The White Sox Are A Playoff Team For The First Time In My 8 Years With Barstool
After this paragraph, I will note that I will NOT make the impending playoff series about me, in spite of the title. But on a personal level, this feeling is incredible to me, though nerve-racking as well. I started "working" for Barstool Sports in July of 2012. That was the last year the White Sox were actually someone kinda okay and over .500, finishing the season with an 85-77 mark. Funny thing is, they started the season like men possessed and hellbent on victory, before ultimately having a 4-13 stretch to finish the season out of the playoffs. As the "White Sox guy" for Barstool Sports, I heard it all. "Nobody gives a fuck about the White Sox" or "THE RED SOX ARE THE SOX YOU FAT MIDGET" or "the Kane County Cougars draw more fans at their games than the White Sox".
To rebut all of that I'll say this... I can't rebut it. It was all true. The White Sox were a bottom tier franchise and it was a ROUGH stretch as a fan.
But since then, as my good friend Rick (Hahn) has said many a time, the organization was "mired in mediocrity". They had some star power with Chris Sale and Jose Abreu, but after that? Not much else. It was a BAD 7 year stretch, but I knew what was on the horizon.
But then Jerry, Kenny and Rick decided to tear it down in a scorched earth rebuild and traded anyone and everyone who even had a hint of trade value in 2016. Though I knew that the proceeding years would be very painful, I also knew the long term outlook would be much better once their prospect returns matured and got to Chicago. It was a solid blue print; the Astros lost 100 games 3 seasons before they started winning* World Series and division titles, as did the Cubs. There were indeed scary times, but the fruit of the White Sox labor started to blossom in 2019 with breakout performances from Tim Anderson, Lucas Giolito, Eloy Jimenez and Yoan Moncada and then in 2020 they had their breakout year with their 35-25 record and breakout performances from Robert, Heuer, Foster, Dunning, Crochet, Marshall and others. That, and Andrew Vaughn and Michael Kopech will be in Chicago in 2021, with a further augmented rotation and $40MM coming off the books. They are in a GREAT spot for not only the next 2-3 games, but the next 5+ years.
This will be the golden era of Chicago White Sox baseball. I don't care what team you root for, if you're a baseball fan looking at this organization's outlook objectively you know that this team is here to stay and will be a massive pain in the ass to play against for years to come. That's not me being a biased homer, that's just a fact. A stone cold freakin' fact. Soxtober isn't going to be a one off, pandemic induced 2020 happening only, it's going to be a perennial thing from this year onward. They're changing the game, and I will uphold my promise to White Sox fans everywhere that I will do whatever I can to shove this team down everyone's throats from now through the end of this era.
Here are our playoff shirts:
