Lip Man 1

“The White Sox playing shorthanded started in 2007 when Jermaine Dye got hurt and Kenny Williams refused to call up Brian Anderson or Ryan Sweeney. Maybe they were cheap, maybe they wanted to protect Herm’s record of keeping guys off the DL.” (Author’s Note: Herm Schneider was the Sox longtime head trainer and for years the Sox were among the league leaders in keeping players healthy.) “Jake Peavy made the comment one time, ‘They have no reservations about playing shorthanded.”

There have been numerous examples in the last few years from the Yankees/YES Cablevision dispute to the Dodgers not being available for years to half of Southern California because that cable company refused to pay the fees L.A. was asking. Even the Marque Network had issues with companies and still does. Companies today aren't willing to automatically go into paying huge fees even for live sports. Now factor in just how bad those Chicago franchises are and they are going to ask if enough fans would be interested and willing to pay so they could get a decent rate of return. Not a slam dunk. I did a history of SportsVision for Dr. Fletcher's next White Sox book and one of the big issues with it was the fact the hook up fee was 50 dollars plus area cable companies put it on the tier that cost the most money. At the time Chicago and the nation was going through a bad recession and people didn't have the money to pay that high a price and the Sox were a team on the rise at that time. At best according to Bob Logan in his book, "Miracle On 35th Street: The Story of the 1983 White Sox" at best they had 20,000 subscribers. Yes the media market is vastly different from 1982 but in some ways it isn't. If the Sox/Bulls/Hawks choose to start their own network there will be a risk involved.

The risk of course is that as bad as the Sox are, as bad as the Bulls are, as bad as the Hawks are would area cable or steaming systems even be interested in this new channel? Would this be SportsVision 1982/83 all over again?

Speaking with someone who has been involved with this situation they have told me what is being discussed is potentially starting their own network, none of the traditional broadcast network stations in Chicago have much interest. The Sox, Bulls and Hawks would go to that network. The other option is to stay with Comcast Sports Chicago.

1990-1994 and 2000-2006 were far from obsolescence.

You know when he's eventually fired he may leave with the worst win percentage in the history of the franchise.

Good question although they probably won't be playing for the next few days because of bad weather.

Eight runs total in four games. ?

A significant improvement (which this team is certainly not capable of) results in at best another losing season (12th since 2007) in the worst division in baseball with an incompetent, dysfunctional and inept front office...led by an ossified owner who drips disdain for his actual fan base. Yea that "improvement" is meaningless in the big picture.

"I really don’t have much for you guys," Grifol said after the game. "These are ones you’ve just got to flush and get ready to play tomorrow."

That's the White Sox way.

Last four guys in the lineup are hitting .111, .111. .000 (Maldonado) and .111 This is shaping up to be an even worse season they we thought, bordering on a complete disaster.

The Fox site lists seven of the leg/hamstring/knee injuries between 2018 and 2020 for what that may be worth.

That season the Sox lost a pair of 1-0 games to the Tigers when Loaiza was pitching. Those two games probably cost him the Cy Young Award.

Again I can only go by what has taken place and Moncada's back issues became a factor last season. According to the Fox site and I have no idea how accurate it is, the vast majority of his leg/hamstring injuries took place in the years before the back problem.

The last time the Sox opened a season with three straight one-run losses was 1972 at Kansas City if memory serves. Can they make it four straight today?

Remember this past off season the Sox advertised for a biomechanics specialist for the first time and someone along the lines of a sleep co-ordinator. Teams have had these for years already. Like I was told when it comes to these areas "The Sox play checkers where other teams play chess..." Regarding Moncada it is not just his back, according to the Fox Sports site starting in 2018 he has had a total of seven different instances where hamstring or leg issues forced him to miss games and he also missed time with a knee. That site had him listed as missing games for various reasons a grand total of 19 times.

Here you go: https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/news/white-sox-injuries-and-roster-moves

I think Jason also did games remotely from the Korean

He's making money which is his primary interest.

JR was selling BS but Sox fans by and large saw right through that nonsense.

Balta I've passed along what folks both inside and outside the organization have told me about the guy. Do with it what you will. All these guys wear a ton of body armor, he fouls a ball off and can't play for three days? Now I will say this, as incompetent and dysfunctional as the Sox medical, training and conditioning staffs have been for the past several years (just look at the number of people who have passed through those areas and the fact that Hahn had to conduct a deep examination of those areas, and never revealed the results) I totally agree that more serious injuries are being misdiagnosed. But I don't know of many guys who apparently are hurt as often as Moncada, and Jimenez. They got the big contracts because the Sox were trying to save money by buying out some arbitration years and it wound up biting them on the ass. These guys simply haven't shown a lot since they got them. Coincidence? Maybe...maybe not. The good news is that after this year they'll be some other teams problem.

It won't be in the immediate future true but, at some point things will get better. It's inevitable new ownership arrives at some point.

You'd think JR would understand a basic principal in sports, winning solves a lot of problems including attendance but that takes building a real organization and spending the money needed to bring in talent at all levels. That may mean going in the red for several years until that has been established and he is so risk aversive he refuses to even consider this. (That may be because with all the national and international revenue streams for MLB he doesn't have to do anything to make money) History has shown when the Sox are winning (and by that I just mean putting a competitive club on the field) they draw well. They were the first franchise, not the Cubs, in Chicago to draw over two million for a season. When they put together years where they were in the hunt under his ownership 1981-1985, 1990-1994 and 2000-2006 they drew well.

There's no way this team is competitive in 2025 even with new ownership. It will take at least several years to clean up and clean out the rot, incompetence, dysfunction and ineptness that permeates this franchise from top to bottom.