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To me, it’s a matter of insulting our intelligence. We all saw the same thing, but they tried to tell us it was a quick turnaround, we’re not wasting a year, etc. Again, it’s a matter of showing the fans that you live in the same reality as they do. I personally don’t like being lied to (option A), and I don’t like to follow teams who are so detached from reality that they can’t even figure out that they’re on the precipice of another 100+ loss season (option B). Either way, it stinks. The only way out of it would have been to own up to the situation from the start rather than trying to bullshit us.

It’s the way he said it. “Anyone who thinks we can catch Cleveland is crazy” is literally insulting your fans.

I spend the thousands I used to spend enjoying myself watching White Sox games, enjoying myself doing other things. I call this an entertainment budget. I would rather be entertained. If you still get a kick out of watching a team not trying to win, good for you. You will see me when they not only start trying to win, but actually succeeding at it. I’ve lived through the lies, the losing, and all the failures. Now it’s show me don’t tell me time.

PT Barnum would have cleaned you out.

Would they even allow the shirt to be signed?

That's what I figured. This is another one of your made up things that you can't actually back up. The idea that Jerry has to lie because he said something stupid 30 years ago so now he just automatically lies to protect himself is absurd.

The least they could have done is admit to the fanbase that they recognize where they are as an org and be honest about the lengthy and difficult path forward. Yes, some fans might still be upset, but that's better than the bald-faced lies that leave us not only upset, but disillusioned about the org and questioning the level to which they are detached from the same realities. Just being honest about it isn't a fix, but it goes a long way towards repairing the relationship with the fanbase.

It was always a 100 loss team. When Cease was traded, we said on the FutureSox podcast that it might be a 50 win team. Nobody thought they'd go 41-101 but I mean, 50-112 isn't much different.

Starting to feel like China...you only have one choice of official news, which is always the most positive, rosy view of the White Sox. This is exactly the reason Ricketts isn't under any real pressure to win on the Northside. How many times have fans been fooled? Well there's White Flag, preceded by the 1994 strike year where ownership interests were put in front of fans...the 2005 team not being followed up successfully. 2013-2019 years in the wilderness. Covid year, nobody could actually enjoy in person. Worst season in pro baseball history. Yet another these kids can play. It's almost as bad as the Guardians going back to the early 90s...except they're actually successful at starting over again and again. Twins, threatened with constraction by the commissioner, more successful. Tigers as well. Royals with two consecutive WS appearances and then a 10 fWAR superstar. A new stadium seemingly an impossibility...but just suck it up and deal with it.

I have always felt a camaraderie with White Sox fans, especially those in the City and suburbs where I have friends. I feel honored to be a White Sox fan and was pleased to be among them again at SoxFest. I laugh at those who think they somehow benefit the WSox or our players with some misguided notion that they can improve anything by no longer going to games and supporting the team. Keep your ticket money and enjoy your new camaraderie - one that includes Sox haters, trolls and Cub fans. Nobody cares if you choose to stay home and waste your life slamming the Sox and their ownership. It's your choice to be miserable. Meanwhile, I'll be watching games on TV or at games with friends enjoying life.

Except Meidroth actually had a very good year at AAA whereas Montgomery did not and appears to be more ready. Sometimes it's hard to know what you are arguing. If we were all saying Montgomery should get the 1st chance at SS you'd be saying he was forced up and playing out of position . If Rojas gets PT you think he's blocking someone and he's not good at SS . I'd like to know what u think about who should play where and when ,not just taking shots are our feeble attempts to figure out who's going to play where and when. It's easy to be right when you say this won't work when you have a bunch of young guys who all have flaws who all play multiple positions and, as of yet ,we have no idea who'll be able to hit. Take your best guess like the rest of us.

Seriously. He's doing his famous I'll put quotes around stuff I made up to make it look like I'm quoting someone in the Sox front office. There were a lot of people in Soxtalk at the time who were madly in love with Vaughn and wanted him to get PT no matter what and were really angry with me for suggesting just because he played an adequate LF in a limited sample size that he will eventually be exposed because he couldn't run and that he didn't need to be in the lineup as much as he was especially against RHP early in the season that 1st year. I don't know if him playing 1st base in the minors more would've helped him or not. It's not like the Sox have been known to find ways to improve many prospects hitting abilities nor defense for that matter. Maybe they just draft poorly but again hitting a baseball consistently well is still the hardest thing in sports. You need a discerning eye and to somehow control your quick twitch impulses or natural ability that got you very far to begin with but make u swing at hard breaking stuff that ends up out of the zone and makes you look stupid and has fans screaming why is he swinging at that ? Especially when many times when you're behind in a count and you're telling yourself , here it comes down and away , and they still whiff at it. Robert, Jr. still goes through long droughts where he looks like an A baller trying to hit MLB pitching with no pitch or count recognition or cognitive thinking.

