How do the Sox ever improve?

[Kyyle23]

12 minutes ago, kitekrazy said:

The new trend in baseball is the labeling called "smart" players. Maybe that's a White Sox thing.

My translation is just good enough to never play but flirt with playing .500 baseball but not look really bad at losing.

Oh bother 

[MEANS]

6 hours ago, FloydBannister1983 said:

I don’t credit Reinsdorf with one World Series.  Mathematically they should have won at least one over 45 years and should have appeared in three.  He doesn’t get credit for winning one in a year when they traded Carlos Lee and Ordonez and nobody got hurt.

"nobody got hurt" except....The Big Hurt.

[kitekrazy]

18 hours ago, WBWSF said:

Sign Josh Naylor and Kyle Tucker  this off season'

Says every fan of a habitual losing team,

Then ask Naylor and Tucker "please become a White Sox" and then trying to imagine their reaction.

[WBWSF]

2 hours ago, kitekrazy said:

Says every fan of a habitual losing team,

Then ask Naylor and Tucker "please become a White Sox" and then trying to imagine their reaction.

If you offer them the most money, they will listen. I realize that JR isn't going to do that.

[greg775]

10 hours ago, The Mighty Mite said:

Greg, yep the 50s were a different era, most men wore suits and women wore dresses to Sox games. I went to 5 games in 1959 including game 2 of the World Series with my Uncle and Mom, he wore nice sport coats and she wore a dress with high heels. Most men wore fedoras, only kids wore baseball caps, fans didn’t wear team jerseys or jackets except again for kids. Funny story around 1953 on opening day I asked my Mom if she would buy me a Sox jacket at Sears, I get home after school and there’s a Cub jacket on my bed, Sox jackets had sold out so Mom bought me a Cub jacket, I was insanely mad. The atmosphere was pretty electric in the Go Go years with fans screaming GO GO every time a Sox speedster was on first especially Aparicio. When the Yankees came to town Comiskey got crazy with huge crowds, many Sox- Yankee games drew more than 50,000 and there was always a fight somewhere in the stands.
No the fans didn’t complain like today, sort of unheard of, no internet, News on TV was on maybe a half hour at 6PM and another 15-30 minutes at 10 PM. Only 4 TV stations, 2-5-7 and 9, PBS came along in the early 60s on channel 11.

Something different was there were no Saturday night games anywhere in MLB, the Sox drew best on Friday nights and Sundays when there was usually a double header. Fans had other things to do on Saturdays like grocery shopping and yard work as most worked Monday through Friday 9 to 5. Actually though the Sox outdrew the Cubs in the 50s and 60s I would bet the Cubs had larger crowds on Saturday afternoons than the Sox but not huge crowds, maybe 10-12 thousand at Wrigley and maybe 8,000 at a Sox game, even when the Yankees were in town, they would only draw 20,000 on a Saturday afternoon but for sure on Sunday there would be a packed house.

Yes 1977 was a magical year. I'll never forget July 31 against the Royals, over 50,000 on hand and when the Sox came back and won the first game, Comiskey was so loud the place was shaking, never have I heard it so loud just like Blackhawk games at the the old Madhouse on Madison. IIRC after game 1 the Sox lead the division by 6.5 games but the Royals won game 2 and it was down hill the rest of the way, in fact IIRC the Royals swept us the next weekend in KC. KC went on to win the division with the Sox finishing 3rd at 90-72.

 

Here’s a picture of me in that horrible Cubs jacket and cap my mother bought me in 1953 because Sears had sold out White Sox jackets and caps, I refused to look at the camera,

Thanks Mighty Mite. Incredible information in your post. Can't believe your mama did that with the coat. That's sort of like most everybody's mama throwing out the baseball cards. You must have been a nice little kid to actually wear the Cubs coat. You must not have wanted to anger your mom. It'd be tough for a kid to wear a Cub jacket to Sox Park.

Amazing how all the men wore hats in those days. And doubly amazing wearing a suit and tie to a game on a hot day. Or any summer day/night. The main difference in eras of course is price of tickets and concessions and parking. Until Steinbrenner started paying the big contracts the best seats in the park were about 8 bucks or so. Selfish owners just had to outbid each other for players every year with prices skyrocketing. 

