Eddie
Einhorn, who with Jerry Reinsdorf led the group that bought the White Sox from
Bill Veeck in 1981, has died. The
obituaries say he was a visionary responsible for the explosive growth of
sports, especially college basketball, on television
What
the obituaries leave out is mention of how Einhorn was the farmer, and we were
all the cows, to be milked early and often.
In a 1981 interview, Einhorn considered the possibility of turning the Sox
into “studio baseball.” He didn’t worry
about it, how “if it comes to that, if we only draw 500,000 people a season,
but we make enough off cable so we can compete and put a winning team out there
for the public, well...who cares if the seats aren’t full? It’s not going to happen, but if it does, so
what?”
Hawk
Harrelson, stopped clock that he is, got it right in saying Einhorn was “the
godfather of college basketball on television.
He’s the godfather of March Madness.”
Yes, Eddie Einhorn is the godfather who helped turn sports into content
for which we pay time and again.
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