I'll tell you what I find to be the strangest thing about this whole
Freddy Garcia trade.
The mainstream media, stocked by people who consider themselves impartial and above it all, are more up in arms about the Freddy Garcia trade than their counterparts in the White Sox blog world.
The Cheat at South Side Sox has already dissected the Chicago Tribune's arguments, provided by Rick Morrissey and Phil Rogers, thoroughly enough so I don't have to. But it's not just the Cubs' owner kicking the team -- the
Sun-Times and the
Daily Southtown got their shots in, too.
The argument can be summed up in four words:
The Sox are cheap.
With that thesis, many bring up Joe and Jane Commonfan as the true victims of the Sox's unwillingness to spend. After all, Kenny Williams and Jerry Reinsdorf said fans would have to show up if they were going to invest more into personnel. The fans came out in droves, and now the front office is driving them away again.
Speaking only for myself, I'm not offended at all, and I have the grounds to be. I'm a Sox fan. I drive several hours to see them play when they're in the area, spend money on tickets and lodging, buy food at the games, purchase merchandise here and there. Hell, I spend both time and money to
write about them.
But it isn't just me. Look at the other blogs on the Garcia trade:
It's a pretty healthy mix of opinions. Certainly, the trade didn't spark dancing in the streets, but the overarching feeling is that it isn't a harmful move if it's setting up wise spending. One could pry deeper on message boards, but the signal-to-noise ratio isn't so consistent.
So why the divide? Maybe it's because Morrissey, Couch & Co. get paid to see them play, and probably get sick of them because of various professional dealings. Maybe it's because of the new instinct for Sox fans (including bloggers) to trust Kenny, sometimes more than they should. Maybe the culture of the 24-hour, over-saturated sports media makes knee-jerk reactions the status quo to the point where reticence is bold.
Maybe one side has their heads up their asses. Maybe both of them do.