I'd say anybody willing to pay these prices to see a team as woebegone as the Sox the last several years truly is not of sound mind. And anybody who'd pay 10 bucks or more for a can of Miller Light may want to consider alcohol anonymous. Of course a bottle of water is probably 7 bucks and a Coke probably 9 or 10. 

I remember as a high schooler driving to Chicago Stadium quite often to catch a Bulls game. Oh, so cheap to attend and you could buy tickets at the gate like a movie theatre. Hawks games were a little bit more expensive and mostly sold out so it wasn't the same for them.

[FloydBannister1983]

1 hour ago, WBWSF said:

If you offer them the most money, they will listen. I realize that JR isn't going to do that.

But we have evidence of other players taking less money than the White Sox offer so don’t assume just opening the checkbook changes things.

[Sox guy]

It seems like there are 2 camps here: 1 that is furious at our incompetence, and the other who just doesn't care.  Finds it funny, even.

 

I'm in the latter.  I have no problem with a 3rd straight 100L season, with 2026 possibly being 4 in a row. It's funny to see how Chuck and Guillen deal with it, and also the rest of the staff.  Will Shriff become more obnoxious.  Will Steve become more fed up with him.  What kind of giveaways and red herrings will the club do to ease the pain.  Will "Sell the Team" chants return loud and clear.  Do yall remember when we botched a popup against the angels when we had 120 losses so far.  The Sell the Team chants were as loud as the Paulie chants from the good days.  It was epic, loved it.

 

People rag on JR, but let's take a closer look at his ownership. Where have the Sox ranked when it comes to payroll as a percentage of revenue.  Has he really been as cheap as the Pirates owner.  Is the ROI worth it.  Was the albert belle contract worth it.  The White Flag Trade was, it gave us the 2000 div title.  What decisions do you feel were dumb, and which were gold.  I'll list what I feel were asinine by JR, IMO:

 

1)Sportsvision.  Now, hindsight is 20/20, so in a way, I do understand why he thought that renting a clunky box to put on your TV, then paying a monthly fee, was the wave of the future.  It's easy to say he was dumb after the fact, but imagine being in that board room when the presentation was made.  Remember, the 80s were all about being futuristic.  I could see how they were convinced this was a new, cool, slick, hip way to watch sports, and the cash would flow in.  There was so much failed new tech in the 80s, but everyone was addicted to futurism and making life more hi tech by any means, even if we got weird things like the Olympics Triplecast.  But hey, gotta try something.

 

2)Not continuing the 7th inning stretch after Harry left.  Harry doesn't own the song, it started all in Comiskey, why not have Drysdale, Hawk, Nancy or even Honda sing it instead.  Gary Thorne and Wimpy too.  The tradition should have continued rather than have the cubs usurp it as if it was their idea.  It wasn't.

 

3)Ditching the 83 uniforms for the bland crap from 87-90.  How did yall react to that nonsense.  The 83s went perfect with the old park, then all of a sudden, we're a little league team.  He might as well have  renamed us the Wildcats, the new unis were so generic, I was furious at the time.  Its only redemption is its association with Thiggy.  Other than that, crap.

 

4)Hiring Hawk as GM, plus marketing the season around that.  "The Hawk wants you!".  For someone who also rooted for the flubs at the time, marketing this odd old southerner as the face of the franchise did not entice me to make the full switch.  It was kind of cringe tbh.

 

5)Putting the upperdeck at new Comiskey on the literal moon.  He did this to add more suites, do those suites ever even get sold.  Then he lopped off 6 rows from it, which made matters worse.  What a colossal waste of time and funds, mercy.  The cash should have been spent on talent, not lopping off seats you'll eventually need.  Ugh.

 

6)Making New Comisk, "the ballmall", as blue as a tidy bowl cleaner.  Blue is not our color, this was a dumb decision that fans did  not like.  I'll never forget the underwhelming reaction to the new park on opening day.  I was in school, and the teacher put on the game because everyone wanted to see what the new yard looked like.  Then when he did, the reaction was "Oh.  Ok.".  Like a Simpsons ep where a big reveal turns out to be nothing, then Nelson punches who he thinks is to blame.

 

7)Not having the outfield face the Sears Tower, plus redoing both bullpens.  Unwise, imo.

