CHICAGO — Former Chicago White Sox first baseman/outfielder Gavin Sheets wasn’t prepared for a pop quiz when he came to work last weekend at Wrigley Field.
Sheets’ new team, the San Diego Padres, had won its first seven games, so I asked whether he remembered when the 2024 Sox won their seventh game.
“Probably May,” he said.
It was May 4, to be exact, a 6-5, 10-inning win in St. Louis that began the legend of the Rain Man. Sox reliever John Brebbia begged the umpires to allow him to continue pitching in a downpour with one out to go and a one-run lead in the 10th, but his plea was denied. After a three-hour-plus rain delay, Tanner Banks came on to get the final out.
The Sox would win only 41 games in their record-setting season, so it’s not hard to remember many of them. And years from now, when they make a movie about the worst team in baseball history, the Rain Man game will be prominently featured.
The ’24 Sox were officially laid to rest in October, but the ’25 version is stirring up bad memories. In Wednesday’s 3-2 loss in Cleveland — the Sox’s seventh straight defeat, a skid that reached eight in Thursday’s series finale — Mike Tauchman walked into the final out in the ninth after injuring a hamstring rounding third as the tying run.
The 1962 New York Mets, whom the ’24 Sox replaced in the record books, were immortalized in Jimmy Breslin’s book, “Can’t Anybody Here Play This Game?” The ’24 Sox aren’t as romanticized by the media or the team, but their names will be forever linked to that one not-so-shining moment in time.
We already saw ’24 Sox refugees Yoán Moncada and Nicky Lopez return to the South Side in the opening series with the Los Angeles Angels, during which Sox fans lustily booed Moncada. This weekend we’ll see the return of pitcher Garrett Crochet, the White Sox’s lone All-Star representative last year, in a three-game series with the Boston Red Sox.
Sheets was a big part of the ’24 White Sox and one of the few players available to talk after every loss, making him a valuable asset in the eyes of the media. The son of former major leaguer Larry Sheets said he did it because he had some tenure and felt it was his “duty” to relay to Sox fans that he “hated it as much as they did” after losses.
“I knew what they were going through because we were going through the same thing, and I think they deserve a winning team every year,” Sheets said. “The way they showed up in ’21 and ’22 was incredible. Just relaying to them that it was frustrating and we were all in it together.”
That didn’t help Sheets after the season ended. General manager Chris Getz nontendered the left-handed hitter instead of offering arbitration, in which Sheets was projected to get about $2.6 million. Getz wound up signing three veteran outfielders in Tauchman, Michael A. Taylor and Austin Slater for less than $2 million apiece.
Pitcher Dylan Cease, another Padre whom the Sox traded during spring training in 2024, told Sheets that San Diego would be a great fit.
“I just told him it would be impossible not to enjoy your time here,” Cease said.
“He raved about this place,” Sheets said. “That was huge. He said this was a place I needed to come to.”
Sheets wound up signing a minor league deal with the Padres, then made the team in spring training. He’s hitting .303 in a platoon role with a .769 OPS. The change of scenery seems to agree with him.
Ditto Crochet, who posted a 1.45 ERA in his first three starts for the Red Sox. He’ll no doubt get the video highlight treatment this weekend on the Rate Field scoreboard, just as Tim Anderson received when the White Sox saluted him on Opening Day.
White Sox fans appreciated Crochet’s performance during a brief but brilliant stint in Chicago, especially in a season as dismal as last year’s, so look for a ...
