PHOENIX — As first-year White Sox manager Will Venable begins to introduce himself to Chicago baseball fans, you can probably already state this about him with certainty:
He’d beat any other MLB manager on the basketball court.
Venable, 42, was named the 44th manager in White Sox history this offseason, and he might well be the best athlete of all 30 current MLB managers. Venable was a two-sport standout in basketball and basketball during his college days at Princeton, where he graduated from in 2005 and became the second student-athlete in Ivy League history to earn first-team All-Conference honors in both sports.
In 2004, Venable helped lead the Princeton men’s basketball team to the NCAA Tournament, all before he spent nine seasons as a big-league baseball player.
So, as he begins his managerial tenure with the White Sox, do his players know of Venable’s basketball exploits?
Josh Frydman of GN Sports asked him that on Monday when he sat down with the first-year White Sox manager during the team’s first full team workout of spring training at Camelback Ranch (see attached videos above and below for more).
“A couple guys, but not sure beyond that,” Venable said with a laugh.
Including himself, Venable said the White Sox could actually field a pretty good basketball team.
“Honestly, I think so,” he said. “We’ve got some tall guys, too. We’ve got some big athletes.”
Of course, Venable’s job isn’t to turn the White Sox into a good basketball team, although that might actually be an easier task than turning them into a winning baseball team, given where the franchise has been the last couple seasons.
The White Sox hit a rock bottom that almost no team in MLB history has reached, losing 222 games combined over the last two seasons. That included a miserable 41-121 campaign in 2024, setting an MLB record in the Modern Era for single-season futility.
After rising through the coaching ranks and spending the last two seasons as associate manager/bench coach of the Texas Rangers under future Hall-of-Fame manager Bruce Bochy — including a Word Series title in 2023 — why would Venable want to take over such a rebuilding project?
“I think ultimately it was a combination of the people, as I got into the interview process and learned the people a little bit more and the reputation for some of the people in the organization,” he told Frydman. “And then (general manager) Chris (Getz)’s plan. Not just his plan, but what he’s accomplished in the last year, kind of behind the scenes, that really gave me confidence that there was a really good foundation.”
Venable said he’s settling in nicely as spring training gets into full swing, using what he learned from mentors like Bochy about relating to players.
“It’s been great, and it’s continuing to set in as I’ve gotten deeper into this camp and kind of learned how the responsibility has shifted from the bench coaching role the last couple years,” Venable said. “So it’s been great. It’s been great to have guys around and get to know them and get to know our staff.
“All good stuff so far.”
And there’s another factor, too. A winning baseball team in the City of Chicago means so much more than just about anywhere else.
The 2005 White Sox and the 2016 Cubs are iconic and always will be. And Venable got a taste of what Chicago baseball is like when he was a first- and third-base coach for the Cubs from 2018 to 2020.
What does Venable remember from that time?
“The City of Chicago and how important baseball is to the city,” he said.