 

So, imo, he needs to reap what he sowed.  The city was there for the taking, the flubs were hopeless, Harry's skills were diminishing, we had the coolest logo in sports, plus a new park with the potential to catapult us to #1.  and instead we stayed at #2.  Despite beating the north to the title, and winning it in a much better way.  We are half as popular as the flubs, which is very hard to admit.  Painful, even.  Bad choices catch up with you.

[The Mighty Mite]

1 hour ago, Sox guy said:

It seems like there are 2 camps here: 1 that is furious at our incompetence, and the other who just doesn't care.  Finds it funny, even.

 

I'm in the latter.  I have no problem with a 3rd straight 100L season, with 2026 possibly being 4 in a row. It's funny to see how Chuck and Guillen deal with it, and also the rest of the staff.  Will Shriff become more obnoxious.  Will Steve become more fed up with him.  What kind of giveaways and red herrings will the club do to ease the pain.  Will "Sell the Team" chants return loud and clear.  Do yall remember when we botched a popup against the angels when we had 120 losses so far.  The Sell the Team chants were as loud as the Paulie chants from the good days.  It was epic, loved it.

 

People rag on JR, but let's take a closer look at his ownership. Where have the Sox ranked when it comes to payroll as a percentage of revenue.  Has he really been as cheap as the Pirates owner.  Is the ROI worth it.  Was the albert belle contract worth it.  The White Flag Trade was, it gave us the 2000 div title.  What decisions do you feel were dumb, and which were gold.  I'll list what I feel were asinine by JR, IMO:

 

1)Sportsvision.  Now, hindsight is 20/20, so in a way, I do understand why he thought that renting a clunky box to put on your TV, then paying a monthly fee, was the wave of the future.  It's easy to say he was dumb after the fact, but imagine being in that board room when the presentation was made.  Remember, the 80s were all about being futuristic.  I could see how they were convinced this was a new, cool, slick, hip way to watch sports, and the cash would flow in.  There was so much failed new tech in the 80s, but everyone was addicted to futurism and making life more hi tech by any means, even if we got weird things like the Olympics Triplecast.  But hey, gotta try something.

 

2)Not continuing the 7th inning stretch after Harry left.  Harry doesn't own the song, it started all in Comiskey, why not have Drysdale, Hawk, Nancy or even Honda sing it instead.  Gary Thorne and Wimpy too.  The tradition should have continued rather than have the cubs usurp it as if it was their idea.  It wasn't.

 

3)Ditching the 83 uniforms for the bland crap from 87-90.  How did yall react to that nonsense.  The 83s went perfect with the old park, then all of a sudden, we're a little league team.  He might as well have  renamed us the Wildcats, the new unis were so generic, I was furious at the time.  Its only redemption is its association with Thiggy.  Other than that, crap.

 

4)Hiring Hawk as GM, plus marketing the season around that.  "The Hawk wants you!".  For someone who also rooted for the flubs at the time, marketing this odd old southerner as the face of the franchise did not entice me to make the full switch.  It was kind of cringe tbh.

 

5)Putting the upperdeck at new Comiskey on the literal moon.  He did this to add more suites, do those suites ever even get sold.  Then he lopped off 6 rows from it, which made matters worse.  What a colossal waste of time and funds, mercy.  The cash should have been spent on talent, not lopping off seats you'll eventually need.  Ugh.

 

6)Making New Comisk, "the ballmall", as blue as a tidy bowl cleaner.  Blue is not our color, this was a dumb decision that fans did  not like.  I'll never forget the underwhelming reaction to the new park on opening day.  I was in school, and the teacher put on the game because everyone wanted to see what the new yard looked like.  Then when he did, the reaction was "Oh.  Ok.".  Like a Simpsons ep where a big reveal turns out to be nothing, then Nelson punches who he thinks is to blame.

 

7)Not having the outfield face the Sears Tower, plus redoing both bullpens.  Unwise, imo.

 

So, imo, he needs to reap what he sowed.  The city was there for the taking, the flubs were hopeless, Harry's skills were diminishing, we had the coolest logo in sports, plus a new park with the potential to catapult us to #1.  and instead we stayed at #2.  Despite beating the north to the title, and winning it in a much better way.  We are half as popular as the flubs, which is very hard to admit.  Painful, even.  Bad choices catch up with you.

