Baseball Isn’t Boring
Pitch and Moan: Getting To Know New White Sox Hitting Coach Derek Shomon
18 Dec 2025
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to the show. Great to have you on.
Thank you, Courtney. I appreciate being here.
So let's just jump right into it. You are a Chicago native, but like me, you grew up on the north side of Chicago, the Chicagoland suburbs, as we like to call it. Our high schools were rivals.
Chapter 2: What is Derek Shomon's background as a White Sox fan?
They were about 15 minutes apart, which is pretty good. You're a Glenbrook South alumnus, which is awesome. As an Owls West person, I appreciate that. But similar to me, you grew up a White Sox fan, correct?
Yes.
Yeah, sure did. Sure did.
I mean, it's, it's crazy because like, you know, we are considered, we grew up in what's considered the North side. And as I'm sure, just like with, with me, you have a ton of Cubs friends, right? Ton of Cubs friends, family.
Yep. Majority. Right. Yeah. Yep. But I like to go against the grain.
I can tell you do. I can tell you do. I knew that about you right away. So you were like me. You were in high school during the 2005 World Series, right?
Yeah. Yeah.
How was that experience being a Sox fan during the White Sox World Series on in a very north side, predominantly Cub fan area?
Yeah, I had to sit back here and think, was it my sophomore year or my freshman year? At any rate.
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Chapter 3: How did Derek feel about his hiring as the White Sox hitting coach?
So you start to like see these parallels and it gets super exciting. Young guys, talented, making better swing decisions can move the ball forward. And then the areas for improvement are also fairly similar as well. Right? Like want to be able to open up just the, some more, you know, hard hit line drives, just like harder contact things that you absolutely can work on, should work on, but like,
There's definitely a lot of parallels there that make it super exciting as far as like that transition.
Now, what could be a little bit different? It's actually a little more encouraging for the White Sox and White Sox fans is the Marlins were part of that sort of tough, you know, NL East where teams are spending money. You know, obviously the Mets, even though they failed miserably, they spent a lot of money. You know, the Phillies are always going to be involved.
Atlanta is always going to be involved. You know, then you move to the AL Central, which I know you're familiar with because you worked with the Twins previously. There's a little more room to make some noise, I feel like, in the Central compared to the East. So how do you see parallel lines or no parallel lines between the AL Central and the NL East?
I mean, could the Sox even do more of a jump than the Marlins did with being in that division?
Yeah, I think you said it right. Like, it feels like a little bit more open in the AL Central. It can swing either direction at times. And I think we've seen that to be true in the last three years. Coming down to the stretch, right, we see what happens late in the AL Central. So that's always encouraging.
I think, like, guys knowing that if we're keeping our side of the street clean, like, we're in the fight. And that's what it comes down to, I think. What we want to avoid is like the we have to win like this many games. Like, yes, the wins matter. Absolutely. We are chasing a W every single night and we're trying to get there any way possible.
But if we like take it back a few steps, it's like, what does keeping our side of the street clean look like on a daily basis? And if we're doing that. We're probably going to be in a good enough spot to be competitive in this division. There are pieces in place to be competitive in this division. What we will never do, at least what I will never do, is talk about what we don't have.
It's always like this is what we have and this is what we are going to move forward with. And I think that, again, is super important. And that was a big piece of Miami is like we're not going to sit here and talk about what we don't have relative to the teams in our division. This is what we got.
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Chapter 4: What are Derek's initial impressions of the White Sox coaching staff?
Obviously, I know he's doing extremely well. We talked about this, which is great. But as having a young family in Chicago, how much more did this hiring in Chicago mean to you, knowing that you'll be able to spend all this time with your young family now?
Yeah, I think that's just it, right?
Like, just presence, like, my ability now to be present for these moments that Micah has so often, like, I mean, they're just, he's going through therapies multiple times a week, you know, just this morning, we were at an evaluation for a for a school that could fit his needs, potentially, and to be able to sit back and watch that for over an hour was was awesome. And
I have missed some things just by nature of the job and understanding like that's part of it. But the ability to be more present is awesome. Right. Like I want and I want to do these things. I now have the ability to do these things. And I'm sure although we cannot talk right now, like I'm sure he appreciates having that around as much as I appreciate being around him.
So does he I mean, does he give you like when you guys are I know there's some like FaceTime calls during the season that has really like kind of lifted your spirits during a long season. Like the fact that you can have that in person now is it's got to be very, very cool for you.
Yeah, and he's on the move. Like I say, he can't talk. He's talking. He's got Micah language.
I love that.
Great job. You know, we're starting to put together like two, three words at a time, which is sick. But yeah, yeah, like being in person and he's just an animal. I mean, he's all over the place and taking him in to hit, loves hitting, loves hitting on the tee, being able to do that stuff with him, loves watching baseball just because mom will have it on during the season. every night.
And so, like, he's completely, like, attached to that. We were watching Dominican Winter League the other night. Oh, wow. I mean, truly, like, he'll sit there and, you know, we'll look up and he'll have his bat and he'll wait till the pitcher throws his pitch and then he'll swing. And cool to watch him develop and be there for those moments, for sure.
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