Sox Populi - A Chicago White Sox podcast

The White Sox added another three players to their major league roster, and now $45 million has been spent this offseason without managing to secure a starting pitcher or right fielder. WOO BOY. Brett Ballantini hosts a roundtable of Trooper Galactus, Zach Hayes, Tommy Barbee and Sam Reeves to discuss the deals made — and the chances of any new ones getting done: Quickie intro: What is Rick Hahn’s...

SSS duty geezer (aka geriatric, because he aged so much during the lockout) Leigh Allan and his son and west coast correspondent, Will, dive bravely into the post-lockout probability that whatsoever say they will be outdated before the show is even posted, as they lament the signing of Carlos Rodón with the Giants, despair at the likelihood of somehow dumping Craig Kimbrel and his salary off on so...

What a difference 24 hours makes! Perhaps because of all the disgruntled commentary and cussing in Podcast 89 just a day earlier, MLB and the MLBPA jumped to and hammered out a deal on Thursday, necessitating yet another podcast assault on our fair listenership. All right, strap it down, and let’s celebrate! Knowing there was a ceiling on how good the deal could be, how did the players do in their...

Wouldn’t you just know it, after weeks of waiting for our EXCLUSIVE Q&A with Yasmani Grandal, baseball has to go and end its lockout as he and I are talking. Still, as Yaz was getting pelted by marshmallows from his daughter and votes to play were pouring in from the players, the White Sox catcher and I spoke on a number of topics from past and present: Yaz talks of his devotion to the Force3 catc...

Another week, another two series lost to the lockout. The new wink-wink MLB Opening Day is April 14, and if you believe that date, I’ve got an elephant for you to eat. Somehow Kristina Airdo, Delia Ritchie, Tommy Barbee, Jacki Krestel, Zach Hayes and Brett Ballantini found plenty to laugh about, as we whistled past MLB 2022’s grave. It’s gallows humor, with cussing. Enjoy. The wisdom of fans deman...

It’s a Meet the Players podcast, with our new guy, Sam Reeves! Read all about Sam in his Meet the Players piece on site right now, and learn a lot more than a mere post can provide with this podcast’s all-encompassing look at Sam’s fandom and take on the 2021-22 White Sox: Growing up a contrarian up north, zagging against the grain and choosing White Sox over those other guys Why did Sam only like...

Dr. Meredith Wills was born on a Major League Baseball Opening Day, but it was not a run-of-the-mill Opening Day: It was the day Henry Aaron tied Babe Ruth’s home run record. Her father, who grew up watching Aaron play, went out and bought his newborn daughter a baseball bat. “He was absolutely convinced that I was going to be something in the game,” says Dr. Wills. The elder Wills’ vision was pre...

Well, you’ve already read the sad story from Kristina Airdo and Brett Ballantini today, detailing the breakdown of labor talks between players and owners that now sees spring training further delayed and the first two series of the regular season cancelled. Despite the threat of all-mourning, no actual content, Brett betrayed that for this podcast, with a cast of thousands. Here’s a sneak preview:...

Hey, it’s one of them fun Meet the Players podcasts, during which you’ll get the inside scoop on Kristina Airdo’s White Sox fandom. But we’d be remiss if not discussing a breakneck week of labor talks, signifying oh so very little. And who better to discuss those little goings-on than with our de facto labor writer, Kristina herself? Born into one of those “Cubs families” that, if you’re lucky, yo...

Publishing alongside this podcast is Zach Hayes’ 4,000-word take on PECOTA and the 2022 White Sox — and no, it is not a misprint, our favorite projectors tab the South Siders for 94 wins! What ho! Such a sunny outlook requires explanation, no? Nine seasons PECOTA has pegged the White Sox for fewer wins, eight seasons it predicted more. Overall since 2005, it’s undersold the White Sox by an average...

Today we’ve announced the winners in the fifth annual White Sox Hall of Fame vote, and Adrian Serrano, Zach Hayes and Joe Resis joined up with Brett Ballantini to talk about the results, and more: Five players made it to SSS immortality, including players with the second- and third-highest election percentages ever Next year’s favorites How did the two remaining players in Cooperstown who’ve yet t...

The fifth annual White Sox Hall of Fame vote, is ongoing, with still time to determine some of the plaques and choose winners in the bonus categories. Voting ends on Sunday, so don’t dilly-dally like a certain Indianapolis Field Office stalwart. Adrian Serrano, Chrystal O’Keefe and Joe Resis join Brett Ballantini to evaluate the early election returns, and squeeze in a little bitta lockout talk: F...

