Sox Populi - A Chicago White Sox podcast

Chrystal and Grey chat about the upcoming series in San Diego.

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Duty geezer Leigh Allan and his son and west coast correspondent, Will, naturally venture onto the subject of an article in The Athletic titled “The Owner Who Thinks He Knows Everything” (guess who), but first Will has a report on attending the White Sox game in Anaheim on Wednesday night (Loss 116).

The report? How little the Sox even warm up on the field before a game compared to other teams. How unconcerned the players in the dugout seemed during the 5-0 loss (Will was four rows behind them). How awful Luis Robert Jr. looks at the plate, even against an Angels pitcher who led the American League in earned runs surrendered this season. How the Sox even made errors in trying to be fan-friendly, when both Miguel Vargas and Nicky Lopez tried to toss Will a ball after an inning and threw to an Angels fan instead.

And as for the long article in The Athletic, it was a nice consolidation of things most White Sox fans already knew, like what a jerk Jerry Reinsdorf is, what a tightwad he remains in important spending categories, how backward his ideas about baseball are, how his personnel decisions guarantee a terrible team, etc., etc., etc. But the lede in the article was new to both of us — the plane.

Seems that while 29 major league teams charter planes with enough first class-type seats for all the players and staff, Reinsdorf has the White Sox fly on a dated aircraft with a total of six first class seats, and the rest coach. Coach! For sometimes very large people whose physical condition is worth millions of dollars to you. Sure, you don’t like to fly coach but you do, and we don’t like doing it either but we do, but that’s not the same — witness the 29 teams who put out a little extra money to potentially save tens of millions in player performance.

But that’s Reinsdorf. And those are the White Sox, who grind on toward officially having the most losses in history. And who already weren’t going to have any good free agents or respected management people join the team until Reinsdorf is gone unless they overpaid by at least 100%. But now that word spread about the plane, it may be 200%.

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In the eighth episode of the Ladies' Night podcast, Hannah LaMotta, Delia Ritchie, Melissa Sage-Bollenbach, and Allie Wesel discussed several topics related to our beloved — or despised, depending on the day — South Siders. Whether you're a die-hard White Sox fan or not, there's something for everyone. So, sit back, relax, and grab your favorite beverage because the girls hit a home run conversing about all things baseball, including:

Have a look at the Sox Populi YouTube channel (and don’t be a flake — subscribe to the channel!) and/or listen on Megaphone below.

Please support our White Sox writing and podcasts by clicking this Patreon link.

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Ed Hand joins to chat about the Red Sox and their upcoming series with the White Sox. The episode quickly runs off the rails but in the best way, and turns into some dudes just naming players. Kidding! Sort of.

Here is what we discussed:

You can follow the delightful Ed Hand on Twitter and listen to Pod By The River and To The Show We Go.

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The greater portion of White Sox fans goes from cheering for victories to rooting for losses so we can say we were there to see the record of the 1962 Mets broken. Thus duty geezer Leigh Allan and his son and west coast correspondent, Will, indulge in deep discussion as to the likelihood that Will might have a chance to be present to see the team he’s been a fan of his entire life officially become the worst in the (modern) history of the major leagues, while the Sox are in California to play the Angels and Padres.

Wednesday night’s surprise victory over the Orioles notwithstanding, the Sox are definitely in line to set the record for awfulness, but the duo can’t quite come up with the math to make a west coast futility celebration probable. Possible, yes, but it now seems likely No. 121 will come at home, or even, if the Sox get hot, Detroit.

That computed, conversation goes on to the revivification of Michael Kopech now that he plays for a real team, the dismay (and bad play) of Miguel Vargas — and most importantly, what is going on with Luis Robert Jr.? Can the recent superstar can improve enough in the last few games to be a reasonably valuable trade chip in the off season, or are the Sox better off keeping him into next year?

Then there’s discussion of analytics departments, r&d and such ... things other major league teams find useful, and which the White Sox might want to try some day.

And, oh yes, a philosophical look at whether it’s a case that White Sox coaches don’t give proper instructions, or that the players just don’t listen.

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There is no way to avoid acknowledging the horribleness of this White Sox season, and as promised in the Saturday podcast commemorating a record-tying 106th loss, Brett Ballantini came right back to acknowledge Sunday's record-breaking 107th with another, and even longer, solo podcast.

Points Brett made while talking to himself:

Watch the podcast over at YouTube if you so choose, or listen on the podcast player below.

If you like our work here and want to support us, please click our Patreon link and make a commitment!

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There is no way to avoid acknowledging the horribleness of this White Sox season in real time, sometimes, and this is one of those sometimes. An under-the-weather Brett Ballantini mans the mothership solo to navigate a 106th season loss — tying the all-time White Sox single-season record — on August 31 of the season! Points Brett made while talking to himself:

Reviewing the prior end-of-season projection that had started with the Yankees series, and despite all the details of each series being wrong ... the final record projection is still dead on, and DEAD UGLY

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The wonderful Tim Ryder joined me again to chat about the state of the Mets. Despite being in third in the National League East, the Mets are closing in on Atlanta and hoping for a Wild Card spot.

An invigorating trade deadline added depth to their lineup, Pete Alonso and Francisco Lindor have been on a roll lately, and overall better baseball is being played in Queens.

Here is what we talked about:

You can follow Tim on the artist formally known as Twitter, listen at Simply Amazin', and read The Apple.

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The Tigers are coming to town to face the White Sox, who are fresh off a win. I never thought I'd have a chance to say that again. Friend of the pod Rogelio Castillo joined me to chat about the third series of the season against Detroit, and an update on all things Tigers.

Here is what we talked about:

You can follow Rogelio on Twitter and be sure to follow along at Motor City Metrics and the Tigers ML Report.

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The White Sox make their final stop of their Western road trip to Oracle Park to face the fourth-place Giants. Don't let their spot in the division fool you though, the Giants are still in playoff contention.

Britt of Casual Diehard joined me again this season to chat about what the Giants are up to and what the White Sox should expect in the series.

Here is what we talked about:

You can follow Britt on Twitter and listen to her chat about baseball and F1 on a Casual Diehard podcast near you.

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