Good points but there was a huge turning point when after the Sox owned the city in 1983, the Cubs in 1984 a year after the Elia Rant came out of nowhere and won the division while the Sox floundered in 1984, I truly believe that’s when the area started to become Cub town, the Tribune promoting Wrigley along with Harry Caray and his Cub Fan Bud Man ads helped the cause. I’m not sure what the true numbers are but Cub fans vs. Sox fans in the Metro area has to be at least 66% for Cubs to 33% for the Sox. Wrigley Field being basically a National landmark also is a huge deal as anyone who visits Chicago has to take in game at Wrigley. We have lived in Florida for 32 years and I have made a lot of friends especially on the golf course, I have only met 1 guy who has made it to a Sox game and it was to Comiskey back in 1963. Not one friend while visiting Chicago has been to the new Sox Park. 

I must disagree with you on one point, the lopping off of those 8 (not 6) rows in the upper deck was a great  move along with all the other improvements to Sox Park. My last game before we moved to Florida was the night they clinched the division against Seattle in 1993, last minute we decided to go to the game and being a sellout we managed to get 2 seats in last row 29 of the upper deck, as you mentioned it was like watching a game from the moon, we were afraid to stand up and stayed in our seats the whole game not wanting to walk down and back up those steep 29 rows. We have been back to Chicago around 7 times (not since 2015) and  have seen 4 games at the remodeled version and it is quite a transformation from the original monstrosity and a fine place to see a game. We have made quite a few trips to St. Pete to see the Sox play the Rays.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 15 by The Mighty Mite

[Snopek]

Wrong thread dummy 

Edited July 15 by Snopek

[Lip Man 1]

6 hours ago, Sox guy said:

It seems like there are 2 camps here: 1 that is furious at our incompetence, and the other who just doesn't care.  Finds it funny, even.

 

I'm in the latter.  I have no problem with a 3rd straight 100L season, with 2026 possibly being 4 in a row. It's funny to see how Chuck and Guillen deal with it, and also the rest of the staff.  Will Shriff become more obnoxious.  Will Steve become more fed up with him.  What kind of giveaways and red herrings will the club do to ease the pain.  Will "Sell the Team" chants return loud and clear.  Do yall remember when we botched a popup against the angels when we had 120 losses so far.  The Sell the Team chants were as loud as the Paulie chants from the good days.  It was epic, loved it.

 

People rag on JR, but let's take a closer look at his ownership. Where have the Sox ranked when it comes to payroll as a percentage of revenue.  Has he really been as cheap as the Pirates owner.  Is the ROI worth it.  Was the albert belle contract worth it.  The White Flag Trade was, it gave us the 2000 div title.  What decisions do you feel were dumb, and which were gold.  I'll list what I feel were asinine by JR, IMO:

 

1)Sportsvision.  Now, hindsight is 20/20, so in a way, I do understand why he thought that renting a clunky box to put on your TV, then paying a monthly fee, was the wave of the future.  It's easy to say he was dumb after the fact, but imagine being in that board room when the presentation was made.  Remember, the 80s were all about being futuristic.  I could see how they were convinced this was a new, cool, slick, hip way to watch sports, and the cash would flow in.  There was so much failed new tech in the 80s, but everyone was addicted to futurism and making life more hi tech by any means, even if we got weird things like the Olympics Triplecast.  But hey, gotta try something.

 

2)Not continuing the 7th inning stretch after Harry left.  Harry doesn't own the song, it started all in Comiskey, why not have Drysdale, Hawk, Nancy or even Honda sing it instead.  Gary Thorne and Wimpy too.  The tradition should have continued rather than have the cubs usurp it as if it was their idea.  It wasn't.

 

3)Ditching the 83 uniforms for the bland crap from 87-90.  How did yall react to that nonsense.  The 83s went perfect with the old park, then all of a sudden, we're a little league team.  He might as well have  renamed us the Wildcats, the new unis were so generic, I was furious at the time.  Its only redemption is its association with Thiggy.  Other than that, crap.

 

4)Hiring Hawk as GM, plus marketing the season around that.  "The Hawk wants you!".  For someone who also rooted for the flubs at the time, marketing this odd old southerner as the face of the franchise did not entice me to make the full switch.  It was kind of cringe tbh.

 

5)Putting the upperdeck at new Comiskey on the literal moon.  He did this to add more suites, do those suites ever even get sold.  Then he lopped off 6 rows from it, which made matters worse.  What a colossal waste of time and funds, mercy.  The cash should have been spent on talent, not lopping off seats you'll eventually need.  Ugh.

