The Cleveland Plain Dealer has a sense of humor

During yesterday’s broadcast of the Indian’s home-opener, the two announcers went back and forth as to how much work the ground’s crew had in their hands a few days ago due to a snow storm that had blanketed the city (and the Prog’s field), and what great work it had done to get the field ready for the game (a situation very similar to last year’s opening day).

Being April fool’s day, and in what continues to be a trend of lazy journalists having to readjust their careers*, the Cleveland Plain Dealer decided to have some fun with the inclement weather, posting a flash-based video game on their website.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but this is the first second iteration known to UmpBump (see comments) of a video game designed and created by for a newspaper, and it sure signals what could become a new source of revenue as the newspaper industry struggles down its path into oblivion.

The graphics are pretty rudimentary, the skill needed to play is on par with your ability to click through pictures of lolcats, and the fun factor isn’t that much more than having to wait out a rain delay watching America’s Funniest Videos reruns from the mid 90s, but you have to give the Plain Dealer some points for scoring the front page of reddit.com (albeit, for the crappyness of the game – the headline is “Quite possibly, the worst flash game ever”).

So there you have it folks, the role of your local newspaper isn’t that to inform but to entertain. Whodda thunk it.

*This, of course, isn’t corroborated, but it’d be pretty funny and ironic if the flash designer for the game were a converted journo.

Edit: So it’s not the first, see comments.