From spring training to Friday's shooting, it's been a miserable season for White Sox fans

The worst franchise in professional sports is in town this weekend.

Spoiler alert: It's not the Oakland Athletics.

Take a bow, of shame, White Sox.

Being around the Sox the past 29 years, there have been some pretty low moments.

Chris Sale throwing a tantrum and slicing up throwback uniforms before his scheduled start in 2016 certainly comes to mind.

In spring training of that tumultuous season, Adam LaRoche abruptly retiring after executive VP Kenny Williams asked him to curtail son Drake's clubhouse visits was a real doozy.

The frequent clashes between Williams and manager Ozzie Guillen in 2011 became nauseating.

Pretty bad stuff, but nothing like this season. Not even close.

The tone was set on the first day of spring training, when erstwhile general manager Rick Hahn was supposed to be talking about the promise of the upcoming season.

Instead, Hahn spent the bulk of his opening session with the media talking about new starting pitcher Mike Clevinger being investigated for alleged domestic violence and child abuse.

MLB cleared Clevinger of all charges in March, but his signing was a bad look for the White Sox. It also created a distraction in training camp, and the Sox stumbled out to a 7-21 start when the regular season opened.

It looked like they were righting a sinking ship when all-star closer Liam Hendriks returned from a battle with Stage 4 Non-Hodgkin lymphoma in late May.

The White Sox won 7 of 9 and were only 3½ games out of first place, but the momentum instantly faded when Hendriks went down with an elbow injury that led to season-ending Tommy John surgery.

The Sox went into another tailspin and Hahn wound up trading seven veteran players before the Aug. 1 deadline. Check that - Williams apparently stepped in and dealt power-hitting fan favorite Jake Burger to the Marlins for minor-league pitcher Jake Eder.

In his first 3 starts for Class AA Birmingham, Eder gave up 14 runs in 8⅓ innings.

For more than a decade, Williams and Hahn insisted their relationship was strong and they worked well together.

Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf doesn't talk to the media but he obviously agreed, even though the White Sox are heading for their ninth losing season in the last 13 years.

In a stunning move, Reinsdorf fired Williams and Hahn an hour before Tuesday night's game against Seattle.

The announcement was widely cheered by Sox fans, but the jeers returned when news broke that Tony La Russa is advising Reinsdorf on potential replacements for Williams and Hahn.

Oh yeah, on Monday, reports surfaced that the 87-year-old Reinsdorf is exploring options for either selling the White Sox or looking for a new home when the lease at Guaranteed Rate Field expires in 2029.

Cheers for potentially selling the team. Jeers for a possible relocation to a city like Nashville.

Depressing stuff, for sure. Exhausting stuff.

But the Sox dipped to an even lower low Friday night.

There was a shooting at Guaranteed Rate Field that left two female fans sitting in the left-field bleachers with gunshot wounds. Investigators were not sure Saturday if the shots were fired inside or outside Guaranteed Rate Field, according to The Associated Press.

The shooting happened in the fourth inning, but the game continued and the White Sox lost their second straight to the lowly A's, 12-4.

The Sox were booed off the field by the crowd of 21,906 and the boos grew in volume minutes later when public address announcer Gene Honda informed fans the postgame concert featuring Vanilla Ice was canceled due to "technical issues."

So, the White Sox made fans sit through another abysmal performance and then pulled the plug on the concert?

Scott Reifert, the Sox's VP of communications, addressed the issue before Saturday night's game.

"Two questions have come up over the course of the day that we're happy to kind of explain," Reifert said. "One of them was the continuation of the game. As the (Chicago Police Department) news release said last night, once they were on site, they conferred with our security and the feeling was there was no active threat and that the ballgame could continue.

"The second question was about the postgame concert. That was not canceled for any security concern, it was canceled so CPD could go and investigate the area. They needed the lights to be on and they needed fans to be out of the area, so that's why the concert was canceled. There was some confusion kind of tying that to safety. That had nothing to do with safety."