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 -- Chris Withers has a broadcast dream paying big dividends during every Friday home White Sox game on Chicago Sports Network.
It took root from a point hammered home by Major League Baseball regarding the players: access, access, access.
Or in the White Sox case, all-access.
“This has been a show I wanted to do for years,” said Withers, who is the White Sox producer. “We do it on one central night. We make it appointment television.”
The All-Access Fridays, with great help from the White Sox, always include in-game interviews with manager Will Venable and possibly with hitting coach Marcus Thames or pitching coach Ethan Katz. A player is mic’d up, giving the behind-the-scenes sounds and extra analysis of the contest.
Rookie infielder Chase Meidroth was the player of choice on June 27 against the Giants, but his mic pack fell off while he was sliding headfirst, and his commentary was cut short. Hey, it is live television.
On that same evening, right-handed hurler Davis Martin, who starts tonight in Seattle but was on the injured list at the time, joined John Schriffen and Steve Stone in the booth.
A White Sox player launches a key home run? He’ll be interviewed shortly after the moment.
There was an MTV Cribs-styled pre-recorded segment -- now known unofficially as "MLB Cribs" -- in that June 27 broadcast where reliever Mike Vasil led the crew through a tour of the special home bullpen area at Rate Field. Mike Tauchman came up with that idea for Vasil, showing the connection between the White Sox players and this grand production. The players from this rebuild are growing and developing, and fans are gaining special knowledge.
“[Tauchman] said, ‘I think it’s going to be great.’ I went to Vasil, and he said, ‘For sure.’ He was a pro,” said CHSN reporter Brooke Fletcher, who does the in-game interviews on these all-access shows. “He should be doing on-camera stuff for a living. The bullpen was having fun with it.
“We are looking at the future. As long as people can invest in the guys and see them early on and what they are like, it’s just going to make it that much better once we get to the point of where we want to be.”
Fletcher and Connor McKnight, another White Sox reporter, give Withers talented options for every broadcast but especially on the all-access night.
It was an idea pitched to the organization by Withers in 2021, but it didn’t get very far. In ‘22 and ’23? Well, pretty much the same response. But as Withers jokes, he wore them down, and in a conference room on the 200 level of Rate Field before the ’24 season, he was given the all-access go-ahead.
“I was so happy. It was incredible,” Withers said. “But now the pressure was on. I had to prove that I had a good idea, and I had to prove this was a concept that worked.”
“Our goal is to first and foremost tell stories and tell great stories about the team,” White Sox coordinating producer Joe Collins said. “But also give fans something that they are not going to see on other broadcasts across the country. This is Chris’ baby. It’s a great idea. It’s a tremendous advantage for our fans to kind of see behind the scenes.”
That advantage turned into the most-watched telecast of the season for the White Sox on July 25 against the Cubs, buoyed by the club knocking out North Siders ace Shota Imanaga in a 12-5 victory. The game also ran on WCIU, where the rest of the all-access games will play -- as well as on CHSN -- for the remainder of the 2025 season, and represented WCIU’s most-watched telecast in over a year.
They are working on a special segment with head groundskeeper Roger Bossard for the Yankees series beginning on Aug. 29. Vasil also will return in another "MLB Cribs" episode touring the weight room and cold tub.
“We’re all humans. We all have personalities as much as we would think that all we do is baseball,” Vasil said. “To be able to give insight into that is pretty cool.”
“A lot of times people forget how to humanize these players,” Fletcher said. “It gives us an opportunity to show them in a different light, behind the scenes. It’s important to show these guys’ personalities and what they are like. That’s what Friday Night All-Access does.”
One more side note: The rebuilding White Sox, who are 10-5 since the All-Star break, also are 7-1 on Friday Night All-Access broadcasts.
“Friday Night All-Access is there to enhance the coverage of the game,” Withers said. “But the No. 1 focus is still covering the game. It’s throwing just a lot more against the wall for me, and I have to figure out where it all sticks.”