Is Losing Machado Part of the Plan?

Sox fans are justifiably angry about the news that broke this week. Some are blaming Sox ownership for being cheap and misleading the public about building up the team. Some fans have called Sox management clueless and out-of-touch.

But maybe there’s something else going on. Maybe "They" (who shall not be named) are being cagey like a fox. Maybe there is a plan and they know what they are doing. Let's do a little thought experiment here.

The Chicago American League franchise is profitable whether they are competitive on the field or not. But there is another kind of profitability to consider.

Maybe the Sox are being set up for the future. Remember, "They" were seriously threatening to move the team to the Tampa Florida area. And thirty years ago, it damn near happened. Only due to some late-night arm-twisting and strong-armed pushing by then Governor Jim Thompson were the Sox saved for Chicago. The State Senate barely passed a close vote at the very last minute to provide funding that resulting in saving the team. Otherwise, no one in Chicago this week does any complaining about Machado because the Sox would have been somewhere else the last 30 years and there would be no Sox fans left to care.

So "They" have already shown their true colors once before. Do "They" already have a plan to watch disgruntled Sox fans stay away from the park, create low attendance, and play into "Their" hands of giving Them a public reason to move the team themselves or sell it for Big Money to out-of-towners who will move it? Is that a plan?

Whether or not this is the case, once trust is gone to this extent with the fans it is almost impossible to ever get it back and move forward. Make no mistake. The White Sox belong on the South Side of Chicago. Not in the suburbs. Not in Florida. Not in Portland or Austin, Texas or Montreal. Not anywhere else but the South Side of Chicago.

Sox fans are some of the most amazing fans in the world. We have loyalty not to any owner, or any group of players, but to The Team and what they represent to the Chicago area and real Chicagoans even though the team has done little over the years to deserve such loyalty. The White Sox are Chicago’s true baseball fan’s team. The people’s team. Not the corporate team. Not the loveable cartoon character team. Not the national media-darlings team. Real Chicago area people who crave a team that represents what the Sox used to be... The team of Nellie Fox and Luis Aparicio, the team of the 1977 South Side Hitmen, the miracle 2005 team. That’s the real White Sox, not the imposters who have appeared in Sox uniforms for most of the last 50 years.

So, Sox fans, know this. Whether you boycott the team or go to every game, either way there might be a whole other game going on. Even if the Sox signed Bryce Harper at this point, do you trust anything? What is the real plan anyway?

Losing Machado is not the end of the world. He has publicly stated he is not a hustle-kind of player. As such, he is not what Sox fans really want for attitude in a player. It’s more about what the Sox losing Machado represents to the fans, the national media, other ballplayers, and the long term future of the franchise in Chicago. Like it or not, the White Sox will never be owned by the fans or the city. They are owned by those with their own ideas and their own agendas - some public and some not. And no amount of Sox Fan Pride can ever change that fact.

The Sox used to be the Go-Go Sox. Will they become the Gone-Gone Sox one day?