SEEING A RENDERING OF JERRY REINSDORF’S NEW STADIUM JUST MAKES US SICK

A newspaper ran images of a South Loop ballpark, built with too much public money, that used groundskeeper Roger Bossard to create a diamond showing dramatic outfield views of the Chicago skyline

     A web page is screaming in horror. The biggest publishing mockery I’ve seen in eons — if not a criminal partnership of the wicked and the ugly — attempts to help the worst single-season owner in American sports history. Jerry Reinsdorf should be allowed to go away forever as the White Sox, looking at 125 losses or more, complete his quarter-century of post-Jordan suffering with two Chicago franchises.

     But the faltering Sun-Times, still helping Reinsdorf at age 88, ran a rendering of his groundskeeper creating a baseball diamond inside the acreage of an empty South Loop field. This is where he would like to build a new stadium with cooperation from a convicted Iraqi-British creep who owns “The 78” — the Related Midwest developer calls it the city’s newest neighborhood, also reported by the Sun-Times — and was imprisoned for two years after trying to assassinate Iraq’s prime minister.

     Jerry wants Nadhmi Shakir Auchi in tandem to save the White Sox. He also thinks Stephen Ross, Related’s founder and owner of the Miami Dolphins, can save an all-time sports farce down the street from where the Chicago Bears want to spend more than $2 billion to help fund their new stadium. I’ve laughed at the Sox idea for months after Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said public money isn’t happening, ignoring Stephen Colbert’s comment: “Every time he appears on stage, I think his first word is gonna be Yabba Dabba Doo!” Then came Friday, when the paper ran photos of Roger Bossard clearing a chunk of “The 78” with dramatic views of downtown from left field to right field.

     It would be a fine place for a good ballclub. Otherwise, near the Chicago River, it’s a fine place for trees, grass and public amusement while the Sox die. Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble could make a nice home.

     The Sox refer to Bossard as The Sodfather. With nothing to do at Guaranteed Rate Field as a few bodies scattered for a weekday game last week — to watch a 31-106 team — he wished to uplift fans who’ve wondered about a bleak future. My first thought: How does Reinsdorf think he has any chance in a stadium quarrel with the Bears, who are on the upswing in a “Hard Knocks” world with quarterback Caleb Williams? My second thought: Why does he think tax increments would work more than three decades after he opened a ballpark that quickly became obsolete in a nationwide stadium movement? And a third thought: Didn’t he erect massive outfield billboards in his current facility — to make money — and prevent external views?

     “Look,” I would say, quoting his blessed politician, Barack Obama. The White Sox have won one championship since throwing a World Series in 1919. Even before this season, they were a maddening joke that doesn’t belong in Chicago, where the Cubs are making a wild-card playoff push and dominate the marketplace. With Chris Getz minus a clue as a 41-year-old general manager, sure to pawn off Garrett Crochet and Luis Robert in the offseason, the mess won’t be fixed for a long time.

     But, hey, here comes a shocking new stadium in five years. In a rare media stop last year, Reinsdorf said, “One of the things I owe the fans is to get better as fast as we can possibly get better. Speed is of the essence. I don’t want this to be a long-term proposition. I would hope — and I expect — that next year is going to be a lot better than this year. How much better? I don’t know.”

     Other than the Washington Generals, who were supposed to lose to the Harlem Globetrotters, no team has lost more than 120 games in a season. It can’t happen in football, basketball, soccer, hockey or another team sport. There is a larger chance of Oprah Winfrey becoming mayor than the Sox finishing 12-13 and falling short of the 1962 New York Mets, who went 40-120. They’re also doomed to have an uglier winning percentage than the 1916 Philadelphia Athletics, who went 36-117 at .235. They have dropped 35 of 39 games in the second half.

     “It’s not going our way right now,” interim manager Grady Sizemore said.

     Anything more to offer?

     “Sometimes you don’t get the hits or they don’t fall in, and you can’t get them when you need them,” he said. “It’s just baseball.”

     Anything else?

     “I told these guys early on, we’re not focused on the record,” Sizemore said. “We’re focused on … one series at a time, and that’s all we can worry about. The record is not anything we can focus on.”

     The record will happen in a blaze of disgust. At which time, the national media — meaning you, Ken Rosenthal and Bob Nightengale, and all other reporters protected by Reinsdorf through time — might focus on the demise of a major-market washout. Meanwhile, my upcoming trip to see Loss No. 121 might not happen on the South Side.

     I’m thinking an excursion to San Diego, where former ace Dylan Cease can finish history’s evil work. Why pay money to Jerry? He deserves nothing, not even a nod from Nadhmi Shakir Auchi.

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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.