but the White Sox were mathematically eliminated from playoff contention over the weekend.

Their possible futility is even worse when you focus on the fact that the Mets only played 160 games in 1962. It was (however remotely) possible they could have finished with 41 or 42 wins.

...aren't depressed or discouraged. They're disgusted!
They won a world series, in a sweep, in '05, and they have Bern between mediocre and rotten almost the whole time since.
People are thinking Reinsdorf is pulling a Rachel Phelps so he can move the team to Nashville before he dies & leaves the team to his family.
The Bulls have been a big disappointment too.
Those franchises (worth $10 billion combined) are run like a family owned thrift store.
The fans are really upset.

And I remember when Jerry Reinsdorf bought the White Sox. I just looked it up and it was January of 1981.

My recollections that he has pretty much run the team as if it were the family owned thrift store you describe. It is as if he is taunting the fans of Chicago for some strange reason.

I don't have a dog in the fight, because I'm a life-long Cubs fan, but not a Sox hater.
Somehow Reinsdorf harbors resentment that he couldn't take over the city from the Cubs. Just a guess.