If you want to have a real idea of why mass media is dying, just check out the headline on this Chicago Sun-Times article, which reads:
White Sox ace Jake Peavy: 'I don't like the Cubs'Stirs you up, right? Gets you to want to read the paper or click on the link? Sure, but reading the article gives you an entirely different slant. It's nothing personal between Peavy and the Cubs; the article is about Peavy's competitive nature:
"I hate every team we play, that's all there is to it," Peavy said. "From 2 o'clock until 10 or 11 o'clock at night, I don't want to be friends with the other side. You're not going to see me have relationships with anybody. Off the field, that's fine. I'm a firm believer in taking care of that off the field or in the tunnel.
"No, I don't like the Cubs. I don't like the Minnesota Twins. Great guys, but I don't like anybody we're going to play. I'm a member of the White Sox, and I want to go to battle with the 25 guys we have in here. I don't care about being friends with anybody else. ... Inside the lines, it's a dog-eat-dog world. I want to win all six games against the Cubs [this season], and it's as easy as that."
No news there. Every professional athlete has this attitude -- or should, anyway. There's no story here; Joe Cowley and the Sun-Times editors are just pandering to their audience. (And also for the headline writer: I think Mark Buehrle might want to have a word with you regarding the use of the word "ace".)
Lou Piniella says Ted Lilly will be back somewhere between April 23-26, which means he'd miss three starts. The club has suggested he'll make one start before the end of spring training -- the most likely date for that (in my opinion) would be the split-squad day on March 31.
Carlos Silva gets another chance to show everyone that he can, in fact, pitch effectively in the major leagues. He'll face the Reds' Justin Lehr. As I noted yesterday, the Cubs owe him one.
Lineup via tweet from Carrie:
2B Fontenot, SS Barney, RF Colvin, LF Millar, 3B Tracy, 1B Hoffpauir, C Chirinos, CF Fuld, P Silva
Today's game is on both teams' radio stations -- WGN and WLW. Unless you want to hear the Brennamans diss the Cubs and Cubs fans again, I'd stick to WGN. Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.
As usual, the first pitch thread will post at 3 pm CDT, and the overflow thread at 4:15 pm CDT.
Discuss amongst yourselves.