77 Hitmen

It is indeed true that the Sox MLB payroll was higher than the Cubs in 2022, but there needs to be some context to go with those numbers: First, even when JR puts money into the major league payroll, he doesn't invest elsewhere in the organization. Scouting, player development, major league coaching/conditioning/analytics, getting international talent have been terrible for many years. Successful teams invest in both the MLB payroll and the rest of the organization. The Sox always seem to skimp on the latter. Second, 2022 was the result of the common ebb and flow of payrolls as multiyear contracts get more expensive in the later years resulting in bloated payrolls and then teams need to retool as their previous core of talent leaves. Of course, in the case of the Sox, it wasn't that the players they signed to multiyear deals got old, they just totally fizzled out. Perhaps that's part of how Jerry's bargain hunting backfired - sign all this emerging talent to extensions before they get too expensive but before they've proved themselves. It worked splendidly for the Chris Sale extension, so therefore it became their template going forward.

Wasn't the theory at the time that Jerry handed out that huge contract to Belle to spite the other owners for not sticking to their guns enough during that 1994 strike? And JR was very smart in giving Belle an out clause after 2 seasons, which made it very likely that he wouldn't be on the hook for the entire contract - which is indeed what happened.

Excellent summary. To your point #7, I think what also prompted JR to make a deal for a future sale now is that he saw Ishbia (as a current minority owner and potential source of cash infusion) was on the verge of buying the Twins and wanted to make this deal before he got away. It's also possible that, since his proposal to publicly finance a new ballpark at the 78 was DOA in Springfield, he needed to make a deal with Ishbia now to get the private funding needed to keep his ballpark dream alive. Was it just coincidence that they went public with their deal within a few days of the Fire's announcement that they intent to build at the 78? Whether ballpark funding is part of this deal is anyone's guess at this point.

I hate Jerry as an owner as much as anyone, but I suspect many fans still think he's raking in huge profits on this team thanks to the sweetheart stadium lease and all the parking lot fees he collects. The economics of baseball has changed such that these don't translate into huge profits anymore, especially with the collapse of the RSN money stream teams have been relying on for a few decades now.

I'm not sure why people actually expect JR to suddenly spend more money in 2026 ahead of a possible strike/lockout. It should be clear to all that the money Ishbia is putting into this franchise this year and next is not going to free agents. They've said it's to pay down debts and support organizational operations, not to go on a payroll spending spree. To be honest, I'm not all that worked up about this. It's not like the Sox are going to suddenly go out and sign Kyle Tucker to some massive contract as long as JR is the owner. The Sox are still by far the 2nd worst team in MLB this year, there's a lot of things they need to fix organizationally before I'm going to lose sleep over the 2026 MLB payroll numbers. I'd rather the next owners put money into getting this organization turned around long term than handing out huge contracts in the short term.

Pretty crazy that teams 1, 2, and 3 have an equal shot at any of the first six picks with team #4 having negligibly worse odds. Why not give a bit more weight to the eligible team with the worst record? I suppose that's because they don't want bad teams in September having an incentive to lose instead of winning a meaningless game. But as I suggested earlier, it would be such a White Sox thing to have the most losses in MLB history and then another season where they have the worst record of any team eligible for the top pick and end up with the #10 and #7 picks out of it. Of course, this front office got the #4 and #3 picks not too long ago and totally botched both of those, so maybe I shouldn't fret too much about the lottery system.

Pretty cool story. For those who don't want to bother watching, some dude in the UK who's never been to Chicago found a late 70s era Sox jacket on eBay that was apparently used by a player and was not a retail jacket. As he tracks down the owner, he gives a brief history of the late 70s/Veeck era Sox and particularly the 1977 team. Any Sox fan who wants to nitpick this to death needs to lighten up and perhaps get a life.

This would be such a White Sox outcome. It wouldn't shock me at all.

It'll be a long slog to win back market share in Chicago, that's for sure. The new owners will have their work cut out for them (both on and off the field) and the Cubs aren't going anywhere as far as attracting fans goes. The one thing that irked me about the 2012 attendance numbers is that some of JR's mouthpieces went public with "attendance shaming" Sox fans for not supporting the team enough even when they won. I'm thinking of Don Cooper, specifically. Typical Reinsdorf PR blunder and "blame the fans" mindset that we've been dealing with since 1981. The next owners can start off by realizing the fans are NOT the problem. Sox fans are as loyal and diehard as anyone. As @WBWSF noted, making games affordable to families will help. The good news is that the Ishbias have offered affordable concessions at Suns games. Something like that would be a good start. But IMO, they'll have to do more than just make the Sox a discount alternative to the Cubs if they want to be more than an afterthought in this city.

The economics of baseball have changed. It looks to me like teams are finding that developing the land around a stadium is a much bigger money maker than surface parking lots. I wonder how often the Sox actually fill up all of their parking lots. Even at games with 35k+ in attendance, do the lots ever get full? And even if the Sox had middle of the pack attendance, how many times a year would they actually need all those parking spaces? It looks like other sports teams are redeveloping a good chunk of the surface lots around their stadiums. The Mets and Phillies are the latest. Heck, even in our own city, the Bulls and Blackhawks are spending billions to turn most of parking around the United Center into the "1901 Project". Whether the Sox move to the 78 or stay at 35th & Shields and redevelop much of the parking lots, I am sure there will be parking available for fans. It just won't be dozens of acres of surface lots adjacent to the stadium.

