By Woodrow Carroll
After suffering a four-game sweep at the hands of the Minnesota Twins on the road in the early part of last week, the Chicago White Sox’s record fell to 3-22. There were comparisons with other Major League Baseball teams that opened their seasons with poor records.
In the modern era, the 1988 Baltimore Orioles stand out for negativity. The 1988 Orioles started the season by losing their first 21 games. Cal Ripken, Sr. opened the season as the Orioles’ manager and after six games, all losses, obviously, he was replaced by Frank Robinson.
It was not until Game 22 of the 1988 season that the Orioles experienced the thrill of victory. Who provided Baltimore with its first victory that season? The Chicago White Sox! Playing in Chicago, the Orioles ended their long losing streak with a 9-0 shutout of the White Sox. With the likes of Carlton Fisk, Ozzie Guillen, and Harold Baines in the starting lineup, the Sox bats went cold.
After replacing Ripken as Orioles manager, Robinson found the going just as rough as did Ripken. The Orioles closed out 1988 with a 54-107 won-loss record. In the seven-team American League East, the Orioles ended up a solid seventh, 34.5 games in back of the division-leading Boston Red Sox. The only area the Orioles fared well in that season was in extra inning games. Baltimore was 7-4. Unfortunately, Baltimore was usually on the short end of nine-inning games.
The White Sox dropped all four games against their division rivals, Minnesota Twins at the beginning of last week. It was as though the Sox were just the tonic the Twins needed to get their season going in the right direction. At the start of White Sox-Twins four-game set last week, the Twins were only 7-13 and, similar to the Sox, were struggling. Nothing such as victories to right the ship, however. The Twins followed up the sweep of the While Sox with three road wins over the Los Angeles Angels. Suddenly, the Twins found themselves with a seven-game winning streak entering this week.
Strange as it may sound, the White Sox and Twins were to play in a three-game series through Monday this week with both on winning streaks. Thanks to a three-game sweep of the visiting Tampa Bay Rays last weekend, the Sox will put their modest winning streak against the Twins who arrived in Chicago with the seven-game win streak. It may be difficult to see a team with a 6-22 record having a winning streak, but, the three straight victories over Tampa Bay fills the bill.
•In 1959 the White Sox were American League champions. It was a most entertaining campaign in which the Pale Hose attracted 1,423,144 fans to Comiskey Park. Success in ‘59 made a White Sox ticket a hot item heading into 1960. And, for the 1960 Sox, the final gate was 1,644.460, a figure good enough to exceed the attendance of New York Yankees, the featured American League team at that time,. A wonderful increase for that time. Yet, the attraction soon wore off despite winning Sox teams. Season attendance for 1961 was only 1,146,019, yet, both the 1960 and 1961 White Sox fielded teams with winning records.
The 2005 White Sox were World Series champions. Home base for the Sox became U.S. Cellular Field. Season attendance was 2,342,833 in 2005. The following year in 2006, as the reigning World Series champions, the Sox packed 2,957,414 into The Cell. Once again attendance started to fade when the Sox failed to win the championship in 2006. For 2007 attendance dropped to 2,684,395!
The sports world is replete with examples of fans going with a winner. The White Sox teams are not alone. For the White Sox, given the team’s slow start this season, an improvement over the 1,669,628 attendance figure in 2023 would be most welcome by Sox partisans.