Murder at the Friendly Confines, Part II

For the second year in a row, a spectator was shot on his way home from a Cubs game. Except, you won't read that angle in the Chicago media. It was the victim's family that pointed to the Cubs game: "He survived bombs, he survived bullets and all that over there in places like Fallujah, and he gets hit coming home from a baseball game," said Alex Cruz, the cousin of Iraq-war veteran Ricky Martinez, who was shot in the head April 25 near Addison and Cicero. Martinez remains in critical condition.

It's unclear from news reports whether Martinez was shot by someone who had been riding in his own car -- which means someone took a gun to a Cubs game -- or whether he was shot by someone on the street -- which means someone on Addison shot a Cubs fan -- but either scenario seems significantly more dangerous than anything experienced by Sox fans attending games at U.S. Cellular Field.

Last May, a 35-year-old man was shot to death at Clark and Addison, opposite the gates of the "friendly confines," two hours after attending a Cubs game.

But the Chicago media stick to their storylines, or rather story ruts, scaring families and tourists with portrayals of dangerously rowdy Sox fans and a neighborhood surrounded by curiously stereotypical pot-smoking poor black people, even though it isn't, while Wrigley remains a handsome, delightful, beautiful, perfect, roomy, joyful, sacred garden, even though it isn't, and you might get shot on your way home.