The 2024 Chicago White Sox may be in the running for consideration as the worst baseball team of the modern era, but everything doesn’t have to be doom and gloom.
Optimists may even point out that it’s totally possible for a team to go from worst-to-first from one season to the next. Not only is it possible, but it’s happened many times in the recent past.
Baseball life changes fast these days. There have only been 13 teams to go from worst to first– last place to first place– from one season to the next. But, serving as a testament to the changing baseball times, all 13 instances of last place to first place have occurred within the last 34 years.
White Sox crosstown rival, the Cubs, were one of those teams. In 2006, the North Siders lost 96 games. In 2007, an overhauled team– bolstered by free agents Alfonso Soriano, Ted Lilly and Mark DeRosa and led by new manager Lou Piniella– took the NL Central title, notching 85 wins.
But before setting aside money for post-season White Sox tickets, fans should come to terms with the fact that expecting the same from their black-and-white boys would be fantastical, to the point of almost being science fiction.
