Don't Trod on the Trib

As the prior post confirms and any sports message board of note indicates, yes, apparently there's cause for debate over the racist T-shirt being sold outside and worn inside of Wrigley Field. To some, objecting to a T-shirt depicting Cubs star outfielder Kosuke Fukudome as a slant-eyed mockery out of the Mickey Rooney school of caricature is tantamount to political correctness gone wild. Perhaps it's just the yahoos who take the time to comment on message boards, but a scan of comments on the issue indicate there's a plurality of sports fans who feel that someone who objects to such blatant racism must be some kind of sensitive wuss.

And then there's Sean Deveney, the Chicago-based baseball writer for Sporting News. Sean publishes a weekly "power poll" of MLB teams, which often includes clever or insightful comments about each team in the rankings.

Having pummelled the hapless Pirates six times already in this young season, the Cubbies have surged to No. 5 in his April 21 poll. The accompanying comment is also worthy of a pummelling:

There have been complaints about racist T-shirts celebrating Kosuke Fukudome around Wrigley Field. It is demeaning, uncalled for and pretty bad, but it’s not John-Wayne-in-The-Fighting-Seabees bad.

For those of you unfamiliar with Deveney's oddly apologetic reference to a movie more than six decades old and released when the U.S. was at war with the Japanese being demeaned, John Wayne's character in the movie refers to the Japanese as "bug-eyed monkeys." So, Deveney apparently is saying, this Fukudome shirt may be pretty out of line, but y'know, it's more righteous than a shirt that would have been stitched, say, 64 years ago.

Wow, perspective. Deveney, dude, you really nailed it for all of us.

It's not a matter of course to address the national media in this space, but Deveney's flip comment isn't necessarily just foolishness running rampant. It reflects a pattern of genuflection and fear--subconscious or not--that even an established media member such as Deveney feels when he dares trod upon one of the mighty Trib's holdings.

After all, the "poll" is still running at Tribune.com: Is a shirt with "Horry Kow" on the front and Kosuke Fukudome's name on the back OK?

Yes, for some 12 hours and counting, the Tribune actually has been asking its readers whether a shirt depicting a slant-eyed Asian on the front who cannot speak intelligible English and emblazoned on the back with the name of its prized, $48 million baseball-playing employee, is "OK."

Here's a better poll, and Tribune, you're encouraged to steal it: Isn't it sad that you're asking the question?

--Brett Ballantini