White Sox press corp. throws in the towel

In an exercise of good karma (and a show of how frustrating it must be to cover a $100 million, 57-game-winner in September) the Chicago Tribune will give a White Sox fan the chance to live-blog (or as they call it, “from the cubicle play-by-play”) an upcoming game.

White Sox fans, we know you’re out there. If any of you have the day off on Sept. 6 and 12 or are just out of work, we’d love to have you participate in ChicagoSports.com’s first ever User Generated Cubicle.

We need you to man our world-renowned From the Cubicle play-by-play feature as the Sox play AL Central foes, the Tigers and Indians.

Two things right off the bat. Why does the MSM continue to act as if they invented the internet and everything in it? It’s not called “play-by-play”, grandpa. It’s now called live-blogging, and everyone is doing it. Welcome to the party.

Second, this has to be the most crass, tasteless move the MSM has ever tried. Noticing how fetid the White Sox performance has been so far, the Trib’s journos decided to throw in the towel and let the kids handle it (not entirely true, but makes for good punditry - ask Mariotti). Sure, they’ll tell you this is well-intended, for the kids, so they get their journalistic feet wet.

I’m not buying it.

What’s more, the Trib has tried something like this before, soliciting a column dubbed “View from a Sox fan” a few years ago, only to kill it and leave zero trace of it on their servers. (Full disclosure: I was one of those “fans” once, alas, you can’t find my trace anywhere, not even in the archives).

Honestly, though, I can’t blame the Trib. It’s been torture to watch the White Sox this year, especially if you have to turn in a 700 word recap later that night. So good luck to those who try it out.

Oh, one of the requirements is geographical, you have to live in Chicago (you get to file your “play-by-play” from the “Tribune Tower”). Otherwise I would’ve signed up (so sue me).

- Wanted: Sox fans that can type. [Chicagosports.com]