{"id":105311,"date":"2025-04-30T20:40:48","date_gmt":"2025-05-01T01:40:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=105311"},"modified":"2026-01-01T16:05:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T22:05:28","slug":"listen-whats-going-on-with-chicago-baseball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/listen-whats-going-on-with-chicago-baseball\/","title":{"rendered":"LISTEN: What\u2019s going on with Chicago baseball?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>By Evie Mason<\/b><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Medill Reports<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The season is now underway for Major League Baseball, and Chicago fans were both excited and frustrated during spring training as one team seems to be on the rise, while the other is stagnating. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Chicago baseball fans by MedillReports\" width=\"800\" height=\"400\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?visual=true&#038;url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F2084596401&#038;show_artwork=true&#038;maxheight=1000&#038;maxwidth=800\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cubs fans haven\u2019t tasted sweet victory since their 2016 World Series win.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Radio call of 2016 World Series win]<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">On the South Side, the White Sox haven\u2019t won anything in 20 years.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Radio call of 2005 White Sox win]<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Restaurant ambient sounds]<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">David O\u2019Keefe is a lifelong Sox fan. He\u2019s a regular at George\u2019s Gyros here in Bridgeport, where he\u2019s lived his whole life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">O\u2019KEEFE: In many senses last year, they were winning the game, and they always found a way to lose. And this year don\u2019t look any better. I\u2019m 60 years old, and I\u2019ve been going to Sox games since I was a little kid. I found myself last year not even bothering going to a game.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The White Sox were plain terrible last year \u2014 a record-setting 121 losses attest to that. Though some changes are being made, expectations for this upcoming season remain pretty low.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Well-known Chicago sports journalist Cheryl Raye-Stout knows what\u2019s up with the team. She says they have a lot of good rookie prospects, including two of the top pitchers in the minor leagues, Hagen Smith and Noah Schultz. They\u2019ve also got some new leadership.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">RAYE-STOUT: They have a new manager in Will Venable, a former player. He\u2019s got this resume that the players seem to respect and honor.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Raye-Stout says the Sox most likely aren&#8217;t going to see many more wins in 2025.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">RAYE-STOUT: The White Sox, they\u2019re not going to spend the money. They\u2019re putting their money into their front office people.\u00a0 And the fans, you know, they\u2019re upset. The White Sox fans are upset because the team was horrible last year. And just a few years ago, they were a team that looked like they were going to be in the playoffs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Guaranteed Rate Field saw its most drastic drop in overall attendance this past year. Fans like O\u2019Keefe are really at the point of just not going to games.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">O\u2019KEEFE: How am I going to support a team when you just pretty much feel that they\u2019re going to lose anyway? I have grandchildren \u2014 we\u2019re spending $300 to go to a game, to watch them lose? I could stay home and do that.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now, let\u2019s get to the Cubs. Cubs fans do in fact have a reason to be optimistic right now. They\u2019ve made some big changes and have picked up several talented players. They\u2019re actually expected to win the National League Central Division this year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">RAYE-STOUT: With the Cubs, they\u2019ve made some big changes. They got Kyle Tucker from Houston. They picked up a nice catcher in Carson Kelly. They signed Ryan Pressly. So they did some nice things. Also, some of their young players \u2014 Pete Crow-Armstrong is really going to be an impactful player. And with the other players having some health, because there were some health issues, they picked up Justin Turner. So, they\u2019ve got some good pieces there, and they\u2019re expected to be better \u2014 they\u2019re expected to win the division.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">[Store ambient sounds]<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mayra Cisneros works at the Chicago Sports and Novelty store on Michigan Avenue. She says that Cubs merch sells much more than White Sox merch.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">CISNEROS: It\u2019s a big difference, just because of the history. The Cubs are one of the oldest, if not the oldest, team from Chicago, and then the Sox came after. Our main team is the Cubs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As a Cubs fan, she sees the improvements the team has been making and is confident they will come to fruition as early as this upcoming season.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cisneros says she has high hopes that the Cubs will at least make the playoffs in 2025. The White Sox probably won\u2019t be as lucky, though. Those 121 losses still sting.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Evie Mason, Medill Reports.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Evie Mason is a graduate journalism student in the sports media specialization at <\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.medill.northwestern.edu\/\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Northwestern\u2019s Medill School<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. She currently lives in Chicago. You can follow her on X at <\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/clairemurphy22\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">@<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">eviesmason.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Evie Mason Medill Reports The season is now underway for Major League Baseball, and Chicago fans were both excited and frustrated during spring training as one team seems to be on the rise, while the other is stagnating. &nbsp; Cubs fans haven\u2019t tasted sweet victory since their 2016 World Series win. &nbsp; [Radio call [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1013,"featured_media":105333,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5251,5542,31,5493],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chicago","category-msj25","category-sports","category-spring-2025"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>LISTEN: What\u2019s going on with Chicago baseball? 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