Chicago -
By Carl Mohrbacher
If the Cubs were a band, who would they be?
-Ricky, Los Angeles CA
Jefferson Starship.
There was a point just a few years before their current incarnation formed when they were really good and had some classic performances. A couple of bad days in crunch time and a third of the lineup was revamped. Now we’re stuck with a handful of meaningless hits and an anthem.
Posted on July 14, 2011
By Dan O’Shea
The second half of the baseball season, starting Thursday, may yield some great under-the-radar waiver wire pick-ups while your fantasy baseball mates are obsessing about trade deadline moves.
There are a number of players, widely available in most leagues, who would be good for a long bet if you have the roster space to spare. In some cases, they have been on the DL so long they were forgotten. In other cases, they had disappointing first halves and are primed to bloom late.
Here are a few ideas:
Posted on July 13, 2011
Uploaded to YouTube by yogaelectronica
“World Championship Promotions Game of the Week!!!! Only in Chicago baby!!! Expert US Cup Champions!!!! Frank and Steve Vs. Kelley and Mark.”
Posted on July 12, 2011
By Jim Coffman
The women’s soccer World Cup didn’t just entertain over the weekend. It electrified. The U.S. team conjured up a win for the ages on Sunday in Dresden, Germany, to cap off a weekend that also saw huge underdog Japan record a thrilling overtime victory over the utterly overconfident host team the day before.
It was all great sporting fun and it was a wonderful respite from the grim slog through the totally disappointing local baseball season. Say what you will about soccer – and I’ve said plenty condemning the MLS’s (it is ridiculous that the league’s official name is “Major League Soccer”) brutal inability to deliver aggressive, exciting soccer – but the weekend’s women’s matches delivered the goods and then some.
Posted on July 11, 2011
By Roger Wallenstein
It was one of those period pieces, a plastic maroon Motorola radio about the size of a small shoe box; say, size 5.
Two knobs dominated the front: the left one controlled on-off and volume, and the right tuned in the ballgame. No FM dial and certainly nothing to adjust the tone or quality of sound.
Sox games even then were carried on AM 1000, but it was WCFL, not ESPN. “CFL” stood for Chicago Federation of Labor. If that doesn’t tell you how times were different, then consider there were few McDonald’s and no Starbucks.
Posted on July 11, 2011
By Marty Gangler
So this was the week when the Cubs got healthy and got their team back, right?
When the “just injuries” excuse was put to the test.
When the Cubs had all guns blazing – went all in, if you will – to show the rest of the baseball world that they weren’t a complete and utter failure.
Sure, Big Z lost a start when he went on the DL with lower back tightness – joined a few days later by Marcos Mateo and his inflamed right wing – but really, Mike Quade had as many cards in his deck as could be expected. The Cubs were back in business.
The business of being really bad.
Posted on July 11, 2011
By Astralopry 2011
SEPARATED AT BIRTH?: Incipient New-Media phenom Stinksy The Cat today bristled at “scurrilous canards” regarding his resemblance to Carlos Zambrano, emphatically disavowing any actual Cubness personally. In point of fact, it’s crosstown colors that the cat’s sporting, as we see him here peering in at the signs being flashed and then (unlike the fast-balling “Big Z”) serving up his patented “grandfathered ‘knuckle-curve.'”
Posted on July 9, 2011
By Thomas Chambers
Being a horseplayer or even just a horse racing fan presents a real conundrum, the good angel vs. bad devil dilemma.
Toss in the “H” word, hypocrisy, when you weigh what you know about the unseen aspects of this sport versus the magnificence of these animals and pageantry of the race day.
Recent developments have us turning our heads as if at a tennis match, hoping to assuage angel and devil alike.
Posted on July 8, 2011
By Carl Mohrbacher
I don’t understand how the Cubs can lose so many games with so many talented players. What’s the deal?
-Randy, Addison IL
Just because you have something that’s mostly made of good ingredients doesn’t mean you have something good.
For instance, if you mix two tablespoons of feces into a gallon of Breyer’s Vanilla, is it ice cream?
No.
It’s frozen shit.
Posted on July 7, 2011
By Jim Coffman
Here it is for the Sox after they won on a balk a half-day after the Cubs lost on a wild pitch Saturday. Win one of the next two games against Kansas City at home and then zero in on four games with the Twins. Win four of six the rest of the week, take your All-Star break and call it a successful first half of the season.
But that won’t happen will it? This week has more frustrating .500 baseball written all over it (actually, a split with Minnesota would be a relief after that squad continued it’s near decade-long mastery of the Sox the last time the teams faced off). In general, let’s just hope for continued relevance for the South Siders. Because as much as I enjoy tracking hockey transactions, baseball is all we’ve got for a while.
Come on White Sox! Don’t suck!
Posted on July 5, 2011
