Change the Channel!
"What else is on?"
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As this season continues tumbling down into depths yet unknown to well, everybody, seeing as the futility they're showing here is to the point of historical or near historical (and they'll get there) worst records, one of the most egregious things that adds insult onto massive injury is the lack of change or anybody doing anything about it. Sure there's some roster churn, rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic and what not but that literally does nothing for the team or this historically low situation still. It's not good baseball to watch and especially not entertaining what with a new announcer that's way too overenthusiastic to the point where people would rather mute the game and have the radio on. With all that, we demand and we need change from the org and even league but they stay their mouths and hands. Recently as we now know, we even got all but confirmation that one of the biggest changes needed won't happen because Grifol will not be fired and will stay until the end of the year. Madness! As mere fans, what can we even do for change? Well there is one change that I've been doing and no doubt many others have as well and for a while too. We can change the channel.
I'm a massive massive sports fan and I have so much passion and interest for anything sports related. However, of late, literally all my teams (White Sox, Bulls, Blackhawks, Bears) have just been awful. Just awful. Some of the worst years in Chicago sports fandom. Yes there's some "promise" of future with guys like Bedard and the new Bears offense, but we've been burned far too often so I'll believe it when I see it. Everything else is either mediocrity or somehow so bad they're making or on the verge of making historical worsts. Due to this awfulness and my continued passion in sports and my own teams preventing me from even being remotely interested in any other teams within the same league (No, I'll never switch to the Brewers as lots of other fellow sox fans are doing and I don't watch the playoffs out of sadness at my own teams never making them), with an open mind, I've gone and sought as well as just plain ran into alternate sports entertainment. And for a change, they are actually entertaining unlike the white sox...
So now we come to what this post will essentially be. I'll be guiding you through all manners of different sports entertainment I've found and became an adamant fan of. This list will span a large variety of professional to amateur sports from in-person to virtual and all of it with my own White Sox fan perspective. I also encourage you to share what, if anything, you've been partaking of to fill this void of sports excitement in our lives of late. With all the constant negativity (I realize I've contributed to that too), I figure we should try to talk about something positive something happy. Given this season, if the only way to do so is to go outside the sox org, so be it; at least let's talk and share about some joyful for a change while as we try to maintain our sanity. So without further ado in no particular order, what else is on?
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Independent Leagues/Chicago Dogs:
I start my list with the Chicago Dogs who for those who still want to go watch a baseball game and enjoy a pure baseball experience while having shunned Guaranteed Rate Field and giving even a single cent to Jerry, the Dogs are a potential really good answer. They're located right here in our city in Rosemont and in such a great location there too by the Parkway Bank Park entertainment district where there's a plethora of good eats and play too. I very much enjoy the Rosemont area and I go there often as well.
The Dogs play for an independent league named the American Association of Professional Baseball which is a partner of MLB but everything about the team oozes fun and style. Their logo, their mascots, the promotions and branding are all so on point. I got myself a red dogs cap and found myself wearing that more than my sox caps even. There's also the similar Schaumburg Boomers who play for another independent league called the Frontier League but they are bit further away so it's up to you to choose which one. For the people much further in the south, there's the Gary Railcats in Indiana. I'll stick with the Dogs though, the location, venue, and baseball play is pretty fun and unlike the white sox, these guys actually try. They've won their division the last 3 years and even went to the finals of the league but lost. Hell, given the current state of the sox, I'm betting the Dogs can beat them in a 7 game series and easily too.
They also have a bunch of fun promotions, are extremely family friendly, and Impact field is a nice looking park that you could walk all the away around which I usually do during games and view the ballgame from multiple angles all over, something that I loved doing at Sox park. Also given it's proximity to O'Hare Airport, there's a cool view of very close up planes landing and taking off both North and South of the park. There's a nice parking structure to the North which is decent enough for parking but could get pretty filled and crowded if it's a big day. One game I was at, I saw an opponent smash a home run so deep it went well over the several rows of bleachers in right center bouncing well onto the concourse and then right through the gaps in the fences into that parking lot. I wonder if that ball was ever seen again. Impact Field also hosts some other events including the Sparkle Light Festival during Christmas time and it is beautiful and quite a sight to see a super elaborate light display contained within a ballpark where you get to step through on the field as well as in the seats.
