MMM S8E4: Fair Weather Fan-Dom

He threw him out of the ballgame. You gotta be braping me. What in the hell are you doing?

What are you doing, Wagner?

You gotta be kidding me. That is so bad, that is absolutely brutal.

That's incredible. That is unbelievable.

All right. Well, that was a cool little opening. I am Jerry Pancake.

I'm Jerry Pancake this week.

Former and current White Sox fan, maybe.

Hi, I'm Josh David Scramble. Very fair weather White Sox fan.

And by the way, call your neighbors, call your friends, call your family.

We have a very special guest in the house for this baseball-themed episode.

I am Count Chrissy Chocula. And that was the greatest intro ever.

If that doesn't make you cry, you are not a Sox fan.

So it didn't make me cry, but made me yearn for like when I was a Sox fan because

it's been, we'll get into this deeper.

But Chrissy is the hardcore of the hardcore.

I mean, she is still like one of the few, the proud Sox fans.

And I don't know how she does it because anyone who's talked to me about stances

on your favorite team, like.

I will give you a long runway, but once the runway's out, like, ownership, fuck you.

I'm so done with the White Sox current ownership, I could kill him.

Yeah, well, he's going to die soon. But here's the dumb thing. Let's hope so.

Like, it's bad enough he's a bad owner, but he couldn't even sell the team correctly.

Like, oh, we're going to do it on a sliding decade scale.

What happened to, here's a check, here's your team?

Yeah, it would be nice. He just can't let go, though. He's 90 fucking years

old. What's he holding on to?

Still being the worst owner? He's done two things right. He drafted Michael

Jordan, and he caught lightning in a bottle in 05.

Outside of that, he has done jack shit as an owner. Well, he didn't draft Michael

Jordan, though, himself.

Well, his team did, but still. That's the only two accomplishments he had,

Michael Jordan and an amazing, weird, great roster of 05. That's all he's done as an owner.

Which you have to, unfortunately, give some credit to Kenny Williams on that one.

I don't like Kenny Williams, but you have to give him credit.

He was a man of action. He was a man of action. He liked to do trades. Oh, loved some trades.

Do all that. So...

Chrissy, you have been steadfast in your fan ship.

Never wavered. What has the last two years been like?

Because I have not watched a White Sox game in two years.

And I may have watched or listened to every single game in 2005 at some point.

It was 162 game orgasm for sure. I mean, it was such a, I mean, one of the best seasons.

And it's overlooked. 99 wins they went wire to wire like it's one of the one

of the best months of baseball when you look at when they mentioned great teams

as of late like the white socks get so overlooked,

like i know i know we're diving right into this but

like they won't they lost one game in the entire postseason and won 99 in the

regular season went wire to wire leading it is fair i think they're one of six

teams to do that in the history of baseball or something crazy and no one mentioned

And four complete games that will never happen again. Ever. No.

But they're just, they're the stepchildren of the city. I mean,

when you go against the Cubs, I mean, they're one of America's teams. Yeah. Whatever.

Well, part of that is because the Cubs were smart in back when they were losers,

which was for a long time.

They put the games on during the day. And so you could get home from school

if you were in the Chicago area.

And that game would be on Channel 9.

It was free. Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn decided to start their own paid

sports network called Sports Vision back in the 80s. God, I haven't heard that in forever.

And you can get a shirt, a Sports Vision shirt on SoCoolShirts.com,

by the way. It is available.

But it was in conjunction with on TV.

So I don't know if you remember that.

Well, WCN was nationwide. Yeah, but you had to pay to get the White Sox games.

You still do. Yeah. Yeah.

Or you have to have Comcast. No, you can't even get it on Comcast anymore.

Really? They have their own... No, it's that Chicago... It's at CHSN.

You should have just called it Sports Vision again. They could have at least got the nostalgia.

I don't think they can because I think NBC owns it now. Some of the days of

Sports Channel. But literally, so... Or was it Sports Channel?

It was Sports Channel when I started.

Okay. Yeah, like it was Sports Vision and Sports Channel. But yeah,

like you can't even get a white... They have a few simulcasts they're going to do on WCIU, the U.

But yeah, you have to pay for it. And it's like $10 per team you follow.

Or you could pay $30 for all three.

The Bulls, Blackhawks, and Saks. And I refused to pay to watch a shitty baseball team.

And I just got lucky because my dad has DirecTV.

So I just use his login and watch the games.

So I've still been able to watch the games without having to pay. Breaking the law.

I used to have those DirecTV. I used to have like a burner thing.

Where you burn the codes. Yeah. When the TV would go out like five times a day,

so you'd have to put a new code on there. It was a huge.

My house growing up, we had a cheater box for a number of years.

Like the, what was it, the Atlantic Digital or whatever. Like we had every channel

for God until they went to like full HD.

It was crazy. When they put cable in at my house when I was a kid, it was in the ground.

So all the boxes you

could access you just needed like a lock cutter

or whatever and so then you just get

free cable like so i don't

know those were the days but um how have

the last two years been i mean

okay we'll say last year they were watchable how many

games did they win because i know we had a bet on this 60

they won 60 so they improved by

over a hundred games they lost two years in a row oh god because what was it

three years in a row i think oh yeah because they set the record for the most

losing season and then who took them out with that just last year was it the

hockey yeah rockies yeah and i was so i remember when they were losing all those games and i'm like.

I forgot what it was. I was like, lose in spectacular fashion or I don't even try at one point.

Although I don't think, no, the Rockies didn't break it. The Sox still hold the record.

Really? If I recall correctly. I thought the Rockies broke it.

I thought the Rockies broke it. This shows you how little we have watched.

Because I swear I recall rooting for them to break the record and they couldn't

pull it off. The Sox, I believe. That's bullshit.

Yeah. So. But I mean, you know, I'm.

