You don’t watch the White Sox to see them win.
No, no.
That would be nonsensical.
They have a chance to lose more games — and also win fewer games — than any team in the 123-year history of modern baseball.
That’s the target, folks. It’s big. It’s nigh on incredible. And it’s doable.
Right now, after their 13-3 loss to the Orioles on Labor Day at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, the White Sox are 31-108. The 108 losses already are the most in Sox history, surpassing the dreadful 1970 team that went 56-106.
Fans knew that team stunk and scurried away. “Beltin’ Bill” Melton hit his then-club-record 30th home run on Sept. 21 of that year in front of 672 people. He should have walked into the stands and shaken hands with each of them. Maybe kissed the babies, if there were any.
Monday’s loss was the current Sox’ 11th straight, to go with earlier skids this season of 21 and 14. The Sox started the season 3-22 and haven’t let up. They changed managers and it made no difference.
Losing is what they do. It seems likely nobody has done it better.
The goal now for the 2024 Sox is to go 39-123. Or worse. Remember, 31-131 is still a possibility. After watching and marveling at their effort Monday I have to say they could do it. It’s in them.
Above all, this team can’t hit. Zero power. And everybody seems to get hurt. The pitchers have decent stuff, until they groove meatballs that get plastered.
The outfielders do things such as let fly balls drop in front of them. The infielders do things such as shortstop Miguel Vargas, who double-clutched in the sixth inning after fielding a ground ball, allowing Orioles batter Colton Cowser to beat his throw to first. It was no big deal, perhaps, since nobody scored. Just indicative.
Sox pitcher Garrett Crochet is very good, but he plays a few innings every now and then and swiftly gets yanked, saving his trade value. It’s always about the future, you know.
What I’m saying is it’s about right now.
Sox fans should come to Guaranteed Rate Field and witness history in the offing. Don’t do that 1970 stay-away thing. Get some of this. Remember it. Bring the kids. They’ll talk about it forever.
You don’t have to cheer for the losing, but you need to respect it, hope for it, be happy when it rears its little head above the fray.
Because what good is winning?
“They can play with anybody,” Sox TV analyst Steve Stone said during the Orioles game. “But they can’t afford any mistakes.”
That’s it in a nutshell. Baseball is about nothing but mistakes. Who makes them, and when. The Sox are so filled with mistakes, you worry the doors to their team bus might open and 40 dudes in Bozo noses and floppy shoes might tumble out.
It’s hard to do what they’re doing. Correct that. What they’re doing was once thought to be impossible. A lot went into this utter ineptitude. Bad trades, bad drafts, bad managing, bad payroll, bad ownership.
Where is chairman Jerry Reinsdorf? What possible excuse can there be for this? How does it feel to have gotten so many people stained with mud?
Writers have interviewed surviving members of the 1962 Mets, a horrendous, swiftly assembled, patched-together team of kids and outcasts. Eighty-seven-year-old pitcher Jay Hook said he hopes the Sox don’t break the 1962 record.
“I wouldn’t wish it on anybody,”
Hook said.
No, it’s not a nice thing. But this failure should be honored as a symbol of badness, of what can happen when nobody at the top gives a damn. Or, maybe worse, when they do care but are too dumb or arrogant to know they haven’t a clue.
Think of Monday’s poor Sox starting pitcher, one Chris Flexen (2-14), who now holds the major-league record for most consecutive starts (20) with his team losing. All coming since May 14.
Until Monday, Flexen was tied with two pitchers at 19 consecutive starts for losses. One of them, the Brewers’ Chris Capuano, needed three years, 2007-2010, to lose that many. The other, Blondie Purcell, did his deed in Cincinnati in 1879-1880. Blondie was a 5-9, 159-pound multitasker, with 1,217 hits as an outfielder, who simultaneously ran a bookmaking operation.
Into such depths sink the White Sox.
Please pay attention.