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.
1977
One-season South Side reliever J.J. Putz was born in Trenton, Mich. Putz signed with the White Sox in 2010 on a prove-it contract, coming off of a 2009 arm injury that saw him suffer the first truncated and negative-WAR season of his career.