• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • Sports
    • Baseball Not By The Numbers
    • Chicago Bears
    • Chicago Cubs
    • Chicago White Sox
  • Entertainment
    • Booth Reviews – About Us
    • Booth Reviews – Our Ratings
  • Home Improvement USA Radio
  • About Us
    • Business Services
    • Paid Content Guidelines
    • Hoops, Hops, and Hopes: 1982 in Chapel Hill
    • Email Sign Ups
SRN Broadcasting

SRN Broadcasting

Sports, Talk Radio, and more

You are here: Home / Sports / Baseball / A Bad Love-The White Sox in Reflection

A Bad Love-The White Sox in Reflection

August 21, 2015 by SRN

The White Sox, are the worst girlfriend in baseball. On paper, you could see yourself spending the rest of your life with her, but when you start to look at things, you realize she is somewhat of a hot mess.  A hot, enticing mess that makes you want to pull your hair out.  Inconsistent, clutching, somewhat unattractively to her youthful prime, but clearly and less than gracefully aging, she is an expensive lady who makes you question way too often why you don’t dump her for some sort of upgrade that at least appears to care a little bit more. As we all know, sports, teams, they have a hold on us, like the worst of girlfriends.  The south side team from Chicago has tortured its fanbase this past season, in the way only a bad girlfriend could.  

With the efforts made in the offseason to fortify the roster with veteran talent, many people, both fans, media members, and the organization itself projected the White Sox to not only compete, but to become an exciting contender this season.  Additions like Melky Cabrera, Adam LaRoche, Zach Duke, David Robertson, and Jeff Samardzija combined with the return of the young highlights including Jose Abreu, Avisail Garcia, and Chris Sale were supposed to lead the franchise back to the playoffs.  

The club’s season hasn’t necessarily gone as planned.  The reasoning behind going on somewhat of a free agency shopping spree was the projected increase in ticket sales throughout the season due to the quality of the signings.  However, the reality of it is that the Cubs do better with attendance on a Thursday day game at 1:20 versus the Colorado Rockies than the Cell on a Friday evening. With only five sell-outs this year, two of which were for the Crosstown Classic, one can assuredly say that attendance has been lackluster this season, at the least.

The lack of attendance is undoubtedly somewhat due to the fact that the club is grossly underperforming relative to what was predicted of them, while the curse of low attendance has been plaguing this team for many years, big expectations or otherwise.  Speaking of tendencies of the south siders, a team that has been notorious for big bats and equally big home run statistics, winning record or otherwise, are most certainly not killing it in the home run column as of late.  The White Sox rank 24th in the statistic with 99 home runs.  The club is 22nd in hits with 998, 27th in on base percentage at .302, and dead last in both RBIs and runs with 414 and 437 respectively.  Defensively speaking, their statistics aren’t gorgeous either, they have the 7th most errors in the majors with 72.  Pitching-wise, the club is just above the middle of the pack, ranking 19th with an ERA of 3.99.  So the question begs, when the Sox looked great on paper before the season started, what are they actually good at?

They go on bouts of bad pitching, bad base running, bad fielding, bad hitting, and the loss column follows.  It’s hard to identify what the problem is: the players, the manager, the front office, but no one really seems to blame and no one really knows where to start.  It seems they’ll too often battle back from a deficit, only to give the game back in the bottom of the 9th or 10th or 13th.  

But the thing that makes it sting so much is that they almost stay in it.  They still sit only six games back of the wild card, in a league with no true dominant teams.  (An argument could be made for the Royals, but their starting pitching isn’t all that stellar, and one might be made for the Blue Jays, but as we are seeing right now, they have hit a couple speed bumps following their hot streak.)  They have their spells of excitement. Winning seven in a row following the All-Star break, sweeping the Angels at home, taking two from the Cubs on the south side, popping off five runs in the first inning, magically having Tyler Saladino, the surprising call-up makes all three outs in an inning with spectacular diving and leaping plays at third. They do just enough to keep the fan from cashing out.  They keep it literally just close enough to still be in it.  That’s the thing about the White Sox.  The club constantly surprises you just when you think you were about to give up hope.  It’s as if they sense when you are about to check and swoop in and surprise you by dropping a juicy 8-burger in Anaheim.  

But the fact that they keep pulling you back in with mini victories isn’t even the worst part.  The fact is that you love her.  An always classy organization, as one would expect from Jerry Reinsdorf, there’s no ethical argument that can be made against her.  You absolutely adore who she used to be, the champion of girlfriends, full of life and character.  But that was a decade ago.  And you hope, you desperately hope that with the couple of brights spots, trying desperately to shine through, that she can recapture that status.  She has the potential.  But the question becomes, when does potential stop being potential and becomes simply the inability to live up to expectations, or just underachievement. So that’s the worst part. She strings you along, giving you hope, keeping you attached.  You love her, and because of her behavior she’s tearing you apart inside.  And you’re hoping, dearly, hoping that you don’t have to walk away.

 

Filed Under: Baseball, Chicago White Sox, Featured Sports, Sports, Uncategorized Tagged With: AL, AL Central, American League, baseball, Chicago, Girlfriend, MLB, White Sox, World Series 2005

Primary Sidebar

Follow Us

Hoops, Hops, and Hopes: 1982 in Chapel Hill

A memoir by Steven Leventhal - coming soon. I am working feverishly on my forthcoming memoir. This is the story of a pivotal year in my life. In 1978 I graduated in a class of 225 from a small town in North Carolina, and entered college that … Read more about Hoops, Hops, and Hopes: 1982 in Chapel Hill

Our Radio Partner

Acid Flashback Radio logo
HTML5 RADIO PLAYER PLUGIN WITH REAL VISUALIZER powered by Sodah Webdesign Dexheim

Recent Posts

  • FIFA ANNOUNCES CITIES TO HOST 2026 FIFA WORLD CUP 
  • 2022 Chicago Bears OTA, Part 1
  • 2022 Bears Rookie Minicamp
  • Chicago Bears Select 11 Players in 2022 NFL Draft
  • Chicago Bears announce Piccolo Winners, Prepare for 2022 NFL Draft

Featured Story

Meet Spencer West – Incredible and Inspiring!

In October 2019, at the Ensemble Travel conference in Seattle, I got to hear and talk to one of the most incredible individuals I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. The theme of the annual travel agent convention was "Travel With Purpose." Spencer West lost his legs below his pelvis at age … [Read More...] about Meet Spencer West – Incredible and Inspiring!

The Hunt for Venture Capital – Our First Success

It really isn’t a stretch to use the well worn Grateful Dead quote, “What a long strange trip it’s been.” Two years ago Eric Leventhal and I stood up in front of a group of entrepreneurs, investors, and other invited guests as part of a pitch contest at the Chicago chapter of StartUp Grind. It […]

Entertaiment

Why “Red Notice” Is More Relevant Than Ever

There was a story in The Washington Post about Ivan Gulanov, a Russian investigative reporter on alleged drug possession charges. Some of the circumstances were eerily similar to the book Red Notice, I had just finished reading. This 2015 book is the true story about a lawyer who took on corruption in corporate Russia. It […]

Home Improvement

Home Improvement USA – July 2021

with David Rusch and Steve Leventhal On the July 2021 edition of the Home Improvement USA program, Dave and Steve discuss reasons, other than investment purposes, to buy a home instead of renting a … [Read More...] about Home Improvement USA – July 2021

Footer

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Contact Information
  • Our Core Values
  • Privacy
  • Business Services
  • Email Sign Ups
  • Paid Content Guidelines

Archives

  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • December 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011

Copyright © 2022 · Magazine Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in