There are so many incongruous things going on with the White Sox, so many clashing, at-odds forces at work that, if you didn’t know better, you’d think some cruel puppet master was controlling the strings. Oh, wait.
Jerry Reinsdorf’s franchise is headed for the modern-era record for most losses in a major-league season. Nothing else matters. A team that loses this much should have to swallow all the bad stuff that comes with having the letter “L’’ stitched to their uniforms. Should have to wear it. The focus needs to be on the factors that led to this and what can be done to change fortunes going forward.
Instead, the Sox and developer Related Midwest wined and dined legislators and business leaders Monday, hoping to gain favor in the team’s quest to get public funding for a new ballpark in the South Loop. The riverboat-cruise attendees disembarked at the proposed site of the stadium and were able to run bases and take ground balls at a temporary field. They rubbed shoulders with former Sox Bo Jackson, Harold Baines, Ozzie Guillen and Ron Kittle.
Pay no attention to the hideous product the franchise rolls out on a real big-league field a few miles away.
Anyone in the organization with a shred of self-awareness knows that now is not the time for schemes aimed at making Reinsdorf more money. It’s the worst look in a season of bad looks.
Now, you can make the argument that the push for a new ballpark has been in the works for years and that there was no turning back on that effort once the gears started turning. I’d argue that the shame and guilt of this season would move most people to table the stadium talk while continuing on with the self-flogging.
But, no.
The shame and guilt of this season would move most people in the sports world to vow to never let something like 2024 to happen again.
But not this team.
Instead, the current public discussion is about the Sox’ intention to decrease its payroll next season because they’ve had such a rotten year financially. It’s something the Sun-Times has written about several times this season. Whenever they get around to openly discussing the payroll, the Sox surely will talk about sticking to “The Plan,’’ which means nurturing young, talented and inexpensive players. But it’s also about profit. I very well might be brain-addled, but it seems to me that the solution to what ails the team is better baseball players, which means spending more money.
Chicago has watched Reinsdorf play this game for years. It always puts the onus on the fans. If fans show up to Guaranteed Rate Field to watch games, it means there will be more money to spend on the team. If they don’t show up, less money.
You might be of the opinion that the burden should be on a franchise very close to breaking the 1962 Mets’ record for losses in a season (120). Sox fans didn’t lose all those games this season. Sox fans didn’t lose 101 games last season. Sox fans didn’t put together this farce of a roster, nor did they make the trades that ensured 2024 was doomed. Sox fans didn’t get to vote on whether they wanted a rebuild in the first place.
What Sox fans did do was stay away from the ballpark this season. The team’s average home attendance is 17,959, fourth-worst in the majors behind three hardly-there franchises: Tampa Bay, Miami and Oakland. Those empty seats are a lot of money not made for Reinsdorf and his investors. That, not baseball, is the name of their game.
From the sounds of the Sox’ 2025 payroll plans, next year will have its own challenges, which is a nice way of saying, “Oh, no, not this again.” The current rebuild already feels like the longest in history. Is there any punishment for having three straight 100-loss seasons? Demotion to Triple-A? Public dunk-tank soakings for the front office?
Heading into Wednesday’s meeting with the Angels, the Sox were 36-116. For those of us who want to see history, the disconcerting thing was that they had won three of their previous four games. After being bashed over the head by so much losing, the concussed among us deserve a payoff. Nobody remembers who finished second. Isn’t that how the saying goes?
The Sox’ purpose here, their reason for being, is losing. If they’re going to be this bad, they might as well be the baddest. They owe us.
It’s all the pain anyone needs. The slashed payroll for 2025 and the talk of public funding for a new ballpark? That’s piled-on heartlessness.