SoxFest to celebrate bright future, championship past
Opening Day is more than two months away, but the unofficial start of the White Sox' season is Friday.
SoxFest takes place this weekend at a new downtown location - Hilton Chicago - and provides an ideal bridge to a season that shapes up as positively promising.
"A lot of excitement, a lot of buzz going around," center fielder Adam Eaton said earlier this month at the White Sox' minicamp in Glendale, Ariz. "As a player, very excited. It shows a lot confidence with the players to get the type of talent to come in. (General manager) Rick Hahn is putting us in a good position to win. Of course, we've still got to play the games and go out there and throw the gloves out there. Running into spring training, we're very excited about it."
Before pitchers and catchers report to Glendale for training camp on Feb. 19, a sold-out SoxFest is on tap.
Not only will newcomers Jeff Samardzija and David Robertson be in attendance, key holdovers Eaton, Jose Abreu, Jose Quintana, Avisail Garcia and Jose Quintana are also scheduled to be on hand.
Hahn added Samardzija, Robertson, Adam LaRoche, Melky Cabrera, Zach Duke and Dan Jennings after the White Sox finished the 2014 season in fourth place with a 73-89 record.
Considering the Sox finished last in the AL Central with a 63-99 record in '13 - his first year on the job as GM - Hahn is more anxious than most to get the new season rolling.
"(Chairman) Jerry (Reinsdorf), (executive VP) Kenny (Williams) and myself, as well as our baseball department, set off about 18 months ago during the 2013 season to put ourselves in a position to contend as quickly as possible, but also in a way we felt was going to be sustainable," Hann said. "Kenny spoke earlier in this off-season about getting us back into a position where fans could dream again. We feel with these acquisitions, the growth of our young core, some of the prospects that we've been able to acquire and develop over the last 18 months, that we've been able to put ourselves back in a position where White Sox fans can be proud of where we are, and it should be a great summer here on the South Side."
In addition to looking forward this weekend, the Sox will also be looking back to 2005 - a watershed season in franchise history.
The White Sox won the World Series 10 years ago, snapping an 88-year title drought.
Paul Konerko was the last active player from the '05 team, but he retired after playing 16 seasons with the White Sox.
Konerko will not be at SoxFest, but Jose Contreras, Joe Crede, Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez, Tadahito Iguchi, Scott Podsednik, Bobby Jenks and several other players from the World Series champs will be on hand.