Smokey Falls

My grandfather, born 1902, was nick-named ‘Sockie’ for his undying allegiance to the Chicago White Sox. He would say, especially after a crushing White Sox loss, ‘somehow I knew the Sox would blow it.’ I thought of him again this year after the epic collapse of the White Sox.

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Consider the following:

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The 2011 Boston Red Sox is considered one of the worst collapses in Baseball history. Boston’s win/loss record was .608 on September 3, 2011, and they played .250 for the next 25 days to lose to the Tampa Bay Rays for the wild card spot and out of the playoffs. The White Sox record was .532 on September 20, 2012 and they played .167 for the next 7 days to lose to the Detroit Tigers and out of the playoffs, mathematically eliminated.

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The rate of decline for the White Sox in 2012 is about 4 times faster than the rate of decline for the Red Sox in 2011. In other words for the White Sox to collapse from .532 win/loss to .167 during 7 days and fall from the playoffs is about 4 times quicker than the Red Sox going from .608 win/loss to .250 during 25 days and fall from the playoffs.

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This is like going over Smokey Falls on the Wolfe River, rubber rafting on Shot Gun Eddy’s, in WI. On that long quiet stretch of the River you can hear the roar of the falls getting louder. You knew you were in deep trouble.

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And we wonder why attendance was low at Comiskey Park this summer? If you were at Comiskey this summer you could hear the roar of those falls getting louder and louder.

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The low attendance excuse makes no sense anyway. The Sox were 45-36 at home and 40-41 on the road. Should 40,000 Sox fans have traveled to Kansas City or Detroit? The Cubs attendance was about 2.8 million this year and they were 38-43 at home.

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In the immortal words of Sockie, ‘somehow I knew the Sox would blow it’.

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Just wait until next year.

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Go Sox!