Why no team will ever break the Chicago White Sox record for most losses in a season

The Chicago White Sox officially own the record for the most losses in a 162-game season.

They had to watch the Detroit Tigers, a franchise that 21 years ago nearly broke that record, clinch an improbable playoff birth in the process.

Fans were not happy that the White Sox did not pick up the record-breaking 121st defeat at Guaranteed Rate Field. They will just have to settle for exiled former Sox television play-by-play announcer, Jason Benetti calling the Tigers clinching a wild-card spot all the while handling his former employer that record-breaking loss.

Yes, Benetti was exiled away from the team he grew up loving because the owner did not like how he ate food on television, did not understand his humor, and did not like him becoming a national voice.

Hey, at least hearing Benetti call that final out along with seeing A.J. Hinch, who should have been the Sox manager in 2021 before owner Jerry Reinsdorf hijacked the hiring process, is a small consolation to a fanbase hoping the Sox would have picked up that 121st defeat in the presence of that terrible owner.

All roads lead back to Reinsdorf and former manager, now team advisor, Tony La Russa, as the reason for the sad state of this franchise.

These 121 losses are the culmination of years of dysfunction and outdated thinking that happened because the owner thinks it is still 1992 and he had to do right by La Russa after firing him in 1986.

Nothing has gone right since Tony was brought back to the franchise as the Hall of Famer manager showed the game had passed him by. Sure, he won the AL Central in 2021, but the bat boy could have managed that talented lineup to 90 wins.

It was La Russa's refusal to change with the times and embrace power baseball, along with Reinsdorf's refusal to spend enough to get the team over the top that led to the title window abruptly getting slammed shut. Hiring Pedro Grifol to replace La Russa just sped up the process of the team's rotting as the clubhouse fell apart with him at the helm.

Then La Russa recommended Chris Getz be promoted to general manager. Reinsdorf agreed without interviewing a single candidate to replace the fired Kenny Williams and Rick Hahn. Heck, he did not even take an interview to steal information from other teams.

Getz put together this monstrously terrible roster that now has the distinction of being worse than the 1962 New York Mets. The Mets were bad at the time because they were literally starting from scratch. The Sox have been around for 124 years.

Only the 1899 Cleveland Spiders and the 1916 Philadelphia A's can claim to be worse than the 2024 White Sox. The only reason the 1899 Spiders won 20 games was the team's owner sent his good players to the other team he owned. The 1916 A's could not draw flies at a time when attendance was the main source of paying for talent.

The White Sox have a television contract, sponsors, luxury suites, and merchandise sales to cover their revenue expenses. They have no excuse for being this bad.

Yet, the owner keeps acting like this is 1916 and won't spend enough because not enough people walk through the turnstiles to act like he has a reason for it being this bad. At least, he will probably rationalize that way, much like he has rationalized bringing La Russa back to the Southside.

All of this has led to the worst season ever in the modern era and a record that likely will never be broken.

It will not be touched because typically, as one baseball executive put it according to ESPN Jesse Rogers and Buster Olney...

"There is so much randomness in our sport, and the worst teams still usually win a share of games," said one rival executive. "But [the White Sox] have taken the randomness out of the sport. They are that bad."

Teams have enough resources now to even when they are tanking; they are not threatening to break a losing percentage record set before the United States entered World War I. There is technology available to self-scout to improve the way players execute. There is enough technology available to put together a roster that could conceivably win at minimum of 50 games.

Heck, the Oakland Athletics have barely spent any money, keep trading away their best players, and will play the next two seasons in a minor-league stadium and they still have not have come close to flirting with being in the same class as the 1962 Mets.

The Sox front office is so outdated that it somehow managed to wipe out the randomness of baseball being able to hand a team at least 60 wins. That is why this record will stand the test of time.