Sports
Loyalty, history and $5 beers: Why fans still come out to see the Chicago White Sox
CHICAGO — Seventy times a year, Barry Antoniazzi tosses on his black No. 27 jersey with “Bagodonuts” stitched onto the back, dons a firefighter helmet covered in Chicago White Sox pins and walks a block and a half to his baseball sanctuary.
Antoniazzi grew tired of paying for parking at Guaranteed Rate Field, so 11 years ago, he moved to W. 35th Street and S. Parnell Avenue where, in a normal year, he can hear celebratory postgame fireworks from his residence.
This is, of course, no normal year, and the skies over the ballpark are quiet nearly every night. The White Sox haven’t won a home game in more than a month, and stand on the doorstep of undesirable history as they limp toward the 1962 New York Mets’ record of 120 losses.
And yet, Antoniazzi’s faith in the franchise hasn’t wavered, even though his house of worship has become a house of horrors that has hosted one defeat after another. On Tuesday, Antoniazzi, a paramedic for the Chicago Fire Department, watched his beloved, beleaguered club drop its 26th game in 27 attempts at home. Just as no two snowflakes are exactly alike, the White Sox have repeatedly found new and increasingly painful ways to lose in a season that has felt like one long, extraordinary blizzard on the South Side.
On Monday, Cleveland Guardians rookie spot starter Joey Cantillo retired the first 20 hitters he faced. On Tuesday, a line drive to the thigh knocked out Guardians starter Ben Lively after two innings, but the team’s bullpen covered the last seven frames to seal a shutout. On Wednesday, Lane Thomas delivered a pair of two-run infield singles to fuel a Cleveland sweep.
Antoniazzi traveled to San Francisco last month to complete his mission of watching the White Sox in all 30 ballparks. He’s drawn to Guaranteed Rate Field for the chance at seeing something new — he’s never witnessed a no-hitter in person, for instance — and to support a team he insists can only go up from here.
“We’re not going to be this bad forever,” he said. “We’re going to get better. So when we do get good, I can say, ‘I stuck with them through thick and thin.’ That’s what keeps me coming back.”
Antoniazzi is not alone in his loyalty; some of the few thousand fans in attendance each night are true diehards, willing to stick with their team even as it careens towards the worst season in baseball history. But what inspires others to pass through the turnstiles? Why do they choose to devote several hours to watching a predictable ending unfold on the diamond instead of, say, cruising along the Chicago River on an architectural boat tour, or riding the Centennial Wheel at Navy Pier, or watching pennant races play out on the TVs at Timothy O’Toole’s Pub, or shopping on Michigan Avenue, or even just lounging on the living room sofa?
The White Sox sold 11,429 tickets for Monday’s game, though the true attendance count appeared to be less than half of that. There was a slight uptick Tuesday, maybe because of a $5 beer promotion or because fans wanted to snatch up some of the last Campfire Milkshakes of the season. Or there’s another reason, one that has grown in importance as this impressively bad season has worn on: witnessing the train wreck, one loss at a time.
“We’re here to see them make history,” as one fan put it.
For others, the wins and losses don’t particularly matter. Many attendees were in town for business, and had a night to spare and a couple beers to guzzle. Brent Poole, from near Winnipeg, said he consumed the best hot dog of his life at Tuesday’s game. As they weaved through the concourse in center field, Poole and Russ Palm studied the statues of Charles A. Comiskey, Luis Aparicio and Nellie Fox. Poole hadn’t visited the stadium in 25 years; it was Palm’s first visit.
“Even though people aren’t here,” Palm said, “it’s still fun to come see this. Every park is different.”
The Campfire Milkshake has been one of the few bright spots in the 2024 White Sox season. (Matt Dirksen / Getty Images)
Dan Murby traveled to Chicago from Boston this week for work, and since he’s already attended a Bulls game and a Blackhawks game — and since the Cubs were on the road — he spent Tuesday night leaning against a right-field drink rail as the White Sox sputtered toward their 113th loss. Dylan Jones and Gavin Orr, in town for the International Manufacturing Technology Show, hail from upstate New York, where, Jones said, “There’s nothing near us.” Jones visits Chicago every other year, and he tries to attend a White Sox game on each trip, no matter the team’s standing.
