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<\/a><\/p>\nMelissa Sage-Bollenbach\/South Side Sox<\/p>\n
Eventually, I found the media section and immediately spotted a familiar face.<\/p>\n
Ryan McGuffey, senior vice president of content and co-founder of The REKAP, was sitting in the front row with an empty seat beside him.<\/p>\n
I introduced myself, sat down, and my nerves disappeared almost instantly.<\/p>\n
Ryan couldn\u2019t have been more welcoming. For a while, it didn\u2019t feel like I was attending one of baseball\u2019s biggest events. It simply felt like two White Sox fans talking baseball.<\/p>\n
Me and Ryan McGuffey<\/p>\n MLB deserves credit for the presentation. The room looked fantastic. Everywhere you looked, there were draft logos, banners, digital displays, rally towels, and energetic music filling the room. It looked every bit like a major professional sporting event.<\/p>\n But as draft time approached, whispers began circulating throughout the media seating: Not a single player projected to go in the first 40 selections was actually there.<\/p>\n As the draft unfolded, commissioner Rob Manfred simply walked to the podium, announced each selection, a pre-recorded highlight package played, and then everyone moved on to the next pick.<\/p>\n Melissa Sage-Bollenbach\/South Side Sox<\/p>\n No emotional walk across the stage.<\/p>\n No interviews with the newest members of each organization.<\/p>\n Compared to the NFL, NBA or NHL drafts, it felt surprisingly impersonal.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, it wasn\u2019t just the players who were absent. Because the White Sox were playing later that afternoon and hosting their Alumni Home Run Derby in Chicago, no members of the front office were available in Philadelphia, either.<\/p>\n In fact, covering the biggest White Sox draft selection in decades were just three of us: Ryan McGuffey, Connor McKnight of CHSN and me.<\/p>\n As someone hoping to challenge myself as a reporter, that was disappointing.<\/p>\n There were no interviews to conduct. No behind-the-scenes conversations. No opportunity to ask questions that readers watching from home couldn\u2019t hear for themselves.<\/p>\n It felt like a missed opportunity \u2014 not just for the media, but for the fans who had traveled from around the country expecting something more interactive than what amounted to a televised announcement with free T-shirts and rally towels.<\/p>\n But sometimes the story you expect isn\u2019t the story you get. And maybe that\u2019s OK.<\/p>\n Because when I look back on the weekend, I won\u2019t remember what the draft lacked.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll remember spending three days talking baseball and spending time with one of my favorite people in the world.<\/p>\n When in Philadelphia \u2026 Melissa Sage-Bollenbach\/South Side Sox<\/p>\n I\u2019ll remember sitting in the media section wearing a credential that, just a few years ago, I never imagined I\u2019d have.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll remember realizing how much my life has changed since Brett asked me about writing about baseball in August 2022, with absolutely no journalism background.<\/p>\n Not who the White Sox drafted first overall. Not what MLB could have done better.<\/p>\n The real story is that a fan who simply loved baseball took a chance on herself, worked hard, found an incredible community at South Side Sox, and one day found herself covering an official Major League Baseball event.<\/p>\n If there\u2019s one thing I\u2019ve learned over the last four years, it\u2019s this:<\/p>\n Don\u2019t be afraid to ask.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t be afraid to chase opportunities that seem out of reach.<\/p>\n And don\u2019t let anyone tell you your dreams can\u2019t come true.<\/p>\n Sometimes, if you\u2019re willing to put yourself out there, they actually do.<\/p>\n Sox Populi 208 \u2014 The 2026 draft experience from Philadelphia \u2014 2026-07-15<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n It was a little hard to tell at South Side Sox given all of our normal draft features being churned out, but this year marked a wrinkle to our coverage: Actual writers on the ground to cover the event.<\/p>\n Melissa Sage-Bollenbach and her son, Sage, were in Philadelphia for the draft, Melissa as credentialed SB Nation media.<\/p>\n Now … did that turn out to be a good thing? And did Sage, donned in a UCLA Roch Cholowsky jersey and White Sox cap, get feasted on by writers and broadcasters looking for No. 1 overall draft choice material?<\/p>\n Tune in to learn all of the the ins, outs and power failures of the weekend experience in Philadelphia, as the pair sits down with Brett Ballantini to chat on MLB draft 2026.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n