A year after winning their first World Series since 1917, the 2006 Chicago White Sox looked primed for a repeat, adding Hall of Fame slugger Jim Thome to an efficient lineup and Javier Vazquez to a rotation that carried them to the title.
Those moves were admirable, and the Sox posted a 90-win season but finished third in the American League Central. That was about as good as it got for a fan base that has experienced only two brief postseason runs since despite the Sox’s relentless efforts at the expense of their farm system until 2017.
Fans also have tolerated — to varying degrees — their North Side rivals’ glorification of the 2016 World Series championship, no matter how many layers of dust have collected on those replica trophies, pennants and commemorative bobbleheads since the Cubs ended their 107-year drought.