Spring Break - Part II

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If ya missed it, check out Part I here yesterday.

Someone made the point that Reinsdorf is betting on the fans with his decision to open the coffers and allow a $120M payroll this season. A huge part of the Sox bottom line comes in the walk-up for home games, a notoriously fickle group of fans who will stay away in droves when the Sox don't make it worth their while. So if they don't come, the ownership group is going to take a hit in 2011.

That's one of the reasons this increased payroll pumps me up on a ton of levels. Obviously the biggest is that, as I mentioned yesterday, this payroll bump allowed the Sox to retain or acquire pretty much all the pieces they need to enter the season looking as good as any Southside squad I can remember.

But equally important to me is that it shows that Reinsdorf hasn't forgotten the hard-learned lesson of the mid-90s to the mid-2000s. Following the strike, Jerry and his ownership group worked retroactively, only spending the money that was justified by to-date revenues. The result was a mid-market payroll playing in the 3rd largest market in America. And as you all know, Chicago is a diehard sports and diehard baseball town. And the Cubs, as much as they were a nice draw, sucked hard for most of that time.

So it was a bit of a travesty that the White Sox didn't have much of a payroll, especially as free agency became a bigger and bigger deal. What was even more frustrating is that the Sox weren't horrible - they were just mediocre enough to make you think that had they had some extra money - and spent it wisely... I'm looking at you Jamie Navarro and Albert Belle - they could have done more than win one ultimately disappointing division title between 1995 and 2005.

Then in the off-season before 2005 a light went on - Jerry allowed Kenny to push the limits of the payroll beyond what was safe, into the territory that w/o winning, ownership receipts would definitely take a hit. But Kenny wasn't going all Jim Hendry on us, using that extra money to make a media-driven splash that ultimately would play havoc with his on-field team.

Instead, Kenny took those extra millions and found all the small pieces that one needs to win a title. AJ, El Duque, Hermanson, Iguchi - pieces that without the Sox would still be in the same realm of pathetic as the Cubs. That's yet another major reason I'm pumped about this off-season's payroll bump - cause Kenny once again used it for those extra pieces that any championship team needs.

Sure he spent on Dunn and Paulie, but those were no media-splash signings, those were backbone producers with as long a history of production as anyone in baseball who fit exactly into a need we have. The rest went to the AJs, Crains, Castros, and Ohmans of the world. Guys you've got to have to survive the 162-game grind and the equally challenging month-long playoffs.

So it's got me pumped to see that Jerry realized one of the simplest rules of business and investing - you've got to spend money to make money. Before Reinsdorf's strategy was to only spend what he knew he could make, then hope for a breakthrough team that would increase attendance and whatnot, and only THEN, with full coffers, up the payroll.

Now Reinsdorf gets that instead he has to have faith in both his General Manager (and Manager) and the fans. Give Kenny the money to get the players for Ozzie, and they'll produce the kind of team that your millions of diehard Sox fans will happily cough up to see. Since 2005, the Sox have sported a very healthy payroll each year and the fans have responded in kind.

It hasn't always been a full house, but it's night and freakin day from the pre-title days, and it's not just because this team won a championship 5 seasons ago. It's because even in the down years, the Sox have spent the money (and spent it wisely) to the point that Sox fans feel good about going out to the park.

Sox pre-season optimism since 2005 hasn't been a product of naivety and ignorance, as our Northside brethren have perfected. Instead it's been because every year the Sox have had a seemingly solid core surrounded by good role players that if things broke their way, could replicate the magic of 2005. In 2006 and 2010, for large parts of the year they did so (both teams were in 1st at the All-Star Break). In 2008, Game 163 was enough to prove us optimists right. And even in 2007 and 2009, the Sox did enough that all hope wasn't lost... even when those seasons flat-lined the future still remained promising.


Does this mean I support everything that Sox management has done since the title? Of course not - I wrote a bunch last year questioning whether the Kenny/Ozzie combo really had done all that much outside of bringing us 2005 (for which we'll be forever grateful). But the ultimate judgment of their administration is still on-going. With the work they did this off-season to build off the ray of hope we got from that June-July run last year, I'm saying the weight of evidence is leaning back their way. I'm once again in an appreciative mood of Kenny/Ozzie and ultimately, Reinsdorf and his ownership group.

So, to show I'm not just talk I've anted up - I bought seven sets of four seats each to various Half-Priced Mondays throughout the year. I'd suggest you do the same - there are 9 on the schedule, covering every month, and they feature some solid match-ups. And tickets aren't cheap these days - so the half price thing really makes a difference - coming in at only $25 for a bleacher seat (good luck finding a solid seat to any other team in this town for that price).

But not only am I more than happy to do so because I love the games and because I'm uber-pumped about the 2011 Sox, but also because I like supporting an ownership group and management team that has shown a willingness to invest in itself and the fans. So check the Sox schedule and carve out a few nights to come on down and throw in your share... and plan on watching a hell of a Sox club while doing so.

Please go here for Part III and here for Part IV, and check in Friday for Part V.

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