The thing about the 2026 White Sox? They sure don’t quit.
At a rain-soaked matinee matchup between the Chicago White Sox and the Cleveland Guardians on Wednesday, June 24, the Sox ultimately ended the day at 41–38, falling 4–3 in extra innings, but they only made it that far thanks to late-inning heroics that have become their trademark over the season’s first half.
When the ninth inning rolled around, the crowd was relatively muted. The team reported an attendance of just over 17,000, but a three-hour rain delay and a lackluster showing from the Sox offense left just a fraction of the crowd in their seats by the end. With two outs, a 3–1 deficit, and Cleveland’s star closer on the mound, the game was all but over until 23-year-old rookie Braden Montgomery’s blast of a home run to center field. He cut the deficit to one and the crowd continued to buzz.
In seasons past, the concept of back-to-back home runs against an elite pitcher to tie the game in the final inning would have been nearly unthinkable. Now, Sox fans have come to unironically embrace Jim Carrey’s iconic <i>Dumb and Dumber</i> quote: So there’s a chance? Mere seconds after Montgomery’s long ball, veteran outfielder Randal Grichuk launched the first pitch he saw into the left field bleachers, tying the game at three and sending the approximately seven thousand fans into a frenzy.
The thrill of defying low expectations hasn’t been felt by fans on the South Side in what seems like an eternity. This is a team that lost 100 games for three years running, including a major league record 121-loss season in 2024. Entering the season, industry leaders gave the team less than a 2% chance of reaching the postseason. Now, that number has climbed above 25%, and grows with every day they remain neck-in-neck with Cleveland. The times are a-changin’ at the corner of 35th and Shields.
Sox-fan Kevin Lynn agrees that the lack of expectations heading into the campaign plays a part in the upswell of fan support. “The Cubs have basically the same record, but it feels totally different up there [at Wrigley Field],” he pointed out. At 43–37, the North Siders’ performance has actually been slightly better than their South Side counterparts. The difference is that the Cubs entered this season as the betting favorites to win their division, and despite the similar records, the Sox are wrestling for the AL Central lead, while the Cubs find themselves being left in the dust by Milwaukee in the NL Central and fighting with St. Louis and Pittsburgh—whom the Cubs were projected to clear handily—for the scraps.
The excitement is evident in attendance numbers. After bottoming out at barely 17,000 fans per game between 2024 and 2025, their lowest in three decades, they’re drawing over 22,000 per game in 2026. Increased interest has also shown up in media and business. Sean Anderson, who has hosted the CHGO White Sox podcast since 2022, described the surge in fan attention as “incredible,” with viewership numbers through the roof. At SB Nation blog <i>South Side Sox</i>, gameday posts that sometimes failed to receive a single comment over the last two years are now receiving more than a hundred. Editor-in-Chief Brett Ballantini says that while page views were inconsistent over the season’s first two months, they’ve been up more than 20% in June compared to last year.
It’s clear that it’s not just the battle for first place that’s keeping fans engaged. Nearly every fan I spoke to at Rate Field on June 24 identified the youthful energy of the roster as particularly compelling. For people like Rob, whom I met before the game, it’s one of the main draws to the ballpark.
”Two years ago, for the first time since 1994, I didn’t come to a game because the product on the field was that bad,” he said. Now, thanks to “the rise of the young talent,” he’s back to attending games roughly once a month. At 25.8 years of age on average, White Sox hitters are the youngest in the American League.
It’s also easy to see why their distinctly earnest quirkiness holds such appeal. They have an injured pitcher pretending to be a wizard in the dugout, and a team leader in batting average who once played for the Savannah Bananas, the Harlem Globetrotters of baseball. Tongue barely in cheek, they’ve adopted Clarence Carter’s bawdy song “Strokin’” as their home run and victory celebration tune. In 2024, White Sox players became memes for their looks of despair in the dugout amid a record-setting 21-game losing streak. To see players having fun, as if they recognize that they’re still playing a game, is a massive breath of fresh air.
