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The 1899 Cleveland Spiders, referenced in the above image, own the worst record in the history of baseball, having posted a putrid 20 wins and 134 losses across the season, which projects to a modern-day record of 21-141 in a 162-game schedule.
With 15 games remaining in their 2024 season (at the time of this writing on September 11), the Chicago White Sox currently have a record of 33-113.
To put into context just how bad winning 33 games since the season began in March is, the NBA champion Boston Celtics have won 34 games since March. The Celtics haven’t played a game since closing out the NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks on June 18 — almost three months ago.
Number of wins since March 1st:
Boston Celtics – 34
Chicago White Sox – 33
— Brendan Sugrue (@BrendanSugrue) September 10, 2024
For further context, the 1962 Mets went 40-120, and the worst record after the year 2000 belongs to the 2003 Detroit Tigers, who went 43-119. In order for the White Sox to best the Detroit Tigers’ awful record, they’ll have to win 11 of their final 15 games, which absolutely won’t happen.
White Sox manager Chris Getz has been searching for a new manager since the organization fired Pedro Grifol in August. Grifol was hired as manager in 2023, leading the team to a fourth-place AL Central finish with a record of 61-101.
“I think if you would have told me we were going to end up flirting with the record I would have been a little surprised,” Getz told the media on September 9 following the team’s 5-3 loss to the Cleveland Guardians.
“Now if you would have told me prior to the year that we would have ended up with over 100 losses, 105, 110, I wouldn’t have been as surprised. But this is the cards that we’ve been dealt at this point. You try to make the best of it, and I think it’s an opportunity to embrace the situation that we’re in.”
The bottom fell out this season, however, with the White Sox now on pace to finish with fewer wins than the 1962 Mets. The White Sox most recently made playoff appearances in 2020 and 2021, the latter of which seasons saw them win the American League Central division title.