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What is new is that this is the first time Ishbia has publicly commented on his intention to get a new stadium built and his commitment to keep the team in Chicago. I know we can say "well, duh! that's been so obvious for months", but as far as I know this is the first time he's said anything at all about the team and the stadium situation. The only other instance I'm aware of in which Ishbia said anything to the media was his generic press release after news broke about the eventual sale of the franchise to him. I find this story exciting because it's an affirmation from the future owner of the team of what we've expected for months to be in the works. And yeah, there's no doubt a lot of work going on behind the scenes. Not only do you not come in cold on a $2B franchise purchase, but even for a billionaire, I don't imagine it's as simple as writing a $1B check for a new stadium as if you were putting down payment on a new house.

SportsGuy is in shambles

I don't even think MLB: The Show would let you force this trade.

Best news of the offseason

Goodness gracious this is stupid.

To try to stick it to labor one last time before riding off into the sunset?

Actually his brother is the majority owner of the Suns but he is involved. And yes, they made the moves to get guys like Beal and Durant to go along with Booker. It didn't work out but they at least tried

JR is such an asshole for keeping the team and putting us through him doing absolute jackshit.

So... how's about those new coaches!!

This should at least limit speculation for the small number (and you know who you are) continually fretting over the "Sox moving to Nashville." Ishbia's going to build a new stadium I suspect most of it with his own money at some location in the Chicago area. Just reading the Sun-Times story, my God already the difference between him and JR is like night and day. I just hope to hell I'm still alive to see this happen.

Os fans are about at the point in the timeline where Jerry forced TLR back into the dugout. They have to be losing their minds.

I swear to god this fucking team.

Time will tell. But given his net worth is four billion dollars I suspect writing checks won't bother him like JR, who basically tries to write as few checks as possible. We'll see.

From the Sun-Times article: “My view is, this is a community asset. This belongs to the city of Chicago. It’s my job as steward, when it’s my turn, to do my very best to create wonderful, happy memories and moments for Chicago fans all over the city and all over the world.”

I’d buy low on a guy like Kjerstad if they don’t want to play him. f*** it.

“I wish it was yesterday. I’d love to be the steward of a wonderful franchise. I’m the biggest baseball fan you’ll find. My goal is to win." --Justin Ishbia. In one conversation he has shown himself to be a complete opposite of Reinsdorf and exactly what this franchise desperately needs. Just hope I'm around to see it when it happens.

In the Crain's story, Ishbia also describes the Sox as "Chicago's asset": "I never use the word owner. I talk about the word steward," he said. The Sox are "the community's asset. There will be someone who is the steward after me. But this is Chicago's asset, and I will be the steward for a period of time.

Very interesting news after months of silence. As long as Ishbia wasn't at the Vatican to ask the Pope for a miracle to get a new stadium built! 😉

Don't do this.

Oh hell yea!!! (Or should it be heaven yea) new stadium confirmed!

[T]his morning in Vatican City Justin and his wife Kristen met the pope, delivered a team autographed 2005 White Sox World Series replica jersey, and conveyed the first pitch invitation to Pope Leo, who said yes so long as his schedule permits. [...] "I requested His Holiness Pope Leo XIV bless the anticipated new home of the White Sox and pray that he lifts the team and Chicago in peace and strength," Ishbia said.

Even more than his "defense" is that his baseball IQ seems to be non-existent. He's just a baseball dumb player. I also feel like LF is a better position for guys like that too. If he is going to hang on, he has got to figure a position to stick on, and with the Sox current make up, it almost certainly isn't going to be 2B, and he doesn't look to hit enough to DH.

For all of the urge to play position players out of position we have had historically, I don't get why we haven't looked at trying to get Lenyn into somewhere like LF. The bat would play out there, and it isn't like he would be replacing a defensive whiz or a bat first LF anyway.

Bringing this back to full circle, I will note a few things here. -Judging by the fact that the White Sox were willing to trade for fringe of the 40 man roster guys from other teams instead of putting their own internal guys on the 40, I think that tells us a lot about what they ACTUALLY think of some of these guys, despite what gets published about them. -There is nothing wrong with looking to benefit from other teams roster crunches, and looking to marginally improve the roster, especially in areas of known weakness, such as the OF. -FInd someone who loves you like Chris Getz loves a fallen top prospect. -I have no problem with trading a guy like Gomez who is older and struggling to make it, but I am not as big of a fan of trading our younger guys like Ronny Hernandez. Those are the kinds of guys we should be hoarding like a Boomer with bicentennial quarters. -It's probably the PTSD talking, but after reading up about Murphy and how lucky his 2025 was, he is probably our next Wilson. I get we need a LOT of innings filled next year, and they all can't be internal, but hopefully he proves me wrong. I don't mind getting a guy like that in a roster dump for roster dump deal though. Maybe Pitching Coach to be Named Later is really as good as they say he is and can fix him.

Considering you have been cyberstalking me for years now, who knows. One day hopefully you will get over it and move... but I doubt it. Seems to be every Soxtalk interaction you make these days. Pity party indeed.

I’m gonna vehemently disagree with this. Those appearances meant nothing to the “ilk” because they were immediately followed by failure and another rebuild. This owner has failed to capitalize on any playoff appearance, they haven’t won a playoff series since 05, and fans aren’t wrong to be pissed about it.

sounds like Ishbia leaked some news to Clay Travis. Pope to bless the “anticipated new home” … where the new home is, is TBD https://www.outkick.com/culture/pope-leo-agrees-throw-out-first-pitch-white-sox-new-stadium-after-invite-from-team-owner-clay-travis

I have a hard time listening to Bernstein because it’s not really live. I still will check it out here and there, but I still listen to the score because of the updates and breaking news

Off season is all about winning the draft litter on Dec 9.