I have hope I think they're promising I think they have a lot of good young talent,

with potential to give our listeners some context every year we a couple of

us make a bet a five dollar friendly gentleman's bet amongst some of our the

wavering fans of how many wins we think they will have this year and,

it'll be interesting I think I'm one of the more optimistic ones this year you

are and Jerry I am too said the

most that's the last two years the biggest fan out of all of this group,

myself, has bet the lowest wins.

Well, I mean, you have been watching the team, to be fair. Yeah.

I'm like the one, just like college basketball, I'll fill out a bracket in five

minutes, not knowing anything about what's going on currently,

just like Cliff's Notes.

Yeah, just based on what you hear. But also, like, in the absolute seller,

you got a scoreboard tattoo. I do. Yeah.

Which I got in 2024 which was the worst season they've ever had I know yeah

you still went ahead with the only real ones yeah the guy the tattoo artist

wasn't like you shouldn't do this did the tattoo artist offer to give it to

you for free because they were so bad he knew anything about sports to be honest with you,

just I want this hey I do tattoos show me what you want the guy at the front

desk thought it was cool but I'm not sure my artist had any idea but well but yeah.

I'm proud of her. I love her so much. But it is encouraging to be,

like, baseball season kicking off is always a great time.

Even if you're really not a fan, it just coincides with everything starting to, like, warm up.

Exactly. Except for here. It's not warming up here. No.

No. But also, like, you know, you instantly, like, the first thing I think of

when a baseball game pops on is the smell of onions and sausage when you walk into Comiskey Park.

And it's Comiskey Park. It's not Wright Field because that's the dumbest fucking

sponsor for naming rights ever. It's always going to be Comiskey.

Yeah. If you call it anything else. I like calling it the cell,

though. That was my favorite. I liked it.

Because it implied danger. Yeah, like the prison.

Yeah, shootings and like gangs. I was not a fan of U.S. Cellular Field,

but once they were starting to dub it, hey, at the cell.

Yeah. And that's right when they're like, yeah, we're changing our game.

I'm for people shooting into the seats as long as no one is there.

Well, that's a pretty good odds right now.

Well, we just need to make sure we're facing the Royals so the first base coach

can get attacked because that seems to be a bad habit of ours.

Boy, man, people hate the Royals. I remember I went to a game...

I don't know, it might have been 2004-ish or whatever.

And this guy, he's drunk, and we're in the bleachers, and he just stands up.

Fuck the Royals. Fuck the Royals.

And everybody's joining in. They were fucking playing the Tigers.

Well, I don't know what the fuck. I must admit.

The Royals can be terrible, and the Sox still cannot beat them.

But sometimes you'll go to a game there where they'll play some other team.

Like, you know, they'll play the Angels or something.

And then people are, you know, in the ramps and somebody will just start a Detroit

Sucks, you know, chant or whatever. I love how we all knew exactly where that

was going before Jerry even said that. Yeah, Detroit Sucks. It's just so weird.

I've never, like, had a sports team where it's just like we really fucking hate

the Tigers and we really fucking hate the Royals. and I don't care who we're

playing today. I can't stand the Twins.

But I haven't heard a fuck the Twins chant, but hey, you know.

Well, you gotta go to some games.

I haven't been to a game in a while. Chicago is so weird with their fans.

Like, they're some of the biggest assholes fans.

Like, we really aren't great. They're not.

We're passionate. We love our teams. Well, some of us do. Do we really love

our, as a general in Chicago, do you really love our team or is it do you hate everybody else?

Is that? I just feel like a victim of abuse.

Being a White Sox fan? Like, Jerry Reinstorf diddled me as a child.

Like, where did the bad owner touch you, Jerry?

Show me on that Chris Sale bobblehead. On the dusty, broken Chris Sale bobblehead,

which he's not pitching anymore, right? I think he's playing for Atlanta still, isn't he?

Well, you really made out getting rid of him, right? So a couple World Series.

A couple of cut-up jerseys and kick your ass out of the door.

Should have kept him. And you would have won more games keeping him than the

guys that you got for sure.

So that was done. So also, could I just put this in the ether as like a conspiracy

theory that maybe Jerry Reinsdorf killed Bobby Jenks, like gave him the cancer?

Too soon. Too soon. Damn.

Ouch. I mean, Jerry Reinsdorf can give people cancer.

He seems to be giving it to our sports teams left and right with their records.

I mean, it even rubbed off on the Bears.

Just his presence alone probably does that just

yeah well he got all that free stadium

deal and that was a big also the balls on

that guy to hold up the state or the city for a new stadium again like you did

it once it worked and now you're like 25 years later you're gonna try that shit

again what let's address that do we really need a new one no thank you it's

fine it's 35 years old We didn't need a new one to begin with.

Like, she's just getting out of her, like, mom era. Yeah.

Like, she's 30. She just had a glow up, like, I don't know, 15,

20 years ago. Honestly, it's a great place to see a game. It's quick in and out of the city.

Like, you can get there easily. The food is great. The bathrooms are great.

There's plenty of amenities. There's plenty of amenities.

New scoreboard. Even up, if you sit in the upper deck now, they've kind of changed the angle.

And it's usually you can do whatever you want up there.

We went up there for the first time in a couple seasons this past season.

And they have really cool, like, different amenities up there in a cool,

like, almost like a bar seating situation.

It's really nice up there. The only issue is they got rid of the bullpen sports bar.

It's like that craft beer thing now. Craft cave.

Yeah. Because we used that. It was cool. down there. I went every opening day,

we used to get the general admission tickets and we'd go down there and we'd be right on the fence.

And now it's like if you want to see the game from there, it's $250 or something

for opening day. That's where they do the patio parties now.

That no one's going. That pre-game ticket for two hours worth of all you can eat.

That was where last well, two seasons ago when we went to go see the pre-game

taping when I hung out with Ozzy again and made out with him the second in time in my life.

But yeah, that's all I do He's a good looking man. He looks like he smells good

too. Plus he's Latin so he's got that Latin charm. He's a sharp dresser.

And he doesn't pull any punches.

Say what you will about Ozzy being an asshole at times. He doesn't give a fuck

what anyone thinks and will tell you the God's honest truth. Yeah, I love it.

