Column: A new baseball mile marker, a former Cubs owner’s legacy and a White Sox flashback for the ages

Memorial Day traditionally has been the first real mile marker in the long baseball season, in spite of its relative insignificance in a six-month marathon.

In lieu of baseball’s ongoing quest to speed things up, we’ve decided to change that arbitrary milestone to May 21, more or less the quarter pole of the season. Coincidentally, that’s also the date for this week’s Sunday baseball smorgasbord.

Reality bites

Veteran TV sports director Marc Brady once said interest in Chicago Cubs telecasts weren’t necessarily dependent on the team’s place in the standings.

“The funny thing is the team’s record does not play as much into what’s interesting as one would think, because it’s a reality show and every day is different regardless,” Brady said. “You could have a really good team that wins by 10 runs every game and be boring.”

We won’t be able to test that theory this season. The Cubs aren’t built to win by lopsided margins every day. Ditto the White Sox.

But Brady’s point was that interest in a team shouldn’t wane as long as most of the games are close and the storylines are solid.

And that has been the case with both Chicago teams, win or lose. There is still a reason to watch a losing team. It’s up to the broadcasting outlets, NBC Sports Chicago and Marquee Sports Network, to find those storylines and ensure fans stay tuned.

Mostly they have hit their goal, despite the Sox’s horrific start and the Cubs’ recent downward spiral. Chicago has knowledgeable fans on both sides of town, and they can see when things aren’t working. Other than the Cubs’ West Coast trip in April during which former Cub pitcher Rick Sutcliffe went overboard in praising everyone in the dugout, the announcing teams have been consistently fair and balanced.

But the competing postgame shows couldn’t be more different. The Sox postgame analysts, led by former manager Ozzie Guillen, generally have no qualms about criticizing manager Pedro Grifol and his players after losses.

The Cubs postgame analysts, meanwhile, seldom question the strategy of manager David Ross or criticize players for blown games. Exhibit A was Wednesday’s 7-6 walk-off loss in Houston, featuring a gut-wrenching bullpen collapse.

Just imagine how Guillen would’ve handled it had the Sox experienced a similar pain-inducing loss.

Worst Cubs owner?

Former Tribune Co. CEO Sam Zell, who died Thursday at age 81, was remembered for his real estate deals and his association with this newspaper. His brief stint as the man in charge of the Cubs went virtually unmentioned.

Probably just as well. Though the Cubs won back-to-back division titles during Zell’s brief reign in 2007 and ‘08, his stewardship left much to be desired. After his $8.2 billion leveraged buyout, which put the company into bankruptcy, Zell put the Cubs up for sale on opening day in April 2007.

Zell was not embarrassed to say he had no use for baseball. White Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf told the New York Times that Zell was not just a disinterested owner but “actually dislikes” baseball.

“He never would have bought the Cubs if they didn’t come with the Tribune,” Reinsdorf said. “It’s just another asset to him.”

Zell basically handed the keys to the Cubs over to President Crane Kenney, who was the team’s spokesman on most matters, including a report in 2008 that Zell wanted to sell naming rights to Wrigley Field.

“This thing has got a little life of its own,” Kenney said at the ‘08 Cubs Convention. “(Zell) is taking a fresh look at everything. As he asks questions, I’m responsible to give him answers. When he asks ‘What are we getting paid for the naming rights today?’ I tell him ‘Nothing.’ He said: ‘What are they worth?’ ”

Kenney said he reeled off numbers of several teams’ deals.

“I give him that information, and (Zell) says, ‘Well, I can do pretty good math here — $400 million seems to be the benchmark, and you’re telling us we’re being paid nothing?’”

Zell wound up keeping the Wrigley name and in 2009 sold the Cubs, Wrigley Field and their share of Comcast SportsNet to the Ricketts family for around $900 million. Kenney wound up being retained by the Ricketts family after running the search committee and spearheaded the renovation of Wrigley Field.

According to Forbes, the Cubs are worth $4.1 billion.

Sunday morning flashback

Fifty years ago this week, on May 20, 1973, the Sox had one of the most successful promotions in the history of Chicago sports — Bat Day at old Comiskey Park.

A record crowd listed at 55,555 enjoyed a doubleheader between the Sox and Minnesota Twins, with knuckleballer Wilbur Wood earning his 10th win while pitching on two days’ rest in the opener. Some 25,000 kids aged 14 and under took home a Dick Allen signature bat, while hundreds more went home unhappy after arriving too late.

The Sox had underestimated the popularity of Allen and free bats and were forced to shut off ticket sales an hour before the first game after all the bats had been distributed. Management refunded tickets for 2,608 fans who came to the park and decided to leave when they discovered there were no more bats. “Although they got their money back, a large number of them left the park carrying the free bats,” the Tribune reported.

The attendance total most likely was fictitious, with the team preferring to round up the number up to 55,555 to make it memorable.

There were no reports of any bat-related injuries, which undoubtedly would have been the case if teams still scheduled bat giveaways.

Revisionist history

Fellow Chicago baseball scribes Bruce Miles and Jesse Rogers explore one of the longtime myths of Cubs history in their new book, “The Franchise,” a curated history of the Cubs. One chapter is devoted to the false narrative that the 1984 Cubs’ loss to the San Diego Padres in the best-of-five National League Championship Series was partly the result of MLB rewarding the Padres an extra home game due to the lack of lights at Wrigley Field.

Several media outlets — including the Tribune — and former Cubs players helped spread that narrative over the years, and many fans still seem to believe it. The authors cite several examples of the false narrative, including a Harper’s Magazine story that called the Cubs’ alleged loss of home-field advantage to the Padres “a great miscarriage of justice.”

The truth was the Padres, as the NL West champion, already had home-field advantage in the NLCS, which alternated in those days between the two divisions. The Cubs would’ve ceded home-field advantage against the Detroit Tigers in the World Series had they advanced.

It was the National League’s year to get four home games to the American League’s three. But MLB, wanting more prime-time games for ratings, decided during the season that the Cubs would only get three World Series home games if they advanced.

The Cubs didn’t, making it a moot point.

“The only miscarriage of justice here was that done to the truth,” the book states.