Jerry Reinsdorf Spoke Publicly Finally, So Let's Break Down His Quotes
Jerry Reinsdorf spoke publicly in what seems like the first time since he had his cameo on "The Last Dance" where he ended the series by saying [paraphrased] that he didn't think Michael Jordan was worth keeping around past 1998, which we'll sorta get to in a moment.
I can't stomach spending an entire hour watching Jerry spit in our faces in the link above, so let's break down the quotes below:
Yes, your competitors are your partners. It's owners vs. players. There's an old trope that goes something like this: "If you can't spot the sucker at the poker table, you're the sucker." Well Jerry Reinsdorf's baseball team has one won a grand total of 3 playoff series in his 42 years of owning the club. Those all came in the same year, 2005. I liken that championship to a moron like me beating Daniel Negreanu in a hand of poker because I flopped trips and river ratted a boat.
Do not fucking talk to me about dumb competitors. On the field, you're one of the worst over your evil reign as owner.
You'd think for a dude worth $2.2B (per a 2 second google search) that Jerry would know basic economics. Ya know, things like "market value" and "supply vs. demand". Even I, the idiotic White Sox blogger who found his way to Barstool, knows the basics of those two things. There's nothing "irrational" about those two things or any other "science". It's fucking basic economics.
This quote insinuates he hates burning money, which is fine, but…
…he should have never signed Jon Jay, Yonder Alonso, Adam Eaton (the 2nd time), Jimmy Rollins, Mat Latos, or any of the million other patchwork bums he brought in, only to DFA them a few months into the season.
All he's doing with this quote is publicly stating he'll never set the market for an A list free agent. Ever. He'll just continue to shop on the bargain bin. This is backed up by Bryce Harper telling Smitty basically to his face that he loved the White Sox, would have gladly played for them, and then stopped hearing from them.
Oh and don't get me started on how he told the rest of his "partners" to fuck off when he signed Albert Belle to a then record breaking deal just to get them to chill the fuck out on the spending, amongst many other things.
He just wants to win, but he's never really done it. This blog is almost solely focused on his White Sox ownership, but Jerry absolutely cares about money. That's why he held the city hostage by threatening to move the White Sox to Tampa in the late 80s until the city agreed to fund his new stadium. That's why he helped spearhead the '94 strike because player salaries were skyrocketing. That's why he wanted nothing to do with Mark Cuban owning a team and that's why he detests that Steve Cohen owns one. That's why he REFUSES to spend top dollar on free agents in the year 2023.
And don't even fucking think of talking about the teams' current payroll.
I'm not gonna reference the Bulls TOO much here, but this is what he told the greatest athlete ever, Michael Jordan. Here's an excerpt from Roland Lazenby's book, "The History of the Chicago Bulls":
“Michael is bitter at Jerry,” a Bulls employee later explained, “because when Jerry agreed to pay him the $30 million, Jerry told Michael that he would regret it. Michael stood in the training room one day the next fall and told all his teammates, ‘You know what really pissed me off? Jerry said, ‘You know what, Michael? I’m gonna live to regret this,'” Lazenby wrote:
Yeah FUCK OFF. Seriously, fuck off. It's ALWAYS about money. I'm sure he wants to win to some degree and so long as they win only on his terms, but I'm POSITIVE he wants to make himself, his partners in the ownership group, and opposing owners $$$ WAY MORE than he wants to win championships. Championships are secondary, tertiary or even worse to him.
I don't know what he thinks people (fans) want, and if he doesn't, I'm here to help him out.
Jerry, ALL WE WANT IS THE WHITE SOX TO WIN FUCKING BASEBALL GAMES. THAT'S IT. THAT'S ALL. IT STARTS AND STOPS THERE. WE DON'T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT ANYTHING OTHER THAN WINNING BASEBALL GAMES. SO SINCE ALL YOU CARE ABOUT IS WINNING, PER YOUR OWN WORDS, AND ALL WE CARE ABOUT IS WINNING, PER OUR WORDS, THEN MAKE DECISIONS THAT LEAD TO WINNING FUCKING BASEBALL GAMES. EVERYONE IS ON THE SAME PAGE HERE
Like ya know… SPENDING MONEY ON THE BEST PLAYERS.
Absolutely HILARIOUS coming from the guy who forced Tony LaRussa down Rick Hahn's throat a year after getting involved in the Machado debacle
I read this as, "Sports is a business of failure. If you finish 2nd or 3rd or 4th, it doesn't mean you had a bad year…so long as the bank accounts reflect that at the end of the year. Winning is secondary." This ties into the quotes below:
A couple years back, former Marlins' exec. David Samson publicly stated Jerry Reinsdorf advised him to "finish 2nd every year.":
What's funny about this is the White Sox immediately reached out to me in completely unprompted fashion and said that quote wasn't true at all and that Samson is a scumbag. I hadn't even commented on it at the time, as I was still a cube rat when it came out and I couldn't get my grubby hands on it to motherfuck Jerry on Twitter until 5pm that day.
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I took the Sox at their word though. Figured there's NO WAY Jerry would say that. At least nobody in their right mind would out loud, even if it's what you're thinking.
I don't believe them anymore though, because Jerry doesn't realize at 87 years young that he's proving Samson's quote true with everything he's saying at this symposium or w/e the fuck this thing he spoke at is. I mean he literally proved Samson true with his quotes in the tweets above. It's sickening.
Those same guys you think are oh-so-dumb are all beating you like a drum on the baseball field.
Idk what any of this means. Good for him for making money. Reinvest it into better baseball teams.
You bought the White Sox for $19MM in 1981. You could sell them for north of a billion in 2023. Let's start there.
It's half joking because this is an issue owners have, just not with gambling….but with beer and food sales. I used to be able to guzzle like 6 beers in a standard baseball game because the games took so long. This year, I've been to one game and finished 2. Games fly by and owners are going to 10000% bitch about food/alc sales and take it out on the players for the next CBA. Guaranteed.
All in all, Jerry Reinsdorf told on himself a LOT in this interview. He basically confirmed all of our suspicions. Great man by all accounts, but Jerry Reinsdorf the owner is absolutely brutal. Get us the fuck out of this nightmare!!!
And buy a shirt: