By Woodrow Carroll
Last season for the Chicago White Sox, was a less than a positively memorable campaign. No, the White Sox were not expected to make a strong run for the World Series championship in 2023, but, a winning team was certainly not out of the question. Instead, the White Sox finished well short of.500 won-loss with 61-101 (377) record.
The only consolation afforded the White Sox last season was knowing the team finished fourth in the five-team American League Central standings, five games in front of the Kansas City Royals 56-106 (.346).
Given the poor performance of the White Sox last year, there was ample reason for a bit of a turnaround this season. Nobody was predicting a winning record on the South Side of Chicago, just an improved final record from last year by the Club. It is a prediction that may not come to fruition with Major League Baseball (MLB) a quarter of the way through this season.
Despite a bit of a resurgence the past couple of weeks with the White Sox on a four-game winning streak entering the Sunday, May 12 game with Cleveland, the White Sox will have to step it up if the Club is to reach even a .400 record by the end of this season..
The 7-0 defeat hung on the White Sox by Cleveland Sunday, April 12 at Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago, sent the Sox into the start of the Monday three-game series at home against visiting Washington with a 12-29 (.293) record. If you look at the MLB standings, you will find the White Sox in the same company at the bottom of the standings with the Miami Marlins and Colorado Rockies, which is not where any MLB club wants for a record.
In addition, the whitewash administered by Cleveland was the 10th time this season Chicago had been shut out in the first 29 games.
Let’s look at two of the hot starts by MLB teams and see what come of those bursts at their starts.
•In 1946 the Boston Red Sox made a classic fast start to the season. Thanks to a 15-game winning streak early on, the Red Sox were 21-3 after a 5-4 victory over the New York Yankees May 10. Defeating the always-formidable Yankees in front a crowd of more than 55,000 in New York that day was good in Boston.
The 1946 Red Sox slowed only a little after the 21-3 start and followed with a 20-6 run right after the Yankees put an end the team’s 15-game winning streak.
June 4, 1946, the Red Sox were 41-9. There were some good teams in the American League at the time, however, the Red Sox were in the driver’s seat. The Club ended up 104-50 and 12 games in front in the American League race.
Despite the fast start by Boston, the Club didn’t hold form in the World Series and lost in seven games to the St. Louis Cardinals.
•The 1984 Detroit Tigers, similar to the 1946 Red Sox, closed the regular season with 104 victories. Playing a 162-game schedule, the Tigers ended up 104-58. Similar to the 1946 Red Sox, the 1984 Tigers opened the season with a flourish.
Forty games into the 1984 season, the Tigers were 35-5 and it was all downhill from there. Playing in the American League East Division, the Tigers finished 15 games in front of the second-place Toronto Blue Jays.
Managed by Sparky Anderson, the 1984 Tigers had Cy Young-Award winning pitcher Willie Hernandez who ended up winning the AL Most Valuable Player honors. The postseason proved to be a bit kinder to the ‘84 Tigers than to Boston in 1946.
Detroit bounced the Kansas City Royals, three games to zero in the American League Championship Series, then followed by beating the San Diego Padres, four games to one in the World Series.