“I’m not even a baseball fan,” Jones said. “I just like some entertainment.”
One couple, with their wedding scheduled for Sept. 26, opted to treat Monday’s contest — their first baseball game — as a “first of firsts to start off our life together.”
If their union can survive the 2024 White Sox, it can persevere through anything.
The small crowds make the scene almost eerie at times. As a concessionaire pushed an ice cream cart around the concourse on Monday, he sounded a bell that echoed throughout the venue. After a harmless Guardians groundout or a first-pitch strike by a Chicago pitcher, one could identify a fan’s individual claps from several sections away.
On Monday, one fan, staring out at a sea of empty forest-green seats, texted a buddy that he’s seen “livelier wakes on a Monday night.” That morbid feeling can take its toll. Out in center field, a middle-aged man stood behind a thigh-high railing, watching loss No. 112 because a friend gifted him four tickets, and so he took his son and his son’s two friends. When asked how long he has been a White Sox fan, the pain in his voice was palpable as he lamented, “My whole life.”
At least on this night, in this place, he had company in that.
“We’re at rock bottom right now,” said Nate Lutzow, who spent his 24th birthday at the ballpark on Tuesday. “I wish the team was better. That’d push me to be here more.”
Still, there are silver linings. Some parents capitalized on the small crowds to take their children to their first game without having to navigate a chaotic scene with a toddler. Some took the opportunity to check the ballpark off their list in their bid to experience all 30 venues. A Philadelphian used his daughter’s relocation to Chicago as an excuse to see his 27th ballpark. A trio of New Yorkers spent last weekend taking in the Yankees-Cubs series at Wrigley Field and stuck around an extra day to catch the other team in town. One Clevelander donned a white Steven Kwan jersey and a black White Sox hat at Monday’s game, since he purchases a cap at every ballpark he visits.
Plenty of Guardians fans either made the 55-minute flight or the five-hour drive west past windmills and RV company billboards or happen to reside in the Windy City. Visiting fan takeovers have become the norm as the season has progressed.
Chris Ramos walks with his brother, Pat, and their friend, Jacob Swartley, to Guaranteed Rate Field for every game. They were running late for an Aug. 31 affair against the Mets, and as they approached the entrance, they heard an eruption of cheers from the crowd.
“We’re like, ‘Oh, what happened?’” Ramos said. “Look at the phone. Pete Alonso home run.”
The 1899 Cleveland Spiders lost 134 games, but most still consider the 1962 Mets and their 120 losses to be the record the White Sox are chasing. (Quinn Harris / Getty Images)
The diehards have certainly been tested this season. Randy Johnson attended games at Comiskey Park with his grandparents. He has bricks and seats from the old building, baseballs autographed by Frank Thomas and battle scars from decades as a White Sox fan. He made his friend, who has a Cubs tattoo on his right forearm, wear a White Sox jersey to Tuesday’s game.
“You get to see the Sox play,” Johnson said. “We’re South Siders. Win or lose, it’s the place to be.”
Swartley and the Ramos brothers have occupied seats in the right-field corner at nearly every game for more than a decade. They launched a blog, “From The 108,” in 2016 and a podcast two years later. They’re as invested in the club as anyone.
“Other years, when the expectations were actually there,” Swartley said, “were much sadder than this year.”
Still, there have been games this year in which the team’s pitifulness has threatened their motivation. Pat lives three blocks from the ballpark, but he couldn’t convince himself to ditch his couch Monday night.
“It’s tough to get out of the house on a Monday night,” Chris said, “and then to see these guys? Even us, who try to come to so many games, we’re like, ‘Ehh, not tonight.’ I could totally understand why someone who has to make even a 15-minute drive here would go, ‘Nah, not until they show me something.’”
