77 Hitmen

Don't you mean "still in genuine progress"?

how about "the money will be spent"?

you beat me to it.

Plus, he wasn't very successful in this previous job in this organization. Classic example of failing upwards - that's the Reinsdorf way.

MLB owners have approved the sale of the Rays for $1.7B. An investor in the incoming ownership group is someone who was part of the Orlando Dreamers MLB expansion/relocation effort. The segment below discusses how this sale likely paves the way for a new stadium and entertainment district for the Rays somewhere on the Tampa side of the metro area. They also bring up an interesting point about possible future high-speed rail (Brightline) link to Orlando. Two of the main issues discussed with the current owner: he won't invest in payroll to keep/bring in high quality players and he won't commit enough private money to a new stadium. Hmmmm......sounds familiar. Where have I heard that before?

Wouldn't he only need 3 to break the AL record? And nobody with higher than 62 HRs is in the HoF and probably won't be anytime soon.

The biggest progress next season will be that we'll be one year closer to new ownership taking over this team.

Amazing!

Are the Sox a flat gray line that's been at zero % the entire season?

100th loss tonight. It's official: third year in a row with 100+ losses. These incompetent clowns should be ashamed of themselves. South Side, STAND UP!

The good news is that the Sox seem to have a better attendance FLOOR than a few other teams. I'm thinking of the two Florida teams and the A's in Oakland. Though, I don't know if the Sox numbers are much different than the Tigers when they lost 119 games. I wouldn't go by any attendance numbers from before 1990 and certainly not from the late 60s/early 70s. MLB average attendance was much lower back then - the league-wide average was around 15k/game in the late 1960s, which is about half of the average per game attendance in the last quarter century. https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/majors/misc.shtml

I get what you mean. I'd say the 2022 season was much more frustrating to watch....and that made the Sox more difficult to watch in a way. This year, I had pretty much zero expectations for this team. That's still completely unacceptable. But I've moved on from frustration and anger in 2022 to resignation and disinterest now. This organization is a total disgrace to let us get to this point where we see up to 104 losses as a big step forward.

You don't have to even go back to July 6. On Sept. 4, the Tigers had an 11 game lead over the Guardians (and 9.5 games up on the Royals). That 11 game lead has totally evaporated in less than 3 weeks. WOW!

As it stands right now, the Sox have the 7th worst winning pct in the franchise's 125 year history. Hardly a "good" team.

The 10th team in MLB history to do so and the first since the Yankees and Mets during the final year at their old stadiums in 2008. https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/46337726/dodgers-become-10th-mlb-team-draw-4-million-fans-season

Good news, everyone!

There is a massive 100-acre, $4B entertainment district being built within walking distance of Angel Stadium. https://www.anaheim.net/5157/Honda-Center-OC-Vibe This is being built by the owners of the Ducks and will surround the Honda Center. Angels owner Arte Moreno has nothing to do with this project and his previous efforts to develop the parking lots at Angel Stadium failed due to corruption. There are three people standing in the way of Moreno being the worst owner in MLB: John Fisher, Bob Nutting (Pirates), and Jerry Reinsdorf. And yes, the Royals are planning to move to a new stadium. With Missouri and Kansas bidding against each other and the team saying they'll provide $1B in private funding, I think this is very likely to happen. Wherever they land, it'll either be downtown or have significant development surrounding it.

This. The era of MLB owners like JR making a killing on low (or no) rent and parking lot fees is over. Since you mention Boomer era, all Boomers will be senior citizens when the current stadium lease is up. The oldest Gen Xers (as much as I hate to acknowledge this) are turning 60 this year. Even the oldest Millennials start turning 50(!) two years after the Sox lease is up. When looking at how people spend their time and money for sports entertainment these days and going forward, the next owners of this team aren't going to be looking at what worked with Boomers and Gen Xers 30 or 40 years ago.

Lots of public money going into that project. I'm not tied in to DC local news, but I'd imagine not everyone is happy with that.

The Ishbia brothers are reportedly worth around $15B. There is potentially money to pay for a new stadium if that's what they think is the best path forward. I'm not saying that's what they'll do. You also bring up some valid questions about the 78 location. None of the options are perfect. That's why, even though I'm in favor of a ballpark at the 78, my guess now is that the most likely outcome is what you described: ballpark improvements and developing the area around the current park. Seems like the path of least resistance. Lots of question marks either way. It'll be very interesting to see what the result is when the dust settles. ...and yes, none of it will matter if they continue to play the way they have for most of the last 15 years. The new owners have to retool this organization top to bottom IMO regardless of stadium.

I'm hard pressed to think of another MLB team that doesn't now or has plans to play in an iconic or highly rated park and/or in a vibrant area (i.e.; popular neighborhood or entertainment district). Maybe the Brewers with their ballpark surrounded by parking lots is the best answer. Other than that? Dodger and Yankee Stadium? But those are two of the most elite franchises in MLB history and one can argue that their stadiums are considered iconic. Am I missing anyone? Chase Field isn't anything special IMO, but is downtown. Miami's new stadium and its location has been a huge swing and a miss and their attendance has been terrible. I just think it's incredulous to think that there's nothing wrong with the current Sox ballpark status and that their attendance right when they won the World Series proves that.

The Sox have the 2nd longest postseason series win drought in MLB. Only the Reds have gone longer (1995) and they might actually make the playoffs this year. 2005 is the only season in the 44-year Jerry Reinsdorf era that the Sox actually won a post-season series. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Major_League_Baseball_franchise_postseason_droughts So yeah, the new owners need to start with rebuilding the organization itself from the ground up. Hopefully they're smart enough to realize they can (and IMO must) do more than one thing at a time to turn this franchise around and that fixing the on-field performance/organizational rot and improving the ballpark experience aren't mutually exclusive.

That would certainly be a huge improvement over the current situation. They've had attendance issues with the current ballpark for 30 years save for the 2 or 3 years after they won the World Series. The numbers clearly show this. One huge benefit of this option is that it's all ISFA land. Of course, the Ishbias would still have to pay for a new stadium just as they would at the 78, but other sports owners are spending a lot more than JR is committing toward new stadiums, so while not a certainty it's not an out of the question. I don't think a plan to "just win" is enough because it's so tough to do consistently. The Mets owner threw a record amount of money into that team and how is that working out for them? Same with the Ishbias and the Suns. I also don't think just winning a few division titles or wild cards with early playoff exits is going to do much to move the needle for the Sox market share in Chicago at this point.

It'll be very interesting to see how the new labor contract and the TV deals eventually shake out in a few years. Seems like the disparity between the haves and the have not franchises has gotten worse in the last 5 years or so.

I wonder if Nashville is such a shoe-in for an expansion team anymore just because of this. They're spending a TON of public money on that new Titans stadium.