Matt Spiegel - The White Sox Are A Remarkable Achievement In Suck
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00:00Fascinating like we're watching history here
00:0367 games under
00:05500 how the hell do we get to this point with the Chicago White Sox you guys are watching something historic right now, Matt
00:12Good morning. Yeah. Good morning. Bond say good morning. You know, look this
00:17this team is a remarkable achievement and suck just
00:21Incredible like and what they've done to get here is amazing
00:25But first of all going to California is an absolutely exquisite track
00:29I think of it more like Tom Glavine like change-ups change-ups on the outside corner
00:35Just you know, just dancing there and tantalizing the righty power hitters who can do absolutely nothing with it
00:41Okay, so that that I'll defend that track to my dying day
00:45man
00:47Listen the White Sox
00:50decided to
00:51Go backwards as is often the decision in baseball
00:56But they've done it at a terrible time when the draft rules have now
01:00Changed and they're not going to even get a pick higher than number 10 next year, which is hilarious
01:05So I mean the level of dysfunction
01:08From the very top to the absolute bottom in this organization is unlike anything I've ever seen
01:14They're trying to change it systemically by hiring the guy who's been in charge of the farm system
01:21Which has sucked for a long long time
01:24So Chris gets it is somebody who was brought from within and they should have gone outside
01:30Then they brought in some decent people. I like Brian Bannister for the pitching infrastructure
01:35I kind of like Josh Barfield, but that's like two people in the front office who might help
01:40You know reshape things a little meanwhile on the field. It is worse than anything you have ever seen
01:46But think of it this way guys if the Tampa Bay Rays on the field are a product of the health of that
01:53organization for the last 15 years
01:55The Chicago White Sox right now on the field are a product of the dysfunction of this organization
02:01For the last 20 years
02:03It's been an absolute debacle and they deserve to be as bad as they are in every possible way
02:09Have you seen the documentary on Netflix the saint of second chances? Oh
02:14Absolutely, and I Mike Vecch is a is a brilliant man
02:17And I would love the Vecch family to get back in charge of the White Sox somehow some way
02:22Well, the reason why I ask is I didn't know a lot about the White Sox history and other than you know
02:27The Black Sox scandal and eight men out and things like that and and some of the funky uniforms
02:32But watching that that documentary I was looking at myself like, you know
02:35We got the A's here and the way that they've been run over the last 15-20 years
02:40It's like they don't even exist
02:41Even though they were at one time the number one team in the market for a long time
02:46At any point have the White Sox been you know, one of the top
02:51Draws in Chicago when you like Bears and I know there's the Blackhawks and the Cubs and there's a lot going on
02:57But like have they always been third for fiddle?
03:01You know, it's a small and passionate
03:04fanbase a bit of a cult a
03:07Cultish kind of fanbase when they're good they get a ton of play, but they have always had this little brother
03:15Chip on their shoulder with the Cubs that they come by honestly, like we can go all the way back
03:20literally in
03:211865 when Charles Comiskey was allowed to bring his team to Chicago from Minnesota
03:27He was told he couldn't go north of 35th Street because of the other team in town
03:32That's how far back this thing goes. There's a place downtown called the Chicago Athletic Association and guys
03:37Uh, hey guys on that on that board in the 19
03:411900s the first decade of the 1900s
03:44Spaulding. Okay, Wrigley. These are names that that you know, right?
03:49They wouldn't let Charlie Comiskey in so like this little brother thing that the White Sox have had they come by honestly and it exists
03:56Forever. It's a very thin-skinned organization and always has been
04:00But when they're good they get play man, and I love when they're good
04:04I host a show Sunday mornings and as this two-team baseball town, you know, I love when both teams are relevant
04:10I want it to be there
04:11I cover them I cover them like crazy when they're good and when they're bad I cover them when they're bad and at a certain
04:16Point you stop covering them when they're apathetic
04:19Let me answer your question about a moment when they were on top of the world early 80s. Okay
04:251983 they win the division Tony La Russa is the manager Jim Leland is the third base coach Wow Dave
04:32Dave
04:33Dombrowski is
04:35In the front office working for Roland Hemant. Okay. It was a genius in his own, right, right?
