Attn: Jerry Reinsdorf
Dear Jerry,
Forgive the informality, but since we’ve already had a couple of brief conversations on postgame elevators at the Rate this spring, can we proceed on a first-name basis?
You’re long past the age where you need to take advice from anybody, let alone from a Sun-Times scribbler you probably couldn’t pick out of a police lineup.
But it’s precisely because you’re 90, have your health and can still go to the ballpark that we’re inspired to write this letter.
You don’t need us to tell you, but this is a pretty good time to be Jerry Reinsdorf. You have a young and exciting ballclub, one of the best stories in baseball this season. You hired Chris Getz to be your general manager, and he has done an amazing job bringing your team back from the dead.
These Sox kids scattered all over the diamond — Colson Montgomery and Braden Montgomery, Chase Meidroth and Sam Antonacci, Kyle Teel and Miguel Vargas, Sean Burke and Grant Taylor — they don’t back down to anybody. It has been too long since we’ve seen a team on the South Side play with this kind of fire in their bellies. Gotta remind you of those Brooklyn Dodger “Boys of Summer” teams you watched as a kid.
It’s a beautiful thing. They’ve got drive, they’ve got personality, they’ve got a youthful manager — Will Venable — who seems to know how to bring out the best in them on a nightly basis, they seem to like each other, and in turn are an easy team to like.
And magic? Even the agnostics have to concede that something special is happening with this team. Even when they lose, like Wednesday night, they send people home buzzing .
The Cubs have PCA; you have a whole team cut out of the same cloth as “Hamilton”: young, scrappy and hungry.
From where we’re sitting, there’s only one thing missing: you. This letter is an appeal for you to come out of the shadows. Not for us. For you.
Here’s the thing, Jerry: You’ve already won. You’ve outlived many of your loudest critics, and, at 90, how much attention are you really going to pay to the noise, anyway?
The “Sell the Team” chants, who cares? From where you’re standing, you can see the finish line; let Ishbia worry about the next generation.
Yeah, you’ve taken a pretty good beating over the years, and we’re not going to insult your critics by saying you didn’t give them some material to work with. Three consecutive 100-loss seasons speak for themselves.
But few can question your love for the game, and you can remind them that they’ve been wrong a few times, too, most recently when characterizing Getz as “same old, same old.”
But here’s the thing: 90 years old, and you still have a couple of at-bats left in you. Why not let people see you showing some of that same enthusiasm your team does? Don’t be a rumor anymore, be a presence.
You have one of the best postgame TV shows in sports. Why don’t you go on some night with Chuck and Ozzie and crack wise with them?
Brooke Fletcher is a delight; invite her to your box for one of her in-game interviews. Go on with Len and Darrin on the radio for an inning or two. Better yet, why not venture down to the stands once in a while and sit among the fans; you’d be surprised how many will come with valentines and thank yous. Let the insults fall on deaf ears; you’re having too much fun to care.
Finally, on Friday, it will be 1,031 days since you last sat down with the writers tasked with covering your team. That was a dark week back in July 2023. You had just fired Ken Williams, who was like a son, and Rick Hahn, and there was a shooting at the ballpark. You haven’t done another interview since.
This weekend, we’ll be at the halfway point of the season. No one knows how long these good times last, but we all know the Dark Ages are history. Why not give us an audience and tell us what it feels like to be 90-year-old Jerry Reinsdorf, the oldest owner in the game, still swinging for the fences?
Respectfully,
The Scribbler