Chicago White Sox poll

[Benjamin Grimm]

What do you think?

[Benjamin Grimm]

As I said in the other thread, I'm rooting for the Sox to go no better than 39-123. I want them to have more losses than the 1962 Mets and fewer wins.

[G-Fafif]

I was a little verklempt after the weekend series once I calculated that the 1962 Mets were, at the same spot in their schedules, four games ahead of the 2024 White Sox. My god, the 1962 Mets have never been four games ahead of anybody. I think it made me at least as happy on Sunday as picking up ground on the Braves.



For all their gracious protestations that they want nobody else to carry the onus, I figured the 1962 Mets had carried it long enough. The downside is the 1962 Mets won't get brought up as readily (usually with fondness) when another team challenges for Worst Ever status, though I'm thinking the White Sox are putting that distinction out of reach.

[kcmets]

Huge White Sox fan this month. WIN, WIN, WIN!!!!

[kcmets]

Huge, I tell ya.

[Cowtipper]

Neither of the options match how I feel about it. The 1962 Mets will always be the 1962 Mets, whether they have the record or not. I'm ambivalent to it. It was bound to happen eventually. It's not that I want or do not want it to happen, but it was bound to happen, so why get emotionally involved one way or the other.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

I think its a travesty that any team loses as much as the White Sox will this year. What a kick in the nuts to their fans and the history of the franchise. They should be relegated

[kcmets]

I'm not emotionally involved. Just playin'...

[G-Fafif]

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

The funny part is that they didn't seem all that hapless when I was there. We all have images of the 1962 Mets bumbling and Richie Ashburn "Yo la Tengo" moments and that might be because that's all we know. But it's not like the Sox seemed all that bad. They must be. But they didn't seem bumbling.

[G-Fafif]

One of the telling incidents of a long lifeless season on Sunday (Gary underlined this) was Manaea picking off a runner on a pretty obvious balk move and nobody on the White Sox arguing whatsoever.

[MFS62]

My longtime friend's screen name is "Shoeless Don" and he's a lifelong ChiSox fan. I'm not sure if I should call him when they "break" the Mets record or if I should wait for his call

.



Later

[metirish]

I voted for the 1962 Mwts to keep that record , there is no good reason why the Sox are this bad , I guess the Mets then being new and all with the players they had , but this Sox team, wow

[Edgy MD]

Now that the Mets have taken care of business, I can't help but root for sad sacks to turn it around and stick it to the man — any man that isn't my man, of course, but stick it real good.



And yeah, of course they should be relegated and lose their spot in the league to Omaha.

[MFS62]

Oh NOOOO, Mr. Bill. Not Omaha.

Later

[DocTee]

An 0-10 homestand is hard to fathom. They have to play better than .500 from here on in to avoid ignominy.

[Centerfield]

22 games left.



8-14 gets them to 39-123.



That would be a .364 win percentage.

[Frayed Knot]

=Centerfield post_id=168706 time=1725418233 user_id=65]
That would be a .364 win percentage.

Edited September 4, 2024 by Guest

[DocTee]

The AL Central is a collective 38 games under .500.



Four of the five teams in that division are currently playing better than .500 ball!

[stevejrogers]

It is a bit hyperbolic to say the Red Sox have become Yanquis-like since 2004, it's more that they've continued a stretch of being perennially in the mix for postseason appearances, and constantly refreshing after a blip year or two going back to The Impossible Dream of 1967. Plus they've added three more titles to their ledger in those ensuing 20 years.



However, getting the gorilla off the backs of both Chicago teams have not had the same affect on the two Chi-town teams!



Cubs have won 4 postseason games since 2016, all in their attempt to repeat season of 2017 (losing a 5 game NLCS), and only making 2 other postseasons since. Yeah they still have been over .500 and in Wild Card hunts, but they haven't exactly been a dominant perennial force in the nearly decade since finally clawing back to and winning the World Series the way say a certain New England team has been. Kind of similar to the Mets over the decades now that I think of it.



And then there is the franchise this poll is about.