And he's been way right about a lot of the White Sox issues for a long time.

I mean, he could fix everything. I don't think that they would ever bring him

back. No. No, they won't. I don't know that he would want to.

You put a couple of commas on a paycheck, it makes it big.

No, I just don't think they're serious about doing anything but trying to get

competitive again. I don't think there's any desire to pay any big-time player.

I don't think there's a desire to do anything.

No, it's just keep the value of the team where it is and then sell it to this...

But that... Ishiba, is that the guy? Ishbia. Ishbia.

But who just bought some, he just bought a rail yard and the,

the South loop to that. They were trying to eat or whatever.

Yeah. Which is ballsy because it takes a lot to move rail lines and all that.

But to me, like again, here's the check. Here's your team.

Yeah. It should be. I would like them to start owning the team now.

So like when I'm not like 85 years old and they're like, Oh,

they're going to go to the world series. Like I, I am bound and determined that

it's going to be another 30 years before we get a White Sox World Series.

I hate to say that with you in the room, Chrissy, but... If he dies tomorrow...

I'm not wishing death upon him, but if he dies tomorrow, I'll say it. Nice.

Then that will speed up the process, of course, but he just, he doesn't care.

He has never cared about the fans. Like he will say that.

He has said that in interviews. He doesn't care. It's a business to him.

And he has very, like,

if you listen through some of the interviews with him, like,

his whole childhood thing where he said he's obsessed with baseball and he was,

it's all a bunch of bullshit that he made up.

He can't name any players like he, you know, he was mad that the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to.

From Ebbets Field. Yeah, LA.

His favorite player of all time was. uh uh darren

erstad right of the angels was

it darren erstad yeah the scrappy second

baseman white guy some random asshole when

he's had frank thomas frank thomas oh

by the way by the way speaking of

frank thomas currently suing the white socks

i guess he should be you know because go hurt

also like hurt is hurt he should

be so i if the people listening i know we are

kind of a niche topic right now but so it was black history month in february

and the white socks put out like a social media post honoring and recognizing

some of their greatest players of all time and they had a list of them on there

frank thomas nowhere to be seen on there Nope.

Their last MVP, the first Ballot Hall of Famer, one of the only players that

was not caught up in the steroid issue that put up giant numbers, like legitimately...

One of your top five players, period, all time, totally just ghosted him on that.

And he responded like, well, I guess doing all this really didn't matter one

bit. No, like who did they have on there?

You know, just like a bunch of old white guys. I think they had. And Paul Canerco.

Because there's no one. Well, why would Paul Canerco be on the Black History

Month post? I don't know.

Well, so. But it's, I mean, it's not that far fetched. They would probably put

white guys on there and just be like, well, but now like he's suing.

Kenny Williams was on there. Yes, he was. Yeah.

But I think he's suing because they have those Bulls crossover jerseys that

they're wearing now. Yeah.

Something about something about like he's not getting any royalties for his named jersey.

Which he should, because I think it's part of the players agreement.

Oh, yeah. Like any you would get like a buck or whatever from.

So but this is so white socks oh

this is they would have

won the world series in 1994 100 if they didn't have the strike yeah oh yeah

and the strike was jerry reinsdorf led like he was the leading the ownership

group they were they should have won in 93 that was a freak fucking Blue Jays.

Fucking, uh, who's that pitcher?

They always fucking run into him. He pitched for the.

A's too i think i don't i don't know you're not

thinking of dennis echo eckersley are you no no there's

a black guy that was a they had.

A whole thing like they threw they threw jock straps

on the field once with him he did like it.

Was a big rivalry he pitched for the a's and

then he pitched for the blue jays um god

i cannot it's escaping me now but it was in that it was

in whatever that uh last comiskey

documentary oh um but i

watched those 93 playoffs and you know they had

bo jackson mm-hmm uh they

i mean it was a murderer's road robin frank

robbins johnson like amazing team

and the pitching was amazing alex fernandez jack

mcdowell jack mcdowell on his side young year yeah

i mean just alvarez yeah yeah they

were bad motherfuckers on that team and he

he didn't care he didn't care that

he was they were that close because they

would have won in 94 and then they

traded you know they did the white flag trade the next year right

they traded all those guys or well it's the same thing

that happened like not that i don't like jim tomey as

a player great guy great player but we never should have

got rid of aaron rowand that was i hated i love

jim tomey though i like it's nothing so much fun to watch but yeah like you

didn't hit like if you would have got jim tomey and then you were like oh i'm

gonna get a legit center fielder then okay yeah but you gave away one of the

best defenders we've ever had yeah and he's saved the pitching a lot a lot of runs.

Oh, yeah. So, well.

Yeah, I don't know. I just don't know where to go with my heart anymore.

So I think my heart just lies in a lot of the tradition of it. I'm such a purist.

It's, you know, it's not about Jerry Reinsdorf to me. Like, fuck you,

Jerry. This isn't your team. It's our team.

I grew up going to this game, all these games with my dad.

I mean. well that's hard to split up like your family

connection that's 10 games a year like it just it's

just something i've done since yeah it's definitely

for me like my open my dad passing

away years of it was that severed a big connection because he grew up in armor

square which was right there um basically next to the park they could they snuck

in when they were kids um you know before he moved next to the Unabomber or

down the street from the Unabomber. Little Teddy Kazanski.

But when they were little, yeah, they could go right down the street.

They lived at 31st and Normal.

And they let the kids kind of just sneak in and neighborhood kids and do whatever.

But they should have built the new park in Armor Square.

That would have been a better spot. like it's um.

And they should have faced it toward the city. I don't understand.

That still doesn't like.

You're looking into nothing. Well, the old one was. Old Comiskey did face the

city. And I don't know why they just didn't face it the same way.

Like, they totally just 90-degreeed it, and it made no sense.

Because at the time, you were looking at the Robert Taylor homes,

which were some of the roughest places.

Like, that neighborhood used to be absolute crap.

