Meet the Players: International Women’s Day Edition with Di Billick
To wrap things up, it’s someone whose fandom is never “acting”
We wind up what turned out to be more than a week of International Women’s Day tributes with Di Billick, a true slash artist: actress/writer/comedian/cook/gamer/something else she just started doing while I was writing up this slash.
Di was a September call-up for us back in 2021 and has been a consistent recapper since then. But then, “consistent recapper” doesn’t really do her work justice. Never content with a straight, play-by-play story or mundane prose, she’s made ice cream, constructed crosswords, read lips, soothsayed season predictions with a brick, covered games out of thin air, transformed into an gallery docent, broke into dirges about Dallas Keuchel, created a fake promotional slate, written songs about sliding into home
conducted a self-interview as Tony La Russa
and more. Much, much more.
I wish we could have even more Di here than our weekly trips through White Sox baseball together, as fun repartee marks every interaction we have. She’s become a dear friend I have great affection for.
And that holds true for all of the amazing women we have here on staff: Each deserves a wider platform, more money for their work, greater attention for their efforts. And mostly, I love them all and am so lucky to have them here with me. As part of the feedback I give everyone (probably more often than they’d like), acknowledgement of the uniqueness and power of their voices always tops the list.
I feel blessed to have so many talented women writing, analyzing, podcasting, and photographing for South Side Sox. We are reduced by the circumstances of our times both by the team we cover and the economic reality of our times to focus more on ourselves as a collective that shares all and a family that cares about one another. But that’s no small consolation prize.
Thank you to Chrystal O’Keefe for spearheading our effort with this series, as well as Melissa Sage-Bollenbach, Year of the Hamster, Jacki Krestel, Ashley Sanders, Hannah LaMotta, Kristina Airdo, Allie Wesel and Di Billick for sharing their stories.
What questions are you tired of being asked as a woman in sports media?
Hot take, but it’s getting better than it was because it’s being discussed. It used to be that having a sports opinion wasn’t taken seriously, because some toxic dudes convinced themselves that women were into Man Things™ in order to appeal to men, which is absurd. Why would anyone invest an ounce of energy feigning interest in something so all-encompassing? These days, it’s a little easier to be taken seriously. It used to be like, “Oh, you like baseball? Name every player that’s ever lived.”
My Cubs-hating villain origin story was me being debated by Wrigley bros who watched one game a year and liked to say the White Sox sucked even during years they didn’t. I can’t tell you how many times that happened. I’m obviously exacting my revenge through talking shit about the Cubs through this medium. It’s the best.
How did you arrive at South Side Sox?
Brett recruited me after reading one of my sporadic White Sox tweets that were sandwiched between the alienating and niche video game tweets.
What particular challenges have you found in covering baseball?
My challenges in covering baseball are primarily health-based and have nothing to do with my gender, and I like to credit the entire SSS cooperative for that. Look at all these sick-ass ladies. It’s a great space where I feel comfortable to be myself, and that’s rare.
What particular satisfaction have you gotten from covering baseball?
As an actor and writer dictating most of my own schedule, it’s challenging to have a consistent routine, and picking a day to cover White Sox games has been grounding. Sometimes I get one day to be off-book for three pages of copy, with no warning, and the unpredictability aspect is fun but tends to be disorienting. Game coverage legitimizes my hobby of trying to watch all the games in a season, and keeps my brain fresh if I have writer’s block on a different project. Mostly it’s fun, and I have a great time crystalizing my rash opinions for all to be subjected to.
If you could say something to the next generation of women in sports media, what would it be?
Be yourself. Don’t apologize for having myriad interests and talents outside of sports, because they’re lying when they tell you that you have to choose between one thing or the other. Do them all, and don’t think you’re too busy, or too established in one dimension, or too old to start something new, because you don’t owe anyone an explanation. Women are expected to be one-dimensional experts by people who are one-dimensional, so don’t invalidate yourself due to pressure from others. You can indulge all of your talents and interests if you choose, and anyone who says otherwise hasn’t afforded themselves the opportunity to explore their own potential.
What brought you to love baseball?
I want to say my dad, who I’ve mentioned quite a lot in my coverage, but I also took to baseball stronger than other sports. I tried to get into football for literal decades, and I watch a lot of games, but I’ll never love it like I love baseball. I’ve tried hockey too, but the only thing I love about it is the warm up pants my husband gave me from his college hockey days. Basketball is a lame-ass dunkfest, except March Madness, of course. Almost none of my friends love baseball (they’re a 50/50 split of men and women and most like sports), so I tend to coax people into my hobbies and interests, and they entertain me because they’re the best.
The sports world thankfully has plenty of trailblazers now. Is there someone you look up to or who inspired you to start covering baseball?
I loved Nancy Faust when I was growing up, because I’ve written music since I was a kid, and for a while I wanted to be a musician. I wrote a Father’s Day article last year where I talked about her and we chatted in DM, and she’s just as nice as you’d imagine. An absolute gem.