It was one other day and one other loss for the Chicago White Sox, however there was one thing further particular about Sunday’s defeat.
Sunday’s loss, a normal 13-7 defeat by the hands of the Minnesota Twins, marked their twentieth in a row — a pleasant spherical quantity to present this franchise the nationwide stage it deserves. No group had misplaced 20 in a row for the reason that 1988 Baltimore Orioles, who misplaced 21 instances in succession.
In Chicago, we’re used to the White Sox shedding. It’s type of their factor. However 20 in a row? We’re previous the purpose of embarrassment right here.
In Chicago, we’ve been laser-focused on the Sox being on observe to interrupt the 1962 Mets’ modern-day report of 120 losses, however now we’re on the level the place they might surpass the 1961 Philadelphia Phillies’ report of 23 straight defeats.
Infamy, thy title is White Sox.
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On NBC Sports activities Chicago’s beloved, painfully trustworthy postgame present Sunday, host Chuck Garfien was rattling off some acquainted insult statistics.
“Twentieth loss in a row, 40 video games again, 1-12 in opposition to Minnesota,” he stated. “I might go all day on this, 1-12 in opposition to Kansas Metropolis …”
That’s when Frank Thomas interrupted him. Thomas is, in fact, the best participant in franchise historical past and a semi-regular co-host on the present. As a hitter, Thomas was a stickler for particulars. On this present, too, he wished it to be correct.
“Sixty video games below .500,” he stated. “Below. Sixty video games.”
That’s when Garfien realized his mistake. With the loss, the White Sox had dropped to 27-87. Speak about a Large Damage.
“Sixty video games,” he stated. “I stated they had been 40 video games below .500.”
With slightly theatrical flourish, he slammed his stack of papers on the carpet.
“They’re 60 video games below .500!” Garfien yelled, earlier than settling again in his chair.
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That’s when Ozzie Guillen, Garfien’s on a regular basis co-host and the group’s World Collection-winning supervisor, introduced up the stat that I got here up with just lately: In case you take out the Sox’s two franchise-record shedding streaks, they nonetheless have the worst report in baseball.
See, it’s one factor to be the worst group in baseball in a singular season. Somebody has to do it, in spite of everything. However add to {that a} 14-game shedding streak and a 20-game (and counting) shedding streak, and it makes them a contender for the worst baseball group in trendy historical past. A laughingstock for the ages.
The ’62 Mets had been an growth group with a sure sense of caprice. That they had Marvelous Marv Throneberry and Casey Stengel. Jimmy Breslin’s ebook, “Can’t Anyone Right here Play This Recreation?” was a traditional, and 7 years later, the Amazin’ Mets had been world champs.
However the White Sox have been round since 1901. Their franchise report for losses is 106, which ought to be eclipsed earlier than Labor Day. It’s been a great distance down from the rebuild that was speculated to convey a number of championship parades to Chicago.
Two years after the Sox received 93 video games and the AL Central, they hit what we thought was all-time low. That was final 12 months once they misplaced 101 video games and Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf made the transfer none of us noticed coming by firing his longtime front-office duo of Kenny Williams and Rick Hahn. Reinsdorf promised a fast turnaround behind new common supervisor Chris Getz. Nobody believed Jerry then as a result of why would they? He has no belief left with the followers, not in spite of everything these years.
For some cause — OK, cash — the group saved supervisor Pedro Grifol, whose managing report is at the moment 88-188. However he’s been a lifeless supervisor strolling all season, and after the commerce deadline handed, the main target rapidly turned to his job standing. It nearly appears merciless that Getz and Reinsdorf haven’t fired Grifol but. Perhaps they’re ready for him to win a sport so he can exit on a excessive observe.
“Meaning Pedro is 100 video games below .500 since he acquired the job,” Guillen stated. “Hoo, hoo boy.”
Ozzie is having an existential disaster on the Postgame Present proper now pic.twitter.com/5eCUlirBgI
— White Sox Discuss (@NBCSWhiteSox) August 4, 2024
Guillen, who led the Sox to their World Collection victory in 2005, stated he must see a psychologist as a result of he’s been extra offended and unhappy than common these days. The explanation?
