{"id":269154,"date":"2026-06-17T01:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T01:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/269154\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T01:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T01:52:09","slug":"column-chicago-white-sox-get-in-a-new-york-state-of-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/269154\/","title":{"rendered":"Column: Chicago White Sox get in a New York state of mind"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 Chicago White Sox manager Will Venable never got a chance to play in Yankee Stadium \u2014 the new version or the classic one \u2014 during his nine-year career.<\/p>\n

But Venable knows what playing in this ballpark means to a young team like his, a group that\u2019s brimming in confidence and walking the walk.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing,\u201d Venable said before Tuesday night\u2019s game against the Yankees. \u201cI mean, it\u2019s the Yankees. It\u2019s as historic an organization as there is, and all the people who have worn that jersey, the history and what it means, is awesome. It\u2019s a great place to come and play baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Yankees played the \u201cHouse of the Dragon\u201d theme song in their pregame video introducing the players, just in case anyone forgot where they were. In keeping with the promotion, the Sox players\u2019 photos on the video board cast them as villains wearing black and eye patches.<\/p>\n

It was a weird disconnect considering the Yankees are the so-called Evil Empire and the Sox are this year\u2019s Cinderella story, but that\u2019s New York.<\/p>\n

The Sox actually couldn\u2019t have chosen a better time to be in New York. The Knicks just won<\/a> their first NBA title in 53 years and will celebrate with a parade in Manhattan on Thursday. France and Senegal played a World Cup match<\/a> on Tuesday at Giants Stadium, which technically is in New Jersey.\u00a0 And Aaron Judge remained out of the Yankees lineup with a stress fracture of his right rib, removing one of the game\u2019s biggest stars from the series.<\/p>\n

Column: D\u00e9j\u00e0 vu all over again as a young Chicago White Sox team on a roll heads to Yankee Stadium<\/a><\/p>\n

But even with Judge out, the Sox refused to hold the Yankees, or the ballpark, in awe.<\/p>\n

After taking batting practice Tuesday afternoon, Sox rookie first baseman Jacob Gonzalez said it was nothing that made him think he was in baseball Valhalla.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a Dodgers fan growing up,\u201d Gonzalez said. \u201cSo Dodger Stadium will probably be the one where I\u2019m like, \u2018That\u2019s pretty sick.\u2019 But I\u2019d never been here, so, yeah, it\u2019s cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

It still has the aura, of course, thanks to the old Yankees stars. Rookie right fielder Braden Mongomery, whose first week in the majors was a whirlwind in Chicago, was excited to get a chance to see what it was all about.<\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly looking forward to it,\u201d Montgomery said. \u201cI grew up watching Derek Jeter, so it\u2019s my first time inside Yankee Stadium.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no lack of self-assurance in the Sox clubhouse, which was obvious on Sunday when they beat the Los Angeles Dodgers after nearly being no-hit by Yoshinobu Yamamoto<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The Sox came into the Bronx with a 32-19 record since April 17, the second-best record in the American League behind the Yankees, who were 33-18. They say they knew it all along, and who can doubt that?<\/p>\n

\"MunetakaMunetaka Murakami of the Chicago White Sox, who is on the injured list, throws on the field before a game against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium on June 16, 2026, in New York City. (Jim McIsaac\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Venable said \u201cseeing this team identity grow\u201d over the last couple of months is what\u2019s most important. Winning is a byproduct of that growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously going out there and proving it is a completely different thing,\u201d starter Erick Fedde said. \u201cBut I guess the guys in here aren\u2019t shocked at the way we\u2019ve been playing. Like I said, with this stretch of quality teams and opponents, we\u2019re putting the league a little bit more on notice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not everything is hunky-dory.\u00a0The Sox received some bad news Tuesday from Triple-A Charlotte, where top pitching prospect Hagen Smith was shut down for two weeks with left shoulder impingement. He\u2019ll spend another two weeks ramping back up, meaning he\u2019ll be out at least a month.<\/p>\n

Only last week the Sox were considering calling up Smith to join the rotation. Now he\u2019s out for a long stretch and will have to get back in a groove before a potential call-up.<\/p>\n

How much concern is there?<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever much you want to characterize the concern,\u201d Venable replied. \u201cThere\u2019s enough to shut him down for two weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

On my concern-o-meter, I\u2019d rate it more than mild, and less than grave.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, starter Noah Schulltz, who is out with right knee patellar tendinitis, began a rehab stint Tuesday at Charlotte, along with catcher Kyle Teel, whose importance can\u2019t be understated. But Schultz was the fifth starter until his injury, and his replacement, David Sandlin, was demoted to Charlotte after three starts.<\/p>\n

General manager Chris Getz is going to have to find another option for Saturday\u2019s start in Detroit.<\/p>\n

But the Sox aren\u2019t looking too far ahead, especially with the Yankees in focus. The Sox\u2019s pregame clubhouse Tuesday was crowded with New York media members trying to find out how they\u2019ve managed to shock the league.<\/p>\n

Maybe the answer is they\u2019re not shocking at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you should stop thinking of us as a surprise just because we are consistently winning, consistently in every game,\u201d shortstop Colson Montgomery said Sunday. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter what team it is, we are not going to overlook them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apologies to Montgomery, but the definition of a surprise is something that happens without warning. Other than the players themselves, no one expected the Sox would be good enough to be in a first-place showdown with the Yankees in mid-June.<\/p>\n

The trick now is to keep it going. Falling back under .500 at the break would suggest they weren\u2019t such a surprise after all. But the Sox don\u2019t seem to accept that possibility. That\u2019s the beauty of being young and brash and not caring what others think.<\/p>\n

Maybe Maya Angelou said it best in her poem, \u201cStill I Rise.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cDoes my haughtiness offend you?<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t you take it awful hard<\/p>\n

\u2019Cause I laugh like I\u2019ve got gold mines<\/p>\n

Diggin\u2019 in my own backyard.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the Sox keep on laughing and digging. What will they find?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 Chicago White Sox manager Will Venable never got a chance to play in Yankee Stadium…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[10094,103887,25677,103888,103886,103889,48354,9,11,1104,10,103885,6016],"class_list":["post-269154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-aaron-judge","tag-braden-montgomery","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-erick-fedde","tag-jacob-gonzalez","tag-maya-angelou","tag-mlb-baseball","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-new-york-news","tag-will-venable","tag-yankee-stadium"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}