2023 Chicago White Sox

#126      

ChiefGritty

ChiefGritty
ChiefGritty
www.bleachernation.com

REPORT: White Sox May Be "Pondering" a Move Out of Chicago - Bleacher Nation

Would the White Sox really move? Would Jerry Reinsdorf sell?
www.bleachernation.com www.bleachernation.com

Let me take this opportunity to stump for one of my (many) genius ideas for my fair city

1. Obviously the Bears are moving to the suburbs

2. Jerry Reinsdorf sells the White Sox, and the ambitious and well-capitalized new owners renovate the vacated Soldier Field into a modern baseball palace as part of a broader development project in that part of the city, bringing far more people into the museum campus area on more days in the good weather part of the year than the Bears ever did.

3. The Billionaire-owned Chicago Fire purchase the white elephant of Guaranteed Rate Field from the State of Illinois and play there temporarily as they build a new soccer-specific stadium across the street, echoing the feel and architecture of the actually quite English soccer-like Old Comiskey Park.
 
#127      

Roundball Sage

R
Roundball Sage
There is a famous quote that goes, “A nation can survive its fools... But it cannot survive treason from within.”

Well, this idea also applies to cities and the sports franchises who play there.

When a franchise owner turns his back on a city and ignores the team’s loyal fans... this might not be treason but it’s as close as you can get in the sports world.

In the case of the Chicago White Sox... a proud franchise with generations of loyal Sox fans that call the South Side home... the current ownership of the team has already strong-armed and turned his back on the city and fans once before when he threatened to move the team to Tampa. And now... more than 30 years later... to quote the great Motown song... ‘It’s The Same Old Song...’. But now with a different meaning with the team looking to be gone...

‘He Gone!’ the Hawk used to say. And now about the Sox, we Sox fans might be having to say, ‘THEY GONE’.

Sox fans have suffered with bad ownership for most of all the years the franchise has existed. The only owner that truly loved baseball and loved fans was Bill Veeck. But he never had much money and could not do what he wanted to with the franchise.

So over 40 years ago came this New Yorker to town to scoop up the Sox for what now looks like pennies on the dollar. He has mostly put bad baseball teams on the field and used the franchise as little but a cash cow.

As a New Yorker, he really wanted to buy the Mets... but that didn’t work out. So he settled for the Second Team in the Second City and he ran them like a Second-Rate organization. And now, reports are that he wants to sell out and turn his back on Chicago – again.

Whether the Sox stay in Chicago or not... Sox fans have put up with enough already. Some will finally give up on this franchise which seemed doomed to being ignored by the greater baseball world. Some may transfer their fandom to whatever city The New Yorker peddles them to – Nashville, Portland, Montreal... or even the Moon if the money’s right, hey ‘Jer? Got those accountants all fired up?

But we didn’t deserve this. All we did was love a ball club that plays on the right side of Madison Street and all we wanted was for them to be competitive and respect us back. And they couldn’t return our love. And now, they may not want us in the picture at all.

Some people have absolutely no business owning a sports franchise or taking fan’s money. It’s just plain wrong.

P. S. Any Sox fan who is also a Bulls fan should never go to a Bulls game again. Enough is enough.
 
#128      

SuperMetroid

SuperMetroid
Evanston
SuperMetroid
Roundball Sage said:
There is a famous quote that goes, “A nation can survive its fools... But it cannot survive treason from within.”

Well, this idea also applies to cities and the sports franchises who play there.

When a franchise owner turns his back on a city and ignores the team’s loyal fans... this might not be treason but it’s as close as you can get in the sports world.

In the case of the Chicago White Sox... a proud franchise with generations of loyal Sox fans that call the South Side home... the current ownership of the team has already strong-armed and turned his back on the city and fans once before when he threatened to move the team to Tampa. And now... more than 30 years later... to quote the great Motown song... ‘It’s The Same Old Song...’. But now with a different meaning with the team looking to be gone...

‘He Gone!’ the Hawk used to say. And now about the Sox, we Sox fans might be having to say, ‘THEY GONE’.

Sox fans have suffered with bad ownership for most of all the years the franchise has existed. The only owner that truly loved baseball and loved fans was Bill Veeck. But he never had much money and could not do what he wanted to with the franchise.

So over 40 years ago came this New Yorker to town to scoop up the Sox for what now looks like pennies on the dollar. He has mostly put bad baseball teams on the field and used the franchise as little but a cash cow.

As a New Yorker, he really wanted to buy the Mets... but that didn’t work out. So he settled for the Second Team in the Second City and he ran them like a Second-Rate organization. And now, reports are that he wants to sell out and turn his back on Chicago – again.

