Sox Populi - A Chicago White Sox podcast

Wow, way to make us all (oh please, don’t you shake your heads at us, this season was scaring hell outta you, too) feel like negative nellies, White Sox. Well, finally a fun postgame podcast for our crew, as Brian O’Neill, Malachi Hayes, Dante Jones, Allie Wesel, Jacki Krestel, Chrystal O’Keefe, Ryiin, Melissa Sage-Bollenbach and Brett Ballantini got together right after the final out to review a...

Brett Ballantini invites a half-dozen SSS friends, including debut podcaster Ryiin, Jordan Hass, Melissa Sage-Bollenbach, Malachi Hayes, Chrystal O’Keefe and Brian O’Neill, to chat about Opening Night in Houston: Did Brian’s terrific essay render this entire podcast moot? Suppose not — we didn’t stop recording after reading Starting it off on the sunny side, we discuss the things we are most excit...

Happy Opening Day! I heard everyone wanted another podcast, and I’m here to provide it. Throughout the season, I plan to preview our upcoming series with a fan from every team the White Sox face. We’ll chat about our game expectations, players to watch, and much more. For the inaugural episode of Visiting Dugout, I sat down with Ben Zeidman of Pitcher List and Apollo Media to break down the openin...

In what we’ll consider our semi-official Fans First Sports Network and Sox Populi coming-out party, part two, a half-dozen (Chrystal O’Keefe, Tommy Barbee, Adrian Serrano, Dante Jones, Joe Resis, Brett Ballantini) of our 22 prognosticators got together to discuss the differences and similarities we feel about the fortunes of the coming 2023 baseball season. It’s been roughly 43 mothership podcasts...

In what we’ll consider a semi-official Fans First Sports Network and Sox Populi coming-out party, a half-dozen (Chrystal O’Keefe, Tommy Barbee, Malachi Hayes, Dante Jones, Joe Resis, Brett Ballantini) of our 22 prognosticators got together to discuss the differences and similarities we feel about the fortunes of this White Sox team. Representing the 11 of 22 writers who see the White Sox in the pl...

As SSS duty geezer Leigh Allan and his son and current downtown Chicago correspondent, Will, celebrated the fact the regular season will soon be here. In their final preseason podcast, SSS duty geezer Leigh Allan and his son and current downtown Chicago correspondent, Will, were ready to rejoice that Leury García will no longer be on the White Sox (OK, unfair — it’s just the absence of Leury’s bat...

It’s the most fun any of Adrian Serrano, Dante Jones or Brett Ballantini can remember having during Spring Training, so it fits that we again converge for a postgame podcast, discussing Japan’s 3-2 win in the WBC title game over the U.S. Will this  Quick notes on an amazing ballgame, not quite befitting the Japan-Mexico semifinal, but a terrific finale nonetheless And yes, that includes Shohei Oht...

We talked late, after Team USA’s blowout win over Cuba to advance to the WBC title game, so we’ll call it a Postgame Podcast. But really, with two staffers (Hannah LaMotta and Melissa Sage-Bollenbach) in attendance at the World Baseball Classic able to join Brett Ballantini for the podcast, we broadened the discussion to the game experiences and future fortunes of the tournament. Some rote (power!...

We’re still a day or two away from our logo being ready — and let me tell you, it’s going to be worth the wait. But for entirely “legal” reasons, our podcast is no longer associated with/owned by Vox. (I only — almost — slipped up one time while recording!) On Friday when we recorded, the South Side Sox podcast had dulled itself into Chicago Baseball Podcast on Megaphone/Apple/Spotify et. al. That...

Five months after we wrapped up the 2022 MiLB season with a review of Triple-A Charlotte, Darren Black and Brett Ballantini are back with their promised offseason podcast — OK, barely still offseason — taking a look back at Project Birmingham. Plus, saying hello to 2023 — and goodbye to Vox! Yes, a shockingly seamless-seeming transition from South Side Sox-Vox podcast to Sox Populi-Fans First Spor...

As SSS duty geezer Leigh Allan and his son and current downtown Chicago correspondent, Will, celebrated the fact the regular season will soon be here, Mother Nature demonstrated her counterpoint and set off a brief ice and snow barrage across Chicago, a small warning about playing baseball in Chicago in early spring. Naytheless, they discuss numerous key points: Can the Kansas City Royals, sitting...

The mothership is back, after just a week this time, and Kristina Airdo, Hannah LaMotta, Melissa Sage-Bollenbach and Malachi Hayes meet up with Brett Ballantini to discuss the good and bad of Spring Training 2023, plus some thoughts on the spectacular World Baseball Classic. A rundown of the goods and bads about halfway through Spring Training sees Jake Burger and Yasmani Grandal singled out for p...