Former Sox pitcher Rich Hinton has also passed away. He was drafted by the White Sox in 1969 and had three stints with the Sox between 1971 and 1979. He also played for the 1976 "Big Red Machine" Cincinnati Reds, who won the World Series that year. https://www.newsweek.com/sports/mlb/former-yankees-pitcher-world-series-champion-passes-away-2122455

After that totally blew up in their faces with the last round of emerging talent? I doubt it. If Montgomery can sustain this type of success, we just have to hope that the Sox are under new ownership by the time he gets close to free agency. Otherwise, get ready for another Cease or Crochet-type trade to kick off the next "rebuild"

That's crazy that the Stateway Gardens land is still mostly vacant given the shortage and demand for affordable housing in the city. Yes, I seriously doubt they'd change the orientation of the current park if they stay there. That would be insanely expensive for not building a completely new park. I'm not sure what they could do with the current park. Perhaps add some sort of "home run porch" in RF as had been rumored when they did the major renovations 20 years ago. I seem to recall that some renderings floating out there at the time also showed adding a new "grand entrance" somewhere along 35th St. And, of course, develop some sort of commercial district on much of the parking lots.

Based on historical data, NO. The only time they were higher than 15th in attendance in the last 30 years was 2006, the year after the won the World Series. In 2005, they were 15th and by 2007 they were back down to 15th. They were reigning division champs in 2009 and 2022 and were 16th and 19th in attendance, respectively. https://www.thebaseballcube.com/content/mlb_attendance/ If it was as simple as "just winning", the vast majority of MLB teams wouldn't have wasted their time over the last 30 years building ballparks with character and in locations that attract more fans. If the Sox stay at their current ballpark (which is very possible if not probable), the new owners are going to have to do something with the stadium and its surroundings.

Good post. Suburban ballpark developments work in Atlanta and Arlington because of the sprawled nature of those regions and the culture of decentralized, car-oriented development there. I don't think it would work well in most cities and certainly not Chicago. A "baseball village" at, say, Arlington Park would definitely have a "mallpark" feel whereas a development either at 35th St or the 78 could be integrated into the surrounding urban environment and could feel more organic. As I've posted before, I don't think the Sox catering to people who are afraid of the city and afraid to take mass transit is a winning formula for future success. And yes, I'd imagine the Ishbias would be crazy to not conduct some formal analysis of the feasibility of developing the parking lots around Rate Field into some sort of "ballpark village" vs. building a privately-funded ballpark at the 78 and developing the land there along with the Fire for retail/restaurants. One benefit of a new stadium at the 78 is that the new owners could rid themselves of the well-documented design flaws of the current stadium. We'll see what they decide to do. It's not my billions. If (and that's a huge IF), the Sox do move to the 78, I can't imagine the 70+ acres that the ISFA owns at Rate Field would fall into vacant lot or "dollar lot" status. It's location in a gentrifying area and close to mass transit lines is too valuable for that to happen. With the demand for more housing in the area, it's a prime candidate to be developed into a residential area that can probably provide a mixed type of housing that has been in demand.

The fight for 40 games under .500!

Here's an article about the Royals' search for a new stadium site that gives a very good general analysis of 3 types of ballpark locations (suburbs, city neighborhood, downtown) and where these types of locations currently work or could work for the other MLB teams. https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/46030983/mlb-ballparks-future-stadiums-kansas-city-royals-downtown-suburbs-village-model For those fans who think there's nothing wrong with Rate Field or who advocate moving the Sox out to the suburbs, here's a couple of noteworthy quotes: "If all that mattered were the aesthetics of watching a game, or the drive-and-park convenience, the Royals would stay put. But in 2025, that's not enough." "Any team thinking of making a move to the suburbs for its own Battery has to take a careful look at what is different about its market from Atlanta, which in some studies has been measured as the most sprawled-out large metro area in the country."

Yeah, that's some crazy logic in that tweet. As far as the grass isn't always greener, that's true, but have you seen the lawn that Uncle Jerry has given Sox fandom over the last 3 years?

Here's some good news for all those Sox fans out there who are Ishbia haters: https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/46091616/suns-ishbia-sued-minority-owners-seeking-records-access

Speaking of Stephen Nesbitt, he also has a recent article where he takes a look at how various teams are progressing in their quest to land a MLB expansion team. It's a good summary of various factors such as potential ownership groups lined up, public funding for a stadium, etc. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6577020/2025/08/27/mlb-expansion-cities-salt-lake-city-nashville-raleigh-portland/ I'd be shocked if MLB puts a 3rd team in Florida with an Orlando expansion team since the other 2 teams have had serious problems with attendance for years. Maybe if the Rays move to Orlando, but IMO they'd be crazy to cram in 2 teams in the I-4 corridor.

Stephen Nesbitt of the Athletic has an article on MLB realignment. His proposal is the same as what I suggested earlier in this thread. And I didn't come up with it because I'm exceptionally bright (I'm not!), it was because that alignment makes too much logical sense and it doesn't take much effort to come up with an alignment that groups teams by geography without taking a torch to tradition. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6560635/2025/08/19/mlb-expansion-realignment-leagues-projection/ I hope this is the direction MLB takes after expansion. But I'm not holding my breath as it looks like Manfred has no qualms with obliterating the American League and National League.

This was the only news article I was able to find about his passing. RIP. https://www.newsweek.com/sports/mlb/former-cardinals-catcher-longtime-baseball-coach-manager-passes-away-2118840

Here's the City's planning and development website for the 78. This is at least 5 years old and before any talk of sports stadiums being built on the site. It does mention the Red Line subway station at the site as well as realigning the Metra tracks https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dcd/supp_info/the-78.html The Fire said they're dropping the CTA station to save on cost, but if the Sox do build there, i'd imagine it's back on the table. They also said they were not doing to realign the Metra tracks, but I don't know how you could skip that and properly develop the south end of the property.

The Sox have added a marker on the future Pope Leo's seat from the World Series game. https://www.churchpop.com/chicago-white-sox-honor-pope-leo-by-marking-seat-from-world-series-he-attended-in-2005/

Over two seasons?