Roch is pronounced “Rock,” of course. The last name is Cholowsky — please say “chill-OW-skee” on the South Side of Chicago. He loves Derek Jeter, and in 66 games last season at UCLA, he hit .353 with 23 home runs and 74 runs batted in. Shout it until those fireworks explode: Roch Cholowsky might be baseball’s next great shortstop with a franchise that should hug him before selecting him July 11.
But anyone admiring the overall No. 1 draft choice, as delivered to the White Sox at the Winter Meetings, might wonder today who will own the franchise. This column is not about Jerry Reinsdorf, shockingly. The community hope was that Justin Ishbia would take over the reins in 2029, if Reinsdorf decides to visit an old folks’ home — or in 2034, when he’ll be 98. Tuesday night, after Cholowsky brought long-lost glee to a dismal operation, another ESPN.com story questioned whether Ishbia and his brother, Mat, might lose control of the Phoenix Suns.
So much for engaging Chicago in a wintertime Roch Climb. What happens if Ishbia loses credibility and can’t buy the Sox? Good gosh, might Reinsdorf own them until he’s 150?
Together, Mat and Justin run an NBA franchise that has been flustered by controversy even after they bought the team from disgraced Robert Sarver. A lawsuit filed by two Suns minority owners claims Mat is running “a personal piggy bank” as majority owner, accusing him of financial misconduct. In their eyes, Ishbia soaked them in a $250 million capital call raise in July, forcing them to pay segments. Ishbia, they say, spent no money and watched the valuation of the Suns increase.
“As a result of Ishbia’s scheme to swap the debt for equity, Ishbia himself accordingly funded none of the new cash by the capital call deadline while the minority owners funded approximately 38% of it, despite owning only 13% of the company,” the filing says.
And thus: “Now that Ishbia’s failure to fund consistent with the terms of his own capital call has come to light, we believe (an) ownership stake is at risk of significant dilution from 83.2% to 32.7%.”
If so, Justin Ishbia might be investigated with his brother by NBA attorneys, currently probing whether the Los Angeles Clippers circumvented the league salary cap. Last month, Justin visited Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican, asking him “to bless the new stadium.” First of all, a new Sox stadium exists only in Ishbia’s imagination. Was he fibbing to the Pope?
“I don’t know when it’s going to occur, I can’t say an exact date, but, it will at some point,” he told the Sun-Times. “I asked him to bless the individuals and people who’ll be working on that stadium and the fans who will come to that stadium. I asked him to bless and wish for many years of good fortune. And I said we’re hopeful that with your blessings, it will be a place that creates joy and happiness — and many championships to come. I slid that part in there, so hopefully the man upstairs is going to acquiesce. We’ll see.”
For now, Justin might want to hang with Mat in the desert. A “personal piggy bank” is not what the Sox or Chicago need. Reinsdorf does not speak publicly about the future, but how can he not be interested in Phoenix flubbery? We plead again that he sells the team today or tomorrow. Might he find another owner who isn’t centered in a possible scam?
No one knows if Cholowsky, if chosen, will become the next Harold Baines, taken first in the 1977 draft. Or if he’ll become Danny Goodwin, who faded off as the first pick in 1971. The White Sox could lose more than 100 games for the fourth straight year. At least now they own a starpower flashlight, though the lease at Rate Field expires in 2029.
“It’s a significant, significant event for us, and it can’t be overstated how important it is,” general manager Chris Getz said. “We’ve been hard at work at bringing talent into the organization in different ways. Obviously, the amateur draft is an avenue, and now to be able to get a chance at the top talent in the draft is really exciting.
“We’re busy — good busy. Tonight, it’s really about getting the group together and celebrating the No. 1 pick.”
The group cannot include Justin Ishbia until the Suns are straight, narrow and clean. Chicago has waited 45 years for Reinsdorf to get off his ass and leave. The city will wait even longer if the next owner also has warts.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.