I recommend if you're in the area and it's possible, go catch a Dogs game and enjoy some in person baseball again.
Check out the Dogs
Website: https://thechicagodogs.com/
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NPB/Hanshin Tigers:
"Unmatched passion in all of baseball, worldwide!"
Last year the baseball world saw one of the greatest international tournaments in it's history with the 2023 WBC. Team USA won the previous WBC in 2017 but with how the games went and of course that grand grand finale of team USA vs team Japan culminating in possibly the greatest matchup to end it, Shohei Ohtani striking out Mike Trout, it felt like this was one for the ages. You couldn't script it any better. Team Japan took the championship over team USA which was actually well represented by our then Sox like TA, and Lynn, and Graveman so it was really fun to follow and root for. But that championship and their explosive celebration and excitement and energy as well as some other things got me into checking out the NPB (Nippon Professional Baseball). That year I decided, something that I had thought about before but I would actually do now, to become a fan of the Hanshin Tigers and start following the NPB. Also Takumu Nakano who was on the Japan WBC winning team plays for the Tigers.
The Hanshin Tigers, located in Nishinomiya, Japan, play for the Central league of Japan's professional baseball league, the NPB. Their home stadium is the infamous Koshien Stadium which is also home to the Japanese High School Baseball Championship, one of the biggest baseball tournaments and even sporting event in Japan (kind of even crazier than March Madness here). I adapted them as my NPB team because their hometown of Nishinomiya is kind of special to me in that it where one of my favorite series of all time, "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya", takes place in. As big a fan as I am of sports, I also love anime and have been learning Japanese and been to Japan twice so far. Each time I went, I've also gone to Nishinomiya both times and I long for a third time in the future. I wasn't too far away from Koshien Stadium when I had visited back then as well. I hope so much that I can return to Japan for another trip in the future and return to Nishinomiya to be a part of the amazing crowd inside Koshien for a Tigers game. And let me tell you, that Japanese baseball fan crowd is insane. It's night and day between our crowds even when the sox aren't the worst team in the league. Take a quick gander:
Horns bleating, fans chanting, the shouting, the energy, so much of it all and this was just a game in September not even the playoffs yet. Granted the Hanshin Tigers are extremely well known for their extremely large and loud fanbase and for while there, they haven't even won a pennant since 2005 and a Nippon championship since 1985 (what coincidental years for Chicago fandom). That all changed last year. I swear it was a major coincidence that the team I finally adapted to get into NPB based purely on their city location being one that I like, went on a MASSIVE tear last year. The hitting, pitching, fielding were all top notch and indeed it was so that they won the Central League breaking what was known as the Curse of Colonel Sanders (no seriously, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_the_Colonel) and not only that but continuing on to win the Nippon Series too! It was an insane ride and I enjoyed it as much as I could. How you might ask? Well, I haven't figured out a foolproof way yet but I do my best to catch the highlights of every game which are widely available on various channels on Youtube including their official one. I'll follow box scores, find news any way I can, using what little Japanese reading knowledge I have now and expand on it to keep up. Just as when I started my White Sox and other Chicago sports fandom back then, I did as much research as I possibly could about the history, players, background, and like everything. There's a ton of resources and also a lot of fans that all have a slice of what's going on whether live or after the fact.
This year, the Tigers had no sign of championship hangover as they got off to a tepid but then hot start and kept going hot despite some doubts of the offense but suddenly they hit a complete 180 and the questionable offense turned into downright potentially the worst offense in the league. As a matter of fact, they even got no hit before the sox did! Hopefully it's just some underperformance and they'll snap out of it but even if they don't, I'm still a fan and as I am with all my other teams, a true passionate one that'll keep on following them and sticking too them (like how I just can't quit the sox no matter what or how mad or sad I get at them).
If the Tigers aren't your cup of tea, but you want to still check out the NPB, there's plenty of other teams as well and I encourage you to take a look and see. There's also the KBO, which some might be familiar with as that's where Fedde just came from. Open your horizons to overseas leagues and enter a whole new world of baseball an ocean apart.