Like, you did not want to be caught there any time. We actually did get caught there in high school.

We got lost. He went to IIT for a time, so he had no problem parking his car,

and we would cross the Dan Ryan or whatever,

but he had no problem parking over there.

He'd had his shotgun in the trunk of the Cutlass, and he wasn't worried about

somebody stealing the car. He wasn't going to 12 gauge with you all the time.

I can get, I can get, uh, you know, three beers for 10 bucks.

I'm not paying 10 bucks for that fucking parking.

You know, he's kidding me. You're going to walk kid.

So we walk and just make sure you leave, make sure you have plenty of ammo.

That's the only thing. Like that's a big childhood memory for me is walking under that viaduct.

And having the drummer, you know, the bucket drummers. The bucket guys.

Yeah. I do love, I am a sucker for a bucket drummer. Like, I will.

Sucker for a bucket drummer. But I mean, that's the title of my new album.

Yeah. Sucker for a bucket drummer. Jerry Clements sits in on that,

and Chad Burton is playing on that. But I will throw probably a five or a ten.

If a guy with some skill, like. That's another sound of a ballpark. Oh, yeah.

That rattle is a, like, it's a whole, it's a whole thing. And that's what I hate about.

I was like, I went to my first game after abstaining for quite a while.

I think since COVID, because we used to go to opening day every year.

We were there for like 10 or 11 years in a row.

And then the COVID year hit, we couldn't go because they didn't have people in the stadium.

And then finally, I was just like, can we not go opening day?

Because I'm tired of freezing my ass off and getting snowed on during the game.

Yeah so we we went that

covid year i think well later

they started later some fans and that was awesome because

like was there we yeah they only allowed like a three or four people per yeah

like each section they spread it all apart and then they started you could the

food would get delivered to you it was like fucking amazing my favorite part

of the covid year baseball that was like You could hear everything on the mics.

The White Sox were the best team during COVID that was out there. They were pretty good.

But it was just funny because you would hear F-bombs and when they'd make a

mistake, they couldn't hide it. Yeah.

Because there was no background ambient noise of everyone like that.

Remember some of the teams put those cardboard fans? The Rockies actually did

that and did something cool with it because they sold them.

And then the cast of South Park put like the entire, the creators put the entire

cast of South Park in like two sections.

Oh, good times. Well, now would be a good time for you to go to a game because

there's not a lot of people there. Yeah, I would. Yeah, there's especially not

a lot of people there now.

I mean, it's like record low numbers. And that's another thing.

When they started winning and they were winning the World Series and all this,

I was pissed that there were actually people in the park because I didn't feel like they earned it.

Well, that's also part of a White Sox fan experience is like,

today's attendance, 7,000 people. Oh yeah, back in the day when upper deck seats

in the early 90s were like five or eight bucks.

Oh yeah. We'd always buy a ticket up there. Oh yeah.

Well now they wouldn't even let you do that. They have loosened up on that. Have they?

Now you can actually go back around the park because no one's there.

I get like not letting you sit in the other seats, but I can't walk around and

enjoy the statues and the food and the vendors.

Yeah, well, again, that's very White Sox. Oh yeah. Yeah, they've been.

They're going to force you to pay for a more expensive ticket.

I remember, though, because we went to one of the first games at the new park.

And my dad took us, of course, and that upper deck was terrifying.

Oh, God, it was like 45 degree angle. Oh, my God. And we had my cousin Mike,

his dad, my Uncle Rich, who was blind. Thank you.

So we're trying to, you know, get him up the, up, up there.

I mean, you can't see how steep it is, I guess. So it's probably okay.

Sounds like a great game today.

But yeah. And then my best friend is there and he's just such a,

I don't know, for some reason, we're, we're all sitting there.

And, um, you know, back in those times, if you looked anywhere close to 21,

those beer vendors are just giving you beer, right?

You smoke cigarettes up there, you do whatever you want. So I do have a question

for you. Cause you're still going to the games.

There's a guy that always used to catch on the mic during the game like that.

And I, like you could distinctly know when he was behind home plate or like

on the first and third, like he was so loud, distinct voice.

And I don't know if he died during COVID or if he just stopped working during

it, because I've not heard that guy.

Although I would have to actually watch a White Sox game.

Well, there was the other guy, too. Like, he would just go, hot dogs.

Yeah. And you could hear him on the TV. And I believe he also worked at Wrigley.

So whatever sports service they use. There used to be Aramark,

and I don't know what it's called now.

I can't remember, but there's a really interesting documentary on how that whole

thing works with the vendors that go into the stands.

Because it's like, you don't get to sell beer until you've had tons of peanuts.

No, you got to work your way up.

You got to be like the lemon chill guy. Then you got to be the peanut guy.

You don't get beer duty on day one, kid. Or hot dogs. You don't get the good

tips, kid. I got the hot dogs because they're lighter.

You know, when I first started in this business, kid, I had to work my way up

through Frankie Scarducci.

This guy, he was a pro and I had to work my way all the way.

See, they put me in the parking lot selling peanuts. They wouldn't even let

me in the stadium at first.

Now I'm selling hot dogs and it's only been 25 years. Yeah.

I can carry 10 cases of beer up there. But also, I was always impressed with that, too.

Like, they would, 16, like, two cases, 16-ounce beers around your neck.

That's some weight. In the blazing hot sun. Blazing hot sun.

You know there's some, like, sweaty shit. Back when I was in mailman shape,

I thought about, like, man, maybe I could do that. But those guys could make a living.

I'm probably not now with the inflation.

Also the way. But those guys could make a living working there just for the

season, just for those 81 games. They could make enough money.

You know, they probably had a part-time job or did shit in the offseason or

whatever. But you figure, well, that was back also when they had cash.

Like, it's all cashless now. Yeah, people don't tip with the cashless. No. No.

It's anonymous. And it also takes away from like the handing the 20 all the

way down the row, like person to person, then handing the hot dog down.

That was good shit. Yeah.

You kind of had to make friends who you were sitting around.

