What’s It Like To Play For The Worst Baseball Team Ever?

The Chicago White Sox are just a few games away from cementing the worst record in the history of Major League Baseball. Their brief, three-game win streak ended Tuesday night with a 5-0 loss to the Los Angeles Angels. And it moved the White Sox to a jaw-dropping 36-116.

Chicago’s 80 games under .500, and just five losses from passing the expansion 1962 New York Mets to lock in the most by any team. Ever. With 10 games remaining on their schedule, it’d be a near miracle for the White Sox to avoid losing at least five more games. Especially considering six of those 10 come against the San Diego Padres and Detroit Tigers, both fighting for either a postseason berth or playoff positioning. 

The stats on the White Sox’ futility are endless. And it raises the question, how in the world as a competitive athlete do you cope with that much losing?

ESPN’s Jeff Passan spoke to many of the White Sox players and coaches to get an answer, and found out that well, it isn’t easy.

Aug 4, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Chicago White Sox designated hitter Miguel Vargas (20) hangs his head as they trail the Minnesota Twins in the eighth inning at Target Field. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports

Chicago White Sox Players Use ‘Sense Of Humor’ To Avoid Despair

Passan spoke to White Sox pitcher Davis Martin about what it’s like to be on the mound watching a comedy of errors unfold behind you. Sometimes literally. 

“You have to have a sense of humor,” Martin responded. “You walk that fine line of being on the edge of losing your mind — always on that razor’s edge. We’re just watching it all, and we’re like, oh my gosh, this happens and this happens. Truly, it’s so many things.”

Another pitcher, Jonathan Cannon, said that during games, the entire team often feels the weight of seeing every bounce go against them. 

Cannon: “When you’re having a season like this, it feels like nothing’s going your way. When we played the game the other day against the Orioles [an 8-1 win Sept. 4], it just felt like balls are falling, line drives are going to people when we’re on the mound. It’s like, ‘Wow, this is great.'”

Manager Grady Sizemore acknowledged that the team has “lost a lot of confidence” after piling up loss after loss.

“You can focus on the negative all day,” Sizemore said. “And I know we’ve done our share of that too, but at the end of the day, I think this team lost a lot of confidence. We’ve been told for so long that they’re not doing this right. They’re not doing that right. And I just think that this game is too hard to play if you don’t have confidence. So all I’ve tried to do is try to restore some of that with the guys by being positive.

“We’ve had some tough losses and I’m like, ‘Don’t put your head down. Turn the music up. That was a good effort. I don’t care that we lost, we still played hard and we fought. I know mistakes are going to happen. Let’s try to limit the mental ones and the physical ones are going to happen, but let’s get better at playing together, communicating and trying to just be the best version of ourselves that day.'”

It’s tough to feel too bad for professional athletes making enormous salaries to play baseball for a living. At the same time, this particular group of players has been put in a lose-lose situation. There’s not enough talent to be even remotely competitive against major league teams. The owner has no interest in taking responsibility for the team’s failures.

READ: White Sox Owner Talks Team’s Historically Bad Season Without Taking Responsibility

And with payroll set to decline next year, there’s little hope of improvement anytime soon. It’s easy to forget how quickly things can go south in professional sports if roster construction and player development stalls. Well, easy to forget as long as you’re not playing for that team.