Image of...Greatness?

The White Sox enjoy another convincing win. They retake sole possession of first place. And the once-suspect offense clobbers four more home runs to add to their major league-leading total, forcing even those Central Scrutinizers of the South Side, Tribune sports, to admit the game was a "home run parade" for the club.

You wouldn't know it from Mark Gonzales' lede in his game story. After pulling out his magnifying glass to find the weak spot in an otherwise stirring win for the White Sox, his calloused hands typed this gem:

Mark Buehrle got picked on at home Monday night for one of the few times this season.

And it gets so much worse from there. In just another example of snatching joy from doom, what's the subhead on Gonzo's game story?

Quentin hits another HR, defends image

Hmm...sounds like quite a scoop. Wonder what the dirt may be. Quentin has been found to be dropping his vulnerable left elbow over the plate to score more of those coveted hit-by-pitches? His rebuilt shoulder includes tendons culled from a newborn calf? His fabulous coif is the product of visits to the Hair Club for Men?

Nope, apparently this is yet more Gonzo Journalism, where he inserts a fake ("testing the GM's patience") storyline to keep the negativity fresh. Nowhere in his story (a game story, mind you, about a first-place club clobbering four homers and trouncing its opposition) does he reveal what "image" Quentin is defending.

It's truly guesswork, because no one at the Chicago Tribune Watch studied Gonzo Journalism while in J-School, but it appears that the "image" Quentin must defend is his tendency to provide guarded answers to questions.

Scandalous.

How many statues of a certain Flintstones-aided home run champ from the north side's past would already stand outside of The Shrine if that was the only image scrubbing he had to do?

Only in the Tribune's twisted world can arguably the clear-cut AL MVP through August 19, who just happens to play on the South Side, be feted with such a weak-kneed knock of a headline?

In the article, Gonzo mentions that Quentin has reached safely in 13 straight games, has been hit by 20 pitches, and has only had two streaks of two straight games without a hit all season long. Oh, and he's the top home-run hitter in the majors.

The only "image" portrayed in Gonzo's own copy is that of an MVP. Quentin has to defend that? From what? From who?

From the Tribune, of course, which consistently does a horrible job of acting indifferent to--much less objective toward--anyone on the South Side outplaying a cuddly Cubby.

Think this biased fish wrapper will give one-tenth its space and attention toward pushing Alexei Ramirez for AL Rookie of the Year as it will (and has) done so for fellow employee Geovany Soto in the NL?

--Brian Dykes and Brett Ballantini

Even When He Plays it Straight, He's Tricky

Dave Van Dyck witnessed history yesterday.

A quirky bit of history, yes, but history nonetheless. White Sox hitters Jim Thome, Paul Konerko, Alexei Ramirez, and Juan Uribe hit consecutive home runs in the sixth inning of Thursday's win over the Kansas City Royals.

Those of us who weren't there or watching the game are reliant on Tricky Van Dyck to provide the core details that put us right there in the park with him.

The ChicagoSports.com headline (Try as he might, Hall can't homer White Sox into record books) implies that after his four teammates launched dingers, White Sox catcher Toby Hall flew out to the warning track, hit a long foul (right size, wrong shape), or lined a sharp single to left that could have left the park with any elevation.

But Van Dyck's otherwise well-written sidebar, including quotes from all five principals involved, fails to answer one question: What did Hall do in his at-bat?

The closest we get to an answer is Hall saying of his failure to hit a fifth homer, "I was all done in," which even in the context of what details Tricky Van Dyck provides makes almost no sense.

For those of you who are still in the dark about Hall's at-bat, he struck out to snap the homer streak at four.

Given that this piece is such a rarity in how well-done it is, it feels a little mean to pick on the writer for omitting a single detail, even the most important detail of the story. But no sooner do the guilts set in when, predictably enough, you consider the lead story on ChicagoSports.com...



Clouds on a Sunny Day

If you're the Tribune and you seek to seize the negative in any positive Chicago White Sox development, how would you want your pinch-hitting beat writer, Dave Van Dyck, to handle the lede for the game story in which the following things happen:

• The White Sox win convincingly.
• The White Sox extend their first-place lead.
• The White Sox complete a sweep and a 7-3 homestand.
• The White Sox break the game open with four consecutive home runs, a feat achieved only six times in major league history.
• The winning pitcher is rookie Lance Broadway, 2-0 in his two career big-league starts.

