77 Hitmen

Yeah, 15th and Clark is not far from the existing Red Line stops at Roosevelt to the NE and Cermak to the south and it's not like mass transit is going to get any extra federal funding for at least another 3 1/2 years. Good question about an Orange Line stop just south of the 78. If the Sox build a stadium at the 78 (and that's a huge IF), at least an L stop could always be revisited in the future if it ever is determined to be beneficial to the community.

But, unlike Soldier Field, the ISFA debt for Rate Field is being paid down. Why isn't it zero yet? Perhaps ongoing building maintenance and improvements for a 35 year old structure while Jerry's sweetheart lease cuts out rent payments as attendance plummets? I have no idea, but what's owed for Sox Park is less than 1/10th of what is still owed for Soldier Field. If the new owners decide they'll privately finance a new stadium, paying off the $50M debt on the current park will be a relative drop in the bucket compared to what a new stadium costs.

This article answers that question. Nobody took the money borrowed for the Soldier Field renovation for other expenses, the payment structure was totally backloaded and the debt owed has accrued $250M in interest over the last 20+ years. https://www.nbcchicago.com/investigations/taxpayers-still-owe-640m-on-2002-soldier-field-renovation/2981068/

And the Bears aren't the only NFL team that has hit a roadblock to getting a new domed stadium built: https://www.cleveland19.com/2025/08/15/odot-denies-aviation-permit-browns-stadium-brook-park/

Legislators say the Bears need to do more to get their votes on the property tax legislation. Several examples are given, including paying off the debt on Solider Field. https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/08/18/chicago-bears-tax-break-build-new-stadium/

Wow - 7 minutes of yelling and not even a pause to catch his breath! The guy was totally spot-on. Nothing he said was even close to being hyperbolic. He worried about them promoting Getz to replace KW and RH, too. He'd probably be right about having to say the same thing all over again in 2038 if Jerry weren't going to be 102 by then. If he was that worked up in 2023, I hope he's been taking his blood pressure meds considering what has happened to this team since then.

And I doubt Ishbia's cash infusion over the next couple of years is going to be used to throw money at A/B tier free agents when the entire organization is still a money-losing mess that is bad at evaluating and developing talent. Even with the sweetheart stadium lease that Jerry has, the team simply isn't brining in a lot of money. The TV money is significantly less than in the past, fan interest has tanked, I'd imagine sponsorship money is down big time, and the stadium does nothing to bring in more fans or generate more revenue other than parking.

This current front office has not proven to me that they can draft, develop players, or trade for players competently. And Getz has had terrible results so far in the latter two. Maybe the Crochet deal will work out well for us, but last I saw, we don't have any other Garret Crochets sitting around to be traded for a decent haul. "Well, the [name some other MLB team] went from 100+ losses to the playoffs in a couple of years, therefore so can we" is terrible game plan for a MLB franchise.

To make the playoffs? 2030 at the earliest even with the expanded wild card format. Ain't gonna happen next year for sure. Getz hasn't proven anything to me that he has what it takes to put together a winning team. Barring any huge scandal or the sudden passing of Jerry Reinsdorf, I figure he has the GM job locked up until at least until 2029. Until 2029, Jerry will be in full control. In the meantime, Ishbia's infusion of cash will be used to pay down the team's debts and shore up operational needs. He's not handing money to JR to land free agents and will not be involved in the day to day operations of this franchise.

It makes me wonder how many teams are that deep in debt. I believe it's been reported that the Sox have something like $200M in debt. I'm guessing they're not the only two teams with 9-figure debts. Covid was a huge, but one-off event. On the other hand, the collapse of the RSN money stream is having a huge impact on the economics in MLB. For example, the Cardinals old RSN deal with Fox Sports Midwest was for something like $1B before that network filed for bankruptcy.

but how many games up on Marcia and Jan?😉

They can go 37-3 from here on out to end the year at .500!