Some Hanshin Tigers resources I use:
Their official youtube channel (highlights, interviews, news, fun things):
https://www.youtube.com/@hanshintigers_official
These channels have good spoiler free highlights that I catch up with most mornings:
And for live games if I'm up at the same time they're going on, a little unorthodox but this channel has the most passionate fan I've ever seen in the form of a virtual dog narrating and giving play by play for the game live with boxscores and stats on display. Usually tens of thousands of people watch him during a game and their passion oozes through too. I just love the energy all around everywhere even on an overflooding chat:
https://www.youtube.com/@chiroru53/streams
Finally this website is a really good one as its fully in English, designed for new foreign fans, and the siterunner is just such a passionate fan:
https://www.thehanshintigers.com/about/
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Cricket T20 World Cup:
"A historic upset and you probably didn't even know about it!"
Say what? Cricket? What even is that? Or maybe you have an idea or heard about it but still don't know much of it. This bat and ball sport adjacent to baseball is so popular all over the world and this year, happening RIGHT NOW, it's brought to our doorsteps. Cricket, in a different, new format called T20 is now having it's World Cup with multiple nations playing in places across the US. The T20 format is kind of like a faster more high stakes version of cricket where each moment counts even harder. It has its supporters as well as subtractors who prefer more traditional cricket. What's even wilder is as of writing this right now, the host team, USA, is 2-0 including an insane upset against Pakistan which is part of what had me delaying this post when I intended to finish it (Also it was the 80th anniversary of D-Day) watching that spectacle and truly a historic upset. And hey, witnessing history that isn't just the white sox setting new lows!
It's been fun to learn about this sport as I always had known of it through working with many very good Indian coworkers who had introduced me to it and talked about it before. I've even talked to some British and Irish people who love the sport and now to see it here stateside is kind of wild. There's also the Warehouse Games which I will elaborate on further down which got me into it more of late. If you're open of mind for a different bat and ball sport, check out the Cricket T20 World Cup.
Cricket T20 World Cup info:
https://www.icc-cricket.com/news/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-icc-men-s-t20-world-cup-2024
That historic upset:
https://www.cbssports.com/general/news/usa-t20-cricket-upset-of-pakistan-explained-everything-to-know-about-the-historic-world-cup-victory/
And a very good primer on cricket and the T20 format that's designed for, gasp, baseball fans! featuring Jomboy too:
Bonus - a funny blast from the past:
https://www.nbcsportschicago.com/mlb/chicago-white-sox/broadcaster-borrows-hawk-harrelsons-trademark-phrase-during-cricket-match/303589/
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Copa America/USMNT:
"UMSNT got the cup in the nations league, do they have a chance in Copa America?"
I'll keep this one brief but it's basically the soccer FIFA World Cup but for the Americas, both north and south. What makes this special this year is it'll be hosted by the US ahead of the actual FIFA World Cup which will also be held here in North America in 2026. Being the host nation for these, and with the USA team coming up with some more stars like Christian Pulisic, international competition soccer is growing here. Hopefully the team can deliver something we can cheer for like when they made it out of groups in the prior FIFA World Cup. This upcoming Copa America starting late June should provide some good enjoyment as we root for our boys in red, white, and blue. They finished in 4th the last time this occurred in 2016 and have recently won the CONCACAF Nations League. They got absolutely destroyed by Colombia 1-5 in an international friendly match very recently so that could be a huge wake up call or just show how far the US actually is from some of the better countries' teams in the world, but we'll see anyways in just a few weeks. Maybe we'll see Messi effortlessly score a hat trick against us as we bow in his presence, if team USA makes it that far.
Copa America info:
https://www.nbcsports.com/soccer/news/copa-america-2024-how-does-it-work-qualifying-top-players-favorite-host-cities-final
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Warehouse Games:
"Sports in a warehouse? More exciting than you could ever imagine"
Now we get to the more amateur but just as well produced, entertaining, and electric as any other sports there is out there. The Warehouse Games were something started by Jimmy O'Brien who some may know as YouTube sports content creator star, Jomboy. If not, enjoy one of his great pieces where he breaks down sports mostly baseball moments in a way only he could:
Ah it was a better time back then...
