Brett Ballantini has written about baseball, basketball and sometimes hockey for the NBA, MLB, NHL, and Slam, Hoop, Sporting News, the Athletic, Sports Illustrated, South Side Hit Pen, Sox Populi, SB Nation and others. He was CSN Chicago’s Blackhawks beat writer when their 49-year Stanley Cup drought ended in 2009-10, and moved to the White Sox beat after that. Brett has run South Side Sox since 2018.
Recall a year ago, when the White Sox lost 121 games, the worst in baseball history dating back to 1899? A dim light in all of that darkness was the performance of a pitching staff that did, in fact, keep its head above water, as the bats wilted from Opening Day forward.