I bring up my mom as evidence that I am not biased against the sainted old. Ricky Gervais observes how hypocritical it is to sneer at old people, in their diminished state, given how desperate we all are to join them. I know I'm dancing as fast as I can.
So I am reluctant to say the White Sox were unprecedentedly lousy because their owner was born in 1936. That's ageism. It is entirely possible to be old and on the ball. There must be other 88-year-old double octet seniors who rock their jobs. There is ... um ... looking for anyone ... Wall Street investor Carl Icahn, also 88.
Though his company has lost $20 billion since 2022, .; 75% percent of its value. Maybe not the best example.
And my mother, God bless her, well, — sharp as a tack, of course — though I think she'd agree, not up to stewarding a professional baseball team.
In his defense, Reinsdorf must have managers and staffers, coaches and assistants. Whom he hired.
So who's at fault?
No need to guess. There is the crack Sun-Times sports section. Let's see ... Rick Morrissey puts the blame squarely on Reinsdorf.
"I've said in the past that Reinsdorf doesn’t care anymore," he writes. "That was wrong. He cares about sticking it to people. It’s really the only explanation for his behavior."
I don't have a dog in this race. I don't follow the Sox. If you put a gun to my head and demanded I name a single player on Sunday's roster, I'd be a dead man.
To continue reading, click here.
Telling Reinsdorf to sell the team is a non-starter. That schande & goniff loves being one of the Lords of Baseball. Isn't he one of the extreme reactionary owners that caused the truncated season due to the players going on strike?
ReplyDeleteHe'll never sell it, as his life's work is now to screw the taxpayers out of yet another free ballpark for his failure of a team, if not here in Chicago, maybe the fools in Nashville who have bizarre dreams that having a Major League baseball team makes them important!
He wants to die as the owner & pass that on to his son. I have no idea if the son is as vile a human as the father! If he is, then the team is in for decades of being losers!
You're right but you left off the main reason: $. He sells now there's huge capital gains taxes. He dies and the sons get the team at a stepped up value. They already said they will sell it, thus avoiding the huge tax hit.
DeleteOr he could be more like Rocky Wirtz. Hire a good general manager who would hire an good manager. For those of you here who follow baseball he could have hired A.J. Hinch whose Tigers are in the play offs. The team probably wouldn't have made it to the playoffs, but I don't think they would have lost 121 games either.
DeleteOur family from the southside and serious Sox fans. The last game I attended in the 80's they were still tearing down the old Comisky while playing in the new park. Shortly after, I went to Wrigley for first time and was done with the Sox. I was a youngish adult. We have listened to Pat and Ron's since that time, now we can't watch the games as at 280 miles away we are "in market". Always sad to have the season end for our teams, and this year was disappointing but not historically awful. Reinsdorf seems like a wanker.
ReplyDeleteWondering...now that the Sun Times is not allowing non subscribers to be able to read your columns, I guess I'll be unsubscribing. I know I could subscribe but I won't be. Please advise as to how that works. I've enjoyed the pieces and wish you all the best. Still working thru EGGD, one day at a time and enjoying that too! slm
A wanker? Seems like it takes one to know one.
Deletejohn
Notably, subscribing is free and you can make a donation if you want. Please want. Newspapers are important.
DeleteI'm not a subscriber, and I can click through and read the column every day. Perhaps you need to clear your cookies and history ("aaagh! He's been here 3 times before, and still hasn't subscribed! Block him!")
DeleteYou can still read his columns. You might have to register but there is no charge. I don't subscribe. I read it for free
DeleteBlah blah blah. Yadda yadda yadda. What bushwa. Standard corporate boilerplate. That latter was a gratuitous insult to the intelligence of every Sux fan. I pity the shmuck in the front office who had to crank out that POS. The Sux are years away from contending. Maybe Jerry will just move to Nashville, and fleece some new chumps and suckers. That would be sad and heartbreaking for so many ordinary Joes and Janes. I mean, jeeze...look at Oakland. Disgusting..
ReplyDeleteBest thing would be for him to croak. Would that make any difference whatsoever? Does that sound horrible? I say it about Trump every day. What we have here is the Trump of MLB. People on Farcebook have told me to be careful what I wish for...like somebody croaking, I mean. Why? Because, at my age, karma will come back to bite me in the ass? Let it. I've had a good run.
Now Clark tells me Jerry wants his son to inherit this pitiful ballclub. Could he be any worse? He won't sell. Ego keeps him from doing so, same as the shmuck out in Oakland. Two once-proud franchises, now in the toilet. No...worse. In the sewer, Waist-deep in the Big Shitty. And the old fools say, "Push on!"
The sick puppy in me barked for 125 loses, and the all-time (since 1900, anyway) lowest winning percentage (.228) They didn't make it. Hoped for 25 losses in a row, the all-time worst losing streak (they only made it to 21). It's not that I actually hate the Sux...most of the time, I just don't notice them. Oh, yeah, that other Chicago team. The opposite of love is indifference.
