Lip Man 1

From my story on the State of the Sox: “Hahn went to JR and told him it would be a bad idea to hire Tony not because he didn’t think he was a good manager but because physically how can you ask a 76-year-old man to go through that grind? But JR signs his paycheck so what are you going to do? Rick did what he was told and tried to make the best of it.”

Except he's made it clear going back to the days when Ventura was the manager that he doesn't like to DH.

Shortstop, Center Field and starting Pitching which has been a hallmark of this franchise since the beginning.

The problem is though the Sox aren't close to being an elite playoff team under current ownership. Given that realty Jose' going to Houston and in essence "hurting" the Sox chances really doesn't apply. If they can rebound to have a winning season and hopefully contend in the central that's about as good as you can get in my opinion.

Everyone knew this was coming. Glad Jose' gets to play for an organization that has actual World Series aspirations. Hey it could have been worse...he could have signed with the Cubs. First base belongs to Vaughn now, we'll see how it goes.

Random Thoughts: On paper this could be a good move for the Sox, when healthy he’s put up solid numbers and is better than dumpster diving guys like Vince Velasquez. And at eight million (instead of the projected 10 million) that helps the Sox budget But… Like a member of the mainstream media told me tonight this guy has a lot of baggage than goes beyond just an anti-COVID vaccine stance. Like so many other Rick Hahn moves this could completely blow up in his face. And what happens when JR tells him to cut his hair?

It partially wasn't his fault. From my interview with him: ML: Let’s talk about the 1993 A.L.C.S. I read an interview a few years ago where then Jays manager Cito Gaston claimed that you and Alex Fernandez were tipping your pitches and that’s why the Jays were able to win. Do you think that’s true? JMD: "The Jays had a real good team that season. They were a veteran bunch of guys. I went 22-10 in the regular season and they beat me three times, and I’m not talking about losing to them 2-1. They just beat me up. Sometimes it happens that a team has your number no matter what you do. Could I have been tipping something? Maybe... but the Jays were a bunch known for being able to steal and relay signs from the bases to their hitters too." As far as his relationship with JR: ML: Do you think some people in upper management had hard feelings towards you? JMD: "I don’t know why they would. Fans don’t know this, but not only was I never offered a multi-year contract, I was never even offered a one year deal! The Sox just automatically took me right to arbitration three years in a row, (Author’s Note: McDowell won one of those salary hearings) they just didn’t negotiate with me. Did that piss me off? Yes. Should I have said some of the things that I did to the media? Probably not. I didn’t play the game as far as the team image was concerned, but I was just telling the truth about what was going on." “One time I was talking with Jerry Reinsdorf and he told me the reason the Sox wouldn’t go out and sign any big name, big money free agents is because they were concerned about how I’d react to it. We had those contract issues all those years and they thought I’d get angry over it. I looked at him and said it wouldn’t bother me, especially if I was looking at my World Series ring! All I ever wanted to do was win, I didn’t care how much somebody else made."

The Sox philosophy under JR has always been anti-MLBPA and certain agents. Remember the labor impasse of 1994-95? JR was willing to neuter his own team's chances to get to the World Series in a foolish effort to get a salary cap and break the MLBPA. Just this past spring he was quoted in the mainstream media as saying he supported the lockout. He has always believed that players make too much money (hence the self-imposed payroll limitations)

Like with Frank Thomas the situation the Sox are in really provides no option unless they move guys like Vaughn & Sheets. And because of the age factor that may not be a wise move.

Regarding Martin, remember the Sox have provided no update sine he left the last game of the season with "forearm soreness". We've seen far to often how that story ends so until we see him back on the mound and pitching effectively you can't count on him for anything in your calculations.

By all indications including from JR directly it sounds like the "plan" is that regardless of his personal situation the team will not be sold until after his death because of the tax implications. If JR is incapacitated my guess is that one of the minority owners will temporarily be put in charge. Kenny is rumored to be retiring after next season when his contract is up so again I'm guessing he will be out of the picture living in Arizona.

His name is probably Leury Garcia.

Have to justify Garcia's contract regardless of how much it hurts the team.

Valid points. Personally I've never cared for the WBC. These guys need as much time off as possible to heal and be supervised by the Sox staffs for the first time since the pandemic. I don't know what leverage the Sox have in this but if they do I hope they say, "no."

Jeff Torborg told me the 87-90 uniforms were the idea of JR, he loved the "Dodger script." Jeff said when he became manager he started working on JR to get him to change them' that only the Dodgers could pull off that look.

The first thought that went through my mind was this reminded me of the type of comments surrounding Carlos Rodon's injury with his shoulder a few years ago. Sox kept saying he was on-track, they were being cautious...long story short, if I remember right he missed a lot of time than had additional surgery.

I don't have a single favorite myself. I like very much the jerseys from 1951-1975. I like the basic scheme they've had since 1991as well.

JR never said that, Eddie Einhorn did. And when I interviewed Mike Veeck he said JR actually apologized to the Veeck family for that comment.

