Lip Man 1

I was just doing some research on Roland Hemond trying to find some historical information and a number of the stories talked about his days with the Sox in the early 1970's and what he did in the early 1980's. The thought hit me and made me so wistful for those days when summers were fun, the Sox were worth supporting and the players they had seemed to give a damn. Not like the absolute s%*#, incompetence, dysfunction and ineptness that permeates all the way from top to bottom in this organization today. It just turns my stomach and makes me ill.

He has two more years to go on his contract, that matters a lot to JR.

Kopech needs to be shut down for the rest of the year to get his mental approach working again. He needs another break like he took in 2020 (of course that may be part of the problem, he costs himself valuable time pitching)

September 3, 1936 - Luke Appling’s then club record 27 game hitting streak ended in Boston courtesy of pitcher Wes Farrell. He’d go 0-2 with two walks in a 3-2 White Sox win. His record would stand until 2004 when Carlos Lee broke it by hitting in 28 straight games. September 3, 1990 - Sox relief pitcher Bobby Thigpen set the Major League mark when he got his 47th save of the season in a win over Kansas City. He’d finish the year with 57 saves which stood as the record until 2008. For the season, he’d also win four games and have an ERA of 1.83… naturally he was named the Fireman of the Year as well as an American League All-Star. September 3, 2022 – He had been one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball for the season and on this night, Dylan Cease turned it up a notch against the Twins. Cease had a no-hitter with two out in the ninth inning at Guaranteed Rate Field before a slider cut too much of the plate to Luis Arraez. Arraez didn’t miss it, driving a solid single into right center field ending the no-hit possibility. Cease would finish with a brilliant one-hitter in the Sox 13-0 win. Cease struck out seven in the game recording his 13th win of the year.

Good column providing new info on JR speaking to certain members of the media: https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/white-sox/ct-chicago-white-sox-jerry-reinsdorf-20230903-7qftzmb7gbavzbilxd6jumti6i-story.html

With not one, but two years to go on his deal there was no way the Sox were firing him even if they lost 120 games.

JR stated the Sox are now going to monitor guys in the off season. Why they weren't doing this before is anybody's guess.

Like Garfien and McGuffey have been saying he needs to go if at all possible. He's another Avi Garcia who admitted to the media that he wasn't in shape when he played for the Sox. He got his money and he basically said "screw it..." There have been to many reports from different people saying this guy is a problem and not all of them could have had an ax to grind.

“With :30 seconds left in their selection time on draft day JR would say things like “You know this college right-handed pitcher has the lowest injury risk.”

September 2, 1918 - In a season ending double header at Detroit, George “Buck” Weaver rapped out eight hits in 10 at bats. The 1918 season ended early because of World War I. The Sox would lose the games, 11-5 and 7-3. He went 5 for 5 in the first game and 3 for 5 in the second. He had two doubles among the eight hits. September 2, 1937 - In a game at Comiskey Park, Sox third baseman Lou “Boze” Berger and outfielder Mike Kreevich led off the Sox half of the first with back-to-back home runs. It was the first time that ever happened in team history. The Sox beat Boston 4-2. September 2, 1995 - Tim Raines had his American League record of 40 consecutive steals snapped when he was thrown out in the third inning. Toronto’s Randy Knorr was the man who threw him out in the Sox 10-4 win.

I've been hearing the front office morale has been pretty bad.

Interesting comments regarding health issues with the Sox: https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/white-sox/ct-chicago-white-sox-chris-getz-pedro-grifol-20230901-udo2va3eobb5xjwrjgysg2tg5u-story.html

This is a really interesting story: https://chicago.suntimes.com/white-sox/2023/9/1/23856073/white-sox-shooting-stray-bullet-history-of-other-ballpark-shootings

Saw a video as well where the 15 thousand fans (on a holiday Friday night LOL) booed the team off the field at the end.

The White Sox have now guaranteed themselves their 8th losing season in the past 11 years...and their 11th losing season in the past 17 years. "Mired in Mediocrity..."

Said some interesting things, sounded better than at his press conference yesterday:

Even if economically and business-wise it makes sense he absolutely will not because he simply doesn't believe any player is worth the type of money it is going to take to land him. Remember this is the guy who told Jordan when he gave him his last contract that he would "regret" handing out this much money. To Michael Jordan...

"But there’s no way anyone listened to his introductory press conference, which included a rare public address by chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, and feels more confident about the team’s future. At least not in the near term." - Jon Greenberg The Athletic.

September 1, 1970 - With the Sox about to end their worst season in franchise history, G.M. Ed Short was fired after nine years on the job. Short would make brilliant off season deals in the mid-1960’s to net the club players like Hoyt Wilhelm, Pete Ward, Ron Hansen, Tommy John, Wilbur Wood and Tommy Agee but starting in 1968 his moves backfired and lost the club players like Agee, Tommy McCraw, Don Buford and Bob Locker without getting anything back of substance in return. Sox owner John Allyn, who bought the team from his brother the year before, also fired field manager Don Gutteridge, scouts and other front office personnel in a massive house cleaning. Short actually began his White Sox career in 1950 when he was hired to serve as publicity director and then later as traveling secretary. September 1, 1998 - Albert Belle hit his 42nd home run of the season in Baltimore. In the same game he got his 337th total base of the season. Both milestones set the franchise record in their respective categories in the Sox 9-5 win. Belle ended the year with 49 home runs, 152 RBI’s, a .328 batting average, 42 doubles, 200 hits and 399 total bases. Later he’d say, with some truth, that he had a better year than the much-publicized duo of Mark McGwire and former Sox outfielder Sammy Sosa.

Jim Margalus nails it again: https://soxmachine.com/2023/09/with-chris-getz-white-sox-promise-change-while-staying-the-same/

Summary of podcast comments from around baseball shows. Sox Talk with Garfien and McGuffey: McGuff: “This is a fail-up situation. Part of me is frustrated, part of me is curious because he is a new voice. If you are a Sox fan you either live with it or shop elsewhere. (meaning find a new team)” Gar: “They didn’t do a massive search; it was a wasted opportunity.” McGuff: “I agree. Why wouldn’t you want to talk to other people… to get a better idea of your team? It was malpractice not to do this to take the opportunity to examine themselves.” “A big problem was the message was different from the minor leagues to the major leagues.” Gar: “I can promise you Getz will not be Kenny/Rick version 2.0.” “He was facing an uphill battle because of the dysfunction between Kenny and Rick,” “It wasn’t Chris’ fault guys were rushed to the big leagues.” McGuff: “The comment in the press release about wanting one voice was very important. That came from JR. He was tired of different people telling him different things.” “Getz wants more voices in the discussion but he also wants them to line up with his vision.” “Getz can relate to people; he played in the big leagues and that matters.” Gar: “Getz sees the problems with this roster, I’ve had conversations with him. He knows what needs to change.” McGuff: “The question is will he have the ability to tell JR, ‘we need to eat x amount of dollars and get rid of some guys. You can’t show up at spring training with the same guys on this roster, you just can’t.” “You have got to move on from some of these players.” Gar: “You have to eat Moncada’s money. I can’t watch him anymore. Sign a guy for a million dollars to play third base, he won’t have as much potential but if he’s a good clubhouse guy it will be better.” McGuff: “Next year is a bridge year to 2025, they aren’t going to win next year.” “There’s a strong likelihood that some of these guys will be gone under Getz but would still be around under Kenny/Hahn.” Gar: “He knows how to make a good team. He’s an excellent communicator. There’s talent at Birmingham and maybe some of these guys will turn into good players.” McGuff: “You need a strong Major League coaching staff and the Sox don’t have it right now.” “If they start next year 7-21 again in April changes need to be made right then.” “Salvy Perez will be the Sox opening day catcher next year.” “The Sox need to end this Royals connection.” “Fans don’t trust this organization.” Gar: “Chris was not put in a position to succeed but her has some big decisions to make now.” McGuff: “Chris needs to explain why things will be different and he knows it.” “Moncada and Jiminez can’t be back next year they have got to go.” Foul Territory with A.J. Pierzynski “I know Chris, I played with him, He’s a good guy.” “But they don’t have one player they developed from rookie ball right on up in seven years he’s been in charge of the minor leagues.” “I played with Omar Vizquel; I know Wes Helms. Those were awful and Getz knew about it but nothing happened until public outcry.” “They didn’t talk to anybody; Rizzo wasn’t coming and that’s on JR.” “I never heard any other organization say, ‘we need to get Getz for our organization.” “This is typical JR, a comfortable hire.” “Getz went to JR concerning issues with Kenny Williams Junior and JR took care of it.” “I need to see kids develop in the minor leagues.” “On these decisions there’s Jerry and Jerry.” “JR only listens to Tony LaRussa and Jim Thome.” “I watch every White Sox game; I want them to do well.” Adam Jones was part of the discussion and he said this: “It’s a s%*# show over there. He’s got an uphill battle.” Tom Verducci then joined the show: “I don’t love the scenario, why not give yourself a chance to see if there’s others out there. There was no hurry, this could have waited till the end of the year.” “No one has developed. I don’t see players getter better.” “I wasn’t high on this team unlike others. They were to right-handed, hit to many ground balls and chased to many bad pitches.” “Something needs to change.”

‘‘I’ve been reading that I’ve been threatening to move to Nashville,’’ he said. ‘‘That article didn’t come from me. But it’s obvious if we have six years left [on the lease], we’ve got to decide what the future is going to be. But I never threatened to move out. We haven’t even begun to have discussions with the [Illinois] Sports [Facilities] Authority, which we’ll have to do soon.’’

‘Friends of mine have said: ‘Why don’t you sell? Why don’t you get out?’ ’’ Reinsdorf said. ‘‘My answer has always been: ‘I like what I’m doing, as bad as it is, and what else would I do? I’m a boring guy. I don’t play golf. I don’t play bridge. And I want to make it better before I go.’ ’’

https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/white-sox/ct-chicago-white-sox-chris-getz-jerry-reinsdorf-20230831-2ix2s26w6bfgzgxjbn4zbfhpre-story.html

https://chicago.suntimes.com/white-sox/2023/8/31/23854819/breaking-news-white-sox-chairman-jerry-reinsdorf-speaks