Tribune Ignores Wrigley Hooliganism

Thanks to CBS 2 News, and only to CBS 2 News, we now know of another fan-on-field incident at Wrigley. The Tribune has not covered this incident, or the subsequent court case, at all:

Man Pleads Not Guilty To Running On Wrigley Field
Kevin Kleine Charged With 2 Felony Counts

(AP) CHICAGO A 22-year-old northwest suburban man has pleaded not guilty to charges he ran onto Wrigley Field during a Cubs game.

Kevin Kleine of Hoffman Estates faces two felony counts of criminal trespass to a public place of amusement.

Officials say Kleine ran onto the field during the June 1 game against Atlanta after his friends agreed to pay him $400. He was quickly caught.

He is free on bond, and his next court date is scheduled for Aug. 27 in Skokie.

A second man faces similar charges. Officials say a barefooted Brent Kowalkoski sprinted across the field toward Cubs relief pitcher Bob Howry in late June before being tackled by a security guard.

Kowalkoski's lawyer wouldn't say why his client ran on to the field, but says the Elmwood Park resident was "under the influence."

Tribune Powders Cubbies' Bottom

Does it seem to you that the Tribune is going awfully easy on a Cubs "juggernaut" that has lost seven of its last 10 games? We seem to recall that just about every time the White Sox lost a game in the second halves of 2005 and 2006 the Tribune compared them to some spectacular collapse of the past, such as the 1969 Cubs, but so far the 2007 Cubs have been spared such indelicate comparisons. Last night, for example, they were pummeled 15-2 by the Colorado Rockies. Tribune headline: "Rocky stop for Hill." Well, it's a cute headline anyway. Almost as cute as the little cartoon baby bear on the toothpaste-blue pajamas worn by the company team.

In the midst of this darkening of Cubbie fortunes, Cubs beat reporter Paul Sullivan writes a thoughtful column titled, "Tribune Years Could End With a Bang." And we don't think he's referring to any Tribune executives eating a bullet in the tower's most stratospheric offices because here's the subhed: "No pennants but team in far better shape than in 1981."

Team in far better shape than in 1981? Isn't baseball in general in better shape than in 1981? If the Tribune has gotten the Cubs in better shape than in 1981, it has less to do with baseball than with an ingenious marketing strategy that, by casting journalistic ethics to the wind and exploiting all the Tribune's media properties, successfully redepicted, in the public mind, an empty crumbling ballpark as a "jewel" that now fills to the gills with drunks 81 times a year. On that basis, and that basis alone, the Tribune will get a billion dollars for selling the Cubbies. But, as Jesus might ask, "What does it profit a newspaper if it gain the whole world and suffer the loss of its soul?" Even with an extra billion in cash, the widely disrespected, increasingly irrelevant, and financially troubled Tribune will be in much worse shape than it was in 1981.

Fights Played Down and Played Up

It turns out that the Cubs' ingenious new slogan, "It's gonna happen!", recently featured in Sports Illustrated, was not developed by the geniuses in the Cubune Company Marketing Dept, who fathered such past triumphs as "lovable losers" and "everybody loves the Cubs" designed to fill a stadium despite a losing baseball team. No, this new slogan, inflected with the revolutionary notion of winning, comes from notorious Cub fan John Murray, famous for attacking Cubs reliever Randy Myers on the mound in 1995. Murray's slap on the hand consisted of a one-year ban from The Shrine (all Chicagoans should be so lucky), and now he's back at the forefront of Cub fan sentiment, printing "It's gonna happen!" on T-shirts, signs, and wristbands.

The Cubune Empire has been trying really hard to pretend Murray does not exist, especially when covering fan-on-field incidents on the South Side. But now this. According to the Tribune's Paul Sullivan, "The Cubs are aware of Murray's history and have asked Comcast SportsNet and WGN-Ch. 9 not to show Murray's signs during telecasts, according to team sources."

I mean, how can we maintain the carefully cultivated impression that these things only happen on the South Side if this guy keeps showing up on the North Side? Jeez.

Meanwhile, there's strife in the Milwaukee Brewers clubhouse, and who wouldn't be frustrated and embarrassed by letting the Cubs catch up to you? That's almost as bad as being swept by the Cubs at home. Anyway, the AP reported on a "tangle" in the dugout tunnel between a Brewers player and a coach.

The Cubs-owning Tribune ran the AP story, but in its headline, upgraded the "tangle" to a "brawl." AP used the terms "tangle, scuffling, nearly tangled, heated dispute, talk" to describe the incident, but Tribune wants you to think there was a riot up there. Never let the truth get in the way of the trophy.