As we all know, injuries are a part of sports, and sometimes an injury can be a fluke even off the field. The White Sox, however, have suffered an epidemic of injuries running the bases. I don’t believe in “bad luck” over and over again. The brutal truth is that, signed to huge guaranteed contracts, they don’t give a damn. It’s pretty hard to get motivated when you already financially set for life. Their “work outs” are trotting around for a few minutes and taking batting practice, and most of them should be 20 pounds or so lighter. So, when it is time to really run all out in a game situation, “TWANG!”, there goes a muscle or tendon or whatever. I find it disgusting.
Were I the emperor of the world, all contracts would be incentive based. If you play like an All Star, then you get paid like one whether you are a first year rookie or a 15 year veteran. If you play like crap, then you get a base salary that is an incentive to play much better.
I’m wondering if other teams are going through this, or just our awful team with its even more awful front office that works for an even more awful owner.
There’s “last place”, and there’s “the pits of Hell”. We’re already in the latter. It is the middle of April, and our run differential is -53. and we are already 9 games out of first place.
Be nice! There’s room in our hearts for all of our Chicago teams! Besides, any fan who went 108 years without a title is in no position to ridicule anyone, right?
I was somewhat thinking the same thing, but I feel pity more than anything. I’m a Southside Cubs fan and have been all my life because of day baseball and WGN. I went to one Sox game so far this year, and my daughter, who claims to be a Sox fan, asked me “Why are the White Sox so bad?” And I was all like, “honey, it’s just the beginning of the season; we’re only four games in. Even a great team will lose around 60 games in a season!” And here we are, sixteen games in, 2-14. Wow, are they terrible. I can’t even bring myself to tease my best childhood friend who would relentless razz me about the Cubs growing up (and even now – when the Cubs were down 3-1 in the World Series, he posted a meme to my page of the White Sox celebrating their 2005 WS win with a caption like "we don’t make it here often, but when we do, we win it. Oh, it felt so good to post that back up on his page after the Cubs won the next three in a row. That’s what you get for celebrating too early!)
And, no, there’s none of this “we love all the Chicago teams” bullshit. You pick a team, and you stick with it. Dem’s da rules. Only people who didn’t grow up here and maybe some younger folk with too permissive parenting like both baseball teams. Now, you don’t have to hate the other one; you can be like me and just be completely indifferent to the other one. When the Sox won the WS in 2005, it may as well have been the Oakland A’s winning for all I cared.
Seriously, pretty much all the White Sox fan friends I grew up with full on hate the Cubs. A standard greeting to me would be “what’s up, P, Cubs suck!” That friend I mentioned? His wife is the most hard core. When the Cubs won the World Series she went full on ballistic on her Facebook page against these bandwagon Cubs fans that she knew as Sox fans, that it was a betrayal to express any kind of support for the Cubs. I was laughing my ass off!
I like the rivalry. It’s what I grew up with and what I know. I know it’s a kinder gentler world in some respects, but I like this sort of silliness.
Okay, I’m going to tell you what I tell anyone who gives me the “one or the other” mandate. If ever the day comes where they play each other in the World Series, I will make a declaration. And that declaration will be, “May the best team win in 7!” LOL
If you want the fanatic Jasmine, switch the conversation to football. I’ll be sitting here sticking pins into the eyes of a green and yellow Voodoo Doll.
This is where I’m the odd duck as I don’t hate the Packers with all my being. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t exactly like them, but I do have a soft spot for a small market team like that. When I was about seven years old I got thrown out of a neighbor’s house because I was cheering on the Packers. I just liked their colors as a kid! But I was taught a valuable lesson about being a Chicagoan and shutting right up about having anything good to say about them. (Except in this confessional.)
What is weird is just how many Packers fans I know who grew up here in Chicago. When the hell did this happen? My cousin’s three kids are all Packers fans. Another friend of mine’s two boys also support the green and yellow. A few years ago I was at a grocery store on the Southwest Side here and they had tons of commemorative Green Bay Packers magazines. The hell is going on?
I’m from Philly, and in our vicinity the Cowboys are hated, vilified, detested, scorned, etc., etc. And yet we still have those, born and raised here, who are Cowboy fans. A small base, to be clear, but there they are, the guys with “Cowboys Country!” flags on their lawns. We call these people “cockroaches.” Seriously.
There’s probably a variety of reasons for this pathology, but I think the predominant one is pure “look at me!” contrariness, the cheap thrill it gives them. As deeply disturbed as these sociopaths are, I can muster no sympathy.
It happened because people who have no loyalty, pride, or identity “bandwagon” a winning team simply because they want to horn in on the good feeling of success. Well, to those people I can only say, "Don’t come crawling back to us pretending you are and have been a loyal Bears fan when we win the title … some day … maybe in our lifetime …
As a lifelong South Texan, deep in Cowboys country, I can attest to the presence of similar fans down here, fans who seem to pick a team just to be contrarian. The difference is around here instead of the Eagles the contrarians tend to be 49ers fans.
This “big contract, hurt players” sounds exactly like the Cleveland Browns. Ugh ugh ugh. Have we had anyone in the Haslam era that didn’t go big money > sloppy play > injury bench?
I’ll have to remind all of the Guardians fans in Guardians Reddit who cry “our owners are so cheap!” about this money-to-injury pipeline. Good to have these local examples - Browns and ChiSox - under my belt.
Also, to chime in on the hate for fanbase side convo - I absolutely don’t trust Pittsburgh Steelers fans. Moreso the ones who are from Cleveland but somehow found themselves a Steeler fan. Like, who hurt you? What a terrible way to live.
Random White Sox memory: the other day I was thinking about the 2005 ALCS, CWS vs. the Angels. After losing the first game*, the Sox won the next four and all were complete games by the starters (Beuhrle, Garland, Garcia, Contreras.) It was unusual for 2005 and unimaginable today. Also weird because, as a team, they only had 9 complete games on the season.
*Contreras went 8 1/3 in the opener. It must have been strange out in the bullpen that series.
I was new to Chicagoland and in college, so I really didn’t watch any baseball, but I do remember the guy talk that year, and the big question was just how many titles that seemingly unbeatable team would win. I heard 2 & 3 and an even a grandiose 4. Turns out they didn’t win any.
