ThirdGen

As much as I feel sorry for A's fans, maybe its time for Oakland to accept that it is not a major league sports town and try to develop a thriving minor league sports scene. Build a nice 10,000 seat ballpark and try to get a AAA or AA team. I see a lot of people complaining about MLB on this, but the reality is Oakland has had teams in all four major sports and couldn't make it work for any. Its not just baseball and the A's have been talking about moving from there for 40 years.

Then why did the Dodgers dump Vin Scully when he wanted to do national games and the NFL? Oh wait.......never mind.

While I will miss him the bigger deal to me is that this is yet another manifestation of a Sox organization that is truly terrible in all of its facets. I do have some hope, however, that the Sox can identify a talented minor league PBP guy, just as they did with Benetti, and give him a chance on the MLB level. Unfortunately, the way this team is currently operating, they seem likely to f*** this up in the same manner that they have virtually every decision in recent years.

His tweets, which I assume he writes himself, are usually cryptic and appear to often have hidden meanings. If I hated him, I wouldn't be following him on twitter for years to know this. His tweets have been far and few between this year, however. I follow his tweets in an effort to understand him. He has never said anything remotely like this in his tweets, which often appear hostile/angry. I have no idea if he signed off on this as based on the writing style it was clearly written by an agent who has financial interest in making a free agent look good. In other words, this statement is generic meaningless BS.

As someone who follows his twitter account, I can assure you that he had absolutely nothing to do with writing this.

Just seems to me there had to be some kind of outside influence to cause him to fire RH and KW. The hiring of Getz to replace him is classic, predictable JR.

If TLR sitting in those meetings caused him to advise JR to dump Hahn and Williams I am fine with him sitting in meetings.

I've heard the rumor that there was a higher bidder and that info was withheld from JR. But the rumor that a company was willing to spend tens of millions for naming rights and wouldn't even use their name is so ridiculous that it shouldn't even be repeated. Any exec making that deal would be fired on the spot.

I suspect that statement was made just to keep the BS narrative that baseball owners don't make money. The investment in the team grew from $20 million (which included the team, ballpark and lots of land) to $1.5 billion maybe (team only) in the time he has been around. Doubt he is actually telling his family to dump this investment, particularly since his son seems to enjoy this type of investment.

If you look at Michael Reinsdorf career history, which includes minor league ownership and stadium construction projects, along with running the Bulls, it is impossible to not consider the possibility he would want to run the Sox.Its almost as if his entire career is an internship to prepare for this.

You are contradicting yourself. In one instance you are saying he will never sell the team while alive, which is likely accurate. On the other hand you say he wouldn't lower the value because he won't get as much when he sells. He may be 88, but if I didn't know that I would swear he is in his seventies. Unless he has something going on we don't know about its possible he could pull a Virginia McCaskey. And there is definitely a ballpark battle coming up. He is not getting more money from Illinois. If Nashville, or anyone else offers a new park with a ballpark village and all the cash flows that come with it the Sox are gone.And probably worth a billion more instantly. And MLB didn't protect us during possible moves to St Pete, Denver, Seattle or Milwaukee. Why would they now, especially if attendance and tv ratings are low?

It's pretty much impossible to destroy the value of a franchise. The A's were purchased in 2005 for $180 million, and are worth around $1.2 Billion despite the fact that they have done everything possible to drive away fans as they relocate. that value will skyrocket once they are in their shiny new ballpark, something that will never happen here but could easily happen in Nashville. Explain why the Sox do nothing from a marketing standpoint, continuously drive away season ticket holders by ignoring them and jacking up prices, hire the least competent people for key positions, and don't bother hiring even the minimal number of staff to work the ballpark. Nobody is this incompetent, and you can argue with JR's decisions over the years, but there was never a point in his ownership before the last couple of years where everything went to s%*# at the same time as has happened.

The Bulls and Sox have common ownership. The fact that one team is doing this and the other is doing absolutely nothing is evidence that the Sox are intentionally destroying their fan base to justify a move. If the Sox are drawing 1.2 million, MLB will never stop the move to Nashville. JR will go from being loathed by his team's fans to being a local hero in Nashville, the team will have a honeymoon period of multiple years with the fans and media, and JR will end up with a statue on the concourse there as the man who brought MLB to Nashville. No more competing with the Cubs for local exposure and fans, no more dealing with a Cubs oriented media, no more listening to Sox fans complaining about what TV station they were on 40 years ago or the direction the ballpark faces. And a team located in a growing market that has proven it can support major league sports instead of a city with no growth prospects. The White Sox have long been in the bottom half of the league for attendance and TV ratings, 32 times in the last 50 years.

Well it's not like your high school can just up and move to Nashville if they piss off everyone in their area.

She may not be the best option, may not be good enough for many teams, but she is 10 times more qualified than anyone the Sox have hired in the 21st century. Our bar is set a little lower, and she clears it easily.