Hey, it’s time for the White Sox Hall of Fame vote, year five! Adrian Serrano, Chrystal O’Keefe and Zach Hayes join Brett Ballantini to dissect the ballot, plus much, much more: Four Hall-of-Famers on the ballot ... not yet voted into our White Sox Hall of Fame, whoa Adrian’s fanboy picks Chrystal’s unapologetic support of Chris Sale Perusing the bonus categories, including a no-brainer defense pi...

With the results of both our South Side Sox Hall of Fame results and the BBWAA election of David Ortiz, we’re wrapping up all our Hall talk with this podcast, featuring the Indianapolis Field Office of Chrystal O’Keefe and Joe Resis, with moderator-trying-not-to-erupt-in-expletives Brett Ballantini: The pros and cons of Ortiz in on the first ballot The hypocrisy of Ortiz in on the first ballot, vi...

So, with our South Side Sox ballot released on Monday, it’s time to talk about the many worthy Hall of Fame candidates who will fall short of election when our results are announced on January 24. Podcast stalwarts Adrian Serrano and Zach Hayes join Brett Ballantini for the roundtable: Changes in the SSS voting process allows for more than 10 votes per ballot, and provides instant updates on where...

On the heels of last week’s Meet the Players podcast with Adrian Serrano, Brett Ballantini is right back at it today with another site stalwart, Zach Hayes. Get to know Zach a bit by revisiting his Meet the Players article that originally ran last July, as you listen to the podcast: While Brett was trying to grow a playoff beard in 2000, Zach was getting his first memories of the White Sox, brief...

Sure, Brett Ballantini can’t seem to remember what year it is, but still and all, the South Side Sox mothership podcast is back for another year, after a month or so away. And it’s a Meet the Players podcast, starring our five-tool player, Adrian Serrano! Get to know him a bit through his Meet the Players article up on site today, and listen to our podcast together: Re-live the 2005 run, and the m...

What do Yolmer Sánchez, Barack Obama, the HOFBP, Yoán Moncada’s next recording, Jim Gaffigan, Chance the Rapper, an ambitious cub (small c) reporter, Warren Buffett, Styx, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Rick Hahn’s Christmas stocking, George Lopez, George Wendt, the California water shortage, Michael Jordan, Jenny McCarthy, Kevin Cash, Warren Buffett and José Abreu’s beard have in common? Why, the...

Cooperstown granted Adrian Serrano at least part of his Soxivus miracle on Sunday, as Minnie Miñoso was elected off of the Golden Days Era ballot. There was a lot of good (Minnie!) and some bad (Dick Allen falls short!), and Joe Resis and Brett Ballantini join in the fun, talking ballots and even winding up with a little bit of SSS Veterans’ ballot chat: Bittersweet timing, but Minnie is finally i...

Having checked with their lawyers and been assured it’s OK to talk about players and teams during the lockout as long as no money changes hands, SSS duty geezer Leigh Allan and his son and west coast correspondent, Will, wade into the morass that is Major League Baseball and try to figure out if the owners’ proposal for a seven-team-per-league-one-guy-gets-a-bye-others-pick-their-opponents-and-the...

Boy howdy, we’re back, and when not modeling delicious South Side Hit Pen White Sox ware, we’re trying to catch up with the breathless pace of Hot Stove action. Including two big White Sox moves! Ahem. In the second half, we dig into the likely outcomes of the Golden Days Era ballot, announced on Sunday, and debate whether Minnie Miñoso or Dick Allen will make the cut this time. It’s a jam-packed...

A true maverick of the metrics world, Adam Darowski (Hall of Stats, Sports-Reference, Building the Ballot podcast) joins Brett Ballantini on our 75th program, reviewing four White Sox on the precipice of the Hall of Fame and pulling back to take a look at the processes that have created such a backlog of great candidates. We start with some broad Hall of Fame discussion, then hone in on the four W...

OK, we lied. But if we said, “White Sox have done nothing but strangely stupid stuff so far,” it wouldn’t have been exactly clickbait, would it? Back from a three-week hiatus taken for a little film production work, SSS duty geezer Leigh Allan and his son and west coast correspondent, Will, take a look at the postseason moves being made around the major leagues — but not around Chicago. Naturally,...

As our Soxivus celebration to end 2021 appears to be winding down, several staffers gathered to discuss our list of Soxivus Miracles, live on the site right now. We worked in order of most likely to least, but even as we went there was some revising of the list: Joe Resis steps us through yet another underwhelming right-field signing — but this time, one than ends in 2022 ALDS heroics! Chrystal O’...

We haven’t run off a Meet the Players podcast in awhile, which means it’s about time to roll out a new one! In conjunction with her MTP survey up on site right now, let’s learn a bit more about one of our newest writers, Delia Ritchie! Yes, Delia is one of those fans from the womb, even having attended a game before she could walk As for first White Sox memories, well, it’s watching the 2005 White...