I'm a fairly avid sports fan considering my age. I don't know all of the players, but I know a few of them. And even in middle age, I still enjoy going to a game, following the playoff chases and so on.

Even more than the competition is the story behind the actual games. 

If you think about it, it's the stories of the individual players, the team management and ownership, etc. that keep billion dollar companies like ESPN in business.

Highlights from the day's action can be done in a 5 minute segment on the evening news.

But now we have an entire industry based on gossip about this and that concerning athlete's personal lives.

I'm not saying it's right or wrong. That's just the way it is.

At any rate, one of the compelling stories from this 2024 baseball season was not a success story.

Quite the opposite.

The Chicago White Sox lost 21 games in a row just recently.

To put that into context, a major league team usually plays around 25 games per month. So the White Sox lost almost every game they played for an entire month! (I think the streak was from mid-July to mid-August, but you get my point.)

That's a lot of losing, and I would bet that team was not a happy team. Lots of discouragement, people feeling like they didn't really belong at The Show.

I take interest in things like this. Not because I enjoy watching people suffer, but to see how they react to it. I'm always more interested in hearing the reactions of the losing team than the winning team. The winners are predictable. The losers, not so much. They need to swallow their pride, give homage to the team that just beat them, and then get ready for the next day of work.

I guess that's why I still like to follow sports; there's a certain authenticity to it that can't be found in scripted movies and shows - although those have their place too.

At any rate, I thought about what I might say to the White Sox if I were the manager or general manager of the team after breaking the major league record for consecutive losses, and this is what I came up with.

I would gather them all together in the clubhouse, maybe before maybe after. And I would say something like this.

"Well, you now own the Major League record for consecutive losses. How does that make you feel?

"It makes me feel pretty lousy, but there's one thing that sticks with me....

"It is the Major League record.

"Not the minor league. Not the amateur league. The Major League record.

"So as bad as things are, remember where you are, and who you are.

"We'll get past this because we're all professionals.

"But you all are major league baseball players.

"And every single one of you belongs here.

"Don't forget that."

Then I would drop the mic to stunned silence, and one by one each player erupts into rapturous applause at my stunning alacrity and wisdom.

Yeah, it's a fantasy, but that's just what was on my mind thinking about that story.

Sure, the White Sox own the record, but it's the major league record. They're still a major league team; their players are all major league players.

Oh, by the way I just published a series of podcasts on the Ba Vojdaan! podcast. It's a couple of interviews with Orthodox Christian scholar Frederica Mathewes-Green, a major league mind in her own right.

I split them into smaller segments for the sake of convenience. Give them a listen here: https://jamesdnewcomb.com/fredericapodcasts 

Be well,

James