Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
September 12, 2005
The Bias Against the White Sox

Phil Allard interviews Rich Lindberg about the trials and tribulations of being a White Sox fan:

Phil Allard: I assume that if the White Sox won the World Series the headline in the Tribune the next day might be “Prior Says He’ll be Ready for Spring Training.”

RICHARD LINDBERG: You’ve got that right. I remember in ‘93 when Jordan announced his first retirement when the Sox were in the playoffs and Jordan completely dominated the headlines. The Sox got no press. You know, the Sun Times has this guy Jay Mariotti. He is the Howard Stern of baseball writers. He has a column and he has made Reinsdorf his whipping boy. It’s a personal vendetta. Reinsdorf tried to get him fired and of course it didn’t work and Mariotti increased his diatribe against Reinsdorf two notches. Everything he writes about the Sox comes up negative. A recent article was “Don’t Buy what Ozzie is selling.” Columnists will always find a subtle dig. If a player complains about playing time it’s brought to the forefront. I compare the White Sox coverage from the Sun Times and the Tribune with how other teams in the Central are covered by their home town papers and I see the positive level of enthusiasm in the single team cities.

Maybe Reinsdorf should start a competing newspaper.


Posted by David Pinto at 02:43 PM | Interviews | TrackBack (0)
Comments

The worst thing about Mariotti is that he's not even a competent writer. I'm reminded of Oscar Wilde's retort when asked if he thought a particular story was not immoral: "It was worse; it was badly written."

I suspect the people of Chicago were spoiled by Jerome Holtzman.

Posted by: Scott Janssens at September 12, 2005 03:02 PM

Allard's done a good interview here and asks the right questions. Lindberg's got all the answers too. As a CubHater, I love this. We need to see articles like this once in a while.

Posted by: Dennis E. at September 12, 2005 03:08 PM

Finally, someone agrees with me that Mariotti is incompetant. I personally am a cubs fan, but it makes me mad that he is always saying stupid things. Its more important to provide accurate information on the sport, the Sox have a great manager in Guillen and have been doing just about everything right.

Posted by: AJ at September 12, 2005 04:25 PM

Someone agrees with you, AJ? I'd hazard a guess and say that a good majority of the people who have ever read or met the guy instantly developed a dislike for him.

While I don't exactly love Guillen, Mariotti is an all out tool

Posted by: Will at September 12, 2005 04:41 PM

Mariotti is a fool, but he takes tons of shots at the Cubs as well. And the Cubs don't have anything to do with Michael Jordan stealing the Sox spotlight in 1993.

Even when it's painfully obvious that Jordan's selfish need for attention cut into an exciting White Sox season, Chicago writers will never admit it. I'm from Chicago and I hate Michael Jordan. Terrible role model for children. When you're as famous as he was, you can't be cheating on your wife and making ridiculous wagers.

Posted by: The Roto Authority at September 12, 2005 05:43 PM

Mariotti seems to have made a career for himself by cutting down players. I guess those who can, do. Those who can't, write about it in petty ways.

Posted by: rbj at September 12, 2005 06:12 PM
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