He grew up in a Giants family, he lived in a Giants community, he interviewed with the Giants, and he learned from a decorated Giants manager, but Will Venable is at home managing the rejuvenated Chicago White Sox, one of baseball’s best stories of the year.

The pride of San Rafael has taken an unlikely but inspirational journey to reach early success as a big-league manager, and it goes back to his wise decision to give up basketball for baseball as a senior in college.

With nearly a third of the season in the books, the White Sox, coming off three dreadful seasons – 101 losses, 121 losses, 102 losses – own a .500 record after falling Sunday 8-5 to the Giants, who received homers from Casey Schmitt and Rafael Devers, a grand slam, the team’s third in eight days.

The Giants won the series, but the White Sox left town feeling encouraged to be 26-26 – and with Venable as the right guy in his second year at the helm. He managed in San Francisco for the first time over the weekend, the city where his dad, Max, broke into the majors with the 1979 Giants, the Candlestick Park days. 

“I told my wife, Molly, ‘Man, if I were playing, I’d love to play for William just because of his demeanor and everything he brings,’” Max Venable said in a Standard interview before Saturday’s game at Oracle Park.

“He’s an ideal manager to play for,” added Max, 68, who spent five of his 12 big-league seasons with the Giants.

“That’s a great compliment,” Will, 43, told The Standard. “I get it, and I think leaning on my experience as a player is important, and ultimately as a player, you just want transparency and support and be able to be yourself. So that’s what I try to get across.”

Before Venable played nine major-league seasons, mostly with the Padres, he played multiple sports at San Rafael High School. Back then, he was so committed to basketball that he shelved baseball his senior year and enrolled at Princeton to play hoops, which he did successfully for four years. He dropped 21 points on Duke and is one of two players in school history with at least 1,000 points, 250 assists, and 150 steals.

Venable didn’t play baseball his first year at Princeton, but his mother advised him never to completely close the door on the sport. He took it up again his sophomore year at Princeton and hit .244 and progressively improved. He hit .344 as a junior and got drafted in the 15th round by Baltimore but preferred to return to college for a fourth year to keep playing both sports.

Good call. His average improved to .385, he developed far more power, and the Padres drafted him in the seventh round. That’s about the time he realized he wasn’t playing in the NBA but had a chance at the big leagues. Baseball, it was.

“Yeah, it was at some point during my senior year of college,” said the 6-foot-3 Venable. “I’m playing against these guys in basketball, potential first-rounders, and knowing what that looks like. I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’m not them, I can’t keep up with them. I can’t jump as high as them, and they’re better than me.’

“On the baseball side, I’d seen guys that were going to be highly drafted, and I was like, ‘Yeah, I could do that.’ My physical skillset translated more on a baseball field than a basketball court. My senior year, when it was that time to make a decision, it was pretty clear baseball was going to be the path.”

It speaks to Venable’s athleticism, dedication, and drive that he could give up baseball for two years in his late teens and still be good enough to enjoy a nice big-league career. He serves as a nice example of why it’s beneficial for kids to play multiple sports rather than specializing in one at an early age.

After his playing days, Venable landed coaching gigs with the Cubs, Red Sox, and Rangers. He also served as a special assistant under Cubs GM Theo Epstein and assistant manager under Rangers manager Bruce Bochy. That’s when Venable fine-tuned his managing skills and started getting interviews, including with the Giants.

Farhan Zaidi interviewed him for the opening he filled with Gabe Kapler. Zaidi inquired again after firing Kapler, but by then, Venable was passing on interviews and was content in Texas as Bochy’s heir apparent. He felt comfortable alongside Bochy and Chris Young, the Rangers’ GM who was his good buddy and Padres teammate, and who also played baseball and basketball at Princeton.

Venable has a World Series ring from the Rangers’ 2023 championship team and stayed one more year before accepting the White Sox gig.

“There’s so much stuff that I’ve taken from Boch and consciously applied here,” Venable said. “The broad approach to how he creates environments, how he is inclusive with staff, the in-game strategic lessons. Just a long list of ways he made an impact on me, which I needed to feel I was ready to do this. It all came from Boch.”

The White Sox seem to be putting the 100-loss seasons behind them, and their 121 L’s in 2024, the most in the majors since the 1800s, are a distant memory. Munetaka Murakami (among the home run leaders with 17), Miguel Vargas, and Colson Montgomery form a solid heart of the order. Davis Martin (among the wins leaders at 7 after beating the Giants Friday) has emerged as a rotation anchor, and Seranthony Domínguez is the first White Sox reliever since 2022 with double-digit saves.

Venable still has aunts, uncles, and cousins in the area, and his parents visited from their home in Idaho; Will’s younger brother, Winston, played football at Idaho State and later spent time with the Chicago Bears and in the CFL.

Some longtime friends attended the series at Oracle Park to see Venable, who left pregame field passes for a couple of his old teachers, Eugene Lang and John Thibodeaux.

“He was the best student I ever had,” said Lang, Venable’s eighth-grade PE teacher. “Will was so well liked because he included everybody on his team, so they all played really hard because of him, even the ones that weren’t very athletic. The class followed everything that he did. He was a natural leader.”

Perhaps Venable was destined for this career path all along, his hoop dreams notwithstanding. He credited Princeton’s basketball coaches, John Thompson III and Joe Scott, for supporting his two-sport career, and his baseball coach, Scott Bradley, for preparing him for pro ball.

It helped that one of his minor-league hitting coaches at various levels in the Padres’ chain was his dad.

“I remember telling his mom, ‘You should see your son right now, fighting it because he went 0-for-4 or something like that,” said Max Venable, recalling the days in the farm system. “It’s been a nice journey. Very proud. Really happy for him. He’s very likable, very smart, you could see why he’s doing well.”