But continuing on, Jomboy took his massive success and started building a media empire which includes all kinds of videos and podcasters and others all under his umbrella. With all that, he also started playing sports like Blitzball with his compadres and started expanding on that too. What started in a back alley, completely exploded after he bought an entire warehouse somewhere in NJ, completely revamped it and lo and behold borned Warehouse Games. They played blitzball, floor hockey, as well as other sports some of which the warehouse crew invented pretty much. This year marks a big turning point in the several years that he's been doing this now where they now included several huge tournaments throughout the whole year involving multiple sports: Blitzball, Ball In Play, Floorball, and Slapball. There's two major cups going on among the rest of the usual events they have, one Warehouse Cup Franchise Series and one new one called the Captain's league.
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As a quick aside, blitzball is also it's own sport and even has a bunch of guys playing it broadcasting their games on Youtube as well. I've recently taken a big interest in it even getting my own blitzball set and playing around, practicing it. If interested, here's their home page which also goes to their leagues, tournaments, and ways to watch:
https://www.blitzball.com/tournaments
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Anyhow, again as I said, this is all amateur and most of it is played for fun and bragging rights and sometimes even cash prize but damned if it isn't just so extremely entertaining. Many other people would agree too as they show each game on live premieres on youtube and thousands if not tens of thousands tune in each time filling the chat with excitement and energy. There's pregames and postgame shows and the production values are through the roof. They even have a broadcasting team of Chris Rose and Peter Moylan! The players all mostly podcasters but some actual athletes all compete with a fiery passion and are quite characters making themselves known really playing up the entertainment aspect. Sometimes for certain sports like Ball in Play (which is like warehouse version of cricket), they even invite professionals of the sport like how they just had Aaron Jones (team USA Cricket, the guy who batted in the Super Over in the Pakistan upset!), Jimmy Knorp of Major League Wiffleball (Should mention that one too, it's a lot bigger than you'd expect!) and other former pros who are even mainstays like Trevor Plouffe (eugh I know, but it's fun watching him get destroyed when it happens). The games, teams, and players have been going on for so long now that even storylines and histories (Like how Jomboy himself despite being the founder has still yet to raise a banner in his own Warehouse and he keeps choking it away in crazier and crazier ways!) have emerged from them. Jomboy has truly built a whole thing here. My favorite team is We Got Ice consisting of two sports Youtube personalities who make very fun and funny baseball/blitzball related content.
Jomboy has created such an impressive thing here and it just keeps continuing to grow. I tune into practically every game and have come to learn and love each team and player almost more than I know the players on the Sox these days! I hope they continue to grow and perhaps one day, as they did with one of their Blitzball tournaments, host one in a public location where we have the chance to go see them in person. All of their games, highlights, and even pregame/postgame shows as well as other content are all archived on their Youtube channel and anyone can go back and watch any of it anytime. I know it all just sounds so completely bizarre and unheard of, these essentially podcasting youtube content creators playing like backyard games with each other, but they truly are making it big and continue to climb and I feel deservedly so with how entertaining all of it is. I hope you'll be intrigued and will be a part of it too.
The Warehouse Games official channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@WarehouseGames
Some quick awesome highlights:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/rhp9GCSJHA8
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/adfJBa-FaYc
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/s1-455onOTA
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JM Gaming:
"Warehouse players you love competing in games you love"
Now for something even MORE completely different! Yes it can get even crazier! Here's where the mind really opens up. From the same guys who bring us the excitement of the warehouse, youtube personality/Warehouse player Joez McFly brings us a bunch of tournaments pitting the familiar warehouse players against each other in... VIDEO GAMES.
I definitely know I've lost some of you here and that's okay because I, myself, love this. Mostly the games they've played have been all baseball related keeping my love for baseball no matter what it is still despite the sox. Some of the games they've done are Mario Superstar Baseball, Mario Super Sluggers, Wii Baseball and much more to come and they've been so fun to watch. Some players take it real seriously, others not as much but still provide great entertainment. It's a niche within a niche but even then still hundreds if not thousands tune in for each, once again, live premiered game and chat along with the fun and excitement. If you like sports video games, or are intrigued at how this even works or can be so fun, check them out. They're entertainers and damn do they entertain.
