As a transplanted Californian, I can’t get over the constant propagation of small-market references in regard to baseball, most recently by Bob Verdi (Tribune, Oct. 14). The San Francisco Bay Area is the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the U.S., and the “small-market” Oakland A’s outdrew the “large-market” White Sox by almost 2-1 this season. Yet I don’t hear the Chicago press and Commissioner Bud Selig calling for contraction in Chicago or Milwaukee, which can’t even sell out with a new ballpark. The two Bay Area teams averaged a combined 71,000, compared to the Cubs’ and Sox’s 55,000 (mostly Cubs) this season.
While I’m not particularly fond of the Fox network setup, why not write about the lack of radio coverage of the playoffs in Chicago? Then again, I guess we should be used to that as the Chicago teams work extra hard not to make the playoffs.
