Balta1701

Guaranteed rate is serviceable but it is also well behind the times and admittedly, because of Reinsdorf, not the best place to see a ballgame. The fact that the lease was coming up was going to motivate something to change. NO ONE IN THEIR RIGHT MIND would give Jerry Reinsdorf any more time in that field without a massive rewriting of his lease, and there is no way Jerry Reinsdorf would ever accept that. Jerry has insane things right now like 100% of the parking revenue and a government backstop if attendance falls too low. No one would ever give him that again, and Reinsdorf would almost certainly leave rather than give up a portion of his precious parking profits. You could see that there would be a stadium impasse coming 10 years ago. Building on a site in the loop, where a new ballpark is used to develop a stranded real estate asset that may never be developed otherwise, and where the ballpark is integrated into the surrounding businesses is a modern, smart, quality setup. It is an obvious way around the impasse that was almost certain without this plan, it is a way to bring all stakeholders on board and to justify a new agreement. Everyone can make money on it, if Reinsdorf acts responsibly and takes advantage of the great credit his organization has - thanks to the zero debt status due to his last amazing deal. Jerry Reinsdorf would 100% leave for Nashville rather than accept a lease extension at the Rate which isn’t ungodly team friendly. Any politician would wave goodbye and arrange a police escort out of town before giving him that deal again.

Aside from parking, I don't think I or my family ever spent a dollar in that area outside of the ballpark. I went to that on-site bar they opened once. I knew of nothing to do there, you get off the highway, follow the signs, park, give Reinsdorf the parking fee, then leave. You eat somewhere else and you don't spend time there afterwards, or beforehand unless you bring stuff with to tailgate. Our normal setup growing up was to stop at the McDonalds at the Skyway oasis for dinner and met dad there coming out of the city. When I lived in Pittsburgh, I took the bus in, had dinner before every game, took photos on the bridge, usually stopped at the bar across the street, might have stopped at a bar or shop on the way home. Spent probably $100 more every time and was happy to do so.

I'm probably just mis-remembering because I always had cable also.

First franchise to have multiple consecutive 15 loss seasons, ownership issues, character issues with players, owner who would totally pack up in the middle of the night, they're obviously the Cleveland Browns.

Can't you stream the Sox using the Yankees announcers on those days?

Yeah the dichotomy between Grifol in the press conference and in the dugout is staggering. As an easy to follow example he said he wanted to get Moncada’s walk rate up. Moncada immediately had the lowest walk rate of his career. How the Hell does that happen?

Isn’t that literally MLb.tv?

Yes. It is all of the above. Every pitch is a max effort pitch whether it is offspeed or straight. Different people have to deal with this in their own ways, but you can’t waste pitches any more. The 8th and 9th place hitters can hit the ball out of the park if you are careless. If you aren’t doing this, then you will wind up in the minor leagues.

I want to hear someone give a correct message. No more talk about the importance of bunting or playing fast and aggressive or fiery or whatever. No more lectures about how baseball was correct 20 years ago and everything is wrong today. Talk about being smart, being well prepared, putting guys in position to succeed. A person who at least sounds like they understand that there is a modern aspect to baseball. Add in some actual professionalism. That's one I've been asking about for 10 years or so, actually look prepared and treat things and other people like you're the public representative of a billion dollar business.

I think you'd have seen continued regression from the pitchers and the hitters both, much like we saw. However, I think the clear personality conflicts would have been minimized because Ricky wouldn't put up with that stuff while LaRussa didn't care. That 8 game losing streak in April 2022, where it started off with a game that looked like the entire infield forgot how to play baseball? Clearly Anderson and others were distracted and it stayed that way for weeks? Yeah that's a LaRussa special.

While Ricky would have been better, he had some of the flaws that doomed TLR. In Rickys case, he was obsessed with the way things used to be and angered by the notion that the game had changed. Famously, in like 2019, he was asked a standard, boilerplate, article preparing question of "how do you use analytics in your managing" and he responded with the detailed, dignified answer "F*** you". That tells a lot about the professionalism of his whole staff, too. Just like TLR was obsessed with having guys bunt, steal bases, defensive positioning is a sin, guys should play through injuries, be aggressive at the plate as walks clog up bases, starting pitchers should go 8 innings in the playoffs, hit the ball on the ground all the time, Ricky had the same problems with that. I think you're right that the personality implosion wouldn't have happened, at least not in the same way. But Ricky, like Grifol and Ventura both, as well as Chris Getz and Jerry Reinsdorf, were obsessed with David Ecksteins, white guys who play the game the right way way" and that left them completely outmatched against managers who understood that the game isn't even the same as it was 5 years ago.

