Chicago Cubs & White Sox

February 25, 2017

Cub fans can’t wait for the upcoming season to commence. This could be the beginning of sports’ next big dynasty a la Jordan’s Bulls, Patriots and maybe Blackhawks. With the young core of players improving, this team can be as good as last year, which should frighten the rest of the National League.

No other team has a better top 3 in their starting rotation than the Cubs. Lester, Arrieta and Hendricks all were final candidates for the Cy Young and they also have a top closer for the whole year. Schwarber will also add some punch to the lineup.  I will be interested to see how this lineup takes shape. If Schwarber is in left, Almora in center and Hayward in right, where does Zobrist play? If second, Baez sits ?

The next thing on my mind is how good will Bryant be in his second full season. He is without a doubt the best third basemen in the game. I’d love to see a game one of the World Series, Lester vs. Sale.

The Chicago loyalty trumps winning White Sox are going to be playing home games at Guaranteed Rate Field. I can guarantee the Sox will be lousy. In rebuilding there is a lot of work left to do. A problem is, aside from Quintana no other players are attracting much interest. Another problem is it is not Epstein and Hoyer but Hahn and Kenny (why does he still have job) Williams in charge.

Not to be all negative, you can follow the Charlotte Knights to keep track of the future White Sox. It could be fun to laugh at how bad they are. Think James Shields. They should adopt the Green Day song “Wake Me Up When September Ends.”

So the next thing for Sox fans is who are the Bears going to draft and how far the Blackhawks will go? When the Hawks are done, at least for all intents and purposes, the Sox will be out of reach for the postseason.

Upcoming topics: Hawks push for Stanley Cup, Bulls purgatory, Cubs, Sox and maybe a little March Madness

Chicago Blackhawks

February 17, 2017

While the Bears were awful and the Bulls bad, it's a good thing Chicago has the Blackhawks.
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In the beginning months of the season things were not going smoothly. Opponents looked faster, their trademark puck possession was down and they weren't scoring goals. If not for great goal tending they wouldn't be as close to first place as they are.

After 57 games they are currently 7 points behind Minnesota. There are 25 games left so the Hawks may not catch Minnesota. However, they have been playing much better as of late with 4  and 5 goals against Winnipeg and Edmonton, teams they had trouble with earlier in the season. With the six day rest, they should be fully healthy when play resumes Saturday. It seems they have gotten interested. Continue to play well, hold on to second place and have home ice advantage in the first round.  If  you go on to play Minnesota, the way they played on the the last road trip (5 straight wins) they can win on the road.

Another reason to be optimistic is at playoff time things are played closer to the vest. With a hot goalie and their core offensive players we may end up in Grant Park come June,

One question remains. Why activate Rozival ? They initially had to send down 4 players who by the end of the year won't be rookies. They were able to bring back up Schmaltz and Kero. I don't know if it's just me but Rozival brings nothing to the table and seems to be on the ice when opponents score. I'd rather have Forsling and  Hinostroza.

Chicago Bulls

February 12, 2017

I was going to start, saying how painful it’s been watching the Bulls. I want to add laughable after today versus Minnesota .I saw   a roster of lousy players courtesy of GarPax and Mirotic didn’t even play.

GarPax, GarPax.  Hire Vinny Del Negro. Immediately want to get rid of him. They have to wait for somehow the team makes playoffs in year 1. Then after almost going to blows with Paxson (who actually pulled him by his tie) he’s fired after second year.

Hire Tom Thibodeau. With the help of a healthy D.. Rose reached Eastern Conference finals Installs defense and toughness and continues to have winning seasons without Rose. He and staff develop young players like Gibson, Noah and Butler. GarPax doesn’t like the way he’s coaching and with their over blown egos let him go. I guess winning didn’t matter. Reinsdorf backs them up with scathing critic. Maybe he should have thought about all the other bad coaches after Phil Jackson and god forbid they should ever hire someone with previous experience.

GarPax now hires their own puppet Fred Hoiberg out of Iowa State (wasn’t Tim Floyd from same}. Wants to employ up tempo even though he doesn’t have the right players for that system. Ends up giving opponents more chances to score on a lousy defense. Misses playoff, neat trick in lousy conference.

Next Gar Foreman pronounces they’ll get younger. Signs 30 year olds Rondo & Wade. If you are keeping score trade netted 28 year old Robin Lopez. Garpax last 2 first round draft picks can’t crack rotation and Mc Dermott plays limited minutes. May also have something to do with Hoiberg not being able to develop young players

Normally I would applaud not playing the contract (Rondo), however, the back- ups are other team’s castoffs or In other words they suck.  This is what you call NBA purgatory. Missing out on a good draft only to get knocked out in first round of playoffs.

