By Jim Coffman

Sports fans admire toughness, but more importantly, sports peers revere it.
If a leading athlete can find a way to demonstrate his grit in the right way – if he can show his teammates that he can fight through significant pain and continue to play hard – the sky is the limit.
That enduring truth was on display Sunday night as the Bears pulled out a 28-20 victory and, more importantly, exorcised the demons that had haunted them for almost 30 years. It had been that long, since the Super Bowl championship regular season for goodness sake, since the Monsters had won in the San Francisco area.
And they did so primarily because the highest paid guy on the team, the guy who plays the most high-profile position in any major American sport, took a brutal shot, took a few moments to gather himself, and then got back up and did the job. Before Jay Cutler was speared by 49er Quinton Dial, the Bears trailed 17-0 and were trying to somehow, some way get something on the board before halftime. Afterward, they outscored their foes 28-3.

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Posted on September 15, 2014

By Steve Rhodes

“A season of questionable in-game decisions by first-year Cubs manager Rick Renteria found another spotlight in the seventh inning of Wednesday’s 11-1 loss,” Gordon Wittenmyer reported this week in a sort of first crack of the shield around the Cubs’ hapless rookie skipper.
“That’s when a quick succession of pitching changes in a three-run game, early in the inning, turned into a five-run inning, with Kyuji Fujikawa left in to take the brunt of the beating and face seven batters.
Renteria’s bullpen use – which includes a penchant for frequent changes combined with an apparent paranoia over how much he uses a guy – has drawn criticism and head-shaking throughout the season from within the organization as well as among baseball people outside the team.”
Whoa. And we’re just hearing about this now?

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Posted on September 15, 2014

By Roger Wallenstein

To play or not to play? That was the question last winter when Paul Konerko toiled with his decision about one last year with the White Sox after Rick Hahn opened the door for a swansong season at a reduced salary.
Of course, Paulie chose to return for his 16th season albeit in a defined role where his responsibilities have included mentoring Jose Abreu and other young players along with pinch-hitting, DHing against left-handers and playing an occasional first base.
So how has the plan worked out? It depends on how you look at it.

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Posted on September 15, 2014

By Steve Rhodes and Jim Coffman

Jay is for Jerk, The Bills Were Due, Carl’s Wild Card Weekend Fishing Trip Is Back On, How Not To Talk About Ray Rice, and The Sky Is Falling.

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Posted on September 12, 2014

By Mike Luce

In a weekend lacking any marquee match-ups, let’s look at some interesting trends among otherwise uninspiring games. If you aren’t sold on the ho-hum nature of the weekend, check out this visual. That’s right, only one of the seven experts polled by USA Today predicted an upset in #6 Georgia vs. #23 South Carolina (everyone else picked the Bulldogs) and one of seven selected Central Florida over #22 Missouri. Otherwise, it’s chalk all the way.
Syracuse (-6.5, down from -9) vs. Central Michigan, 11 a.m.
We can’t figure out why the money likes the Chippewas. Central Michigan boasts a not-so-illustrious 1-7 record as a home underdog since 2011. Oh, wait. The ‘Cuse can’t handle giving the points. Dating back to 2012, the Orange have a 4-7 record as a favorite.
Our pick: We’ll follow the herd. Take the Chips and the points!

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Posted on September 12, 2014

By Carl Mohrbacher

Ouch. My hopes and dreams.
Thanks to this latest/earliest setback, I’m going to have to downgrade the likelihood of the Bears making the playoffs from “possible” to “leaving town during Wild Card weekend.”
For those of you who didn’t receive the magnet in the mail, here is the scale:

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Posted on September 11, 2014

By Dan O’Shea

The opening week of the NFL season started with the Green Bay Packers getting thrashed by the Seattle Seahawks, and ended with Ray Rice being banned indefinitely. Some observations on the fantasy relevance of those book-end events, and a few other things that happened in between:

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Posted on September 10, 2014

By Steve Rhodes

“The Cubs’ biggest prospects have barely started paying dividends on the field, but the club has decided to raise ticket prices for some of the most popular sections at Wrigley Field in 2015,” the Sun-Times reports.
Barely.
* Javy Baez is hitting .164 after all that hype. His OBP is .209. He has 62 strikeouts to go with eight walks. And he isn’t even hitting home runs anymore.

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Posted on September 9, 2014

By Jim Coffman

The biggest worry a Bear fan has in the aftermath of Sunday’s season-opening 23-20 overtime loss to the Bills is Jay Cutler’s discomfort in the pocket. Maybe a few old-time Bears fans are primarily concerned with the run defense first, but most of us are zeroed in on the QB.

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Posted on September 8, 2014

By Mike Luce

1. The SEC.
The most dominant conference in college football has five teams in the AP Top 10 (#3 Alabama, #5 Auburn, #6 Georgia, #7 Texas A&M, and #10 LSU) another three (#14 Ole Miss, #20 Missouri, and #24 South Carolina) in the Top 25 and a chance to add one more in the near future, as Tennessee, Mississippi State, and Florida look solid. We believe the new playoff structure should automatically award the #1 overall seed to the winner of the SEC championship game, and the #4 seed to the loser. Seems right.

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Posted on September 8, 2014