Score Bored

On page 15 in the main section of today's Tribune is a column by syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts, who complains about sports sponsorships in stadiums. Pitts focused on the New York Mets and Shea Stadium, with nary a word about Chicago.

So, what photograph do you think was used to illustrate the column?

Shea Stadium? No.
Yankee Stadium? Nope.
Shots of the new Shea Stadium? Sorry.
Artist renderings of the New Yankee Stadium? Get out of here.
The photo of the guy in the hardhat holding up the Ortiz jersey inside new Yankee Stadium? No.

The U.S. Cellular Field center-field scoreboard? Ding-ding-ding-ding, we have a winner!

Now, why do you think the Tribune wouldn't paste a pic of its own team's park, maybe a sweet shot of the newly-emblazoned Wrigley outfield doors, its sponsored bleachers, or even that yellow Chicago Board Options Exchange sign by the bullpen? Any of that would be free advertising, the Tribune's favorite kind for its Cubbies.

Guess it's the Tribune just tossing the White Sox a bone, huh?

Perhaps it's because of the budding firestorm surrounding naming rights for Wrigley Field. Or the fact that Tribune's own architecture writer, Blair Kamin, suggests that Wrigley should lose its landmark status for allowing a CBOE sticker, approximating paint, on an inner wall of the Shrine (bricks besmirched!).

Seems a whole lotta Tribune editors spent a whole lotta time growing up blaming their mistakes on unsuspecting, innocent siblings.

--The Lone Ranger & Brett Ballantini