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Couldn't take it, had to write editorial about Sox coverage


caulfield12

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to my hometown Quad City Times newspaper after seeing their baseball preview edition this morning...

 

I have never seen so much Cubs/Cardinals bias in my life. I mean, I know your son is named after Ryne Sandberg, but can you try to be a little more objective/fair/unbiased in your major league baseball coverage? Since I have to put up with the QC Times while I back in the US for 2 months, that would be very helpful of your crack staff.

 

On your preview page, you listed 7 "individual" reviews/predictions for the Cubs, 5 for the St. Louis Cardinals, 3 for the Minnesota Twins, 3 for the Royals (umm...they've had one .500+ season in more or less two decades), 2 for the Indians and JUST one for the White Sox.

 

What's really embarassing that you couldn't come up with a more equitable amount of articles for the White Sox, really...it's not like they draw 500,000 fans and the Cubs 5,000,000. In reality, the White Sox have been averaging 2+ million in attendance over the last 4 seasons, not to mention only four years ago, the World Series title, but you probably buried that behind the obituaries page I'm guessing. Maybe I can get a free copy of that article with an Obama souvenir edition?

 

Then the letters you print, the experts must have gone to Baseball for Dummies for assistance. I won't pick apart every single one, but I'll just look at one. It really seems like some of these fans have knowledge about as deep as an AIG profitability and ROI report.

 

 

 

Indians (bottom right corner of print version):

 

 

 

1) Ummm...no, Choo will the starting/everyday RF, not the LF.

 

2) David Dellucci...please try to insert name Ben Francisco for LF, thank you very much.

 

3) DeRosa solid on defense? Do they provide all Cubs' fans with psychedelic mushrooms to make them believe only the best possible thoughts about their Cubbie heroes? DeRosa is about as solid defensively as a DQ Blizzard after 15 minutes in the August sun, not to mention Peralta and Victor Martinez are atrocious as well

 

4) Nothing on Travis Hafner, who has shrunk this offseason into Eddie Gaedel

 

5) No mention of Pavano, Reyes or Lewis as the very shaky back of the rotation

 

6) No mention of the loss of Fr. Gutierrez and his GG-caliber defense in the OF

 

 

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QUOTE (thedoctor @ Apr 5, 2009 -> 09:56 AM)
is it staff coverage or wire coverage?

 

 

No, it's from their panel of local "fan experts" that are subscribers to the newspaper...I think the two youngest are 10 and 11, but there are about 30 small "predictions" for the season and their favorite teams...and only one of them was about the White Sox.

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QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 5, 2009 -> 09:52 AM)
1) Ummm...no, Choo will the starting/everyday RF, not the LF.

 

2) David Dellucci...please try to insert name Ben Francisco for LF, thank you very much.

 

3) DeRosa solid on defense? Do they provide all Cubs' fans with psychedelic mushrooms to make them believe only the best possible thoughts about their Cubbie heroes? DeRosa is about as solid defensively as a DQ Blizzard after 15 minutes in the August sun, not to mention Peralta and Victor Martinez are atrocious as well

 

4) Nothing on Travis Hafner, who has shrunk this offseason into Eddie Gaedel

 

5) No mention of Pavano, Reyes or Lewis as the very shaky back of the rotation

 

6) No mention of the loss of Fr. Gutierrez and his GG-caliber defense in the OF

Choo is starting in LF because of triceps injury according to a couple of sources that I've read like rotoworld. As for DeRosa, I would say he's a solid 3B. He's certainly not a solid 2B where he played for the Cubs.

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QUOTE (sircaffey @ Apr 5, 2009 -> 12:00 PM)
Choo is starting in LF because of triceps injury according to a couple of sources that I've read like rotoworld. As for DeRosa, I would say he's a solid 3B. He's certainly not a solid 2B where he played for the Cubs.

 

A triceps injury to who?

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QUOTE (sircaffey @ Apr 5, 2009 -> 12:20 PM)
Choo. Moving him there at least to start the season because of the shorter throws.

 

Doesnt seem like a good idea to have him out in the field at all if his triceps are bothering him that much.

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QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 5, 2009 -> 11:31 AM)
No, it's from their panel of local "fan experts" that are subscribers to the newspaper...I think the two youngest are 10 and 11, but there are about 30 small "predictions" for the season and their favorite teams...and only one of them was about the White Sox.

