Tribune's Buried Revelation of Cubs Coverup

The Tribune's Cubs beat reporter, Paul Sullivan, has confirmed our suspicions about a Cubs coverup involving the fan who tried to bean Jacque Jones. In a column today, Sully (that's what we call him when we want to sound like a Chicago media insider) writes:

The Cubs did a masterful job of stonewalling reporters over that incident. No one except manager Dusty Baker was available to discuss it, even though a security official addressed the team the next day in a closed-door meeting.

Cubs security officials were ordered to keep quiet, and to this day no one knows why a fan was able to throw a baseball at a player and not be held accountable for her action. Baker's explanation that the fan was simply drunk and oblivious--unable to distinguish the difference between throwing back an opponent's home run ball and throwing a ball at a Cubs player--was particularly weak.

The Tribune is, above all things, a media company. Tribune executives use the media to fill Wrigley Field and they know how to stifle bad news as well. If the fan had been arrested, ongoing legal proceedings would mean ongoing coverage of an ugly incident at a venue the Tribune's architecture critic describes as "a sacred garden" and "a place of joy."

But the shift in fortunes this year between the World Champion White Sox and the not-so-Lovable Losers is putting a lot of pressure on the Cubune paradigm, and one of the biggest cracks to appear is the increasingly forthcoming Paul Sullivan.

Sullivan buries the startling news about the Cubs coverup at the bottom of a column that says Michael Barrett was wrong to assault AJ Pierzynski, but praises Barrett for it anyway. First sentence to last:

Michael Barrett was completely in the wrong for punching A.J. Pierzynski in the face Saturday at U.S. Cellular Field.... But at least Barrett stood up for himself, his team and a moribund franchise that needs a few more players with a bit of fight in them.

Just where do you stand, Sully? The column also makes this ignorant, unsubstantiated claim about AJ Pierzynski: "There's a good reason he has been controversial in every clubhouse he ever has been in: It's all about A.J., all the time."

White Sox fans have gotten exactly the opposite impression: that with AJ, it's all about winning, all the time. To an obvious degree. That's why he becomes the target of frustration of someone like Barrett who's playing for a badly floundering team.

AJ Pierzynski is hitting .336 right now, tied with Joe Mauer for the highest average in the American League among regular catchers. AJ has taken his game to a higher level, a substantial fact that has gone unreported in all the reporting following the Barrett assault. If it was all AJ all the time, don't you think AJ would have mentioned his stats during all the unfortunate press that came his way in the last week?

AJ Pierzynski speaks with his game, he does it loudly and does it well, and losers hate him for it.