Baseball is back! Even if the sport is just a secondary thought where the White Sox are concerned.

SSS duty geezer Leigh Allan and his son and west coast correspondent, Will, actually manage to get in a lengthy chat about the team before turning to the main topic of the day (week, month, year, decade) and addressing the incredible, grasping greed of Jerry Reinsdorf (not that we harbor any dislike for him or anything).

On the baseball front, there are congrats to Tim Anderson on signing with the Marlins, Liam Hendriks on signing with the Red Sox, and anybody else we can think of who escaped the White Sox. Then there is lengthy talk of what in the world should be done about Dylan Cease, both with regard to possible trades and with regard to possibly encouraging him to throw strikes; a look at the probable starting lineup as it stands now, with hopes there are now some fielders who can catch the damned ball; and careful avoidance of predicting the 2024 record.

Then it is, of course, on to Reinsdorf’s desire that taxpayers stuff his pockets with more than a billion dollars, and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s apparent openness to the scheme. The word is “no,” Mr. Mayor. To be followed by, “Never, ever a penny. Get out of my office you greedy, grasping jerk.”

Not that we oppose the idea of bankrupting the city and state for the benefit of billionaires, of course.

Listen below, on our built-in Megaphone player:

or follow along with every episode at Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or wherever you consume your podcasts. Or, you can watch the podcast on the Sox Populi YouTube channel.

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Ready or not, Chrystal O’Keefe and Brian O’Neill join Brett Ballantini to address the official-unofficial start of the 2024 season, as spring training officially gets underway in Glendale, Ariz.:

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South Side Sox progeny, or papa, Sox Machine is heading to press row, with James Fegan in tow. That’s much more interesting and inspiring than anything the White Sox have done this offseason, so it’s how Chrystal O’Keefe, Joe Resis, Brian O’Neill, Dante Jones, Malachi Hayes and Brett Ballantini open our latest podcast:

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Ah, The 78! No, that’s not how many games experts think the White Sox will win this year ... even if you include spring training. It is, of course, the proposal unveiled this week for a new Sox stadium on the south edge of the South Loop.

SSS duty geezer Leigh Allan and his son and west coast correspondent, Will, delve into the new concept, and then have a good laugh over the possibility Jerry Reinsdorf et al. would actually pay for it with their own money, rather than try to soak the taxpayers of Chicago and Illinois.

But, that’s not all! Heck, no.

There’s trying to cajole Hall of Fame voters to make sure Mark Buehrle stays on the ballot for another year.

There’s reviewing all the incredible moves the White Sox have made this offseason to improve the team for 2024 and beyond (did you miss them?).

There’s discussion of the immediate futures of Dylan Cease and Eloy Jiménez.

There’s even an apology to the people of Kansas City for badmouthing the Sox for their dependency of the Royals for staff and players. We had previously wondered why the White Sox would want personnel from one of the only teams in MLB worse than themselves, which was totally unfair, because pretty much every prognosticator predicts the Royals will be better than the Sox in 2024. And probably beyond. Well beyond.

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Accompanying our SSS Hall of Fame ballot on site comes our traditional, accompanying podcast discussing the candidates and sometimes arguing about Billy Wagner. In on the discussion are Malachi Hayes, Dante Jones, Joe Resis and Brett Ballantini:

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Launching into 2024, we decided to pick the one thing we must see from the White Sox in 2024, and while our companion piece to this podcast is available to read on site, four writers (Melissa Sage-Bollenbach, Dante Jones, Joe Resis and Brett Ballantini) also opted into discussion our choices:

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Our special early gift under the tree for Week 4 is the finale of our South Side Sox Soxivus Celebration: Soxivus Miracles!

To wind things up, we predict the White Sox for 2024. (Our companion piece to this podcast is available to read, featuring some writers not appearing on this podcast.) Straightforward, right? Well, also, it wasn’t easy to come up with any!

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A slightly-delayed Week 3 of the South Side Sox Soxivus Celebration rolls out, this time with Feats of Strength!

This time, we predict who or what will prevail during the course of this latest don’t-call-it-a-rebuild rebuild of the White Sox. (Our companion piece to this podcast is available to read, featuring some writers not appearing on this podcast.)

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The White Sox didn’t get Shohei Ohtani, but they did get Chuckie Robinson, so SSS duty geezer Leigh Allan and his son and far, far, far west correspondent Will , who’s coming live and in color direct from Honolulu where he’s doing an episode of NCIS: Hawaii, have plenty of good news to talk about.

Well, OK, not necessarily good ... but news, anyway.

What news? Well, there’s getting a bunch of players in trades and free agency, some of them even capable of pretending to have major league ability for days at a time, or at least innings at a time.

Then it became holiday speculation time, from what may be reaped in trades of Dylan Cease or Eloy Jiménez or the beer guy that usually patrols left field seats. There’s also speculation about the next year and the next century and how many more centuries Jerry Reinsdorf will live and keep the White Sox from being any good.

And after speaking of Scrooge, there’s much talk about players past, players present, and players future (see how I worked in A Christmas Carol there?), followed by a long lament on the loss of Jason Benetti, who was often the only reason to watch a Sox game on the tube.

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Tommy Barbee, Chrystal O'Keefe, Melissa Sage-Bollenbach, Dante Jones and Brett Ballantini gathered together during the Soxivus season to take on the biggest of our celebrations: The Airing of Grievances.

Watch and participate, as we all drag out our pitchforks and stab the White Sox into swiss cheese.

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