Let There Be No Light

Circuit Court Judge Richard L. Curry of Chicago is a serious man with a sense of humor. He ruled against the Chicago Cubs the other day in the team’s challenge to a state law and a city ordinance that bar night games at Wrigley Field. (“Venerable,” incidentally, was not Wrigley’s first name, though it sometimes sounds that way.) The judge said, in effect, that the Cubs can be forced to continue playing home games in daylight in order not to disrupt their North Side neighbors.

Curry’s opinion was anything but dry. “The game of baseball may be everybody’s business, but the business of baseball is greed,” he wrote. Then, turning to the language of the sportswriter, he went on: “You’re out. O.U.T. The Cubs are out. The inning is over. The contest is lost . . . . They should have had a better scouting report before coming to court . . . . What the Cubs’ ‘book’ on justice failed to note is that she is a southpaw. Justice is a southpaw, and the Cubs just don’t hit lefties.”

Right or wrong, we like that judge’s style--a view not shared by the Chicago Tribune, which is owned by the same company that owns the Cubs. The Trib, after insisting that it has “nothing to do with the lights, the ball team or the lawsuit,” said that it thought the Cubs had a right to be greedy or stupid and to play games at night if they want to. As for Judge Curry, the Trib said that if the Cubs ever get to play at night they ought to ask him “to come over after court hours and entertain the crowd. Maybe they can even get him in a chicken suit.”

In Chicago they have all the fun.