The shining moment came on a gray Cleveland autumn afternoon.
On September 23, 2021, the Chicago White Sox won the first game of a doubleheader 7–2. The victory gave the franchise its first division title since 2008. However, since the game in question was the first of a doubleheader, White Sox players and staff were forced to wait until after the game to take a champagne shower.
Still, the atmosphere between games at Progressive Field was festive.
Players crowded the dugout, caps turned backward. Many were snapping pictures, wearing brand-new black T-shirts with the words “CENTRAL CHAMPS” emblazoned across the chest in large block letters. A group of die-hard visitors’ fans who had traveled from the Midwest, from the South Side to The Land, cheered from the front rows.
A few steps away, team captain Tony La Russa, 76, a Hall of Famer, gave an interview on NBC Sports Chicago’s postgame show. A wry smile crept across his worn face. Hired before the season began, the manager had been the subject of much doubt and criticism. Many thought his decade-long absence from the dugout would leave him ill-prepared for the realities of the modern game.
For one season, he proved them wrong.
“We’ve all seen it. I’ve played with teams — I could name a few — that had expectations, and it bothered them, and they never lived up to them,” LaRussa said. “This team, here we are, you know? We’re the champions, and we’ve got 10 games to go.”
Moments later on the same show, general manager Rick Hahn echoed La Russa’s message.
“It’s a great feeling. Today is a day to celebrate what we’ve been able to do so far in this clubhouse, but honestly, when you walk through here, everyone talks about how many games we hope to have and intend to have.”
Such was the energy of those days. In the end, it was fleeting. Two weeks later, the White Sox lost to the eventual American League champion Houston Astros in the American Division Series, three games to one. After that, the White Sox looked to the future. They had a young core, controllable superstars, a pitching staff with top-tier talent — plenty of reasons to be optimistic. The 2021 season, with 93 wins, seemed like a start.
“We still have a lot to do,” La Russa told The Athletic after his team’s season-ending loss to Houston.
Three years later, the joy of that afternoon in Cleveland seems like a hallucination.
How did the White Sox get here?
The 2024 White Sox aren’t just bad, they’re historically awful. After 128 games, they’re on pace for the worst record in modern baseball history. This weekend, they’re set to hit 100 losses a week before the end of August. In 2021, they won the division by 13 games over Cleveland. Now, they’re 42.5 games behind the Guardians with five weeks left in the regular season.
What La Russa said in October 2021 still remains true: the Chicago White Sox have indeed…