The three friends debated the worst-case scenario for the White Sox over the final few weeks of this wretched regular season. The club figures to soar past that record mark of 120 losses.
“At this point, why not?” Pat said. “We came this far.”
“I think it would be more brutal to lose 119,” his brother countered.
“They’d need to get on a heater for that to happen,” Pat said, “so it’d be fun for a little bit.”
“They’d have to rip off 10 wins in a row,” Chris added.
Pat pointed out that their season-long winning streak is four games.
“But they’ve had many 10-game losing streaks,” Pat said.
“As much as we enjoy coming to the ballpark,” Chris said, “I think the three of us are pretty much ready for this year to be over.”
It has been a season like few fanbases have ever endured, challenging the level of commitment of anyone who frequents Guaranteed Rate Field.
“I know we’re terrible this year,” Antoniazzi said, “but it doesn’t change the fact that I love baseball. I love the White Sox.”
(Illustration: Meech Robinson / The Athletic. Photos: Quinn Harris/Getty Images; Joseph Weiser/Icon Sportswire)
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Billions of dollars can buy a lot of things. It can help revive a football program and get your alma mater into a bigger conference. It can buy a private jet. But it can’t clear more space at a tiny regional airport.
SMU donor Bill Armstrong’s last name is on the team’s indoor practice facility. His plane, which included two-time U.S. Open champion golfer Bryson DeChambeau and former Mustangs star running back Craig James, left Dallas around 6:30 a.m. CT for State College, Pa. But upon arrival, it was diverted to Williamsport, as were some other SMU private planes. The airport was full.
If you believe in harbingers, this was an ominous one, the limits of SMU’s money on display. From a party bus on the drive to the stadium, several SMU donors and former players watched on their phones as quarterback Kevin Jennings threw two pick sixes. By the time they arrived at Beaver Stadium, the score was 21-0, the game all but over.
“Still a great season,” Armstrong said after the game, pulling gloves out of his pocket and refusing to get too down. To him, there was no doubt that the 11-win Mustangs belonged here.
The final score was 38-10. As the last at-large team in the field, the discourse over College Football Playoff blowouts and selection committee decisions turned to SMU, one day after Indiana was manhandled by Notre Dame.
On display at Penn State was the difference between being a CFP darling, a fun story, and a CFP contender. It’s a gap so often exposed at this stage of the season.
“We didn’t play well enough to say anything that isn’t going to be written,” head coach Rhett Lashlee said. “It’ll be written, should we be in or did we belong? That’s fine. You’re welcome to write it. We didn’t play good today. But this is a quality team. We had a good team. We deserve to be here. We earned the right to be here. I’m disappointed we didn’t play to the level that validates that.”
What’s too bad is SMU didn’t even give itself a chance. Before kickoff, Lashlee told the broadcast his team had to avoid a bad start like it’d had in the ACC Championship Game against Clemson, when Jennings had two bad turnovers.
What happened this time? First, Jennings missed a wide-open Matthew Hibner in the end zone on what should’ve been a fourth-down touchdown to cap SMU’s opening drive. On the second drive, Jennings threw a pick six, missing a short throw out of the backfield. On the fourth drive, Jennings threw another pick six, a desperate attempt to make a play on third down instead of throwing the ball away.
SMU was down 14-0 despite playing pretty well otherwise and holding up in the trenches. The defense to that point had been stout.
“That kind of shell-shocked us a little bit,” Lashlee said of the turnover scores.
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Jennings has been turnover-prone. He had five against Duke, but the Mustangs rallied to win that one. SMU also rallied from his two turnovers against Clemson to tie things up late. But Penn State is another level up in competition.
“We don’t have an Abdul Carter,” Lashlee said, referring to Penn State’s All-America edge rusher who was in the backfield constantly and did more than his two tackles for loss indicate, constantly sending Jennings out of the pocket. Penn State’s defense finished with 11 tackles for loss.
