“Sports is a business of failure, but the fact that you finish second or third or fourth it doesn’t mean you had a bad year.”
Those were the words of Jerry Reinsdorf, speaking during a rare public appearance at a Global Conference hosted by the Milen Institute and confirming what fans already knew. The bottom line is more important than the box score for the White Sox.
Winning a grand total of three playoff series in 42 years of owning the club proves just that. They have finished second, third, or fourth in the AL Central more times than not. Reinsdorf even doubled down later with the following quote:
“I think the important thing to fans is, while they want to win championships, they want to know that when they get down to the last month of the season, you still have a shot. You’re still playing meaningful games. If you can do that consistently, you’ll make your fans happy.”
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These quotes speak to the awful culture created on the Southside.
George Steinbrenner may have been outspoken and controversial, but it doesn’t take a psychiatrist to figure out his end game. He was all about winning, and it showed with his 11 American League Pennants and seven World Series Championships.
Winning games is secondary for Jerry Reinsorf. When your team is not all about winning, attention to detail gets overlooked, and the on-field product suffers. The White Sox never seem to do things the right way.
This was evident this weekend when Luis Robert Jr was benched for not hustling to first base on Saturday. Robert hit a soft ground ball to the right of the pitcher’s mound and grimaced halfway down the first base line. It was a play that, had he been running full speed, he would have beat.
Pedro Grifol, who is trying to change the clubhouse culture that still has the stink of Tony La Russa on it, promptly benched him for not showing any effort. It is important to note that earlier in the week, he called out unacceptable levels of frustration when his team trailed early in games, which he felt was hampering any efforts to come back in games.
Grifol was trying to send a message and enforce a standard. The only problem was that Robert was trying to play through an injury that nobody knew about. This is not surprising, considering he tried to okay through a wrist injury at the end of last season that affected his swing.
“Last night I ran, I hustled a lot down the line,” Robert told reporters after the game through Billy Russo. “Today my legs were a little tired. My right hamstring was a little tight. Then I decided to play conservative today. That was what happened. I think my mistake was that I didn’t tell anybody. I didn’t tell the manager because I knew if something I said something to him, he probably wouldn’t let me play.”
Playing conservatively was a Tony La Russa staple last season. Bad habits die hard. But Robert taking extra precautions is not the issue. Not communicating it with Pedro Grifol or the bench coach Charlie Montoyo is.
The lack of communication was startling but pulled back the curtain on why the White Sox seem to struggle more with injuries than any other team in baseball.
Had Robert told someone, he could have had his hamstring loosened up before the game by one of the many people whose job is keeping the players healthy.
It would also allow the trainers to evaluate him and ensure it isn’t anything serious before he goes out and plays, potentially turning a sore hamstring into a season-ending injury because he didn’t stretch properly.
To add insult to injury, Robert forgot Monyo’s name during his post-game interview when he was asked about what happened during the play he got benched on.
Not knowing the name of one of your coaches is inexcusable. It’s not Spring Training anymore. We are over 20 games into the season.
Year in and year out, the White Sox always seem to be at the center of some drama, not baseball related. It goes back to the attention to detail or lack thereof in the White Sox organization, whether that be Robert forgetting a coach’s name, Tony La Russa forgetting a rule, or Adam La Roche forgetting that an MLB clubhouse is not a daycare.
