By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes
Coach is excited. Plus: Bulls Screwing Up In Reverse; The D League; Drama-Free Blackhawks Almost Forgotten; Awful Shooting, Awful Reffing In Awful Venue; and Schweinsteiger!
Posted on April 7, 2017
SportsMonday: The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year
By Jim Coffman
Baseball! And playoff hockey starting next week, and probably playoff basketball right after that.
It’s the most wonderful, time, of the year, except for the opening of the football season. Maybe.
Surely we can agree that both times are sweet and given that this one is accompanied by the promise of spring weather . . . enough said.
We enjoyed a preview of the next month (or two, come on Hawks!) on Sunday: The local hockey team lost 3-2 to the haven’t-clinched-a-playoff-spot-yet Bruins, the Bulls pulled out an impressive 117-110 victory at New Orleans (we can be impressed with a specific win and still be completely skeptical that a team will have any sort of success in the playoffs), and the Cubs opened their season with an exciting 4-3 loss to the Cards.
Posted on April 3, 2017
Unlovable Losers
By Roger Wallenstein
Let the losing begin. As if it hasn’t already.
I mean, we really should be prepared for this thing called “rebuilding.” As recently as 2013, when the R-word wasn’t part of the White Sox vocabulary, the club stumbled and bumbled to 99 losses. The over/under for wins this season is 68.5. If the team hits either side of that number, it still will outshine – OK, poor choice of words – that team of four years ago.
Sports Illustrated has rated the Sox the worst team in the American League. The magazine says the final record will be 65-97. Vegas odds put the Sox at 500-1 to win the World Series. (My pal Bud called from Laughlin, Nevada, where he said the Sox are 300-1 at Harrah’s. For some strange reason he was excited.) At least they’re not alone at the bottom of the pack. The pitiful Padres join the Sox as the longest of the long shots.
Historically bad ballclubs on the South Side have been a custom rather than an aberration. Long before the fellows on the other side of town were tagged “lovable losers” playing in the Friendly Confines, the other team in Chicago was the prime example of ineptitude.
Posted on April 3, 2017