That fish-eye look usually worn by discreet bell captains and bail bondsmen has been blooming on the faces of Florida and Illinois politicians lately, as each state`s public servants try to keep dancing with the White Sox.
The governors of the states, both Republican and both ambitious, are mindful of the political fact that major-league baseball means more to voters than saving a dying cheese-food factory. But they continue to say the Sox should be treated like an economic development issue, while at the same time they cripple baseball metaphors and do a lot of quiet smiling.
And Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn, the Sox`s controlling partners, who`ve been as talkative as two wet stones about their feelings for Chicago and St. Petersburg, finally broke their silence Friday here in the Florida capital. Reinsdorf said he talked about politics and sports with the leaders of the legislature and Gov. Bob Martinez. Reinsdorf allowed that he was pleased Florida had so much interest in major-league baseball.
Einhorn faced reporters and said he`d let Reinsdorf do the talking.
”You see that look everybody`s giving everybody else?” state Rep. Pete Dunbar, a Republican from the St. Petersburg area, said as the Sox owners and Martinez posed for the television cameras before their brief meeting. ”That`s a look like a fish-eye. It says nothing but means a whole lot. You`ve seen it in Illinois, and you`ll see a lot more of it in Tallahassee in the next few weeks.
”It means there`s baseball coming to Florida.”
Whether the Sox leave the South Side for St. Petersburg`s Suncoast Dome and a juicy television contract probably won`t be decided this week. But baseball hysteria here, coupled with Illinois Gov. James R. Thompson`s concern that he`s standing alone in Springfield, will likely generate more public theater, political anxiety and nervous foot-tapping by anyone who has promised anything to Einhorn and Reinsdorf.
For Sox fans, a closer look at last week`s stadium soap opera might also indicate how things are likely to go. It began on Monday in Chicago when the Illinois Sports Facilites Authority finally got around to giving the Sox everything they asked for. It ended late last week in Springfield, with Thompson publicly bitter about the lack of legislative support he has seen for the deal he arranged to keep the Sox on the South Side.
That same Monday, the stadium authority and the Sox owners sat down and negotiated a change in the 1986 agreement that created the authority and allowed it to sell bonds and raise $120 million for a tax-supported replacement for Comiskey Park.
The original agreement called for the Sox to pay $4 million annual rent in a new ballpark, and $2 million annual maintenance costs. In the amended agreement, the Sox would only pay rent when attendance topped 1.2 million. The authority also agreed to pick up the $2 million in maintenance fees.
After both sides shook hands and prepared to give fans the good news, the authority told the Sox to publicly kill negotiations with St. Petersburg.
The Sox refused. The agreement was off. And Martinez, waiting eagerly in Florida, got so excited he arranged to hold a press conference wearing a Sox T-shirt.
Thompson backed off on his demand that the ties with St. Pete be severed and said he`d ask the Illinois Legislature to approve changes in the agreement.
He lobbied the leaders of the state House and Senate and then walked away without talking. In Florida on Wednesday, Martinez held his press conference, wearing his Sox T-shirt, pretending to swing a bat and telling reporters that Reinsdorf and Einhorn were having breakfast at the Governor`s mansion on Friday. But before the last reporter left the room, Martinez`s aides were whispering to him that Thompson announced the Sox gave their word to stay in Chicago if the Illinois Legislature approved the amended deal.
Back in Illinois, no sooner had legislative leaders said they would support the package than they began backsliding and telling everyone who would listen how difficult it would be to sell.
Martinez canceled the Friday meeting on Thursday at another press conference, saying he wasn`t going to let his office or his state be made a fool of by two guys who were leveraging two states.
”There I am, wearing that Sox jersey, talking baseball with cameras pointing in my face,” he said. ”I`m smiling, and I hear the Sox will stay if they get what they want. How in hell is somebody supposed to react to that?
Well, we canceled the long meeting and gave them 15 minutes on Friday for a
`say hello` session. If they show up, they`re welcome.”
Sox owners, in a private jet en route to Florida as Martinez was losing his temper, communicated to St. Petersburg-area Republicans that they had better do something. Dunbar and several others appealed to the governor, and the brief meeting was set for Friday morning.
Meanwhile in Springfield, Thompson asked for support for the new stadium package from his Republican colleagues in the legislature. Most showed up at the meeting glumly wearing Cubs and Cardinals caps. They weren`t enthusiastic about changing the deal made in 1986.
On Friday, the Illinois House approved a bill that likely will be rewritten to include details of the agreement reached this week between the Sox and the stadium authority.
Despite the 72-17 vote for the measure, with another 24 House members voting only ”present,” a number of lawmakers used the light debate to vent their frustrations with the agreement.
As things stand now in Illinois, the votes simply aren`t there for the new stadium package, which, under terms of the amended agreement, could mean $60 million more to the Sox without the need to raise taxes. Reinsdorf has been wondering how badly he`d be booed by Chicago fans if he walked into a Bulls game as the owner of a good basketball team who took the Sox away. And in Florida, former opponents of St. Petersburg baseball are now throwing their support behind a $30 million state-backed package to ready the Suncoast Dome for the Sox by 1989.
Rep. Samuel Bell, a leading Florida Democrat and chairman of the Florida House Appropriations Committee, pushed through a $5 million appropriation that would be the first of several installments before the session ends June 3. Bell, publicly and loudly noncomittal on the issue several weeks ago, changed his mind when he saw the negative response Thompson and the Sox got last week in Springfield.
”I`m talking to people in Springfield, and it`s not going to fly there,” Bell said, standing in the capitol lobby as St. Petersburg Republicans circled him and nodded eagerly. ”There`s no support for the Sox up there.”
The dramatic events and crises that legislatures require for major bills are historically held back until the end of the session. Florida is winding things up, ready to stop work on June 3.
But in Springfield, with more than a month to go in the current session, things proceed as they always have: Lawmakers there take care of minute housekeeping measures, send form letters to their constituents and try to act on some controversial issues. They spend their evenings at ”Play it Again, Sam” or at one of the many cocktail parties hosted by lobbying groups who want tax money.
The truly important issues, the kind that make headlines and cause panic, aren`t even being seriously discussed yet. Thompson wants a state income-tax increase from the current 2.5 percent to 3 or 3.5 percent, a measure that could raise from $600 million to $1.2 billion. Democrats are talking about school reform that could cost as much as $300 million. Hospital groups complained that late Medicaid payments have forced several hospitals to close. These issues are likely to be tied together, when it becomes time to vote. The state`s $22 billion budget will also be hammered out with other requests. The new Sox deal represents, at most, $6 million a year if the team is as poor as it is now. And that tax money would draw from an established source and not require any new taxes, Thompson said.
Most lawmakers, in speaking about the chilly reception given to the White Sox and Thompson, say that it is too early in the session for the kind of support the governor wants for the new stadium package.
They believe no public crisis has emerged yet, and although things could heat up later in the session, there is no direct pressure now.
Also, lawmakers agree they lack an issue to tie to the stadium package. When the first deal barely passed in 1986, Downstate Republicans helped squeeze the measure through because it was tacked on to off-track betting legislation that allowed their constituents in Rockford and Peoria to bet on a horse.
”There`s nothing out there now to tie it to,” said State Sen. Robert Kustra (R., Des Plaines). ”This early in the game, the linkage isn`t there. And given the fast-paced nature of these negotiations and the interest in the Sox to quickly move ahead, I`m not so sure there is time to link it to anything. The owners want to move and move fast.”
In Florida, House Speaker Jon Mills cracked a smile and laughed with Florida reporters when he heard about the reaction in Springfield.
”That`s the kind of thing I like to hear,” he said. ”Maybe I`ll get tickets for Opening Day.”