Shouldn’t you be posting about how great the ratings will be?

Fixed Ty.

Reinsdorf wouldn’t care about the Hawks, and if his family is planning to sell the Bulls, how much does that matter?

No, because a good hire for this White Sox franchise would be unexciting. The White Sox desperately need someone who can be a modern thinker. Someone who understands how the game has changed and who works to teach this to players. Someone who is the opposite of the “classic baseball people are back in charge” mentality Iof 2024. If they hire the perfect person it will not be exciting. It will show up as players being smarter, better approaches at the plate, fewer ground balls, less swinging hard in case you hit something. Better bullpen performance from pitchers who understand their roles and how they will be used. Guy who are better conditioned and who use the IL when they’re hurt rather than playing through one injury until it leads to a worse one. Fewer LaRussian Locker room rivalries and less articles ripping the org every August. Never ever talk about the importance of bunting again. Gradual improvement over multiple years. If your house is flooded with sewage, the arrival of a cleanup crew isn’t exciting. It may be a relief, but starting the sewage cleanup isn’t exciting. Finishing it is exciting.

The White Sox had a record of 857-764 in the decade of the 2000s, good for 5th best in the AL and 9th best in MLB. They had 3 playoff appearances and one title. This is pretty good, it’s not the Yankees but for the money they spent it’s damned effective. The next two teams behind them in records are the Giants and Phillies. The Phillies won a title that no one considers a fluke, despite performing worse for the decade than the White Sox. The Giants soon after broke through with 3 titles. That performance level should be a regularly competitive team. They coulda had more playoff appearances but the team with the 4th most AL wins that decade, the Twins, blocked them several times. They imploded themselves more than they should have, with years like 2007 and coaching problems, but for a mid-tier revenue franchise it’s darn respectable and a breakthrough title fits with their level of play.

Tinfoil hat time: Could Reinsdorf be folding this into his Nashville plan? Skimpy cheap studio production, no working app, demands a sweetheart deal from Comcast that they have no interest in. 2026 rolls around and he tells the MLB owners that this market isn’t viable because the Cubs can build their own RSN but he can’t get broadcast rights. This network folds in a year or two and the Hawks and Bulls wind up on the same network as the Cubs?

I was going to go with the records as saying that Getz was still worse, but then I realized, Hahn also employed Getz for years and it makes perfect sense why the players from Hahn’s minor league system were so poorly prepared, poorly coached, and unmotivated. Meanwhile he was apparently angling for Hahn’s job for years too. So who do you blame for Chris Getz, Rick Hahn for employing him or Chris Getz for being him?

Jesus Christ this series

And that's the point...the appetite for a publicly funded ballpark in Chicago as a means to keep the team there is non-existent, but Reinsdorf is acting like he expects its there. The setup is worse than the one that would have had the White Sox move. If people are counting on the league or some external force to step in and say this team needs to stay put regardless of the business and stadium decisions, they wouldn't say that last time, and they won't say it this time.

But the point is, the fact that it's Chicago isn't going to hold the team there as long as the Cubs are there. Chicago was stronger economically relative to the rest of the country 40 years ago than it is now.

NLCS looks likely to wind up tied up at 2, but without any of the games really being competitive.

Isn't it true that, had it not been for the legislature pretending a clock had stopped before midnight, right now the Tampa Bay White Sox would be figuring out what stadium they were going to play in next year after their roof was shredded by a hurricane?

Yes. There is ample investment capital if they can find a good plan. The economy is strong and cities are growing. The White Sox are an undervalued asset and Reinsdorf’s toxicity may leave them stranded with no stadium, leaving them costing less than they’d pay otherwise. Reinsdorf is alive and would go along with this specifically to hurt White Sox fans, a future owner might not be willing to do so.

Second game where both teams hit a game tying home run in the 8th or later in postseason history, and add in another Hr later. Yeesh.