Tribune Raises Attendance Flag (and L Flag)

The very moment that the White Sox sweep the Cubs in Spring Training, attendance returns as the Tribune's primary baseball statistic, only now the Tribune is actually fascinated by Spring-Training attendance. It's right in the lede of Mark Gonzales' story:

TUCSON, Ariz. -- Cubs fans did the White Sox a favor Friday by contributing to the Sox's first sellout at Tucson Electric Park this spring.

Yes, that's the lede of a story about the White Sox beating the Cubs 7-6 yesterday. Gonzales continues a sentence later:

The Cubs saw their three-run, game-tying rally off Bobby Jenks in the ninth inning wasted when Rob Mackowiak's fourth single scored pinch-runner Ryan Sweeney with the winning run to give the Sox a 7-6 victory before a TEP crowd of 11,746, nearly 3,600 better than their next best figure.

Who says Cubs' fans get nothing for the millions they donate to Tribune? They get ammo for the GREAT ATTENDANCE COUNTERARGUMENT. Apparently, this is also spring training for people who make excuses about losing, and it looks like Gonzales is prepping Cubs fans for another ugly season.

Well, as a wise Cubune Watcher once said, "You can raise the attendance flag."

In fact, you can have the attendance flag. We'd rather find seats available when we want to go to a game. Besides, let us remember that only one team in Chicago has ever drawn 1.75 million fans on a single day: The Chicago White Sox.

Meanwhile, Back on the Field...

Gonzales was so busy counting spectators in the stands Friday that he overlooked an actual, on-the-field baseball statistic: Javier Vazquez's six strikeouts in a little over four innings. So Gonzales seems confused as to why the pitcher and his manager were happy with his outing:

(Vazquez) was pulled with two outs in the fourth after Derrek Lee's RBI single, but Vazquez and Guillen were pleased with the effort.

Hmm. Wonder why. How excellent would it be if Tribune sportswriters watched the game instead of the stands and their stock prices? Pretty excellent. It would be like reading a legitimate newspaper.