The White Sox’s Game 1 win over the Guardians came with a little help from an unexpected place: the Chicago media world.
On Monday’s episode of Barstool Sports’ The Stretch, Dave “White Sox Dave” Williams said he texted both players and a front office executive during the game after noticing Cleveland was tipping pitches. The White Sox already had a 2-0 series lead entering Game 3 of the ALDS, but the conversation centered on what happened in the third and fourth innings of Game 1, when the Guardians loaded the bases in the bottom of both frames and came away empty.
“It was like the 5th inning, and whenever the Guardians had a guy on 2nd, they were tapping their helmet for breaking pitches,” host Eddie Farrer said of Game 1 after asking Williams if he could share the story.
“And every pitch that the White Sox threw, they were (holding off) on or whatever. They weren’t swinging.
And (Williams is) like, ‘I got ’em.’ He texts Burke middle of the game.
He’s like, ‘They’re stealing the signs.’”
Williams said he first reached out to Sean Burke, figuring Burke might still have his phone even though he was out of the game.
“Well, so I knew (Sean Burke) was out of the game. He couldn’t pitch.
He pitched a game before. So I thought he might have his phone on him,” Williams explained.
“Then I hit up (Mike Vasil), and then I hit up the front office exec. All three of them got back to me right away, and they’re like, ‘Yeah, we got this.
We saw it too.’”
Williams also said he wasn’t the only one sending the warning along.
“I wasn’t the only one that did it,” Williams asserted. “ Jordan Lazowski, I know you’re listening.
He did the exact same thing. He works for Sox on 35th, and he did the exact same thing.
He hit up the Sox too because they didn’t call time and fix it immediately.
“And I mean, a couple of those times they had bases loaded. Yeah.
And if they know breaking, if they know what pitch is coming, that’s an issue. And they didn’t call time and fix it like middle of the inning, which, like, they should have, but it got fixed eventually.
So yeah, I did play my part a little bit.”
By Williams’ telling, the White Sox had already noticed the problem before he and Lazowski weighed in. Still, he made it clear he was happy to help.
“Anything for my team to win,” Williams said.
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