“I don’t assume I used to be that dangerous a supervisor, however they picked Pedro in entrance of me,” Guillen stated to laughter on the present.
After Tony La Russa stepped down following well being points in 2022, Guillen was given a token interview for the open job, the one which he gave away in 2011. Guillen has wished this job again for years, however the earlier regime of Williams and Hahn didn’t need him again and so they had no intention of hiring him two years in the past. I agreed with them however solely as a result of the group wants to maneuver ahead, not backward.
Guillen added: “I swear to God on this, when Rick Hahn known as me and stated I don’t have the job, he stated, ‘We discovered the subsequent Ozzie Guillen.’”
Whereas Hahn was making an attempt to go with Grifol, Guillen, who went 678-617 (.524) in eight seasons, positive doesn’t recognize the comparability now. However I wager he’s getting a kick out of how dangerous the Sox are with out him.
A whole lot of followers need Guillen to instantly change Grifol if and when the group fires him, however why would he need that headache? If I had been any of the coaches on Grifol’s workers, I wouldn’t need to take the job, both. You don’t need to must reply questions on this group, this season, twice a day.
Now, in what could possibly be his waning days within the job, Grifol took a while to do what a whole lot of failed coaches and managers do in a Reinsdorf regime: kiss as much as the boss.
“I’ve stated this earlier than and I’m going to say it once more,” Grifol stated in response to the Solar-Instances and Chicago Tribune. “This will get taken out of context and in some way it will get rotated time and again, how folks need to understand it. Jerry’s a winner, OK? He’s an absolute winner. He’s a competitor. No, he’s not content material. Who’s?”
Individuals have humorous definitions of what makes somebody a winner, particularly once they work for a perennial loser.
The Bulls are below .500 since their precise, absolute winner, Michael Jordan, retired in 1998. The Sox have made the postseason simply seven instances in Reinsdorf’s 44 years of possession. The 2005 playoffs had been the one time they received a collection, and 2020 and 2021 had been the one years they reached the playoffs in back-to-back seasons.
However Grifol is talking to an viewers of 1, at the same time as he’s left dangling.
If the Sox get swept in Oakland this week, they might break the ’61 Phillies report at dwelling Friday in opposition to the Cubs. The environment can be someplace between funereal and riotous.
I can’t think about Grifol is on the highest step for that one. How might you do this to him? How might you insult the followers’ intelligence by protecting him round?
It’s an terrible state of affairs for everybody, however this isn’t simply on Grifol, although he’s definitely culpable for making a foul state of affairs worse.
GO DEEPER
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Whereas he’s centered on increase the farm system, Getz tried so as to add some protection to final 12 months’s slapdash fielding group to make the major-league product extra palatable, however he failed in a really public vogue. The core hitters who’re all the time harm had been, shock, injured once more early within the season (Yoán Moncada has performed solely 11 video games and is within the group’s high 10 for bWAR), and the season fell off the rails with a 3-22 begin. The beginning pitching, at the very least, has been stable, and Getz and his workers have bolstered the group’s pitching outlook.
That’s all a part of the upside to shedding: It permits a entrance workplace the runway to enhance a corporation, typically pretty rapidly. That was the plan after the 2016 season, and it labored till it didn’t. However in his first commerce deadline, Getz’s strikes had been extensively panned, and new baseball guidelines are limiting the Sox to the tenth choose in subsequent 12 months’s draft.
Cash goes to be a problem. The Sox are having one other attendance decline, and their TV broadcasts, which had been a spotlight for the group, are actually considered the worst in baseball. The group’s take care of NBC Sports activities Chicago is ending and a brand new RSN (in partnership with the Bulls and Blackhawks) will debut this fall.
It’s going to be an extended street again to respectability. A minimum of there’s nonetheless the TV pre- and postgame reveals, which had been as unfailingly trustworthy and demanding as ever Sunday. These reveals, the Campfire Milkshake and the pitching within the minors are the one issues the group has going for it.
The White Sox lose and lose and lose, and so they’ve gotten a lot observe, they now could be one of the best to ever do it.
(Picture of Nicky Lopez reacting to Sunday’s loss: David Berding / Getty Photographs)