For his part, Jennings said his early miss in the end zone didn’t linger in his head and lead to the interceptions. Lashlee blamed the second quarter tipped red zone interception on himself, saying he should’ve just called a running play. Jennings blamed himself.
“I made mistakes three times and gave them the ball with careless mistakes,” the typically quiet Jennings said. “I didn’t take care of the ball.”
Asked if he considered replacing Jennings with backup Preston Stone, Lashlee didn’t indicate it ever came up until the fourth quarter. Stone, who was the Mustangs’ starting quarterback last year and at the beginning of this year, entered the transfer portal earlier this month but had stayed with the SMU team. When Lashlee pulled Jennings late, everyone decided they didn’t want Stone to get hurt on his way out at that point in the game, the coach said. After the final horn sounded, multiple reports emerged that Stone was heading to Northwestern.
A 38-10 game is not close, nor is it competitive. Penn State was clearly the better team, one that will be favored to win the Fiesta Bowl against No. 3 seed Boise State. But SMU finished with more first downs and held PSU to 5.0 yards per play, though the amount of garbage time certainly factored into those respectable stats.
SMU scored just three points on four red zone trips and gave away 14 points on the interception return touchdowns. It’s why Lashlee was so frustrated. He knows how it looks. He can’t argue otherwise.
“People are going to see 38-10 or (28-0 at) halftime and say they don’t belong, but the two pick sixes and we had our opportunities,” he said. “We don’t have anybody to blame but ourselves. It should’ve been a good defensive struggle in the 20s. We didn’t do that.”
SMU long felt that if it just got a power conference invitation, it would show it belonged. The Mustangs showed they belonged in the ACC, going 8-0 in conference play. But they didn’t show they’re ready for this stage yet. Nittany Lions coach James Franklin takes a lot of heat from fans and detractors for not winning the big games, but he almost always wins the games in which Penn State has more talent.
Underdog stories typically end with a thud in the CFP, and SMU and Indiana join a list that includes Cincinnati, TCU and others. Top-level talent wins in the end, and SMU doesn’t have that yet.
Lashlee and SMU will spend the ensuing months hearing those that say SMU shouldn’t have been in the CFP, that Alabama deserved the spot (even though Crimson Tide quarterback Jalen Milroe’s three-interception performance in a 21-point loss to 6-6 Oklahoma in mid-November was nearly exactly the same as Jennings’ at Penn State). That’s what comes with this stage.
SMU found itself here for the first time and didn’t deliver. As the party bus headed back to Williamsport and the private planes flew back to Dallas, SMU’s coaches, players and billionaires left with a clear vision of just how far they still have to go.
(Photo: Mitchell Leff / Getty Images)
The Baltimore Ravens punched their ticket to the postseason and kept their hopes for a division title alive Saturday.
With a 34-17 win over the division rival Pittsburgh Steelers, Baltimore could reclaim first place in the final two weeks.
Pittsburgh (10-5) would have clinched the division with a victory, but now the teams are deadlocked after the Ravens (10-5) won for just the second time in the last 10 games of the series. Baltimore clinched a playoff berth with the win.
The Steelers had already clinched a playoff spot.
Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson throws from the pocket during the second half against the Pittsburgh Steelers at M&T Bank Stadium. (Tommy Gilligan/Imagn Images)
Russell Wilson threw two touchdown passes, the second of which tied the game at 17 with 5:14 left in the third quarter. Jackson answered with a 7-yard scoring strike to Mark Andrews.
After Pittsburgh turned the ball over on downs, a 44-yard run by Derrick Henry put the Ravens in the red zone.
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Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson (3) during the first half at M&T Bank Stadium. (Tommy Gilligan/Imagn Images)
That drive ended when Jackson was intercepted for just the fourth time this season, but Marlon Humphrey picked off Wilson and ran 37 yards to the end zone to give Baltimore a cushion in a series that’s been tight of late. The previous nine games between the Steelers and Ravens were decided by seven points or fewer.