 

Well, it's just dumb to have fans write the preview. That's their first mistake.

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From: Don Doxsie

Subject: RE: Are we to believe the QC Times is also owned by Tribune Co.?

To: [email protected]

Date: Monday, April 6, 2009, 9:32 AM

 

 

I'm not sure you quite understand our fan-experts program, which is now in its sixth year. We run frequent items in the paper and online inviting readers to become our "expert'' on the team of their choice. We don't turn anyone away. We allow these people to express their own opinions whether we (or you) agree with them or not. You can hardly hold it against us that we had seven volunteers for the Cubs, five for the Cardinals and only one for the White Sox.

 

Perhaps that's an indication that there aren't many White Sox fans here. Maybe we really should have a Cubs/Cardinals bias. As it is, we don't. We had one full-length story on each of those teams on Page 5 of Sunday's sports section. The headlines were almost all exactly the same size. The stories were of similar length (the Cardinals one appeared to be a bit shorter). And the main photo on the front of the section was Ozzie Guillen. It almost looked like we had a White Sox bias.

 

Thanks for the feedback.

 

Don Doxsie

Assistant managing editor, Sports

Quad-City Times

(563) 383-2280

 

 

 

By that same principle, you shouldn't cover ISU or UNI or University of Illinois because there's a similar disproportionality in the ratios of fans and readership in favor of Iowa, and you are on the Iowa side of the river, correct?

 

Having Guillen (or Piniella) on the cover is simple...it's all about selling papers, and both those guys are popular. I am sure there is a list of about 10 Cubs players that would be the 2nd/3rd choice after the managers before someone like Carlos Quentin, Danks, Buehrle, Konerko, Thome, Dye or Alexei Ramirez would be on the front page. No different than putting Obama on the cover everyday, it sells more copies.

 

I understand the Tribune had a financial stake in the Cubs' success, But 7-1 or 5-1 ratio is pretty embarassing...and you would have to admit that if you were running the newspaper, almost all of the coverage would be about the Cubs. So really it comes down to the editor/s and columnists, right? Isn't it kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy, if you perceive there aren't enough White Sox fans, or if Hy-Vee only sells Cubs and Cardinals paraphernalia.

 

How do you explain the hundreds of thousands of fans in Chicago for the victory parade in 2005? I doubt many of them were Cubs' fans, right? Just because White Sox fans are more skeptical and we don't believe the prognostications of Baseball Prospectus or ESPN/Red Sox/Yankee Nation doesn't mean we don't exist in significant numbers. I mean, I'm pretty sure you will vote for Sammy Sosa for the Hall of Fame and against Frank Thomas, right?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by caulfield12
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So basically there are no White Sox fans besides me in Iowa. Just goes to show you how poor the White Sox have been marketed that there are more Twins, Royals and Cardinals fans here 3 hours away from Chicago than White Sox fans. Embarassing. I guess I should join KW and accept the reality that the White Sox will never be anything more than a 2nd tier team...even if they win the AL Central 14 seasons in a row like the Braves did.

 

Only grandmothers who go to Wrigley Field on summer tour buses with floppy hats overloaded with Rafael Palmeiro and Mark Grace buttons.

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QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Apr 6, 2009 -> 10:44 AM)
So basically there are no White Sox fans besides me in Iowa. Just goes to show you how poor the White Sox have been marketed that there are more Twins, Royals and Cardinals fans here 3 hours away from Chicago than White Sox fans. Embarassing. I guess I should join KW and accept the reality that the White Sox will never be anything more than a 2nd tier team...even if they win the AL Central 14 seasons in a row like the Braves did.

 

Only grandmothers who go to Wrigley Field on summer tour buses with floppy hats overloaded with Rafael Palmeiro and Mark Grace buttons.

Why don't you volunteer to be a White Sox expert. He said they don't turn anyone away. That would make 2 Sox fans.

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QUOTE (zenryan @ Apr 6, 2009 -> 06:28 PM)
what the f*** is a quad city?

Four cities that make up a metropolitan area.

 

In this case it's Davenport, Iowa; Moline, Illinois; Rock Island, Illinois; and Bettendorf, Iowa; with East Moline, Illinois thrown in.

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