Chicago -
By Thomas Chambers
Few are aware of this superstar.
All the cliffhanging hype America manufactures every day, seemingly by rote, or in its sleep. An industry, this “next big thing” always seems to be. People being paid megabucks to “spot trends.”
Yet this one, doing only what she loves, showed more in one minute, and forty-eight point two-one seconds than you’ll ever see from . . . I’ve got to stop bashing the gridders and the cagers and the baseballers.
Posted on September 11, 2009
By George Ofman
It was the late summer of 1986, early evening as I recall. I decided to pay a visit to my brother’s upscale clothing store on North Clark Street. I did it fairly often because I would get a pretty good discount. My parents didn’t raise a dummy, though there are times that claim is debatable. Much to my lament, Sirreal has been gone for 20 years.
There was one customer standing at the counter near the front entrance that evening. It happened to be Michael Jordan. This was before Michael became mega-Michael. There was no entourage. Matter of fact, it was just Michael in a short-sleeve shirt. He looked rather pedestrian when you consider how splendid Michael dressed as the years moved on. He liked shopping at Sirreal because he enjoyed the privacy. No one bothered him. Few dared ask him for his autograph. He not only worked with my brother but a fellow named Henry Woolford, a real gentleman of the industry with one of the sharpest eyes for color you’d ever meet. All I did when I walked through the door was say,” Hi Michael” and walked right by. I had my own shopping to do, and for a discount. Did I mention that?
I respected Michael’s right to spend gobs of money at my brother’s store. And anyway, I would be talking to him a lot once the season would begin.
Posted on September 11, 2009
By Eric Emery
If a column called Over/Under failed to make some predictions on the current line regarding regular season wins, we might as well be one more oxymoron, like Microsoft Works or the Detroit Lions.
Team: Denver Broncos
Line: 6.5 wins
Prediction: Under. John Denver behind the controls of a plane is the only Denver worse than this Denver.
Team: Detroit Lions
Line: 4.5 wins
Prediction: Under. Like the Obama health plan initiative, this team suffers 14 setbacks.
Posted on September 10, 2009
By Jim Coffman
I don’t know about you, but I thought those six hand-offs Jay Cutler strung together during his brief appearance in the first quarter of the Bears’ final exhibition game at Soldier Field last week were absolute perfection in motion. There just aren’t enough superlatives.
But I still think perhaps everyone should simmer down just a bit before anointing the Bears true Super Bowl contenders, no matter how good the quarterback.
|
They certainly don’t have a Super Bowl-caliber field inside the spaceship/war memorial over by the lake. Tight end Desmond Clark broke it all down in his blog and Brad Biggs copied it into the Sun-Times (with attribution of course) early this week – the Bears and the Chicago Park District have embarrassed themselves yet again by failing to field a field even close to NFL standards.
Posted on September 9, 2009
By Dan O’Shea
What did we learn from the NFL pre-season that will help our fantasy football teams? Here’s five things:
1. Devin Hester may not be the next Brandon Marshall or even the next Eddie Royal in the eyes of his new QB Jay Cutler. In one of my fantasy football drafts, Earl Bennett went one round after Hester did, but even Bennett may not benefit the most. My eyes are now on Johnny Knox, who barely made the team, but may get as much chance to score TDs off Cutler tosses as those other two wide receivers. Don’t pick up Knox just yet, but monitor his Week 1 performance closely.
2. Matthew Stafford is a starting QB, whether any of us think he’s ready for the job. He’s got Calvin Johnson to throw to, but some of his Lions teammates are reportedly none too happy about Stafford being picked to start over vet Daunte Culpepper. We probably haven’t heard the last of this, but Stafford could be interesting as a bench investment right now.
Posted on September 9, 2009
By George Ofman
Be forewarned: The Bears will not win the Super Bowl.
Nor are they likely to play in it.
This is not a revelation from high above, though some people higher than Geovany Soto think the 2009 edition just might make it. Not that Sports Illustrated guru Peter King has something funny in his pipe; however, he did predict the Bears would lose Super Bowl XLIV to the New England Patriots. Stranger things have happened.
I once had the Hindenburg minus three and look where that got me.
Posted on September 9, 2009
By Andrew Reilly
We’ve come to that time of the season, the time that separates the Die Hards from the Johnny Come Four Years Ago And Probably Left By Nows: the time for pathetic, self-directed spite.
Lest anyone discredit the Sox’ inexplicable wins this past week or think getting rid of Jim Thome and Jose Contreras was the answer, think again. Thome, in his old, slow, one-dimensional manner, was too representative of the past ten years of White Sox baseball to ever be expendable, and Contreras’ struggles were really nothing new. But the exit of those two is not what went on to (and will again) fuel the Sox’ dismantling of hated teams. No, the Sox’ best hope is to forget about the season and think about how to ruin a superior, more glamorous team’s day. Double-substitutions against the Twins? Yes. Laughing at the destroyed arm of Jason Varitek? Absolutely. Ruining the Cubs in their home urinal? Oh, baby!
|
But what we’re really left with now is the angry, bitter part of the year in which the crotchety among us start comparing 2009 to other disappointing years in recent memory. Are we staring down another 2003, in which the Sox were just a few good wins away from the post-season? Or is this 2006 again, where the Twins will backdoor their way into October, but with 80 wins becoming the new 90 wins?
Posted on September 8, 2009
By Marty Gangler
Maybe the Cubs just took a cue from the weather this season. Yeah, it was the weather’s fault. Summer in Chicago wasn’t really summer this year – it was like summer pretended to be spring, and even sometimes fall. But summer just wasn’t summer. Just like the Cubs. They are really just a .500 team that was pretending to be the two-time defending Central Division champions. They did a pretty good job of pretending, though. They kept the charade up all the way until now. Now the mask is finally off for good and they can’t even try to pretend. With this in mind, we here at The Cub Factor would like to talk about a few individual players and who they pretended to be this season.
Alfonso Soriano: Pretended to be the franchise bat in a potent lineup but was actually vying for Comeback Player of the Year 2010.
Milton Bradley: Pretended to be the answer from the left side of the plate but was actually an escaped mental patient.
Geo Soto: Pretended to be the reigning NL Rookie of the Year but was actually Jeff Spiccoli with a lifetime supply of burgers from All-American burger.
Posted on September 7, 2009
By George Ofman
The day couldn’t have been more splendid. The sun sparkled on a September afternoon in which the Sox and Cubs had to play a make-up game at Wrigley Field.
It was supposed to be a game which counted for both teams.
Playoff fever and bragging rights all rolled into one marvelous day in the sun-splashed shrine at Clark and Addison.
Instead, we found out warts get sunburn.
Posted on September 3, 2009
