Chicago, particularly Cubs organization, will be a part of the Caribbean Series

Round about the time that many of us in Chicago were coping with 20-plus inches of snow that fell overnight by watching bad day-time television, there was evidence of more civilized activity.

I’m referring, of course, to the Caribbean Series – the annual early-February tournament played by the champions of the professional baseball leagues in the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and the Pacific League that plays during the winter months in Mexico.

IT BEGAN WEDNESDAY at 2 p.m. our time when the Dominican and Mexican champions played each other, and will come to an end on Monday with one of those four countries being proclaimed the champions of Latin American beisbol for the year 2011.

Part of the reason I get a kick out of following the tournament each year is that it is a sign that winter’s end is approaching – a more reliable one than the fact that Punxsutawney Phil on Wednesday proclaimed that winter is at an end.

That must sound like a sick joke to those of us who are shoveling our way through thick, well-packed snow (personally, I had to help my brother Wednesday morning when his car got stuck in the snow about a half-block from where we live).

But the sight of championship baseball being played in the Caribbean (this year’s tournament is being held in Mayaguez, P.R.) means that spring training for U.S. professional baseball is only a couple of weeks away (at least for the pitchers and catchers who report early). Springtime is on the way.

BUT THE PROFESSIONAL baseball leagues in Latin America that take advantage of equator weather to play ball during our winter months also give the various youthful ballplayers who are trying to make it with major league teams in this country a chance to gain some more experience.

So yes, there will be a Chicago presence on the rosters of all four teams partaking in the tourney – although it won’t be the big stars.

The Chicago White Sox will have an outfielder, Alejandro de Aza, who played in 19 games for the Sox (a .300 batting average, but only 2 runs batted in), in addition to the bulk of 2010 for the Charlotte Knights, on the roster for the Toros del Este, who were the Dominican League champions and who will represent their home country.

The Chicago Cubs, meanwhile, will NOT have a chance to create any kind of curse on any one ballclub playing in the Caribbean Series, since they have four members of their organization playing – one on each of the four teams.

EVERY CARIBBEAN CHAMPION will have a touch of “Cub-ness” going against them when they play ball in coming days.

The Dominican champions also have Welington Castillo, a catcher, who played the bulk of 2010 for the Iowa Cubs, but actually got into 7 ballgames for the Chicago Cubs – with 1 home run in 20 at bats.

Among the other teams, each has a member of the Cubs organization, although not a ballplayer who has ever worn an actual Cubs uniform at the major league levbel.

In Mexico, the champion Obregon Yaquis will carry pitcher Marco Carillo – who during 2010 played for Cubs affiliates in Daytona Beach, Fla., Knoxville, Tenn., and Des Moines, Iowa – on their roster, while the Venezuela League champion Anzoategui Caribes will have pitcher Eduardo Figueroa.

NOT TO BE confused with the Ed Figueroa who pitched for the New York Yankees during the 1970s (and was the first Puerto Rican native to win 20 games in a single season), this Eduardo accumulated a won/loss record of 2-3 with a 3.63 earned run average while playing in 2010 for Cubs affiliates in the Arizona League and the Boise Hawks of the Northwest League.

Then, there is the Puerto Rican champion Caguas Criollos (considered by some to be the favorites to win this year’s tourney because of the home-field advantage). Luis “Lou” Montanez was originally signed by the Cubs in 2000, but played in 2010 for Baltimore Orioles affiliates in Bowie, Md., and Norfolk, Va. (and also played in 26 games for the Orioles themselves, hitting .140 with 3 runs batted in).

He was released by Baltimore in November, and the Cubs have signed him – making it likely he will play the 2011 season for a Cubs minor league affiliate.

So for those of you who feel the need to have a “local” angle in order to watch a ballgame (personally, I’ll find the Caribbean Series action on Sunday to be more interesting than the Super Bowl), enjoy one.

CHECK OUT SOME of those more obscure cable television channels you don’t usually watch; the games are televised.

Because, let’s face it, a little taste of beisbol and the sight of sunshine and people enjoying themselves will be a nice diversion from the not-quite-record-setting winter slop we got hit with this week.

It’s either that, or we ponder the fact that Farrah Fawcett’s iconic red bathing suit will now be on display at the Smithsonian Institute as an authentic cultural artifact.

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News judgment a personal thing

I recall having a conversation once with a young college graduate who had the great (mis)fortune of being a reporter-type intern working for me. She wanted to know more about news judgment.

