Attention to Detail

On Saturday, White Sox rookie Dan Palka got his first major-league hit, then added three more for good measure, including a three-run homer.  The Tribune, which couldn’t be bothered to assign a beat writer to the Sox for part of spring training, misspelled Palka’s name as “Palko,” not once, not twice, not thrice, but, yes, four times, apparently once for each hit.  If misery in fact loves company, at least Palka found himself in pretty good company Sunday, courtesy of WGN-TV producers and the White Sox announcers.

Every broadcast the announcers, who are too cute by half for my tastes, like to play a little game of “White Sox Math,” where viewers are supposed to add this, multiply that, subtract  something else in order to come up with a right answer; the this, that and the other tends to be a mix of Sox trivia and details from recent games.  But on Sunday our clever duo really outdid themselves with their question.

The first clue had to do with shortstop Luis Aparicio’s uniform number (eleven). That figure was then to be added to the age Aparicio would have turned on Sunday his birthday, “if he were still alive,” according to the graphic.  Only there are no if’s, ands or buts about it.  The Hall-of-Fame shortstop did turn 84 because he’s quite alive.  Baseballreference.com even wished Aparicio a Happy Birthday, if only someone had bothered to check.

Usually an inning or two after the question goes up, a second graphic shows the math with the correct answer, though I didn’t see it yesterday, or hear an apology.  Oh, there might have been one, but I tend to watch games with the sound off because I don’t do clever.