Rick Hahn is the current Vice-President and General Manager of the Chicago White Sox, and it is certainly time to start re-evaluating his future with the club. Since his promotion before the 2013 season, the Sox are 300–385, with zero postseason appearances.
This season, they have the lowest winning percentage in the Major Leagues by some consider margin, well behind the penultimate Baltimore Orioles. The Sox were also the last team in the Majors to reach double digit wins. Tied for the worst start (10-27) in the 118-year history of the franchise, in the words of ’90s BritPop band Blur “This is a low.”
Then again maybe not, perhaps things will just get worse before they get better, a la University of Illinois football and men’s basketball. With all three of these sporting franchises, we may not have even seen rock bottom yet. Here’s what the Rick Hahn era with the Chicago White Sox has looked like so far:
Last year, 67-95
2016 78-84
2015 76-86
2014 73-89
2013 63-99
Yes, the last time the pale hose contended was 2012!
It’s safe to say the Sox won’t be competing any time soon, and soon you will be able to bet in more places on the Sox losing, with Monday’s ruling on sports gaming in America. Go here for more: https://www.mobilecasinoparty.com/law-prohibiting-sports-betting-in-america-abolished/
Is it any wonder attendance on the south side is so abysmal? Even by the usual exceedingly low standards at the ballpark? The @EmptySeatPics are only going to get worse by the way, as the team continues to lose. Although the team was giving tickets away last season, this summer could see entry to ballpark devalued even further.
Perhaps people will break into your house, and leave you White Sox tickets.
Yes, the Sox have a direction, they have started the rebuild. There is a plan, and it is in place. However, Rick Hahn is no Theo Epstein. He’s been in charge close to a half-decade already and things are still moving in the wrong direction. There needs to be some signs of growth finally; the green shoots if you will.
Right now, the White Sox, the only team in Major League history ever to have found to purposefully lost games, don’t look much better than a team “tanking it.”
Only this time, unlike the thrown World Series of 1919, they’re trying to win, and still losing.
You should definitely check out, Fall from Grace, a Shoeless Joe Jackson biography by Tim Hornbaker which came out in paperback in last month, by the way- a great read on this topic.
The Sox have had plenty of lean times over the course of their history, with the 1960s and 70s really standing out as particularly dark times. The Rick Hahn regime is starting to mirror those dark times. On the plus side, this season is still very young and there is still time to turn things around. Most importantly, the south-siders play in the AL Central, where nothing is ever decided until August.
The strong favorite, currently top of the table, is Cleveland, and they’re barely above .500
Hahn is not the Rick who is likely to lose his job any time soon, manager Rick Renteria could end up being the fall guy, and that’s rather undeserved. The Robin Ventura era (as boring, dull and uneventful as it was), wasn’t all too long ago, so Renteria hasn’t had much of a change to really show us what he can do.
Maybe it won’t happen until next season or so, but it things aren’t improving right now, and if they don’t change for the better soon. There will be a change in leadership coming soon.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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