(670 The Score) Let’s admit and bask in one fact about the White Sox stadium story, which dropped Wednesday night with remarkable detail in the Chicago Sun-Times.
It’s nice.
There hasn’t been this nice of a White Sox story since … um, Lucas Giolito’s no-hitter? Jake Burger’s emergence after two surgeries? The answer is Liam Hendriks’ return from cancer, but that was amid a two-year run of such awful, moribund, deflating developments that it had trouble truly resonating. And then of course he got hurt and has moved on.
This proposed White Sox stadium in the South Loop at the tract of land known as "The 78" is so easy to picture, and the images are incredible. The south branch of the Chicago River as a backdrop, the working train tracks as an incorporated feature. It’s as if our own version of Pittsburgh’s PNC Park and Baltimore’s Camden Yards is suddenly within reach. You can see the water taxis ferrying tourists and downtown workers alike to the ballpark village in your minds’ eye. Kayaks chasing home runs and foul balls. Picnic blankets dotting the grassy shores as far down as 18th Street while 35,000 fans fit perfectly into a state-of-the-art cozy cathedral.
It’s the kind of story you just want to bask in. Let us all soak up the rays of hope for an in-city baseball future that tortured Sox fans deserve. Of course, there are a ton of political pitfalls and myriad financial stoppers that could render this pure fantasy. We know we’re probably in for a long, ugly discourse and a classic leverage battle for funding and power. Yay. One man may have the power to avoid a lot of that, but we’ll get to him later.
For now, think of all the wrongs that could be righted by this plan. The 78 is a perfect, dream-like spot to build upon. It’s one of the last great plots of land within the city’s limits for any development. And in terms of the White Sox?
Well, it’s the near-south locale they should’ve placed themselves in when they began constructing new Comiskey in 1989. At that time, the South Loop neighborhood, where I and so many others now live, was mostly just a concept. East of Michigan Avenue, between Roosevelt and 18th, was mostly barren. You can make yourself crazy imagining the last 30 years of Sox attendance and history if they were a straight-shot 10-minute bike ride from Millennium Park.
But you know what happened. What would eventually become Guaranteed Rate Field was built across from home plate of old Comiskey, and the outfield views don’t even face downtown. It was built so high that seats had to be shaved off of the top, and it was built without the retro-styled nooks and crannies that so many ballparks got in the surrounding years.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a lovely place to bring your family still. The tailgate opportunities and spectacular food and beverage variety are elite. But it was and is a miss, in terms of both maximizing coolness and generating nearby urban growth.
The new place on The 78 could be a futuristic jewel. As the excellent baseball writer Travis Sawchik put it, “The White Sox have a chance to create a new model for a ballpark. The retro era failed fans in one major way (compared to classic/jewel-box era). The first team to create a new model, to bring fans closer to the game, will create a smash hit of a ballpark.”
And in terms of the business model? A true ballpark village, akin to what the Braves have in suburban Atlanta but more closely based on what the Cardinals have in St. Louis, could set up the franchise for economic relevance in decades to come. Imagine the payroll possibilities for the next ownership group, with an attractive, accessible ballpark and a surrounding village of their own creation. That’s what every ownership group dreams of now. The Red Sox took over the surrounding streets to make Fenway more like it. The Cubs have been trying for years to shut down Sheffield and Waveland to expand their already-massive footprint.
This is the power of professional sports at its most fantastical. The emotional resonance for a baseball lover like me is massive; it makes me sit and dream of what a Wrigleyville on the south branch of the Chicago River could do for a storied franchise and desperately depressed fan base.
I wonder if it has that kind of resonance for White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf. I wonder if he perhaps is now grasping just how awful everything has gotten and realizes what an incredible ballpark he could leave behind if he facilitates this project with grace.
Think of the man’s legacy as it stands. Then think of it again, with this new ballpark village completed, whether it’s before or after his family passes ownership on to the next boss. Yes, as soon as a shovel hits the ground, his franchise value jumps enormously. But we’ve all known the family is going to sell. The question has been if it will be before Jerry passes or after.
This is a man who has shown us so many terrible examples of his problematic loyalty to mediocrity and to the bottom line. But it is also a man who cares deeply for the South Side community that he has never left, despite the dalliances. This is a man who adores baseball, and I believe he genuinely wants to leave both the game and the franchise in a better place than when he got here.
This is your chance, Jerry. Don’t make this an ugly public fight. Don’t depend on massive public funding in a moment in which no one has an appetite for it. Get what you can from the city and state, lord knows you’re good at that, but dig deep into every pocket you have and get help from every crony you know to create this White Sox utopia at Roosevelt and Clark.
You’re disliked in this town to a level I wonder if you fully comprehend. But there are better angels to your nature. Does this idea, which appeals so much to so many Chicagoans, appeal to them?
We’ll see.
Matt Spiegel is the co-host of the Parkins & Spiegel Show on 670 The Score from 2-6 p.m. weekdays. Follow him on Twitter @MattSpiegel670.