A Tempest in a Tribune

Today the White Sox re-signed one of our most iconic players, and the Chicago Tribune lost any hope of continuing to cover up one of its most endemic errors. On Jan. 11, 2007, the Chicago Tribune declared "the end of an era on the South Side" because, according to their eagle-eyed reporting, pitcher Mark Buehrle was gone. Here are the exact words from Tribune reporter Dave van Dyck:

It should not be surprising that Sox general manager Ken Williams will not try to re-sign the team's recognized pitching leader after giving him a chance for an extension last spring.
"With the market as it is, I don't anticipate making that overture again," Williams said recently.
In other words Buehrle's $9.5 million this year will be his last salary from the Sox, who should have younger (and cheaper) options by next season.
It will be the end of an era on the South Side, with Buehrle having helped usher in the new winning feeling in 2000.

Buehrle signed a new four-year contract with the White Sox today, but it didn't take half a year for the error of van Dyck's reporting to become obvious. It was obvious to many Sox fans on the day van Dyck's story appeared. Anyone who knows Ken Williams could see that van Dyck's "in other words" interpretation of Williams' quote was an egregious — and probably malicious — misinterpretation.

Williams and Buehrle said as much in subsequent days. Here's Williams at SoxFest in January:

"I should know better now than to answer direct questions with direct answers. I have to change the way that I'm doing this job.... In an effort to be truthful, honest, candid—it just doesn't work. On the surface, it would work if everything you said, every channel it went through after you said it, it would be interpreted the same way, in the same context. But that's not just the case. That's not just reality."

And here's Buerhle the very next day:

"It's something that some of the media people took differently and ran with it."

But the Tribune never corrected its error. On the contrary, Tribune reporters did their utmost to drive a wedge between White Sox fans and White Sox management by stoking a controversy where no legitimate controversy ever existed. And sadly, most of this town's media followed along. All the Sox and Buehrle ever needed was time to talk. But for six months we've had to listen to sanctimonious reporters preaching about the sin of trading Buehrle while scarcely concealing their hope that the Sox would trade him away. Here's Tribune "baseball expert" Phlip-Phlop Rogers:

By failing to prioritize the signing of his most marketable arms, White Sox general manager Ken Williams has committed himself to constructing future rotations around Jose Contreras, the oldest of the five 2006 starters, and Vazquez, the only one of the five who has a losing career record (100-105, including 11-12 season a year ago).... Make no mistake about it. Buehrle, eligible for free agency after this season, and Garland, signed through 2008, are going to follow Garcia (traded to Philadelphia for pitching prospects Gavin Floyd and Gio Gonzalez) out of town unless they compromise value to stay. On the one hand, that's the way the business works. But on the other, it still seems remarkable that a team would fail to do some heavy lifting to keep home-grown foundation pieces like Buehrle and Garland.

Make no mistake about it, Phlip-Phlop is just as wrong in July as Vandy was in January. The Sox re-signed Garland after 2005, re-signed Contreras in 2006, re-signed Vazquez at the start of 2007, and re-signed Buehrle today. And Danks has proved worth more than McCarthy and Garcia combined. All the controversy we've read about starting pitching has been a tempest in a Tribune. Anywhere outside of the Cubune Tower, the Sox have done a great job pinning down a solid rotation.

It's no accident that the White Sox announced Buehrle's signing to the Sox fans at U.S. Cellular Field today instead of feeding it to a bunch of malicious gossips at a press conference.