Imrem: Cubs are hot news; what about White Sox?
As the Cubs make all sorts of newsy moves, not much is heard from the White Sox.
Maybe that doesn't matter. Maybe publicity has no relation to victories and defeats. Maybe the Sox will win another World Series before the Cubs even get to one.
Still, if any pro sports team in town needed to win a publicity battle, it's the Sox after another of their annual attendance declines.
Yet the Cubs are the team that made the splash by hiring Joe Maddon. Who knows whether the Sox even inquired about him?
Couldn't offend Robin Ventura, could the Sox? Certainly wouldn't pay a manager $25 million over five years, would they?
The Cubs are renovating Wrigley Field. They plan to build a hotel across Clark Street. They have no small plans, and hiring Maddon fits that profile.
Meanwhile, the Sox appear content to mosey along the old-fashioned way.
The Cubs and Blackhawks have newer ownerships. The Sox - along with the Bulls and Bears - have longtime ownerships.
Last week the Cubs fired manager Rick Renteria, who did a good job and is a good guy, to upgrade with Maddon.
Six years ago the Hawks fired head coach Denis Savard, who did a good job and is a great guy, to upgrade with Joel Quenneville.
Coincidence?
Maybe … maybe not.
Nor might it be a coincidence that Tom Ricketts with the Cubs and Rocky Wirtz with the Hawks are the two newest pro sports stewards in town and have a hop to their step.
After Wirtz hired Quenneville the Hawks proceeded to win two Stanley Cups. Now that Ricketts has hired Maddon the Cubs will proceed to … well, we don't know what they'll do because the Cubs are the Cubs until proven otherwise.
(As you might recall, I expect to live forever and still never see the Cubs win a World Series in my lifetime.)
The point is that new ownership has provided the Hawks and Cubs with dynamic leadership, fresh ways to generate revenue and a creative obsession toward building a winner.
Ricketts took over as chairman of the Cubs in 2009 after his family bought the franchise. Rocky Wirtz took over the Hawks in 2007 after his father died.
Meanwhile, the McCaskeys and their ownership of the Bears, and Jerry Reinsdorf's ownership of the Sox and Bulls, go back to the mid- to early 1980s.
New owners vs. old owners is starting to look like computers vs. typewriters, smartphones vs. flip phones, video games vs. Hula Hoops.
The older ownerships have been running in place since the Sox won the World Series in 2005 and the Bears reached the Super Bowl in the 2006 season.
The current Cubs and Hawks are reminiscent of another Chicago group of owners from the past: Believe it or not, the team was the White Sox.
Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn were the dynamic duo of the day when they put together a syndicate to purchase the Sox.
Almost immediately the Sox acquired free agents Carlton Fisk and Greg Luzinski. They were among the first to recognize the future of pay TV. They set out to replace Comiskey Park.
Reinsdorf and Einhorn's first goal their first season was to break an attendance record on Opening Day … and they succeeded.
Again, no small ideas, but how long ago does that seem now?
Today the concern has to be that the Cubs will re-establish their popularity so profoundly that hardly anyone will notice the Sox are still around.
Right now the Cubs and Blackhawks are proactive hurricanes, while the Sox, Bears and Bulls feel more like intermittent showers.
Not much figures to change anytime soon. Reinsdorf doesn't appear ready to retire from the business of sports and the McCaskeys aren't about to sell the Bears.
Makes you think during election week that there should be term limits for sports owners in Chicago.