NO!!MARY!!!

Kamm was probably the best post-Scandal acquisition, along with Bibb Falk. The less said about 2024, the better. Still want to believe that I just hallucinated that whole season.

The bottom line is the White Sox have a small fan base. They have managed to grow it insofar as the attendance figures of the past several seasons are ones that the Allyns or Bill Veeck would have gladly taken during their ownership tenures. It isn’t enough to keep up with the rest of baseball, though. I honestly don’t know what Ishbia can do differently that will magic fans out of nowhere. Being Not Jerry Reinsdorf might work for one or maybe two seasons, but that honeymoon will end quickly.

The bottom of the 21st, with the Brewers ahead, started with an epic error by Randy Ready of the Brewers. The leadoff batter hit a ground ball to Ready at 3rd base. He scooped it up and made a throw so high and offline that the camera lost track of it. It looked like it might have gone to the upper deck, but probably wasn’t that bad. That started the 21st inning rally. I think Ready’s throw is still shown on Baseball Bloopers, Bleepers and Screw ups reels.

He tapped him on the head, Ventura got out of it and tackled him. I’m sorry I brought it up.

Baseball bro here! The back-to-back home runs by Ventura were nothing compared to the back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back hits Ryan got off him! Ain’t I clever??? Tee hee giggle giggle!

Sad. They should have hired Mike North when they had the chance. Just imagine the class, poise, intelligence and articulation he would exhibit in the booth. “DAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!! Murky nami bombs anudder one into da seats!! He’s so good at bombs dat [insert dumb ass joke about his Japanese ancestry]. DAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!”

I agree. It’s just that I see the attitude of “why did they tear it down” online a lot, or at least it seems like it. It also gets far more reverence as a “Baseball Cathedral” now than it ever did in its lifetime.

He won’t do it right because whatever happens will get criticized. People will move to the “They had a perfectly fine ballpark in the Rate, why did they knock it down?” line, along with “they tore down a classic ballpark in Comiskey. They never do anything right. And now they’re on yet another ballpark while Chicago’s true and only team will play in the Sacred Cathedral of Wrigley forever.” I know it seems like I’m Cubsessed, but the Sox will always suffer in comparison to them.

And it is only a matter of time before Ishbia does the same thing.

It happened to the old park. During its lifetime Comiskey Park was never accorded the venerated status of Tiger, Wrigley and Fenway. Good example was a 1990 Sporting News article that trashed it and the surrounding neighborhood, and got a bunch of quotes from players who also trashed it. Now that it’s gone, it suddenly has become one of those lost Cathedrals of Baseball, at least on social media. That being said, I don’t see it happening with this park.

The problem I have with this is the park has been getting terrible reviews since 1992 when Camden Yards went up. The team has done several things and effected several changes in order to remedy the situation. People moaned for green seats and got them. Seats were removed from the upper deck and the roof replaced with one to give it a cozier, old-timey feel. Other changes have been made to get rid of the “ball mall” feel and make it look more like a traditional park and it STILL ranks at the bottom and people still complain. At this point, is it truly THAT awful, or is it getting killed because of its past reputation? I mention all this because they have changed the park and got nowhere. I honestly think if they build a new park it will be the same thing. They are damned if they do and damned if they don’t.

The first solution will be to move. They will never-repeat-never be on equal footing with the Cubs. They haven’t been in a very long time and won’t be in the foreseeable future. Everyone who is pinning their hopes on Ishbia being the Billionaire Savior of the franchise will go back to bitter, angry ranting when he doesn’t run the franchise any differently than it’s been run by Reinsdorf or Bill Veeck.

The problem isn’t the stadium, it’s the location. They can rebuild old Comiskey across the street in its original footprint and the attendance woes would remain, just as they did in the late 80s when Wrigley, Fenway and Tiger Stadium were being worshipped by the nostalgia crowd while Comiskey was consistently ignored. They need a location other than 35th and Shields, though I don’t know where that is, honestly. The team has been unable to grow the fan base, so I don’t think any place would automatically solve the attendance issue.

Exactly. After all the blustering is over, Bears fans will sell out the new Indiana stadium and life will go on. The New York Giants and New York Jets have played in New Jersey for decades and their fans got over it a long time ago.

I am not going to cry, wring my hands and clutch my pearls over the Frank Thomas thing.