By Jim Coffman

Within an inning of my 12-year-old son’s and my arrival at our upper deck reserved seats a couple innings into the much-delayed Cubs game Sunday versus the Pirates, the drunk sitting behind me had unleashed a stream of foul language. My son heard some of it, including the identification of someone as a fucking retard, but I’m hopeful he was distracted a little later on when the guy capped off another delightful comment with a racial epithet.
Then again, it wouldn’t have been the worst thing in the world if it registered. My son and I have had some good chats the last few years after encountering guys like this during summers in the city and noting how idiotic they sound when they over-indulge this way. I’m hoping if we hear this sort of unavoidable (if you want to attend big, popular events) profanity and worse while we’re together and then talk about it at least a little, there’s a chance he’ll learn some negative lessons, i.e., ones in how not to act.

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Posted on May 31, 2011

By Marty Gangler

In the not-too-distant future, say 2018, Cubs fans will look back at the season currently in progress and say, “That team sure got decimated with injuries in 2011. Pass me that turkey sandwich pill.”
Because surely turkey sandwiches will come in pill form by then.
Cyanide already does. Maybe we could kill this season now and get a head start on next year’s embarrassment.

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Posted on May 31, 2011

By Roger Wallenstein

Forget what the calendar says; summer begins on Memorial Day. If you had doubts, venturing outdoors yesterday morning was all you needed to do. No fog. No wind off the lake. Welcome back heat and humidity! The chill was gone.
So are Memorial Day doubleheaders, which in the White Sox case is probably a good thing. Losing one game a day is depressing enough. Dropping a twinbill could require medication.
Years ago, doubleheaders usually drew higher-than-average crowds, and that’s why they were scheduled. In fact, the largest crowd ever at Comiskey Park – 55,555 – jammed the place for a Sunday doubleheader against the Twins on May 20, 1973.
MLB hasn’t scheduled a doubleheader since 1996 in Minnesota. The split twinbill or day-night doubleheaders of today are the result of make-up games due to lousy weather.
Looking back, the Sunday and holiday doubleheaders that were regular fare on the schedule consumed six or seven hours and brought out unique behavior both on and off the field.

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Posted on May 31, 2011

By Dmitry Samarov

The ball bounced off the turf and hit Gordon Beckham in the face. It’s been that kind of roadtrip for the Sox. The team’s been pretty brutal in the field for much of the season, but Beckham had been sure-handed ’til that fateful bounce. Mired in a season-long hitting slump, his defense hasn’t suffered, but seeing him being helped off the field, covering his face, said much of what this season has been like.

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Posted on May 31, 2011

LeBron Schools Rose

“With two defenders on him, Derrick Rose launched a desperation three-point shot with 1.5 seconds left,” Mike Dodd writes for USA Today. “It was an air ball.”
Again?
“The last moments summed up the Chicago Bulls’ play in the fourth quarter of their final four games as they squandered a 12-point lead in the last three-plus minutes to fall to the Miami Heat 83-80, losing the Eastern Conference finals in Game 5.”

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Posted on May 27, 2011

By Carl Mohrbacher

I’m getting tired of hearing “Go Cubs Go” after wins at home. Got any suggestions for winning Cubs theme songs?
-Eddie V, Seattle WA
You’re tired of it after having heard it just 10 times this year?

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Posted on May 26, 2011

On Brink Of Elimination

“The youngest MVP in the history of the NBA missed a free-throw with 1.10 seconds to play which would have given the Bulls a point lead before spurning two more chances to level the series in the final minute,” the London Evening Standard reports.
“[A] distraught Rose, 22, acknowledged the fact that he had let his team down.
“Tonight it was definitely on me,” said Rose who scored 23 points on the night. “I had great opportunities to end the game and I couldn’t do it. It was my fault but I will learn from it.
“If you want to be great you need to want pressure. It was a tough night and they played great defense but you need to find a way to finish the game off in the fourth quarter when we have a lead.”

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Posted on May 25, 2011

By Dan O’Shea

Being a fantasy baseball fanatic, I traffic in trends, predictions, rumors, obscure statistics and conspiracy theories, among other things, but almost never in common sense.
A lot of what’s fun about fantasy sports is the intense analysis that goes into it as you look to prove that you know the players and their abilities better than any other manager in your league – maybe better than the players do themselves.
But such hubris is likely to bite you in the ass once in a while, or perhaps often. Your in-depth research and your desire to wow your opponents with unexpected moves during the draft will turn up a few gems for you, but you may also pass up the biggest diamonds of all. In the course of over-thinking, I underestimated several players who have gone on to be fantasy stars this season.
In the interest of self-flagellation, here’s my All-Underestimated Team so far this season:

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Posted on May 25, 2011

By Dmitry Samarov

I hate interleague play. It still seems like a gimmick to lure back disgruntled fans after the ’94 strike to me. It’s let’s-pretend time, like imagining how your favorite superheroes would do if they fought (see Alien vs. Predator). The World Series is no longer as special because there’s now always a possibility that the two finalists have already met in the regular season.
Here in Chicago, we’re subjected to the Crosstown Classic, where fair-weather fans of the Cubs and Sox overpay to watch six games of an imaginary rivalry. When they played an exhibition game for bragging rights, if your team won you could gloat for a day or two, then forget about it. Now these games actually count, but instead of being matched against the A’s or the Orioles, we get to face the Pirates and Diamondbacks, for reasons only marketers might find compelling.

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Posted on May 24, 2011

By Steve Rhodes

Mike Quade took the reins of a team late last August that had thus far posted a 51-74 record under Lou Piniella’s gasping leadership and turned around its fortunes with a 24-13 stretch in the last leg of the season by basically doing the opposite of what Sweet Lou had done.
That meant, among other things, pulling Alfonso Soriano after a bonehead play; sitting down Starlin Castro after the same; finding playing time for Tyler Colvin while scotching the idea of turning him into a first baseman; rewarding productivity without regard to star power or doghouses; letting the pitching staff relax instead of keeping them on tenterhooks; respecting defense – and his players – by not constantly playing people out of position; and even informing players of the starting lineup well before game time so they could actually prepare for their days’ work.
Where oh where has that Mike Quade gone?

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Posted on May 23, 2011