Jerry Manuel stepped onto the No. 4 train in midtown Manhattan and took a subway ride to the Bronx, getting off at old Yankee Stadium.
No one recognized the Chicago White Sox manager, who was in his third year on the job, guiding a young, rebuilding team that surprisingly was tied with the Atlanta Braves for the best record in baseball.
It was June 15, 2000, and the first-place Sox were coming off a three-game sweep in Cleveland and continuing a seven-game road trip that would define their season. They were playing the defending World Series champion New York Yankees, a team full of stars such as Derek Jeter, Roger Clemens, Bernie Williams and Mariano Rivera. Mere survival was the goal.
The 2000 Sox had one established star in Frank Thomas and a clubhouse full of talented young players, including Paul Konerko, Magglio Ordóñez, Carlos Lee and a July call-up named Mark Buehrle. They went on to score a major-league-leading 978 runs, a franchise record, before getting swept by the Seattle Mariners in an American League Division Series.
But heading into that mid-June series in New York, the Sox rebuild was way ahead of schedule. No one had expected them to be anything more than a .500 team coming off a 75-86 season.
Speaking in the visitors dugout before the opener to a media contingent three times the size of his normal press corps, Manuel did his best to lower expectations.
Chicago White Sox manager Jerry Manuel smiles after his Sox beat the New York Yankees 3-1 on Friday, June 16, 2000, at Yankee Stadium in New York. (Phil Velasquez/Chicago Tribune)
“We still have games left in the NBA championship, so it’s still early,” he said. “Baseball is a summer sport. It’s close to that time, and we happen to be doing well.”
The four Sox beat writers from the Chicago-area papers knew what was coming. Manuel always had words of caution, even before the biggest series in years, to try to remove pressure from his young team. The 2000 Sox still had plenty of holes, mostly on the pitching staff, and this was another megabucks Yankee team on its way to a World Series three-peat.
“In a big-league situation, the exposure sometimes can shed a light on some things that it doesn’t need to be on,” Manuel told reporters. “It’s a young season with a young team. It’s still too early. I hope that feeling stays for the entire season, but this is not October.”
Baseball, perhaps more than any other sport, repeats itself every generation or so. If you’re lucky enough to hang around that long, you might get to see it unfold right in front of your eyes.
This Tuesday night in the Bronx, Sox manager Will Venable brings one of baseball’s biggest surprises into new Yankee Stadium to begin a three-game series against the megabucks Yankees in a showdown of first-place teams. Sox ace Davis Martin faces Gerrit Cole in the opener on Chicago Sports Network.
The Sox are percentage points ahead of the Cleveland Guardians in the AL Central, coming off four wins in five games against the two best teams in baseball, the Braves and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Two years after a record-setting 121 losses, they’re on pace to win 88 games. With a plus-.290 difference in winning percentage — from .253 in 2024 to .543 — it’s a stunning turnaround by any standard and a credit to general manager Chris Getz and Venable.
Venable said Saturday the players’ expectations haven’t changed since spring training, despite coming off a 102-loss season in 2025. We even heard them talk about it at SoxFest Live, where Indiana native Colson Montgomery compared the Sox to coach Curt Cignetti’s national championship football team.
“He said: ‘Indiana University just won the national championship. It can be done,’” Montgomery said.
Chicago White Sox players Frank Thomas, Ray Durham, Bill Simas, Patrick Baldwin and Mike Sirotka at Yankee Stadium in New York on June 18, 2000. (Phil Velasquez/Chicago Tribune)
Few others saw it, despite a 19-game improvement from 2024 to 2025. FanGraphs projected the Sox to go 67-95 this year and finish with the worst record in the AL. Even the most optimistic Sox fans expected only incremental improvement, not a playoff run.
But fans’ expectations have risen with each new challenge met. On Sunday, the Sox won a series against the Dodgers after nearly being no-hit by Yoshinobu Yamamoto the day before.
That’s how this thing works. Sox fans booed pitchers Sean Burke and Joe Rock on Saturday when they struggled with their control. Moral victories are no longer deemed acceptable.
I asked Venable if the Sox have to approach things differently now that they’re no longer a surprise to anyone but themselves.
“I don’t think so,” he replied. “And I certainly understand why those expectations (have) changed, and they should change the way these guys have been playing.
“The great thing about our group is it really doesn’t matter what happened yesterday. It doesn’t matter (who) we’re playing. These guys are going out there on a daily basis and going about their business the same way, to play hard and play their role and do everything they can do to help the team win.”
That’s boilerplate Venable. Like Manuel, the low-key manager rarely strays from the norm during his press briefings, stating the obvious and avoiding controversy. But people around baseball are taking notice of Venable, and if the Sox continue on their current trajectory, he’s likely to be a leading candidate for AL Manager of the Year, which Manuel won in 2000.
But, as Manuel said, there’s still a way to go before October, and the Sox are far from a finished product. Like the 2000 team, the offense has carried the load with a .737 OPS, fifth-best in baseball, despite having the third-highest strikeout rate (23.8%). They’ve overcome the loss of slugger Munetaki Murakami to a hamstring injury on May 29 and gotten by despite Montgomery’s June slump: a .147 average and 15 strikeouts in 34 at-bats since June 1.
Outside of Martin, the rotation has been so-so, and Venable frequently has employed an opener to make up for its lack of dominance. Closer Seranthony Domínguez has been spotty, averaging 5.19 walks per nine innings. Venable has used closer-in-waiting Grant Taylor on occasion but went with Domínguez on Sunday.
The Sox are counting on rookies Sam Antonacci, Jacob Gonzalez and Braden Montgomery to learn on the job, with Antonacci and Gonzalez starting in spots (left field and first base, respectively) they’re not as familiar with. Catchers Edgar Quero and Drew Romo have struggled offensively while Kyle Teel awaits another rehab stint.
The bullpen ranks 18th with a 4.23 ERA, and the starters are 16th at 4.34. Overall, Sox pitchers rank 26th in walks per nine innings (3.89), an issue that’s becoming more concerning. Burke has walked 10 and allowed seven runs in 8 1/3 innings over his last two outings, which Venable shrugged off: “Burkie will go to work and come out and be better next time.”
Noah Schultz is on the IL, and the rotation remains in flux. Top pitching prospect Hagen Smith was seemingly waiting for a call-up against the Dodgers, but a rainout Thursday delayed his potential Sox debut. Smith was shelled Saturday, allowing eight runs in 4 1/3 innings for Triple-A Charlotte. Shane Smith, their only All-Star in 2025, was demoted to Charlotte after three starts and is not on the radar.
Yet the Sox have not only kept their heads above water, but thrived at home.
This week’s big showdown in New York pitting two first-place teams probably needs an asterisk because only five AL teams are above .500. But for Sox fans who traditionally have looked at the Yankees as their archrivals, this is about as good as it gets.
The 2000 Sox, by the way, swept Joe Torre’s Yankees in four games at Yankee Stadium to finish their trip 7-0 and with the best record in baseball. The Sox scored nine first-inning runs in a 17-4 win in the finale to put an exclamation mark on the trip, and even Manuel couldn’t downplay the statement his kids made.
“In my time here, I’ve never witnessed anything quite like this, especially against the teams we’ve done it against,” he said. “The guys really stepped it up. They went to another level on this trip.”
There was too much time left in the season to get giddy, as starting pitcher Jim Parque noted.
“Everybody in this clubhouse, including Jerry, knows that at any given time it can crumble,” Parque said after the sweep in the Big Apple. “But that’s only if you let it crumble. That’s not going to happen.”
Times change. It’s a different era and a different generation.
But for the 2026 White Sox, the song remains the same.