 

6)Making New Comisk, "the ballmall", as blue as a tidy bowl cleaner.  Blue is not our color, this was a dumb decision that fans did  not like.  I'll never forget the underwhelming reaction to the new park on opening day.  I was in school, and the teacher put on the game because everyone wanted to see what the new yard looked like.  Then when he did, the reaction was "Oh.  Ok.".  Like a Simpsons ep where a big reveal turns out to be nothing, then Nelson punches who he thinks is to blame.

 

7)Not having the outfield face the Sears Tower, plus redoing both bullpens.  Unwise, imo.

 

So, imo, he needs to reap what he sowed.  The city was there for the taking, the flubs were hopeless, Harry's skills were diminishing, we had the coolest logo in sports, plus a new park with the potential to catapult us to #1.  and instead we stayed at #2.  Despite beating the north to the title, and winning it in a much better way.  We are half as popular as the flubs, which is very hard to admit.  Painful, even.  Bad choices catch up with you.

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

“If you want people to come, you can’t give the product away. That’s the way it’s been done everywhere else except Chicago for years. The best organizations, the ones that draw the most people at the gate, don’t go that way. They have limited TV.” --Eddie Einhorn to reporter Bob Logan from the book "Miracle on 35th Street."

 

[southsider2k5]

7 hours ago, Sox guy said:

It seems like there are 2 camps here: 1 that is furious at our incompetence, and the other who just doesn't care.  Finds it funny, even.

 

I'm in the latter.  I have no problem with a 3rd straight 100L season, with 2026 possibly being 4 in a row. It's funny to see how Chuck and Guillen deal with it, and also the rest of the staff.  Will Shriff become more obnoxious.  Will Steve become more fed up with him.  What kind of giveaways and red herrings will the club do to ease the pain.  Will "Sell the Team" chants return loud and clear.  Do yall remember when we botched a popup against the angels when we had 120 losses so far.  The Sell the Team chants were as loud as the Paulie chants from the good days.  It was epic, loved it.

 

People rag on JR, but let's take a closer look at his ownership. Where have the Sox ranked when it comes to payroll as a percentage of revenue.  Has he really been as cheap as the Pirates owner.  Is the ROI worth it.  Was the albert belle contract worth it.  The White Flag Trade was, it gave us the 2000 div title.  What decisions do you feel were dumb, and which were gold.  I'll list what I feel were asinine by JR, IMO:

 

1)Sportsvision.  Now, hindsight is 20/20, so in a way, I do understand why he thought that renting a clunky box to put on your TV, then paying a monthly fee, was the wave of the future.  It's easy to say he was dumb after the fact, but imagine being in that board room when the presentation was made.  Remember, the 80s were all about being futuristic.  I could see how they were convinced this was a new, cool, slick, hip way to watch sports, and the cash would flow in.  There was so much failed new tech in the 80s, but everyone was addicted to futurism and making life more hi tech by any means, even if we got weird things like the Olympics Triplecast.  But hey, gotta try something.

 

2)Not continuing the 7th inning stretch after Harry left.  Harry doesn't own the song, it started all in Comiskey, why not have Drysdale, Hawk, Nancy or even Honda sing it instead.  Gary Thorne and Wimpy too.  The tradition should have continued rather than have the cubs usurp it as if it was their idea.  It wasn't.

 

3)Ditching the 83 uniforms for the bland crap from 87-90.  How did yall react to that nonsense.  The 83s went perfect with the old park, then all of a sudden, we're a little league team.  He might as well have  renamed us the Wildcats, the new unis were so generic, I was furious at the time.  Its only redemption is its association with Thiggy.  Other than that, crap.

 

4)Hiring Hawk as GM, plus marketing the season around that.  "The Hawk wants you!".  For someone who also rooted for the flubs at the time, marketing this odd old southerner as the face of the franchise did not entice me to make the full switch.  It was kind of cringe tbh.

 

5)Putting the upperdeck at new Comiskey on the literal moon.  He did this to add more suites, do those suites ever even get sold.  Then he lopped off 6 rows from it, which made matters worse.  What a colossal waste of time and funds, mercy.  The cash should have been spent on talent, not lopping off seats you'll eventually need.  Ugh.

