If nothing he has done in his first managing job has worked — at all — then clearly there’s no point in continuing to put him on the next plane to the next city.
The only thing more awkward than having Grifol speak for the Sox every day is Grifol doing so and throwing bouquets at owner Jerry Reinsdorf. Before Sunday’s loss at the Twins, Grifol told reporters, “Jerry’s a winner, OK? He’s an absolute winner.” He also called Reinsdorf an “incredible” owner and man who loves the fans. The same fans who just read this paragraph and want to throw a brick through the nearest window.
USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported over the weekend that Marlins manager Skip Schumaker, who’s expected to be on the market after the season, is the “leading candidate” for the Sox job but also could be coveted by “several” other teams. So, another question: Why would the Sox “win” Schumaker’s services when all they do is lose? The Sox don’t win games. They don’t win on game-changing free agents. They win on ballpark milkshakes. If Schumaker is their guy, I’m betting they won’t get him.
And let’s be specific with one more: Why should Reinsdorf or his greenhorn general manager, Chris Getz, be expected to get it right on their next skipper? Or on rebuilding the big-league roster? Or on delivering the team’s fan base from the abyss?
In losing No. 20, the Sox passed the 2021 Orioles and the 2021 Diamondbacks, each of whom lost 19 straight on the way to a 52-110 record. A mere two seasons later, one of those teams finished with a best-in-the-AL 101 wins and the other went all the way to the World Series.
Start planning that Sox parade for 2026? Maybe, just maybe, not.