Been a Die-Hard Cub Fan for 65 years. I lived through the miserable years in the 60s. Two seasons of 100+ losses. But that was nothing. This was awful beyond belief. The Original Mets were brand-new, and fun to watch, and had characters, and were managed by loveable Casey Stengel. There was nothing loveable or funny about this bunch. They stunk...and were about as amusing, and as horrible to watch, as a streetcar being hit by a gas truck.
Feel sorry for Sux fans. Their patience has been not only tried, but stretched beyond endurance. Hell, even some Cub fans have their limits. If this were happening to the Cubs, I would walk away for good, and I would never look back. But you know what? Wrigley would still be packed with buzzed and tipsy frat boys. Too many Cub fans are too often delusional...and too many see diamonds where others see only broken glass.(SG)
Andrea del Sarto was a very fine painter. I would not miss the World Series for tattooing in Polynesia, but I would for an Andrea del Sarto exhibition.
ReplyDeleteDoesn’t it give you a choice to watch a 30 second commercial about the Sun Times then X off the choice to sign up? Maybe you don’t feel the money is worth it but surely 30 seconds of your time is worth be able to read a fine column?
ReplyDeleteMatt W
Gotta say, this is a rare instance in which I don't understand what the painting atop the blog depicts (well, hands) or how it relates to today's post, if it does.
ReplyDeleteWhatever else there is to be said about the Sox, I think it's pretty funny that they won 5 of their last 6 games and, after all the losses this season, deprived their hometown fans of the distinction of witnessing the historic 121st defeat.
Drawing by Andrea del Sarto.
DeleteOops. Well, that will be an F for reading comprehension (or at least retention) for today. That name just did not register with me when I read the column the first time, such that Lat111's comment was not even enough of a clue. Checking back to read it over (and being presented once again with the 30-second video, BTW), I see the connection! Thanks for the reply. : )
DeleteWhile they lost more than the Mets and the 1916 A's they did blow the chance to have the worst winning percentage.
DeleteThe sick puppy in me barked for 125 loses, and the all-time (since 1900, anyway) lowest winning percentage (.228) They didn't make it. Hoped for 25 losses in a row, the all-time worst losing streak (they only made it to 21). It's not that I hate the Sox...most of the time, I just don't notice them. Oh, yeah, that other Chicago team. The opposite of love is indifference. Been a Die-Hard Cub Fan for 65 years.
ReplyDeleteFeel sorry for Sox fans. Their patience has been not only tried, but stretched beyond endurance. If this were happening to the Cubs, I would probably renounce my
religion...Cubism...for good, and I would never look back. But Wrigley would still be packed, just because it's Wrigley. The Cubs will always have Wrigley,. And blind faith. Cub fans see diamonds where others see only broken glass. Especially the younger fanatics. Sox fans are realists. And many of them seem to know when it's time to walk away.
The Cubs also had years of futility and despite the scads of self-proclaimed die-hard fans, the upper deck was not even open, much less filled, during some of those years. What I lived for in those days of want, was the rare occasions the Cubs beat contending teams and fellows like Hank Sauer, Ralph Kiner, Dee Fondy, and Roy Smalley performed magnificently to the delight of Jack Brickhouse and us hardy few.
DeleteI was rooting for the Sox to win out those last half dozen games. Like the '69 Cubs, they came "close, but no cigar."
John
The worst winning percentage was by the A's 235 in 1916. If the sox has lost a couple of more games they would beaten that.
DeleteWow...those are Cubs from the mid-Fifties...before my time. I was around then, but I didn't go to my first Cub game until 1960. The upper deck was closed most of the time in the 60s, too...and well into the 70s. I think I only sat up there a couple of times, total, until I was well into my twenties.
DeleteA lot of people disdain it, and I mostly sat in the bleachers, but the view from the upper deck at Wrigley, especially from behind first base, is better (and far closer to the action) than the upper-level seats you find at most of the newer ballparks. I've been to 19 parks all told, and Wrigley is still king of the list, top of the heap.
Morrissey is exactly right. Reinsdorf has made a fortune sticking it the people. He's a "rent-seeker" that manipulated the sytem to move money from the general population to his pocket. I think it's a good example of how the inequality in wealth occurs.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, isn't there a marketing opportunity in the record-breaking Sox performance?
Brilliant.
ReplyDeleteBravo Neil. Having read all the above comments, I have to wonder if anyone else knows the art of Andrea del Sarto, a contemporary of DaVinci, Raphael and Michelangelo. They weren't involved in a competition to become famous. Every time I think I won't comment here, something else arises. Many artists I know worry about their legacy, to which I ask: Is that why you make art? The answer is: NO!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat Neil said is absolutely sacred, whether in sports, art or any other endeavor, like becoming a journalist. If we are passionate about our profession, we have no choice but to follow our dreams. In my whole life I have made art in one form or another without worrying about how history would judge me. It is no dishonor to be the worst of the best. Yes, there will always be the best of the best, but it has nothing to do with why we do what we do. Do not be too harsh on the 2024 White Sox. They are professionals who are doing what they love...playing baseball. The same is true for all the artists I know who will never be famous.