Reinsdorf still making it interesting

The baseball and basketball seasons intersect next week, but this week Jerry Reinsdorf's name is linked to hockey.

What's next for him, football? Soccer? A curling franchise?

Reinsdorf, chairman and part owner of the White Sox and the Bulls, reportedly is linked to the potential purchase of the Phoenix Coyotes.

This in a way should be comforting in Chicago because the implication is that Reinsdorf remains enthusiastically engaged in the business of sports.

That might not thrill Cubs fans. Or some Sox fans who still resent that Reinsdorf threatened to move their team to Florida in the 1980s. Or even some Bulls fans who still think he prematurely dismantled the 1990s dynasty.

But sometimes the current owner you know is preferable to the next owner you don't.

Anyway, the wobbly Bulls are in the playoff race. The Sox are gearing up for Opening Day. The Coyotes might join Reinsdorf's club of clubs.

All systems are go for Reinsdorf, 74, but I have wondered for a few years what would happen if he decided it was time to clean out his lockers.

Reinsdorf's career in sports approaches three full decades. Oh, how the landscape has changed since January 1981.

Other primary local owners when Reinsdorf bought the Sox were George Halas (Bears), Bill Wirtz (Blackhawks) and Bill Wrigley (Cubs). Now, respectively, they're Virginia McCaskey, Rocky Wirtz and Tom Ricketts via the Tribune Company.

The sports world spun, but Reinsdorf didn't spin out.

So, what would happen if Reinsdorf dropped out to embark on a third career or simply to become a full-time shuffleboard player?

As omnipotent as Reinsdorf is, he doesn't own as big a stake in the Sox as George Steinbrenner does in the Yankees or in the Bulls as Jerry Buss does in the Lakers.

The next generation of Steinbrenners and Busses will seamlessly take over the way Rocky Wirtz did the Hawks.

The Bulls and the Sox are different, as in blurrier and maybe messier. Syndicates comprised of dozens of investors own them with Reinsdorf serving as managing partner.

No one I ask seems to know what the line of succession is, or maybe they know but don't want to reveal it to someone as irrelevant as me.

One possibility is Reinsdorf's son Michael - owner of a business that develops and manages sports and entertainment arenas and stadiums - would succeed his father.

But then you hear that isn't as likely as it sounds.

Another possibility is that Reinsdorf would retain stakes in the Sox and the Bulls but surrender power outside the family.

But then you don't hear much about that either.

One more possibility is that Reinsdorf would sell his interest in one of the teams and retain it in the other.

Reinsdorf is a romantic in baseball but not in business. The Bulls provide more profit certainly than the Sox do.

For now, this is a playful mind game because Reinsdorf remains engaged here and maybe eventually in Phoenix.

However, sooner or later the Bulls and/or Sox will have an ownership issue even more pronounced than Chicago's three other major sports franchises had combined.

News out of Phoenix indicates it'll be later than sooner.

mimrem@dailyherald.com