Funeral services for late White Sox Minority Owner & Vice Chair EDDIE EINHORN, a team exec for 35 seasons who "spent six decades in the sports and broadcasting industries," will be held Sunday at noon at Louis Suburban Chapel in Fair Lawn, N.J., according to Scott Merkin of MLB.com. The team will honor Einhorn, who died from complications of a stroke Tuesday at the age of 80, by "wearing a sleeve patch during the regular season." Einhorn "worked as a vendor at Comiskey Park" from '59-60. He was the founder and chair of TVS Television Network, a "leader in sports programming" in the '70s. The TVS telecast of college basketball's "Game of the Century" between the Univ. of Houston and UCLA at the Astrodome in '68 is "credited for the growth in popularity of college basketball on television." The National Collegiate Basketball HOF "inducted Einhorn as a contributor" in '11 for his vision in founding TVS in '65 and "for his role in catapulting college basketball into national prominence." White Sox Head Athletic Trainer HERM SCHNEIDER said of Einhorn, "He was an interesting man and a great man. ... A lot of people didn't know how brilliant he was. He did a lot with (pro) wrestling. He did a lot with the NCAA Tournament, which is basically his brainchild." Merkin noted Einhorn as a member of MLB's Television Committee from '92-95 was a "key architect of The Baseball Network, MLB's joint broadcasting venture." He was also "instrumental in negotiating" MLB's '90 deal with CBS and ESPN. In '89, Einhorn was "appointed television consultant" to the USOC and was "responsible for a 200-hour Olympic television package" that debuted in '90 (MLB.com, 2/25). In Chicago, Colleen Kane notes Einhorn "helped found SportsVision, a short-lived subscription TV service that included the Sox and was criticized after its introduction" in '82, but was "perhaps ahead of its time" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 2/26).
ALWAYS INNOVATING: MLB.com's Phil Rogers wrote there was "very little on the sports landscape that Eddie Einhorn missed." He was "always ahead of the curve." He was also a "great asset to owners when they launched MLB Network" (MLB.com, 2/25). In Chicago, Barry Rozner writes Einhorn was "at least an innovator of the highest regard" and in some ways a "genius when it came to televising sports and monetizing a new world." He "never took himself too seriously." Unlike so many owners, he "didn't believe he was a star, and he understood fans come to the park to see the players" (Chicago DAILY HERALD, 2/26).
