By Dan O’Shea

Is it too early to panic if your fantasy baseball team is ending the first month of the season in a downward spiral toward last place? I think it is too early to panic, but don’t let me stop you. A little panic actually might help you make some aggressive bench moves or pick up some of this year’s surprise stars before someone else gets them. But the key to managing your panic is to not make any rash decisions about getting rid of proven players who haven’t been pulling their weight yet.
Don’t move Hanley Ramirez or David Wright just because they have yet to earn Top 100 rankings for their performances this year, let alone played up to their pre-season status as Top 5 players. Don’t give up on CC Sabathia or Cole Hamels either, unless someone is ready to offer you a trade that values them at their pre-season rankings (No. 35 and No. 45, respectively, in Yahoo!). Something tells me Ramirez and Wright will get it going, and that Sabathia and Hamels will at least crawl out of the earned-run holes they are in already.

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Posted on April 29, 2009

By Carey Lundin
1. The Chase Scene.
I’m a purist. I love a great chase scene – a filmed life and death battle played out on the road. In my opinion The French Connection is the best, followed by a zillion other movies. If you want to catch the essence of a great chase scene, take a look the Indy Car Series. It’s got its share of good guys and bad girls.
I watched open wheel racing in the 60s when A.J. Foyt and Mario Andretti were America’s real action heroes. In 1967, A.J. Foyt once drove through a wreck on the homestretch to get to the checkered flag. That kind of stuff wouldn’t happen today, but imagine what it must be like to have him as your coach.
Today Indy Car Racing features endurance athletes who in their own ways are just as bold, a lot more beautiful and just as willing to risk their lives.

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Posted on April 28, 2009

By Jim Coffman
The second most appealing thing about Ben Gordon is his cool (do you hear something? Wait, I can just about make it out . . . ah, yes . . . it’s a perfect, high-arching jump shot chanting “I’m number one. I’m number one”). Gordon never loses it when things don’t go his way. Heck, his expression never even changes. But every once in a while when he hits a big shot, he can’t help himself. And after dropping in the three-pointer to tie Sunday’s game at the end of the first overtime, Gordon called attention to what our most recent former governor once referred to as his “testicular virility.” When Gordon finally wrapped up his extended crotch grab, the Bulls were on their way to a double-overtime triumph and a 2-2 tie in the best-of-seven series.

Beachwood Baseball: The Cub Factor The White Sox Report

Gordon’s celebration wasn’t as memorable as the “Hey everyone, look at my giant testicles” gesture used by point guard Sam Cassell after dropping in clutch jumper after clutch jumper during several playoff runs over the past decade-and-a-half. That pantomime also made an appearance in the movie Major League. Gordon’s grab was raw and spontaneous. Now if he could just bring a little more of that angry energy to the defensive end, we’d really have something (yes, I know, if it hasn’t happened by now, as Gordon wraps up his first half-dozen or so years in the league, it probably won’t happen).

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Posted on April 27, 2009

By Marty Gangler
As some readers – and Mitch Williams fans – may recall, I am a new father.
Okay, I’m not like a drive the new car off the lot new dad, but my son just turned one, so I still have a hint of that “new dad smell.”
And one year into fatherhood, I’ve just begun to notice a few similarities shared by my son, Mitchell, and the Cubs – particularly when it comes to a batch of new “challenging” habits each have seemed to pick up at the same time. Just like the Cubs are no longer simply cute and adorable, my son is no longer simply cute and adorable. Instead, they’re both driving me crazy. Here’s how.

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Posted on April 27, 2009

By The White Sox Report Staff
When a 4-3 loss is “encouraging” because it’s such a “normal” kind of loss, your team has troubles.
Especially when it’s the Toronto Blue Jays who should be encouraged.
Jose Contreras may have matched Roy Halladay’s seven innings, but Halladay picked up his fourth win.
“We know the media was expecting us to finish in the bottom part of the East, so it’s nice to fly under the radar,” Blue Jays catcher Rod Barajas said.
If only that was A.J. Pierzysnki speaking.

