Just when you think Major League Baseball is getting smarter, that's its teams' managements are becoming more sophisticated and enlightened, one of them becomes so blissfully boneheaded that you feel you're watching sandlot play and the year is 1899.
The 2007 Chicago White Sox are a case in point. A mere 23 months after being anointed World Series Champions, they're cellar dwellers in the Central Division.
Are they ashamed? Are they contrite and apologetic? Have they learned some excellent lessons from their phenomenal fall from grace?
No, no, no, and no again!
Fluke 111
They dismiss 2007 as a fluke, one of baseball's excellent mysteries, if you listen to the shallow reflections of owner Jerry Reinsdorf.
His fix for this flawed team is to do more of the same.
Instead of retiring boss Ozzie Guillen, Reinsdorf re-signed that genius to a contract through the 2012 season!
General boss Ken Williams made no major trades while 2007, and he'll probably stand pat, with a few exceptions, in filling 2008's roster.
Let me reiterate and improve my predictions:
(1) The Sox will not reach the post-season while the next three seasons.
(2) The Sox will not win an American League Pennant again under the current supervision troika of Reinsdorf, Williams, and Guillen.
(3) The Sox will try to sell charm and nostalgia as the Cubs have done so successfully, as a formula for profiting without winning titles.
What's a White Sox fan to do?
It's unavoidable Reinsdorf doesn't care about fan sentiment, in light of his needless, foolish, and finger-flipping extension of Guillen's contract.
So, let's put the Sox into play. Maybe a suitor, such as the venture group that recently bought the Tribune enterprise and the Cubs, can be attracted to retire Reinsdorf.
Or, maybe a million fans can ante up a few hundred bucks apiece, and that could do the trick.
Let's return Reinsdorf to being a fan. If he can't bear to watch a winner, year after year, that'll be his problem.
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