Mark
06-23-2005, 08:11 AM
I tried to let it roll off my back, but it didn't work. I really tried. I kept saying to myself "we don't care" but it didn't help. I can usually overcome the same old garbage, but this time, I couldn't.
Got home late last night from work and thumbed through the new SI for a few minutes. I came upon the lead editorial in the Scorecard section and felt my blood pressure rise a bit.
Seems as though another dose of unmitigated prickery from the media has found its way into the latest issue. Basically it was a waste of 3/4 of a page of "all hail" Cubs and "all who cares" White Sox.
A female anthropologist at the University of Chicago and devout Flub follower has done a study over the past four years of the Bleacher Bums, you know, that "bona fide community that demonstrates the essential traits of a neighborhood, a church congregation or even a family." Of course, Holly Swyers lived among the Bums for four seasons.
SI writer L. Jon Wertheim (he usually does tennis articles but decided to break some new ground here) buys into all this nonsense and of course the Scorecard page is co-edited by Mark "the White Sox are the least desireable team to root for in sports" Bechtel. How cute.
Wertheim include some real nuggets in support of Swyers and her "study":
* "But what about the family 10 miles to the south, in the ivy-less confines of U.S. Cellular Field? How do Wrigley Regulars (the substitute term for Bleacher Bums) compare with fans of the White Sox? The answer is, Nobody knows. And nobody, candidly, cares. It is safe to assume there are no scholarly White Sox works in the offing."
* "What Swyer's study does effectively--if inadvertantly--is underscore the notion that there are teams we embrace (Flubs) and teams we shrug off (Sox), and no amount of marketing, no upsurge in victories, changes that. In Chicago the Cubs will always be fawned over, the Sox more or less ignored."
* "The contrasting fates of the teams are now in particularly sharp relief. Through Sunday the Sox were 46-22, the best record in nbaseball, while the Cubds were a typically middling (WOW, A CORRECT FACT) 34-33. Yet the Sox were drawing 24,000 a game, 14,000 fewer than the Cubs. When the teams play at the Cell this weekend, the home fans could be outnumbered by the visitors'." (YEAH RIGHT)
* "The South Siders have plenty working against them. The team plays in a dodgy neighborhood in a park devoid of charm (GEE, SOUNDS LIKE THE NORTH SIDE TALKING POINTS, DOESN'T IT?). But most important, the Sox share a market with the Teflon franchise."
* "And when the Cubs lose, it isn't merely overlooked. It adds to the charm."
(THERE'S THAT FIGHTING FLUB SPIRIT)
* Swyers writes of Cub fans "Highs and lows cement the bonds. We just have more lows."
* Finally from Wertheim "Placed, as they are, before this fun-house mirror, some White Sox players have sarcastically suggested the team needs to lose more to draw better. Maybe they're on to something. The Sox are too good now. But as they're fond of saying at the Friendly Confines, wait till next year."
And the accompanying cartoon of Swyers (with her magnifying glass and pith helmet) intently studying two excited and enthusiastic Flub fans while a meek White Sox fan lingers in the background was just the icing on the cake.
Somebody far more eloquent and less agitated needs to fire off a missive to SI from OUR point of view. The e-mail address is "letters@SI.timeinc.com" I've written a few letters in the past and have never gotten a response other than that they were in receipt of the letter. Even when I pointed out an obvious mistake in one of the issues, it never mattered and was ignored. This probably won't either, but it's worth a shot.
I'm off to take a shower...Give Me George Bova or Give Me Death!!
Got home late last night from work and thumbed through the new SI for a few minutes. I came upon the lead editorial in the Scorecard section and felt my blood pressure rise a bit.
Seems as though another dose of unmitigated prickery from the media has found its way into the latest issue. Basically it was a waste of 3/4 of a page of "all hail" Cubs and "all who cares" White Sox.
A female anthropologist at the University of Chicago and devout Flub follower has done a study over the past four years of the Bleacher Bums, you know, that "bona fide community that demonstrates the essential traits of a neighborhood, a church congregation or even a family." Of course, Holly Swyers lived among the Bums for four seasons.
SI writer L. Jon Wertheim (he usually does tennis articles but decided to break some new ground here) buys into all this nonsense and of course the Scorecard page is co-edited by Mark "the White Sox are the least desireable team to root for in sports" Bechtel. How cute.
Wertheim include some real nuggets in support of Swyers and her "study":
* "But what about the family 10 miles to the south, in the ivy-less confines of U.S. Cellular Field? How do Wrigley Regulars (the substitute term for Bleacher Bums) compare with fans of the White Sox? The answer is, Nobody knows. And nobody, candidly, cares. It is safe to assume there are no scholarly White Sox works in the offing."
* "What Swyer's study does effectively--if inadvertantly--is underscore the notion that there are teams we embrace (Flubs) and teams we shrug off (Sox), and no amount of marketing, no upsurge in victories, changes that. In Chicago the Cubs will always be fawned over, the Sox more or less ignored."
* "The contrasting fates of the teams are now in particularly sharp relief. Through Sunday the Sox were 46-22, the best record in nbaseball, while the Cubds were a typically middling (WOW, A CORRECT FACT) 34-33. Yet the Sox were drawing 24,000 a game, 14,000 fewer than the Cubs. When the teams play at the Cell this weekend, the home fans could be outnumbered by the visitors'." (YEAH RIGHT)
* "The South Siders have plenty working against them. The team plays in a dodgy neighborhood in a park devoid of charm (GEE, SOUNDS LIKE THE NORTH SIDE TALKING POINTS, DOESN'T IT?). But most important, the Sox share a market with the Teflon franchise."
* "And when the Cubs lose, it isn't merely overlooked. It adds to the charm."
(THERE'S THAT FIGHTING FLUB SPIRIT)
* Swyers writes of Cub fans "Highs and lows cement the bonds. We just have more lows."
* Finally from Wertheim "Placed, as they are, before this fun-house mirror, some White Sox players have sarcastically suggested the team needs to lose more to draw better. Maybe they're on to something. The Sox are too good now. But as they're fond of saying at the Friendly Confines, wait till next year."
And the accompanying cartoon of Swyers (with her magnifying glass and pith helmet) intently studying two excited and enthusiastic Flub fans while a meek White Sox fan lingers in the background was just the icing on the cake.
Somebody far more eloquent and less agitated needs to fire off a missive to SI from OUR point of view. The e-mail address is "letters@SI.timeinc.com" I've written a few letters in the past and have never gotten a response other than that they were in receipt of the letter. Even when I pointed out an obvious mistake in one of the issues, it never mattered and was ignored. This probably won't either, but it's worth a shot.
I'm off to take a shower...Give Me George Bova or Give Me Death!!