Calling Getz a Yes man is what got him hired is a gross over simplification unless you can give me examples for things Jerry did the Getz was in favor of. Getz' sin was being a part of an unsuccessful organization and surviving the initial purge and then continuing the purge while fans said he was guilty by association because he couldnt Save Our Sox all by himself. Yes he was an in house and likely cheap hire. But if you speak up to the owner and likely say that KW and Hahn made insular decisions and left you out of decision making processes and that in their position that you would have a more collaborative and communicative process for decision making does that make you a Yes Man or just a guy who rather have seen things done differently ? Under JR' current ownership philosophy of staying out of debt so his sons can sell after his death without incurring large taxes Getz is dealing with a Reinsdorf no other GM of the Sox has ever dealt with before. So yes its a sad state of affairs and a slow climb from the abyss and could stall because prospects will fail and looking for hidden gems among other teams failed prospects and from Rule 5 picks is unlikely to be a winning strategy no matter who you hire as coaches. I just want to see some upwards movement towards .500 before the Ishbia's take over . But without some money you need a lot of draft picks to succeed and even Tampa Bay despite years of doing about as well as they could without much money never won a World Series. I think currently Getz is getting less than Tampa Bay because they get no competitive balance help from the league. It's a no win situation but its not an I give up situation either. Getz and his crew are unlikely to survive when new ownership arrives even if he gets the Sox above .500 at some point. As I said he's in a no win situation. So it's hard for me to scapegoat him . Everything he's doing is on a small scale while the rest of the GMs try to fleece him knowing the Sox are no threat unless they give him prospects who succeed.

How long are you supposed to act like a broken hearted kicked puppy ? I'm just trying to represent a fair shake for what they are trying to accomplish while Jerry is estate planning and has little to no interest in spending anything. I could just as easily say your side is a doomsday cult. There are always different KoolAids to gulp . One is for living and one is for dying . I'd rather not be a part of the Sox Jonestown. The term drinking the KoolAid actually became part of our lexicon to mean blind allegiance to a doomed cause after the Jonestown Incident . Odd to think it applies to having hope or belief that things could be getting better even without much financing or help from ownership. Pity Party On Garths !

https://x.com/MLBPipeline/status/1990981897619468381?t=f94ZznUPfmhcdQh5bejPgA&s=19 Sam Antonacci, Braden Montgomery, and Hagen Smtih named as AFL standouts here.

Obviously this is more fun because he's a Sox fan, but man, it's such a joy that the first American pope is a huge sports fan.

Sounds like he'd be happy to: https://chicago.suntimes.com/pope-leo-xiv/2025/11/19/justin-ishbia-pope-white-sox-stadium

JR's entire ownership of this franchise has been based on his ego, his certainty that anything he does is right, his belief that players are overpaid and his disdain for the fan base. Yea he wants to get every, single solitary dime he can out of this until he is no longer above ground. He wants as much as possible for his family. He's like many billionaires in this regard. Greed above all.

Vatican security advised guests not to hand any gifts directly to the pope, but when Leo saw Ishbia had brought along a Sox jersey signed by members of the 2005 World Series-winning squad, “he looked at me and he goes, ‘No, no, no, hold on — that stays here with me,’” Ishbia recalled. “He was excited to have this jersey with, I’m guessing, some of his heroes, the Paul Konerkos and Ozzie Guillens of the world. It was really cool that he didn’t want to follow protocol. He wanted to have it near him,” said Ishbia, who lives in Chicago and is building a massive home in Winnetka. “I’ll do my very best to create more wonderful memories for Chicago White Sox fans,” he said. Those were encouraging words for fans patiently waiting for change. The new era at least has a timestamp. And it officially began Wednesday in Rome, which sources say was not built in a day.

You’ve gone way too far down the rabbit hole of Caulfield’s mind

He stated that if he wanted to commute he'd have just bought the Twins, that Chicago is his home and he is keeping the team here.

I think this says his medicals are shot. Which wouldn't be surprising.

While I know the story is technically "new", there really isn't anything "new" in there besides Ish reaching out to The Pope. We have known forever that the Sox are working a new stadium, and that they were looking at places which aren't 35th and Shields. We have also have had multiple discussions emphasizing the current lack of decision making power for Ishbia in the sales agreement, and what the time period for the transition looked like. The fact that Isbhia is publicly deferring to Jerry isn't new. I am sure behind the scenes they are working on the bigger picture items, as there is no way that a guy making a 2 billion dollar investment in a MLB franchise is doing it without having some sort of a say so in a franchise altering decision such as where the team will play for the next generation or two. The one insight I take from this article is the definite effort to put Jerry out in front of what was going on now, which definitely jives with the conspiracy theory that Jerry is going to be the guy who goes out and throws punches to try to get deals done on a stadium and baseball labor, while Ishbia quietly sits back and waits for the clouds to clear and his time to walk in and take over is here. I feel like the bad cop/good cop thing is real and happening right in front of our faces.

It's always been garbage because of the size of hte database.

And he should totally wear one of his Pope Leo 14 White Sox jerseys when he does this.

Since Beni is injured and going to primarily DH put Sosa in LF. We threw Vaughn and Eloy out there what's the worst that can happen.

Wow they were even a couple of roster spots lighter than I thought, and I was on the far end of the low protection scale here.

A+++ comment. nailed it sir!

In case you're wondering if Pope Leo has still been keeping up with the Sox...