White Sox Manager Robin Ventura and general manager Rick Hahn were enjoying the fact that SoxFest 2015 was more upbeat than in years past, especially with the team’s second playoff appearance since winning the World Series a decade ago.
“That’s what this is supposed to be, ” said Ventura, “It’s not supposed to always be an airing of the grievances, Festivus, ” as reported to MLB.com. Since baseball played a large role in the popular 90s sitcom, ala George’s working with Steinbrenner, the Seinfeld reference was probably not lost on the audience who gathered at the Hilton Chicago for SoxFest, an event for those who are counting down the days until spring training begins in February.
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Hahn and Ventura credited White Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf with the added note of optimism, “Jerry was aggressive and opened it up a little bit more for (Hahn) to be more aggressive and go after guys, ” said Ventura. “It kind of leads back to SoxFest again, where everyone is pretty optimistic heading into this year.”
Jerry Reinsdorf told the Chicago Sun Times that even if one has a great team on paper, what matters is how they play the game, “I really had visions of back to back titles. It’s a funny game. You have to play the games. In 1983, we won 99 games, and the only thing we did the (following) winter was add (Hall of Famer) Todd Seavar to our pitching staff, and we won 74 games. You can’t get too excited in advance. You have to play the games.”
