Fleeing the White Sox worked ... for a while
But then came the mistake of coming back home
Spending most of May far across the Atlantic Ocean proved some needed White Sox respite, but then came the small problem of having to return to the World of Jerry Reinsdorf — and hence the world of baseball reality.
At first it looked like my absence was a boon for the team, as they actually won more than they lost for a short while, making me optimistic I could demonstrate to Reinsdorf that me being thousands of miles away was the key to turning things around — to the point even he would see that funding a long cruise extension for us would pay off for him in increased Campfire Milkshake sales alone. Unfortunately, the turnaround turned back around rapidly and dramatically, so the worst team in baseball when I left is the worst team in baseball upon my return (not to mention the worst team in baseball for the foreseeable future, but we won’t mention that because it’s too glum).
It was a break, though — among 300 or so fellow passengers on our sail around Spain, almost all Americans, only two even commented on my Sox hat, one a former Chicago suburbanite who had once been a Cubs fan and the other to say he had a house near one of the White Sox owners in Boca Raton (and even he may have been confused, since the Red Sox owner was the most famous Boca Ratonite amongst baseball billionaires).
And there were a few developments in the past month:
- Sox fans show what gentle people they are, as the signs and chants of “sell the team” with a Reinsdorf caricature have not yet evolved to “die, damn it,” even though that’s the only solution to the team’s woes. Of course, it could just be fear of bad karma that negates the upgrade.
- Pedro Grifol finally departed from his constant stream of mindless platitudes and cliches to make the speech most important to his job security, gluing his lips even more strongly to Reinsdorf’s butt by saying he knows Jerry really knows baseball and really wants to win. Grifol apparently didn’t continue on to explain that Reinsdorf at least knows the difference between baseball and Crazy Eights, and what he really, really wants to win are any situations involving the IRS, and all attempts to gouge more and more and more money out of the people of Chicago and Illinois.
- Speaking of said gouging, congrats to the governor and legislature for not doing a Little Jim Thompson capitulation and making it final (at least for now) that the state is not providing any funding for new monuments to themselves for owners of the White Sox and Bears. No congrats to the mayor of Chicago, who not only has yet to turn down the money grabs but actually asked the legislature to toss a few billion into the pot. Of course, maybe he’s not really engaging in stupidity or cupidity, but very cleverly just making it possible to tell the billionaires “See? I tried.” Believe that, and I have a bridge on Michigan Avenue you might be interested in.
- Speaking more of the gouging, it seems there has been no mention of The 78 and the grasping of Reinsdorf (net worth more than $2 billion) and his partners in would-be crime, like Related Companies Chairman Stephen M. Ross (net worth more than $10 billion) and Anglo-Iraqi convicted fraudster and primary owner of the property in question Nadhmi Auchi (net worth also more than $2 billion) in the news on either side of the Atlantic in May. Hard to believe such rapacious folks would give up so easily, so they may just have wandered out of sight to do a little back-room finagling.
- If nothing else advanced in May, at least we’re a month closer to the trade deadline. That makes it time for all White Six players who hope to be able to enjoy the game sometime over the next few years to wander by Chris Getz and stage whisper, “I sure do like New York. Or Los Angeles. Or Atlanta, Or Philadelphia, Or Cleveland. Or Baltimore. Or, maybe Seattle or San Francisco or even Kansas City?”
- Back to hats. Last year, in basically the same countries, I spotted a wide variety of hats with MLB team logos, with the Yankees of course leading the way. There had even been a couple of Sox hats. No Sox this year, in fact nothing but Yankees and Dodgers. There were plenty of baseball-style caps to be seen, especially among our shipmates. But in bad news for MLB, no team ones.