 

6)Making New Comisk, "the ballmall", as blue as a tidy bowl cleaner.  Blue is not our color, this was a dumb decision that fans did  not like.  I'll never forget the underwhelming reaction to the new park on opening day.  I was in school, and the teacher put on the game because everyone wanted to see what the new yard looked like.  Then when he did, the reaction was "Oh.  Ok.".  Like a Simpsons ep where a big reveal turns out to be nothing, then Nelson punches who he thinks is to blame.

 

7)Not having the outfield face the Sears Tower, plus redoing both bullpens.  Unwise, imo.

 

So, imo, he needs to reap what he sowed.  The city was there for the taking, the flubs were hopeless, Harry's skills were diminishing, we had the coolest logo in sports, plus a new park with the potential to catapult us to #1.  and instead we stayed at #2.  Despite beating the north to the title, and winning it in a much better way.  We are half as popular as the flubs, which is very hard to admit.  Painful, even.  Bad choices catch up with you.

So we aren't supposed to care about the state of the team today, but still be upset from stuff from like 30-40 years ago?  Weird flex.

[2Deep]

I agree with others here that nothing changes until Jerry goes away.

In regards to the young guys, this is a developmental year and there are going to struggle.  The hope is by the start of next year guys like TEEL, QUERO, MEIDROTH, MONTGOMERY, TAYLOR, even Shane Smith ....along with others you will see up in the Majors in august and beyond take some steps and become good MLB players.

That is the only hope I have until Jerry Fucks off.  

[Rowand44]

2 hours ago, 2Deep said:

I agree with others here that nothing changes until Jerry goes away.

In regards to the young guys, this is a developmental year and there are going to struggle.  The hope is by the start of next year guys like TEEL, QUERO, MEIDROTH, MONTGOMERY, TAYLOR, even Shane Smith ....along with others you will see up in the Majors in august and beyond take some steps and become good MLB players.

That is the only hope I have until Jerry Fucks off.  

What does Shane have to do to join the ranks of the all caps?

[caulfield12]

Scott Merkin going with “validation” is probably not the word choices most Sox fans would go with to describe the first half…

 

CHICAGO -- What’s one word to describe the first half of the 2025 White Sox season?

How about … validation. Not exactly what you were thinking? But yes, validation in relation to the progress made by the White Sox rebuild as the organization moves slowly toward a competitive nature.

Finding that progress requires a trip beyond the South Siders’ 32-65 record at the All-Star break, ranking as the second-worst ledger in baseball. The White Sox understand skepticism from the fan base on their way to a third straight 100-loss season, even while they believe strides are being made through a better brand of baseball being played.

“Yeah, it's definitely encouraging, and it validates the vision that we had and the work that's gone into it,” general manager Chris Getz said during a recent interview. “We've got a young group up here with our Major League club. They're playing pretty well.

“Obviously, we've got a way to go still. … We just feel like we're at a really good place to make quality decisions for the future.”

mlb.com

 

[FloydBannister1983]

18 hours ago, Sox guy said:

It seems like there are 2 camps here: 1 that is furious at our incompetence, and the other who just doesn't care.  Finds it funny, even.

 

I'm in the latter.  I have no problem with a 3rd straight 100L season, with 2026 possibly being 4 in a row. It's funny to see how Chuck and Guillen deal with it, and also the rest of the staff.  Will Shriff become more obnoxious.  Will Steve become more fed up with him.  What kind of giveaways and red herrings will the club do to ease the pain.  Will "Sell the Team" chants return loud and clear.  Do yall remember when we botched a popup against the angels when we had 120 losses so far.  The Sell the Team chants were as loud as the Paulie chants from the good days.  It was epic, loved it.

 

People rag on JR, but let's take a closer look at his ownership. Where have the Sox ranked when it comes to payroll as a percentage of revenue.  Has he really been as cheap as the Pirates owner.  Is the ROI worth it.  Was the albert belle contract worth it.  The White Flag Trade was, it gave us the 2000 div title.  What decisions do you feel were dumb, and which were gold.  I'll list what I feel were asinine by JR, IMO:

 

1)Sportsvision.  Now, hindsight is 20/20, so in a way, I do understand why he thought that renting a clunky box to put on your TV, then paying a monthly fee, was the wave of the future.  It's easy to say he was dumb after the fact, but imagine being in that board room when the presentation was made.  Remember, the 80s were all about being futuristic.  I could see how they were convinced this was a new, cool, slick, hip way to watch sports, and the cash would flow in.  There was so much failed new tech in the 80s, but everyone was addicted to futurism and making life more hi tech by any means, even if we got weird things like the Olympics Triplecast.  But hey, gotta try something.

