By Jim Coffman
I took in Sunday’s Cubs-Sox contest from my customary seat (for about 15 games a year) in upper deck reserved. And this is what I saw:
* Other than a special character in a Cubs Suck t-shirt parading down the aisle with his middle finger raised high in the eighth inning (somebody should’ve hit him with a broom), the Cubs fans versus White Sox fans thing was more muted than it had been in previous years in my section of the stands. A couple not-very-competitive games were certainly a factor and perhaps a few fewer Cubs fans were willing to sell their seats this time around.
* Ryan Dempster is Rawhide. He just keeps rollin’, rollin’, rollin’. And the Cubs thrived over the weekend despite the fact their dynamic duo of set-up men, Carlos Marmol and Bobby Howry, have been a little choppy of late. Marmol in particular was so very much due for a couple shaky outings. And now he’s had them (against the Sox and the Rays last week). So he can go right on back to dominant any time now.
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* When Eric Patterson hits a home run, it might just be your year. Then again, Patterson really looks like he can hit (he’s kept his average over .320 at AAA for the past two seasons). Not that his development is surprising in the least. The Cubs continue to pad their lead over the world in second-basemen developed, traded for and signed as free agents over the past few years. Patterson, who has been playing left field but has by far the most experience at the 4-spot, joins Alfonso Soriano, Mark DeRosa, Ryan Theriot and Mike Fontenot (you probably have to think of Ronnie Cedeno as primarily a shortstop) as second-sackers excelling all over the field for this year’s Cubs.
* In the dugout, Lou Piniella has managed his ass off this season but he didn’t have to do much Sunday other than make a few obvious pitching changes. One thing I love about Piniella is that he has shown if you give him talent, he can win a ton of games – one of his Seattle teams piled up a remarkable 116 victories in 2001 (yeah, yeah, those Mariners lost in the playoffs before they even made the World Series – why do you have to bring that up you Sox fan you).
* A great deal has been made about the Cubs’ struggles on the road but when you win 80 percent of your games at home (32 of 40 so far), the road record matters so very, very little.
Beasley Bull
Any semblance of a debate regarding the Bulls’ No. 1 pick ended last week when it was revealed that Michael Beasley stands three, count ’em, three, inches shorter than his listed height at Kansas State last year.
I’m stunned a bigger deal hasn’t been made about this. Sure Beasley was a scoring and rebounding machine last year against some decent competition in the Big 12, but the difference between 6-10 and 6-7 in the NBA cannot be overstated. Every draft preview I read seems convinced that Beasley is a potential professional low-post superstar. Really? Against considerably taller defenders night after night? Against the sorts of guys who can jump as high as he can and are so much smarter about defensive and rebounding position than any of the guys he faced last season?
I already believed Simeon’s (with a year of finishing school at Memphis) Derrick Rose was the right choice for the Bulls because of what he so clearly could become. The most exciting players to come into the league by far the last couple years are point guards Chris Paul and former Illini Deron Williams. They are the sort of distributor/scorer point guards that are the stars of the future and the 6-3 Rose obviously has a chance to be that sort of contributor. He also has off-the-charts athleticism, which should lead to plenty of points in transition. And some of those points will probably be exciting. And I’m all for exciting every once in a while.
But back to Beasley’s shortcoming. I’ll make a prediction right now: USC 6-4 combo guard O.J. Mayo will be a better pro than Beasley. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Heat stepped up and shocked the world by drafting him at No.2 at the Thursday draft.
Of course who the heck knows what a Bulls team that hired Vinny Del Negro as its coach could possibly be thinking. I took a pass on writing about the new coach last week because I just had no clue where to begin but I have decided only to point out that the stories about the hire should have been much shorter than they were. They should have said simply that the Bulls hired the utterly inexperienced Del Negro because he was willing to work cheap. No other rationale makes a scintilla of sense.
I think these Bulls may still be debating whether to draft Rose or Beasley. Of course, I also hear they’re still not sure about Peyton Manning over fellow quarterback Ryan Leaf in the 1998 NFL draft.
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Jim Coffman appears in this space every Monday with the best sports wrap-up in the city. You can write to him personally! Please include a real name if you would like your comments to be considered for publication.
Posted on June 23, 2008