IN CHICAGO, A SOX GM BLOWS OFF THE ABUSE OF OMAR VIZQUEL — SO WHAT?

Jerry Reinsdorf says Chris Getz is his new general manager, even if Getz eluded the horrid topic of Vizquel’s humiliation of an autistic batboy in Birmingham while Northwestern hates the toxic culture

     They ask often why I left Chicago and handed back a guaranteed $1 million to a newspaper, which was a great deal for me then, a much better deal ever since. Today is such a lovely day. In that city, mourning why Northwestern’s football team is filled with awful hazing allegations doesn’t come close to the character the White Sox are about to hire as general manager.

     Not four years ago, Chris Getz knew about horrendous hazing within the program in Class AA Birmingham as the Sox’s director of player development. He decided not to inform the public about it — ever. Never mind that on Aug. 22, 2019, an autistic batboy said a first-year manager named Omar Vizquel — viewed as a possible long-term manager in Chicago by Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf — claimed a naked Vizquel gave the 23-year-old plaintiff a bar of soap and told him to “wash my damn back!”

     Said the complaint, which accused Vizquel of “sexually aggressive behavior” and “at least five occasions” where he “deliberately exposed his erect or partially erect penis” to the batboy: “Humiliated, intimidated and frightened of what would happen if he disobeyed, (the batboy) complied with Vizquel's demand. As he washed Vizquel's back, Vizquel's hands were in front of his body near the level of his waist." When the back-washing lasted a minute, the lawsuit said, “Vizquel's penis was fully erect. He made no effort to hide his erection ... rather, he proudly displayed it.”

     Once I wrote this in yesterday’s column, I assumed Getz would be downgraded because a team wouldn’t want a hazing asphyxiator in a town where Northwestern deals with horrid ramifications. Not so according to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, the one sportswriter who has Reinsdorf’s whims and reported Wednesday that all internal signs show Getz as “the next general manager.” Who cares, at this point, if he has run a dreadful farm system in recent seasons. The major issue is why Getz refused to do an interview with MLB.com’s Scott Merkin on Nov. 20, 2019, after the decision was made to obviously slaughter Vizquel. At some point, as I did several times with dick-ish people at the Chicago Sun-Times, you make a decision to stay true to yourself and move on. Getz continued with the interview anyway, defended Vizquel and went against an autistic batboy who, two years later, sued the White Sox and Birmingham Barons for violating the Americans With Disabilities Act and sought back pay and damages. They wound up settling, with the White Sox saying the Barons took command, but who was very much in charge of that clubhouse?

     Chris Getz, my friends.

     And he, apparently, is the next general manager of the White Sox.

     “Listen, Omar, ultra-talented player, very good instructor, created a good environment for our players," Getz said that late-autumn day in 2019. "We just felt with where things are at, our player development system, that it was time to go separate ways. But not only for himself, but for the organization as well and we wish Omar well. He was a positive influence while he was here.”

     He wished Omar well.

     He was a positive influence.

     Now, he runs the Chicago White Sox?

     If Nashville doesn’t want them, Rancho Cucamonga might.

     I knew Merkin for a while and did a longtime radio program with his brother, Randy. Scott does not lie. He took Getz’s word. Why oh why did Getz go in that direction? He couldn’t possibly have known it wouldn’t end in court. And when it did, doesn’t he look absurd when Reinsdorf — the dreaded, frightful, 87-year-old owner — suggests to Nightengale that he’s next in Chicago?

     As if inviting Tony La Russa to the park was a decent sign of life’s work — he’s back from cancer treatments but never ready to run a club at 78 — Reinsdorf still hasn’t tried to explain why his purported next GM blew the hazing mess. This was sick stuff, dude, what the autistic batboy said of Vizquel. Getz already was talking Wednesday like a man who had a role, part of why his position in Northwestern’s baseball coaching encounter was a joke. Imagine hiring a man in Evanston who saved Vizquel four years ago? Asked if he could join ex-Kansas City general manager Dayton Moore in a front-office pairing, Getz sounded ready for the big gig.

     “Yes, you hear Dayton’s name out there, but I’m sure you’re going to hear a ton of names that want to be a part of this organization,” Getz told my old paper. “This is a really good organization with a great owner that, all he wants to do is win.”

    Said manager Pedro Grifol, who might get next year back after he was hired by dismissed executive vice president Ken Williams and GM Rick Hahn: “I’ve known Chris for a while. He’s extremely articulate, he’s smart, he’s been around. He’s got experience. Player development really prepares people to do this type of stuff. He’s well-equipped to do what he’s being asked to do. He’s certainly equipped to do what he’s being asked to do by Jerry Reinsdorf right now.”

     Again, nearing 90, Reinsdorf doesn’t know where he is or what he’s doing. If a henchman tells him what’s written here and elsewhere in sports media, when he’s one of those involved in that business, it’s clear he doesn’t care what is said.

     So bring on the man who let Omar Vizquel walk away as a “positive influence.” Seems perfect for the owner who soon might realize he surpassed life expectancy. In less than a week, he has said he might offer the ballclub to Nashville, fire two long-standing superiors and bring in a new GM who loves everything about him. Meanwhile, after telling Sun-Times executive editor Jennifer Kho to watch the obvious hazing conflicts, her coverage ignored it through Wednesday evening. How can she cover Northwestern’s hazing and ignore it if Getz is running the Sox?

     Without Michael Jordan, as Jim O’Donnell pointed out in the suburban Daily Herald, Jerry is 1 for 74 in his seasons beyond. And he got nothing from his rumpled-ass bullshit with me, other than making me a lot more money and sending me to California, where I play tennis in Malibu.

     One million dollars. I wish it had been $10 million.

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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.