Sporcle Saturday: Your 2023 Chicago White Sox
Good morning!
The 2023 regular season for the Chicago White blessedly came to a close last Sunday, though not before one final punch to the junk to the fans, losing in extra innings to the Padres to extend the misery just a bit longer. For last season’s iteration of this quiz, I lead with a photo of Andrew Vaughn misplaying a ball in right field; this year, bags felt more appropriate. This is now two consecutive years I spent more time than I care to admit looking for the perfect photo to encapsulate the season.
Without further ado, it’s time for the seventh annual Sox Machine Sporcle Saturday Player Extravaganza™. In the case this is your first Saturday Sporcle, your task is this: name every single player to have made an appearance with the White Sox over the course of the regular season. This year, there are 56 names you have to try and remember. I’m near certain that’s the most the Sox have used in a season, and it’s not particularly close. Below are the numbers from the last several seasons; I went back to 1970 and didn’t see any Sox roster breach the high-40s, so I cannot imagine even years further back would have surpassed this, given how different the game was then.
- 2022: 44
- 2021: 47
- 2020: 48
- 2019: 47
- 2018: 51
- 2017: 51
- 2016: 50
- 2015: 40
How many can you get? Good luck!
Quiz Parameters
- I’ve allotted 15 minutes for completion attempts.
- For hints, I’ve provided the number of games each player appeared in, and their primary position.
Useless information to amaze, annoy, confuse, and/or confound your friends and family:
- Last year I lamented the White Sox scored just 686 runs, the fewest since 2016. Well, this year they scored 641.
- They did, however, hit 171 home runs: 22 more than last year. (Thanks, Luis Robert, Jr.!)
- Go grab a stiff drink; you’ve earned it.
All data from baseballreference.com and stathead.com
Author
I could only remember 47. My memory’s shot though. This was fun, thanks Ted!
51/56. Rick Hahn devoted all of his resources to the bullpen, and it worked so well that all five of my misses were of his relievers.
I can’t decide whether we should never speak of this roster again or if this falls under the category of atrocities that must be remembered to prevent future tragedies. Either way, Ted deserves our respect and compassion for his work involving the worst team in memory.
America’s least wanted.
40/56. What an exercise in futility. I wonder how many of those names will never grace another major league box score.
I got 48. I missed 6 relievers and 2 of the 3 low usage outfielders.
My initial takeaway:
Are we entirely certain that Adam Eaton, Tyler Saladino, and Cody Asche were not part of this year’s team?
Hey, maybe the rebuild’s right on track!
49/56 – those last 3 OF and then I spent way too long trying to spell Touki’s last name.
Shouldn’t the player listed as playing 30 games at 2B/3B actually be listed as playing 2B/3B/RP? His ERA of 21.60 was lower than one of the players listed only as RP.
41 of 56 and I count that as success