CAN’T FIRE THE OWNER
With a loss to the Detroit Tigers Friday night, the Chicago White Sox reached an all-time milestone.
Biggest loser in Major League Baseball history. There’s been almost 150 seasons of baseball. No team has lost more than the White Sox. There’s no “we were rebuilding” to explain away 120+ losses. A team couldn’t lose that many if they tried. The White Sox were trying, presumably, and still managed to lose three of every four games played since the season began in late March
When a sports franchise reaches new lows of futility, media coverage is sure to follow.
How did this happen? Who’s responsible?
There’s been a bunch of articles this week on the White Sox as they creeped closer to infamous status.
ESPN sent their national reporter, Jeff Passan, to get the clubhouse perspective. The Sporting News published a ‘by the numbers’ piece that listed all of the statistical reasons the White Sox are terrible (Chicago has racked up only 19 saves this season. 19! For perspective, the next worst club, Miami has 29 team saves. The White Sox hold another distinction of having the most blown saves of 2024 with 36).
And ESPN did a compilation on the humorous memes and social media posts making fun of the Sox’s sorry state. My favorite one is “the number of runs we scored was not greater than the number of runs they scored.” That came from the Sox’s TwitterX feed, so at least whoever runs that feed hasn’t lost their sense of humor.
One utterly humorless aspect to the franchise’s misery: hapless owner Jerry Reinsdorf.
Several articles have taken shots at the 88-year-old Reinsdorf, who has owned the team since 1981. He bought the Sox then for a meager $19 million. Current estimates have the franchise worth $2.1 billion. I’d say that’s a pretty fair ROI. Why not sell?
Published reports don’t portray a man interested in retiring and spending the rest of his Golden Years fishing off a 5,000 foot yacht.
The Athletic, the story with the most juicy details, wrote this about Reinsdorf:
A baseball-obsessed Brooklyn native, he fills his office with autographs and sports memorabilia and loves chatting with scouts, talking about the game and its history. Reinsdorf will proudly tell you he went to Jackie Robinson’s first game in a Dodgers uniform, and he values his friendships with Hall of Famers such as La Russa, Dennis Eckersley and George Brett.
But Reinsdorf’s affection for baseball is also an affection for how the game used to be played. Sources describe him as stubborn and generally unwilling to adapt to an era where his preferred style of play — “get ’em over and get ’em in”— is no longer the sole recipe for success.
“I’m not sure if any owner loves baseball as much as Jerry,” said another former employee. “That’s why he can’t get out of his own way.”
The headline of the article writes “he thinks he knows everything.”
That quote supports the worst qualities an owner of a bad team can have: to be stubborn and controlling.
And because he’s the owner, he’s not going anywhere. A lack of self-awareness or humility about failure makes for a tortuous experience for fans.
Being a White Sox fan has never been easy in Chicago. There’s always been a bit of a second fiddle complex towards the Cubs.
But the current state of the franchise is rock bottom — historically awful with an old, pigheaded boss.
Best of luck with that new stadium proposal.
THE SIX
*We are a little over five weeks away from Election Day. For president, polls continue to be close between Trump and Harris. There’s a belief that Trump should be a clear winner. Results may play out that way but not where we currently stand. The FP with analysis on how if Harris does pull this out, Trump will have no one to blame but himself.
*I wrote about this last week in the Six, about the rising money game in college sports, specifically football. The plot thickens: earlier this week, the quarterback for the University of Las Vegas, Matthew Sluka, left the team over “unfulfilled commitments.” Turns out those unfulfilled commitments come in the form of cold-hard cash, $100k according to some reports. The story has morphed into a he said/she said back-and-forth, with each side blaming the other. Regardless of the truth, when the quarterback of a winning team bails three games into the season, everybody loses.
*much drama this week within the ranks at City Hall. The Chicago Teacher’s Union wants a new contract — with massive raises for all card-carrying members — but there’s no money to give. Mayor Brandon Johnson is trying to push out the head man of CPS, upset he won’t take out a loan that would plunge the city further into debt. Oh, and Johnson cancelled the contract of crime-topping technology that most everyone agreed the city should keep. Wirepoints with a breakdown of why the elimination of ShotSpotter and no cash bail are bad beats for the city and state.
*I really enjoy travel writing that takes the reader to odd, far-flung locations. Outside magazine is one of the few outlets that still does that. This writer takes us to the Frying Pan Tower, a decommissioned Coast Guard light station 32 miles off the coast of North Carolina, where a guest is surrounded by barracuda by day and stars at night. An excellent piece of writing on a place I never knew existed.
*MLB’s six-month regular season ends today. Lots of intriguing storylines — the Tigers and Royals are back in the postseason — but nothing approaches the individual brilliance of the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani. He achieved something unprecedented last week by becoming the first player to ever get 50 home runs and 50 steals in a single season. He reached those milestones in a single game against the Miami Marlins, scoring the 50th steal in the first inning and the 50th homer in the seventh. Writer Neil Paine goes deeper into Ohtani’s performance, arguing how that single game might have been the best performances for a ballplayer ever.
*Finally, one of the more crazy pop culture stories of the past few months is the fall of P. Diddy. Every week, there’s more details about P. Diddy’s lifestyle and love of “freak outs.” One report said how authorities found 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant when raiding his house earlier this summer. His lawyer fired back, saying his client “buys in bulk” and blamed CostCo for the lube extravagance. Can’t make this stuff up. I offer a solution to the Lube Crisis facing “Puff Daddy.” Bring it all back.
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