Snubs all too familiar for Sox fans
Cubs coverage can get nauseating for some die-hard supporters of the South Siders
Some folks will be glad when it's over. They're sick of the divisiveness. Of one side being exalted by the media. It's so unfair. It's nauseating at times.
I'm speaking, of course, about the World Series between the Cubs and the Cleveland Indians.
I have to speak out on behalf of White Sox fans who are sick of playing second fiddle to the Cubs. There have been several recent egregious errors that Sox fans point to and say, “Do you see the media bias?”
“Chicago's first World Series in 71 years,” multiple media outlets have erroneously reported. Give me a break. Hello? Remember 2005? The White Sox? Chicago's other Major League Baseball team? The one regarded as inferior and second-rate even when the Cubs were awful and the Sox were winning.
On Monday, ESPN reported the number of professional sports championships won by the cities of Chicago and Cleveland since 1965. A graphic placed the tally at 10 for Chicago and one for Cleveland: the Cavaliers' 2016 NBA title.
The Chicago side of the graphic included six Bulls logos for their 1990s championships, three Blackhawks logos for their recent NHL titles and one Chicago Bears logo for the Super Bowl XX win.
Conspicuously absent from the graphic was a White Sox logo that would have honored the South Siders' 2005 World Series championship.
As of Tuesday afternoon, ESPN.com had yet to acknowledge the mistake, even though numerous media nationwide had reported the omission.
“Correctable errors involve a significant factual mistake, or materially change the implication or connotation of the reporting,” ESPN says of its corrections policy.
“This policy is not intended to cover inconsequential factual errors, such as minor statistical mistakes, inadvertent and immaterial misidentifications, minor inaccuracies in a developing story or font errors that don't impair the viewers' understanding of a story.”
I suppose White Sox fans are supposed to just forgive the mistake and forget one of the most dominant postseason runs in sports history, when the Sox went 11-1 in the playoffs en route to their first championship since 1917.
This wasn't a mere slip of a tongue. This was a scripted report on a national sports network that included a graphic that someone spent time creating.
The error was blatant and inexcusable. The fact it remained uncorrected 24 hours after its occurrence seems to justify the resentment many White Sox fans feel toward the Cubs.
But ESPN wasn't the only national outlet buying into the storyline that Chicago had somehow been starved of a baseball championship or even an appearance in the World Series for 71 years.
Also on Monday, “CBS This Morning” tweeted, “Wrigley Field is prepping this morning for an event Chicago hasn't seen in 71 years: the World Series.”
“Wrong,” Sox fans everywhere said when they learned of the slight.
Still, more than a day after the error, the Tweet remained published. “CBS This Morning” did not address its oversight, correct its mistake or apologize for the error.
To add insult to the injury, the mistake compounds the belief the Cubs are the only baseball game in town by ignoring not only the 2005 title but the White Sox appearance in the 1959 World Series, 57 years ago.
Even the Chicago Tribune in its Tuesday editorial omitted the 2005 White Sox in recounting the elation Chicago felt after the Bears', Bulls' and Blackhawks' championships dating back to Super Bowl XX.
Sox fans are sick of being Chicago's “other” baseball team. My brother-in-law Mark is a lifelong Sox fan, and he expressed his frustration in a comment on Facebook on Monday.
“It's constant,” he said. “It's not just ESPN, the Sox are even an afterthought in Chicago. They're Jan Brady: Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!”
There are varying degrees of Sox fans. There are die-hards who always root for the Sox and against the Cubs.
There are others who are “Chicago” fans, who usually cheer for their White Sox but who are rooting for the Cubs now because of the excitement associated with the team winning its first pennant since 1945.
I understand why a lot of die-hard White Sox fans aren't cheering for the Cubs. Year after year, 162-game season after season, the Cubs get preferential treatment in the media.
Their games are usually covered first in TV sportscasts, regardless of the outcome. The Cubs could lose and the Sox could win, yet the North Siders seem to typically get better play in the media.
It wears on them after a while. Some die-hard Sox fans are rooting against the Cubs in this World Series as a matter of principle.
You've got to admit, Cubs coverage has reached total saturation. In this age of the 24/7 news cycle, reporters and editors are exhausting every possible angle to come up with Cubs stories. I wouldn't be surprised to see stories like this:
“Coming up: An exclusive interview with Kris Bryant's third-grade teacher!”
“Photo gallery reveals vehicles driven by Cubs players,” or “Graphic shows why Cubs are the greatest ever.”
I see why many White Sox fans are sick of this nonstop gushing about the North Siders. Meanwhile, the White Sox are like the Rodney Dangerfield of baseball. They get no respect.
Sox fans can take comfort in the knowledge that one way or another, the worst of the Cubs hype and hoopla will end soon.
PREVIOUS ARTICLE
