“There’s just not a lot of money to be made with investments like this … I’ve always looked at the ownership of a baseball franchise as a public trust, maybe even a charitable thing, I’m serious about that. I never did forgive Walter O’Malley for moving the Dodgers from Brooklyn to Los Angeles.”
Interesting quote, right? Altruistic as all get-out. But wait.
That’s what Jerry Reinsdorf said to Dave Condon of the Chicago Tribune in 1980, shortly before MLB owners turned down the bid of very successful San Francisco 49ers owner Edward DeBartolo to buy the White Sox from Bill Veeck, who was in dire financial straits.