 

2)Not continuing the 7th inning stretch after Harry left.  Harry doesn't own the song, it started all in Comiskey, why not have Drysdale, Hawk, Nancy or even Honda sing it instead.  Gary Thorne and Wimpy too.  The tradition should have continued rather than have the cubs usurp it as if it was their idea.  It wasn't.

 

3)Ditching the 83 uniforms for the bland crap from 87-90.  How did yall react to that nonsense.  The 83s went perfect with the old park, then all of a sudden, we're a little league team.  He might as well have  renamed us the Wildcats, the new unis were so generic, I was furious at the time.  Its only redemption is its association with Thiggy.  Other than that, crap.

 

4)Hiring Hawk as GM, plus marketing the season around that.  "The Hawk wants you!".  For someone who also rooted for the flubs at the time, marketing this odd old southerner as the face of the franchise did not entice me to make the full switch.  It was kind of cringe tbh.

 

5)Putting the upperdeck at new Comiskey on the literal moon.  He did this to add more suites, do those suites ever even get sold.  Then he lopped off 6 rows from it, which made matters worse.  What a colossal waste of time and funds, mercy.  The cash should have been spent on talent, not lopping off seats you'll eventually need.  Ugh.

 

6)Making New Comisk, "the ballmall", as blue as a tidy bowl cleaner.  Blue is not our color, this was a dumb decision that fans did  not like.  I'll never forget the underwhelming reaction to the new park on opening day.  I was in school, and the teacher put on the game because everyone wanted to see what the new yard looked like.  Then when he did, the reaction was "Oh.  Ok.".  Like a Simpsons ep where a big reveal turns out to be nothing, then Nelson punches who he thinks is to blame.

 

7)Not having the outfield face the Sears Tower, plus redoing both bullpens.  Unwise, imo.

 

So, imo, he needs to reap what he sowed.  The city was there for the taking, the flubs were hopeless, Harry's skills were diminishing, we had the coolest logo in sports, plus a new park with the potential to catapult us to #1.  and instead we stayed at #2.  Despite beating the north to the title, and winning it in a much better way.  We are half as popular as the flubs, which is very hard to admit.  Painful, even.  Bad choices catch up with you.

Good post but how did you list Reinsdorf’s flubs and leave 1994 off the list?  That should be at the top.

[greg775]

20 hours ago, The Mighty Mite said:

it is quite a transformation from the original monstrosity and a fine place to see a game. We have made quite a few trips to St. Pete to see the Sox play the Rays.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love the word "monstrosity" in your post here. We go from lovable Comiskey to the blue lagoon. Do a youtube search of people who rate ballplayers and always give Comiskey a horrible grade on their reviews.

[Sox guy]

17 hours ago, southsider2k5 said:

So we aren't supposed to care about the state of the team today, but still be upset from stuff from like 30-40 years ago?  Weird flex.

lol what.  No one's flexing nor saying what you should care about.  Did you even read the post.  It was an assessment of Jerry's ownership.  Maybe he's been terrible, or maybe he made decisions the rest of us would have, so we shouldn't judge.

 

Moon baseball is appealing to some, and it was the late 80s where everyone was obsessed with futuristic stuff.  So maybe everyone else here would also have insisted on stratospheric seats.  Like Trent Resnor said, they bring you closer to God.

6 hours ago, FloydBannister1983 said:

Good post but how did you list Reinsdorf’s flubs and leave 1994 off the list?  That should be at the top.

I don't know enough about JR's impact on the Strike, so I couldn't really comment on that.  

 

Re: the 1984 shift in Chicago culture.  Yes, that definitely was the turning point we haven't recovered from.  It was hard to compete with Ryno, the Deer, Sarge, Bull (thin version), Penguin, Red Baron, Rainbow Trout and Leaping Larry Bowa.  Plus Jody, the king of the wild frontier. I was a huge fan of them back then, but when the playoffs arrived, I was glad SD won, which was the 1st time my allegiance started to shift.  It started a slow burn where the cubs went from great heroes, to a bunch of idiots who deserved nothing but last place.

