Big sporting events often lead to some sort of local angle, but the one that NBC Sports Chicago took following the 2017 World Series was particularly notable. They elected to run a story and send an alert for “Astros join White Sox as only teams to win World Series featuring Astros.” Here’s the alert:
Bahahahahaha @NBCSChicago pic.twitter.com/NJMsmQLh8g
— JJ Stankevitz (@JJStankevitz) November 2, 2017
And the full story, from Vinnie Duber. Some highlights:
The Houston Astros are the new champions of the baseball world. Finally.
The Astros won Game 7 of the World Series on Wednesday night, beating the Los Angeles Dodgers to capture the franchise’s first championship.
Of course, it helps that they weren’t playing the White Sox.
This year’s Fall Classic was just the second ever to feature the Astros, the first being the 2005 World Series, a four-game sweep by the White Sox.
…Congrats to the fans of Houston and their newly minted world champs. But who knows if they would’ve been lifting the trophy if they had to play the White Sox again? Count your lucky stars, ‘Stros. Hopefully ESPN won’t forget about you.
So yes, this is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, as ESPN does seem to keep forgetting about the 2005 White Sox win. And the tortured NBC justification here is right in line with the 2016 argument from ESPN’s Max Bretos that “Cubs’ fans wouldn’t cheer for them“. But still, this is quite the move for a local sports network, especially when it comes to a push alert.
