This story was excerpted from Scott Merkin's White Sox Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
CHICAGO -- The on-field results for the 2025 season have not been exactly what the White Sox desired within this latest rebuild incarnation, although progress has been made. But their Rate Field promotions and giveaways have been World Series-caliber successes.
There’s an underlying theme to this overall ’25 process based on the 125-year-anniversary of the franchise and the 20-year celebration of its World Series championship.
“Yeah, the fan response has been awesome,” White Sox senior director of marketing and promotions Mike Downey told me during a recent interview. “We knew when we were planning this last year and coming up with all these ideas that this was going to be a really fun and creative promotional schedule. The White Sox are fortunate to have some really cool history.
“I wish we had more World Series wins, but what can you do? Doing a lot of research in the offseason and just looking back and seeing how baseball has been shaped over the last 125 years and how much of that has been by people within the White Sox organization, that’s what we were trying to convey with this promotional schedule.”
During the weekend of July 11-13, the White Sox celebrated the ’05 champions with the Mark Buehrle statue dedication and ensuing ceremony, along with an on-field reunion that following Saturday. Fans received an ’05-themed Hawaiian shirt on Friday, a Buehrle replica statue on Saturday and a Sunday bobblehead of Buehrle, José Contreras, Jon Garland and Freddy Garcia -- representing the four straight complete games they threw in the ’05 ALCS.
Lines started early and wrapped around the stadium for that particular series finale. Some of the other giveaways include bobbleheads for Ray Durham, Ozzie Guillen, Bill Veeck and Ken Griffey Jr., the Hall of Famer who had a short stint with the White Sox as part of their exciting 2008 American League Central title run.
How can anyone go wrong with the Aaron Rowand Christmas Vacation bobblehead for Christmas in July on July 28, or the Robin Ventura puffy shirt themed bobblehead on Seinfeld Night on July 29? Those were among the many special ticket offers through the White Sox.
Friday night’s contest against the Yankees featured a Puerto Rican Heritage jersey giveaway for the first 10,000 fans, but there also was a Puerto Rican T-shirt fans could purchase via special ticket offer. There was Reggaeton Night on May 23, a Juneteenth Day Party on June 19, the postgame Flo Rida concert on June 27 and the always-popular Elvis Night on August 22.
Let’s be honest: There are too many White Sox giveaways and theme nights to do justice to all of them. But the best still might be yet to come with a 1959 Comiskey Park replica AM/FM radio being given away on the final home game of Sept. 21.
“For me personally, the radio is the coolest item of the year,” Downey said. “Just the most unique and there’s so much that has gone into this one.
“Issues with production [meant] that we had to move it back. But when fans get that final product and they turn it on and they can sit in their garage and listen to this radio, that’s going to be very cool.”
Planning for the 2026 White Sox schedule already has begun. Downey creates a survey sent out to the entire front office, with their anonymous responses ranking the promotional efforts. He also asks for ideas.
Questions center on what’s missing, what can be improved upon and things of that nature. They try to have everything squared away by December or January.
“Once we get an idea solidified, I work with our design team and then our purchasing team to get this into production,” Downey said. “If it’s a shirt, for example, I’ll go to our design team and say, ‘I need a T-shirt, it’s gotta be 1959-themed, create something cool for me, give me three options.’ We’ll go back and forth until we get what our preferred design is.
“We go to our purchasing team. They handle all the logistics and select vendors. We don’t only use one vendor for every single thing. We bid it out, which is great for us because we get competitive bids.”
Best quality is preferred over lowest price, as has been shown by the ’25 excellence. A plan for the 125-year anniversary theme and logo caused a little front office consternation when the ’24 White Sox were approaching 125 losses.
They fell short of that ignominious number.
“If we had hit 125 losses, there’s no way we could have went out with the same marketing campaign,” Downey said. “We get it. Last year stunk. But you have a lot to be proud of being a White Sox fan. That’s what we are trying to convey through our promotional schedule.”