Brett Ballantini had no idea this podcast would be so much fun, not after penning a recap as dark as he can remember reading on these pages. It’s a tribute to such a good cast — Chrystal O’Keefe, Joe Resis, Adrian Serrano, Dante Jones, Allie Wesel and Melissa Sage-Bollenbach — that we could all laugh through the tears stomach pains. The main topic was, what else, Tony La Russa’s rumored retirement announcement on Monday. With no team confirmation as of this writing, approaching 24 hours after Bob Nightengale’s “break” of the news, who knows what we’ll be reacting to tonight during podcast 124. But we’ll be around, talking about the clowniest clown car moment of 21st Century White Sox rooting. Gut reactions to the news that Tony will be gone range from bittersweetness to anger, as we page through our Tony La Russa scrapbook of nightmares Dante gave us an entertaining visual: A “let’s effing go” as he heard the news break on his morning walk We discuss the increasing frequency of the White Sox making fans feel like team and organizational failures are somehow their fault — and the Stockholm Syndrome we are all suffering from as a result Chrystal’s son played a recent game with a goal of “being like Eloy”; three guesses as to whether he ended up hurt One of Allie’s hills to climb is the fact that she “bought into Rick Hahn’s bullshit” The second half of the podcast begins with more of the gut feelings that the end of this utterly unnecessary era of White Sox baseball are generating in all of us; Melissa is feeling foolish and duped, while Dante is determined that the White Sox will not break his soul Three speed round questions to end the podcast: Will this Tony rumor prove real, if so will the White Sox conduct a true managerial search, and which White Sox legend will be the next manager once the front office gives up on the endeavor? There are a few easter eggs thrown into this podcast, and if you like what you hear, support the artists creating our intro music, incidental music, or outro song Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices