To recap: a Jerry Reinsdorf quote appeared on the official Twitter account of the Chicago White Sox on Monday night summing up the two decades of frugal financial decisions by the Chicago Bulls. To quote the chairman: "Basketball is a sport. Baseball is religion. Baseball is American."
It was deleted shortly after it was tweeted, but not before J.R. Fegan from White Sox Observer tipped me off. Using the powers vested in me by the SB Nation blogfathers, I bitched about it incessantly to no one in particular. Classically trained wordsmith Kelly Dwyer would later run with it at Yahoo's Ball Don't Lie, advising Reinsdorf "Basketball's worth praying to, though, Jerry."
Now we have a sneaking suspicion that Reinsdorf is aware of our Internet rage. At a fundraiser in Chicago on Wednesday night, Reinsdorf said:
"I have a habit of getting myself into trouble," he said. "I just did yesterday. So I'm not going to (get in trouble)."
Hahahaha. This is funny.
But wait! There's more. Jim from South Side Sox tipped off us to a comment on Baseball Think Factory from someone in attendance.
I was at the event. Reinsdorf was asked about a previous comment he apparently made about being willing to trade his Bulls titles for his White Sox title. His response was that he made the statement prior to winning the title so it should be taken with a grain of salt. He then paused for a moment and went on to explain that when the Bulls won the titles and had their celebrations there were thousands of people at the parade and everyone was happy. He said when the WS won the title there were more people and there was nowhere in Chicago you could go where people weren't talking/happy about it (I assume this excludes Cubs-land). He made some quip about seeing White Sox banners strewn on gravesites. He then paused again and tried to sum up all of his comments thusly, "Basketball is a great, great sport. Baseball is a religion."
Anyways, it's all kind of weird and cool. JERRY REINSDORF ANSWERS TO US.