White Sox set modern-era record with 121st loss of season
It took longer than expected, but the inevitable has finally happened. The Chicago White Sox are modern baseball's biggest losers.
The White Sox lost their 121st game of the campaign Friday to break the 1962 New York Mets' infamous record for most losses in a modern-era season (since 1901). Chicago entered the history books by falling 4-1 to the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park.
Only one team - the 1899 Cleveland Spiders, who went 20-134 - has ever lost more games in one season than this year's White Sox.
It was also Chicago's 63rd road loss of the campaign, leaving the club two shy of tying the modern-era record held by the 1935 Boston Braves.
"It's been an extremely difficult year for everybody," first baseman Gavin Sheets said postgame, according to Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times. "It's been hard mentally, physically. I feel bad for everybody in this room to be a part of this."
The White Sox march toward this dubious history began right out of the gate, as they lost nine of their first 10 contests en route to a 3-22 start. They haven't won more than nine games in a single month and lost a record 71 games before the All-Star break.
Chicago also became the first team since the 1899 Spiders to endure three separate losing streaks of 12-plus games in a single season. The longest of those skids, a 21-game losing streak, tied the AL record. It was the first 20-plus-game losing streak in the majors since 1988. Manager Pedro Grifol was fired Aug. 8, three days after his team snapped that 21-game skid.
The White Sox were officially eliminated from the playoffs Aug. 17, marking the earliest a team has ever been eliminated in the divisional era (since 1969). On Aug. 25, they became the fastest team in 108 years to reach 100 losses.
The horrific season caps a remarkably fast fall for a franchise that won a division title in 2021. After posting a .500 record in 2022, Chicago slumped to 101 losses last year while signalling the start of another rebuild. Few, however, could have foreseen just how low the White Sox would sink this year.
"To see Detroit celebrating tonight (and know) that was us only four years ago, it's frustrating," Sheets said. "It doesn't feel good, it doesn't sit well with any of us, but, unfortunately, that's where we're at right now, and it's everybody's job in this room to make sure we move forward and never let this happen again."
With two games left, the White Sox now sport a .244 winning percentage, six points lower than that of the '62 Mets. One more Sox loss would ensure that they break the Mets' record for the worst winning percentage of the expansion era (since 1961). The '62 Mets only played 161 games, including one tie that didn't count towards their official record.
A sweep of the Los Angeles Angels earlier this week guaranteed the White Sox would not break the 1916 Philadelphia Athletics' record for worst modern-era winning percentage (.235). Regardless, the South Siders will finish 2024 with the sixth-worst winning percentage in history, ahead of only those 1916 A's and four 19th-century clubs. The South Siders are also ensured of finishing the season no better than 80 games below .500.