Rebuild of the Chicago White Sox,or clique developing within the ballclub?

The key to the rebuild of the Chicago White Sox? Or development of the clique that could demolish any hopes of a championship in the near future?

Will trio be the key to 2020s White Sox? Photo by The Players Tribune

Those are the thoughts running through my brainpan on Tuesday, as I learn of the deal the White Sox pulled off this week to help strengthen their outfield.

JON JAY, WHO played last season with Kansas City and Arizona but was part of that Chicago Cubs championship team of 2016, will be a part of the White Sox this season – whose spring training begins in just over a month out in the Phoenix suburb where the Arizona (and one-time Chicago) Cardinals play.

Theoretically, he could be a piece of the White Sox’ outfield equation this year. He has some skills. But what is more noteworthy are two of Jay’s best friends within the world of professional baseball.

Those friends are Yonder Alonso, whom the White Sox recently acquired in trade from Cleveland, and Alonso’s brother-in-law. Who happens to be the baseball star Manny Machado – the infielder who currently is free-agent and is trying to get the big-money, long-term contract that will ensure he’ll never have to work for real so long as he lives.

The White Sox are in competition with the New York Yankees, the Philadelphia Phillies and possibly other teams that might want to give themselves an injection of talent for the near future.

IT HAS BEEN reported that the White Sox have made a definitive offer to Machado that falls short of the so-called $300 million over a 10-season period that Manny supposedly wants.

Could it be that the White Sox are gambling Manny will be eager enough to have his brother-in-law and long-time friend as teammates that he’ll take a Chicago offer? Helped by the fact that even though Machado has hinted he’d love New York, the Yankees themselves don’t seem too eager to kiss his behind to get him in their version of pinstripes.

Could the White Sox of the 2020s be reliant on the Machado clique for their on-field talent? Could Jay become the guy who played for both the ’16 Cubs championship team, along with whatever winner the White Sox produce?

Will Machado clique work well w/ Abreu batch?

Or is this a lot of wishful thinking?

FOR I CAN’T help but notice that much of the “Rebuild of the White Sox” talk has focused on the large number of Cuban exiles the White Sox have been able to obtain – with hopes they’ll develop with minor league affiliates into stars.

With those peloteros Cubanos eager to play baseball for Chicago someday because they see existing White Sox star Jose Abreu as their leader on-field.

Have the White Sox set up conditions for dueling cliques – with one group of Cubanos convinced this is the team of Abreu and which might be counting on the beisbol fan base in Havana to give the White Sox an international cheering base?

Or are we going to have a team with the Abreu people and the Machado people – with the latter figuring that he’s the one getting the big money so he’s the one who should dominate the ball club’s attention?

IT WILL BE interesting to see how the two factions (should Machado decide to come to Chicago) co-exist, because supposedly his wife Yainee (also Alonso’s sister) really, really wants to live in New York. Would this Miami girl with ethnic origins in the Dominican Republic regard Chicago’s Latino population that is heavily Mexican and Puerto Rican just a bit too different?

Could Jay be champ on both sides of Chicago?

Then again, ballplayers don’t necessarily have to like each other personally. Take the Oakland A’s of the 1970s that won three straight World Series despite constant infighting amongst themselves. But they had their mutual contempt for owner Charles O. Finley to unite them – and that contempt is what ultimately broke the ballclub up.

But it could be said that the Machado clique that considers Miami to be its home base could unite with the many Cubans who regard Miami as their home in exile.

Could a future White Sox championship team wind up getting just as many cheers in Miami as on the South Side? We’ll have to wait and see how it all shapes up – and if it is meant to become a reality.

  -30-

No direct route from Chicago to Havana, unless you count the one in Ill.

One of the reasons people brag on Chicago is that our major airport (O’Hare International) seems to have direct connections to just about anywhere in the world one could want to travel to.

 

There won't be any direct flights to Marti Airport in the near future

The only reason for having to make connections with flights in other cities is if one chooses to do so in an effort to save some money.

SO WHAT SHOULD we make of the fact that the federal Transportation Department, in its review of proposals for direct flights from the United States to Havana, Cuba, didn’t think any routes connecting O’Hare to Jose Marti International Airport were worthy of consideration.

Federal officials considered more than 60 proposed routes, but only gave their tentative approval to 20 of them. None of which involved a connection from Chicago to Cuba.

Both United and American airlines had desired permission to have such direct flights between the two cities.

But as things now stand, people wishing to fly American will have to go to the airports in Miami or Charlotte, N.C., and transfer there to a flight to Havana.

USING UNITED AIRLINES will entail a trip to Newark International Airport on the fringes of New York or, in what could be considered an insult to the Second City, a flight to Houston – where the transfer to a Cuba-bound flight would be made.

Considering that Houston boosters already are obnoxiously claiming their city will surpass Chicago in population to become the nation’s third largest within another decade, could it be that someone is already anxious to acknowledge the Texas city as somehow superior.

Even though when one considers the entirety of the metro areas, Houston and its suburbs will still remain smaller than Chicago metro for a long, time time.

It does seem odd that O’Hare International wouldn’t get a direct flight – considering that it used to be capable of boasting to be the world’s busiest airport and is still one of the most significant airports in the United States.

BUT APPARENTLY OUR Cuban ethnic population in Chicago (about 23,000 of the city’s 2.7 million residents) isn’t sufficient enough. Federal officials were interested in putting the direct to Havana routes in cities that have the large numbers of Cuban exiles and their families.