What were the rules that determined which story got top play, and which one got reduced to a three-graf brief – if not cheaped out altogether?

SHE HAD TROUBLE accepting my explanation that ultimately, the news judgment of any organization that was paying me to work for them was what story intrigues me the most.

My point is that it is a crapshoot. There is no right or wrong. There just is.

Something has to fill the space on a newspaper page or a website, or the airtime on a television or radio broadcast. There are times when totally cheap stories get big Page One play because there’s nothing better.

Then, there are days like Thursday.

ON A TYPICAL day in the Chicago news market, the fact that a federal judge set a trial date for former Gov. Rod Blagojevich and that police found a body in rural Indiana that they suspect belongs to a 2-year-old who had been reported missing more than a week earlier would have fought for attention as the top story.

It would have come down to a brawl between editors who prefer politics, or those who’d rather have crime. Corruption, or cops and robbers?

But on Thursday, we had that other news judgment phenomenon that ensured neither of those stories had a chance at Page One – celebrity deaths.

First, Farrah Fawcett (although I’m of an old enough generation that a part of me wants to add “Majors”). Then, Michael Jackson.

I CAN’T RECALL a date with two such “big” entertainers passing on since May 16, 1990. That was the date that both Jim Henson (founder of the Muppets) and Sammy Davis Jr. (remember the Rat Pack?) died.

I recall the outcry caused by the Chicago Tribune when they gave Henson’s death top billing over that of Davis. Some saw a racial angle at work. Others saw some sort of elitist thought being used.

This time around, there doesn’t seem to be as many qualms.

The death of Farrah Fawcett (even though it offered newspapers and websites the chance to reproduce those full-color posters of Farrah in the bright-red bathing suit with her nipples poking prominently through the fabric) got buried by the death of Jackson.

AS FAR AS I can tell, there is one newspaper that gave Farrah top billing over Jackson – a Polish-language paper based out of New York. There also is a newspaper in Mankato, Minn., that gave the Jackson story top play, but also included a box directing people to the Fawcett obituary inside (while getting the Farrah poster picture on Page One).

Everybody else seems to be in love with the Jackson story.

Now I know the so-called rules of news judgment.

Both Fawcett of 1976 and Jackson of 1983 were pop culture icons. Back then, they were everywhere. Seriously, “Charlie’s Angels” (the program) and “Beat It” (the song) were things that will trigger memories of youth for people falling in that generation of people who are now in their early-to-mid 40s.

BOTH OF THEM since then have engaged in behavior that many consider to be (at best) erratic.

Jackson gets top billing because nobody suspected the 50-year-old was near death. By comparison, Farrah had been on a “death watch” for days, and had had the “last rites” administered just a couple of hours before she finally succumbed Thursday.

Still, I would have thought more news outlets would have tried to be like The News of Opelika, Ala., and try to do some sort of dual coverage of the two – even though that would have left fans of each respective person displeased that their preference didn’t get top billing.

In fact, it was an attempt at dual coverage that caught my attention the most. The Times of Northwest Indiana (a Munster, Ind.-based newspaper I do some work for, although I had nothing to do with the news judgment they showed for Friday’s front page) had their own reporter at Jackson’s boyhood home in Gary, Ind., to do the expected story of fans turning the site into an informal shrine to the one-time lead singer of the Jackson 5.

BUT THEY ALSO gave big Page One play to the story that on a typical day they likely would have taken over the page – the discovery of a body that likely belongs to Jada Justice.

She’s the 2-year-old mentioned earlier who had been missing, and whom police say they suspect her babysitter/distant cousin was somehow involved with her death.

It’s nice to see that at least one news organization in Chicago that had been treating the Justice search as a major story didn’t suddenly ditch the story just because of Michael Jackson.

Now if only they could have got Farrah on Page One as well (even though the only local angle I can think of is that many middle-aged men from the area were among those who once lusted after her poster), they would have managed to hit just about all the big stories.

EXCEPT FOR BLAGOJEVICH.

It appears that his court date being set never had a chance. Oh well, I’m sure his goofy antics in coming months will take over front pages and get him ample attention on many more occasions.

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EDITOR'S NOTES: Even professional baseball is managing to find ways to mourn the deaths of (http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090625&content_id=5537200&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb) Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson.

I don't know that I think Jackson's death is being overplayed, but I am surprised that some other stories aren't (http://www.eandppub.com/2009/06/question-of-day-for-friday-is-media-overplaying-michael-jackson-death.html) creeping their way to equal attention.