Your article on baseball attendance at Wrigley Field and Comiskey Park (Tribune, April 29) was disingenuous and a waste of space. The one fact that can be etched in stone regarding the Cubs is that there is absolutely no correlation between fans passing through the turnstiles and success on the playing field.
Only in the vast wasteland that is the professional sports scene in Chicago does the media insist on involving the paying customer in the on-field futility of the franchises. In other cities, notably New York, the sports media focus on the players in the field and front-office personnel moves to improve the product on the diamond, the court or the rink. Why doesn’t the Chicago sports media follow the lead of their colleagues in other cities and hold ownership, management and players accountable? The sports media here helps perpetuate losing by being willing tools in spreading such myths as “great Bear tradition,” “good, young Sox pitching” and the “Wrigley Field experience.”
I have a novel question for ownership of the Cubs and Sox: How many paying customers have to pass through the gates before an honest effort is made to win the World Series?
