By Jim Coffman

I wasn’t even tuned in the moment Chicago sports died.
I had bowed out of watching the Bulls knock off the 76ers a little earlier (when the game was in hand, of course) to prepare for the youth baseball game I was coaching later Saturday afternoon. (I know that as a sports commentator I shouldn’t have done that – but it was for the kids!) And so I didn’t see the play when Derrick Rose’s knee gave out on him.
But I’ve seen the video and I know exactly what Kendall Gill was talking about right after the game when he said he was just about sure that Rose had torn his ACL. (It wasn’t long thereafter that sources with the team confirmed it). There is a certain kind of jump stop, one I watched a long ago Glenbrook South High School point guard execute from only a few rows up, where when they subsequently go down clutching their knee you just know it’s the ACL.
And just like that Chicago’s best sporting hopes and dreams went up in flames. And they are probably gone forever. Because even if Rose can come back and be a star again – and let’s hear it for modern sports medicine giving us legitimate hopes – Rose won’t be the same kind of star.

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Posted on April 30, 2012

By Roger Wallenstein

Maybe this game is less complicated than we thought.
Case in point: The Sox were one of the most inept teams in 2011 when it came to throwing out would-be base stealers. In fact, 135 would-bes morphed into real-bes. Only San Diego (141) and the Red Sox (156) allowed more stolen bases than the White Sox.
The Major League average for cutting down theft last season was 29 percent. The Sox’s 22 percent was 25th out of 30 teams.
But after 22 games this April a mere three of 11 runners have managed to steal a base against the Sox. While the team is .500, none of the other 29 teams comes close to cutting down base stealers with greater precision than our White Sox.

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Posted on April 30, 2012

By Marty Gangler

Phew. That was a close one. I thought these guys were going to be like really really bad. It’s looking like they are only going to be bad, not intergalactically bad. And really, it’s kind of okay. Why is being bad okay? Well, it’s because they are just bad, not stupid. And being bad and stupid is the worst.
Just look at last year. I’ve been a Cub fan my whole life and I hated that bad stupid team. These guys I actually like. I can root for a Joe Mather. I can pull for a Bryan LaHair. I can scream “Go!” every time Tony Campana gets on base. I like this team! And that is saying something.

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Posted on April 30, 2012

By Eric Roth

The ballpark now known as U.S. Cellular Field has seen some real special baseball history over its relatively short time as the home of the Chicago White Sox. The 2005 World Series championship and Mark Buehrle’s perfecto immediately come to mind for most White Sox fans. But the rarest baseball event to take place at The Cell took place before any of those remarkable achievements. And its 10-year anniversary is right around the corner.
On Thursday, May 2, 2002, the White Sox took on the Mariners at the new Comiskey Park (as a lot of people still referred to it back then). According to Baseball-Reference.com, 12,891 people were there. But it was an especially cold and disgusting night, and there were far less than that number in attendance by midway through the game (being conservative: not more than 7,000 or so by the end).
My friend Phil and I were among them; we started the game in seats down the left-field line, close to where the Sox had recently done construction, moving the seats closer in toward fair territory. James Baldwin, the former White Sox pitcher, was on the bump for the Mariners. The Sox started the young and promisingly large Jon Rauch. What happened in the top of the first was a unique occurrence in Major League Baseball history.

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Posted on April 27, 2012

By Dan O’Shea

A perfect game has a way of putting you on the fantasy baseball map, as Phil Humber is finding out this week. Numerous fantasy blogs are now recommending him has a pick-up, and though his ownership in Yahoo! leagues was still just 44% as of Tuesday, that was up from 22% before Saturday’s masterpiece.
Humber actually may have rated as a waiver wire sleeper even before the perfect game, with seven strikeouts in 5.1 innings in his first outing of the season, a game he was in line to win until the bullpen blew it.
As it turns out, he is not the only Chicago player who rates right now as an interesting waiver wire pick-up. The Sox have opened strong, putting several players who were not likely drafted into fantasy play. The Cubs, well, let’s just say the talk of 100 losses is not surprising anyone anymore, though they still may produce a few fantasy bench players.
Here’s who I see right now as Chicago’s very own waiver wire darlings (maximum Yahoo! ownership of 75%):