44 years into his ownership and he can’t even show his face at a fan convention. what a legacy.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/01/25/photos-soxfest-live-ramova-theatre/ Tauchman tossing t-shirts lol? Looks like Thorpe was still able to participate. Schultz is gargantuan. Teel with the bushy moustache and Meidroth Prince Variation look. Who actually buys a Sox jersey with the theatre name on the back lol? JR must have disappeared quickly from the balcony...guess there's no embarrassing video out on social media, damage contained.

Why lie about it? I think they will get in trouble with the union and probably the MLB if they come out and say it. No team will just say "we suck and we are going to trade any talented players to purposely make our team worse " As you said we all know and they know it but they can't just say it.

They’ll have to pry it out of his cold, dead hands.

Jerry is a loser. We don’t need special reasons to hate him other than the fact that he is a lousy, dirty, yella, filthy animal loser.

Jerry better watch out with the Cubs trying to hone in on his cash considerations.

So instead you follow what other people are saying about baseball so you can grouse about what they are saying, but somehow that is better?

The amount of open throws Daniels gets is crazy. You see him throwing to wide open short routes a lot, especially on 3rd and 4th downs. Those just didn't seem there for the Bears the majority of the time. Everything was like pulling teeth. Hopefully they can scheme more guys open under Johnson. Daniels gets a lot of credit for how good he's been, but Kliff should get credit as well for making it much easier on his rookie QB.

The thought of catching a Sox T-shirt from a veteran stud ballplayer like Mike Tauchman and potentially getting it signed by him later would send shivers down my spine.

It’s now an “own” but it’s a good point. I would only push back on his point to say that the existential misery of the Chicago sport fan is part of what makes the fandom fun. And Cubs fans are idiots.

Up to that point, Robin Ventura had been back for 7 games. Again, you lied and said people were mad at JR for telling the truth. That just isn’t true.

I think it was plausible that the team last year could’ve been better than the previous season. It was one possible outcome. I guess it was predicated on Robert, moncada, Benintendi, Eloy, etc. staying healthy and playing to their potential. And Vaughn, Ramos, Sosa, whoever taking a step forward. Which obviously didn’t happen. But it wouldn’t have necessarily been wild if Eloy/Moncada were 3WAR players. I mean I admittedly expected better and was bamboozled. But also not surprised or particularly disappointed.

Are we really defending Jerry?

People weren't mad at JR for telling his truth, they were mad he gave up. Non Sox fans also thought it was a disgrace. Bur the resident organization water carrier spins it another way. Which, ironically enough is a lie. BTW, Cleveland won 86 games that year. Not exactly a juggernaut, and Ventura had pretty much just returned.

2024 was the first time since the late 50's when I first became a Sox fan that I didn't listen to or watch a single game.

Lmao I just realized I put this in nba thread. Bmags and Caulfield just responded as if it was the normal. Viva la soxtalk 😂

2024 was the first time in over 40 years that I didn't attend a Sox game. It wasn't a form of protest; I just thought the team was not watchable, and I was not going to waste money on them. I stopped watching on TV as well. The team was just bad, and the play by play was worse. I know that fans not attending games does not affect Jerry Reinsdorf. But why should I go when the FO is making feeble attempts to build a winning team? I am not miserable, but I am disappointed. The team continues to sink to new lows. There has been a huge disconnect between the fans and this team for a long time. JR has never understood Sox fans. At this point in his life, he never will. I remember JR coming to Sox Fest and actually talking to the fans. If I had been at SoxFest, I wouldn't have yelled at him. I think it is a real shame there is no relationship between the owner and the fan. Perhaps there never was one, and that has been a big problem forever. You just can't demand fans attend games. You have to do something to get them there.

Tray, yet again choosing unity

Yes, you reap what you sow JR!

Typical. He's gutless as s%*#.

There’s a reason he issues press releases to relay his “disappointment” in the team. He doesn’t want to face the music. The truth is, as long as they are turning a profit for him, he’s fine.