04:42And you've got in 1984
04:47Hawk Harrelson was hired as general manager
04:50Because because because Jerry Reinsdorf loved the Hawk Harrelson
04:54There's there's a there's a pattern that goes through here, which is Jerry doing whatever he wants
04:58The White Sox are Jerry's vanity project. Okay, and they always have been so he hires Hawk Harrelson
05:04Hawk Harrelson trades Bobby Bonilla away in 1984. Okay
05:10He fires Tony La Russa who of course takes Jim Leland, you know, Jim Leland gets gone as well
05:16He fires Dave Dombrowski
05:18Dave Dombrowski has since won World Series with the Red Sox and he's gone there twice with the Phillies
05:24He went there with Detroit. He won a World Series with the Florida Marlins
05:28Dave Dombrowski is going to the Hall of Fame Tony La Russa is in the Hall of Fame
05:31Jim Leland is in the Hall of Fame Hawk Harrelson fired all of them as empowered by Jerry Reinsdorf
05:38So look when Jerry brings back Tony La Russa in 2022 trying to write a wrong of what he did in
05:461984 it was a horrible decision based out of vanity again
05:52It's like and Jerry is a good owner in some ways
05:57Maybe the people who work for him. I love him because he's incredibly loyal
06:01but he is loyal to a fault and he is strident and
06:05Fiscally efficient to a fault in a way that has never let the White Sox get over the hump
06:11It's
06:12It's a really sad thing and somebody's gonna write an unbelievable obituary of Jerry Reinsdorf
06:17But maybe it ought to be me Wow
06:18It should be you Matt Spiegel on
06:20Absolute fire here on the morning rolls breaking down the White Sox as they're in town taking down the Giants and the Giants won
06:26The first two games of the series and we can't even celebrate it. We're like the White Sox so bad
06:29What the hell are we celebrating out here, but it's brought up Hawk Harrelson
06:32And of course Matt Spiegel a 670 score in Chicago. You're not talking about Hawk Harrelson to play by play announcer, right?
06:39Yes
06:42Dude that that guy who was a really good ballplayer. He was it he played for Charlie Finley in the Oakland
06:49And and then he went to Boston and played for the Red Sox with Yaz and that team I think in 68
06:55But yeah Hawk ended up working for the White Sox
06:57He went from the play-by-play booth to the general managers office and was terrible as a GM and did everything
07:03I told you about and then went back to play-by-play
07:09That is
07:10Unbelievable. I remember so silly Shasky because my my fiance used to live in Chicago and there was a couple times the first three times
07:16I went out there was nothing but the White Sox in town because I wanted to go to grill me
07:19So I finally I was like, I want to go to Comiskey. Let's go to a White Sox game. There's a White Sox royal game
07:24And it felt like I wasn't even in Chicago at Comiskey Park. It feels like the yard is sterile
07:29So that another Jerry Reinsdorf creation because it feels like you guys are so far away from Chicago. It's not even funny
07:35It was so sterile. There's nothing around there. It's like
07:38Well, it's a whole nother chapter because yeah
07:41It's always been old Comiskey was right there and they ended up building this new Comiskey
07:45Which is now guaranteed rate right across the street
07:48But he got a sweetheart of a deal from the state and there was all kinds of political drama around that
07:55They could have built and should have built
07:5820 blocks closer to downtown in what is now the South Loop where I'm talking to you from I live in the South Loop
08:04I'm basically across the street from Soldier Field. There was nothing here
08:08There was nothing here in 93 and they would have had a businessman
08:12special be easy like a quick bus ride or a quick bike ride from downtown to go to the ballpark and instead he took the
08:18Sweetheart deal and stayed in that neighborhood again out of some mix of loyalty and fiscal efficiency
08:25But it's been a disaster and that stadium it doesn't even face downtown with the skyscrapers
08:31Over the outfield fence because he wanted the we wanted home plate to be as close to home plate in the other ballpark
08:38They had across the street. So he missed a chance to have the skyline in the background
08:42Like it's just they've screwed things up at every turn, but they got a World Series in 2005
08:48They got a World Series in 2005
08:50But even the methodology they used to get that that Kenny Williams did was not about a holistic health of an organization
08:57It was about let me buy and let me try to do it on the cheap
08:59and let me find a way to add at the deadline which Kenny did every single year until they realized that didn't work and they
09:05Failed and we got so many ties to the White Sox like in the Bay Area Kenny Williams Kyle Williams. Yeah with the Niners
09:11we were discussing him earlier today, but we're talking about Aaron Rowan and and Juan Uribe and
09:16AJ Przezinski all these guys from that net that World Series team
09:20I couldn't stand AJ Przezinski, but that's not why I'm asking you
09:23How much are people like making fun content out of the team being this?
