There’s Hits in Ice Cream Cones: How Dessert Became White Sox Playoff Logic
A Sam Antonacci snack, a Munetaka Murakami home run and one perfectly serious Kyle Teel quote turned a frozen treat into Chicago’s newest piece of October mythology.
Baseball players can make almost anything into a superstition. A pair of socks. A seat on the bench. A song. A pregame meal. In October 2026, the White Sox apparently reached the ice cream phase.
The story began during ALDS Game 1 in Cleveland. Sam Antonacci was not in the starting lineup against left-hander Parker Messick. While Munetaka Murakami stepped to the plate in the fourth inning and launched the two-run homer that put Chicago ahead, Antonacci was somewhere much less dramatic.
He was in the batting cage eating an ice cream cone.
“There’s hits in ice cream cones” sounds ridiculous until the team keeps winning. Then baseball starts negotiating with the universe.
What Was Sam Antonacci Doing During Murakami’s Home Run?
WGN’s Josh Frydman asked Antonacci how he reacted when Murakami sent the ball deep. The rookie admitted he had been in the cage eating ice cream and joked that if the coaching staff had suddenly needed him, the cone might have put him in the doghouse.
The clip immediately worked because it fit the personality Antonacci had already shown all season. The same rookie had gone to a movie dressed as Spider-Man, stumbled during postseason player introductions and repeatedly supplied the clubhouse with moments that felt too strange to have been prepared by a media department.
Kyle Teel Turned a Funny Snack Into a Theory
Antonacci supplied the scene. Kyle Teel supplied the line.
Before Game 2, Teel explained that he had noticed something throughout his baseball life: ice cream cones seemed to bring good luck. Then he summarized the entire theory in six words: “There’s hits in ice cream cones.”
He even suggested Antonacci should have several. That is the exact point where the story stopped being merely “rookie caught eating dessert” and became a clubhouse superstition.
Will Venable Did Not Fight the Superstition
Manager Will Venable had not heard about the theory when reporters brought it up. His response was probably the only sensible managerial answer available: if his players believed it was good luck, he was willing to support it.
The joke fit a larger coaching pattern. Chicago’s young roster has been given space to build its own personality — dugout dances, strange costumes, magic-wand bits and inside jokes included — without those things being treated as evidence that the team is unserious.
The baseball reinforced the joke. Chicago won Game 2 4–3, moved to 4–0 in the postseason and carried a 2–0 ALDS lead back to the South Side.
Superstitions gain power through timing. Antonacci happened to be eating ice cream during a playoff homer, Teel supplied a memorable phrase, Chicago kept winning and suddenly an ordinary snack had a place in October vocabulary.
Why the Chicago-Flag Cone Is the Right Visual
The design avoids portraits entirely. That is a smart choice because the joke is bigger than either player’s face.
Large retro serif lettering carries the quote on one side. On the other sits a tall cream-colored cone topped by a tiny Chicago flag. The light blue stripes and four red stars do all the geographic work: the dessert becomes unmistakably Chicago without requiring a conventional team logo.
Against a black base, the off-white ice cream and muted cone colors feel closer to vintage food advertising than standard postseason graphics. It is simple enough that anyone who knows the quote understands it immediately — while anyone who does not has to ask why Chicago baseball suddenly has an ice cream symbol.
Retro lettering and a Chicago-flag cone turn the Antonacci–Teel clubhouse story into one of the cleanest insider references of the 2026 ALDS.
View the ice-cream piece →One More Entry in the Strange 2026 White Sox Dictionary
The phrase now sits beside the other language this roster created organically: Soxtober, Mike Vasil’s wizard mythology, the pregame dance and Sean Burke’s no-distractions quote.
Those stories can be followed throughout the Chicago White Sox collection and the broader MLB collection. Specific player designs can also be found through the Kyle Teel search and Sam Antonacci search.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who said “There’s hits in ice cream cones”?
White Sox catcher Kyle Teel said the phrase before ALDS Game 2 while discussing Sam Antonacci’s ice-cream story.
Why was Sam Antonacci eating ice cream during a playoff game?
Antonacci said he was in the batting cage eating an ice cream cone while Munetaka Murakami hit his Game 1 home run.
Did Kyle Teel really believe ice cream was good luck?
Teel said he had noticed throughout his baseball career that ice cream cones seemed to bring hits and good luck.
What did Will Venable think of the superstition?
Venable responded playfully and said he supported whatever his players believed was bringing them luck.
Why does the design use a Chicago flag?
The flag’s light-blue stripes and four red stars turn an ordinary ice cream cone into a city-specific White Sox and South Side reference.
The There’s Hits in Ice Cream Cones graphic preserves the exact instant a funny Sam Antonacci story became Kyle Teel’s completely serious piece of baseball logic.
There’s Hits in Ice Cream Cones Shirt captures Kyle Teel and Sam Antonacci’s viral White Sox ALDS superstition with retro typography, a Chicago-flag ice cream cone and one of October 2026’s strangest clubhouse quotes.