Now that football is over, there's no excuse to not start thinking about baseball, so let's make sure we're all on the same page here.

As I mentioned before in my FanPost about it, today will be a day to extend a hand to new readers and longtime lurkers who might want to get more involved in one way or another, but haven't found a good place to start.

We can use this as part introduction thread, and part All Questions Answered a la John Sickels' blog.

If you're new (or even if you aren't), please make yourself known, share your White Sox background, and feel free to offer up any question you've had while reading South Side Sox. To throw some topics out there:

• White Sox coverage
• Advanced statistics
  
• Prospects/farm system
  
• SSS Meet-ups (a.k.a. meth-ups)
• SSS community
  
• Etc.

Ask a genuine question, get a helpful answer. That's the deal today. If you can answer or question or address a thought, please do. Just so we make sure to get the most out of this, please make sure questions/comments have been resolved/responded to before taking it in a different direction. And let's not get carried away. At least for today. Whaddya say?

Fire away.

My dad, brother and I made our annual journey to SoxFest this past weekend. It offers a chance to escape the winter blues and immerse yourself in all things White Sox. As we were checking in, Gavin Floyd was at the desk next to us. Baseball season was officially underway.

If you are an autograph hunter, a key is getting in line early. My plan was to get in line early enough to secure a wristband for Alexei Ramirez and Gordon Beckham and make it back on time to see the Kenny Williams and Robin Ventura seminar. Unfortunately that meant that I missed the Bud Selig seminar, but he is pretty painful to listen to anyway. I got the wristband that I wanted and made my way upstairs to see the opening ceremony. Jerry Reinsdorf and the White Sox organization got an award for their volunteer group, and members of that group got to go on stage during the ceremony. The players were introduced with Paul Konerko getting the biggest ovation for the current team, only rivaled by Robin Ventura. Kenny Williams received a smattering of boo's and alumni Joe Crede and Pablo Ozuna getting a nice ovation. Adam Dunn was conspicuous by his absence.

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(In case you missed it: Friday and Saturday recaps)

If Mark Parent ever allowed me a one-punch head start in a bar fight, it would hurt me a helluva lot more than it'd hurt him.

At least that's the impression I got from reading his comments at SoxFest. We haven't heard much about Parent since Robin Ventura plucked him from obscurity (specifically, Reading, Pa.) to serve as his bench coach. We knew he was a well-traveled backup catcher and a mountain of a man, but neither tells you much of his ethos.

During Sunday's seminar, Parent talked a game that Sox fans have long-desired to hear. He spoke of a need to retaliate when hitters are getting knocked down, and honestly evaluated A.J. Pierzynski's problems keeping the running game in check. In a nutshell:

Broadcaster Steve Stone joked about another ploy to slow opponents. "Or (pour) 10 gallons of water near first base," he said.

"We can try that," Parent joked. "If you ain't cheating, you ain't trying."

Now, whether the Sox will back up Parent's talk is something to throw in the wait-and-see bin. But the first step in recovery is admitting you have a problem, and Parent spoke of them in plain terms. At the very least, he looks like he's set to play bad cop, and maybe the devil on Ventura's shoulder, which will be a departure from Joey Cora's apparent role of administrator.

Among the out-of-session stories:

• Brent Lillibridge would like to get back into the infield mix, which would be a pretty sweet value-added feature if he could pull it off.
• Joe Cowley gets some good, honest quotes from Paul Konerko, which he uses for, you know...
• Philip Humber's solution for his problematic reaction time on the mound? A bigger glove.
• Doug Padilla talks to Matt Thornton about his early-season struggles, but neither of them mention the mystery 'tweener pitch that he stopped throwing after May.
• Brent Morel elaborates on the change in his approach, saying he was disappointed with his timidity before getting "selfish."
• This shouldn't surprise anybody -- apparently Tyler Flowers and A.J. Pierzynski didn't like each other at first. But Jake Peavy remains steadfast in his Flowers fandom.

All the important tweets are below the jump. Big ups to KenWo for his heavy-duty tweeting action, and it was nice to see our pal 67WMAQ back in the mix, hung up on Ed Farmer's presentation.

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As expected, Adam Dunn made a smart move by showing up to SoxFest. A really, really smart move, because the crowd at the Palmer House Hilton was as supportive of Dunn as the crowds at U.S. Celluar Field last year weren't.

The media exam was a little more difficult, but Dunn made it through the questions with no issues. He passed the eye exam (numerous reporters said he looked fitter), he had a different offseason regimen to talk about, he made no excuses for his poor play, he refused to blame fans for jumping on him, and he answered a question about Ozzie Guillen with brief, polite praise. Finally, a 5-for-5 day.

More pragmatically, Robin Ventura was asked how he would handle a kind of slump that Dunn and Alex Rios endured. Ventura essentially said that's what the bench is for. Historically catastrophic seasons are far less complex in his world, apparently.

