Crazily, this is the first thing that has made me minimally interested in baseball for years/decades. It would be a pity if they put forth the effort and came this close, only to not get the record!
It is almost enough to get me to actually look up their remaining schedule. ALMOST, I say… 
A South Side cow-orker of mine mentioned today that if they don’t get the record, it will just be another way that they were disappointing.
Have you seen the Tigers or the Padres the past few weeks? Both teams have been playing out of their minds. I wouldn’t want to be a playoff team going into Detroit right now, much less the White Sox.
Even with having won four of their last 10 games, the Sox are still pathetic, from a statistical standpoint.
The only teams with a worse team ERA are the Marlins and Rockies. I figured the Rockies was only because they play in Coors, but no, Baseball Reference says even accounting for that, the Rockies are a little worse. The Sox had two good starters so that drags them up a little. Colorado has no above average starting pitcher. The Marlins’ park is apparently a wonderful hitter’s park according to BBRef, which other sources don’t agree with, so I’m not sure about them. I think honestly they’re also worse than Chicago.
And when I say no above average starter on the Rockies, by the way, I mean it. Twelve guys have started a game for Colorado this year and not a single one of them has an ERA+ of 100 (Or a winning record.) A few are close and could still pull it off.
I was talking to my son in Chicago last night, and mentioned the Sox’s horrible attendance, compared to the Cardinals, where the turnstile count has dropped to the lowest levels since the new stadium opened, and fans are listing their tickets on the secondary market for $0.00. My son swears up and down that there are diehard Sox fans all over the South Side and the southern suburbs, but mostly they just go to bars, watch the games on TV and complain to each other how bad Reinsdorf is.
See: Ohtani, Shohei, September 19, 2024.
Interestingly, the Sox’s attendance has actually gotten somewhat better in recent weeks; they are now averaging just over 17K paid attendance per game, and are ahead of Tampa Bay, Miami, and (of course) Oakland.
I don’t know if it’s a function of games against teams which have strong followings (in August and September, they hosted the Cubs, Yankees, Tigers, and Mets, as well as the Rangers, Guardians, and A’s), very inexpensive tickets on the secondary market, or really nice weather (warm and dry) in Chicago for much of the past month.
And, of course, it may also be because, as suggested upthread, some people may be going to the games out of morbid curiosity, and to see a part of history.
As of today (9/20) three of the top four teams in the AL wild card race (Orioles, Royals, Tigers, Twins) are AL Central team. There is a distinct advantage to getting to play the White Sox 13 times a season.
Indeed. Each of the four teams you mentioned has just one loss against the Sox, and the Tigers end the season with 3 games at home against Chicago.
The only team in the Central that has ‘struggled’ against the White Sox is the division leader, Cleveland, which finished 8-5 against Chicago.
I was on a trip with a group, and one fellow traveller was from KC. Don’t think he owned a piece of clothing that wasn’t Chiefs branded, or that he went more than 3 sentences into any conversation w/o naming their QB. Trying to pretend I gave a shit abut sports I said something about the Sox, and he happily chortled whatever the Royals’ record against them was.
Sounds like the KC version of Jason Mendoza from The Good Place.
The Sox suffered their second straight extra-inning loss on Friday night, 3-2 to the Padres. Garrett Crochet started, and has been the case since the end of June, was pulled after four innings; during his stint, he gave up only one hit, while striking out eight.
Now 36-118, and could tie the '62 Mets at 120 losses by Sunday.
I don’t understand why so many teams play night games on the weekend. Man, I’m glad the Jays don’t. Anyway, the Sox go for history at 8:40 EST with a shot at tying the AL record for losses.
History will be a new record for suck. A tie for the record is a nice keepsake. Put that on the mantle, look at it once in a while. Be proud of it.
The game is in San Diego, so the start time was 5:40. Doesn’t really matter, though. The Sox can lose at any time, day or night.
As I type this, it’s the bottom of the 8th, Padres up 4-2.
It’s a final now, 6-2. The Sox only had four hits on the evening – all singles – but walked six times.
36-119, tying the 2003 Tigers for the most losses by an AL team in a season. Tomorrow afternoon’s game has Yu Darvish pitching for the Padres.
The Sox lost to the Padres this afternoon, 4-2; their bullpen blew up once again, surrendering 3 runs, and the lead, in the bottom of the eighth.
That was loss #120 on the year, tying the 1962 Mets. They are now 36-120 (.231), and begin a three-game home series against the Angels on Tuesday, then finish with a three-game series at Detroit next weekend. They would need to win four or more out of their remaining six to not wind up with fewer wins than the '62 Mets.
They would need to go 2-4 in their last six games to be worse than the A’s. Realistically. is there a chance they could go 3-3 in their last six games and avoid that. . . distinction?
Certainly a small chance; they’re playing the Angels Tuesday-Thursday, whom they did beat the this past Monday (and that was in Anaheim).
If they have any chance of winning three, it’s more likely to come against the Angels, at home, rather than against the Tigers (who are fighting for a wild card berth) in Detroit next weekend.