Former White Sox pitcher Bennett Sousa wasn’t exactly impressed by the atmosphere at Daikin Park on Tuesday afternoon as the Astros hosted Game 1 of the AL Wild Card Series.
The Chicago White Sox cruised to a convincing 6-3 victory in Game 1, outhitting the Astros 11-6. But only 34,011 fans were in attendance, a relatively light crowd for a postseason game. And the atmosphere reflected it.
The environment lacked the energy typically associated with October baseball. When Astros fans did make their presence felt, it was often through boos. According to Chandler Rome of The New York Times, that “incensed” members of the Astros clubhouse, who felt the home-field environment they had scratched and clawed for throughout the regular season had become “apathetic and antagonistic.”
Sousa let his thoughts be known postgame, telling the New York Times:
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“The fans here are definitely spoiled with a lot of ALCS and World Series runs, and we have to earn that right to bring this team back to that position…”That being said, when this team was in their first series 10 years ago, Minute Maid Park was probably packed. It makes a big difference. If we were in Chicago, it’d probably be loud as shit.”
Sousa apologized to fans on Wednesday for his comments, but he wasn’t necessarily wrong in his assessment. While this year’s Astros don’t quite measure up to the teams that reached the postseason 10 times, won eight division titles and captured two World Series over an 11-season span, the atmosphere at Daikin Park felt more like a regular-season game than a playoff opener.
Sousa is also familiar with the passion of White Sox fans, having spent his lone season with Chicago in 2022, a year after the team won the AL Central and hosted multiple playoff games. White Sox fans have been desperate for another taste of October baseball ever since, and had Chicago not fallen one game short of the AL Central title this season, there’s no doubt Rate Field would have been rocking for Game 1 of the ALDS.
While much of the frustration from Astros fans was directed at the team’s management, the sparse crowd also raised questions about the expectations surrounding a franchise that has enjoyed so much sustained success. White Sox fans have had their own reasons for being frustrated with ownership, particularly Jerry Reinsdorf, but when Chicago started winning this season, the “sell the team” chants that had routinely echoed through the ballpark disappeared.
Winning is hard, and sustained success should not be taken for granted. If the White Sox take care of business and win their first playoff series since 2005, South Siders will have the chance to show Houston what a postseason atmosphere at Rate Field can look like in the ALDS.