Well, it goes without saying you would address none of those things.

Instead, you'd write about Broadway being sent back down to the minors immediately after the game. As Tricky Van Dyck puts it, "instead of celebrating with his teammates on their charter flight to Oakland"--as if the White Sox are "celebrating" anything with a one-game division lead--Broadway was demoted.

Any reputable media entity would discontinue its "new journalism" practice of seizing the negative. As mentioned below, it's terrific that Van Dyck wrote a sweet sidebar on the string of four homers, but why in the world wouldn't the game story lead with such an amazing feat? The Associated Press devoted its first 14 game story paragraphs to the feat, including reaction from both White Sox and Royals players.

And if the Tribune, always daring to be different, insisted on taking a different tack from the AP, why then was there no emphasis on the White Sox's terrific homestand, resurgent offense, or realigned rotation?

In a rare season where the Cubbies are doing just as well as the White Sox--a fair pace better, in fact--it seems odd that the age-old practice of seizing the negative from the positive still applies to the South Siders. Old habits die hard.

Perhaps once the Cubbies are sold and the sale's wads of cash being squashed into the leaking dike of a $10 billion debt, Sam Zell will simply clear the deck and send all his twisted sports scribes packing. Unfortunately for fans of fair journalism, that's about as likely as a certain north side club breaking a century-long streak this season.

--Brett Ballantini

Yes, South Side, the Sky is Falling!

Since the All-Star break, the Tribune has been writing its White Sox game stories with a sense of inevitability.

No, not the inevitability of the White Sox winning the AL Central, but rather the team losing its lead. Day after day, win or lose, the length of the White Sox's division lead is prominently mentioned in the game story, if not in the lede.

But Sunday's writeup by Mark Gonzales is the best yet. His entire story addresses the incompetence of the White Sox bullpen and GM Ken Williams' growing impatience with the team. This after a second straight heart-stopping win, against arguably the White Sox's most formidable division opponent in front of record-setting crowds in Detroit. Two come-from-behind wins, the first with the team down to its last strike, and this is the ChicagoSports headline for Saturday's game story:

White Sox escape again, but test GM's patience
Short-handed bullpen gets in and out of jams

And in case you feel that a zealous Cubbies-fan copyeditor slapped that hed on Gonzo's otherwise life-affirming White Sox game story, here's his lede:

The White Sox and opposing teams are testing general manager Ken Williams' patience.

Here's the funny thing: Nowhere in the story does Gonzo actually address Williams' supposed frustration. Williams is portrayed as "less than giddy" about trade prospects and once again acknowledges that he may be criticized for not making a deadline deal (hmm, think the Tribune's own "baseball expert" Phil Rogers might be among the loudest critics?), but Gonzo offers nothing about the supposed frustration Williams is feeling about his team.

A better guess is that Williams is proud as hell of the team he masterfully pieced together, sitting solidly in first place at the end of July against all odds and every "expert" prediction.

Reality doesn't prevent Gonzo from following he and Tricky Dave Van Dyck's typical pattern for White Sox stories, seizing the negative from the positive.

The entire context of Gonzo's story is negative, with statements like the Sox gathered enough resources to pull out a victory...despite knowing their depth will be stretched past Thursday's 3 p.m. non-waiver trading deadline being extremely typical.

Gonzo inserts only three--yes, three--positive statements about Saturday's potential coffin-slamming win at Detroit.

The first comes buried three paragraphs into the story, after three negative cracks on the White Sox, acknowledging that Octavio Dotel and Bobby Jenks closed the door on the Tigers and helped the White Sox "keep" their 3 1/2-game lead over the Twins.

The last two positives come, predictably, at the end of the story. where Gonzo drops all this trading deadline and DL grumbling to actually report game facts in his game story. The second to last paragraph addresses Chicago's mastery of Tigers ace Justin Verlander--no small mental chip to have on your toughest division opponent, although tellingly Gonzo manages to choose that space not to editorialize. The last paragraph recounts back-to-back homers by Carlos Quentin (picked up by Williams in the free-agent steal of the season) and Jermaine Dye (extended by Williams and an MVP candidate despite everyone's assessment that the right fielder was washed up).

That's it. Thanks for playing, White Sox. Being in first place with a better record (.578, 3 1/2 games in first) than our Cubbies (.577, tied for 1st and falling), is merely a bigger excuse to spotlight your supposed shortcomings.

--Brett Ballantini