What they should do but probably won’t is trade Butler, a bona fide star, to a team that will get a good chance at a high draft choice. Without, Butler you get another chance for a lottery pick because they won’t make playoffs. It has gotten so bad that Neil and Stacey were talking about D-League team which is where most of the players on the court today belong.

Chicago Bears

After another abysmal season. Add John Fox to the list that includes Jim Dooley, Abe Gibron, Neil Armstrong, Dave Wannstedt, Dick Jauron, Lovie Smith and Marc Trestman.

The problem with this team starts at the top, McCaskey and Ted Phillips. They are in charge of the hires for the past two regimes and even with a consultant couldn’t get it right. Emery and Trestman were from a galaxy far, far away while Ryan (Houdini) Pace has disappeared and his hire Fox seems to be running the show. If you are looking to cast another remake off Dumb and Dumber….

Is there any hope? Well yes and no.

Let’s start with a positive. The defense front seven, despite the last two weeks, looks good when healthy. Even the first round pick looks good. Now if he can stop getting concussed running into his own teammates that would be good thing. 

Now the bad: Tracy Porter can’t cover every receiver. The rest of the secondary will get lit up by most quarterbacks. They need to find play makers. They only have 11 takeaways or the total of 3 games for Cutler. They have to cut down on dumb penalties and stop taking PEDs.

On offense, the line looks good when healthy. The running back Jordan Howard has had a great rookie season. Funny thing is, if not for injuries this coaching staff would never have noticed. After a couple of good preseasons Cam Meredith was also a decent surprise.

Need to find a good tight end. We had one but Fox didn’t like him so he’s now in New England playing for a real coach. Despite success in 2015, Zach Miller’s career can be defined by injuries. Must suck it up and sign or tag your best player Alshon Jeffries. Stop making dumb penalties .Stop taking PEDs.

What does all this matter when you don’t have the most important player, a quarterback.

I keep hearing Jimmy Garoppolo. I believe he is under contract and is the heir apparent to 40 year old Tom Brady. You would also have to give up a first and fourth round draft pick. I hear 36 year old Tony Romo may be available, and with no good QB’s in the draft he could be stop gap measure. 

However, which other teams want to make a deal with the Bears? The Bears have no assets any other teams would want.

Don’t bet against Cutler being next year’s starter...

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Introduction

I love sports. For over 50 years I’ve been following the highs but mostly low points of the Bears, Blackhawks, Bulls, Cubs and White Sox. Yeah I know there is a soccer team but I don’t care.

In these posts we’ll look at present, future and maybe a few references to the past for perspective. In the movie “The Music Man”, the mayor keeps asking to get that man’s credentials. Here’s what I’ve seen:

Chicago Bears- Sayers, Butkus were the only things to watch on bad to mediocre teams. The greatness of Walter Payton who capped his career with a Super Bowl ring for Ditka/Ryan team in 1985. The next 2 years, first round exits from playoffs. Bears have for the most part been bad albeit 2007 Super Bowl appearance when Lovie Smith kept insisting Rex was our quarterback.

Chicago Blackhawks- Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita and Lloyd Pettit’s a shot and a goal are early memories of a good Hawks team who went to the 1972 Stanley Cup finals but coughed up a two goal lead in the seventh game. Denis Savard and Tony Esposito teams were entertaining although no Cups. Dino (Ciccarelli) still sucks. From being voted worst organization in pro sports to the model they are now, with 3 Stanley Cups, Kane, Toews and Pat Foley’s Hawks win Hawks win.

Chicago Bulls- I still remember the 1966 inaugural season with Johnny Kerr coaching and my favorite player on that team, Guy Rodgers. Dick Motta, Chet Walker led teams that choked before reaching NBA Finals, most notably losing sixth game at home up 3-2 against Golden State. The greatest player of all time, Michael Jordan and 6 championships. The rise and fall of Derrick Rose, GarPax.

Chicago Cubs- Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Ron Santo, Ferguson Jenkins. After years of being bad to one of the best teams never to win a championship, these were exciting times. Later on a smattering of good years with gut wrenching playoff losses to Padres and Marlins. In comes the savior Theo Epstein. He has a plan. Cubs are 2016 World Series champs.

Chicago White Sox- Where loyalty trumps winning. In 1967, in my opinion the best pennant race in history, 4 teams had a chance to win in the last week. The Sox were swept in 2 doubleheaders by bottom feeders Washington Senators and Kansas City Athletics. Boston wins and plays epic World Series vs. Cardinals. Bad teams come next until 1983 playoffs, first post season game in Chicago since 1959. Next, a couple of first round playoff ousters and finally winning the World Series 2005. Thanks to Kenny Williams for keeping the White Sox bad since then. One last thing, nice exhaustive managerial search.

On Deck: Chicago Bears