 

Sadly, pca is the new Ryno.  You can't help but respect the kid, and he'll probably lead them to the title this year.  Gonna be a rough October, yall, buckle up.

[WhiteSox2023]

18 minutes ago, Sox guy said:

lol what.  No one's flexing nor saying what you should care about.  Did you even read the post.  It was an assessment of Jerry's ownership.  Maybe he's been terrible, or maybe he made decisions the rest of us would have, so we shouldn't judge.

 

Moon baseball is appealing to some, and it was the late 80s where everyone was obsessed with futuristic stuff.  So maybe everyone else here would also have insisted on stratospheric seats.  Like Trent Resnor said, they bring you closer to God.

I don't know enough about JR's impact on the Strike, so I couldn't really comment on that.  

 

Re: the 1984 shift in Chicago culture.  Yes, that definitely was the turning point we haven't recovered from.  It was hard to compete with Ryno, the Deer, Sarge, Bull (thin version), Penguin, Red Baron, Rainbow Trout and Leaping Larry Bowa.  Plus Jody, the king of the wild frontier. I was a huge fan of them back then, but when the playoffs arrived, I was glad SD won, which was the 1st time my allegiance started to shift.  It started a slow burn where the cubs went from great heroes, to a bunch of idiots who deserved nothing but last place.

 

Sadly, pca is the new Ryno.  You can't help but respect the kid, and he'll probably lead them to the title this year.  Gonna be a rough October, yall, buckle up.

PCA is at 5.2 bWAR.  Kyle Tucker is at 4.0 bWAR.  Pretty crazy that Tucker was their big acquisition in the offseason and PCA is their true MVP.  Meanwhile, we get to be excited about Getz winning the Fedde trade because Vargas has a 0.9 bWAR.  Putrid.  🤮 

Edited July 16 by WhiteSox2023

[2Deep]

18 hours ago, Rowand44 said:

What does Shane have to do to join the ranks of the all caps?

Lol! I consider him a fringe prospect because I still don't know what we have in him.  

[Kyyle23]

Not really seeing validation of the process at all.  Seeing a lot of the same, veterans getting time they shouldn’t, players called up and aren’t really ready, pitching looks ok sometimes and other times looks just like last season.  Our lone all star is a rule 5 pick who has started to wear down.  Not very validating 

[southsider2k5]

16 minutes ago, Kyyle23 said:

Not really seeing validation of the process at all.  Seeing a lot of the same, veterans getting time they shouldn’t, players called up and aren’t really ready, pitching looks ok sometimes and other times looks just like last season.  Our lone all star is a rule 5 pick who has started to wear down.  Not very validating 

Also really hoping to see some break out MiLB seasons from guys who weren't already super highly thought of, or guys who had been trending down after big expectations.  Definitely not seeing any real darkhorse breakouts to any extent.

[pcq]

 I prefer the younger players but the record is not much better. 

[champagne030]

13 hours ago, caulfield12 said:

Scott Merkin going with “validation” is probably not the word choices most Sox fans would go with to describe the first half…

 

CHICAGO -- What’s one word to describe the first half of the 2025 White Sox season?

How about … validation. Not exactly what you were thinking? But yes, validation in relation to the progress made by the White Sox rebuild as the organization moves slowly toward a competitive nature.

 

 

GFY Merkin.  Validation?  The house is in ashes.....

 

[NO!!MARY!!!]

On 7/15/2025 at 12:40 PM, southsider2k5 said:

So we aren't supposed to care about the state of the team today, but still be upset from stuff from like 30-40 years ago?  Weird flex.

Are you kidding? There are fans still mad at Al Lopez for not starting Billy Pierce in the 1959 World Series. And Bill Veeck for his trades in 1960. 

[NO!!MARY!!!]

10 hours ago, greg775 said:

I love the word "monstrosity" in your post here. We go from lovable Comiskey to the blue lagoon. Do a youtube search of people who rate ballplayers and always give Comiskey a horrible grade on their reviews.

Lovable Comiskey? No, it wasn’t. It was never accorded the reverence given to Wrigley, Fenway and Tiger Stadium. A 1990 Sporting News article trashed it and quoted players who hated the place.