Lip Man 1

The same Roland Hemond who built the 72, 77 and 83 Sox? Especially when most of his tenure took place with ownership not having real money or a willingness to take on top free agents? Sorry you feel that way, as I wrote in my interview with Roland history says differently: And then we come to the person I think holds the title of the ‘best’ Sox G.M., Roland Hemond. When Hemond took over the organization the franchise was literally in shambles. He faced challenges no other individual who held the position of G.M. ever faced. The Sox were on their way to a franchise record 106 loss season in 1970. Comiskey Park was falling apart from disrepair. Fans were staying away in droves because the area was supposedly in a bad neighborhood. In 1969 for example the team drew, for the season, only 589,000... even that would fall to a paltry 495,000 in 1970. In 1968 and 1969, owner Art Allyn was playing a portion of his home games in Milwaukee trying the market to see if it would accept a move of the franchise from the South Side. The Sox would even lose their radio station and have to broadcast games starting in 1971 on two small outlets in LaGrange and Evanston, Illinois. Anything and everything that could go wrong for the White Sox did. And into this cesspool stepped Hemond along with new field manager Chuck Tanner. Overnight, Hemond, who spent years in both the Milwaukee Braves and California Angels farm system began to deal. Other general managers trusted and liked him because of his integrity and honesty. He was usually one of the first to be called when trade discussions took place. He always tried to get the best of a deal but never at the expense of humiliating or embarrassing his counterpart. Hemond realized if he did this, the odds of him being called back for future discussions or trades were small. In that first off season he netted the Sox such players as Mike Andrews, Luis Alvarado, Rick Reichardt, Ed “the Creeper” Stroud, Pat Kelly, Tom Egan, Tom Bradley and Jay Johnstone. Superstars? No...but they were solid ballplayers who improved the talent and depth of the club. Overnight the Sox went from 56 wins to 79, one of the biggest turnarounds in the history of baseball. In 1972 Hemond rolled the dice bringing in talented but oft troubled Dick Allen. Allen was on his third team in three seasons and was considered a clubhouse cancer. Hemond also made a deal for starting pitcher Stan Bahnsen. Those two, along with holdovers like Carlos May, Wilbur Wood, “Goose” Gossage, Terry Forster and Ed Herrmann almost brought a division title to the South Side. Allen nearly won the Triple Crown; Hemond was named Executive of the Year and Tanner the Manager of the Year. Roland proved that rebuilding didn’t have to take five years. Financial issues still plagued the franchise through the 70's even with new owner Bill Veeck. Hemond was never able to operate with a full deck of cash but he kept the team competitive and in 1977 he along with Veeck put together the “South Side Hit Men” who tore apart the American League bashing 192 home runs. Such ‘thrown in’s’ and ‘has been’s’ like Eric Soderholm, Steve Stone, Alan Bannister, Jim Essian, Don Kessinger and Steve Renko performed exceptionally well and mated with established players like Richie Zisk, Oscar Gamble, Chet Lemon, Lerrin LaGrow, George Orta and Ralph Garr to produce excitement not seen since 1972. When new owners Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn took over in January 1981, Hemond finally had some money to work with. Immediately he and Einhorn took part in the negotiations to bring free agent Carlton Fisk to Chicago. Hemond also convinced Chicago native Greg Luzinski to come back home after the Phillies released him. These two along with other Hemond steals like Billy Almon and Tony Bernazard led to a revitalization of the franchise. Much like 10 years earlier, the Sox produced a winning record in the strike shortened season. They had another winning year in 1982 as Hemond added role players like Rudy Law and Vance Law. By the time 1983 began, Roland was able to extract such players as Scott Fletcher, Dick Tidrow, Randy Martz and Pat Tabler from the Cubs in part because he considered the possibility of taking future Hall of Fame pitcher Ferguson Jenkins in the free agent compensation draft. Tabler was then shipped to Cleveland for Jerry Dybzinski. The pieces were in place and after a slow start, the Sox tore through the league compiling 99 wins on their way to the Western Division Championship. Hemond then used the free agent compensation process again in getting future Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Seaver who’d win his 300th games in a Sox uniform in New York on August 4, 1985 as well as trading for a person who’d turn out to be the Rookie of the Year and a future Sox manager, Ozzie Guillen. In the 15 years Hemond was in charge he pulled off over 100 trades, had six winning seasons and won a Western Division championship. Considering the challenges the team went through economically, talent wise and perception wise, no other Sox G.M. did as much with less.

Exactly correct.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2024/04/25/bears-white-sox-stadium-deals-public-ownership-stake-taxpayer-funds-dave-roeder

Pedro being Pedro: Lee catching on The combination of 37-year-old Martin Maldonado’s .048 batting average with 25-year-old Korey Lee’s .279 average and .791 OPS as well as Lee’s superior defense resulted in Lee catching three of four games of the series, including Thursday’s day game after a night game. “I want to get him in there a little bit more consistently,” Grifol said. “At the same time I want to make sure he’s developing at the right pace and not trying to do too much too soon.” Lee struck out with Robbie Grossman on third in the second inning, but finished with two hits. He made a sliding catch near the dugout in the bottom of the inning. Grifol said Lee workload would be “inconsistent.” “Sometimes he’ll play three out of four, sometimes he’ll play two out of four. Sometimes he might play one out of four. It all depends how he’s coming along on his development and the things that he’s got to work on.”

https://chicago.suntimes.com/white-sox/2024/04/25/white-sox-pedro-grifol-knows-the-managers-seat-is-a-hot-one

From 1951 through 1967 the Sox had 17 straight winning seasons. Six or seven of those, can't remember, included years where they won 90+ games. They outdrew the Cubs in 16 of those 17 years. During that time the Cubs were an afterthought.