SSS duty geezer Leigh Allan and his son and current downtown Chicago correspondent, Will, delve into matters on and off the field, beginning with Will answering the survey the White Sox send out every spring about fan attitudes, after which the front office apparently deletes the answers without ever looking at them. Also in an off-the-field segment, the elephant in the room raises his trunk and b...

After a February break, the mothership is back to take on the good and bad of Spring Training 2023 — right after a couple of words from the top. We have not made a formal post because there are still details to be addressed, but no later than the end of this month, the South Side Sox family of podcasts will become Sox Populi, our new mothership podcast and podcast umbrella. Mechanically, nothing w...

A couple of games into the exhibition season, SSS duty geezer Leigh Allan and his son and, for a few months, downtown Chicago correspondent, Will, start a cast of bits and pieces by looking at the impact of the new rules on games so far. Which is to say, so far, really not all that much. There have been a few cases of pitch-clock violations, one ending a game, but only one in a White Sox game, and...

To celebrate having reached the 100 mark, SSS duty geezer Leigh Allan and his son and west coast correspondent, Will, welcome the boss, Brett Ballantini, to the show, because the only way to celebrate big occasions is to invite the boss over, right? After a little nostalgia (OK, a lot, but who’s counting?) the trio notice the elephant in the room has gained weight, and launch into the Mike Cleving...

In the final Sharing Sox before pitchers and catchers report for spring training, SSS duty geezer Leigh Allan and his son and west coast correspondent, Will, ponder the question of how incredibly incompetent the commissioner’s office has to be to have not yet completed analysis of domestic abuse complaints against Mike Clevinger that were filed last summer, and then ponder what the heck the White...

Poor Jake Marisnick. Here we are, in a week where the journeyman outfielder getting signed to a minor league contract by the White Sox should be the big news, and some guy named Clevinger steals the headlines. The new accusations against a pitcher already well-known to be a total, absolute, unmitigated *$&hole are disgusting. SSS duty geezer Leigh Allan and his son and west coast correspondent, Wi...

With the news of Liam Hendriks’ devastating diagnosis still sinking in, Brett Ballantini gathered together Chrystal O’Keefe, Malachi Hayes, Dante Jones, Joe Resis and Melissa Sage-Bollenbach to discuss his situation, and gather up other White Sox news of the day. First and foremost, our best wishes to Hendriks, as this is a chilling reminder of how fragile life is. Among our discussion topics are...

On the heels of learning that no one on the 2023 SSS Veterans ballot made the cut, Brett Ballantini quickly assembled our own Veterans Committee proper to try to shove at least one or two players into the Hall. Taking on this prestigious assignment were Malachi Hayes, Dante Jones, Joe Resis and Melissa Sage-Bollenbach. Guaranteed, you won’t see one of our picks coming. Go figure; Brett is the soft...

Welcome to the first episode of Sharing Sox of the new year, one dominated by the sad news that Liam Hendriks has been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and has begun undergoing treatment. The news has personal impact for SSS duty geezer Leigh Allan and his son and west coast correspondent, Will, because Leigh’s father/Will’s grandfather died of NHL. He did so in his 70s, on his second round w...

Brett Ballantini hosts Chrystal O’Keefe, Allie Wesel, Malachi Hayes, Dante Jones, Jordan Hass and Melissa Sage-Bollenbach in our new podcast that covers a lot of ground, mostly because a dearth of Sox moves forces us to tap dance a bit. With the majority of participants in holiday-festive getups, let’s get down to this program’s outline: Does Allie light up when talking about the White Sox? Not in...

If a tree falls in a forest of deals at the Winter Meetings, but no one from the White Sox was there to hear it, did it really make a sound? To wrap up the year, SSS duty geezer Leigh Allan and his son and west coast correspondent, Will, delve into the biggest White Sox free agent contract ever, as the team strives mightily once again to attract all the COVID it can, by following up the Mike Clevi...

If a tree falls in a forest of deals at the winter meetings, but no one from the White Sox was there to hear it, did it really make a sound? Such is the philosophic quandary pondered by SSS duty geezer Leigh Allan and his son and west coast correspondent, Will, as they consider events and non-events of the past week whilst somehow avoiding discussion of the verbal diarrhea to which the general man...

Brett Ballantini hosts Chrystal O’Keefe, Allie Wesel, Joe Resis, Dante Jones, Jordan Hass and Melissa Sage-Bollenbach in our new podcast that saves the sucky for the end — yeah, the White Sox non-moves — and gets downright silly in the final seconds. It was the podcast that almost wasn’t. But, here you go, enjoy! Reax to the biggies: Aaron Judge, Justin Verlander, Jacob deGrom and Willson Contrera...