Whether the Sox stay in Chicago or not... Sox fans have put up with enough already. Some will finally give up on this franchise which seemed doomed to being ignored by the greater baseball world. Some may transfer their fandom to whatever city The New Yorker peddles them to – Nashville, Portland, Montreal... or even the Moon if the money’s right, hey ‘Jer? Got those accountants all fired up?

But we didn’t deserve this. All we did was love a ball club that plays on the right side of Madison Street and all we wanted was for them to be competitive and respect us back. And they couldn’t return our love. And now, they may not want us in the picture at all.

Some people have absolutely no business owning a sports franchise or taking fan’s money. It’s just plain wrong.

P. S. Any Sox fan who is also a Bulls fan should never go to a Bulls game again. Enough is enough.
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🤜🤛

Going from having a team we thought would be competitive for years to the on-field shitshow of the last 2 seasons to again dealing with the possibility of the team leaving town is not where I expected to be in 2023. But here we are. We really need Reinsdorf to go the way of Dollar Bill Wirtz to have any actual hope again.

I don't want the team to move, but at least in that case I won't have to pay attention anymore. MLB will cease to exist for me if it happens. I'd rather eat nothing but my own hair for the rest of my life than become a fan of the north side clown show.
 
#129      

SeattleSlim

S
SeattleSlim
ChiefGritty said:
www.bleachernation.com

REPORT: White Sox May Be "Pondering" a Move Out of Chicago - Bleacher Nation

Would the White Sox really move? Would Jerry Reinsdorf sell?
www.bleachernation.com www.bleachernation.com

Let me take this opportunity to stump for one of my (many) genius ideas for my fair city

1. Obviously the Bears are moving to the suburbs

2. Jerry Reinsdorf sells the White Sox, and the ambitious and well-capitalized new owners renovate the vacated Soldier Field into a modern baseball palace as part of a broader development project in that part of the city, bringing far more people into the museum campus area on more days in the good weather part of the year than the Bears ever did.

3. The Billionaire-owned Chicago Fire purchase the white elephant of Guaranteed Rate Field from the State of Illinois and play there temporarily as they build a new soccer-specific stadium across the street, echoing the feel and architecture of the actually quite English soccer-like Old Comiskey Park.
Click to expand...
I like #2. I also think (hope?) it’s unlikely the team leaves Illinois. If it does and the White Sox name/brand goes with it, I may stay a fan (not sure) … but if the name/brand disappears so will I as a fan (of 65+ years).
 
#130      

Roundball Sage

R
Roundball Sage
SuperMetroid said:
🤜🤛

I don't want the team to move, but at least in that case I won't have to pay attention anymore. MLB will cease to exist for me if it happens.
Click to expand...

The more that MLB fans truly wake up – the more they’ll begin to fall away from this big-business enterprise. Because MLB is revealed itself to be nothing but a big-business venture.

The buzz right now around all the idea of so many teams looking to move is that owners really are more concerned with real estate development around the ballparks. They are using the ball club as a hook to lure in fans who still want to believe in the competition and past innocence of how we looked at baseball but the team owners really want the business and real estate development and big bucks that go with developing areas around ball parks that they want to own and control. Big, big money going their way way beyond baseball itself.

In short, MLB owners just don’t care about baseball as a sport and baseball fans as an asset. They have another agenda and goal. They are using the baseball franchise as their leverage and wedge to muscle into a neighborhood and turn that into their personal cash cow. They’ve taken the innocence out of the game that we fans wanted to believe in... or at least how we used to look at... ‘Our Team’. Well, owners are making it clear that Our Team was never Our Team. It was a mirage to lure us in to Their Team.

The baseball club is now just another tool in their tool box to relieve us of our money and mock our love for the game.

This is the future for MLB whether the Sox (and Brewers and Orioles and D-Backs and others) stay where they are, or go.
 
#133      

EyeoftheIllini

EyeoftheIllini
EyeoftheIllini
IlliniFaninHoosierLand said:
Was listening to the Score tonight and it seems like the consensus is that the fans want anyone but Chris Getz taking over.
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I really hope they don’t stay internal. I don’t know a lot about Getz, but with them consolidating roles at the top this is a chance to bring in a top front office guy. Don’t know if he’d be interested as he’s declined all overtures thus far, but my first call would be to Cleveland’s Mike Chernoff. If he says no, I turn my attention to Sawdaye with Arizona (believe he’s still there). A lot of top talent coming through that farm system, and I like that he’s worked in another organization too.
 
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#136      

Roundball Sage

R
Roundball Sage
Mr. Tibbs said:
meet the new boss , same as the old boss
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As we’ve all heard... The definition of insanity is doing the same things and expecting different results.

In the case of a sports franchise owner who has no ability to lead a winning organization, such a person would never even know how to change things and start to make intelligent decisions.

‘The Owner’ seems to hate Sox fans. He seems to hate the City of Chicago. He also pretty much hates MLB players as he (and other owners) just view them as expensive employees to be replaced by cheaper 'help'.

