The White Sox hadn't officially canceled SoxFest, but the last official update they provided came in early August, when they released a statement saying, "No official plans for SoxFest to announce at the moment, but we are working on plans to celebrate fans this winter."
With a little more than a month to spare, the White Sox sent a "save the date" note for SoxFest weekend, but only to season ticket holders in what the logo up top calls "Winter with the White Sox." Josh relayed the image:
I think it's worth waiting until said "more information" about the programming before having too strong of a reaction.
If you're an optimist, you can say that it's a step in the right direction, especially if White Sox decision-makers -- Chris Getz chiefly, but Pedro Grifol works as well -- are required to answer unfiltered questions from the public. Something like SoxFest is obviously superior, but the White Sox are suffering from a lack of star power and a surplus of personal unpopularity, so maybe it's smarter to tailor their act to a smaller room, absorb the jokes and barbs, and hope that there's some sort of light at the end of the tunnel by September 2024.
PERTINENT: The White Sox need a SoxFest more than fans need a SoxFest
If you're a cynic, then you can consider this a reflection of the White Sox's shrinking sphere, in which they're only looking to appeal to those who are already paying them money. "1,000 True Fans" is a great concept for creators and small businesses -- thank you for your support on Patreon -- but maybe not a major-league team in a major market.
The hope is that the White Sox are giving season-ticket holders a priority lane for being heard by the people who deserve suspicion and scorn from customers, but if it turns out to be a party with Bo Jackson and Ron Kittle, then I don't think you can call it progress. Further bulletins as events warrant.
Speaking of which, Jerry Reinsdorf was in the news. It's not for anything he did recently, but because he doesn't really change, it has all sorts of applications to any business he's conducted since.
Tyler Kepner wrote a story for The Athletic about the lineage of baseball's highest-paid players, and the White Sox had one of them when they signed Albert Belle to a five-year, $55 million contract after the 1996 season.
But it's more accurate to say that Reinsdorf signed Belle, because according to then-assistant GM Dan Evans, nobody else with decision-making power had any say:
The idea was to take Belle from rival Cleveland and pair him with another fearsome slugger, Frank Thomas, in the middle of the White Sox lineup. But Belle, who had been suspended two years earlier for corking his bat in Chicago, was the antithesis of Ohtani: one-dimensional and wildly unpopular. His arrival — engineered by owner Jerry Reinsdorf — startled the White Sox front office.
“It was absolutely bizarre,” said Dan Evans, then Chicago’s assistant general manager. “We never had any conversation about him, in our baseball group, as a potential guy. A lot of our players that day called me and just said, ‘What are you doing? What’s going on?’
“And you can’t ‘bus-throw’ the owner, a man that I really respected. But very honestly, it was shocking. We got a lot of blowback from a lot of people by going to $11 million.”
The abrupt nature of the Belle signing isn't news. It was a major part of the end of the labor war, because Reinsdorf's splurging after years of demanding the hardest possible line against labors struck other owners as severely hypocritical, and the owners agreed to the new CBA shortly afterward.
A Sports Illustrated story from the issue after the signing only says Reinsdorf consulted Frank Thomas before meeting with Belle himself.
After the White Sox went 85-77 last season and finished 14½ games behind the Indians in the American League Central, Reinsdorf made up his mind to give his customers the best team money could buy. But before embarking on his shopping spree, he solicited the advice of Thomas, his resident superstar. "Frank wanted Belle--period," said Reinsdorf. "I said to him, 'How about Barry Bonds? I hear he's available.' And Frank said, 'Oh, no. Albert's better. He's the guy I want.'"
Reinsdorf said he met with Belle for three hours before making the record-breaking offer, and he came away convinced that Belle will behave in his new surroundings.
Jon Pessah's 2015 book "The Game," which builds upon John Helyar's "Lords of the Realm" by carrying it forward a couple more decades, also covers the shock of the Belle signing, and sees it all the way through to the approval of the CBA.
As Thanksgiving approaches, [Bud] Selig realizes it's time to take [Donald] Fehr's deal. He just can't go another season without some form of increased revenue sharing, and Fehr is more than willing to play under the current agreement, which favors the players. So Bud starts calling the hawks, working hard to talk them off the front line. This war has to end, he tells them; there's too much at stake. He gets the biggest pushback from Reinsdorf, who still isn't ready to stand down. But this one time the White Sox owner can't find the right button to push.
The tipping point comes on November 20. Levine is in his office at MLB headquarters when a clerk pops in and tells him Reinsdorf just signed Albert Belle. All contracts are filed with MLB before they're announced, and this one, the clerk tells [Randy] Levine, is the richest in baseball history: $10 million a season for five years, with a $5 million signing bonus. [...]
The kicker: Reinsdorf added a clause ensuring the hard-hitting Belle will remain one of the three highest-paid players for the life of his contract.
The owner who's railed the loudest and longest about curbing player salaries has just broken the bank. Levine rushes into the hall, where he sees [Rob] Manfred, who's just heard the same news. "What the fuck?" says Levine, and both men run back into Levine's office to call Selig.
"Bud, have you heard the news?" Levine asks. Selig has not. Levine fills him in, and there is silence on the other end of the line. "Thank you," Selig says.
Selig is soon on a conference call with the game's owners, and one thing quickly becomes clear. Reinsdorf's stunning decision has broken any remaining resistance to the deal they'd just rejected. Another votge will be held in Chicago in six days. But first, Selig wants to talk to Reinsdorf, who has spent the day telling reporters that he's just trying to win.
"It doesn't mean I like the system," he tells every reporter who reaches him.
And that's what he tells Selig when the two speak later that day. "But Jerry, all you've done is preach about getting spending under control," says Selig, who knows there is little reason to discuss this further. What's done is done, and Reinsdorf has done what every owner in baseball always does: whatever's best for the team.
Reinsdorf has one request for Selig. "Please don't work the owners," he asks. "Let's get to Chicago and have an honest discussion." But it's not long after Reinsdorf walks into the O'Hare Hilton ballroom on Novembert 26 that he realizes Selig has the votes he needs to approve the deal. "I can't believe he fucked me," Reinsdorf mutters, and he's still muttering when the roll call reaches him. "No," he says, but only Cleveland, Kansas City and Oakland join him, and the deal is approved, 26-4.
Reinsdorf's spite drove the deal, but these accounts didn't explicitly say the front office wasn't considered. Kepner's story is worth noting for the color commentary on Reinsdorf's behavior from a White Sox front office member, especially one who put his name to the quote. OK, maybe David Wilder did the same in September, but Evans isn't coming off a prison sentence for crimes committed while working for the organization.
Reinsdorf is still the same guy, as evidenced by his outlandish claim that Chris Getz understands player development better than Roland Hemond and Al Goldis, simply because Getz supposedly does things the way Reinsdorf wants them done. I can imagine Rick Hahn experiencing similar befuddlement and exasperation with Reinsdorf's whims, especially surrounding the failed pursuits of Manny Machado and Bryce Harper. He knows how to reach me if he wants to chat about it.