Brickhouse had a meeting with Sox owner Art Allyn and one of the things he told him was he felt that at some point in time WGN's signal would be available not just in the Chicago area but across the Midwest. In that regard Jack was a visionary.

By the way the driving force behind SportsVision wasn't JR...it was Eddie Einhorn.

I did a detailed history of SportsVision and am writing the chapter on it for Dr. Fletcher's next book. Just FYI, the Sox actually offered Harry more money to stay with the team for the 1982 season than the Cubs did, but Harry wanted no part of Sportsvision nor the owners. Committing "Harry Caray" But one more problem developed because of the SportsVision idea which had long term negative effects towards the Sox. That involved popular announcer Harry Caray. Caray had been with the Sox since 1971 and had developed a tremendous following. In many desolate years Caray was the only reason to pay any attention to the Sox. His style was aggressive, he wasn’t afraid to pan the players or for that matter rip the owners. Caray wasn’t a saint by any means, he had a tremendous ego himself and could be spiteful towards those he didn’t care for, like fellow announcer and former Sox catcher J.C. Martin, whom Caray felt had no business being in a television booth, but to Sox fans he was the best asset the team had. When Einhorn and his partner Jerry Reinsdorf took over the Sox, Caray became intolerable to them. Einhorn is quoted in Logan’s book as saying, "we were a freak show. The fans thought Harry and Jimmy (Piersall) were the stars. Things were insane." Caray for his part, kept his personal feelings about the new owners and his relationship with them to himself, until the ties were severed between them. Afterwards he made no bones about how he felt, saying in his autobiography that Sox fans would ask him why he left and why he went to the Cubs. Caray said he loved Sox fans and loved Comiskey Park but he couldn’t stand the owners, going so far as to call them an unflattering name in the book and saying they knew nothing about running a team. Despite the strained relationship the Sox would have brought Caray back for the 1982 season when he decided to leave and signed a deal with the Cubs. According to producer Noel Gimble, quoting Steve Stone, in his documentary on Caray’s career called, “Hello Again Everybody” the Sox actually offered to pay Caray more money than he signed on to do the Cubs for. In Logan’s book, Caray had this to say, "They wanted to sign me again, but with SportsVision, the White Sox are the best kept secret in Chicago. If their games were on free TV, they’d own the town now and be a byword across the nation." (Author’s Note: because of now "Superstation WGN") I gave them some good advice at that contract meeting. I told them, “you guys came in as owners with a positive image and became villains by taking Jimmy (Piersall) out of the broadcast booth. Why don’t you get back in the fans’ good graces by putting us back together on the TV team" Caray continued with Reinsdorf’s reply. "Jerry answered, ‘Harry, I’ll be up in heaven looking down before Piersall broadcasts another one of our games,’ and Einhorn said, ‘with you or without you, the White Sox are going into SportsVision and away from free TV. " Logan’s book quotes Caray as saying "that’s when I made up my mind to leave. They were talking about maybe reaching 50,000 homes on pay TV instead of the 22 million people who watch the Cubs on WGN." The final word in the Caray / Sox owner’s feud came on the night of September 17, 1983. After the Sox clinched the Western Division Championship and before a national audience, since WGN received permission to take the SportsVision feed of the 9th inning and post-game interviews, Reinsdorf issued a final blast. During an interview with "Hawk" Harrelson, Reinsdorf said, “wherever you’re at, Harry and Jimmy, eat your hearts out. I hope people realize what scum you are.” Harrelson was momentarily speechless. Like him or not, letting Caray leave turned out to be a huge mistake. Caray became the “Pied Piper” of the North Side and came into the situation just about the time the Wrigleyville neighborhood became trendy with young, upscale individuals who decided going to see the Cubs was the thing to do. The Cubs made the playoffs in 1984 and with their games being shown coast to coast on WGN, fans everywhere who didn’t owe an allegiance to a particular team, seemed to become Cub fans. The Cubs would ride this wave to become the dominant team in Chicago despite many lousy years on the playing field. They would win the important public relations battle for the hearts and minds of neutral Chicagoans. With fans flocking to see the "shrine" (i.e. Wrigley Field) it didn’t matter if the Cubs won or lost, they were making money hand over foot.

Actually JR wasn't involved in the Clemens situation. After the Sox signed Albert Belle to the largest deal in history, Clemens' agents, the Hendricks brothers, reached out to Sox G.M. Ron Schueler to let him know Clemens would be interested in playing for the club. Schueler wasn't interested making the comment, "Clemens is over the hill" and he signed with Toronto. Instead the Sox signed Jamie Navarro to a four year deal.

It's amazing how out of touch some of the "national" sports guys are isn't it?

Then this contradicts what Hahn told the press at the GM meetings just yesterday, that he didn't have an exact figure but he expected it to be around last year's total. 15 million less isn't "around last year's" in my opinion. Either Hahn was lying or JR quickly put him in his place.

Since we are discussing White Sox pitching options it should be noted that Hahn yesterday said that Lopez and Lambert would remain in the bullpen for the 2023 season.