And there was always some asshole who was always like, I'm not passing the hot

dog. Hold on, get the fuck out of the stadium. Really?

I always. I never encountered that.

Maybe they didn't get like vocally shitty, but you could see the look on their

face like they were all pissed off that they had to pass the hot dog.

It is like fan behavior has gotten worse. Oh, there's no baseball etiquette whatsoever anymore.

No. I miss the days where you were not allowed to walk up and down the aisle

if there wasn't a bat going on.

Oh, yeah. You used to have to wait until there was an—even when there was an

out, you had to, like, scurry down. Yeah.

Like, no deal— Or sometimes they wouldn't even let you until,

like, between innings or between— Yeah.

If you had to pee, you were spending an inning in the concourse.

Yeah. Yeah. And if you had to pee and you're a kid, guess what?

Oh, here we go with the troughs.

You're at dick level at some point in your life.

So the funny thing was, and this is a... You had to be pretty traumatizing. Yeah.

It's a weird... And so the Cubs and the Sox had the troughs in the men's bathroom.

The weird thing was when I always went to Sox games and I was never at Wrigley Field.

And then I went to Wrigley Field and I was an older teenager.

But I went to the bathroom and I'm like, oh, shit, this place still has troughs?

Like, I was like, it was... Yeah, because it splashes.

It's not, it's just like, it's weird. It's just, you know, like half a dozen

dudes peeing in a sink pretty much. It's like, what?

When did we think that was okay?

Because you look at- Back in the 1920s. But if you look at old hotels,

like you go into an old hotel or an old restaurant or bar, like they have very

ornate, and they still have, they have like the giant five foot urinals.

And it's like, okay, you knew this existed. I think it was just- Shoeless Joe

used the same trough. I think it was probably like,

Imagine not having shoes on. Jerry's grandfather. Fucking build it.

Jerry Reinsdorf's grandfather. Theodore Reinsdorf I.

Preferred the trough. I do not want the urinals. Make them pee in a sink.

Goddamn hot dog eating motherfuckers i'm sure

they had massive cheaper so yeah oh

god we went to some speaking of

beers something at uh here in miller we're getting a little bit more miller

related but we went to this um thing that the um mbacd put on um that was an author talk,

for a guy that wrote a book that says that it was not Comiskey's fault that

the players bet on the games, that the players were just greedy.

The players were the greedy ones. Also, the strike was not.

So his whole take on the whole thing, and I can't remember the guy's name,

but I was really mad when I left.

But his whole take was that Jerry Reinsdorf is much maligned, as is Charles Comiskey.

Both of them are misunderstood.

They are pioneers of baseball and White Sox fans should adore both of them.

And they were just maligned by the press.

And he, at one time, was the White Sox historian, which is an employed position. Conflict of interest.

Yeah, Reinsdorf, line in your pockets, you're going on a book tour in Miller

where there's, you know, George Rogge just fell asleep right off the bat.

And I kind of wished I had followed him because this guy spouted so much bullshit

about how the owners aren't bad and the players are just greedy.

Meanwhile, this was last year. Yeah, this was last year. If anyone has seen

any baseball movie. Ever.

It was very well documented. No, he is disputing the story in Eight Men Out.

I don't care what movie you watch. He said he consulted on it,

and he told them that they were wrong, and they just went with the narrative.

That's a guy who used narrative a lot. I'm calling John Cusack right now because

I claim bullshit on that.

But it's been well documented. They treated the players like absolute shit for

so long. Like they made very little money. They had no choice in their contracts.

Well, most of them had second jobs away from baseball just to be able to.

Until like the 60s, most athletes did.

Yeah. Like you had to have another job. You just loved playing ball. Shoeless Joe's shoes.

That's why he didn't have shoes. He had to sell his in order to get.

The shoemaker has no shoes. that's what that's a parable i think.

All right should we take a pause but yeah we should on that on that parable

i think we should take a pause and go to a commercial we're gonna pause for

station identification yeah oh super beach radio.

Step right up, folks. From the mind of shoeless Joe Jackson himself,

after being kicked clear out of baseball, comes the shortest-lived shoe store in American history.

I sold every last pair.

Turns out I needed those. Prices so low, even Charles Comiskey refused to pay him. Still too high.

Located briefly on Lake Street. Open for nearly three days. Shoot.

He stormed across the clubhouse and yelling at me that if I wanted to ask any

questions about him, I should ask him only.

And he kept yelling and yelling, and eventually his hands were around my throat.

Well, I'm a little shaky on what happened at that point. I do know that we were

pulled apart. I mean, I was trying to get him to release the grip,

and we were pulled apart and separated, and that's about it.

Pearsall was pulled away from Gallus, the announcer went up to the broadcast

booth where club executive Mike Vec, Bill's son, was waiting.

Here, young Vec confronted Pearsall. The two came to blows.

Pearsall's face was bloodied. He was taken to the hospital later with what was termed exhaustion.

You know, the big thing I'm interested in is that he's all right and that we

do what he needs to make him all right if he isn't.

Now, I don't know if he's all right or isn't all right. My association with

him has always been a happy one.

We kid each other back and forth. I've never had any problem with him.

I find him a wonderful human being.

So I just, you know, I just can't understand it.

And now, baseball fans court with your judge, Judge Chrissy Chocula.

So we're going to have a little special segment on here. Since we have been

such fair weather fans, we are about to get interrogated by our good friend

about our baseball fandom or whack thereof.

So now that we have all risen, Judge Chrissy's hailing court.

Okay, there's not much I hate more than a fair weather fan. so whoa coming on,

swinging who would you consider one of those people you can't hear this on the

radio but I'm currently raising my hand so let's start with you scramble let's go alright so,

I mean, we all know, I mean, we're, you know, we can get beyond baseball.

Chiefs, let's start there.

If the Chiefs were doing what the Sox have done, would you peace out?

If it was an extended lack of ownership, absolutely.

Okay. And what would you do at that point? Would you just find another team?