They got back, and won a World Series before their big brothers did, and were back in the postseason in 2008, though losing the ALDS in 4 games. Then they cratered for much of the 2010s before being resurrected towards the end. Followed by creeping into the COVID postseason and finally winning the Central again in 2021 for the first time since 2008, but lost the ALDS in 4 games. They followed that with a .500 season in 2022, and completely cratered to 101 losses last year, and now we have this season!

[batmagadanleadoff]

Wow.

[Fman99]

Having an emotional attachments to a bad Mets team from 62 years ago seems a bit daffy to me.

[MFS62]

=Fman99 post_id=168729 time=1725456040 user_id=86]
Having an emotional attachments to a bad Mets team from 62 years ago seems a bit daffy to me.

[smg58]

I don't even know what to say. Every team goes though down stretches, but this is different. And the White Sox aren't an expansion team, or incapable of buying their way at least up to mediocrity. This is mindblowing.

[Edgy MD]

No matter how much money you have, buying your way to mediocrity is no given. No matter what you bring to the table, 29 other organizations are conspiring to destroy your hopes.



The Mets are a terrific team, but one or two mistakes, one or two injuries, and a few bad breaks, and they could have ended up looking like this.



Every team has a rich owner and is managed by people who want to win, but every day, exactly 50% of the ones that take the field lose.

[metirish]

I'm a little surprised that the vote is 64% to 36%, I didn't expect the margin to be that wide in this way ( maybe the other way around I did )

[batmagadanleadoff]

Edgy MD wrote: Every team has a rich owner and is managed by people who want to win, but every day, exactly 50% of the ones that take the field lose.

That's not the point. We're talking about a team that's losing more than 75%, almost 80%, of all of its games. All of them. That is mind-boggling and hardly explained by the fact that every game, one team loses. This is more like flipping a coin and drawing "heads" 15 straight times.

Edited September 4, 2024 by Guest

[batmagadanleadoff]

=smg58 post_id=168743 time=1725466279 user_id=62]
I don't even know what to say. Every team goes though down stretches, but this is different. And the White Sox aren't an expansion team, or incapable of buying their way at least up to mediocrity. This is mindblowing.

[Edgy MD]

I'm surprised I voted for the former.



I'm not particularly sentimental about the 1962 Mets record, but any day over the next few weeks that includes the White Sox beating the Yankees is a better day than one in which the Yankees beat the Sox, all other things being equal.

[Edgy MD]

Edgy MD wrote: Every team has a rich owner and is managed by people who want to win, but every day, exactly 50% of the ones that take the field lose. That's not the point. We're talking about a team that's losing more than 75% of all of its games. All of them. That is mind-boggling and hardly explained by the fact that every game, one team loses. This is more like flipping a coin and drawing "heads" 15 straight times.

One bad break can break the coin.



If the Mets' commitment to Brett Baty was made more permanent by trading Vientos for pitching help; if it was Lindor and not Mauricio who tore his ACL on a seemingly innocuous start/stop play; if Joey Wendle hit well enough to stick and keep José Iglesias in Syracuse a few months longer, but not actually help himself; that could maybe cost the team dozens of games.



One bad break can sink a ship. A cascade of them can sink the ship with everybody on board. Big bucks and big brains are a hedge against bad luck, but no guarantee. Maybe a hedge fun manager is the right owner in that sense, but bad luck is coming at everybody, along with 29 other organizations with big bucks and big brains. Staying ahead of all that is hard from year to year. Staying ahead forever is nearly impossible, and I imagine the White Sox won't be the last team to make a run at this record. A few already have in recent decades.



I just know that Luis Robert, Jr., looked like he couldn't throw a ball 25 feet during the Mets/White Sox series. While he's never really had much of an arm, he's clearly compromised further by injury right now, but somehow the Sox have come to the conclusion that he's their best option to play center, and a lot must've gone wrong to put them in that position. But that, as you say, is baseball. The grave awaits us all and the rain falls on the just and the unjust, the snow on the living and the dead.



They all have the same wolf at their heels (to switch up the metaphor) that is now devouring the White Sox. It's what keeps baseball interesting.