In baseball lingo, a “stroke” is just another word for a swing, and the double entendre isn’t just for the sake of crudeness—the young hitters of the White Sox are indeed stroking. Since April 17, they rank fourth in MLB at just over five runs scored per game. On the whole this season, they rank second with 110 home runs, on pace to surpass last season’s total by more than 50. They’ve played in 25 games decided by one run, tied for third in the league, and more often than not, they’ve come through when it counts, winning 16 of those 25 games, tied for second-best.
Tom, a fan I met at the Craft Lodge before the game, told me he identified the energy of this squad as something rare before the season even started. “We knew we had something special because these kids were just having a great time in spring training,” he said. Tom has been a White Sox season ticket holder since 1969, and in 57 years of attending ball games, he’s just about seen it all.
“They’re such a tight, fun bunch,” he added. “These guys look out for one another. There isn’t a cancer on this team.”
Cancer, another sports colloquialism, refers to a disgruntled or difficult-to-get-along-with player who interferes with team chemistry. Amid the Sox’s collapse from 2021 division winners to the worst part of the record books surfaced numerous reports of locker room conflict. In 2023, a pitcher publicly blasted the team’s lack of discipline and accountability days after departing the organization via trade. Even when the team was last competitive, tensions brimmed in the clubhouse under former manager Tony La Russa, whose game strategy and locker room management were frequently criticized for being dated and out of touch.
It’s hard to imagine that Mike Vasil would have had a presence on the team under La Russa. A right-handed pitcher, Vasil was one of the few bright spots of the 2025 White Sox, posting a stellar 2.50 ERA in just over 100 innings pitched as a rookie.
Due to a torn elbow ligament suffered in spring training, the 26-year-old won’t pitch again until the 2027 season. Ordinarily, players who are out for the season might keep some distance from the team as they recover from their injury. Vasil, however, has remained with the team throughout the entire season. As the aforementioned “wizard” in the dugout, he sparks comebacks and hexes opposing teams with a magic wand reportedly purchased on Amazon by relief pitcher Jordan Leasure.
“I might be some kind of witch, I might have some witchcraft in there. I might have some magic,” Vasil said on the <i>Baseball Isn’t Boring</i> podcast earlier this year. His energetic presence was on full display earlier this month when he got into an on-field shouting match with Detroit Tigers ace and two-time reigning Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal.
“I don’t necessarily view some bickering, if you will, as bad,” Vasil told broadcasters John Schriffen and Brooke Fletcher on Wednesday, with a mischievous tone. “He’s obviously one of, if not the, best pitcher in the game … He’s probably like, ‘who is this dude,’ and I get it. At the same time, I’m thinking ‘I’m the wizard!’ [and] I can’t just back down. I’m not gonna do that!”
Munetaka Murakami, the 26-year-old rookie sensation who is a native of Kumamoto, Japan, has also remained present despite a hamstring injury that caused him to miss most of June and is expected to keep him off the field for another two to three weeks. I counted at least 15 Murakami jerseys among the relatively sparse crowd—an impressive number for a piece that’s been available for barely six months.
Murakami’s own denial of expectations is also a part of why he fits so snugly with this team. A record-setting superstar in his home country, Murakami was initially projected to receive a contract far exceeding what the typically-frugal White Sox have historically spent. But despite his accomplishments, worries grew that the lefty’s strikeout-heavy offensive style simply wouldn’t translate to North America, with some scouts opining that he may not even be an MLB-caliber hitter. The result? A severely under-market two-year, $34 million contract that now appears to be one of the best deals in the league. The rest of the league’s skepticism once again becomes Chicago’s benefit.
All in all, there’s a lightning-in-a-jar quality to the 2026 White Sox, who might not hold the same talent as the legendary 2005 World Series winning team, but engenders the kind of fun typically reserved for teams with far superior records.
Malachi Hayes is a Bridgeport-based writer and South Side native.