Scott,
I have been closely following the travails of the Tribune Company. I would hate to see the company lose its independence.
The Cubs and Sox certainly had a great series last weekend. It was amusing to hear Ozzie downplay the rivalry. He has relegated what had been one of the highlights of the White Sox season to a secondary status. Amazing what a pennant will do.
Phil Rogers had an excellent column last week about the differences between the respective management groups of the Cubs and White Sox. The Cubs should do whatever it takes to get Mark Grace back into the fold. He is a class act and would probably make an excellent manager.
Involved owner may be Sox's edge over Cubs
Reinsdorf draws on experience, while execs come and go at Wrigley Field
Phil Rogers
On Baseball
May 26, 2006
As Memorial Day approached a year ago, the Cubs and White Sox were on relatively even footing. Oh, the Sox were off to a fast start, and the Cubs were already giving up ground to St. Louis, but over the longer perspective both were being guided by long-standing ownership groups with nothing to brag about.
Using World Series appearances as a measuring stick, none of Major League Baseball's active ownership groups had been as unsuccessful for as long as the two in Chicago. That pain was one of the few things that brought fans of the White Sox and Cubs together.
But now there's only one.
That raises a question: In the end, what made the difference? Why could Jerry Reinsdorf's ownership group succeed with the Sox while Tribune Co. still fails with the Cubs?
"I hate to use the phrase, but the hungry dog runs the fastest," said Jerome Holtzman, the Hall of Fame Chicago baseball writer who now serves as historian for Major League Baseball. "The White Sox certainly haven't been well fed."
Holtzman, eloquently making a case that has been a talk-radio favorite for years, believes the Cubs are not as motivated to put together a championship team because their popularity in the last two decades allows them to fill Wrigley Field even in their down years. The White Sox, he believes, gained a hard edge—from the ownership suite to the clubhouse—because they often felt treated like second-class citizens.
"I don't think it has hurt anyone," Holtzman said. "I've said, and everybody has said, that Chicago is a Cubs town. But it isn't the Cubs town it was before.
"I thought the fact the Sox won last year could be a spur for the Cubs this year. I'm surprised the Cubs haven't responded better."
For only the second time since 1998, the White Sox have a larger total payroll than the Cubs—$102.8 million to $94.4 million, according to USA Today's figures.
Because Sox general manager Ken Williams shrewdly has the Phillies, Yankees and Diamondbacks paying significant portions of some player salaries, the Cubs still expend slightly more on payroll than the Sox.
As recently as 2004, Sammy Sosa's last year in Chicago, Tribune Co. was investing $25 million more in payroll than Reinsdorf's group. The Cubs spent more than twice as much as the Sox in salaries in the years 1999 and 2000, yet it was the White Sox who had the playoff team in 2000.
Over the last decade, the Cubs have spent an average of $69.9 million on payroll, compared with $56.4 million for the White Sox. Given the difference in available resources between Tribune Co. and the collection of businessmen Reinsdorf heads, it is surprising the Cubs haven't outspent the Sox by more.
But an examination of finances tells you only so much. It's clear Reinsdorf and his management team have been better stewards of their resources than the various decision-makers who have overseen Tribune Co.'s baseball branch, the latest being Dennis FitzSimons, Crane Kenney and Andy MacPhail.
Commissioner Bud Selig, who before selling the Milwaukee Brewers was one of only three owners with more tenure than Reinsdorf and Tribune Co., credits Reinsdorf's personal experience as the man in charge for the championship banner on the U.S. Cellular light standard.
"Things don't always work," Selig said. "Everybody makes mistakes in this business. But experience is a great thing to have. … You know how much I value stable ownership. That's one of the reasons. It's pretty hard [to succeed] when you're always changing plans, giving in to every whim."
Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn made some colossal mistakes in the first 10 years after they bought the club from Bill Veeck before the 1981 season. They fired Tony La Russa, hired Hawk Harrelson (as general manager) and angered fans by being pay-television pioneers and threatening a move to Tampa.
They built a strong team in the early 1990s, but baseball's labor wars (with Reinsdorf in a significant role) wiped out its best chance to win a pennant. Through it all, Reinsdorf developed thick skin and a greater commitment for the ways baseball teams always have won—through their farm systems and their pitching.
"Jerry has patience when it's hard to have patience, and I think he has allowed Kenny Williams to do the things Kenny wanted to do," Selig said. "He had patience enough to stay through the ups and downs and everything else. They won because they did have that patience."
Tribune Co. has not had a Reinsdorf—that is, one consistent face responsible for overseeing the operation and enduring criticism in the rough times. With corporate owners, the men in charge are more likely to come and go than with a team owned by individuals or partnerships.
Since purchasing the Cubs from the Wrigley family, Tribune Co. has allowed its baseball operation to be run at different times by the company chairman and his appointed point men.
The list includes John Madigan, Stanton Cook, Don Grenesko, Jim Dowdle and FitzSimons. MacPhail, who had been the GM when the Minnesota Twins won World Series in 1987 and '91, was hired to run the team during the players strike in 1994 and serves as an extension of ownership.
Holtzman believes the Cubs' top management has gone through too many changes, generally because executives have retired.
"Cubs management at the top just has not been too knowledgeable, and when they get to be 65, they're gone," Holtzman said. "They start out not knowing much about baseball, and they're gone by the time they're smart. It's not a good way to run things. For goodness sakes, I'm [almost] 80 and I can still think."
Reinsdorf, who is now 70, was 67 when he made the move that may have made the most difference for the White Sox. He hired Ozzie Guillen to be his manager. That move was made for him by Williams, his GM.
"He has been here for 25 years," Holtzman said of Reinsdorf. "That's a long time."
Williams and Guillen played for the White Sox, and Reinsdorf has had a personal relationship with them for more than two decades. He trusted his firsthand association and instincts in picking leaders for his organization rather than bringing in men who had experienced success elsewhere, like MacPhail and Cubs manager Dusty Baker.
"Reinsdorf knows his people," Holtzman said. "He's pretty loyal to them. Maybe he has a better feel."
Guillen is the perfect example. He was a surprise choice to replace Jerry Manuel but looks like the second coming of Sparky Anderson.
"I didn't know Ozzie Guillen would be such a good manager, but the fact is I always knew what he could do," Holtzman said. "I know him. People who know Ozzie Guillen are not totally surprised by how good a manager he is."
Holtzman wonders why the Cubs haven't put former players in positions of influence.
"Why haven't the Cubs turned to their own people, put their own people in positions of authority?" he asked. "Ex-Cub players are no more stupid than anybody else. It's important that there's a link, a link to the past. It always gives you better judgment."
Holtzman mentions Randy Hundley, Billy Williams and Joe Girardi as former Cubs who could have been brought into prominent positions, either in the dugout or the front office. Mark Grace is another, but he left angry.
Williams, a Hall of Famer who as a coach contributed to Sosa's success, quietly sought the manager's position when the Cubs brought in Don Baylor and Baker. He was bypassed and largely serves only in a ceremonial capacity these days.
"They should have let him try," Holtzman said. "They could have given him a shot. What's the difference between Billy Williams and Kenny Williams?"
Maybe it's as simple as this: One works for a corporation and the other for a fully involved owner with a lifelong passion for baseball.
progers@tribune.com
Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune
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