The Spectacular South Siders

Doff of the cap for the performance art extravaganza which is the 2024 Chicago White Sox:

The 1970 White Sox went 56-106, setting the mark with a loss on the last day of the season, Oct. 1, 1970. The 2024 team is much more efficient at losing.

Now that the local goal has been met, there’s still 24 games left in the season for the Sox (31-107) to really make history.

Because it is the Mets, of course, Chicago is really chasing this season. The 1962 Mets, an expansion team, lost 120 games, the modern record for losses in a season. Through June, the Sox were bad, but the ’62 Mets’ legendary mark still seemed like a stretch.

Then Chicago went 7-44 in July and August and now only needs 14 losses this month to break that record. They haven’t lost fewer than 19 games in a month so far this season.

The White Sox have scored the fewest runs in MLB… by a hundred runs. They have allowed more runs than any team other than the Colorado Rockies. Their expected W-L given their run differential is 36-102, from which they have duly underperformed. They were eliminated from the playoff race on August 17, earliest date in the history of MLB since the shift to the divisional system in 1969… and truly an accomplishment given the expansion in the number of playoff slots over the past decade and a half.

I admit that I’ll be a bit disappointed if they manage to go .500 over their last 24 and miss out on the Magic 120. That said, I imagine that the players are going to be at least somewhat motivated to avoid that degree of notoriety. FWIW I attended at White Sox game last year and they actually managed a rare win…