Will Venable officially unveiled as new White Sox manager at brief, crisp Zoom conference
A wider unveiling to come next week, but we got a few initial answers on Thursday
I just lost a long piece I wrote on the Zoom conference with new manager Will Venable and GM Chris Getz, somehow with no way of recovering on this platform. That’s a first. So you’re going to get a truncated version.
Broadly, the decision to make this known announcement (since at least late Tuesday and surely in Getz’s mind longer) a half-hour zoom with about a dozen questions asked by about 10 people is very strange. There will be an unveiling of Venable as manager on November 8 with the jersey photo op and full dog-and-pony show, at the park, but why not now? There’s not even the excuse of a looming World Series Game 6 that might swallow up the news and kill it in the cycle. Strange choice, White Sox.
But ... thank you for the invite, even though there was not enough time to get to the folks farther down on the food chain.
Thankfully, I have already tweeted out my takeaways from the conference, so I’ll just paste them here and send it out into the ether to you, dear reader.
Takeaways from the Will Venable/Chris Getz #WhiteSox zoom conference, brief though it was:
— Brett Ballantini (@BrettBallantini) October 31, 2024
Getz started with a candidate list of 60+, whittled it to 5, and Venable jumped off the page during that process.
I would have asked, if this wasn't cut to a half-hour afterthought conference unveiling the best #WhiteSox news of the next year:
— Brett Ballantini (@BrettBallantini) October 31, 2024
How? Why? That's a massive pro-Will statement. What answer or topic shocked Getz with its prescience? More details of his finishing sprint, please!
Venable said he/his wife set a criteria each year, and see if the opportunities that arise meet them. Apparently, the Mets/Guards did not do so a year ago, and the Sox did: "Chris didn't have to sell me." Will also did not admit to a single concern in taking over a 121-loss team.
— Brett Ballantini (@BrettBallantini) October 31, 2024
Venable cited his "underdog mentality" as a player as a great asset in taking this job (no kidding!). Even cited the "underdog" 2023 Rangers.
— Brett Ballantini (@BrettBallantini) October 31, 2024
And Will's greatest asset as a recent player now managing? Empathy, knowing what guys are going through and how tough the game can be.