Joe Girardi and Jerry Reinsdorf chat before the game

Joe Girardi chats with Chicago White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf before game v Yankees in Chicago, 8/20/12, final 9-6 White Sox, ap

• Jan. 23, 1994, "Midwest Has a Grip On Game's Hierarchy," NY Times, Murray Chass

"One owner called it the Great Lakes Gang, the people who run baseball. With Selig of Milwaukee and Reinsdorf of Chicago considered the men at the top of the structure, the designation is apt.

There are the supporting members of the structure, too: Two other Chicago residents, Stanton Cook, chairman of the Cubs, and William Bartholomay, chairman of the Atlanta Braves, and others in relative geographical proximity, Carl Pohlad of Minnesota and Douglas Danforth of Pittsburgh, and by extension to the other end of Pennsylvania, Giles, in Philadelphia.

Wayne Huizenga of the Florida Marlins, Jerry McMorris of the Colorado Rockies, Drayton McLane of Houston and Peter Magowan of San Francisco don't operate anywhere near those bodies of water. Mike Ilitch of Detroit is closer, but he attends so few owners' meetings some of his colleagues might not recognize him.

"Bud operates with an executive council that's a flat laydown," said one owner, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "He wants people on that council who feel the same way. When you put two new people on the council, you get Giles and Reinsdorf. Do you get McLane, Huizenga, Ilitch? No way. The new owners are upset with the process."

Referring to the rapid return of Giles and Reinsdorf to the council, the owner said, "This is a shifting mass of consensus that keeps going all the time.""...

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