09:29Historically bad because this is it's it's it's not even a joke
09:32There is a story there at least the A's like when the A's bottom out every couple years like wow you look up
09:37They got talent. I'm watching the White Sox
09:39I'm like, I don't know how much talent they have on this team if any at all, you know
09:44It's the fun content at the you know about their awfulness
09:50It's kind of been exhausted
09:52Frankly because it's gone on for so long because they were so bad and then they did the rebuild and then they fell apart
09:58With Tony there and like I mean Tony used to sound like Johnny Cash
10:02we had a very funny bit where we would play hurt by Johnny Cash in the background as Tony talked and
10:09People would would love it. Like so we had fun with that, but it was ended up being so damn sad
10:13You know what? I mean? And then there's been so many things hell this year. They've had a great
10:20Concession stand there there where they made a campfire milkshake
10:23It's like a s'mores milkshake and then we had a campaign for the campfire campfire milkshake to represent the White Sox at the all-star
10:30Game, we thought that would be the best and most fitting thing to represent them
10:34I think Eric crochet had a nice first half and he did it instead
10:37So like but people are exhausted by how awful they are and now everything is turned to Caleb Williams, baby. I mean
10:46The Cubs have been
10:48Frustrating and then the Cubs season has been like one big taunting penalty where they like good for two days another bad for the third
10:54Day, you know and the Blackhawks are rebuilding the Bulls have been a debacle and now they're rebuilding but here come the Bears
11:01He's Caleb, baby
11:02Is he I know you got a young phenom on the hockey team, but you see the biggest football
11:06Is he the biggest star since Derrick Rose in the in the city who the dart or Caleb Caleb Caleb. Yeah, did you Caleb?
11:14This this town is in a love affair with a toy when he 21 22
11:19This town is in a love affair with this guy
11:21It's like the way he talks about it the way he thinks the game the way he processes the game is so
11:28Elevated from anything we've experienced and then oh by the way, he's had moments in the first two preseason games where it looks
11:35Unbelievable and not just the Mahomes
11:37Improvisation but the stuff in the pocket it's all of it has looked incredible and you got to understand
11:43This town has never had a 4,000 yard passer. This town has never had a 30 touchdown pass. That's insane
11:50Number one quarterback by quarterback rating with a minimum of 20 starts in the history of the Bears is Mitch Trubisky
11:57Number one 88 quarterback rating of 87. Look it up man. It's like it's outrageous
12:03So yeah, the town is going crazy for him and oh, by the way, the team is real good
12:07And we've got hard knocks feeding right into it. It's yeah
12:10I've taken a win total. It's eight and a half. Maybe it skyrocketed already, but I love the defense
12:15I love the weapons with Caleb. I got the Bears when at least nine games as well
12:18It is a tough division, but that defense man, you guys got a defense out there in Chicago
12:22They play very well down the stretch last season. So Matt, thanks for the time man. I'm sorry about the White Sox, man
12:28That's got to be brutal. You're on fire there. We'll do it again soon
12:31Let's talk bears play the Niners not coming out here to the West Coast later on this season should be fun
12:36It sounds good, and then I got some stories about your boss Matt and a Hagen I'd love to share on the air
12:50Alright one time Maddie went very stressed because he was running sporting news radio as a young man
12:55He was in charge in charge of a massive massive
12:59Undertaking and he was clearly stressed and I went out back to our parking lot where he would sometimes go for a cigarette
13:06Oh, yeah. Yeah, he was having a heater, but he also he also had a dip in his mouth
13:11I don't know whether it was Skoll or Copenhagen and and he had a beer in his hand
13:16So that's getting it done dude was having a cigarette
13:19With a beer and a dip and I was like man you are going every direction you could possibly go right now respect respect
13:28Matt Spiegel nothing has changed
13:31Nothing has changed at all
13:32He's still that same stress cadet walking around here look look look
13:37Oh, we're gonna have to break somebody's just like dude. Just take a laugh. Just chill Matt
13:43Give him a pack of Skoll bandits on me. I'll reimburse absolutely
13:4960-70 to score Chicago afternoons on the score really on fire here, but