Jim O’Donnell: Reinsdorf’s shenanigans dominate the bye week of the Bears
SPORTS FANS ARE SPORTS FANS primarily because they want adrenaline rushes based on the constant craving for shared tribal triumph.
In Chicago, the tribal triumphs are rare. The constant cravings can be endless.
There are four chiefs of the five main local tribes. The charmed council includes: Danny Wirtz, too green to be graded; Tom Ricketts, who at least won a World Series in his first decade of remastering Wrigleyville; and George McCaskey, now enjoying the dawn of Caleb Williams despite new stadium meandering currently on a moonlight drive.
Holding two flanks of the lost brigade is Jerry Reinsdorf. That he has commanded principal headlines this week is evidence of the foundations of futility that underpin big-time sports ops in Our Town.
REINSDORF MAY OR MAY NOT BE selling the White Sox. That's like hearing that the heirs of Dan Ryan may want his expressway name back.
Does it really matter anymore?
Reinsdorf is 88 years old and has made his fortune.
WHEN HE CROSSES THE BRIDGE, Reinsdorf must be noted as a Brooklyn-born tax attorney who banked hundreds of millions of dollars while gratuitously busting up the most theatrical championship dynasty in the history of basketball and producing a historically inept 121-loss Major League Baseball team.
All else is filler.
THE LATEST INELEGANT FOOTNOTE is that his Bulls and White Sox, along with the Blackhawks of Wirtz, are Comcast TV orphans. Apparently the memo that NBC Sports Chicago was going out of business Sept. 30 didn't get proper circulation.
Reinsdorf and junior partner Wirtz look like little rascals who began a homework assignment the night before it was due. This despite the fact that Comcast has reportedly upped its offer to now include three free months of HBO.
The lack of a deal would sting more if any of the three teams carried greater relevance to the mainstream fan in the nation's third-largest television market.
The Bulls are pedestrian. The Blackhawks once again might be closing in on middle class. The White Sox could be headed for Nashville, probably the roughest news in that gatlin' burg since Jelly Roll first entered a recording studio.
THE MOST RUGGED RESIDUAL SO FAR has accrued to reporters assigned to cover the impasse between Reinsdorf and associates vs. Comcast.
For them, the alphabet soup is best described as “term paper writing.” A preferred pursuit would be hanging on a telephone hold with Xfinity to try and get a monthly bill lowered.
With or without three free months of HBO.
CHAIR JER' HAS SAID he experienced acute heartbreak when Walter O'Malley moved Reinsdorf's beloved Dodgers from Ebbets Field to Los Angeles way back in 1957.
Rather than take antacids, he instead has made Chicago sports fans pay and pay and pay.
Toward the profits he's made from their dreams.
All to fulfill their constant craving for shared tribal triumph.
STREET-BEATIN':
With his new status as a minority owner of the Las Vegas Raiders, Tom Brady can no longer publicly question NFL officiating. That's grand standing for the $375M Fox game analyst. Maybe he can bolt the neutered booth and go to work in media relations for Vlad Putin. …
Zach Zaidman to the fractured White Sox broadcast funeral home? Naw — he's too smart. He is set for another season of DePaul men's basketball audio alongside Dave Corzine. …
Ron Darling's work on the American League postseason for Turner once again suggests that he's the most engaging national analyst in the game. His setups just before the odds-defying home runs of Jhonkensy Noel and David Fry late in the Guardians' 7-5 win over the Yankees in Game 3 of the ALCS were terrific. …
Dan McNeil is finishing a book on the Bears. (He'll read another one next season — bada-boom.) Rick Kaempfer's Eckhartz Press will publish in time for the Thanksgiving surge. …
Jeff Fritz — one of the great hands in the annals of Chicago sports talk — reports that Second City Canine Rescue will be holding a “Tailgate for Tails” at Durty Nellie's in Palatine next Sunday. It'll be wrapped around the Bears-Commanders game. Full details are at sccrescue.org. Fritz cut his radio sales teeth long ago on the unforgettable 92.7-FM in Arlington Heights before movin' on up. …
Adam Amin drew another plum assignment for Fox: He'll call Sunday's nooner between the Lions and Vikings next to Greg Olsen. (Undefeated MIN is a teasing and teasable minus-1½.) …
Jim O'Donnell's Sports and Media column appears each week on Sunday and Thursday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com. All communications may be considered for publication.