Dave Stewart Talks Buying Chicago White Sox With Ricky Cobb

Former Major League Baseball legend Dave Stewart joined OutKick’s The Ricky Cobb Show to talk the modern game, how pitchers are handled compared to his era, and his potential interest in helping rescue one of baseball’s worst organizations.

In a wide-ranging interview, Cobb first asked him about the differences in pitching compared to the 1980’s, when starters would routinely pitch deep into games and accumulate 250+ innings in a season.

“You were out there every fifth day taking the ball, working into the eighth and ninth inning frequently, what has changed in the game,” Cobb asked.

“The way that they train pitchers now, pitchers now are max effort guys from first pitch to last pitch, the art of pitching as we know it is kinda gone away in the game,” Stewart said. “I wasn’t a max effort guy, I didn’t throw my fastball as hard as I could throw it. I definitely didn’t throw my breaking ball as hard as I could throw it, and the forkball, which was my best pitch, was a pitch that I could throw at 72 to 79 miles per hour. It’s the art of pitching, the art of pitching has left the game.” 

Stewart also explained that the “league doesn’t trust that these guys are capable of thinking their way through a lineup for three or four times, and so there are just a lot of different equations in why the game is different now when it comes to starting pitching.”

Oakland Athletics former pitcher Dave Stewart. Photo: Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports

Dave Stewart Hits On Changing Strategy, Ownership With Ricky Cobb 

Stewart also said he believes that baseball needs to go back to “more of the traditions that were involved in the game when the game first began.” For the safety of pitchers and injury prevention, for example, there needs to be more focus on getting hitters out with craft, not overpowering them. 

Cobb moved on to ask him about what it means for the Oakland Athletics to be moving to Las Vegas, with a detour in Sacramento starting with the 2025 season. To Stewart, it’s “embarrassing” for a major league team to play in a minor league stadium. 

One way to ensure that kind of embarrassment doesn’t happen again in MLB is to have better ownership groups. To that end, Stewart is involved in “Smoke 34,” an ownership group hoping to bring baseball to Nashville with an expansion team. And he’s optimistic that Nashville could be a destination in the next few years. “I’m under the assumption that if everything goes well with the CBA, there’s no work stoppage, that we can, at least, set our sights on being in a position in 2029 to play baseball in Nasvhille” Stewart explained.

Cobb also brought up that Stewart was linked to a potential sale of the Chicago White Sox, if current owner Jerry Reinsdorf decides to sell. Lending fuel to the fire, Stewart said he “doesn’t feel comfortable commenting on” potential interest there.

It’d be a boon for baseball to get Reinsdorf out in Chicago, and bring in a new ownership group committed to winning. Several other organizations, including the Baltimore Orioles, have demonstrated how quickly teams can turn their fortunes around when they have the right support. Stewart could bring that to Chicago, or maybe a new team in Nashville too.  

Check out the full interview below: