The Cost of Cheering

What makes the situation so bad with three of Chicago’s sports teams is that to cheer for them means knowing success will entail ownership crowing, “We were right all along,” despite decades evidence to the contrary. How long has it been since George McCaskey said his mother Virginia was “pissed off” over the state of the Bears? Oh, right, nine years ago. What’s changed since then? Two GMs and three coaches, but the Munsters still stink. And fans are still supposed to believe ownership has a clue. Apparently, none of the McCaskeys has ever heard head coach Matt Eberflus at a news conference. Then we have the White Sox, where owner Jerry Reinsdorf said back in August that he didn’t wait to fire GM Rick Hahn so Hahn could have a head start in lining up his next job. Reinsdorf needn’t have rushed—Hahn’s still unemployed, though it would’ve been nice if Reinsdorf had cleaned house before Kenny Williams got it in his head that trading Jake Burger would be a good idea. And now we’re getting a second installment of this weird, Reinsdorfian “compassion” with the Jason Benetti situation. According to team v.p. Brooks Boyer, chief revenue and marketing officer, they let Benetti walk because they love him so. Here’s the sentence Scott Merkin wrote yesterday on the team website: “As Boyer went through numerous talks with Benetti, they realized the move was the next best step and in the best interest of this ‘really great, talented guy.’” Never mind those stories circulating that Reinsdorf didn’t think Benetti was funny. No, everyone in the Sox organization did the next best thing to laying down their lives for Benetti by letting him go. Right. The Bulls? Same as the Sox, same as the Bears. Trust us and ignore the box scores. We know what we’re doing.