CHICAGO — At first glance, it appeared the Chicago Bears dropped the earliest preseason game in their history — to a Major League Baseball team.
But it turns out it was an incorrect graphic that aired on a Sunday night newscast.
The graphic, created by KCTV in Kansas City, Mo., showed the Bears lost a 5-3 decision to the Kansas City Royals. But it was actually the Chicago Cubs who lost the spring training game.
"It looks like either [a] sports reporter or producer made an error on the graphic. Maybe they were subconsciously longing for the start of football season or just got in a hurry," said Tye Murphy, creative services director at KCTV, in an email to DNAinfo Chicago.
"We had a fairly dramatic football season here in KC last year, and besides, cubs are bears too! Same town … same animal," Murphy added.
The mistake was captured in photographs and posted on Twitter.
In the Royals' win at Cubs Park in Mesa, Ariz., Mike Moustakas had two home runs for Kansas City, while the Cubs were led by Javier Baez and Justin Ruggiano, who had two hits each.
The game drew a Cactus League-record crowd of 14,680.