If you own a bread company and your bread sucks and tastes bad... you’d go out of business quickly. But you can own a sports franchise and put out a lousy product year-after-year and you can become wealthy and prosper.

People are talking about The Owner having ‘Seven Rings’. Well, don’t make too much of that. He lucked into having the Great Baller of All Time who got The Owner six of those rings. And it would have been ZERO rings without him.

And for one White Sox season when everything just aligned the right way, that became Number 7. Sounds more like these Seven Rings were the result of dumb luck than anything he had to do with it.

I wish The Owner good luck and happiness for the rest of his days. Why? Because I would never treat him like he’s treated White Sox fans for forty years. We are better than that.

It’s too bad that he doesn’t return the feeling.
 
#137      

IlliniFaninHoosierLand

IlliniFaninHoosierLand
IlliniFaninHoosierLand
The rumor mill is Chris Getz with former Royals GM and current senior advisor of baseball operations for the Rangers Dayton Moore also part of the front office.

The issues that works against Getz is the stuff with Omar Vizquel and Wes Helms. And if you want to see how much of a scumbag Dayton Moore is, look at how he handled the Luke Heimlich story.
 
#138      

splitter

splitter
splitter
Jerry was a Dodger fan growing up. Shares a Spring Training site with them now. How about getting a GM from them instead of continuing to fail with the same old great guys but clueless about establishing a team. At least find someone with their philosophy. Or the Braves or any of the other winning franchises.
 
#139      

Illiniguy74

I
Illiniguy74
SeattleSlim said:
I like #2. I also think (hope?) it’s unlikely the team leaves Illinois. If it does and the White Sox name/brand goes with it, I may stay a fan (not sure) … but if the name/brand disappears so will I as a fan (of 65+ years).
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Have been a Sox fan all my life. Weaned on Little Luis Aparicio and Nellie Fox. Moved away from Illinois in 1999. Don't follow the team like I used to. Hate to see what has happened to the franchise. Leaving Chicago would be the death knell for my Sox (and probably MLB) fandom.
 
#140      

Roundball Sage

R
Roundball Sage
Illiniguy74 said:
Have been a Sox fan all my life. Weaned on Little Luis Aparicio and Nellie Fox... Hate to see what has happened to the franchise. Leaving Chicago would be the death knell for my Sox (and probably MLB) fandom.
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Looking back on over 100 years of Sox history... the Little Luis and Nellie era of the 1950s and ‘60s was the high point of this franchise. While there was the occasional division championship and the one magic year of ‘05 after that... the White Sox have been on a mostly downward decline.

And now, with the way the South Side of the City has changed and lost its Sox-working-class-fan base that was always the heart and soul of this franchise... and the movers-and-shakers in Chicago only care about the Other Team in Town... there just isn’t a path to keep the Team on the South Side of Chicago. And I don’t think The Owner even wants to. He wants out of the City and out of Illinois.

In general, Chicago has been losing population for years as has the entire State of Illinois. The State is no longer a good place to do business in general.

The guy who bought the St. Louis Rams came to view the St. Louis Area as a failed region. He couldn’t wait to move the team back to LA and make yet another fortune of money off that move (he was already mega-rich before all this). What if the Sox Owner likewise has come to view the Chicago Region as a failing area for the future ahead? He’s not a young man and he’s not going to win any more Championships with the Sox or the Bulls. As a businessman, he’s looking to sell out for big bucks and let somebody else deal with this whole thing.

Fans of a team just are never considered in these things. We are considered throw-aways that have no feelings or rights in the matter. It’s just 'move the team and get a whole new group of fans (suckers?)' to get emotionally invested in the team and part with their money.

Younger fans have no idea just how good and exciting the Sox were in the Luis and Nellie years. The Go-Go Sox. Great pitching. Great speed. Timely hitting. Exciting baseball. There has been nothing like this ever since.

And now, there’s a new kind of Go-Go Sox – but not a good kind. They will likely be Go-Going right out of town forever.
 
#141      

Mr. Tibbs

Mr. Tibbs
southeast DuPage
Mr. Tibbs
it’s certainly possible . the team is likely worth more if located in a new stadium in Nashville or Charlotte than the South Side , and I don’t think Soldier Field can be converted to baseball without mega mega millions being spent
 
#143      

Roundball Sage

R
Roundball Sage
Mr. Tibbs said:
the team is likely worth more if located in a new stadium in Nashville or Charlotte than the South Side...
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The atmosphere in the White Sox ball park has turned really weird and ugly. And it will likely stay that way until something major changes (beyond all the firings and The Owner getting moving van estimates in taking everything to Tennessee).

There are now more food vendors in Sox park than fans.

Fans of the opposition ball club now have more fans at the game than there are Sox fans there.

