State of Confusion

My daughter was pretty much in a mood fit to be tied when she called on Wednesday.  “What are the White Sox doing?” Clare asked, as if anyone outside of owner Jerry Reinsdorf’s inner circle could possibly know for sure.

“A month ago, there were rumors that Joe Girardi wanted a managing job in Chicago, so some White Sox fans got all excited, but now they sign Ricky Renteria to an extension.  All we hear about with Renteria is how ‘Ricky’s boys don’t quit,’ only there are stories how the Sox are going after both Bryce Harper and Manny Machado.  It doesn’t make sense,” said my eminently sensible child.

It’s a good thing Clare doesn’t go in for dead-tree journalism the way her old man does; then she’d really be ticked.  Sox general manager Rick Hahn said at the general managers’ meeting this week that Renteria signed the extension “a while back” and that, “We don’t tend to advertise these things.”  Yeah, no kidding.  So what if your fan base is left confused.

On the other side of town, Cubs’ President Theo Epstein sounded as if he and Hahn hale from different planets.  “I believe in being honest and giving you guys information when we can,” he told a Tribune reporter.  Now, why would he do that, you might ask?  Well, Epstein has this crazy notion that journalists “have the right to cover any aspect of the organization any way you want.”  That’s not so much a breath of fresh air as it is a level-five tornado of a difference compared to how the Sox front office handles the media.  Lucky us.