Soccer Dad

Smearin' Sammy

Baseball Musings criticizes the Chicago Tribune for its relentless criticism of Sammy Sosa:

Folks, you've made your point. Sammy has nothing to do with the Cubs anymore. You traded him for nothing, and no amount of negative publicity is going to change that or make the Cubs any better. Cubs fans aren't going to be loyal because the scourge of Sosa has been removed. They'll be loyal because you win. And if they see Sosa having a great year in Baltimore and the Cubs struggling to stay above .500, they're going to start wondering if the wrong person was run out of town.

But take my word for it, in 7 to 10 years when Sammy is a first ballot electee to the Hall of Fame, the Tribune will be trumpeting the great years Sammy had in Chicago and probably have a commemorative issue in his honor. After all then Sammy as hero will sell, and papers are nothing if not moneymaking operations.
How do I know? Because the Baltimore Sun was like this when it came to Eddie Murray. The Sun (or more precisely its columnists) ran Eddie out of town. While it became more respectful of Eddie when he came to Cleveland, the Sun was absolutely Eddie's biggest fan when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame. All the nastiness conveniently forgotten.
I was going to comment how the Baltimore Sun surprisingly didn't seem to be boosting the Sosa deal and speculate that the Sun was covering for its corporate parent the Tribune Company that also owns the Cubs. But the nastintess that Baseball Musings pointed to was originally reported for the Sun! This is really astonishing. That the paper of the city where the star is headed is engaged in such attacks on the new star! (About the nicest piece on Sosa was Laura Vecsey's fun "Love Machine" column.)
I guess that the Sun needs to run interference for its parent company. How better to protect the Tribune for its stupidity than to show a lack of enthusiasm for Sosa in his new hometown.

Posted by SoccerDad at February 13, 2005 04:20 PM | TrackBack