Reinsdorf, Jerry

▪ 1995

      It was a turbulent year for the American "national pastime" as players of major league baseball went on strike in August 1994 after failing to negotiate a new labour contract with team owners. During the strike many fans came to realize that professional baseball was no longer just a game but a fast-growing, multibillion-dollar monopoly that enjoyed an antitrust exemption. The one who perhaps best typified the modern sports executive was Jerry Reinsdorf, owner of the Chicago White Sox (from 1981) and of the Chicago Bulls (from 1985), a franchise of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was one of the most powerful representatives of baseball's 28-team ownership bloc, who precipitated the strike with their proposal for a cap on players' salaries and for revenue-sharing that would aid ball clubs in smaller media markets.

      Reinsdorf emerged in 1992 as one of the most persuasive owners in baseball, spearheading the replacement of baseball commissioner Fay Vincent with ally Bud Selig, owner of the Milwaukee Brewers. Reinsdorf was also an influential owner in the NBA. Over the wishes of the league in the early 1990s, he secured a lucrative television contract for the Bulls with the Chicago-based superstation WGN.

      With an estimated personal worth between $60 million and $90 million, Reinsdorf was respected for his financial expertise, as well as for his winning teams. He helped transform the White Sox into division champions (1983 and 1993) and the Bulls into three-time NBA champions (1991-93). His dual sports holdings conveniently converged in 1993 when Bulls superstar Michael Jordan retired from basketball to pursue a lifelong dream to play professional baseball and Reinsdorf enrolled him in the White Sox minor-league system.

      Despite these successes Reinsdorf was often vilified by fans for his laserlike focus on the economic bottom line. In 1988, threatening to relocate the White Sox to St. Petersburg, Fla., he persuaded Illinois politicians to help finance a new stadium, allowing him to tear down beloved Comiskey Park. The new publicly funded Comiskey Park, which opened in 1991, was subsidized by taxpayers and contained a large number of premium-priced seats. Similarly, in 1994 he unveiled the new United Center, featuring 216 luxury suites, to replace Chicago Stadium for the Bulls.

      Reinsdorf was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Feb. 25, 1936. After graduating from George Washington University (B.A., 1957) and from Northwestern University Law School (1960), he became a lawyer for the Internal Revenue Service, where he arranged tax shelters for corporations. In 1973 he cofounded Balcor Co., one of the nation's first firms to specialize in real-estate partnerships. After it became a huge success, he sold it to American Express for $53 million in 1982; he eventually left the company in 1987.

      (TOM MICHAEL)

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