Idiots Write About Sports

In 2003, the Florida Marlins won the World Series with the trophy being presented to owner Jeffrey Loria. Loria took possession of the Marlins after single-handedly killing off what fan interest remained in Montreal; for intentionally sabotaging his own franchise, he was awarded the Florida Marlins in a Bud Selig-supervised scheme of musical chairs.

In 2004, the Boston Red Sox ended their championship drought by winning the World Series. The Sox principal owner is John Henry, the one-time Marlin owner who handed off his team to Loria so that he could take control of the Red Sox. That his bid for the team was not the largest did not seem to trouble the dread Lord Selig.

And this year’s champions, the Chicago White Sox, are owned by Jerry Reisndorf, one of the chief architects of the 1994 strike that wiped out that year’s World Series. Also, he’s a long-time pal of Bud’s, having led the putsch that replaced Fay Vincent with our current Commissioner for Life.

It says something about baseball that the last semi-decent human being to own a World Series winner was Michael Eisner.

On the bright side, A’s owner Lew Wolff is a long-time Friend of Bud — he’s the commish’s fraternity brother, for crying out loud. So it’d be keeping with the Only Teams Owned by Bud’s Pals Win trend of the past few years, if the A’s were to take the crown next year. Of course, to cinch things up, Wolff would have to rise to Reinsdorfian levels of villainy — maybe he can spend the off-season absconding with taxpayer funds or using revenue-sharing dollars to buy a new yacht or burning down orphanages. If that’s what it takes, I’m all for it.

Post a comment