Opening Day Gamethread: Tigers at White Sox

Plus, your South Side Sox coverage guide for the season!

The season sure did sneak up on me. But as I take my traditional leadoff spot in the batting order with the Opening Day game, let’s take a second to outline our South Side Sox season ahead, before getting to lineups and again scratch the existential dread on the 2024 season.

We are modifying our coverage this season, given the safe likelihood of a 100-loss season. Gamethreads and recaps (with MVP/Cold Cats polls) always, but our Six Pack of Stats and Bird App Recap stories will be more selective, for the most significant games on the schedule. I want to say offhand it’s about a quarter of the games. But that can be adjusted, in the strange case that the White Sox play well (!) or are on the verge of a historically-bad season.

White Sox Game Coverage

Hannah LaMotta (Sundays)
Ryiin/Allie Wesel (Mondays)
Di Billick (Tuesdays)
Melissa Sage-Bollenbach (Wednesdays)
Malachi Hayes (Thursdays)
Chrystal O’Keefe (Fridays)
Leigh Allan (Saturday days)

Game/Next-Day White Sox Columns

Dante Jones/Tommy Barbee (Sundays)
Joe Resis (Mondays/MiLB)
Kristina Airdo (Tuesdays/MLB)
Malachi Hayes/Melissa Sage-Bollenbach (Wednesdays)
Joe Resis/Chrystal O’Keefe (Thursdays)
Mitch Ransdell/Brett Ballantini (POTW Fridays)
Leigh Allan (Saturdays)
Brian O’Neill (bon vivant columnist-at-large)

Minor League Updates

Kristina Airdo (Sundays)
Brett Ballantini (Mondays)
Brett/Year of the Hamster/Salina Rae Silver (Tuesdays)
Joe Resis (Wednesdays)
Salina Rae Silver (Thursdays)
Salina Rae Silver (Fridays)
Kristina/Brett/Hamster (Saturdays)

Podcasts

Sox Populi Mothership Podcast Brett Ballantini hosts a revolving cast some Mondays, some Thursdays
Sox Pop on the Farm Brett Ballantini devotes a show to one affiliate every Tuesday
Soxy Chicks Chrystal O’Keefe and Bayleigh Von Schneider talk Sox White and Red every other Wednesday
Ladies’ Night (Melissa Sage-Bollenbach hosts Jacki Krestel, Allie Wesel, Kristina Airdo and Hannah LaMotta with a possible revolving cast every other Wednesday
Visiting Dugout Chrystal O’Keefe’s series previews with guest opponents, usually Mondays and Fridays
Sharing Sox Father-son Leigh and Will Allan talk White Sox on a near-weekly basis, TBD
DISH Deluxe sporadic history podcast with Brett Ballantini, Mark Liptak and sometimes others

As always, we will have pick-by-pick features (20 in all) of every choice made by the White Sox later this summer, published in real time over three days of drafting. We’re going to try to have a “group write” story/podcast package once a month. And surely some other things I’m forgetting in the jumble of Opening Day.

Now, on to Opening Day, then.

It’s a partly cloudy 50° (feels like 44°) at game time, but hey, it’s March anything brighter than cloudy and warmer than 40° is a win.

First, some stuff we already sorta knew, made official:

Somewhat-ballyhooed (he better be ballyhooed, he cost us Cristian Mena) right fielder Dom Fletcher sits against the Opening Day southpaw, so instead we get is-he-isn’t-he a White Sock Kevin Pillar rocking right today. Otherwise, let’s just be happy that this entire flaccid roster is currently healthy and raring to go.

Garrett Crochet of the 13 career starts at ANY level dating back to grade school Crochets, gets the nod as the most surprising White Sox Opening Day starter since Ricky Horton in 1988.

This Tigers lineup backs Cy Young hopeful (seriously, some of our writers picked him?) Tarik Skubal. Many, including I, have made Detroit a sexy division title pick for 2024. But in my case, it’s more because the ALC, though improved, is still meh. Why not have the Tigers on top, they’ll only need to win 90 or so.

First pitch scheduled for but probably not quite tossed at 3:10 p.m. CT, broadcast available at NBC Sports Chicago. Radio comes in at 1000-AM ESPN or 1200-AM Univision Spanish.

Let’s go out and get a win to justify our Opening Day national holiday and the mittens we are forced to wear to a baseball game!