{"id":547258,"date":"2026-01-31T06:42:23","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T06:42:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/547258\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T06:42:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T06:42:23","slug":"white-sox-announce-2026-promotional-calendar-at-soxfest-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/547258\/","title":{"rendered":"White Sox announce 2026 promotional calendar at SoxFest"},"content":{"rendered":"

SoxFest Live kicked off Friday night at the Ramova Theatre as the baseball offseason wraps up and pitchers and catchers prepare to report for Spring Training. The White Sox had a decent rebound season last year while sporting a very young team in 2025 and coming off a historically horrific 2024. However, the vibes were high all night on the South Side, as fans feel more optimistic about the organization\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

Of course, the part of the night that drove the most buzz was the announcement of the 2026 promo items<\/a>, and trust me, they are SHARP.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a><\/p>\n

Kristina Airdo<\/p>\n

Miguel Vargas, Colson Montgomery, Chase Meidroth, and Kyle Teel all opened a gift bag on stage that featured their own bobbleheads, including a catcher\u2019s duo bobblehead with Teel and his counterpart, Edgar Quero. While all of them are awesome, in my opinion, the real star of the show is the Bobby Jenks and A.J. Pierzynski bobblehead as they celebrate winning the 2005 World Series. A perfect tribute to the glue of the championship-winning team and to Bobby, who was lost way too soon last year.<\/p>\n

\"Bobby<\/a><\/p>\n

Chicago White Sox<\/p>\n

Home opening weekend is full of fun giveaways, including the Bobby and A.J. bobble, an Opening Day t-shirt featuring Munetaka Murakami, a few jackets, and plenty of City Connect swag. I know I initially talked some smack about the new City Connect jerseys\u2019 lack of creativity, but they do make some pretty epic gear. And let\u2019s not forget the Mexican heritage items because every year these games are beyond fun with a sellout crowd, and the Los White Sox jersey is always a hit.<\/p>\n

When chatting with several season ticket holders, the consensus is that they have more faith in the front office over the last year, and there is heightened positivity around the Rebuild 2.0 that GM Chris Getz has been forced to undertake. Many players seem to share the same sentiment, as every player we were able to speak with said they were \u201cexcited to get back together with the guys, and get back to playing and working on being consistent.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were 10 South Siders in the building on Friday night. The legendary Gene Honda began the evening by introducing everyone, with his smooth, iconic voice easily hyping up the crowd as if it were a Saturday night game at the Rate, and he\u2019s announcing the starting lineup. A sort of frightening starting lineup considering there were just four position players and six pitchers, but perhaps Davis Martin or Shane Smith is a secret weapon at the plate, though I\u2019m not sure I want to find out.<\/p>\n

\"White<\/a><\/p>\n

Kristina Airdo<\/p>\n

First up was the broadcast team, with in-game reporters Brooke Fletcher and Connor McKnight, followed by the TV and radio crew, featuring Chuck Garfein, Len Kasper, and John Schriffen. Getz and manager Will Venable repped the front office and coaching staff, followed by two minor league prospects who joined this year: infielder Sam Antonacci and righthander Tanner McDougal.<\/p>\n

Last up were the major leaguers \u2014 the stars of the show. Grant Taylor, Anthony Kay, Davis Martin, and Shane Smith represented the South Side pitching staff. Kay joined the team for the first time this offseason, signing out of the NPB in Japan, and is thrilled to be meeting some of the guys and looking forward to Spring Training and another chance in MLB.<\/p>\n

Last but certainly not least: infielders Vargas, Meidroth, and Montgomery, and catcher Teel, who recently committed to playing for Italy in the World Baseball Classic this March. There was, however, one player who was unable to attend, but Munetaka Murakami was there in spirit and shared a message to fans, earning a roar from the crowd upon hearing \u201cGo White Sox!\u201d<\/p>\n

Fans were also able to ask questions to Getz and Venable in a segment called \u201cPardon the Pitch Clock\u201d, which gave them four minutes to answer some questions from the crowd. The five categories before a final \u201clightning round\u201d were: the 2026 outlook, offseason acquisitions and roster philosophy, players to watch, new initiatives and innovations, and clubhouse culture and leadership. This year was probably much easier to manage, considering they aren\u2019t coming off of the worst season ever, but the positivity and buy-in from Getz and Venable seem to reinforce the fans\u2019 hope for the future of the team.<\/p>\n

Props to the White Sox for putting on a great event for the first day, and a big thank you to the players for being so welcoming and willing to talk with us and answer questions. We\u2019ll be back with more coverage throughout the rest of the event!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SoxFest Live kicked off Friday night at the Ramova Theatre as the baseball offseason wraps up and pitchers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547259,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2379],"tags":[5,138,49,3208,2561,4,396,2562],"class_list":{"0":"post-547258","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-white-sox","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-white-sox","11":"tag-chicago-white-sox-news","12":"tag-chicagowhitesox","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-white-sox","15":"tag-whitesox"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115988356102200208","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}