White Sox Shock Baseball with Second-Place Start
Is this really happening?
Less than two seasons after setting a Major League record with 121 losses, the White Sox currently hold a 32-28 record with more than a third of the season in the books. The Sox are in second place in the American League (AL) Central, and for the first time in years, they have a solid hold on a playoff spot.
The bulk of fan and media interest has been generated by rookie sensation Munetaka Murakami, who became the first modern player in their first season to hit 20 homers before June with a May 28 blast against the Minnesota Twins.
Unfortunately, a hamstring strain has the 26-year-old on the shelf for four to six weeks, complicating his run at the White Sox single-season home run record, set by the semi-infamous slugger Albert Belle (who hit 48 dingers in 1998). But even with the injury, Murakami seems likely to challenge the Sox rookie home run record of 36, set by José Abreu in 2014.
Murakami is not the only Sox player performing like an all-star in the first part of the season. For the first time since the inception of this report, there’s enough good happening for me to share bullet points, rather than a single highlight or two!
- Former top prospect Miguel Vargas has been scorching hot in May and now leads all MLB third basemen in home runs, runs batted in, and walks.
- Starter Davis Martin’s unlikely breakout campaign continued through May. After four years of being average or slightly below, the 29-year-old suddenly leads MLB with eight wins, ranks second in the AL with a sparkling 2.00 ERA, and has struck out more than a batter per inning.
- Young Indiana native Colson Montgomery has picked up where he left off in 2025, leading AL shortstops with 15 homers. Montgomery ranks as one of the league’s best defenders at the most important position on the field.
- With a sizzling fastball averaging greater than 98 miles per hour, Grant Taylor has been one of baseball’s most unhittable relievers. Taylor ranks fourth in the league, striking out nearly 37% of the hitters he’s faced.
Sox Take Small Steps Toward New Stadium
The White Sox also appear to be taking concrete initial steps towards a new stadium. Last month, it was reported that a 47-acre rail yard on the near South Side is under contract to be acquired by Shore Capital, a company led by billionaire Justin Ishbia.
Ishbia is lead minority shareholder in the White Sox, and widely expected to acquire and take over a controlling stake in the franchise from current owner Jerry Reinsdorf in the coming years. Reinsdorf has spent years angling for a new stadium, and current efforts seem to be aligned with the timeline announced last year, when a failed attempt to purchase the Minnesota Twins led to Ishbia’s investment in the White Sox. The rail yard near Canal and Roosevelt has years to go before a stadium can even be visualized there, but with Ishbia’s stake in the team set to slowly escalate between 2029 and 2034, the long-term thinking behind the idea makes some sense.
Bears Stadium Efforts Stall in Springfield, Future Uncertain
Speaking of stadiums, the Bears’ almost half-decade-long pursuit of a new mega-stadium is in chaos after the Illinois state legislature was unable to reach a tax deal for a proposed Arlington Heights stadium site. While there have been whirlwinds of reporting and gossip in recent weeks, there are some fairly legible tea leaves scattered through this fiasco.
To start, one might easily come to the conclusion that if the Bears actually wanted to leave for Hammond, they would have done so already. The state of Indiana is giving them virtually everything they asked for, and some might say the Bears haven’t accepted Indiana’s deal because they don’t actually want to move to Indiana. In short, the Bears seem focused on making Arlington Heights work, despite a measurably better offer from Indiana. This dedicated observer is inclined to believe that a deal will eventually be reached.
Some factors: the net worth of the Halas McCaskey family, who have owned the Bears since the team’s inception, is almost entirely tied up in the team itself. The franchise has less financial liquidity than teams with independently wealthy team owners, so the nearly 200 million dollars they’ve already invested into the Arlington Heights property is not insignificant. If the Bears aren’t willing to suffer that sunk cost, the likelihood of an Indiana deal may be lower than the sweetness of the bid suggests.
But as negotiations continued in Springfield last month, Governor J.B. Pritzker remained steadfast in his long-held opposition to allocating significant state funding for the Arlington Heights project. It’s an issue that’s he’s been remarkably consistent about since his first gubernatorial campaign, and his reticence to approve measures that would likely reduce the Bears’ property tax liability played a key role in the legislature’s inability to land on an agreement. All signs indicate that a deal will be reached only when the team lowers their demand for a frozen property tax on the site, as critics have maintained that this ask would reduce community and public benefits touted by stadium proponents.
But what does seem carved in stone is that the Bears are indeed leaving Chicago, one way or another. Mayor Brandon Johnson also appeared in Springfield last month, only for his numerous proposals to facilitate an urban Chicago stadium to fall flat, once again. While Mayor Johnson and his advisers continue to insist that a deal may be possible, the Bears and the NFL have confirmed that Arlington Heights and Hammond are the only two locations under consideration. It remains to be seen whether gridlock in the Bears’ political requests leaves future openings for the city to retain the team.
Sky Face Difficult Path After Injuries to Key Players
Things were looking surprisingly positive for the Sky as the WNBA season got underway. The maligned franchise, which finished 12th out of 13 teams in the league last year, won three of its first four games of the season, with all three victories coming against 2025 playoff participants in Golden State, Phoenix, and Minnesota.
Top free agent signing Skylar Diggins has largely lived up to expectations, averaging 14.1 points and 5.6 assists per game, and giving the Sky their most consistent guard play since Courtney Vandersloot’s 2023 departure. April’s trade for Rickea Jackson looked like a stroke of genius, as she put up an average of 22 points per game in her first three appearances with the Sky. And while third-year center Kamilla Cardoso’s scoring development has lagged, her rebounding and turnover numbers are the best of her career. Gabriela Jaquez has held her own in her first taste of professional action, leading all rookies in rebounding and placing fourth in scoring.
However, hopes for this season crashed to earth on May 17, when Jackson suffered a season-ending ACL injury against the Minnesota Lynx. Without Jackson, coach Tyler Marsh’s offense completely stalled out, and the Sky have since lost four straight games, moving their record to 3-5 as of publication. Without Jackson, the Sky have suffered from a profound lack of dynamic scoring. While Diggins is the team’s second-leading scorer, she functions more as a facilitator and playmaker, with the effects of age slowing the scoring prowess of the future Hall of Famer. Cardoso is landlocked in the post and generally unable to create offense of her own. In colloquial terms, the Sky are suffering from a lack of a pure bucket-getter. They lack a player who can simply go and get some points—no matter what—when the game is tight and lights get bright.
Veteran guard Vandersloot has yet to play this season, as she is recovering from an ACL injury she suffered last year. Former Most Improved Player DiJonai Carrington also has yet to take the court due to offseason foot surgery.
The Sky’s lack of offensive firepower could change over the course of the season. But Jackson’s injury has undoubtedly shifted the course of what initially looked to be a promising year. The Sky have two more games to refocus before the first-place Atlanta Dream come to town, a highly anticipated matchup thanks to the return of Angel Reese. Reese’s play since departing the Sky has been somewhat uneven, but generally consistent with her previous performance. The Sky acquired Atlanta’s next two first-round picks in April’s surprise trade of the 24-year-old, who represented the Sky in two All-Star games after she was selected as their seventh pick in the 2024 draft.
Malachi Hayes is a Bridgeport-based writer and South Side native.