Rick Morrissey Spills the Beans

Good grief -- what's gotten into the Trib's columnists lately? First, Dr. Phil admits he may have been wrong. And now Rick Morrissey confirms two things I've long suspected.

His column today was on the futility of making pre-season predictions. So loathe was Morrissey to subject himself to ridicule for his usual inane stabs in the dark that he pressed his thirteen year old son into service to make them for him.

Why offer his son as a sacrifice to the eds? He explains thusly:

We [columnists] are no more experts than the next guy, although perhaps we're a little more informed. If we were any good, we would be in Las Vegas, wearing velour warmup suits, adjusting the gold chains on our open collars and swimming in the dough.

Long-time readers know that this is one of the central tenents of the Palatial Baseball Blog: just because a guy (or gal) is spouting off about baseball on TV or in print doesn't make him any smarter than me, you, or the guy in the right-field bleachers.

Thanks to Rick for confirming.

But then he drops this bomb, which really made my week:

I give my son the list of categories the editors have thrust upon us. He has to pick the winners of each division in both leagues, as well as wild-card teams, league champions, World Series champion, most valuable players, Cy Young winners, rookies of the year, managers of the year and batting champions.

I have one rule for him: Don't pick the Cubs. He wants to, with all his heart, but I tell him it's a sucker's bet. You want to be a rube, a hayseed, a bumpkin when you grow up? No. Why watch yourself bleed in print, son? I don't care how good the Cubs' lineup is or how weak the National League Central is. So he doesn't.

He absolutely shocks me by picking the White Sox to win the AL Central. We'll never know the anguish this caused him, but I take my hat off to him for trying to be objective, even though he's going to get killed, just killed, by his Sox-loving friends for it.

Is the Chicago Tribune biased? Yes, and it's as plain as day in Morrissey's column.

If you like the Cubs, and think they'll do well: you're a sucker, a rube, a hayseed, a bumpkin.

If you're down with the White Sox and predict big things for them: saints be praised for your objectivity!

I've long suspected that the eds at the Tower play Cub Fans for rubes every chance they get. This time, they don't even bother to pretend that they're not. By rushing Morrissey's scribbling to print, they endorse the opinion. Thanks for confirming, fellas...