South Side Sox — 2023 Coverage Guide

Mar 30, 2023 - 1:18 PM

Hello, and welcome to Opening Day here at South Side Sox!

It’s the sixth year of White Sox coverage piloted by me, with Year of the Hamster navigating and Darren Black providing tireless MiLB work. Some of our writers have been with you here for as many as five years now, including Joe Resis and Julie Brady.

We begin the year with a robust masthead of 37 writers, devoted to providing more regular coverage than ever on South Side Sox. Whether our White Sox prove worthy of the extra effort, only time will tell.

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But first, a word about Sox Populi
The news came abruptly, then the transition moved slowly. Then, once it seemed that Opening Day would pass with no real changes, things sped up quickly. Thus we never really posted about the changes in our podcast. There were a couple of summaries on podcast posts here, but for those of you who don’t listen, or don’t need to read about a podcast you’re already subscribed/listening to, the changes might have been abrupt.

When SB Nation decided to shutter some sites (like our pals at Second City Hockey), the decision was also made to end support of many more podcasts, including nearly all of the MLB podcasts. But with that bad news came some good: SBN would be passing ownership of the podcast to each site, including all archives.

Haven’t noticed a single change about how you are getting or listening to our podcast? That’s because we never moved from Megaphone/Spotify, and thus nothing needed to change. Aside from the new name, Sox Populi (have you seen the Easter egg in our logo yet?), nothing should have changed for you as a listener/subscriber. And honestly, thanks are due to SBN for aiding that smooth transition, and for letting us promote the podcast on South Side Sox pages.

To review, our deposed MLB sites banded together under the leadership of Brian Salvatore (Amazin’ Avenue) and connected with (mostly canceled SBN) podcasts in other sports to form the Fans First Sports Network. Nearly every MLB team has a podcast with us there, and we’ll also have a number of national baseball shows, some of which will turn up on our Sox Populi feed/player.

Our Patreon has rebranded as Sox Populi, and your support for us there will help us expand our programming and provide exclusive content to you, including the ability to join our Slack discussions and help drive our content and decision-making. We no longer get a penny from Vox/SBN to provide our podcast, so as much as we continue to offer it here to you for free, that is a grace we are extending our South Side Sox readers — because the podcast is no longer paid for, we sure could use, and would appreciate, your support.

Is there a fine line that divides South Side Sox and Sox Populi? Sure, we are the same personnel in both places, as before. But there is no official connection any longer.

It sucks to beg. But if you do enjoy the podcasts, as little as a $1 a month will help us.

I admit, while I have outlined big plans and some unique supporter engagement for the Patreon in the past, I’ve been a pretty poor Patreon promoter and administrator. Certainly now that we can be more open about it (during most the six seasons this crew has been working SSS, we have not been allowed to promote it here, where we do our work!), I aim to be much better in that sense. Over at the Patreon, I’ve penned a note that explains a little more about how your support will work for us, and what you get out of it. And the benefits are evolving as we speak.

Sox Populi podcast specifics
As you perhaps have already seen, Chrystal O’Keefe is now hosting her own show in the Sox Populi network, Visiting Dugout. In addition to the tireless writing she commits to here as our busiest writer on site, Chrystal is hosting programs that will preview our upcoming series opponent. It’ll be great fun, as Chrystal is a terrific host — and you’ll learn something, too.

Sharing Sox, with Will and Leigh Allan, has now blown past 100 episodes and is in its fourth year with us. Will is maintaining weekly shows even as he is about to appear in The Cherry Orchard at the Goodman Theatre throughout April.

At the moment, none of our other “auxiliary” podcasts look like they will be starting back up anytime soon (Killer B’s, Estrogen Power Hour, North Side Sox, etc.). But the old standbys continue on:

• Mothership Sox Populi podcast
• Pre- and postgame Sox Pop podcasts, as applicable
• Sox Populi on the Farm

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South Side Sox in print

For all games this year, will will be featuring the SBN standard of gamethread/recap. For most games this year, we add to that, by layering on heavy coverage:

• Six Pack of Stats metrics analysis and game polls
• Bird App Recap social media survey
• Postgame column, printed on-site first thing next-day
• Minor League Update, with game recaps and stat lines of every affiliate game, plus player polls

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Schedule of writers

Gamethread/recap
Sunday: Hannah LaMotta
Monday: Melissa Sage-Bollenbach/Di Billick
Tuesday: Joe Resis
Wednesday: Malachi Hayes
Thursday: Kristina Airdo
Friday: Jordan Hass
Saturday: Allie Wesel
Select weekday day games: Leigh Allan

Six Pack of Stats
Sunday: Malachi Hayes
Monday: Kristina Airdo
Tuesday: Chrystal O’Keefe
Wednesday: Chrystal O’Keefe
Thursday: Melissa Sage-Bollenbach
Friday: Delia Ritchie/Chrystal O’Keefe
Saturday: Chrystal O’Keefe/potluck

Bird App Recap
Sunday: Dante Jones/Kristina Airdo
Monday: Allie Wesel
Tuesday: Chrystal O’Keefe
Wednesday: Chrystal O’Keefe
Thursday: Jacki Krestel/Ryiin
Friday: Adrian Serrano/Jacki Krestel
Saturday: Jordan Hass

Next-Day Columns
Sunday: Mitch Ransdell (White Sox Player of the Week)
Monday: Krestel/Jones/O’Keefe/Ballantini, plus Darren Black’s MiLB Player of the Week
Tuesday: Di Billick/Melissa Sage-Bollenbach
Wednesday: Brian O’Neill/Joe Resis
Thursday: Brett Ballantini/Hannah LaMotta
Friday: Malachi Hayes/Leigh Allan
Saturday: Allie Wesel/Adrian Serrano

Minor League Update
Sunday: Darren Black
Tuesday: Darren Black
Wednesday: Joe Resis
Thursday: Julie Brady
Friday: Julie Brady
Saturday: Brett Ballantini/Kristina Airdo

Brian O’Neill has also taking on the first month of Know Your Enemy series previews. This year, repeat opponents will be the subject of shorter and more focused previews called Since We Last Met.

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Discounting all the spot news and spontaneous analysis that will be delivered on an as-demanded basis, we have 972 scheduled game articles coming to you by season’s end.

Again, we hope the entire organization, and especially our South Siders, prove worthy of the enormous attention we’re placing on them.

As always, we thank you for your readership and participation here at South Side Sox. We hope to prove worthy of the enormous attention you’re placing on us.

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