TIME TO APPREHEND REINSDORF AFTER TWO PEOPLE WERE SHOT IN HIS PARK?
Of course, the failed Chicago sports owner would have two fans shot in the outfield Friday night, which forced the end of a postgame concert but continued measurement on when he’ll sell the White Sox
Can we apprehend Jerry Reinsdorf? It’s hardly impossible after reading Major League Baseball’s “Weapon-Free” Workplace Policy. Friday night, after a week in which the owner threatened to move his team to Nashville and fired two failed henchmen, two women were shot during a ballgame at Guaranteed Rate Field.
The commissioner, Rob Manfred, is available for calls from attorneys. He approved this and put it in the overall handbook: “MLB Entities shall prohibit the possession or use of deadly weapons in any facility or venue owned, operated, or controlled by it. A deadly weapon is any instrument or device designed primarily for use in inflicting death or injury to a human or animal or is capable of inflicting death or injury if used in the manner it was designed, including, but not limited to, firearms, explosives, daggers, metal knuckles, switchblade knives, and knives having blades exceeding five inches.”
So, in addition to wondering if Reinsdorf will ship the White Sox elsewhere, can people in Chicago PLEASE STOP ATTENDING whatever he is putting on? Imagine how horrible things could be for a 42-year-old woman in fair condition with a gunshot wound in the leg, who spent the night at University of Chicago Medical Center, and a 26-year-old woman who refused medical attention with an abdomen wound.
Or else, you might lose your life. A baseball game, a postgame farce featuring Vanilla Ice — this is 2023, not 1991 — and anything else Reinsdorf cannot win at? He can’t win at baseball except once in 43 seasons, the only time he ever reached the World Series. He can’t win at basketball without Michael Jordan, as seen the last 25 seasons. He is one of the worst, oldest and long-outdated sports owners in the 21st century. And now, after a car plowed into four fans heading toward the 35th-and-Shields turnstiles in late June, he’s trying to tell us that two folks may have been hit by gunfire from outside the park.
Is that supposed to make us feel even worse about going to a 50-79 pit, that some loon in a faraway building is firing on people in the left-centerfield stands? Section 161, to be exact? Reinsdorf is better off going to another planet after the worst five days of his life, when he actually was more shabby in dismantling the putrid, pathetic Sox from Chicago life than ruining the Jordan dynasty. I don’t know why anyone would stop the largest home-attendance decrease in MLB, even worse than the Oakland Athletics, who are moving to Las Vegas.
If he can’t stop people from entering his stadium after Opening Day 2015, when metal detectors were required to gain entry, Reinsdorf is opening up life for uglier matters. Try explosives, daggers, metal knuckles, switchblade knives and knives having blades exceeding five inches. Bring them all in, Chicago! See if you can survive better than the worst ballclub ever put on non-stop rebuild!
Among other fans who saw shell casings in the stands, Tom Miller thinks three people suffered a wound. He told the media, “It happened just two rows in front of me, and there was no one in front of us. All of a sudden, this lady just starts bleeding from the leg. There were at least two of ‘em in a row that got hit, may be a third, but I know two for sure. And all of a sudden, security was there and they kicked us out.” And brought her to the hospital, if anyone cares.
Um, would the Sox have stopped a game — they lost 12-4 to, um, Oakland — if there were reports of gunfire in the park in the third inning? They should have. They didn’t, saying, the “incident did not involve an altercation of any kind.” But when the game ended, they did see issues and sent Vanilla Ice, Rob Base and Tone Loc home for “technical issues.”
“There was supposed to be a free concert after the game, they came and announced right after the game that it had been canceled. They didn't give any information. Everyone started booing, going crazy, and saying derogatory things," said another fan, Rod Moyers. “Then about five minutes later they put up a note on the screen saying it was canceled due to technical issues. Everyone booed, no one was leaving. Some people said they should storm the field. Then the whole crowd started chanting, ‘Sell the team!’ ’’
Why are you there to begin with, folks? Just stop going, forever. Jerry Reinsdorf should be paying you, and when you find much better use for your money, see how quickly someone else buys the damned ballclub. Until then, do something better to save your life.
###
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.