One of the Family

Today’s peek into the bizarre world known as Tribune sports is the page-one column, “Bears see a culture of winning in Cubs,” notable for two reasons.  First, it links the only two teams the Trib really cares about.  Second, well, it’s downright bizarre.

 

And I don’t mean that Cubs’ manager Joe Maddon takes up much of the column extolling first-year Bears’ coach Matt Nagy.  Right now, Maddon is trying not to be Captain Smith of the Titanic.  You wish him well, but you don’t want him talking about you, unless maybe you’re Captain Turner of the Lusitania.   

 

I don’t imagine the writer of the piece knows about either captain, or the history of the families of the teams he’s writing about.  The Bears project amiable dysfunction in the person of principal owner Virginia McCaskey while the Cubs are an evolving study of the feudin’ Ricketts.  In the latest email dump courtesy of Deadspin, any Ricketts’ sibling not named Tom seems to resent any publicity sent the way of all Ricketts named Tom.  This on top of old man Ricketts showing himself to be pretty much of a racist and the entire family demonstrating a penchant for wanting to crush all opposition to plans for what the area around Wrigley Field should be.  Just ask Ald. Tom Tunney about that.

 

The column’s right to link the Bears and Cubs, though; they’re part of the tapestry that is Chicago sports’ ownership.  The grandchildren of Charles Comiskey so hated one another they let the team slip out of family control, and let’s not forget the Hawks’ Bill Wirtz, who both feared and resented his son and successor, Rocky.  As for Jerry (White Sox) and Michael (Bulls) Reinsdorf, there you have an object lesson in the difficulties some people have in finding their butts with their hands.

 

They’re all one big happy family.      

Coming Clean

I don’t know what I expected to find in today’s Tribune sports’ section.  With both the Cubs and White Sox off, there could have been a multipage spring profile of the Monsters.  But it was just one small Bears’ story—working on depth in the defensive backfield—to go with a bombshell admission from a columnist:  Losing affects coverage at his place of employment.  Except for the Bears, of course.

 

Here’s what he said.  “The Sox already are seeing the effects of the constant losing, including a reduction in coverage by the Tribune.”  Now, why would he write that, you ask?  My guess is two reasons.  First, he’s probably making a public gesture in response to all the emails and phone calls he’s gotten on the subject, and, second, he’s going public as a way to inform his editors he’s tired of all the emails and calls.

 

Here’s the good part—this is all on the Sox.  Never mind that he Tribune has heaped coverage on the Cubs and Bears regardless their records, “the truth is people generally are more interested in reading about or watching reports on teams that have a shot at contending.”

One other point of interest is Eloy “Jimenez has to be as good as advertised for this franchise to get to where it needs to be.  It’s Eloy or bust.”  Because winning is everything, except at Soldier Field most years.      

  

Day One Scorecard

Your official Chicago Tribune Opening-Day scorecard reads:  Chicago Bears, two stories (one front page, one back page); Cubs, two stories; and White Sox, one (again, not done by a beat writer, unless a longtime columnist finds himself demoted).

 

As for the Sox 5-3 loss to the Royals, we’ll lead with the good news: Yoan Moncada looked comfortable both at third base and at the plate; Daniel Palka made a nice back-to-the-wall leaping catch in right field; and the team rallied for three runs in the ninth, even loading the bases with two out.  For what it’s worth, I thought Yolmer Sanchez had himself a bases-clearing double that turned into the final out.  Next game, for sure.

 

Now, the bad news: Eloy Jimenez looked anxious going 0-3 with two strikeouts; mediocre starting pitching courtesy of Carlos Rodon, who can’t seem to get out of the sixth inning; crappy defense as evidenced by three errors; crappy relief pitching that coughed up KC’s margin of victory; and nonexistent hitting until the ninth.  Everything gets fixed by next game, for sure.

 

The best part of the day for me was interacting with the child who is my 27-year old daughter.  Phone calls asking for weather updates (rain in KC) and what station the Sox were on, followed by texts—Eloy looks nervous, Chris Sale gave up seven runs in three innings, what does Dad think?  The last concerned three pictures of Clare swinging a length of PCV pipe in her living room.  The hitter is starting light as she works her way back from labrum surgery.

Just for fun, I said she was opening her hips up too fast.  The pictures showed no such thing, but I need to get ready for April Fool’s.          

