A couple of years ago Jerry Reinsdorf made a speech to some group in California where he’s reported to have basically said winning isn’t important, that what matters is that you still provide some reason for people to come to games in September. He apparently mentioned something about finishing second or third being fine as long as you’re kinda-sorta in the playoff mix. That drew a lot of criticism, as owners are supposed to really want to win it all, all the time.
But what if being in the hunt for a division title or a playoff spot is not what Reinsdorf meant at all? Maybe the reports at the event and we White Sox fans just assume that’s what he called being relevant? Maybe he meant it in a broader sense.
A much broader sense.
Take the 2024 White Sox. Please.
In late September of last year (usually a ticket sales abyss for lousy teams), the White Sox actually increased their attendance. The final home series, against the lowly and Mike Trout-less Angels, averaged 18,000 or so. That’s obviously not great, and not what would have been the case if a playoff race was underway. But the figure was actually higher than the average for the season — and a whopping 50% bigger than a series against the rival Guardians two weeks earlier.
Why did the attendance take a big jump in late September? Because the games were relevant. The relevancy wasn’t in striving to do well, but the exact opposite — all those additional fans came to the ballpark and bought beer and hot dogs and fancy milkshakes in hopes of seeing the modern record for losses in a season broken.
As all Sox fans know, that desire wasn’t fulfilled, because the 121st loss didn’t come until a road game in Detroit. But as with a quest for greatness, a quest for horribleness provides a high level of excitement.
See? Reinsdorf told us what he was up to, how he could achieve a September sales goal while also succeeding beautifully in his other goal of minimizing payroll, and we just didn’t listen. Or listen properly.
Now, trying to set a new record for losses in a season isn’t easy, and Reinsdorf suffers the misfortune that his 2025 team, while still awful both on offense and defense, is a lot better than the 2024 version. Having a real major league manager, staff, research, and all that doesn’t help get you a new losses record.
But, look — there was still a quest to be quested — a drive to get fans to come to The Rate to try to catch loss number 100, to be there when the third straight year of triple-digit terribleness is achieved, to tie the modern record. Alas, it is not to be, as hitting No. 100 will have to happen on the road; at this juncture, only 99 losses are possible (probable?) before fleeing town.
Can’t blame the guy for trying, though.
A BRIEF ASIDE TO DISCUSS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND ISSUE A WARNING
When you Google something these days, chances are the first response you get will be from AI. When I earlier this week looked up MLB teams with three straight seasons of 100 losses or more, the first several times AI assured me it had never happened in the modern era, post 1901. That might come as something as a surprise to the fans of the 2004-2006 Royals, the 2011-2013 Astros, or the expansion 1977-1979 Blue Jays.
Now, as of Thursday, AI first reported, “This makes the Colorado Rockies the first team in modern MLB team history to lose 100 or more games in three consecutive seasons.” Well, that was the case in the morning, anyway — by afternoon AI had decided “The Chicago White Sox hold the MLB record for the most consecutive 100-loss seasons, losing at least 100 games in 2023 and 2024, making them the first team to do so in the modern era.”
Perhaps, AI, being all-seeing and all-knowing, may be able to gaze into the future and is letting us know what to expect for the next few years. But that seems a little pushy.
I mention all this as a community service, giving you fair warning that if you board a plane and hear the announcement, “I’m ChatGPT and I’ll be your pilot today,” it would be a good idea to disobey the seat belt sign, and rush to the door and bang on and scream, “Let me out!” A short jail stay for creating a disturbance will be a much better fate than what awaits those still aboard.
BACK TO OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED COLUMN
Many fans are naturally hoping that this year’s improvement is just the first of many steps upward, that Colson Montgomery’s earlier rash of homers is the real him and not the all-singles 3-for-25 with 14 strikeouts of the last week or so; that Lenyn Sosa will figure out which hand the glove goes on; that Noah Schultz’s 45 walks in 73 innings in Birmingham and Charlotte and Hagen Smith’s 56 walks in 75 innings in Birmingham are all the result of bad umpiring; that Andrew Benintendi remembers how he used to be good; that Chris Getz looks like a genius for keeping Luis Robert Jr. instead of getting something while he could; that the rookies all are sophomore sensations instead of having sophomore slumps; and so on.
If all those things come to pass, it could well be that by September 2027 or 2028 there will be fans in the stands because of playoff-chasing reasons. If most of them don’t happen, then maybe next September it will be full houses to watch the White Sox try for a record fourth straight season of triple-digit awfulness They not only end the 2026 season at home, but against the Rockies, so there could be two teams going for futility records!
What fun? And what money to be made!
Either way, don’t say Jerry didn’t warn you.
0 Comments
