Sox Populi Pregame Podcast 7 — Ready or not, hello, 2023!

Brett Ballantini invites a half-dozen SSS friends, including debut podcaster Ryiin, Jordan Hass, Melissa Sage-Bollenbach, Malachi Hayes, Chrystal O’Keefe and Brian O’Neill, to chat about Opening Night in Houston:

• Did Brian’s terrific essay render this entire podcast moot? Suppose not — we didn’t stop recording after reading
• Starting it off on the sunny side, we discuss the things we are most excited about as the 2023 season dawns — including the likelihood and tolerance of José Abreu hitting a massive bomb against a former teammate at least once
• OK then, what about the White Sox still gives us the willies? Among many possibilities, a thin rotation and the possibility that Rick Hahn will control this team on the field by remote come to light
• Speed round: How likely are the White Sox to pull a Baines ’89 and retire Abreu’s jersey immediately upon his return to Chicago with the Astros in May?
• At least two dog and one cat cameos on-screen
• We wind up our longer topics trying to find anything redeeming about the Houston Astros. Aside from Malachi’s rec for a book that strips that insipid organization bare, we didn’t
• Final speed round finds us discussing the player we are most looking forward to watching in 2023
• Also: Tune in to tonight’s postgame podcast, up somewhat shortly after the end of the opener

Listen below, on our built-in Megaphone player:

or follow along with every episode at Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or wherever you consume your podcasts. Or, you can watch the podcast on the South Side Hit Pen YouTube channel.