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Posted on April 27, 2009

By Thomas Chambers

Ah, the week before Derby Week.
It’s well known that much of the wagering handle is generated by bettors who may bet only one day a year – this one. They may be known as stupid money, chumps, amateurs, civilians, or girls, but I’ll also bet you’ve heard of one of them making a decent Derby score at some point, probably the same year you got skunked.
Pete the Bartender had Giacomo in 2005 and still talks about it, as is his right. He liked the story of how Giacomo was named after the son of Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, better known as Sting, by his owner (Giacomo’s, not Sting’s), A&M Records co-founder Jerry Moss. At 50-1, Giacomo paid the second highest in Derby history and highest since 1913. I’ve read a few things lately showing statistics, trends, standards of excellence and tendencies of Derby winners and a lot of them include the words “except Giacomo.” But Pete had him and I didn’t.

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Posted on April 24, 2009

By The Beachwood Internet Smash Affairs Desk
“Word on the street – Rush, Division, Hubbard, you name it in downtown Chicago – is that downfield might not be the only place new Bears quarterback Jay Cutler likes to take his shots,” the Tribune’s David Haugh reports.
“Among Bears fans, Cutler’s night life since coming to town earlier this month has made him an Internet smash up there with British singing sensation Susan Boyle. There Cutler is toasting new teammate Greg Olsen, shooting pool at Rockit Bar, singing at Wrigley Field or dropping the puck at a Blackhawks playoff game.”
Reading that fast, we hit the Internet in search of drunken Jay Cutler video. We couldn’t find any. We’d hardly call him an Internet smash. But we did discover another Jay Cutler who is an Internet smash along the way.

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Posted on April 23, 2009

By Dan O’Shea

I’ve always been a fan of the promising young outfielder Lastings Milledge, and not just because of his name – though I was accused during one of my fantasy baseball drafts in March of picking him up for just that reason. (Someone said the name suggested someone who wears a top hat with regularity). Go ahead and laugh, I thought, and I’ll be laughing when he hits .300, pounds 20 homers and steals 40 bases leading off for the Washington Nationals.
Well, the dream lasted for 24 at-bats, in which Milledge had a total of four hits, one stolen base, zero home runs and 10 strikeouts (in less than 25 at-bats!). He was sent down to the minors and may be there for a while, having already been passed up once when the Nats recently needed to bring up an outfielder.
The league in which I own him is a hardcore rotisserie-style points league with waiver wire moves limited to 15 for the season, so I haven’t dropped him yet. I’m looking for an excuse – someone to exchange him for on the wire – to do so. I’m also wondering if the Nats, who are as bad as baseball gets these days, might eventually bring Milledge back up to the show and let him work through his problems there. Tough call, though I think I will end up dropping him. But for now, every time I look at my team now I have to stare at that bright red “NA” (not active) next to his name.
That got me thinking about some other players, famous and otherwise very promising, who currently are in the minors or inactive. Will they make a difference this season?

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Posted on April 22, 2009

By Jim Coffman
How cool is it that tonight’s Bulls and Blackhawks playoff games are a potentially perfect doubleheader? The former tips off at 6 p.m. and, barring double overtime this time, should wrap up shortly before the puck drops on the latter (8:30 p.m.). And it isn’t because of TV scheduling ridiculousness (most recently seen in these parts when the Cubs’ first home playoff game began before 6 p.m. last fall and their second didn’t start until after 8).

Beachwood Baseball: The Cub Factor The White Sox Report

This is where the oddity that is the Bulls competing in the Eastern Conference of the NBA while the Hawks reside in the NHL’s West pays off. The one headed over and up to Boston to begin its playoff run in the East while the other headed west to the Mountains (or at least the Mountains’ time zone) when it came time to take its playoff show on the road to Calgary. So even though the games start at 7 and 7:30 p.m. where they are, they spread out perfectly for us. Now all the Bulls and Hawks have to do is win. Neither is favored to do so (although the Hawks have to be favored to win their overall series at this point) but considering how things have been going lately, we’re not counting them out.

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Posted on April 20, 2009

By Marty Gangler
Being a Cubs fan this year is kind of like when you get back together with that crazy girlfriend. You feel good about it and think it’s great but deep down you’re really not sure it’s going to work. It’s happening, but not really happ’nin. So yeah, we all know the Cubs are good. They are “casually dating good” but are they “take home to mom good”? Which kind of means “regular season” good and not “win it all” good. But just like that crazy girlfriend, you kind of never know what is going to happen and that’s always good, it’s always interesting, and it’s always some kind of wild ride.

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Posted on April 20, 2009