Whew! We really dodged a bullet there. All the deafening whining and crying by many White Sox fans regarding the failure to land Manny Machado has drowned out the relief and celebration expressed by the rest of us Sox fans (“White Sox lose in bid for free agent Manny Machado” — Tuesday).
There are plenty of very talented players who will become available to the Sox in the next year or two. Free of the burden that Machado would have imposed, the Sox will be able to boost the roster with several very good players who will buy into manager Rick Renteria’s philosophy, instead of one great talent who doesn’t.
Last time I checked, baseball was still a team sport. You can win with a roster of very talented players, none of them a superstar. Just look at the 2005 world champion White Sox. Conversely, your team can stink even though it has a superstar like Manny “I’m not the type of player that’s going to be ‘Johnny Hustle’ ” Machado. Just look at last year’s Orioles.
You’d think that Major League teams would have learned from the Alex Rodriguez cautionary tale that extremely long-term contracts are far too risky to deal with. I’m convinced that Sox nation will come to see the Manny mess as a blessing in due time.
Jim Morris, Evanston
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Thank you, Padres
Thank you, San Diego Padres, for being foolish enough to sign Manny Machado for 10 years at about $30 million a year. I can’t claim to speak for all Sox fans, but I can say that pretty much everyone I know is very happy that we didn’t land him.
We all pretty much share the same sentiment that Manny is a loafer. You saw it in the playoffs, and, by his own admission, he’s not “Johnny Hustle.”
These long term deals almost never work out. So I’m I am very happy he won’t be with the Sox. We could get a couple of pretty good players for what we would have paid him.
John C. Fawcett, Burr Ridge
Get rid of “golden parachutes”
As Chicago’s lame-duck mayor, Rahm Emanuel fiscally damaged and economically strangled our city yet again by providing very lucrative extended contracts — “golden parachutes” — to the agency chiefs of the Chicago Park District, Chicago Housing Authority, Chicago Public Schools and City Colleges of Chicago (“Rahm’s agency heads could outlast him thanks to golden parachute contracts” — Monday).
It’s yet another example of how politicians enrich their friends and stick the bill to Chicago taxpayers. Sadly, with a weak City Council and with most of the members of the respective boards on CPS, CCC, CHA and Park District being appointed by the mayor, this Chicago Way custom is very hard to prevent. We have too many “yes” men and women that simply approve the mayor’s choices, even when they are counter-productive to our city.
As astute Chicagoans, we demand the new mayor and City Council members reform this terrible tradition.
Froylan Jimenez, Pilsen