What is the future of Soldier Field if the Bears move to Arlington Heights? https://chicago.suntimes.com/bears-stadium/2025/08/15/soldier-field-future-chicago-bears-arlington-heights-stadium-brandon-johnson

I wonder what residents would think about 2 stadiums at the site...especially with a baseball stadium with 81 home dates. Of course, we don't know if the Ishbias would actually pay to have such a thing built there. I'm not sure how they're going to address pedestrian access at the south end of the site unless they at least lower the Metra tracks to below grade. The Red Line station at 15th and Clark is probably not necessary or worth the expense if they're only going to build a soccer stadium with 17 home dates and develop the rest of the property as residential since there are other L stops a few blocks away. But if the Sox and their additional 81 games decide to build there, it would be great to have a subway stop right at the site.

Burying Sunday Night Baseball on a streaming service that most people don't have. That would be such a Manfred move. And I realize that not everyone has ESPN, but until cord-cutting took off, a vast majority of households did.

Bring back Courtney Hawkins!

I don't think Sox fans from 1970, when the team lost a franchise record 106 games, could imagine in a million years that 55 years later, there'd actually be any hint of accolades for a front office that is in the process of giving us a 103-loss season and 3 years in a row of 100+ losses.

The 3 most recently posted threads on this forum all go back to the same thing - Chris Getz hasn't been very good at his jobs in the Sox organization. Wake me up when we have a new owner who hires people based on merit instead of loyalty. I'll set my alarm clock for 2029.

...oh and for all you Simpsons fans out there, I see that 3 of the players in this montage ended up on Mr. Burns's softball team: Strawberry, Mattingly, and Ozzie Smith. 🤣

Interesting. I'm only old enough to remember the booming ABC World News Tonight theme, which apparently started in 1978 and they still use a variant of it today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsVFZ0F8Gmc&t=7s

The Twins are no longer for sale by the Pohlad family. They are working on adding 2 new investors instead. https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/45965947/twins-no-longer-sale-pohlad-family-eyes-new-investors

....and don't get me wrong, I'm not rooting for our stadium to be ranked so low and I'm not telling anyone they have to dislike the place. If someone thinks it's #21 (or even higher), more power to them and I'm not going to argue with anyone for liking our stadium and having a good time there. That being said, being 21st out of 28 isn't exactly something to brag about IMO. If the new owners say no to paying for a new stadium and end up signing a long-term lease at Rate Field, I will continue to enjoy my visits there and hope they make improvements to the park and the surrounding area. I just think it's a cold, hard reality that Rate Field is not very well regarded outside the rabid Sox fan base and I simply don't think it's because everyone else in the world is ill-informed. Since we're talking about sites that rank MLB ballparks. I found that this site gives very thorough reviews of all the ballparks. Here's what they think of Rate Field: https://ballparkratings.com/ballparks/u-s-cellular-field/ What are people's reaction to it? It's a rather positive write up and even he's surprised that it ends up #26 in his ranking system. This guy obviously has put a lot of thought into his analysis of all the MLB stadiums. I think the only thing he's way off the mark on is a complaint about the statues (huh?), though he still gives the park a high score for them.

I loved the ending music and slow motion montage at the end of TWIB. Some memorable players in this particular video: Tony Gwynn, Kirby Puckett, Ozzie Smith, Don Mattingly (before Mr. Burns had him shave his sideburns).

Chat GPT has been brainwashed by Cubs fans!

To each their own on other parks' aesthetics, of course. But that warehouse building at Petco is a real turn of the century historic landmark building that was already there. And the Padres have turned into a functional part of the stadium with party suites, a bar, and a team store. This doesn't strike me as phony quirkiness, but that's just my opinion. I Googled MLB ballpark rankings right now.....I don't think Sox fans are going to like the results. Almost all have the park very near the bottom of the 28 parks (excluding Oakland and Tampa Bay). I found only one so far that ranked it at 21, but that appears to be an outlier. It ranks Rate Field ahead of Truist Park.