
One of the harshest realities of fandom is that someone else owns something that you love. In October 2020, White Sox fans were slapped in the face with that reality when chairman Jerry Reinsdorf hired Tony La Russa.
The disdain for La Russa’s second tenure as Sox manager will be dismissed as hindsight or Monday morning quarterbacking, but that’s false. The immediate and overwhelming response to the hire was anger. Even the people who were willing to give it a chance had questions: Why him? Why now? The cronyism of the hire was easy to identify for most Chicagoans, and it left an awful taste.