White Sox could leave Chicago after latest surprising ownership development

Wednesday brought the first ray of sunshine in what's been a very dark year for fans of the Chicago White Sox, with news that reviled owner Jerry Reinsdorf was exploring a sale of the team. As long as Reinsdorf was around, staffing his front office with yes men and refusing to invest in a modern organization, it was hard to see things ever getting better on the South Side. With him out of the picture, maybe the White Sox had a chance to dig themselves out of a historically deep hole and drag themselves into the 21st century.

But if this season has taught us anything, it's that things can always get worse for this franchise. And sure enough, the first piece of good news they've gotten in a while was immediately followed by an existential threat.

Potential White Sox buyer could have sights set on Nashville

Buried in the report from The Athletic on Reinsdorf exploring a sale was a foreboding piece of information regarding who exactly he was looking to sell to. The group's name is Smoke34, led by former big-league pitcher, coach and executive Dave Stewart — the same Dave Stewart who made headlines last year for trying to bring an expansion MLB franchise to Nashville.

Stewart and Music City Baseball have been pounding the pavement for years now, securing support from within the state and lobbying commissioner Rob Manfred with the hope of bringing a team — the Nashville Stars — to town within the decade. Stewart has yet to comment on a potential purchase of the White Sox, so it's unclear what this means about the team's future in Chicago, but it's not hard to connect the dots here. We know that Manfred is keen to expand the league from 30 teams to 32, and we know that he wants to try and diversify the league's geographic footprint. Pulling the White Sox from a city that already has one Major League franchise to a city and region without one would seem to make all the business sense in the world.

Of course, this is all speculation at this point; Reinsdorf, for all his faults, is a Chicago guy, and we don't know how he would feel about the idea of the team he's owned for over 40 years leaving town. But it's also hard to believe that Stewart has abandoned his Nashville dreams in the past 18 months or so, and fans on the South Side could be in for even more heartbreak soon.