![White Sox]()
Seeing all these USA Olympic gold medalists achieve such great things the Paris Summer Games has me proud of our country. Then the Chicago White Sox slapped me in the face with a grim reminder of just how low American sports can go.
This 2024 White Sox club will be studied in the annals of history as a bunch of anuses who couldn't muster up the decency to play baseball at a passable level becoming of a professional. I'm sure countless writers out there have made the connection between the term "grifter" and Chicago manager Pedro Grifol. Does he have a Donald Sterling-esque reputation-nuking clandestine recording of Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf saying something heinous? I don't understand how Grifol still has a job otherwise.
https://twitter.com/courtney883/status/1820144132192616925
Franchise legends Ozzie Guillen (2005 World Series champion manager) and Frank Thomas must really hate themselves to still be putting themselves through the Pain Olympics of in-studio analyst jobs. I was concerned for Guillen's safety when he tried to dissect Chicago's latest defeat on Sunday, a 13-7 drubbing at the hands of the Twins.
https://twitter.com/awfulannouncing/status/1820217962772705641
As you can hear in the clip above, if you took out the current 20-game losing streak the White Sox are on,
and the 14-game beaut they had earlier in the season, they'd
still have the worst record in all of baseball. I already had
the Black Sox jokes/conspiracy theories fired up over a month ago. The team has somehow gotten worse.
Listen to the poor announcer who has to call these eyesores of games over the course of an uber-long MLB regular season. Sounds like he'd rather repeatedly punch himself in the crotch than sit through another loss, yet here he is,
Goofy meme "I'll do it again"-ing.
https://twitter.com/awfulannouncing/status/1820212065404961090
Look at this...
https://twitter.com/TalkinBaseball_/status/1820209519151943995
https://twitter.com/knicks_tape99/status/1820213563031523601
This is the realest take I've heard about baseball in quite a long while:
https://twitter.com/JimmyTraina/status/1820178738413453724
All this begs the question: When is it OK to jump ship? At what point do you, in life, stop slamming your head into whatever solid inanimate object is in closest proximity, and bail on your beloved sports team? Because the White Sox have at least created a generational opportunity for a case study on this topic.
If you're still a White Sox fan at this point, I don't care if your family dates back to the Founding Fathers as living on the South Side of the Windy City. Tap out. Why wouldn't you? There's a whole other MLB franchise
in your city. It's OK. You're still Chicago till you die. Why not give the Cubbies a try for a while, at least till the Sox are back on their feet? At this rate, they might not even
be a team in the coming years.
Now of course the counterargument to that lies in that exact crosstown rival's lore. The Cubs famously couldn't get over the hump and win a World Series for over a century, or even win a National League pennant after losing the 1945 World Series. They finally broke through in 2016 with their first pennant, and their first World Series trophy since 1908. Props to whomever rode that out.
Maybe it was worth it?
I just can't imagine, as a prolific sports enjoyer, sticking by a team who self-sabotages to an insulting degree like these White Sox do. We're past the point of "loyalty."
https://twitter.com/JesseRogersESPN/status/1820212909357539450
Again, what's transpiring is an insult to the fans who've stuck by the Sox this long. It's well past the point of no return wherein Reinsdorf must sell the team. Spend some money. Do
something. This is embarrassing for everyone. And I don't understand how the players haven't had a full-blown mutiny. Why show up to the ballpark if you're going to play like this? And are they really that outmatched talent-wise versus the rest of Major League Baseball? The gap can't be that wide, can it?
These White Sox are on par with the 1-31 Cleveland Browns, who've since won only one playoff game in six years and gifted a "predatory" quarterback (Goodell's word, not mine) the biggest guaranteed contract of all-time. I guess if Browns fans stuck around for that nonsense, maybe Sox fans can, too. All I know is, I'd be
out.
Like ask yourself this: If sports are meant to be a pleasant escape from the grind of daily life, why spend precious minutes, days, hours, weeks, months and years suffering? It's like sticking out a toxic relationship just for the sake of being in a relationship. Life is short. Don't be codependent on your sports team, only to see them spit in your face. They don't deserve your emotional investment or sports-style love. Move on.
In conclusion, this is me full-throated endorsing fair-weather fandom on account of the 2024 Chicago White Sox. Chicago is a great American city. Thank goodness
Caleb Williams is coming to save the Bears. If not for his arrival, it'd be a pretty, ahem, bearish sports market.