Among the other out-of-session stories:

• I'm just a little bit pissed I didn't think of Adam '12 first.
• Three bullpen spots are open, but Don Cooper says Addison Reed doesn't have to worry. Dylan Axelrod, Zach Stewart and Hector Santiago.will battle for the long-relief role.
• Gordon Beckham is a little more specific with Mark Gonzales. He says he became "too mechanical," which delayed his load process.
• And best of all, J.J. asked Brent Morel about what he did differently over August and September, and we were onto something:
  

"I was just caught up trying to put the ball in play and just kinda move guys over and do that kind of stuff," Morel said of his April-August approach. "Toward the end, I relaxed a little bit and was more selective and patient up there. That helped me out."

Below the jump, I've combed through Twitter and Facebook to fill in the rest of the day's events, including manic seminar tweeting from KenWo, our man on the scene.

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Kenny Williams heard some boos at the opening ceremonies of SoxFest at the Palmer House Hilton on Friday, but the acrimony ended shortly thereafter. For the rest of the evening, the White Sox were received with the enthusiasm that you'd expect from people who paid good money to attend because they're enthusiastic about the White Sox.

Basically, the counterculture at SoxFest was limited to our pal KenWo -- and even he's glad to be there. And why not? For a lot of people, it's the official start of the start-thinking-about-baseball season.

(And if you're on Twitter and not following him (@KenWo4LiFe) this weekend, you should be.)

A few stories outside of the open sessions:

• Jake Peavy is 100 percent of what 100 percent is after surgery, whatever that may be. Also, he said his quotes about Ozzie Guillen were taken out of context, even though it was a radio broadcast.
• Gordon Beckham thinks this is the year he stops slumping massively.
• Jerry Reinsdorf has a job waiting for Jim Thome whenever he wants it.
• Don Cooper doesn't have a favorite for closer, and Jesse Crain says he wouldn't mind taking a crack at it.

As for everything else, I've selected a healthy smattering of tweets and photos from fans, bloggers and media in attendance to capture the moods of the rooms (prepare for scrolling).

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On the day before the start of SoxFest, Robin Ventura spent a lot of time answering questions -- first on a conference call, then on Chicago Tribune Live. Given the number of topics he tackled, his inexperience with the job and his lack of contact with most of his players, he's speaking in vague, open-ended terms. It doesn't do us much good, but it puts him in a better spot as he prepares to run his first spring training.

Here's what we can glean from the bulk of it...

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Yeah, I know technically Ron Santo will also be enshrined this summer, but dead people can't give induction speeches. Larkin managed to appear on 86.4% of the ballots. This is pretty impressive seeing as he was only on 62.1% of them last year. Hall of Fame voters, you make tremendous sense.

Jack Morris looks like he'll be sneaking his undeserving self in before everything is sad and done. Morris is up to 66.7% with two years left. Jeff Bagwell is up to 56%, a good improvement on the 41.7% from last January. Tim Raines gained 11.2%, reaching a new high of 48.7%.

The only new candidate who received enough votes to stay on the ballot another year was Bernie Williams (9.6%). The rest, and Juan Gonzalez, are all now cast aside. With the glut of great players soon to be eligible, it won't be shocking to see Rafael Palmeiro (12.6%) fall off the ballot in two years or so.

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This year we had 130 eligible votes for our Interactive Hall of Fame ballot. I had to chop off plenty for multiple entries and for going over the maximum 10 votes for each player. These are simple rules people. It really isn't that hard.

98 votes were needed to cross the 75% threshold. We only had one player get the necessary amount of votes for 2012 enshrinement.

He's In: Barry Larkin is your sole inductee for 2012. He was named on 107 ballots... good enough for 82%.

So close but yet so far: Tim Raines (96 votes- 73.8%), Jeff Bagwell (96 votes- 73.8%), Edgar Martinez (91 votes- 70%)

More than half way there (37.5%) : Alan Trammell (65 votes- 50%), Jack Morris ( 52 votes- 40%)

Solid Support (20-37.5%): Lee Smith (48 votes- 36.9%), Fred McGriff (42 votes- 32.3%), Mark McGwire (41 votes- 31.5%), Don Mattingly (34 votes- 26.1%), Larry Walker (32 votes- 24.6%), Rafael Palmeiro (26 votes- 20%), Bernie Williams (26 votes- 20%)

Still on ballot (5-19.9%): Dale Murphy (25 votes- 19.2%), Tim Salmon (7 votes- 5.3%)

Off the ballot (>5%): Juan Gonzalez (5 votes), Javy Lopez (4 votes), Vinny Castilla (3 votes), Phil Nevin (3 votes), Jeromy Burnitz (2 votes), Brian Jordan (2 votes), Brad Radke (2 votes), Ruben Sierra (2 votes), Tony Womack (2 votes), Eric Young (2 votes), Bill Mueller (0 votes), Terry Mulholland (0 votes).

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