By location and choice, the White
Sox have always defined themselves as Chicago’s blue-collar team. Ivy and everything nice went north, bruises
and hustle resided south. Go-Go, Winning
Ugly, Big Hurt—this was the language of 35th and Shields.
But I must be stuck in the
past. Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf is 82,
and he wants to win another championship, immediately if not sooner. Maybe a younger owner would stay the course
of a rebuild, but not Reinsdorf. He
wants to speed up the process, jump from year three of the plan, which allows
for another season of losing, straight to contention. Wouldn’t we all, but at the price of Manny
Machado?
The Sox have traded for Yonder
Alonso, Machado’s brother-in-law, and now they’ve signed good friend Jon Jay
(to go with Burr and Hamilton, for any U.S. history buffs out there), both in
an apparent effort to entice the 26-year old to choose the South Side. But Machado suffers from foot-in-mouth
disease, as evidenced by his tone-deaf “Johnny Hustle” remark, along with a
reputation for play more dirty than hard-nosed.
The bigger the contract Machado signs, the more he’ll be expected to
become the face of his new franchise.
Just one of the guys he cannot any longer be, if he ever was.
My hope, and my daughter’s and I
expect a whole bunch of other Sox fans, is that Machado goes elsewhere. Alonso and Jay would constitute no harm, no
foul; both are decent players who can help in the season, if not enough to
reach .500, then at least to come close.
And when the next group of free agents hits the market, Chris Sale
should be among them.
Sale a Pale Hose—call it my
blue-collar dream.
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