Why the Sox ACE Program resonates with new White Sox assistant GM Josh Barfield: 'My two passions'
CHICAGO, Ill. - White Sox assistant general manager Josh Barfield remembers the days where he got a hard time from his teammates.
There were days when he was working toward his professional baseball career, which spanned 309 career games over four seasons with San Diego and Cleveland, when he would go find a quiet place after batting practice.
He’d need the solitude to write an essay or take a test, which was a part of his desire to earn a college degree. That determination is part of Barfield’s journey. He spoke about it with pride.
On Tuesday, Barfield visited the White Sox’s Amateur City Elite (ACE) program as the program commemorated its 15-player signing class of 2024. The Sox program has been developing players and sends them to the college ranks since 2007.
Barfield has been with the White Sox since September 2023. Even in the short time he’s been in Chicago, the ACE program caught his eye.
It’s because that program strikes a chord with one of the newest decision-makers with the Sox.
"I didn't know anything about it, and as I started digging I'm like, man, this is awesome," Barfield said. "The amount of kids that have come through to the quality kids, the quality of the coaching instruction that they get, you're hard pressed to find this anywhere else in baseball."
Barfield feels a connection with the ACE program.
It not only reminds him of his past days as a player, being a part of a club house with players just trying to improve at every step. It also reminds him about how that was all a part of how he built himself into an executive making major decisions in the major league.
These reminders spoke to his two passions: growing the game and educating the players.
"It speaks to my two passions," Barfield said. "It's the growing the game, especially with minorities and just seeing where the game was when I was growing up to where it is now. Like, there's not a lot of guys that look like me that are playing, and seeing a whole room full of guys that are not only playing, but doing it at a high level as successful students and getting to go to college."
With these two passions in mind, Barfield has a blank canvas to work with.
More than 280 players have earned college scholarships through the Sox’s ACE program. Its success is documented and backed up by current and former players.
When each member of the 2024 signing class introduced themselves, most of the class described the program as a family. Barfield has a chance to put his own stamp on a program that directly impacts his two passions.
Barfield isn’t sure how that looks yet, however he and other parts of the program attest to how the White Sox’s program separates them from other franchises.
CHICAGO, IL - APRIL 15: General overall view of the ballpark during an MLB game between the Baltimore Orioles and Chicago White Sox on April 15, 2023 at Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswire via Getty Image
"There's not another team that does it the way we do it here with the program," Advanced-A Winston-Salem bench coach and former ACE player Darius Day said. "They're trying to figure out how we're doing it."
Seeing Barfield seeking involvement in the program right away was validation for Day.
It attested to how well the program has benefited the players and community. It was also validating to see how Barfield wanted to be a part of program from the start.
"Josh right away just kind of flocked to the program and just wanted to be a part of it," Day said. "It just speaks value to what we're doing down here on the lower levels."
Justyn Hart, a pitcher with the ACE program who signed to play at the University of Missouri, is one of those players the ACE program helped get to the college level. Hart said Barfield’s presence sent a signal to his head to learn more.
Hart said he wanted to ask Barfield as many questions as he possibly could.
Not about being a general manager. Instead, he wants to know about the baseball world and what it takes to get into the major leagues.
"I'm going to ask as many questions I can just to be around him," Hart said. "Just to understand the game a lot better because I'm still learning the game."
For Barfield, players like Hart and the other members of the ACE program are a chance to give back to baseball.
To have a program that benefits minority baseball players, and gives them a chance to earn a baseball scholarship to better their future, is a way Barfield sees the ACE program as a way to contribute to the future.
"This game is given so much to me personally and and to my family and I want to continue to like pay it forward," Barfield said. "This organization is known for taking care of people and taking care of like the city and I just want to continue to build off of that."
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