Maybe they think those are the only people who would want to travel to Havana, now that our own government is making a serious effort to try to restore relations between our two nations.

So much for the idea of business interests that also would want to have access to the Caribbean island nation and would think that the future economic development would create opportunities that would be beneficial for both nations.

Or maybe it just means that O’Hare’s days as being a leading airport for the United States are in the past. Even though there are many people whose trips to various places across the country mean catching a connecting flight at O’Hare.

COULD IT BE that the only “Havana” in Chicago’s future is the one located in Illinois? As in the Mason County city of some 3,200 people where Peoria is the largest nearby city of size – and whose own access involves a series of Interstates and county roads that would discourage just about anyone from wanting to actually visit the place.

Or perhaps we should consider focusing on the town of Cuba, Ill., in rural Fulton County. Or perhaps a trip to Cuba Township, the suburban place located near Barrington.

They seem to be the only such places in our future.

  -30-

One-fifth of Illinois Legislature in Havana? What if they got trapped!

Call it my wildest fantasy come true – the 33 state legislators who on Wednesday arrived in Havana for a six-day journey through Cuba somehow get stuck on the Caribbean island nation.

How would Dan Burke ...

They are unable to return to the United States. Should we consider Fidel Castro a hero for helping us to do away with legislators who (had they been permitted to return to their political playground in Springfield) probably would have caused significant governmental mischief?

YOU HAVE TO to admit the thought is worth a chuckle. Because if we try to look at this trip on a rational level, the first (and only) question that comes to our minds is “What are you doing going to Havana?!?”

It may be one of the few logical statements made by former Gov. Rod Blagojevich when he tried to mock the actions of his gubernatorial predecessor – George Ryan – by saying that any action by Illinois officials to expand business with Cuba was a waste of time.

That trade embargo wasn’t going to disappear anytime soon, so significant business opportunities would continue to be thwarted in the name of ideology and trying to embarrass the Castro regime (which has shown throughout the years that it has no shame whatsoever).

But this week’s trip by 33 legislators is reminiscent of that journey that Ryan took to Havana back in 1999. It may be one of his finest moments as governor – or it may be further evidence that he was craven in character. It all depends on your own ideological hang-ups.

I'LL CONFESS TO believing the former stance, and saying that I think the people who want to bash Ryan for his Cuban sojourn do little more than show how small-minded they truly are.

One of the results of that first Cuban trip (Ryan later made a smaller-scale trip to Havana later in his gubernatorial term) is that Illinois companies worked out a deal by which they can sell foodstuffs and medical supplies to companies providing direct aid to Cuba.

... and brother Edward compare ...



Of course, that was only permissible because of some changes made back during the Bill Clinton years that allowed for some humanitarian aid.

Now, the legislators who went to Havana have hopes to build upon what can be sold, so that Illinois companies can make even more money off of Cuba when it eventually goes through a rebuilding period (which won’t truly start until the demise of the Castro brothers).

AND QUITE FRANKLY, Fidel and Raul aren’t showing any signs of dying off soon – even though the ideologues have had us thinking of the pair as decrepit old men on their death beds for decades.

What we really have happening this week is the same thing that George Ryan tried to do a dozen years ago – put the name of Illinois in the mindset of Cubans so that when they need precious goods, they will come to our companies.

Cuba is already Illinois’ fifth largest trading partner, with most of those items being agricultural products. There are a lot of business people who would like the figure to go up significantly.

That is what makes state Rep. Jack Franks, D-Marengo, think it worthy of  paying for this trip out of his own pocket, while state Rep. Dan Burke, D-Chicago, and brother of almighty 13^th Ward Alderman Ed Burke, and all the other legislators who went along for the journey decided to use the money in their campaign funds.

AS AN ASIDE, I can’t help but wish that Eddie Burke could have gone along on this particular trip with younger brother Dan. What would los hermanos Castro make of the brothers Burke?

Would the two brother pairings meet, exchange pleasantries, then depart, while exchanging snide comments about how the other was a couple of power-hungry, political animals?

And if they did, who would be more correct. Eddie and Dan Burke on the Castros? Or Fidel and Raul on those lovable Irish-American politicos who manage to survive each Election Day, despite the fact that their ward/legislative district is turning increasingly Latino?

Although not Cubano. We’re talking about a Mexican-American mix that the Burkes will represent both in the City Council and in the Illinois House of Representatives.

I COULDN'T HELP but note Dan Burke pointed out that fact in some of the news coverage written in advance of the trip – as though he thinks people who come from places like Guanajuato or Guerrero are going to be swayed because he took a propaganda trip to the land where Che Guevara is a real icon – and not just some hairy dude who turns up on t-shirts!

... to the Castro brothers when it comes to tough politics?

So if it seems like I’m being disrespectful of this trip, I’m really not. I think it is a noble goal – because the day will come (no matter how many aging Miami exiles rant and rage against it) when Cuba becomes a part of the real world again.

Heck, beginning next month there will be direct flights from O’Hare International Airport to Havana’s Josè Martì International Airport. No more having to catch a flight to Montreal or Mexico City in order to get to Havana.

I’m just wondering how much our sometimes-bumbling state legislators (this is the governmental body with a member who this year tried to give a full tuition waiver to the kid of an organized crime figure, then tried to rescind it rather clumsily) are up to this trip.

  -30-