THE FCC CHAIR IS TRUMPIAN AND THE ISHBIAS WANT DEALS — AND WHERE IS JERRY?
Strange to see Reinsdorf rebuffing young multi-billionaires who want to own the White Sox, while meeting with FCC chairman Brendan Carr for TV favors when Barack Obama always has loved the franchise
Barack Obama is given a choice: his wife or the Chicago White Sox. Lately, if the tales are true on gossip pages, Michelle would lose to a 3-10 ballclub. Remember when he emailed Jerry Reinsdorf and offered his pitching services? Most mornings, he’d wear the team’s black-and-white cap to the health spa.
“A few people asked me how much I pay him,” the owner said.
But in 2012, Reinsdorf donated $2,500 to Republican John McCain and offered nothing to Obama. Which might explain a Thursday office photo he took with Brendan Carr, chair of the Federal Communications Commission — a President Trump appointee. This is the whim of an 89-year-old desperado who needs a massive governmental favor for his weak and flimsy broadcaster, the Chicago Sports Network. If Carr helped president Randy Levine of the New York Yankees gain a workable extension between the YES Network and Comcast, why can’t he help Reinsdorf with the same chore?
Well, the YES Network is formidable and CHSN is a joke. Still, there they were, in front of the American flag, posing as Carr smiled and Reinsdorf looked a bit old for the moment. He did wear a nice suit and tie. It’s hard to believe Carr would bend for the Sox, Bulls and Blackhawks when they’ve lost huge audience chunks while the Yankees are the Yankees.
Witness the discouragement of a man whose baseball team is worth just $2.15 billion. This should end the local nonsense that he’s wonderful as a businessman when the Sox have been stagnant for years. They are worth less than the Hawks, which should thrill Reinsdorf to see the Ishbia brothers — Justin and Mat, worth a combined $15.5 billion — offering to take over a franchise that lost 121 games last season.
Yet as MLB team valuations were reported Friday by CNBC — which listed the Ishbias with Reinsdorf among three owners, adding 2025 as a new ownership date — guess who was knocking down Justin as the next possible lead owner? Of course, that person was Reinsdorf. His camp used one of his favorite reporters, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, to write he “has zero interest in selling as long as he remains in good health” and that he “has rebuffed all of minority investor Justin Ishbia’s requests to purchase controlling interest of the team.”
What Reinsdorf does day after day, as he nears 90, probably makes no sense to those a generation or two younger. Is he here or there or anywhere? Shooing away the Ishbias makes no sense. Sometime soon, commissioner Rob Manfred must seek mighty multi-billionaires who want to own the Sox and other management-marred franchises: the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Tampa Bay Rays, the Athletics (don’t mention Sacramento), the Los Angeles Angels and the Miami Marlins. Otherwise, who knows if six of 30 teams will be retracted when the collective bargaining agreement expires after next season?
The Ishbias are necessary to rescue the Sox. They would help build a new stadium, which Reinsdorf won’t do. They would find better ways to broadcast games instead of buying into the failure of regional networks. And Carr? Why bother?
“Appreciated the chance to visit with Chicago White Sox and Chicago Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf today,” Carr wrote on social media. “Enjoyed the discussion!”
Never, ever should Justin Ishbia go away because Reinsdorf says so. Aren’t we all sick of Jerry telling us where to go? His team needs salvation and fans and victories.
He should leave. The Ishbias should take over. And then?
Maybe Obama returns for a game, perhaps with Michelle, or maybe not.
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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.