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Posted on April 25, 2012

By Jim Coffman

When does it become less about the goalie’s abilities and more about the shooters’ incompetence? During last night’s Hawks season finale – the utterly aggravating 4-0 loss to net-minder Mike Smith and his Phoenix Coyotes – I would say it happened at some point in the second period.
I love Pat Foley’s call of Blackhawks games and have for decades now (that’s right, the youthful Foley has been at it, with a brief break during the final years of former owner Bill Wirtz’s tragic and ridiculous reign, since 1980). I think doing hockey play-by-play is the toughest task in sports broadcasting. But good old Pat drives me a bit batty at times with his “BIG SAAAVE!!” calls on shots that settle comfortably into goalies’ mid-sections.
When the Coyotes’ Oliver Ekman-Larsson took a good pass at the end of a very good sequence during his team’s questionable second-period power play last night, he put a powerful shot on net and it went in. (The power play was questionable, by the way, because Jonathan Toews’ contact with a Coyote defender – the contact that led to an interference penalty – was incidental if not downright innocent.)

It was especially instructive to watch numerous Hawks fail to do the same during their even-up power play in the final minute and a half of the second period and the first little bit of the third – shot after shot missed the net. If you didn’t know when that power play ended that the Hawks were doomed, you were at least deeply suspicious.

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Posted on April 24, 2012

By Roger Wallenstein

Philip Humber ruined everything.
Just when I sat down to write in glowing terms how the Sox have managed to virtually stop their opponents from ever stealing a base, the guy has to go out and pitch a perfect game. That’s tough to ignore.
And it was very cool. Anyone watching this drama play out on Saturday afternoon before a national TV audience and 22,000 at Safeco Field had to experience a few heart palpitations and shallow breathing. Even A.J. Pierzynski, the consummate pro, admitted to being nervous as he took his position behind the plate for the ninth inning.
Humber’s only three-ball counts jacked up the suspense since both occurred in the bottom of the ninth. He went 3-0 on Michael Saunders before striking him out on three straight pitches for the first out, and then the now-famous 3-2 count on Brendan Ryan before umpire Brian Runge called him out as the ball squirted under Pierzynski’s mitt.
Had Ryan immediately sprinted toward first base, the play might have been close. But luck has a way of interjecting itself in these kinds of events, so Ryan opted to argue the call rather than run to first. A.J. – what was going through his mind as he cocked his arm? – threw a perfect strike to Paulie, and bedlam reigned. The only mystery remaining was whether Jake Peavy would emerge injury-free after tackling Humber as the celebration began.

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Posted on April 22, 2012

By Dan O’Shea

The current crop of fantasy relief pitchers appears to be an even sorrier lot than usual. If they are not getting benched by long-term or season-ending injuries, they are, like new (and temporary?) White Sox closer Hector Santiago, getting hammered by the opposition.
Santiago, the supposed screwball maestro, was not drafted in many fantasy leagues, but he became a hot pick-up after he earned a save in the Sox’ first victory of the season. But, he already has given up three home runs, and blew his first save Monday night against Baltimore.
He is not the only closer who is struggling. Heath Bell, RP, MIA, and Sergio Santos, RP, TOR (the Sox’ former closer) both have 12.00 ERAs. John Axford, RP, MIL, so brilliant last season, has a 10.13 ERA. You count Carlos Marmol, RP, CUBS, with an 8.76 ERA, in this group, too, though he seems to have settled down a bit in the rare occasions the Cubs have had need for him.
Unlike some of the closers who have been hit with major injuries, you may not want to drop these guys just yet. However, you may want to bench them for a while, and that begs the question of what to do with your RP slot in the meantime.

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Posted on April 17, 2012

By Jim Coffman

Ho hum, another couple last-second, game-tying three-pointers leading to scintillating overtime victories for the Bulls in the last week. When do the playoffs start again?
Oh, and the Blackhawks had some excitement at the end of regulation as the post-season began out in Arizona didn’t they? The games were pretty late though. I had a spot of trouble staying awake.
Good Lord what a week for Chicago sports. Even the baseball teams were better, although the fragile Cubs backslid over the weekend. And if we can just hang in there and continue to overcome little difficulties like late starts and impatience for the march to the NBA Eastern Conference finals, I think we might just have some similar fun in the next seven days.

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Posted on April 16, 2012

By Marty Gangler

I think we’ve learned a few things this week. First, when the Cubs score at least eight runs, they have a very good chance to win. Second, Marlon Byrd might be completely done. And third, Bruce Springsteen is coming to play at Wrigley Field this season.
With these three learned facts in mind, we here at The Cub Factor pondered just what the set list will be when Bruce and the E-Streeters come to town – and how he might tweak it to give his Wrigley show a 2012 Cubs slant:

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Posted on April 16, 2012