David Samson said he received advice from White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf that more than rankled Sox fans upon hearng it, although Reinsdorf took issue with the former Miami Marlins president’s story shared with Miami-based radio host Dan Le Batard.
Samson recalled Reinsdorf advising him to finish second every year.
Uh, what?
“He said, ‘You know what? Here’s my best advice to you: Finish in second place every single year,” Samson said. “Because your fans will say, ‘Wow we’ve got a shot, we’re in it.’ But there’s always the carrot left. There’s always one more step left to take.’ ”
Samson prefaced that by saying, “Jerry Reinsdorf, when I first got into baseball – I never told this story before – and I like Jerry very, very much. Sorry Jerry, but here it comes. He sat me down, I was 32 years old just in baseball for my first of 18 years.”
That would have been around 2000, about 19 years into Reinsforf’s ownership of the Sox, the same year they won the AL Central after four straight second-place finishes and five years before they won the World Series in 2005. The Sox won the division in 2008 but have not reached the postseason since.
Reinsdorf disputed Samson’s story Saturday and was known to be growing angrier by the hour after hearing it. Through Sox vice president of communications Scott Reifert, he said did not recall the conversation taking place.
“Jerry said he has absolutely no recollection of ever having said that, that it is certainly not his philosophy for how to run a major league baseball team and that he has always considered the second place team to be the first losers,” Reifert said via email.
Samson, outspoken and often unfiltered, was Marlins president from 2002 till 2017. He was fired by Marlins CEO Derek Jeter in 2017.
For the record, from 1990 to 2012 the Sox finished second in their division 11 times. They also finished first five times, third six times and fourth once during that stretch. After finishing fifth and last in 2013 and fourth in ’14, ’15 and ’16, the Sox embarked on their first full-fledged rebuild of the Reinsdorf era.
Samson’s story stirred up memories of a second place finish in 1997, when July 31 they made the ‘white flag trade’ when trailing the Indians by only 3 ½ games in their division. General manager Ron Scheuler dealt starting pitchers Wilson Alvarez, Danny Darwin and closer Roberto Hernandez for six minor leaguers.
”Anyone who thinks we can catch Cleveland is crazy,” Reinsdorf said at the time.
The Sox finished second with an 80-81 record, six games behind the Indians.