Or would you just bow out till your team gets better?

So what this happened with the bears when i was younger i

got irritated with them and i kind of just ended up following the chiefs after

i wasn't while i was a kid and they were in the playoffs and i'm like just start

following them and it happened if it would be like i said it's a long runway

it would take a solid 10 15 years for me to let it go but if it was just like,

absolute crap and they were just doing

dumb shit i would been good peace out i will still remain dormant until like

until hibernation but i could probably be convinced to find another team depending

on what happened but if yeah i have a big issue with shitty sports owners,

that's where my like i love being a fan and staying loyal i don't give a shit

who you're And I've said this for years.

I don't care who you're a fan of as long as you stay loyal. But I do understand

if you hit a point where like, fuck this, I'm out.

And I kind of was there with the White Sox, but I'm starting.

Like, I had so many White Sox hat, and I donated them to, like, you and others.

You have a lot of good Sox numbers. I kept a couple. I still have my jerseys,

and I'm thawing out from my winter of discontent.

So do you see the promise in these? So I got taken. Oh, and there comes Bobby Jenks.

Rest in peace. Best curveball I've ever seen in my life.

I see the promise. I got taken to a game last year by somebody,

and it was like you could see like these, they're not tainted by the ownership.

Like you could see there's a desire to win with the team, and it's almost major league-ish.

Like I don't think they give a fuck about what the ownership is doing.

They're just there to try and prove themselves.

So I do see the, I mean, I picked them to be like 20 games over this year or

20 games better than they were last year. I think they're going to be 500 ball.

So i do see the promise and i would love nothing more than to

like have my white socks love refurbished but it's god it's tough it is tough

when your team just makes bad and again like just sell the team normal like

what we're transitioning like yeah you can't do that anymore maga.

Rule you can't you can only transition if

you're changing genders now no you can't do that transition fans

or genders so yeah it's and i don't like and

i will be the first one to admit i've been very fuck

the fuck the team and like i i that's

why i give you more credit because when they are good i'm gonna look at everyone i

know and say there's one person who deserves the success

more than anyone it's you she never stopped believing i'm

proud of don't taint her fandom with that though

i hate that's like fucking song

so those of you who don't know

what we're talking about in 05 when they won

they brought up steve perry who's been a lifelong san

francisco giants fan rightfully so he's

from there but a couple of guys on the team were in a bar and like we're joking

like where's the journey and then that kind of became like their rallying cry

yeah and then they had him at the fucking championship rally and it's like i

get it but no but go away You're not allowed.

No. Like, I get a fee.

I will allow Steve Perry to come to any event.

You can call us, 219-2004-280.

You can come to my next birthday party, and you can play right in the yard in

Ponson Park. Were you down with all the Don't Stop Believin' bullshit?

I'm going to plead the 35th. Oh. Dead joke.

I was I fucking love that song are you

kidding me I was fucking nuts I until I I

made a bet with um one of my

neighbors and friends um and uh

he was a huge angels fan at the time and

so it was a perfect storm of them

in the socks in the playoffs because he's he

may be a little psychotic like he

has some problems he's very very passionate

one like he's texted me at spring training

games like angels are kicking the socks ass or whatever and then spring training

he tried to bring one of those uh rally monkeys over to my house for one of

the games monkeys i fucking threw it in the yard and i said i'm gonna light

it on fire if you bring it in in here again and And then,

so the bet was if whoever's team wins,

you have to run around the neighborhood or the block wearing just your team

flag, no other clothing.

Like a cape? Like a rock. Or a rock. I put it, and you could wear it as a cape.

I chose to cover my dick with it and ran around.

And so I had to do that in that year.

Well, I would think that maybe a really hardcore judge, you're ruling,

would you think it'd be disgraceful to wrap your junk in the flag?

Disgracing the flag? Yeah, it

would be better to wear it as a cape and go balls. Just go free balling?

I wouldn't disrespect the flag in any way that i was i bought so many i have a,

world series uh white socks lionel

train i have um

i bought almost all the member i have

the newspapers uh all of

that stuff i was i am one of the biggest i

yeah i cried it was very emotional moment for me

um but i am fucking done with them like until when oh well i did wear i did

now all right i did wear my south side so i went to the last playoff game.

Uh which uh carlos radon pitched came

out throwing 100 miles an hour we thought everything

was going to be great and then they got it was they

got killed and it was freezing and we were in the upper deck and we had paid

like six hundred dollars for the tickets um but uh i got that sweatshirt and

i wore it last night at the trivia um so i'm starting to come back but that for me,

The Rick Hahn situation, uh, where it started with trading Chris sale and the whole plan.

Essentially it worked right. Like they got to the playoffs in that year.

But then the next year when they blew it all up. And how did they blow it all up, Jerry?

Who did they hire? They hired that fucking shithead manager.

What was his name? Tony La Russa? No. Yeah. Tony La Russa. Yeah.

It was the beginning of the year. The name that shall not be spoken.

Yeah. So it was Rick Renteria that got him to the playoffs, right?

And then, um, yeah, La Russa comes back who, in my opinion, in my father's opinion, hate everyone.

The last time he was the white sex manager in the eighties and the,

well, the late seventies, early eighties, everyone in Chicago hated him.

He had to hire security because he thought people were going to murder him.

And rightfully so, because he was a fucking terrible manager. He was not.

I mean, he was, he won some titles with Oakland because of steroids.

And he did, he did kind of employ the use of now what we would call the relief pitchers.

You know, usually you would not use a relief pitcher until.

The ninth inning. ninth inning or the, or extra innings even.

Um, but he didn't do that in 1983.

Did he? Cause he fucking sucked.

So when they brought him back, he was such an, is such a bad taste and so many white Sox fans.

And in, you knew that Rick Hahn did not want him.

And then, And so Rick Hahn just kind of wrote it out until he got fired too.

But that was where I lost faith. Yeah. I mean, that was kind of the beginning

of the end of that team that was supposed to...

So we're both here in the witness stand as the defendants.

