The Chicago White Sox broke Major League Baseball’s 62-year-old record for most losses in a season on Friday with their 121st loss to the Detroit Tigers.
The White Sox lost the game 4-1. This happened after they won three straight against the Los Angeles Angels and hovered around 120 losses.
On Thursday, the Sox blanked the Angels 7-0.
The 121 losses eclipsed the total recorded during the 1962 expansion New York Mets. The White Sox had already surpassed the 2003 Detroit Tigers, a team that lost 119 games, setting the American League record . MLB only counts records set in the modern era, which began in 1900, so the Cleveland Spiders’ all-time record of 134 losses from 1899 is not included.
This incredible feat of futility was the culmination of a long and grueling season in which the White Sox recorded several double-digit losing streaks, including one 14-game skid from May 22 to June 6, then a 21-game losing streak, American League record between July 10 and August 5. All these defeats led to the dismissal of manager Pedro Grifol in only his second season at the helm. In less than two seasons, Grifol led the team to more than twice as many losses as wins.
Grady Sizemore took over as interim manager for the remainder of the season.
The White Sox then recorded another 12-game losing streak this lasted from August 23 to September 3.
Jeff Chiu/AP
It was a season unlike anything fans of the franchise, which will mark the 20th anniversary of its last World Series victory next year, have ever seen. The team’s winning percentage through Sunday, .231, still trails the next worst season in franchise history, the 1932 White Sox who went 49-102-1 and posted a winning percentage of .325.
Until this season, the White Sox team with the most losses in a single season in franchise history was the 1970 team, with a record of 56-106. This year’s team is just the sixth in franchise history to record 100 or more losses in a season, according to Baseball Reference, whose team statistics date back to 1901, the year the American League was officially organized.
“I feel your pain”
The White Sox’s record has been so bad that even the team’s official X account (formerly Twitter) has been amused by the accumulation of losses of late.
On September 18, after a loss to the Angels, the team’s post for its final score read“FINAL: the other team scored more points than us.”
Last Saturday, the team posted“FINAL: Can be found on the MLB app,” after a loss to the Padres.
Then on Sunday, the team’s account posted a version of a widely used GIF of a car attempting to speed down an exit ramp, depicting the team’s social media admin, turning away from posting the final score and opting instead for “literally anything else” .
The Sox continued on social media after Friday night’s loss.
A message read:
What we prefer to do rather than read comments:
- Get a root canal
- Report taxes
- Eat 5,000 saltine crackers without water
- The cinnamon challenge
- Put ketchup on a hot dog
- A bear crawls through the Sahara Desert
- Walking barefoot on an L train
The post also showed a separate window on a computer desktop screenshot showing a depressed Southpaw White Sox mascot, with the text “close the laptop until tomorrow.”
The situation even prompted famous horror writer and Boston Red Sox fan Stephen King to weigh on social networks.
“Chicago White Sox fans, I feel your pain,” King posted on , I’m talking about you). I couldn’t do it. Things can’t get worse.
Mark J. Terrill / AP
Despite the jokes on social media, White Sox team executives faced questions about what went wrong and how the team weathered a historically difficult season.
General manager Chris Getz summed up the organization’s feelings last month when he spoke to members of the media following Grifol’s firing.
“There was a lack of production overall,” Getz said. “I mean, you look at how many games we were down early and couldn’t finish or how many games we couldn’t come back to get a win. Obviously there was something that was broken. We know the flaws of this team, but that being said, we expected to win more games. We did.
After last Sunday’s loss to the San Diego Padres, the team’s 120th loss of the season to tie the major league record, Sizemore, in true manager fashion, tried to downplay the significance of that loss. historic mark for the club.
“No loss is good,” Sizemore said. “Like I said, it’s not something we’re focused on. I think probably everyone outside of this clubhouse will be more obsessed with it than us.”
