Meet the Players: SoxOptimist

S.O. is the son of a NWI steelworker, and chose White Sox fandom as a youth on the merit of blue-collar sensibilities and self-respect. A Los Angeles native for the last 10 years, you can find Optimist alone at an East LA diner counter, the back wall of a DIY punk show, or on his couch suppressing the inherent fury of White Sox fandom to squeeze out a few drops of prospective optimism for the purpose of upcoming SSS blogs.

S.O. will be penning at least one column a week for us, running on Sunday mornings. If you’re nice, maybe he’ll do more than that. Or if not, maybe he’ll do more just to spite you.

Need to learn more, and see the man in action? Well, turn your dial to the Meet the Players podcast and get a bigger dose of than you thought humanly possible.

Please give our new resident optimist a hearty welcome to the site!

Name SoxOptimist Matt

Hometown The Region

White Sox fan since 1998

First White Sox memory Matt Karchner for Jon Garland

Favorite White Sox memory The Kids Can Play

Favorite White Sox player Mark Buehrle

Next White Sox statue Nancy Faust

Next White Sox retired number Pito #79

Go-to concession food at Sox Park Italian Sausage + Grilled Onions + Mustard

Favorite Baseball Movie A League of Their Own. I have a plant named Geena Davis.

Hall of Fame: Speed Round

Mark Buehrle Yes yes yes a thousand times, we’re going to feel so dumb as a society when 200 IP starters go extinct and this man is left out. GET IT TOGETHER.
Joe Jackson Sure
Paul Konerko Hall of Fame hunk, but probably not ballplayer.
Chris Sale He can join the LaRoche boys in the Hall of Great Clubhouse Leaders. I’ll pass on a plaque in Cooperstown with a BoSox hat on.
Dick Allen 60+ offensive WAR 1964-72. Eight seasons. I’d do the legwork and see who could even compare over that same stretch, but what do I look like ... a baseball writer or something? It’s a hard YES, regardless of the hat on the plaque.

South Side Sox on the Field Shortstop from tee ball to college at Grand Valley State U. High school hero-turned-overweight scholarship hoarder with no mitt and a chew tobacco habit.

True or false: Every jumbled pile of person has a thinking part that wonders what the part that isn’t thinking isn’t thinking of. I’ve designated my non-thinking part to be thinking 24/7 about what my next meal is going to be.