The 2024 White Sox have made history and are on the verge of making more, for all the wrong reasons.
If they do it this week, at least it won’t be in front of their home crowd. Or in front of really any crowd, for that matter.
The White Sox will take their 20-game losing streak to the West Coast for a three-game series against the Oakland A’s, starting Monday night with a scheduled first pitch of 8:40 p.m.
The White Sox are one loss away from tying the American League record for the longest losing streak in MLB’s Modern Era (since 1900). If they get swept in Oakland, they’ll tie the MLB Modern Era record, for both leagues.
There aren’t likely to be many fans in the ballpark to see it.
The White Sox and A’s are both in last place and are a combined 81 games under .500 as the series begins. Moreover, the A’s will be leaving Oakland after this season to play in Sacramento through 2027 until their new permanent home stadium in Las Vegas is built (see, White Sox fans, it can always be worse).
Per MLB’s Attendance Report, the A’s are averaging a meager 9,220 fans per game this season, dead-last in the league by a wide margin. So there likely won’t be many fans who will show up to see two of the league’s worst teams — one historically bad — square off during the work week in a place that won’t even host MLB baseball for much longer.
For those who do show up, the 2024 White Sox will try to avoid making more history after becoming just the seventh team in MLB’s Modern Era to lose at least 20 games in a row and the first in 36 years.
Here’s a look at those seven infamous teams (stats and info per MLB.com and baseball-reference.com):
- 1961 Phillies, 23 straight losses (July 29-Aug. 20): This record-setting Philly squad redefined futility for nearly a month, going from July 29 into Aug. 20 without winning a game. They also lost five in a row prior to winning the second game of a doubleheader on July 28, then came the 23-game skid. So it was a stretch of 28 losses in 29 games. The Phillies finally snapped the skid by winning the second game of doubleheader on Aug. 20, which started a four-game winning streak. Of course, that didn’t help prevent a 47-107 record and a last-place finish for the ’61 Phils.
- 1988 Orioles, 21 straight losses (April 4-28): Even if the 2024 White Sox or anyone else surpass it, this one is likely to remain the most memorable losing streak in MLB history, because it came to open the season. The ’88 Orioles lost on Opening Day and just kept losing, reaching an astounding 0-21 before finally beating the — here’s a nice historic twist — White Sox, 9-0, at old Comiskey Park on April 29 for their first win. During the skid, they fired manager Cal Ripken Sr. — Cal Jr.’s dad, of course — after an 0-6 start, but it didn’t help. The ’88 Orioles finished 1-22 in April and never had a winning month en route to a 47-107 record. It’s hard to believe that just five years earlier, in 1983, the Orioles won the World Series.
- 2024 White Sox, 20 straight losses (July 10-Aug. 4, active): The details, as everyone knows, are grisly. The White Sox last won on July 10 in the first game of a doubleheader against the Twins. In terms of days, the streak is longer than the ’61 Phillies’ 23-gamer, because the White Sox had theirs interrupted by the All-Star break. Because of that, the American League All-Star team has won a game more recently than the White Sox. Chicago has lost 23 of 24 overall, including a three-game slide before their last win, and it all comes after a 14-game losing streak earlier this season. The 2024 White Sox have shattered that previous franchise record in the same season and are on pace to be quite possibly the worst MLB team ever.
- 1969 Expos, 20 straight losses (May 13-June 7): At least this squad can say it was an expansion team. In the franchise’s first MLB season, the ’69 Expos were truly dreadful, finishing with a 52-110 record. Amazingly enough, their manager, Gene Mauch, was also the manager of the ’61 Phillies.
- 1943 Athletics, 20 straight losses (Aug. 7-24): Then playing in Philadelphia and managed by the legendary Connie Mack, the ’43 A’s went 49-105. Their 20-game slide, which began on Aug. 7, ended on Aug. 24 against — you guessed it — the White Sox in the second game of a doubleheader. Mack won five World Series and eight pennants in his incredible 50-year tenure at the helm of the A’s. This was one of his worst teams — but not even the worst on this list.
- 1916 Athletics, 20 straight losses (July 21-Aug. 8): This was Mack’s worst team, finishing with a dreadful 36-117 mark, the most losses in baseball’s Modern Era until the ’62 Mets came along and lost 120. But the ’16 A’s still have the worst winning percentage in the Modern Era at just .235. Entering Monday, the 2024 White Sox are just above that, at .237.
- 1906 Boston Americans, 20 straight losses (May 1-24): The 1906 version of the franchise now known as the Red Sox went nearly the month of May without winning a game, losing on May 1 and not winning again until May 25 against — once again — the White Sox. It was an awful team, finishing with a 49-105 record, but it did have one pitcher on the roster whose name you may be familiar with over 100 years later — Cy Young. He notched 13 of his all-time record 511 wins that season but also suffered 21 of his 315 career losses, also an all-time record.
26 in a row possible?
A final note: If you’re wondering if any team has had an even longer losing streak prior to baseball’s Modern Era, the answer is yes.
It came 135 years ago, when the 1889 Louisville Colonels lost 26 games in a row playing in the old American Association, then a major league. So that is officially recognized as the longest losing streak in MLB history in any era.
If they get swept in Oakland, the White Sox could get within a game of that during the second half of the 2024 Crosstown Classic. They host the Cubs on Friday and Saturday night at Guaranteed Rate Field.
Then comes a home series against the Yankees from Aug. 12-14 in which the White Sox could lose Nos. 26 and 27 in a row in the first two games, if they don’t snap their skid against the A’s or Cubs.
The White Sox would sure prefer to end that possibility out in Oakland, with very few in attendance.