JM Gaming official channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@jomboymediagaming
Some fun short clips:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/FPsWliKK6v4
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/xa3tMI7R0v4
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/mkCwNnvt0jc
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Dinger City:
"Esports like you've never seen for baseball like you've never seen!"
Now this is quite something for those of us who do like video games and sports video games. You'll probably know about the big names like The Show, Super Mega Baseball, and... um MVP Baseball 2005. But would you ever believed me if I said the most mechanically deep baseball game of all is actually Mario Superstar Baseball? What seemed like a casual romp of baseball for kids featuring their favorite Nintendo characters on the Nintendo GameCube was actually built so complex down to the root. Many people have gone in and reverse engineered out all kinds of stats, mechanics, nuances, and other such small detail and each one means the difference between victory or defeat by utilizing them correctly. There's even a system where you need to pick (draft) your team against your opponent and every character has strengths and weaknesses so you need to pick carefully. There's just so much involved under the hood that skill, execution, knowledge all come into play at a high level and as such a competitive scene was born and boy is it competitive with rulesets, regulations, and policies. Mario Superstar Baseball grew a community of players who push themselves and each other to the limits of the game and metagame and still new things and strategies are being discovered. It's absolutely wild to think about but it's true. There was even a live event called SLICE that just happened not too long ago right in our own backyards in Lisle!
https://www.start.gg/tournament/slice/details
One such community that I've followed is called Dinger City. These guys are probably one of the biggest, if not the biggest Mario Superstar Baseball communities out there playing many tournaments and competing all the time. There's two ways to play in this scene which is either in person or via netplay which utilizes a special software on PC to emulate the game and connect it to another person via the internet. Dinger City is an in person community of a group of guys who love to play this game and delve deep into its secrets to get better and better against each other. And at the very core of it, it's still a baseball game so it's fun to watch with all the added mechanics. Dinger City sometimes has their competitions be either live streamed or live premiered and it's fun to be a part of it and follow along. The energy and entertainment they bring to the table while playing each other at such a high level is infectious.
This is one of more niche and small things on this list but it is slowly growing and pretty fun to watch. I've also played it myself but I can barely even beat the CPU let alone be good enough to get into a deep competitive scene online. I'll stick with the watching but it is sometimes fun to play too.
A very good and quick 10 minute overview of this whole thing:
Their official Youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@DingerCity
quick wild clip: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/F_TaQShS06Y
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And finally last but certainly not least. Not by far!
Banana Ball:
"The Greatest Show in Sports"
I end my list with a bang. Possible one of the greatest biggest newest things on the scene now and it's only continuing to get bigger and keep on growing. Bananaball is the new phenomenon taking over and taking over hard providing a very very entertaining game of baseball to everyone. But don't be mistaken, they aren't the the Harlem Globetrotters of baseball, no sirree bob! They actually play hard and competitive and so do their opponents which are a team called the Party Animals and very very new this year, they literally debuted last week, the Firefighters. As with the Dogs mentioned at the very beginning this team oozes so much ridiculously style and yes they are so cheesy but holy cow they are absolutely one of the most fun and entertaining things I've ever seen and after all that's what I sought out with this list.
There's a lot of pieces out there that will do the history of Bananaball much better that I can so I'll give a gist and then provide a resource to read further. Essentially they were a collegiate team located in Savannah, Georgia and during offseasons or when they weren't playing they started to fidget around a little with the rules and methods of playing baseball. The ideas were radical and gamechanging and they didn't even think they would amount to things but when they put it into practice and then play, it blew up. Jesse Cole the owner and founder of the idea along with his wife, went literally from zero to millions and their story is an amazing one.
https://thesavannahbananas.com/the-history-of-banana-ball/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/shephyken/2023/05/21/how-jessie-cole-transformed-the-savannah-bananas-into-a-marketing-phenomenon/
The main focus of Bananaball is to put the fans first. They deliver top notch entertainment by bending the rules of regular baseball to a way that entices, entertains, and even involves the fans. Again, I could put it into words but this intro delivered with so much gusto by the Young Professor at the beginning of every game puts it in ways so much better than I ever could.
