Is giving someone a print magazine as a prize a fitting way to celebrate a “social media night” promotion? It may not exactly resonate with fans who are certified thumb-clickers but who cares when you’re at Wrigley Field?

By announcing a pair of “social media nights” the Chicago Cubs are taking a baby step into the waters of social media — and, in this Cub fan’s opinion, not really “getting it” when it comes to what social media fans might want. On the Cubs’ ticket promotion site it says people who buy the special social media-night tickets will get to come to a pre-game panel discussion on social media that includes… not any members of the Cubs, but instead Chicago Bears kicker Robbie Gould.

Now I get it — the Cubs players will be getting ready for a game that night and might not want to hang out beforehand with twitter-pals. But the other schwag items include a free copy of the Cubs fan magazine (what is this dead tree stuff?) a chit for a Vienna Beef hot dog (always good), a t-shirt (rarely bad) and some “social media series” baseball cards (questionable worth). And… SOME of the cards may be personally autographed! I guess you can’t get any more random than that. But it’s hard to justify plinking down extra dough on the fact that your card *might* be signed by Ryan Dempster. I guess I just don’t see these cards as becoming big eBay items anytime soon.

In my mind, a real social media night would offer something tangible and fan-specific, like the Golden State Warriors’ events where fans stay after a game for a Q&A session with a real player, or get to go on the court to shoot free throws. Or better yet like the Cleveland Indians, who set aside a suite for Twitterers. If the best the Cubs can do is reward social-media fans with a t-shirt, a dog and a Bear, that’s not really a World Series experience. As we say from Chicago, that’s so Cub. And not in a good way.