The sadness of being a White Sox fan

How a historically bad start to the season tops off one of the most disappointing endings to a rebuild we have seen

The timeline of the recent Chicago White Sox seasons looks like a movie trailer no one would want to watch:

• In 2017 and 2018, ESPN ranked the Chicago White Sox farm system third in baseball.
• In 2019, we saw those players slowly trickling in to make their debuts.
• The very next year, the Chicago White Sox were third in the league in home runs and made the playoffs for the first time since 2008.

• In 2021, the Chicago White Sox were unanimously selected to win the AL Central by ESPN and selected by Bleacher Report to make the World Series. Their ALDS appearance gave fans a chance to watch home playoff baseball for the first time in more than a decade.

• In 2022, the Chicago White Sox had a 85.5% chance to make the playoffs at the beginning of the season according to ESPN, but ended up going 81-81 instead, missing the playoffs and leaving fans shocked.

• In 2023, the Chicago White Sox moved down to a 34% chance to make the playoffs according to ESPN. Many thought with a new manager in Pedro Grifol and a fresh start, that the team (who still had most of their key players), could win the division. Instead, we saw a 100-loss season in their window of contention, and a complete breakdown.
• And in 2024, the Chicago White Sox are having the worst start in franchise history and tied with two teams for the second-worst start in MLB history.

It’s safe to say this is one of the biggest failed rebuilds of any team ever.

I spent most of my childhood, if not all, supporting this constantly-rebuilding team. I can’t tell you how many times I sat through a heartbreaking Addison Reed blown save, an Adam Dunn strikeout in a big moment, or a Hawk Harrelson warranted-meltdown. Even though they were bad, my 11-year-old self tuned into every single game. I loved this team, and that was all I knew.

Going into that 2019 season and knowing the beginning of a championship era was near was a type of excitement I had never felt before. We had been living in the shadow of the Chicago Cubs, who had been getting all the attention after their 2016 World Series. The pieces were slowly falling apart for them, and slowly coming together for us. The promises were looking more clear, and little by little the product on the field started to produce.

In 2020, this was a must-watch team, and gave fans a glimmer of hope in such a dark time during the pandemic. In 2021, I consistently made the long drive to the park each week to watch this team in person. There was a different feeling in the ballpark and in the air. I scheduled my days around their games and no matter where I was or what I was doing, I found a way to watch. On October 10, 2021, I spent hundreds of dollars to sit in the upper deck by myself to watch that lone ALDS win — and it was one of the best experiences of my life.

It feels like since Liam Hendriks threw that final pitch in ALDS Game 3 to get the win, everything has gone downhill. I thought a .500 record in 2022 was rock-bottom. Then, I thought a 100-loss season in 2023 was rock-bottom. I’ve said, “it can’t get any worse” at least a hundred times by now, and it has gotten worse every single time. Now, there doesn’t seem to be a rock, or a bottom.

We’ve watched all of the players we grew to love get traded away or choose to leave. José Abreu used to shout from the rooftops that he would retire as a White Sox player with the biggest smile on his face, only to walk away with a blank expression a year ago. Jason Benetti’s childhood dream was to be an announcer for his favorite team, and we just saw him leave that dream, right in front of our eyes.

The 2024 season was supposed to be a season in the middle of our contention window, a window the front office promised would end with a World Series parade on the South Side. The same GM who made those promises didn’t even make it through the 2023 season. The only records we are breaking now are ugly things, like being the first team to ever be shut out eight times in the first 22 games.

A lot of other fans’ go-to reactions have been to be mad or negative, myself included. But at this point, I feel a great deal of sadness. I haven’t been able to enjoy other teams’ success because it makes me sad knowing we were supposed to be those teams, and I don’t know when we will get there again. I don’t understand how anyone within the organization can let this continue to happen: Having millions of fans begging you to do something, anything, to make their lifelong team watchable again, and STILL getting disappointed.

Fans have stopped showing up to the ballpark ... still no change. Last year, fans signed petitions, donated to make billboards throughout the city of Chicago, and made signs in the ballpark to vent their frustrations ... still no change.

After all of that, to come out this season with a start like this is an absolute disgrace. Fans of 50+ years are saying they have never seen anything this bad. Season ticket holders of 10+, 20+ years, have questioned whether they’re worth renewing.

When is enough going to be enough? Even with two teams in this city, the White Sox themselves have a giant amount of fans in comparison to some smaller-market cities. I’m sick of being treated like Chicago’s second-string team, and I’m sick of being treated like Chicago isn’t the third biggest city and market in the United States. Our fans are some of the best in the league, and sure as hell the most loyal.

I wish I could just find another team this season to follow, just to watch some enjoyable baseball, but I will never be able to turn away from the Chicago White Sox. A full season of 162 games is the most of any sport, and some teams are playing meaningful baseball games every day. We have tried to give up and not care, but sometimes you just can’t.

That’s what makes this so frustrating. All I hope is that whether it’s in five, 10, or even 20 years, us fans look back at this failed rebuild from a better place, and wonder how we ever had it this bad. Things will change eventually, it’s just a matter of when — and how bad it will get before it does. I won’t lose hope that the Chicago White Sox will one day turn it around, and gain the trust and respect back from the fans.