Chicago -
By Marty Gangler
Are you scared? I am.
Yes, this Cubs team is different. They know not from goats.
Yes, this manager is different. He embraces goats.
Yes, this fan base is different. They prefer beards that make them look like goats.
But the universe has a will. A goat-based will.
Posted on October 10, 2016
By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes
Dear America: Meet Javy Baez. Plus: Coffman Gives In To Grandpa Ross; Joe Midas; QB Kontroversy; Bulls New Old Vibe; Blackhawks’ New Faces; The Sky; The Fire; and Oh, Lovie.
Posted on October 9, 2016
Curses, Greed, Mismanagement . . .
10. Team faces rash of injuries after a Joe Maddon STD theme trip.
9. David Ross thrown out at home in Game 7 of World Series after video scoreboard in left tells him to “go the distance.”
8. Wrigley Field repossessed in Ricketts credit swap debacle.
Posted on October 7, 2016
By Carl Mohrbacher
If we keep up this torrid one-home-victory-per-calendar-year pace, the Cubs may lay claim to a World Series title before the Bears win another game at Soldier Field, so savor every victory as much as you can.
Possession Play
“I thought our offense did a good job of possessing the ball,” said Head Coach John Fox during an interview with Bears.com senior reporter, Larry Mayer.
“Lack of possession had been an issue through the first three weeks,” said Mayer. “What adjustments did [Offensive Coordinator Dowell] Loggains make after the loss to Dallas?”
“As a staff,” said Fox, in an effort to undercut the notion that Dowell Loggains can achieve anything alone, “we took a look at a number of things to try and improve in that area. Play selection is a big part of it,” he continued in his usual monotone, but rapid fire cadence.
“Ultimately we decided that it was time to get some outside help and hired Sinestra, the Mistress Of The Void, to help us possess the ball more effectively.”
Posted on October 6, 2016
By Jim Coffman
OK, Cubs fans, I’m setting up a nice low bar for you to clear in the early stages of the 2016 postseason: Do not abandon ship en masse, instantaneously.
There will almost certainly come a time in the first two games at Wrigley on Friday and Saturday when the home team will face real adversity for the first time in months. The players will then either make plays or not, regardless of how many goofs stand and wave their arms to try to force fellow fans to make more noise. The arm-wavers won’t matter.
But a massive wave of pessimism might.
Posted on October 4, 2016
By Eric Emery
On Monday, American Exceptionalism took an unneeded step forward with the naming of former USMNT player and coach Bob Bradley as manager of Swansea City.
On the editorial side of things, I have a soft spot in my heart for Swansea. And technically, an American isn’t managing an English team since Swansea City is in Wales. But for the Americans who need the education, Wales is at the butt end of the UK. Not that Wales is the figurative butt end of anything, for Wales gave us singer Tom Jones, actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, and the phrase “It’s raining old wives and walking sticks.” In my humble opinion, that’s a hell of a lot scarier than “cats and dogs.”
If you check out Breakfast In America’s Facebook page, you see our mission is to “talk EPL football. Because we are American fans, we will accidentally ruin it.” Under Bradley’s management and the various majority and minority U.S. ownership groups, we’re on our way.
Posted on October 4, 2016
By Marty Gangler
Finally. The season is over and we can get back to essentially where we left off last year in October. You know, when the games really mattered.
So yeah, they matter again, finally. And I have to say that maybe the four days off will help Cub fans ramp it all up again. The season was essentially over like 2-plus months ago and you kind of had to “pretend” that there were big series’ pending or big games happening. But there were no big series’ or big games for these guys.
I mean, the biggest thing the past few months was making sure everyone remembered how great the backup catcher we’ve had for the last two years was.
Posted on October 3, 2016
By Steve Rhodes
It looked like a different Bears offense out there Sunday with Brian Hoyer at the helm – and the Detroit Lions across the line of scrimmage.
Still, offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains seemed to open up the playbook, eschewing calls to “establish the run” and instead using the short pass to create options and unpredictability in the game plan.
The faster tempo – and an energetic Hoyer instead of a laconic Jay Cutler – helped keep the Lions off-balance, adding up to a convincing . . . 17-14 win.
Hoyer did what a back-up quarterback for the Bears ought to do – beat a bad, dumb team, as Laurence Holmes put it on The Score this morning – but he’s not the future, and this team, at 1-3, is not exactly back in the playoff hunt.
Posted on October 3, 2016
By Roger Wallenstein
The curtain is drawn,
Goodbye, adios and sayonara.
The White Sox have left town –
There’s no game tomorra.
But there is a press conference,
As Hahn seeks a panacea.
Ventura is finished –
Is it time to welcome Renteria?
Posted on October 2, 2016
By Thomas Chambers
‘Chrome is king. Beholder, beholden to no one in her fine career, might be fading. Flintshire yielded. Secret House had no horseman, headless or otherwise.
Races, including those of the Breeders’ Cup, last mere minutes. But the stories for that weekend are being written now, a month out. Horse racing is funny that way. When your next race is 22 minutes hence, you never look too far ahead. When the day is over, you process what you’ve seen. When it’s Breeders’ Cup, you look forward to the match-ups, even in a year that seems to have had an unusually nifty number of head-to-head match-ups.
California Chrome.
Posted on October 2, 2016
