By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes
So much anger for a 23-15 team. Plus: Giving It Up For The Q Man. Giggity; Cutesy Cubs Convention Convenes; and Put Jason Benetti On The Board, Yes!
Posted on January 15, 2016
Put Jason Benetti On The Board, Yes!
By Roger Wallenstein
This is the right size and mercifully the right shape. We can sit back, relax and strap it down. Put it on the board. Yes!
Few of us had ever heard of 32-year-old Jason Benetti until he was named to the White Sox broadcast team on Wednesday. Before he so much as utters a word, though, it’s safe to say his presence and voice will be a refreshing breeze in the team’s media package. The predictable clichés, the ego-boosting hyperbole, and the “in my 55 years in baseball” of Ken (Hawk) Harrelson will be carried primarily when the Sox are on the road during the 2016 season while Benetti handles the home schedule.
Either by dumb luck or savvy judgement, the Sox have hired a young guy who wasn’t a former player ready and willing to regale fans with frequently embellished stories about his athletic past. Benetti is a Sox fan from south suburban Homewood who graduated from Syracuse University’s top-rated broadcast communications program and then earned a law degree from Wake Forest.
Posted on January 14, 2016
St. Louis Fans Rammed – Again
By Simon Evans/Reuters with the Beachwood Added Value Affairs Desk
St Louis Rams fans were left distraught by the NFL’s decision to move the team to Los Angeles on Tuesday, the second time the city has lost its franchise.
NFL owners voted overwhelmingly to give Rams owners Stan Kroenke approval to move the team to Los Angeles for the start of the 2016 season.
The city’s original NFL team, the Cardinals, who played in St Louis from 1960, left for Arizona after the 1987 season, but the Rams took their place, moving to the Midwest from L.A in 1995.
Fans in downtown St. Louis expressed a mixture of sadness and rancor at the decision with anger directed at Kroenke, who masterminded the move.
Posted on January 13, 2016
SportsMondayTuesday: Bears’ Hire A Short Joke
By Jim Coffman
Dowell Loggains? Seriously?
I’m not completely against the hire but I sure don’t love the process (apparently interviewing no one from outside the Bears’ current staff), or the priority (kowtowing to the quarterback).
All it took was one season in which the Bears’ signal-caller wasn’t the biggest problem – and Jay Cutler was still a problem, just not the biggest – and now the quarterbacks coach is the automatic next offensive coordinator? Everyone remembers that the Bears finished 6-10 right? And they did so against an easier schedule than faced by any of the other 6-10 teams, so they draft 11th in the first round instead of 8th?
And now Loggains must be promoted to replace Adam Gase because he would work best with you know who?
Posted on January 12, 2016
The Beachwood Radio Sports Hour #84: This Chicago Mayor Had A Good Week
By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes
So did his butler. Plus: Crow and the Breadman; Jay Cutler’s Minivan Is Back; White Sox Whiff; and The Chicago Fire Are About To Do Something.
Posted on January 8, 2016
Dead College Football Player Leaves Clues Of Concussions’ Toll On Brain
By Lisa Rapaport/Reuters Health
A 25-year-old former college football player who sustained repeated hits to the head showed signs of brain damage after his death that may offer fresh clues about how concussions impact athletes, U.S. researchers report.
The young man had what’s known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a traumatic brain disorder that can only be diagnosed during an autopsy. He died of cardiac arrest related to an infection in his heart, but the autopsy showed signs of brain damage consistent with CTE, researchers report in JAMA Neurology.
“There is a common perception that CTE affects only professional athletes; this case as well as many others shows us that contact sports athletes at the amateur level are also at risk for the disease,” lead study author Dr. Ann McKee of Boston University said by e-mail.
Posted on January 5, 2016
SportsMonday: Out With A Whimper, In With A Bang
By Jim Coffman
Chicago shrugged.
As they called it a season with a 24-20 loss to the Lions, the Bears (6-10 and out of the playoffs for the eighth time in the last nine seasons) seemed more inconsequential than ever. Did you hear the Bears lost again? Um, yeah, but how about Jimmy Butler? And Corey Crawford’s even better.
What are the Cubs going to do to add starting pitching? And will the Sox (the Sox!) sign Yoenis Cespedes?
Posted on January 4, 2016
The Beachwood Radio Sports Hour #83: Our Chicago Player Of The Year
By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes
A 2015/2016 review/preview. Including: Being The Blackhawks; Cartoon Cubs; As The Bulls Turn; Not Bowled Over By John Fox; Let’s Talk About The White Sox Cubs; The City’s Most Inconsequential Franchise; and Party Of The Year.
Posted on January 2, 2016
TrackNotes: Party Of The Year
By Thomas Chambers
The Chief doesn’t seem real big on year-end compilations.
I’m figuring it’s about dealing with the issues of the day at hand, moving ahead. So I’m gonna need a hook, an angle, a dodge, a lead.
So here it is: As we speak, American Pharoah is safely and securely ensconsed at Coolmore Ashford Stud in the paradisically named Versailles, Kentucky. You look at the Coolmore roster and your jaw drops with the thought of these horses, and the progeny they have already produced. The MLB All-Star game has absolutely nothing on these guys!
But the ‘Pharoah will make it his own palace, at least for now. Cover charge: $200,000.
Posted on January 1, 2016
The Blue & Orange Kool-Aid Report: The 2015 Koolie Awards!
By Carl Mohrbacher
Coming off of a string of demoralizing losses, the only real reason to tune into a Bears game at this juncture is to find out what kind of fight the 2015 squad has left in them.
Apparently, quite a bit.
The Bucs presented two major mismatches with Mike Evans at wide receiver and Doug Martin in the backfield.
I can only assume Bears defensive coordinator Vic Fangio drew from the wisdom I provided in last week’s column to design a winning defensive scheme.
[Editor’s Note: Did that “wisdom” appear before or after you introduced a character named Stan “The Herpes Outbreak” Stanton?]
Posted on December 30, 2015