Looks like the players were happy to be together at least...have to be bonded together to weather a storm like the final two months last season. Nice to see all the smiles. Plus, no Gavin Sheets (finally).

Some notes from tonight: Whoever said not kid friendly got it right. I brought my 7 yr old who enjoyed it anyway but having the kids location separate was not smart. Theres not really much for them to do and i felt like i observed other disappointed parents. This format works better for a smaller event and it was fine but nowhere near what it had been in years past. The "state of the Sox" seminar was very uncomfortable. Chris didn't have the balls to get up there so he loses points. The group gave a lot of cliche statements about playing hard, improving fundamentals blah blah blah. A lot of antsy people wanted to ask questions but instead shriffen and stone asked "fan" questions from pre selected cards. Here's where I give Scriffen a lot of credit. He saw this wasn't working and went to the audience for questions. There was no mic so he repeated them. Some okay, nothing super pressing, but props to him for getting a few legit questions. Jerry made an appearance from the balcony to watch. As soon as a handful of fans caught that and started chanting to "sell the team" he bolted. And the seminar was cut at about 30 minutes as they stated they ran out of time which was crap too. The meet and greets were the only thing that I thought worked. My son was pumped to get his first autographs and we legit walked right in and out with some of our younger players. This format will not work if this franchise ever draws legit interest again. Nice restoration though.

Sure, if there’s a government-mandated antitrust exemption that allows, for all intents and purposes, for all sandwiches to be purchased from you or one other competitor in the city of Chicago.

No, but we used to think of things like this as trivializing the holocaust.

As much as I hated watching that dude pitch - this seems like a solid move?

Any takes for these? If so, shoot me a DM with your email address and I will send them to you. Would hate for them to go to waste given the money is already sunk for me.

TBH, I wouldn't have green lighted a town hall format if I was the Sox either.

Anyone want a pair of tickets for tonight? Free of charge as long as you plan on using them and not selling them (which is probably difficult 😁).

They actually hyped the history of being in Bridgeport, which I found odd given their eagerness to leave the area.

Anyone else go to SoxFest last night? The format was incredibly different from the past as expected, in some ways good and other ways very bad. I will say anyone considering going tonight, it’s not very kid friendly. There are some meet and greets and you can technically get autographs, but you can’t bring in large pictures, bats, or even baseballs. The night started off with Len Kasper and his band playing music for about an hour. This neither good or bad, just some background music while you walked around and drank some beers. If you had an MVP package, you could meet some players at this time, but otherwise there wasn’t a ton to do. The merch they have there is incredibly limited, although they do have some cool “125 years” of White Sox baseball stuff (I did snag a hoodie). They then kicked off the real experience by bringing out all their young players and prospects. To be honest, I kind of got hyped in that moment because the sheer amount of players on stage was impressive. Just from my reallocation, you had Thorpe, Cannon, Burke, Schultz, Smith, Teel, Quero, C. Montgomery, B. Montgomery, Meidroth, Baldwin, Ramos, Vargas, & Wolkow. I’m sure I’m missing others and it doesn’t change the fact we have a long road ahead of us, but it was much cooler than seeing them try to sell guys like Tauchman & Slater. After that, they had their “2005 World Series” panel. Basically it was Our Chuck alongside Buehrle, Sweety Freddy, Contreras, & Baines. While it wasn’t anything crazy, it was a decent segment and some back & forth. They did reveal that Mark will be getting a statue and then Mark did buy a touch of beers for every adult in attendance (sorry kiddos), which was awesome given the $12 price tag. They then shift to a “State of the White Sox” with Getz & Venable. This was an absolute snooze fest with poor audio (IMO) and endless pre-curated, softball questions. I was ready and waiting for a town hall format so I could hold Chris accountable for certain past mistakes, but Boyer and his staff clearly designed this event to prevent a blood bath from occurring. You may be for or against putting a GM on the spot like this, but at least fan questions generate more interesting discussion than whatever the hell Kasper was feeding them. The event for those who didn’t pay for the ridiculously priced afterparty (I believe $100 for 1 hour) was some comedy thing involving fans and players. A comedian named Kevin Bozeman hosted and they did a variety of games that involved a mix of players and fans. At this point, I had snuck my way into the MVP area in the hopes of finding Chase Meidroth, but instead only found free sliders & fried mushrooms and a meet & greet event with Sean Burke & George Wolkow. The comedy thing seemed ok, but basically made up 25% of the event so I really question the point of it. But again, the event felt more like a party for White Sox fans than a typical SoxFest session. Last tip for anyone going, but they do have some Blue Moon raffle at the front where you have the chance to win some prize (I believe a lame Blue Moon jacket, but I drink a lot of Blue Moon and still wanted). You give them your phone number and they will text you if you won. I made the fortunate but unfortunate decision to make a quick exit as I was in hot pursuit of a breaded steak sandwich from Ricobene’s and missed a text notifying that I had won the raffle. And unfortunately, they only give you 10 minutes to claim, so make sure to check your phone from 8:30 to 9:00.