And no you aren't seeing things, that IS Minute Maid Park. Bananaball has exploded this year taking one of the largest new steps in their history, playing in Major League ballparks. They also added Fenway to that just this last weekend and it was insane. They still have more Major League baseball Parks to come too though not in Chicago. It would be a pipe dream if they come to the Rate but more likely they'll go to Wrigley probably as soon as next year. As for the rules, I'll let Jesse himself do the talking:
Some may find these rules ridiculous and going against tradition and that's fine, but for those looking for something new, this stuff is just so fun to see in practice. They also play with an extreme flair doing all sorts of crazy things to a baseball like trick plays, trick pitches, dancing pitches, walkup song/dances, off the kilter run celebrations, all kinds of craziness that still exemplify their athleticism, passion, and dedication to entertaining the fans. Whether it's backflip catches, tornado spins, underneath the legs, bounce passes, ridiculous dives, barehands, it's just everywhere and you never know what you're going to see next. Just take a look at some of these!
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/zcA9t9hMw4U
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/tFjDI5do77Y
Bananaball also has had it's way of sudden guests coming into the play games, the likes of famous wrestler John Cena, Backstreet Boy's Brian Litrell, Pro Softballer Jocyln Alo, even overseas with former NPB Kenshi Sugiya and many many SO many more. Former MLBers also get in on the action so much they've not only been guest players some of them are on the roster and they've even had games against the MLBPAA! It was amazing seeing familiar Sox players like Jake Peavy having so much fun and truly gushing about how great Bananaball is.
The players are also filled with personality, all of them great athletes and showmen and some like Daulton Mauldin and Tanner Thomas constantly put out vlogs to see the day to day and behind the scenes of Bananaball players and you truly see and understand how much practice and devotion they put into it all.
Add in all of that with the constant energy, music, dancing, audience games and Bananaball is a show like none ever seen before with fun as you've never had it before. They broadcast pretty much every game on Youtube unless they're on ESPN that day with extremely well made and produced broadcasts including pre/postgame and sometimes even post post game. They even interact with the people watching and chatting while live! Waiting lists to attend a game are hundreds of thousands deep as they sell out in minutes. Their most recent game at Fenway park was completely sold out in 18 minutes. They're playing in stadiums all over the nation which they call their Bananaball World Tour. For many of their game tickets require lotteries to be able to obtain and I, yours truly here, actually managed to secure some for the end of this month when they go to Victory Field in Indianapolis, closest venue to Chicago they have this year. I'm so excited and I can't wait.
I, myself, have now gushed and gushed and yet despite all this, it's still just scratching the surface from what I've covered to what they're doing. On and off the field Bananaball is making such a huge difference and doing so much good. There's still so far they can go as they keep growing at an exponential rate to truly become, as they put it, and as so many others millions have agreed, the Greatest Show in Sports:
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If you've managed to go through that entire list and my god did I write and share more than I ever thought I would, then thank you so much. I know I put a lot of external and especially Youtube links but seeing it for yourself is a lot better than just reading what I say. And still it only feels like I've only begun to scratch the surface for all of those I mentioned above but still poured out my newfound passions to share with everyone as we are in dire dire need of some happy entertainment in these dark Sox times. Some were crazy I know but as said above I also encourage everyone to also share what if, anything, they've found to fill some sports entertainment void or even augment their enjoyment of sports media. If you learned something new, found something wild, or even have been converted into a passionate fan of it like me, please comment and let us all know! I wanted change and as we know the team, org, and league won't give it to us so I've taken this into my own hands to drastically change in ways you never even thought of to lighten things up.
I hope you enjoyed and felt the joy and passion emanating from me as I wrote this whole thing. It was a huge change and felt so good to write about happier things and maybe, just maybe someday we'll get this same joy for the White Sox again. Until then though, the message is clear, there's plenty of other things out there. Just open up and explore, who knows what you'll find and fall in love with. And if you found all of the above absurd rubbish that you'll never get into and can't fathom others getting into either, that's okay too. To each, his own and may you find some other ways to keep your sanity during this era of historically bad sports here. I may even have a final recommendation for that sanity, my current nighttime reading:
"Trust me, it's still less maddening than the white sox!"
Again thank you!