NEWSLETTER
In 1997, I was a miserable Chicago Cubs fan. I mean, that was true a lot of the time, but I mean it in a very specific way that year: the Cubs had started the season 0-14. They had literally lost their first 14 games to open the season. Playoff hopes, if they ever existed, were dead before the Cubs even won their first game.
That is all to say, I can empathize with Chicago White Sox fans this year, as the team has started out a dismal 3-20. I avoided even saying anything about it because I didn’t want it to seem like I was dancing on a grave, but it’s gotten to such an extreme that we’re talking true baseball interest here. Historic awfulness is interesting regardless of what city it takes place in. Because even that 1997 Cubs season did not turn out how this 2024 White Sox season is likely to go.
Consider that, despite starting 0-14, those Cubs managed to go 6-6 over their next 12. These White Sox have half as many wins before they got to 20 losses. It’s hard to imagine suffering through a worse start to the season than that 1997 Cubs year, but here we are. Sorry, White Sox fans.
The latest loss came via the blown 5-2 lead, with the Twins scoring two in each of the bottom of the 8th and 9th to walk it off:
The White Sox have already set their own mark for the worst start in franchise history, and they are now just two losses away from tying the worst 25-game start in the Wild Card era. The 2022 Reds were 3-22, and ditto the 2003 Tigers.
That 2003 Tigers club also set the modern record for futility over a 162-game season, going 43-119. So that’s the mark for the White Sox to avoid making season-long history: 41-98 from here. They can do it, right?
How bad have things gone for the White Sox so far? They’re 5.5 games worse than the Oakland A’s. Mason Miller is on the A’s. I could not otherwise tell you a single player on that team, which is by design. The White Sox are allowing 5.6 runs per game, and they are scoring 2.2 runs per game. The latter is the worst in baseball by a mile, and the former is second to last, but only because the Rockies play at Coors Field. They are juuuuust about the worst team in baseball on both sides of the ledger.
And the final bit of salt in the wound? Because the White Sox are in a large market, and because they pick in the lottery this year, they are ineligible to pick any earlier than 10th. So even if the White Sox finish this 2024 season with a historically awful record, they will not receive a top draft pick in 2025. Oof.
