CHICAGO -- If the name Ray Garcia doesn’t immediately register, then you probably haven’t spent much time in the White Sox press box since 2008.

And now, the team’s skilled assistant director of media relations has added Guaranteed Rate Field public address announcer to his resume during this abbreviated 2020 season. Even with Garcia’s past broadcasting experience during his time at Northwestern University and the position’s pared down role with no fans in the stands, it began as a somewhat daunting task to temporarily replace PA legend Gene Honda.

Garcia, a Chicago native of Mexican descent, has been up to the challenge.

“I saw him [recently] in the hallway and was telling him what a good job he was doing,” Brooks Boyer, the White Sox senior vice president, chief revenue and marketing officer, said of Garcia. “I said, ‘Is he going to Wally Pipp Gene Honda?’”

“I’m probably a good 30 full seasons away,” said Garcia, with a laugh matching Honda’s. “But slowly creeping up on him.”

Nobody is replacing the dulcet baritone coming from Honda, so familiar and revered by White Sox fans. Boyer and Garcia look forward to Honda’s return because it indicates a move back to normalcy for baseball.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Honda and other gameday employees couldn’t be at the ballpark in 2020. That meant that other full-time workers had to add to their existing responsibilities.

“[Honda] is the voice of the White Sox,” Boyer said. “Everyone knows who Gene is, but we couldn’t bring Gene in. He’s an outside contractor. We don’t have our organist. There are a lot of people we don’t have. We don’t have our fireworks. These are all outside people.

“It was easier to close those doors and have full-time employees [step in]. So the easy pick for us was a guy who has some broadcasting chops, and we talked to Ray.”

While broadcasting football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball and softball during his four years with WNUR radio station in Evanston, Ill., Garcia called games involving future NFL pros such as Mike Kafka, Nick Roach and Luis Castillo. Now, he’s the PA announcer for the first White Sox playoff team since 2008.

“Brooks approached me and asked if I would be open to doing the PA this year because of my experience in the press box and knowing the players and the players on the other team, and maybe even [because of] some of my broadcasting work in college,” Garcia said. “I was more than willing to step up and help out, especially in a season like this with only 30 home games.

“This is the case for almost all the guys in that game operations staff. A lot of them are doing jobs they don’t normally do on a game-by-game basis because the day-of game people or part-time people aren’t allowed to come in. So they are stepping up and doing stuff like that as well.”

Even with the extra duties, Garcia has still been able to execute his media relations and public relations responsibilities. He is a frequent host on postgame home Zoom sessions and still contributes to game notes, press releases and the season-in-review packet. Garcia also works the press box pregame and helps with credentials, but admits he misses the media wearing out the press box carpet on a regular basis.

His PA work has been praised by Boyer and others in game operations, not to mention media friends who are basically required to critique his style. And Garcia has been happy with what he’s done, barring one small mistake.

“One game I looked at my scoresheet wrong, and I announced the wrong guy coming up to start the inning for us,” Garcia said. “[Edwin] Encarnación was leading off, and I announced Eloy [Jiménez], and Encarnación looked up toward the area because he knew he was supposed to bat. We were playing music, so I don’t think anyone outside of Edwin was paying attention.”

Added Boyer: “He’s got a great voice, and the nice thing is he’s taking it seriously. He knows it’s an important role because we want it to feel like a big league experience.”