The mood of the few who are gathered there ranges from anger to resignation to disbelief to outright laughter and disgust.

Listening to the Sox TV and radio announcers is surreal. They are not allowed to talk about The Big Elephant In The Room about the future of the franchise... so they talk about trivialities and ignore the big stuff. Sort of like if the Titanic had announcers on board describing what goes on there but they can’t say a word about everything slowly sinking into the deep. Glug... glug...

This is the sad way that things end when a business has been run into the ground. When the love that fans have for a franchise has been turned against them. When money is all that matters in Life. And people count for nothing.

I feel bad for the couple of major-league players the Sox do have... Cease, Robert, maybe Eloy and the Left Fielder. These guys deserve better than toiling away for a dying franchise and an Owner who doesn’t care.

In tough times in the World like these today when we could all use some good news... we Sox fans have to put up with THIS. The last kind of thing any of us needed right now.

But when someone doesn’t care about people... well, they just don’t care about people. Hope The Owner enjoys Country Music and the huge check coming his way. Just don’t look behind you at what you did to Sox fans to get that... and the gaping emptiness you will have left on the South Side from which it may never recover.
 
#144      

Mr. Tibbs

Mr. Tibbs
southeast DuPage
Mr. Tibbs
I do feel bad for the White Sox fandom . they have been disrespected . They deserve much better . Reinsdorf loyal to a fault with his admin guys . it’s way past time for him to sell

also , I think Eloy is part of the problem on the field . they need to part ways with him
 
#147      

Second place is 1st loser

S
Second place is 1st loser
Mr. Tibbs said:
I do feel bad for the White Sox fandom . they have been disrespected . They deserve much better . Reinsdorf loyal to a fault with his admin guys . it’s way past time for him to sell

also , I think Eloy is part of the problem on the field . they need to part ways with him
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Not a Sox fan, but they deserve better. If you're going to take the steps then fire upper management, go all the way and have the new GM(whoever that is) strip everything down. It starts with the manager and entire coaching staff, then trade every last "questionable" guy in the roster that has been associated with having effort issues. The only way that a culture can be completely changed is to start fresh from the ground up.
 
#148      

Roundball Sage

R
Roundball Sage
Second place is 1st loser said:
Not a Sox fan, but they deserve better.
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Fans of all teams will choose different teams to root for... but we fans all share a common bond. We are FANS. And They are The Owners. And that makes all the difference in this relationship.

We fans pick a team usually for emotional reasons or some other kind of personal connection. And we bond with that team. Owners just look at franchises as businesses and money-making operations. You couldn’t have two more different points of view trying to co-exist. It’s sort of liked marrying someone you have absolutely nothing in common with. And also, one of the martial parties just married you for your money and nothing else.

We Sox fans appreciate the support and understanding we are getting from the larger sports fandom community.

And when it comes right down to it... every fan of every team knows that it’s possible that they could one day in the position that Sox fans are in today. Worrying about the future of their team.

We fans all of teams have to stick together as fans. Because it’s not just us-against-the-team-we’re-playing-that-day. It’s we Fans against Owners who rarely if ever give a crap about us.
 
#149      

Roundball Sage

R
Roundball Sage
So, there are these ongoing media reports floating around the idea that Sox ownership is considering Chicago-area relocation spots for the White Sox. These are:

1. The Chicago West Side in the vicinity of the United Center.

2. Soldier Field on the Lakefront.

3. Arlington Heights.

My thoughts:

It’s possible that the Sox are just pumping these ideas to keep fans interested in the ball club and spending money on the Sox until the current ballpark lease is up. Each of these locations has major problems associated with them that a whole new region would not have to face.

And Arlington Heights? Really? Does the North Side really need TWO MLB teams while the rest of the Chicago area would never have another? And do the Sox think they could ever make a dent in North Sider baseball fan interest going up against a franchise that’s already treated by millions as almost a religion on that side of the City (and the Nation)? And are South Siders really going to travel en masse all the way up North that far to see Sox baseball? For many, Arlington could just as easily be in Canada as far as they are concerned.

As said... all this could just be a way to take the current heat off Sox Ownership and give false hope to Sox fans. Because Sox fans now know that there is a FOURTH relocation possibility that may already have been decided upon in the Big Office... and that is,

4. The FAR, FAR, FAR Southeastern Chicago suburbs. Also known as... TENNESSEE! (Well, at least Tennessee IS on the South Side of Madison Street.).

It’s just a sad time in history for White Sox fans and the franchise in general. For 40 years the South Side had an NFL team that’s now hidden away in the Southwest Desert. The South Side even had a hockey team in the WHA for a time. Now they’re after the last major pro sports franchise left for an entire region of the City.

One might begin to get the idea that ‘They’ don’t like us anymore?!...