CHICAGO KEEPS KILLING BASEBALL WHEN THE WORLD SERIES ATTRACTS 15.8 MILLION

One game lured bigger ratings than “Monday Night Football,” with dueling megastars representing the two largest markets — and we shouted about the No. 3 city and why it has won only twice since 1917

     Remember a game contested on a diamond with players, umpires, four bases and a pitch clock? Baseball still sells, akin to the restart of typewriters and rickety shopping malls. The Dodgers represented Los Angeles and lashed the Yankees, who represented New York. The World Series averaged 15.8 million viewers and included one night when Game 3 out-rated “Monday Night Football,” which could launch an NFL investigation.

     Some of us thought the game was dead. Intriguing what happened when two teams from colossal markets ignored competitive taxes and flung gargantuan 2024 payrolls — the Dodgers at $351.7 million and the Yankees at $314.8 million. A second New York team, the Mets, spent $356.2 million and also lost to the Dodgers. Is this coincidental, finding brawny audiences in huge cities to watch a five-game championship, which involved franchises with six players making between $324 million and $700 million?

     Actually, the formula might save what is left of the sport.

     It’s a method that goes against the lifetime philosophy of Jerry Reinsdorf, who never has spent $76 MILLION on a free agent and just lost 121 games in one season. Consider it the definitive reason why he should sell the Chicago White Sox and acknowledge he’s a broken-down loser in an industry run by Guggenheim Baseball Management. If any Sox fan needs an official purpose to jump on the Dan Ryan Expressway, it’s a gross fact that Mark Walter — controlling partner of a group that owns the Dodgers — built a larger firm with more than $335 billion in assets … in Chicago.

     Right there in the Loop, currently at 227 West Monroe Street, starting in 1999.

     Wouldn’t a man who grew up in Iowa think about buying the Sox or Cubs first? Much like Mark Cuban, who wrote me between innings of a Wrigley Field game and had beers with other right-field fans, Walter would have been told to buzz off. Reinsdorf controlled not only the South Side but had sway on the North Side, where Tom Ricketts won the purchase and pulled off a championship with Theo Epstein — but hasn’t done much in recent years. He spends accordingly, such as ninth in the majors this season when he ranks third in revenue at $506 million, per Statista. Why would Reinsdorf want an owner truly seeking Shohei Ohtani across town? He prefers a city mate who won’t win another banner, like himself.

     So Chicago — and Reinsdorf — continue to murder baseball. His chokehold began in the early 1990s, when he set back the game permanently with anti-labor chaos and forced a cancellation of the Series. It continued with an obsolete ballpark while other cities were developing new stadia. It grew ugly when fans suffered through lengthy rebuilds and dealt with hopeless losing. Finally, after the painful Tony La Russa fiasco, Guaranteed Rate Field became the home of the worst single-season team in American sports history. When commissioner Rob Manfred spoke about Reinsdorf’s threat to sell the Sox to a Nashville group, he didn’t describe Chicago as a shining light.

     “Look, uh, Chicago is an anchor city for us. Um, you know, I think that the White Sox are in a difficult situation,” Manfred said. “I think the location of the stadium is tough. But I have confidence that things are going to work out in Chicago.”

     An anchor? As in, according to my web dictionary, a heavy object attached to a rope? As in, mooring a vessel to the sea bottom?

     For people to pay attention, superstars must be purchased by multi-billionaires who ache to spend gold bars and win every season. America isn’t interested in the Arizona Diamondbacks squeezing into the Series. The three bicoastal beasts are committed: Dodgers, Yankees and Mets, all in the offseason hunt for Juan Soto. Philadelphia and Texas are serious, meaning four of the nation’s top five cities are real. So is Atlanta. So is San Diego, despite lowering a whopping payroll and delivering a fierce rivalry with the Dodgers. Anyone else?

     Chicago? Never again?

     Put it this way: Songs used to be written about the town, such as Frank Sinatra in 1957 and ZZ Top in 1973 and “The Super Bowl Shuffle” in 1985. The Dodgers of Mark Walter have won two Series in five years when the Sox and Cubs have won two since 1917. Before long, Chicago will lose its No. 3 market status according to TV viewers, shrinking to 3.6 million units while growing Dallas-Fort Worth has 3.2. This is the time for Reinsdorf to sell, though 15 years ago was the better time.

     At some point, an owner such as Hal Steinbrenner might sell the Yankees. “Payrolls at the levels we’re at right now are simply not sustainable for us financially,” he said this year. “It wouldn’t be sustainable for the vast majority of ownership (groups), given the luxury tax we have to pay.”

     Then, sell. A city with Chicago’s strength and guile shouldn’t have shoddy owners running teams. Reinsdorf should sell the Sox and join his son in selling the Bulls, with both teams in broadcast jeopardy with the fallen Chicago Sports Network deal. Danny Wirtz might not have the clout to own the Blackhawks. The McCaskeys should simply take $8 billion, after a $6.4 billion valuation, and get out of the stadium business. The Cubs? Ricketts has an average club that should be a perennial contender. Collectively, they are the worst owners in sports.

     How fun to see the Dodgers command a Friday party attended by 250,000 people, followed by another 42,000 at the stadium. Ohtani brought his dog. Clayton Kershaw cried. Kike Hernandez had the mob yelling “f—.” Freddie Freeman kept showing up with a sprained ankle and a broken rib. “The city needed this parade,” said manager Dave Roberts, who danced to an Ice Cube song.

     And Mookie Betts? He tried a LeBron James refrain from back in Miami. “We got two so far,” he said of the Series. “I got to get to at least five or six, right?”

     They keep dreaming in Los Angeles. They try to dream in New York. There are hopes in a few other cities.

     Chicago? One city — and one 88-year-old man — keep trashing the sport.

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     Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.