SEASON REVIEW OF CHICAGO WHITE SOX 2026
I didn't watch a single inning. Nor do I know any of the players names except through media saturation. There is a chubby Japanese home run hitter, a guy who struck more than anyone in baseball history and got the big hit to put them in playoffs. I can't name the shortstop. Pitchers, forget it, the only one I can recall is the Irish guy. He pitched a Britt Burns-like performance in the final game. His teammates struck out 21 times, that is 7 innings of a 9 inning game for baseball fans in a foreign country. They didn't show up. They quit three games before the final gasp.
Setting records like no other, the White Sox just last year lost more games than any team in baseball history. Still at the helm is manager Wil Venable. Three 100 loss seasons and he still has a job. He's gotta work cheap. The chemistry comes together somehow in 2026 and they take a ride to within 4 more wins and they would be American League Champions, onto the World Series. The long term Sox fans I talked with took it as Ho-Hum. Deep inside each and every cold, black heart of those die-hards know the script. The Sox will choke. They have seen it too many times. Once in a century, 2005, they won the whole enchilada, despite themselves. They are our 85 Bears. Could name every single player on the team, positions, batting averages and ERA. The White Sox will be there next century, guaranteed.
The manager, Venable, should be weary. Every time the Sox start to excel and play good baseball, the skipper is canned and Tony LaRussa gets called in. Whiskey Train crashes and we start to rebuild again. Tell me a smart move Kenny Williams ever made, OK, Jose Abreu. Their minor league system provides stars for Major League Baseball but they don't play for the Sox. I sat in the grandstand with Bill Veeck 1977. The current owner doesn't mix well with the Un-Chosen. He's such a heeb, when they built the new stadium he inverted the playing field. The sunny field is in left.
What kind of God does this Pope have? Can't throw us a single game? Sox would have done the rest. He was angling for free World Series tickets. Another priest looking for a free meal. It is a funny idea I could be sitting next to the Pope the next game I go to, which is never. Since the 93 lock-out, (lead by Jerry you-know-who with his team up 20 games at the All Star break), I have only attended an Elvis night. They still would have blown it, who am I kidding.
Give the youngsters and coaching staff credit, the team played a solid season of baseball. The game is unusually cruel on the psyche, or should be. Striking out seems be accepted as part of the game these days, as all standards have fallen. AAA is now MLB. Among this group there will be many miles of bus riding through West Pennsylvania and roads across America playing in run-down stadiums before whiffing the smell of victory in the Big Show again. May the winners remain for next year. Always, next year.
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Escaped Wage Slave: Wilburrrrr RIP
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