Breaking Down Jerry Reinsdorf's Entire Press Conference From Last Night
I'm going to break down Reinsdorf's presser today like it's the fucking Zapruder film. The video above is an abbreviated version of the presser, and the full version is only available via audio on Spotify.
I'm not going to mince words here at all. Most of the contradictory garbage he spewed during this presser was exactly that - contradictory garbage - but there were also a few times he accidentally told the truth.
Let's start with this quote:
Couldn't agree more. This season has been Hell on the fanbase. Absolute Hell. Not only are the White Sox bad on the field, they're completely detestable off it. Just constant negative press on top of doing nothing but losing.
Truly loathing something I also love so much is a weird feeling, but that's how I feel about the White Sox right now; I loathe them. It honestly bothers me how much I care about something as fucking stupid as a baseball team, but they're all I really give a shit about, yet I detest them.
It ain't fun. An actual abusive relationship.
And anyone who listens to Reinsdorf's entire presser will fully realize that he is 99% of the issue with the White Sox, too. That is if they didn't already know that. He has built his product into a product his entire consumer base is completely disgusted with.
The difference between fans, GM's and literally everyone not named Jerry Reinsdorf is that Jerry Reinsdorf has sole authority to fix abandon what hasn't worked in 15+ years and to try something different.
Next up we got this doozy:
This is actually something parts of the fanbase are split on. I, for one, don't think they spend near enough money, as there's no reason a team in the Chicago market can't push over the lux tax line at least every few years, especially in years where it's apparent you need 1-2 finishing touch pieces and there are A+ free agents available COUGH MACHADO AND HARPER COUGH. They didn't ever do that. Weren't ever close to doing that.
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Other people think that they spend enough, just spend it awfully. In the end, we all agree that Jerry and how he spends/allows his underlings to spend is a HUGE issue and always has been.
Whichever side of the aisle you fall on, this is unacceptable:
Both sides are probably correct to some degree though, so it doesn't even matter. The fact is is that Jerry Reinsdorf utterly refuses to be in on big boys by his own admission when he violated the CBA and said THEY WOULDN'T BE IN ON OHTANI this winter. And yes, that is a clear CBA violation:
I doubt anything at all happens to Jerry, not even a slap on the wrist and nobody on planet earth would have expected Ohtani to leave one mess for another anyways, but to flat out say you WILL NOT attempt at landing the best player in baseball (and one who fits roster needs PERFECTLY) completely contradicts his next quote:
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If Reinsdorf was going to attempt to do "everything in his power" to fix this mess, the very first thing he'd do was call up Ohtani's management team and let them know that he will in no way, shape or form be outbid for his services. Would that be enough to land the cash cow, generational talent? Probably not. 99.99% chance it wouldn't matter anyways because of the mess they've created.
But similar to Zack Wheeler turning down the Sox offer for a lesser one back in 2019 or w/e it was, nobody on earth would be mad at the Sox if they made Ohtani a sincerely awesome (and highest) offer and he turned it down to play elsewhere.
That's not happening though. They're not even going to THINK about trying to get that MVP and total CASH COW of a player in their lineup in 2024 and in 2025, their rotation. Nope nope nope. Not happening. Absolutely NO FUCKING WAY, Jose! Not under Jerry's watch! Why would you want the best player in the world on your team? That's fucking RIDICULOUS!!!
Continuing on, some more insanity:
Imagine this "would you rather" were presented to every So fan in existence:
WOULD YOU RATHER:
A. Reinsdorf fires everyone and performs a league wide search for qualified candidates that have experience in building winners and looking to hopefully start winning in 2025
OR
B. Reinsdorf hires a guy from within while conducting a grand total of ZERO external interviews in hopes to laughing maniacally compete in 2024 while admitting more qualified individuals would have taken 2024 has a "let's see what we're working with" year before launching the organization to sustained success down the road?
I'd bet 95%+ of the fanbase would go with option A. He doesn't want this to be a long proposition, which is fine, but don't use fans, our angst and our disgust as a reason to not perform any due diligence at all. We want you do do it the RIGHT way, Jerry. Not the same way you've done it for 4+ decades now. We have NO ISSUE being patient so long as we trust the process is correct for once.
We do not think this is the correct process, though. At all. Here's an A+ point by Sox Machine's Jim Margalus:
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It's truly mind boggling to me ~MIND BOGGLING~ how much he contradicted himself in the presser. And yeah…he never made a list at all, like he claimed. No shot:
At this point of the blog, I hope you're thinking to yourself, "None of these quotes from Reinsdorf are adding up at all. He says multiple things that can't be true at the same time." At least that's what you should be thinking, because that's what's correct.
I would like to add an EXTREME disclaimer at this juncture of my diatribe: I feel for Chris Getz. I really do. He is already on a lot of people's shit list, and that's not fair to him. At all. No, nobody thinks the process that led to his promotion was appropriate or even acceptable. But he doesn't deserved to be on a White Sox Twitter crucifix right now, either.
I'm working on getting Getz himself on the show as I write this blog. Been on the horn with the White Sox a little bit this morning. Hopefully we can make it happen soon. Until then, tune into the show:
I'll be updating this blog as more quotes and thoughts trickle out. I hate how mad the White Sox make me. It's really awful