Happy Anniversary

Well, this one sure snuck up on me. Forty years ago today, AL owners approved the sale of the White Sox from Bill Veeck to a group headed up by Jerry Reinsdorf. That’s one World Series title in the four decades since, in case anyone is wondering. Phil Rosenthal of the Tribune took readers on a stroll down memory lane this morning. Did you know Reinsdorf told Trib columnist David Condon in 1980, “I’ve always looked at the ownership of a baseball franchise as a public trust, maybe even a charitable thing. I’m serious about that . I never did forgive Walter O’Malley for moving the Dodgers from Brooklyn [where Reinsdorf was born and raised] to Los Angeles.” I’m sure I read that quote 40+ years ago and remembered it when Reinsdorf threatened to move the team to Florida in 1988. Maybe he was confused and meant to say owning a ballclub had something to do with the “public trough,” not “public trust.” But I shouldn’t get too mad. It is what it is, as my late sister Betty used to say. Civic Chicago wanted Reinsdorf to have his shiny new mall nearly as much as he did; call it muscle-flexing for all the other cities to see. And, truth be told, I’m not sure there’s a scenario where Comiskey Park survives much beyond 1990, if even that long. Bill Veeck wasn’t the type to ask someone else to build him a stadium, nor was Veeck the type to hang around for long; Veeck owned the Sox only from 1959-61 and again from 1976-1980. Something that’s always bothered me about Veeck is why he didn’t seek out more investors after the 1977 season, the year of the “South Side Hitmen.” The Sox drew close to 1.7 million fans, fifth best out of fourteen AL teams. That should’ve drummed up interest, unless Veeck always planned on being a short-term owner who didn’t want to have to pay off a lot of partners when he sold the team. More than Veeck or Reinsdorf, my two nominees for greatest White Sox owners ever are the Allyn brothers, Arthur and John, together or separately, they owned the Sox from 1961-1975. These were the best of times and mostly not. Both Allyns received offers to sell the team so it could be moved, but they never did. My point? I recently saw a news photo on eBay from 1967 of Arthur Allyn posing in front of a sketch for a proposed sports’ complex on the lakefront. I can’t remember if the caption mentioned who’d be funding it, but I suspect Allyn would’ve wanted some sort of public funding at the least. And he definitely wanted out of 35th and Shields. I also realize that Veeck may have inadvertently added years to Comiskey Park’s existence when he traded away all that young talent—Battery, Callison, Cash, Mincher, Romano—after the 1959 season. Call me a hopeless optimist, but that hitting combined with the pitching coming up through the organization—Horlen, Locker, Peters plus John and Wilhelm from trades—should have been good for a pennant or two by 1965. You think Mayor Richard J. Daley wouldn’t have then been tempted to build his beloved baseball team a perfectly symmetrical, if dreadful, new stadium? Jerry Reinsdorf was the owner who tore down Comiskey Park, but I doubt anyone in his place would’ve done differently. Sometimes you just don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. Happy anniversary.