White Sox fans, you’ve been hurt, and don’t I know it.
You hesitate to recognize the 2026 White Sox as postseason contenders, which, based on the trauma of the 2024 season alone, is valid. You don’t trust the front office or the organization as a whole, and may harbor anger towards the team. You’re exhausted from growing attached to a lineup, a player, or the cultural climate, only to have it ripped from you. You’re unwilling to expose your defenseless baseball bosom, which has been weakened more
gravely than Jerry Reinsdorf’s aging brain, to any sense of hope. You’re tired of being gotcha’d like a three-year-old with their own mobile phone, because Chicago Sports Network charges $20 per month to watch White Sox games if you don’t have cable. It feels rotten to be nickel-and-dimed in the current day and age for a team that has let you down so far into your baseball grave that you can no longer see the sun.
I’ve been there, right where you are. I took an entire year off baseball, not watching a single game, which caused psychic damage to my innermost self. I came into this season with a barrel of wishes and not much to lose, my bar aflame in the depths of hell and being used as a leaning post by Arnold “Chick” Gandil. Re-entering the fold, I was primed for pain and ready for losses in the high nineties, feeling dissatisfied with the 6-13 start, my brain burning with knowledge of the team’s potential. My doubt was the suit of armor I was clad in, but it rusted quickly in April and completely corroded by mid-May, revealing that classic pinstripe jersey underneath.
The White Sox haven’t just obtained a pulse; they’ve gained a new life and are already sprinting on the base paths.
This isn’t the same old Chicago White Sox, and only one active position player on the roster remains from the accursed 2024 squad. With Jacob Gonzalez as the 11th player to make their Chicago debut this season, this is a brand new team.
And boy, is it a fun squad! If you permit yourself to enjoy it again, White Sox baseball is a paramour, gathering you back into its arms with seductively dramatic dingers, magic wands in the hand of a smiling dingus (affectionately, from a fellow dork), projectile run-killing missiles from the outfield to home plate, walk-offs, winning months, and excited players, having fun. They celebrate one another. They play until the game is over.
Bewilderingly, even the national media are noticing the Good Guys, and not just because of Munetaka Murakami. Even during the modern-era South Siders’ best year, the harsh criticism never stopped, and the national media discredited the 2005 White Sox every step of the way, right up to the very end. When they swept the World Series, critics yawned, complaining that it was boring. Usually, this team can’t please everyone, but before this season, they couldn’t please anyone.
Just as Big Media wants to dislike the White Sox and is usually actively rooting against them, fans feel they have earned the right to hate on their team because they put in the time to learn the stat lines. I agree with this. Like you, I’m critical of the White Sox. As a lifelong fan, I’ve been hurt before, but I’ve also hopped on board for the greatest rides. I was there in the ’80s, but don’t remember much. In the early ’90s, the strange feeling of watching Comiskey’s demolition is drowned out by memories of my love for Frank Thomas and his dingers, and fireworks after the game. I never got busted for smoking Marlboro Reds in the nosebleeds in the late ’90s, but I should have been. In the early ’00s, I wised up and started getting better seats. Mid-season 2004, I knew the team could go all the way. It was easy to see in the way the guys played after the All-Star break, and I was lucky to watch them sail that headwind directly into a 2005 World Series title, never running out of steam along the way. That’s what this current White Sox team reminds me of: post-All-Star break 2004. This current team has the power, drive, and unity to go deep into the postseason, and maybe even all the way.
Will the White Sox win a World Series this year? I don’t know. Can they?
Yes, they can.
Look at how they play. They give it their all until the game is over. They’re 12-6 in one-run games this season, a stat that would make the 2024-era past you do a spit take. This past weekend, with the White Sox up by enough against the Tigers and no one on base, Sam Antonacci made a killer outfield catch when there was nothing at stake. That’s the energy in the entire clubhouse, and you can see it in every sprint to first, every low-stakes catch, and every pinch hit. They believe in one another and are finally a team that’s good enough to have fun.
Something was missing the last time the White Sox were in a position to think about the playoffs. While 2021 was dynamic and exciting, it felt like we were watching many individual players who lacked a team mentality. That vibe is long gone. Every cog in this machine is operating for the greater whole, and every game is important. This is evident in every play.
The White Sox have turned the tide and have been putting the spanking the AL Central, a feat that’s not small to this team. Once the next series is done in Minnesota, a test is nigh for both players and fans. A daunting 13-game gauntlet against four formidable playoff contenders is in our immediate future, and it will define who this White Sox team is, for all of us, fans and players alike. June 5 is the start of the series with the Phillies, then it’s the Braves, Dodgers and Yankees. It won’t be easy, but the White Sox aren’t stopping any time soon.
At the start of this season, the Milwaukee Brewers didn’t just sweep the White Sox; they obliterated them and left no opportunity to the wind. Despite this, Brewers manager Pat Murphy said about the White Sox, “Mark my words right now: That Chicago White Sox team will be something to be reckoned with in that division.”
I’d like to believe he’s onto something.
No matter what happens, let’s permit ourselves to enjoy this ride. This team is a pure pleasure to watch, and I haven’t had this much fun watching baseball since 2005. In the present moment, the White Sox are a squad of remarkable talent, and they’ve made us fall in love with the South Siders again, despite how shattered our fandom had become.
You can wait until the June gauntlet is over to decide whether you believe in this White Sox team. I believe now.