I guess you've had such an issue. Are there more questions from the judge about our fandom on this?

Because you are clearly more of a fan than we are, without question.

Yeah, and, you know, we've all had this discussion quite a few times.

And I've always kind of tried to figure out, just look internally and, like, why?

Why do I put myself through this? I've asked the same question of you.

Even said the chorizo con huevos alvarez don't you feel sorry for me he's like

no i don't feel sorry for you you've put yourself here but the way i see it

it's not a choice i don't have a choice,

i was born this way lady god you do like you so i haven't found another baseball

team i'm never gonna find another baseball but also also my fandom was i forgot

this it was also been killed by Major League Baseball because the games were getting,

extremely difficult to watch overall.

I mean, it's kind of what half the reason I love the NFL is you know exactly

what you're getting with the NFL. I don't know. Those games are getting long as fuck too.

But I mean, for the most part, three hours, you know the games could be done

unless you have overtime and even then you got an extra half hour.

Baseball was getting so long in the tooth. Like, you couldn't sit down and watch

a game in under three and a half hours.

And it was so many breaks by the pitchers, and God forbid the Red Sox face the

Yankees, then you're looking at a four-and-a-half, five-hour game.

It's like, can you just throw the fucking ball?

So it was a little bit of both that kind of killed me. Yeah.

I mean, again, a purist, and I wasn't happy when they started the pitch clock

and all this shit, and now I'm kind of like, you know, it has kind of sped the

game up a little bit, and you do.

You look at other sports where they make it more...

Appealing to people yeah kids aren't going to want to

do it if you can't make it

more exciting right and that's just the reality baseball

but baseball back in the day in the early days they they used to take their

gloves off and leave them in the outfield because there was no time because

you immediately ran into the dugout and you were starting the next inning it

was they had no there was no time for bullshit like you had that boy giving

you your shit yeah no and there's you know And baseball,

you know, I was watching a reel today about, and I was going to send it to you

guys, but it was, you know, just about, you know, they used to fight.

They used to hit each other.

You know, if a batter hits a home run, you're going to get up next, you know.

Yeah, if you watch that Boston thing about the 2004 Red Sox or Pedro Martinez,

that's a bad motherfucker. I wouldn't want to get hit by him. No.

But they were drilling people, Clemens and him.

You know, I get it. Like, you can hurt me. And if you're Robin Venturi,

you charge the mound and get your ass kicked by a 20-year guy 20 years you're seeing him.

Man, I don't know what you would do to get Nolan Ryan to hit you,

but you shouldn't do it. No. He threw hard.

Nolan Ryan was an old, he didn't wear a cowboy hat, but I would consider him

in the cowboy category. Ed Farmer was a headhunter, too.

Was he? Former White Sox broadcaster. Oh, yeah.

And he famously, he said he could not really fight. He was really thin and,

you know, rest in peace Ed Farmer.

But, you know, he threw hard enough, but that was part of the game, you know.

But, you know, he would get chased off the field. Yeah.

And, uh, a lot of those guys, Goose Gossage, um, Don Drysdale,

who was former White Sox broadcaster as well, uh, notorious, uh,

for hitting, you know, what my dad, when he was teaching me how to play baseball,

he said, you know, if you ever, if you know, you're going to get overmatched

in a game, hit somebody, hit the first batter.

I love that this is like prison. like no like

it's the same thing the first day in

say he would say like people will are

scared of the ball like and some of these some of these kids have never been

hit before and like if if you're you know if you're going into an important

you wouldn't just hit kids in a normal game or whatever but like what if you're

like playing a high school baseball game and like it's like oh well,

you know, it's Mount Carmel or some, some big team.

Hit the first guy and then you might make it through the lineup at least once

without people swinging.

Randy Johnson's early part of his career was he was effectively wild.

Yeah, because everyone was afraid they'd get hit. I mean, people would be standing

almost outside the box because they were afraid they'd get clunked.

And the way you have to play it off like you don't know.

Oh, sorry. I accidentally, you know, like you don't really know where it's going.

You know, right? Like you're, you're just going to throw it as hard as you can.

Um, and for me, I would just hit kids all the time. I had a couple,

a game where I struck out 20 and walked 12. I think, um, I lost that game,

but I only gave up two hits.

So that was, you know, the pancake, uh, Um, the other guy struck out,

uh, 18, but he didn't walk. He walked three.

So I don't know why I heard pancake. And all of a sudden I thought a Shingo

Takatsu with the frisbee throwing. That was an amazing year.

Like through. I don't know. I just feel betrayed more than anything.

Like, I feel like I invested my childhood.

Um, my son went to the white Sox bulls camps when he was little.

Um, I like it was, I listened to sports radio pretty much constantly for the.

My entire life, starting with like, um, Jimmy Pearsall.

Um, my dad would put him on after the end that talk about a fucking,

that guy had some problems.

That guy got in a fight with a reporter. Like that guy.

Yeah. Him and Harry Carey. Like not a lot of people know that Harry Carey was

White Sox broadcaster and he would stack up beers so speaking of broadcasters I will say,

when they let Bonetti go biggest mistake that was another nail in the coffin

that was the one moment I went.

I might be out. And now he's the main commentator for Sunday Night Baseball. I'm so proud of my boy.

They just did a big number on. So I didn't realize. I just thought he had like

a weird eye. He's got cerebral palsy. Yeah, he does. I didn't know.

So when Jen Pancake and I went to go see him speak, he told his whole story

about this whole thing. And the most humble guy ever. Oh, my gosh.

Literally. He was amazing. Like, you could have kept him and at least kept,

like, because he never shit on ownership.

No. Like, Pearsall and Harry Carey would shit on, like, they had to get rid

of them because when. Bottom of the line that I'm here to tell you.

Jerry Reinsdorf did his children. Jerry Reinsdorf.

I saw him trying to fuck a kid in center field last inning.

You know, I can't do a Harry Carey. He kept singing, put me in coach. I'm ready to play.

But those guys would eviscerate.