League took over the Expos franchise after Loria ruined it.

3-13 RISP it's just hilarious right now.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2024/04/24/bears-lakefront-domed-stadium-design-mayor-johnson-kevin-warren-lee-bey

https://chicago.suntimes.com/bears/2024/04/23/bears-new-stadium-dome-lakefront-soldier-field The political obstacles include a cold reception from Gov. J.B. Pritzker and legislative leaders with more important priorities and the very real potential for a legal battle with Friends of the Parks, the public advocacy group that serves as the primary protector of the lakefront and enforcer of the Lakefront Protection Ordinance that prohibits new construction east of Lake Shore Drive. And it will indeed be difficult to get any help from Pritzker, who was not invited to Wednesday’s big reveal. He has been critical of early reports the Bears would ask for taxpayer assistance, and remained so on Wednesday. “I’m highly skeptical of the proposal that’s been made and I believe strongly that this is not a high priority for legislators and certainly not for me, when I compare it to all the other things,” Pritzker said at a news conference Wednesday in Maywood.

Absolutely correct. The Sox haven't been good at fundamentals for years, 2005 and 20212 stick out as them being good in my mind. Every year you hear the talk about stressing fundamentals in spring training and every year it is the same nonsense. Personally I think it is a combination of "baseball-stupid" players and staffs that are incapable of teaching them properly and getting through to these guys.

Correct.

They passed over him twice in fact.

Reached out to an individual who knows the Sox situation from the inside and who is close to Hawk. I asked them about Hawk's comments to the Sun-Times on Tuesday and how my friend feels about what is taking place. Just passing them along: "It's pathetic to say the least. Hawk and I spoke yesterday and we can't believe Jerry let it get this bad. There isn't even any hope in our Minor League system. Like Hawk and I said, he never should have hired Getz. All Getz did was hire all his friends from KC. Look what happened, they are all with us and now we suck like they did and now they are doing well. The entire organization needs to be blown up. The stadium issue is also a joke. How in the world did Jerry think he was going to get tax payer money? He is getting killed over that ask. Feel bad for him since he was good to me and many others. Unfortunately, instead of going out as one of the best owners in Sox history, he will be going out as one of the worst, all because of what he has let happen in the last 5 years. Truly a shame."

As Jerry himself has said he makes enough from his negotiated domestic and international deals to cover his payroll before a single ticket is sold, a single car is parked and a single beer is sold. To understand Jerry it comes down to basically this, he wants to win but he wants to win HIS WAY. That is keeping salaries low since he still feels players make to much money, not hiring top of the line managers and coaches because, as he has said, that don't impact the game that much, not investing that much in the farm system/player development because as he has said he doesn't believe in paying for "potential", he also doesn't want to take the time and effort at his age to really deal with massive change. He has a large ego and that ego won't admit his way simply doesn't work. When I put out my story on the State of the Sox in November 2022, I specifically asked about JR and these were some of the replies: “JR is 86 and he’s in great shape, he looks good, still drives himself around but I just think at this point he simply doesn’t want to be bothered with having to bring in a new front office, maybe he thinks in a few years it won’t matter anyway.” “People, his friends… have tried to tell him what has been going on, “Hawk” Harrelson, the late Ed Farmer… God rest his soul, Darrin Jackson, Scott Reifert (Author’s Note: Scott is the Senior Vice-President for Communications) , Bob Grim and others but it’s just not registering for some reason.” “I wonder what impact his wife passing away earlier this year has had on him.” “JR has told his family he does not want any of his sons owning the team when he is gone. The Bulls are fine he said because they make Michael (Reinsdorf) money but baseball just doesn’t allow you to do that. (no salary cap)” (Author’s Note: Was told by an individual who knew some of the minority owners that “The Sox haven’t lost money in a long time.” A second source agreed with that statement. Seems to be a conflict doesn’t it? Maybe JR isn’t making enough money to suit him vis a vis the Sox?) “With :30 seconds left in their selection time on draft day JR would say things like “You know this college right-handed pitcher has the lowest injury risk.” “In October 2005 some investors asked JR to sell and get out while the going was good, but he wouldn’t.” “Andrew Berlin, twice tried to buy the Sox around 2008 but wasn’t successful.” (Author’s Note: Berlin, grew up a Sox fan and is now the owner of the Cubs farm team in South Bend, Indiana.) “I heard that JR owns 12% of the team but with some of the original investors passing away that has probably gone up to 18%” (Author’s Note: Even though he only owns a small percentage of the franchise Jerry Reinsdorf has absolute authority to run the team as he sees fit. It is written into his contract. That includes selling or not selling the club despite what the other investors wish. The only way he can be removed from his position is if he has done something illegal, appears to be losing his mental faculties or is being financially irresponsible.) “I was talking with an agent and they said the next owner of the Sox can’t be a group of investors, it has to be a big company. That’s why Dennis Gilbert, who tried to buy the Dodgers won’t get the Sox, he can’t come up with enough big money investors” “JR has become oblivious to things and what he’s allowed to happen is sad. He’s probably the most successful owner in Chicago sports history given the Bulls titles and the White Sox one which is dear to his heart, but what has happened the last two years is just sad. He is out-of-touch. And even worse he’s inaccessible. He’s either afraid of having to answer questions or he’s incapable of doing so.” “JR likes the structure he has because it gives him an extra layer of protection from criticism.”