Sox's Streak Stopped, Split Series
By Benjy Lipsman in News on May 16, 2005 4:48PM
With yesterday's 6-2 loss to the Baltimore Orioles, the White Sox saw their streak of games in which they held a lead to start a season end at 37 games. Chicagoist wasn't even aware such stats were kept, but evidently they are and the Sox's streak broke the Major League record that previously had been 27 games. However, the streak fell 11 short of the all-time record of 48 games with a lead set by the '98 Yankees.
The Sox ended up splitting the 4-game weekend series with the O's, which the Sox winning Thursday and Friday before Baltimore took Saturday and Sunday's games.
With the split, the White Sox were able to solidify their position as the best team in baseball. While they've held the best record most of the season, detractors commented on their weak schedule. However, Baltimore came into the series with the second best record in baseball and the Sox clearly held their own. Maybe a little more offense would help the Sox, so it's good news to hear that Frank Thomas will begin his rehab assignment tomorrow. Adding his bat will help the offense a good deal, and hopefully he'll be ready to join the lineup sometime in early June.
It was perhaps fitting then, that the Trib chose yesterday to finally acknowledge that there is a team other than the Cubs in this city. The Sox received heavy coverage throughout yesterday's paper -- even a front-page column about the team by John Kass.
In spite of the Sox early season success and the Cubs floundering thus far, the "Lovable Losers" remain the #1 team in the hearts of this city. Chicagoist isn't sure why... but then we asked the same thing about all those Bush supporters, too.
With this upcoming weekend bringing the first of the two Cubs-Sox series, it'll be interesting to see how the balance of power has shifted among fans. Will more Sox fans crawl out of the woodwork as their team invades Wrigley? Will any former Cubs fans see the light and defect to a winning team? Time's running out for Cubs fans to jump on the White Sox bandwagon...