Word: reinsdorf
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Like Michael Jordan, he has a burning desire to win. Like Frank Thomas, he comes to the game fully prepared. Like Dennis Rodman, he will block out anyone who tries to keep him from an offensive rebound. That is why all of the above play for Jerry Reinsdorf, a 60-year-old C.P.A. and attorney who owns the Chicago Bulls and Chicago White Sox. And that is why Reinsdorf signed offensive-rebound Albert Belle last week to a five-year, $52.5 million contract that made the troubled slugger the highest-paid baseball player in history--and the owner...
...Reinsdorf, understand, is the hardest of the hard-line owners warring with the players' union. He has the ear of acting commissioner Bud Selig, who recently presided over the defeat of the labor deal that would have brought peace and imposed a luxury tax to level the playing field between large- and small-market teams. Reinsdorf rails against the spiraling cost of players' salaries and then puts his money where his mouth was not. "Any owner who breaks the market like this with the industry in trouble, it makes you scratch your head," said Cleveland Indians general manager John Hart...
...Reinsdorf was well aware of the criticism he would receive. "My first obligation is to the White Sox fans," he says. "In the current climate, you have to pay to win. Look at the World Series: the No. 1 [Yankees] payroll vs. the No. 2. It was also clear to me that if I didn't give Albert $10 million a year, somebody else would." Asked if he weren't stockpiling nuclear weapons while talking disarmament, Reinsdorf replied, "Absolutely. I'm just playing by the rules, and playing to win. That said, we can't go on like this. Small...
...play and at partially levels the playing field between big- and small-market clubs with a luxury tax. Many hardline owners had opposed the plan on the grounds that it did not do enough to control rapidly escalating player salaries. They were led by Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who just days after railing about the need to cap spending signed Albert Belle to a five-year, $52.5 million contract that made the slugger the highest paid player in baseball. Reinsdorf again voted no on the proposal and was joined by Cleveland, Kansas City and Oakland. Fourteen teams switched...
Michael dropped another bomb a few months later when he announced that he would like to be a major league baseball player. Jerry Reinsdorf, who owns the White Sox as well as the Bulls, was more than happy to help Jordan fulfill his dream, although the cynics among us kept harping on the possible ulterior motives. Jordan's pathetic swings in spring training did little to convince anyone of his sincerity. "It's called bat speed," said a scout, "and he doesn't have...