What Planet Am I On? In One Of The Most Improbable Turnarounds In MLB History, The White Sox Have OFFICIALLY Made The Playoffs
Blog Sox Dave is BACK. It's been a minute, but only because I wanted to let Dante the Don COOK on blogging about clickbait Twitter conspiracies he's personally dug literally *zero* into beyond reading the tweet itself.
This is a SPORTS site, afterall, so no more crying about Thomas Massie's expulsion from congress or past happenings on an obscure Caribbean private island. Today is about the White Sox.
Here are the records the White Sox have posted in the last 3 years:
2025: 60-102
2024: 41-121
2023: 61-101
Puke. This run was tied for the worst 3 year stretch in modern era baseball. Any type of bad pejorative you wanna assign to what the former (!!!) state of the Chicago White Sox, bombs away. It was a gutting 3 year stretch to fans. If you're a Sox fan, you know what that felt like. Wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. Not even Captain Cons.
Then something supernatural went down in May of 2008: Provost John Francis was elected as the new Pope way out in Italy. Religion isn't really my thing, but Provost Francis is a born-bred South Sider and grew up a DIE HARD White Sox fan.
Ever since then? Things haven't been all that bad. Sure, the Sox were awful last year but they showed a lot of juice towards the end of the season. Perhaps things were looking up?
Na. Not even Jesus Christ could save this organization...Or so I thought.
Fast forward 18 months later or so and the White Sox are going to the playoffs for the first time in a half decade. Perhaps it really was divine intervention? Their run this season has made me consider that Christ really might be king. No, the Sox didn't win 100 games or anything like that. They're going to be a paltry mid-80 win team, which is the most vanilla, whatever thing on earth.
But when you zoom out and see that that is a 43-45 game improvement in just TWO YEARS...that's insane. I truly didn't think it was possible. No team had ever lost 100 games in a row 4 straight seasons (someone double check me on that) but I was pretty certain that 100 was WELL within the realm of possibilities again this year.
WRONG.
Nobody can chalk up my 100+ loss prediction to me not "knowing ball" or being an idiot. Those things can be argued for myriad different reasons, but not this one.
Every. Single. Expert. chose the sox to have anywhere from 62 to 68 wins or so. Fangraphs, ESPN, doesn't matter, they all predicted the Sox to be complete ass. Every last one of them, and for good reason.
WRONG. WRONG. WRONG.
All of us were wrong. Everyone except the 50ish players that donned a White Sox uniform this summer. Sure, they got off to a slow start but once the weather warmed up, so did the bats. A few arms did too, most notably Sean Burke and Davis Martin, both of whom flashed middle of the rotation stuff for long stretches.
I have a few shout outs I would like to give:
First and foremost, the players. I think there were maybe 40ish guys that believed this team could not just make noise, but make the playoffs when spring training broke, and I am not positive I'd even include Chris Getz and the entire FO in the 40. They're apparently at least "up to speed" analytically in comparison to the rest of baseball now, and there is NO CHANCE IN HELL those computers were spitting out any math equations that said this team would win 81+ games this year.
There are too many contributors to name from the player side one by one, so a collective "atta baby fellas" will have to suffice.
With that said, my second shout out goes to Chris Getz, his scouting staff and the rest of the FO. Well done. You successfully built a roster of baseball RATS, guys who clearly, palpably enjoy every second they're out on the diamond and inside the clubhouse. I'll never believe your computers told you it'd be this year, but you did it nevertheless. Well, well done. Incredible turnaround. Work is FAR from complete though.
Next up, Will Venable. There are a LOT of people bitching about him. That's just part of the job description for a manager. Whatever you want to say about him, he has his guys playing their DICKS OFF every single night and that TWTW attitude played a large part in why they're in the postseason. He has some kinks to work out still, sure, but I think he's done a swell job thus far. October is a different animal though and expectations have adjusted. We'll see if he's got the chops for playoff baseball. I think he does and more importantly, his players KNOW he does.
Lastyle, the Fans. We gutted this out. I didn't give them much of my money in 2023 and 2024. I likened it to a father giving money to his drug addicted son knowing fully that money was being spent on cheap, fentanyl laced crack from the hood. Not everyone did though and they deserve credit, specifically the 108 guys for dominating 'The Section' inside of the stadium and the Bums for dominating Lot B outside of it.
Work doesn't stop now though. The Indians are humming along, but I want to re-catch those bastards. And I know for a FACT the White Sox do too.
Don't stop now boys. Nobody thinks you can go on a playoff run. Time to prove everyone wrong again.
PS - we're throwing a patio party/tailgate RAGER on Saturday to usher the fellas into the playoffs. There are still a few tickets available. All you can eat/drink for 1.5 hours prior to the game and 30 minutes into it. Also gonna do a quick live show with the 108 guys and Sports Bums.
Get tickets here:
