Lip Man 1

From two individuals I recently spoke with who has professional ties with the Sox: “People, his friends… have tried to tell him what has been going on, “Hawk” Harrelson, the late Ed Farmer… God rest his soul, Darrin Jackson, Scott Reifert (Author’s Note: Scott is the Senior Vice-President for Communications) , Bob Grim and others but it’s just not registering for some reason.” “JR has become oblivious to things and what he’s allowed to happen is sad. He’s probably the most successful owner in Chicago sports history given the Bulls titles and the White Sox one which is dear to his heart, but what has happened the last two years is just sad. He is out-of-touch. And even worse he’s inaccessible. He’s either afraid of having to answer questions or he’s incapable of doing so.”

Correct, Frank was called up when the Sox were in Milwaukee August 1990, although Jeff Torborg told me he wanted him to break camp and start the season with the club but Larry Himes said no.

It is true that JR asked Frank who he'd prefer to have, who was a better player and he said Belle, who did put up some incredible numbers for the Sox. Belle had a clause in his Sox contract that he had to be one of the three highest players in MLB. When others passed him the Sox decided not to increase his salary so he invoked the clause and left. Had a fine year or two with Baltimore before a bad hip forced him to retire. A side not to all this was that Frank took a reduced salary he said so the Sox would have more money for Belle and to resign Ventura. The Sox did neither and that rubbed Thomas raw too.

Don't forget Ventura.

There is something to be said for the Godfather philosophy if you really want a player bad enough, "I'll make him an offer he can't refuse..."

He was a Gold Glove winner at first base as I recall.

Fabulous player but he did have his issues. This is from my interview with Jack McDowell: ML: I’m not trying to place blame here, but the Sox as good as they were, always seemed to be one piece short, whether it was another starter or another big bat to go with Thomas and Ventura. Do you think the organization did everything they could to get to a World Series? JMD: "That’s tough to say. I know that Mark McGwire wanted to come here. He called me three times in about a 10 day period after the 1991 season. He asked me about the other guys in the clubhouse, about the coaching staff and about the city of Chicago. I honestly felt we were going to get him. I called Robin (Ventura) to let him know what was going on and I remember he was excited. He told me “alright...we’re going to kick ass.” The Sox then asked Frank (Thomas) if he’d go to DH full time so that Mark could play first and he said no.”

Since when has the front office opinion ever mattered to JR lately?

From what I've seen Judge is a very capable outfielder. Talk now is the Dodgers may go after him and Betts said he'd move to second base.

They have gone through three trainers in the past few years (Herm, Ball now Kirk) and a few strength and conditioning people (Thomas, Torborg and the new guy). I think the problem is actually deeper than just the person in charge but more of the overall philosophy towards training, conditioning, nutrition, sleep schedules etc. I was given a quote that "The Sox play checkers when other teams are playing chess" in these matters. And remember last fall Hahn announced the Sox were going to conduct a study to try to get a handle on why all the injuries. Those results were never made public so no one knows what that study concluded. Alan Thomas quit or was fired depending on who you talk to because he disagreed with those results. His feeling was all the Sox injuries were directly related to COVID and the limitations that imposed. That may be true however the Sox were dealing with serious injuries at both the major and minor league levels before 2020 as well.

I have never heard anything nor has anyone ever told me anything that indicated Kenny was part of the decision to hire TLR. From what I've heard he was in Hahn's corner on this one.

The only other openings I think are the White Sox and Royals, that's it.

A comment from a source for an upcoming story on the state of the Sox: “I was talking with an agent and they said the next owner of the Sox can’t be a group of investors, it has to be a big company. That’s why Dennis Gilbert, who tried to buy the Dodgers won’t get the Sox, he can’t come up with enough big money investors”

Brooks has always been very up front and generous with his time to me in my dealings with him which has been many. I e-mailed and voiced my frustrations as well, part of his reply was (and this is certainly true) that he doesn't have a say in the baseball side of the operations. Granted there wasn't really much he could say but I suspect he's one of the few folks in the front office who would even take the time to reply.

These two quotes show you how his attitude has changed over the years: “Eddie and I never discussed how to talk to reporters. We’ve just been ourselves. I always though Jack Kennedy was the kind of person I looked up to in that regard. He always gave the media a fair shake and understood you guys have a job to do. Without responsible people willing to divulge some accurate information, it’s hard to do it right. It was a much better approach then Nixon, who figured the media, was his enemy. Doing it Kennedy’s way just makes a lot more sense to me. After all, nobody can buy the kind of advertising Chicago teams get. What other line of work finds newspapers assigning people to follow you around and write about how the business is doing every day? At Balcor, we have to hire a public relations firm to get our names in the paper. When baseball teams get that for free, it makes sense to cooperate.” – Jerry Reinsdorf to Bob Logan. From the book ‘Miracle On 35th Street.’ Pg. 154. Published 1983. “The idea that I must talk to the media in order to know what is going on with our fans or the public is ludicrous. I communicate with fans on an almost daily basis and often hear comments from people on the street and in the ballpark. We have committed a lot of resources to market research each year, whether it is telephone or internet polling, mall intercepts, focus groups or in-park surveys. We believe these surveys are the most impartial way to hear from our fans. I don't think a media interview gives me the same type of insight into what our fans think and feel. Believe me, our fans tell us. They care and they are passionate. I like that about sports. The fact is that I do speak publicly when there is an issue of importance to our fans and to the franchises. I owe that to our fans. But again, I don't really think people want to hear from me or go to the game to see me. I hope not.” – Jerry Reinsdorf quoted on the “official” White Sox web site, www.whitesox.com, August 16, 2004.

Steve Greenberg of the Sun-Times calls it as the Sox cancel Sox fest without providing any substantial reasons; https://chicago.suntimes.com/white-sox/2022/10/22/23418347/white-sox-soxfest-jerry-reinsdorf-rick-hahn-kenny-williams

With this organization (and I use that term loosely) nothing is totally beyond belief.

From DVS's story in the Sun-Times Saturday morning: But he (Guillen) told the Sun-Times that, as of Friday, he wasn’t interviewing for the job, contrary to reports he already had or will next week. https://chicago.suntimes.com/sports-saturday/2022/10/22/23414917/time-is-right-to-look-outside-organization-for-next-white-sox-manager

It is interesting that this news has been published in all the mainstream newspapers on-line but if you go to the Sox "official" web site there isn't one word about it.

One interesting thing to note about TLR's farewell press conference. When Tony was speaking Hahn wasn't in the room, JR was, but not Hahn. he didn't show up until after Tony finished and left.

One of the folks I've been speaking with for a story had this to say about JR: “JR has become oblivious to things and what he’s allowed to happen is sad. He’s probably the most successful owner in Chicago sports history given the Bulls titles and the White Sox one which is dear to his heart, but what has happened the last two years is just sad. He is out-of-touch. And even worse he’s inaccessible. He’s either afraid of having to answer questions or he’s incapable of doing so.”

Guys: We all know the reason why this gutless, inept, dysfunctional, incompetent organization isn't having a fan convention. The last thing they wanted to do was have to answer questions from the fan base as to why this rebuild/contention window has gone right down the toilet.

Why would any Sox player even be considered?... they looked buffoonish in the field.

DVS had a story in the Sun-Times last week where he wrote some of the Sox coaches were told they were free to reach out to other teams.

Jerry Koosman told me the same thing when I interviewed him. He said its easier to win a division because over the course of a 162 game season talent will usually win out but in a short playoff anything can happen, an injury, a bad umpire call, a fluke play, even the weather which could change the pitching rotation. That happens and you could be done.