https://www.mlbplayers.com/milb-players

I was laughing at O's fans for being optimistic about this guy. you can go down to Hyde Park and see the role this dunce has played in 'overhauling' the neighborhood. Fewer bizarre bookstores and sex shops, more chipotles and capital one cafes (this is a real thing). more weird, post-modern architecture. more security guards running stop signs and playing loud music outside my house at 2am. The baseball team is an investment for him and nothing more. Well it's a little more, it's an ego-stroking venture as well. Check the bobblehead. This is an interesting 'labor' dispute because the players could theoretically get a lot more out of arbitration in exchange. Or reach free agency sooner. Reaching free agency sooner seems like something a majority of players would like and would earn more money from. I believe MILB and MLB players have different unions otherwise I think this is a much easier negotiation. Minor league wages, even after the raise they got, are pretty pathetic. Minor League baseball is the lifeblood of Major League baseball, baseball is a wholly different sport without the minor leagues, they should pay the guys a little more. Especially the guys who will never sniff the majors, they're playing an important role for the sport. I reckon Dominican 15-year-olds don't have a union because they'd probably have some things to ask for too.

I was gonna make some lame joke about Vaughn's chase rate, but I've reread that quote too many times and now I don't even know who I am anymore.

It's amazing how much damage Jerry caused from a PR perspective with his comments about "not wanting to waste a year" And while there are MANY things to be frustrated about regarding this organization, their continued lack of media training and strategy has always been maddening to me. To your point, they could have done themselves a lot of favors by coming out and saying "Listen, we had people here that quite frankly we're probably here too long. We can't do anything about that now, they're gone, and this isn't about putting a fresh coat of paint on things, this is about tearing it down to the studs and starting over. And I know Sox fans aren't going to love hearing that, I know the pain the fan base suffered through a rebuild that didn't result in what everyone wanted, but this organization needs an entirely new approach or we're going to all suffer similar results, and that's not acceptable to anyone. It's going to be painful, it's going to take time, but I am so committed to doing things the RIGHT way to build something that will have sustainable, long lasting success. It's all I care about." You say that out of the gate, you buy yourself A LOT of good will. But they went...a different route. And it's on THEM for that, not the fans.

They should probably do a similar deal involving Kjerstad as well since they keep blocking him and he's going to be 26 soon. O'Neill was such a waste of resources.

Of course the guy setting the direction and taking action will say that the team is going in the right direction. That said, I don't disagree. The moves he's made throughout the latter part of 2024 and into the 2024-2025 offseason, directionally, are what he should have done as soon as he took over at the end of 2023. Tear the fucker down and rebuild. He's done, more or less, what Hahn was credited and praised for doing (trading away big league assets for prospects). I don't think he's done all that well in terms of maximizing returns, but he's at least put the farm system into a respectable footing. The next couple of years are going to be painful at the big league level. Where Getz needs to focus (where Hahn failed) IMO are: 1. Treat the minor leagues as a factory and not a warehouse. Let players develop and mature - don't just rush prospects because you have a hole to fill. 2. Align player development, scouting / player acquisition, coaching, and front office philosophies across the organization, top to bottom. It seems like he's trying to do that, at least. 3. Convince JR to sell the team I see what Getz is doing, and, in general, I like it. It's going to make for an ugly 2025 and probably 2026 (the arrival of guys like Colson Montgomery, if it happens, will just be the beginning... or the the start of the end of the ugly years), and it can still fail... but the organization needed (still needs?) to be stripped down to the studs to be able to build, and it looks like Getz recognizes that. Again, it's going to continue to be ugly in the short term.

Turning 32 in a month. Which season looks like the outlier? https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/p/profaju01.shtml So bad.