Chicago -
Cubs Still A Joke
The only place better to be for a fan on trade deadline than MLB Trade Rumors is Twitter. Start with #cubs and wait to see who trends for additional hijinks.
Our favorites so far.
Wow.. Cubsmageddon tonight.
#cubs— Garrett Vermaat (@GRunner198) July 31, 2012
Posted on July 31, 2012
By Jim Coffman
There we sat at the pizzeria, transfixed by badminton.
A group of us were having lunch at a big ol’ suburban pizza place (Jerseys on Barrington Road just north of I-90) Sunday with our kids after they scored a big win in a youth baseball tournament (thereby validating their parents – time to celebrate!).
And the match was playing out on a big screen mounted in a wall over the large bar in the middle of the place. There were four or six smaller screens arrayed around the big one – this would be a heck of a place to take in a football game or seven on a fall Sunday.
The main thing I know about badminton is that it is the answer to a favorite trivia question, one of the few that I can remember off the top of my head when a random conversation turns to the exchange of clever little sports facts. The question is: What is the second-most popular participatory sport in the world?
Posted on July 30, 2012
By Marty Gangler
So, did you see that this happened last week? The Cubs dressed up like superheroes. Who knew?
We here at The Cub Factor think this is just too good to pass up. So while the Cubs did their best to be funny and hero-y, we have a few ideas for personas they should have adopted.
Geovany Soto: Made a weak attempt to be a Ghostbuster. But we think he should have gone as the Buffett Buster. From coast-to-coast no Old Country Buffett is safe!
Posted on July 30, 2012
By Roger Wallenstein
Sorry, folks, but I just can’t get too excited about the arrival of Francisco Liriano.
I also wouldn’t have popped any corks had the White Sox obtained the services of Zach Greinke, who pitched well yesterday but lost his debut with the Angels.
If anyone accuses me of refusing to cop to the frenzy of the Trade Deadline, I plead guilty. That’s because more often than not, these late-season acquisitions appear promising but fail to bear fruit.
Posted on July 30, 2012
By Cora Currier and Suevon Lee/ProPublica
The 30th Summer Olympics officially opened today in London. In honor of the Games, we’ve rounded up some great sports muckreads, from college sports to racetracks.
Jumping Through Hoops, Vanity Fair, June 2012: There’s still disagreement about whether the Olympic games are an economic boon or a boondoggle for the cities that host them. This article looks at the lead-up to the London games, and the long – and sometimes shady – process by which cities court the International Olympic Committee.
Posted on July 27, 2012
By Dan O’Shea
The MLB trade deadline is still a few days away, but we have already seen some significant deals. As of this writing, locals Ryan Dempster and Matt Garza still hadn’t made highly anticipated moves to new teams, but there have been at least three trades with fantasy significance:
Kevin Youkilis, 1B/3B, to the White Sox: This deal has turned out to have much more fantasy impact than I first expected. Youkilis has been hitting like his old self, and though he’s cooled a bit in recent games, he’s already rewarded fantasy owners who had the wisdom either to acquire him or keep him when Boston shipped him to Chicago.
Posted on July 25, 2012
By Roger Wallenstein
I need to accept a chunk of the responsibility for the Sox’s five-game slide last week.
Being out of town in California for a few days, I figured my absence would be a good thing. I’d be away from the TV, separated from the drama of the (former) division leaders.
I tend to fear the worst when it comes to close games. I’m not necessarily a negative person, but having watched this team for a long time, there have been more heartbreaks than elixirs. My thinking was that the Sox would have a better chance in Boston and Detroit without me screwing things up.
Years ago this would have been easy. Leave town and you’re out of range of the play-by-play of the games on radio and television. (You understand where this is going.)
Posted on July 23, 2012
By Jim Coffman
How bad was that weekend of baseball?
Perhaps the haters (mostly White Sox fans but certainly some Cub backers as well) can console themselves with the idea that “at least the Cubs/White Sox were getting their asses kicked at the same time . . .” but for most Windy City baseball fans, that was just a brutal three days.
We can try meditation, repeating to ourselves “It is a looong season. It is a looong season” as a mantra for awhile, and it is certainly the case that baseball teams are going to have bad stretches no matter what (heck, the Yankees lost their fourth straight to the A’s on Sunday, which was cold comfort to no small number of haters). The key is to make them as short as possible.
The White Sox are on the verge of letting this one get out of hand.
The Cubs’ season essentially ended earlier this year when they just couldn’t get a terrible losing streak stopped. They eventually dropped 12 consecutive games and that ensured that even when they played well later in the season, like winning 14 of 19 leading into the weekend in St. Louis, they were still looking up (several stories/games) at fourth place in the NL Central.
Posted on July 23, 2012
By Marty Gangler
At times this column turns personal. And really, isn’t that why we follow sports, and especially the Cubs? It’s the personal connection. And I’m not even talking about Ron Santo. This week another lifelong fan of the Cubs, my father-in-law Jim Casey, will be passing on without seeing them win a World Series.
What makes Jim different than your garden-variety Cub fan was that he was a minor league guy to the core. The Tennessee Smokies, the Iowa Cubs, the Peoria Chiefs, he went everywhere. Even saw them on the road. As a retired Greyhound bus driver, he had no problem logging the long miles needed to literally follow his Cubs wherever they played.
And he loved the kids; always said how this guy and that guy was a good player and was going to be good. He wasn’t often right, but, well, we all know that the Cubs haven’t yielded much from the farm system in the last, well, forever. But he still went and still believed in the kids.
Posted on July 23, 2012
By John Montgomery/Chicago Force
The undefeated Chicago Force eked out a spine-tingling 35-34 win over the Boston Militia on Saturday night at Lazier Field in Evanston, advancing to the Women’s Football Alliance championship for the second time in team history.
The Force will face the equally undefeated San Diego Surge on Saturday, August 4, at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh in the title tilt. The game will be televised on ESPN3.
“It’s huge for us,” said quarterback Sami Grisafe after completing 14-of-16 passes for 128 yards and one touchdown against the Militia. “We haven’t been to the championship since 2008. There’s a stigma that we don’t have what it takes to finish. We showed that we do today.”
Posted on July 22, 2012
