Thome's 500th: Even Sox Fans Don't Want More Ozzie

You may have seen the following story, in which the fan that caught Jim Thome's 500th homer gave it back to him - without a price.

Jim Thome had something special in mind for his 500th home run ball: he wanted to make a road trip with his father to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY to hand-deliver the small piece of history. He can now do that after hitting the milestone dinger at U.S. Cellular Field on Sunday and retrieving the ball from Will Stewart, the generous fan who caught it and gave it back.

The Sox, who obviously were falling all over themselves to give as much stuff to this guy as possible (and rightly so), announced they'd be giving the guy a bunch of signed stuff, and two season tickets for next year.  Back to Mr. Stewart, apparently eager for a little South Side potlatch:

In another truly altruistic move, Stewart elected to donate the two season tickets to the charity of Thome's choice. The tickets will be auctioned off during the Joyce Thome Benefit for the Children's Hospital of Illinois, an event named in honor of Thome's late mother.

"As I'm from Austin, Texas, and not from the great city of Chicago and not able to use the season tickets, I've asked to donate the season tickets to your charity for use," Stewart said. "That's the best thing I can think of to give back to the city of Chicago."

Obviously it's an incredibly generous move, but nobody seems to have considered this:

1. The Sox are terrible.
   
2. The Sox have virtually the same cast of characters coming back next year, including Ozzie Guillen, the Charlie Weis of Major League Baseball.
   
3. The season tickets were for next year, which is probably too early for the team to transform itself.

Perhaps Mr. Stewart's vaunted generosity is not quite such an expression of kindness, and more one of self-preservation.  As goes the old joke:

MAN: Honey, somebody broke into the season ticket stash!
WOMAN: Did they take the two season tickets for the 2008 White Sox?
MAN: Even worse!  They left four more!