One of the favorite days of the year for Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf is the Friday of Baseball Hall of Fame induction weekend each July in Cooperstown, N.Y. He and Paul Beeston have an annual tradition of sitting on a bench behind The Otesaga Resort Hotel, overlooking picturesque Otsego Lake, and spending the entire afternoon catching up, smoking cigars and greeting visitors.
“I like to tell Jerry this is the bench where Babe Ruth sat,” Beeston said. “I don’t know if he actually did or he didn’t. But it’s a great story.”
The regular meeting is part of a deep friendship that is now well into its fourth decade and has been among the most impactful alliances in recent baseball history. Friends since the early 1980s, Beeston and Reinsdorf collaborated on a series of major projects, including the creation of MLB Advanced Media and the late 1990s reorganization of MLB’s central office, and the two are now fellow Hall of Fame board members.
Beeston and White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf (right) have been close since the early 1980s.jim courtney; getty images
The two at initial blush don’t necessarily have a lot in common. Reinsdorf, more than nine years older than Beeston, is a big-city guy who grew up in the shadow of Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field as opposed to the small-town upbringing of Beeston in Welland, Ontario. Beeston, meanwhile, predated Reinsdorf in MLB circles by more than four years, and admits he initially thought it was Reinsdorf’s former partner, the late Eddie Einhorn, who was primarily in charge of the White Sox.
But with shared backgrounds in accounting and common loves of baseball and cigars, the pair quickly built a tight bond.
“There’s nobody I hold in higher regard than Paul Beeston,” Reinsdorf said. “We’re talking about a guy with just boundless energy and somebody of great integrity. He’s incredibly detail-oriented and reads absolutely everything. And there’s just nobody more fun than Paul.”
Beeston holds Reinsdorf in similarly high esteem.
“You’re very fortunate if you find even one guy in your life like Jerry,” Beeston said. “I’ve got an immense amount of respect for his intellect. He’s got the guts of a burglar, highly principled, but most of all is my friend. And I’m very thankful for that.”
The pair’s prime movement on the development of MLBAM began at a dinner they had with then-MLB Executive Vice President Bob DuPuy on an internet economy that was just starting to blossom at the time. None of them truly understood what they were attempting to do. But there was a clear recognition of baseball’s massive potential in this area.
There’s nobody I hold in higher regard than Paul Beeston. We’re talking about a guy with just boundless energy and somebody of great integrity. He’s incredibly detail-oriented and reads absolutely everything. And there’s just nobody more fun than Paul.
Jerry Reinsdorf
Owner, Chicago White Sox
Among Reinsdorf’s key pushes was the notion of pooling the online rights for the equal betterment of every club, essentially creating a new form of revenue sharing, while Beeston played a sizable role in getting then-MLB Commissioner Bud Selig strongly behind the effort.
“It was all about the whole being greater than the sum of the parts, and you obviously see what MLBAM went on to become and then BAMTech out of that,” Reinsdorf said. “But that’s also Paul. There’s no ulterior motives about him, and it’s about what’s best for the game with him.”
Reinsdorf would later be a key source of protection for Beeston. In late 2014, Ed Rogers, the deputy chairman of Blue Jays owner Rogers Communications, asked Reinsdorf for permission to speak to White Sox Executive Vice President Kenny Williams for a senior executive role in Toronto. The role Rogers was looking to fill was ultimately Beeston’s job, a fact unknown to Beeston at the time until Reinsdorf alerted him.
The situation was part of a decidedly clumsy leadership transition for the Blue Jays by Rogers that was essentially punted by the organization until August 2015 when former Cleveland Indians President Mark Shapiro was named as Beeston’s successor.
“There’s no one like Jerry,” Beeston said. “The benefit you get in baseball are the people that you meet. And for me, Jerry has been such a terrific, terrific friend. We have had huge differences of opinion on a number of things, whether it be labor, whether it be international play, or whatever. But we can always discuss things and get along. And I always admire the way he can take a principled stand. I may not always agree, but he’s never one to just throw something out there.”