Jackson improved to 2-4 against Pittsburgh as a starter. Saturday’s game marked his first time facing the Steelers at home since 2020.
Henry rushed for 162 yards.
Baltimore Ravens running back Derrick Henry (22) is defended by Pittsburgh Steelers safety Damontae Kazee (23) in the first quarter at M&T Bank Stadium. (Tommy Gilligan/Imagn Images)
Pittsburgh entered the game with a plus-18 turnover margin, but the Ravens had the edge in that department Saturday. Baltimore recovered three of its own fumbles and had two big takeaways.
Now the Steelers will have to deal with Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs on Christmas Day before finishing the season at home against the Cincinnati Bengals. The Ravens will travel to Houston to play the Texans on Christmas Day before finishing the season at home against the Cleveland Browns.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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HARTFORD, Conn. — In a marquee matchup Saturday night, No. 7 USC defeated perennial powerhouse No. 4 Connecticut 72-70, avenging its Elite Eight loss to the Huskies in April and strengthening its status as one of the nation’s elite teams.
“This is a really significant win, and it’s a significant win because of the stature of the UConn program and what [Connecticut coach] Geno Auriemma has done for our sport,” USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “I told [the team] in [the locker room] — for me, for my entire high school and on, this is what basketball excellence was, this is what we saw. And it’s challenged all of us to want to be better, to find players who want to be better and be that elite.”
Undeterred playing in front of a sold-out crowd on the road, USC opened the game with a 9-0 run, capitalizing on cold shooting and defensive lapses from the Huskies. Buoyed by 15 points from JuJu Watkins, the Trojans shot 48.6% from the floor in the first half, including seven for 11 from three-point range, to take a 42-29 lead at halftime.
“A lot of the things [JuJu] does [are] super hard, but she makes it look so easy,” USC forward Kiki Iriafen said. “So I think she really got us going on the offensive end … we all know she’s a superstar, so playing with her definitely relieved the pressure on everybody else.”
Connecticut came out of the locker room with increased intensity, forcing seven Trojan turnovers and limiting Watkins to four points in the third quarter. Propelled by nine points from guard Paige Bueckers, the Huskies outscored USC (11-1) 20-13 in the third quarter, cutting their deficit to six points entering the fourth.
Connecticut (10-2) continued to chip away and took its first and only lead when freshman Sarah Strong scored on a layup with 4:34 left. USC regained the lead moments later on a Watkins jumper, but the Huskies wouldn’t let the Trojans pull away.
“I don’t think we were ever really rattled,” Watkins said. “We knew what [Connecticut] is capable of, they were going to go on runs, so it was just a matter of handling that and coming down on top.”
With USC leading by three with five seconds left, Strong drew a foul off Watkins while attempting a three-point shot. Strong made her first free throw, but missed her second attempt. After Strong missed her final attempt, Bueckers grabbed the rebound and fed the ball back to Strong, who missed a logo three at the buzzer.
Watkins finished with 25 points, six rebounds, five assists and three blocks. Iriafen had 16 points, 11 rebounds and six assists.
Bueckers and Strong each had 22 points.
Auriemma praised Watkins’ exceptional talent.
“Every scouting report that you put together, or every film that you watch, it’s very evident that one player can’t guard her,” Auriemma said. “You have to hope she helps, you have to hope she misses. And when she gets a little bit of a rhythm like she got in that first half, it’s really, really difficult … there’s qualities that she has that are just unique.”
Watkins showed why she’s one of the nation’s brightest stars, helping the Trojans earn a signature win. The victory was a showcase of the elite talent that has accelerated women’s college basketball’s growth in popularity.
“It’s just a testament to when you give women a platform, we’re going to perform,” Watkins said. “And I think that tonight was an excellent game. … It was just beautiful to be a part of. And I couldn’t imagine watching it — so, super exciting. And I think, as we continue to get games like this, we’ll always show up.”
The Trojans next play No. 20 Michigan at Galen Center on Dec. 29.
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