Well, they pissed LaRousse off. They pissed LaRousse off, and he tried to fight

both of them at one point in the booth.

There's a lot of stories from back then. I want to do a podcast on that era

because I think it's so interesting because that's where it all started to go south.

But also, like you said, you almost were out because I'm going to call it now.

He's going to be a Ford Frick award winner, Hall of Famer.

There's no doubt in my mind it's going to happen. And I will say that, too.

I've been telling Brad, or sorry, Chorizo con huevos Alvarez,

that since we fell in love with Benetti.

And I was, again, always kind of one of those people that I didn't want to hear

a broadcaster talk to me about the game or call a game if you hadn't played it.

Until jason benetti oh i don't yeah

i don't care he changed i don't know why i don't know why i

was like that but he changed my heart and my mind i actually i've

been saying he is going to be the next bob costas he's

the next whatever it's the opposite for me i don't give a fuck about any of

these guys and what they did because i it doesn't it doesn't matter the game

has changed by the time these guys are talking um the some of the worst i like

that's with the nfl for me like.

I wish there were more broadcasters that have that

were actually played football well it's the old selection of football broadcasters

yeah i mean players that we have i mean for christ sake gronk is on a pregame

show and they all wear these stupid fucking quit dressing up in suits like it's

a fucking football like you could just wear a hoodie or whatever like i don't

Well, we'll go into a gang fight afterwards.

Got to get my suit suit ready. Got to get my wingtips on. Fuck you.

What the fuck, man? Like, come on. It's not a fashion show.

Like Gary, every fucking councilman meeting here is a fashion show.

So let's get back to this whole... Our shitty fandom.

So to Scramble's point, yes, if your team is terrible for 10 to 15 years, solidly.

Like, there's no hope. It's just been this steady decline. Yes.

I give you... The Sox have not been on that.

Like, yes, it started with the whole Arusa thing. They were good in 2021.

Yeah, they were supposed to have this big, you know, Tim Anderson,

Luis Robert. God, what happened to that guy? It's not so much...

I mean, it's partially performance, but it's also...

Like the management, it's just

like who you're putting your faith into to run. It's like any company.

If you hire some dipshit to do it, like you hired Chris Getz to be your GM who

has zero experience and was a marginal player.

What was the guy after Tony LaRusso's name?

That shithead, the second guy that they hired. Wasn't he like the Royals bench

coach or something? He was the Royals designated dick sucker Of ownership What was that guy's name?

He was a Latino Help us out there scramble I'm on it God how have I forgotten

about him? You hated him I hated him so much He was terrible Oh and when Hmm Fucker,

When he gets it, I'm going to be saying that. He's not playing.

He better not be in baseball. Was it 2023?

Yeah. Well, because it's Will Venable now. Because they said,

you know, La Russa had health problems.

Pedro Graffal. Pedro Graffal. Oh, God.

I think that the fact that they let him manage beyond the first season showed

me that they just didn't give a fuck about anything except for they had already agreed.

First of all, why are you giving him a three-year contract? He had never been

a manager before. You give him a two-year deal at the most.

Or you say you get a year if you fuck up.

So my thing is, yeah, Reinsdorf's been around since, what, early 80s?

He bought the team? It wasn't mid-80s. Well, hang on. I can look this up, too.

So, yeah, we've had these ups and downs, right? He's done the thing.

He caused the strike. He did this. He hired this guy. He fired this guy.

Were you just at the end of your rope at this point?

Like you had just like, what was your final straw? And you were like,

I'm out. They are not getting one.

Graffal giving him the, letting him stay the second year.

Like, because they had been so bad in any, anyone could see that he had completely lost the clubhouse.

Um, some of those players could have been good. Mankata, theoretically.

Sorry. What? He bought the team in 81.

Reinsdorf? Yeah. Yeah. Before I was born. Ugh. God. Um...

But, yeah, Mankata could have been good. All those guys with the right mix and

the right manager, like, they might have been okay.

I was before that, not to steal your thunder. But so, if anyone remembers,

and we're in a very niche market with this.

But they did a very aggressive move, which I really liked,

is they signed a bunch of young guys who looked like they were going to be great prospects and said,

before you even get good we're gonna pay

you for five years yeah i was on board with

that louise roberts yes and a bunch of guys and they

ended up getting hurt but also where the socks lost me

was they brought in tony larusa and

i'm like why are you tony larusa was probably it and

i was like okay it's and i always said if you're

gonna like mentor this guy to be the next

coach and that was your plan okay but i'm

like you're hiring a guy who's been retired he

has nothing to prove he's in the hall of fame he hasn't

he hasn't coached in what there was 20 years

there was no motivation outside of money and it's

like why are you doing this he's not gonna and sure enough didn't

give a shit because they were good sleep in the bullpen or

in the dugout i i would have been

completely fine had they kept ricky rentaria

like i i i knew that

i knew that he but like you

can't win the first time you go to the playoffs that like and

he made some mistakes but like what are you gonna do you've that

you fucking got injured pitchers um who's

the guy that got hurt that he's in is he

in san francisco now the guy that was throwing 100 miles an hour against the.

A's or whatever when he was oh i had it god i've forgotten so much white socks

stuff But anyway Yeah well these guys Aren't worth remembering Like Yeah Well he is.

All right everybody we hope that you

enjoyed our foray into sports talk um

we've got some cool stuff coming up here shortly um

the miller community theaters production of little

shop of horrors uh starts opening night is the 10th that night is sold out uh

but tickets are still available for the following night the 11th and also the

next weekend the 17th and 18th,

please go to miller community theater.com for tickets also we have the season finale,

for all in just trivia at the marshall j gardner center for the arts on lake street that is friday,

April 24th, and that always marks for me the beginning of summer.

Scramble intentionally ends the season so we can all enjoy the beach because

no one wants to be inside.

Just telling everybody it's planning inside events for the summer.

We want to be outside. Music outside.

Party's outside. everything should be outside from June on all right pancake

out everybody have a great great rest of your week.