 

Last Time, I Promise

Last Time, I Promise

 

Today, Opening Day 2019, and the Tribune deigns to give the White Sox one story (not done by a beat writer, by the way), vs. two for the Cubs and the Bears.  But the Bears don’t open for another five months and change, you say.

 

Yes, but who doesn’t want to read an interview with team chairman George McCaskey that takes up most of the back page?  Other than me, that is.  

Like a Broken Record (If You Know What That Is)

Like a Broken Record (If You Know What That Is)

 

Today, one day before Opening Day, I opened the Tribune sports’ section, and guess what?  The Bears were on page one again, with the entire back page—no ads to reduce coverage, mind you—devoted to news of the monsters.  And the White Sox, you ask?  They got two stories and a recap, all in one column on page five.  One of the stores was from the AP.

 

But, Doug, you might advise, get with the electronic age.  OK, so I went online and found pretty much the exact same thing.  I like how stories relate to one another on the printed page; layout is, or was, both an art and a necessity in newspaper production.  So, I went to the digital version of the paper first, and guess what?  The digital sports’ section was an exact copy of my morning paper.  The Sox were again relegated to page five.

 

Hardcopy or electronic, the Tribune has stopped providing box scores for all NHL and NBA games.  Today, it was one hockey and two basketball box scores; the Bulls made the cut but not the Hawks.  As for the transactions’ section, forget it.  The Tribune would have you believe nobody in professional sports is being signed, cut or traded.  I’m talking both the hardcopy and electronic versions, here.

 

Now, I could go to the latest sports’ stories and just start scrolling down.  (Is there anything sadder in life than to see human beings scrolling, scrolling with index finger to screen?)  And I will get something not in the paper, yet.  My experience has been that stories are always electronic and hardcopy, never one or the other.  All I’m doing by going online is reading tomorrow’s morning edition early.  Big deal.

No box scores, no transactions' section, no long-term future that I can see.

Can't be Bothered

God, give me strength.  It’s been a tough six months between deaths and bad weather.  Then, on Sunday we took Clare and Chris out to dinner with a $250 gift certificate.  We ran up a bill of $337.  Just so you know, I had a seven-ounce steak.

 

Sports is one of those things in life that’s supposed to help make living bearable, and maybe it would if I could just keep track.  But the Tribune won’t let me.  I pull out the sports’ section today—48 hours from Opening Day, mind you—and what do I find but a front-page Bears’ story and two more on the inside.  Ooh, a feature on one of the Bears’ offensive lineman.  It’s like I died and didn’t go to heaven.  And don’t tell me the electronic version of the Trib sports’ section is any better or different because it’s not.

 

At least the Sun-Times goes through the motions of caring about baseball.  The other week they included this gem by White Sox prospect Danny Mendick:  “I was telling my parents, ‘I played against Mike Trout.”  The 5’10” infielder from Rochester, NY, was a 22^nd round pick in the 2015 out of U Mass-Lowell.  As of last night, Mendick was batting .353 with 11 RBIs.  This is a spring-training story that virtually writes itself.

 

Oh, wait.  The great Chicago Tribune couldn’t be bothered to send a beat reporter to cover the White Sox, not when there’s Bears’ coverage to manufacture.           

Possible Regrets

Vanderbilt basketball went 0-18 in the SEC this season, which could explain why head coach Bryce Drew was fired over the weekend.  Drew headed the Commodores (and how I love to write that) to a 40-59 record and one NCAA appearance over three seasons.

 

Drew was BMOC when Clare attended Valparaiso.  First, of course, was “the shot,” the last-second three-pointer Drew put up for Valpo to beat Mississippi in the 1998 NCAA tournament.  Then there was Drew’s coaching record at Valpo, 124-49 in five seasons with two NCAA and two NIT appearances.  That alone was enough to ensure continuation of the “Drew Dynasty” at Valpo, where dad Homer or sons Scott or Bryce had led the basketball program since 1988.  But Vanderbilt came calling in 2016 and offered a reported six-year, $16.3 million deal.

Bryce Drew led his new team to the NCAA tournament his first year, after which things didn’t go so well (see above).  So, now Drew is a rich ex-coach in the way Ozzie Guillen is a rich ex-manager.  The Bealtes said money can’t buy you love.  Did they mean happiness, too?