Chicago -
By Roger Wallenstein
We found ourselves in Seattle last weekend visiting family. There is much to do in the Emerald City. They have a first-class aquarium, harbor cruises, tours of Boeing, the Space Needle, Pike Street Market, Mt. Rainier and the Olympics.
So, of course, we went to the ballgame.
We’d been to Safeco Field a number of times in the past and always have liked the place. It’s a different experience than any stadium I’ve encountered.
Posted on September 19, 2011
By Marty Gangler
Was it me or did that four-game series with the Reds feel like it took a month? It didn’t even feel like that long of a week at the old day job.
Lost in those long four days, though, was a gem of a comment made by Bob Brenly. He said something to the fact that Joey Votto of the Reds has more walks than four Cubs starters combined. So I took a look and did some math.
Votto has 106 walks while Marlon Byrd (24), A-Ram (42), Darwin Barney (19), and Starlin Castro (33) have a combined 118. How pathetic.
With this in mind, we here at The Cub Factor thought it might be wise to make a list of a few things we would like General Manager X to do/be aware of as he comes in:
Posted on September 19, 2011
By Mike Luce
In case you missed anything this week, and by “anything” we mean “pretty much every headline in college football because you don’t follow the sport apart from sporadically reading this column,” the College Football Reporter, the Free Range Chicken and the Beachwood Sports Seal have you covered. In return, the least you can do is send us some genetically engineered chicken feed or a bottle of Ol’ Grand-Dad.
Or how about some OGD produced from gossypol-enhanced chicken feed? Pro: gossypol prevents breast cancer. Cons: toxic, tastes like old sweaters. Bonus: would still get you drunk!
Here we go:
Posted on September 16, 2011
By Carl Mohrbacher
Is DJ LeMahieu just a right-handed Micah Hoffpauir?
-Caleb, Henning IL
No, because DJ has a job in the major leagues.
Fun trivia fact about LeMahieu:
His birth name is actually Doug Goldblatt. Doug had some success after college as a rave disc jockey and picked up the alias LeMahieu during an ecstasy bender in which he believed he was a French concierge. In 2006, he lost a bet with the ghost of Andy Warhol that he couldn’t eat 60 croissants without vomiting, so he put down the glowstick, stopped chopping righteous mixes and picked up a bat.
Posted on September 15, 2011
By Carl Mohrbacher
It Bears Repeating
During his rendition of the national anthem, Jim Cornelison didn’t just bring the thunder. He brought a 30-case of Thunder, pounded a two-liter of Cougar Boost Energy Drink and showed this chump how it’s done by blasting America’s collective tears of pride right off our face.
Posted on September 15, 2011
By Dan O’Shea
Week 1 of the NFL season has a way of making you want to throw away your whole fantasy football game plan. Nothing ever goes quite as anyone expected. Guys that are supposed to be great end up falling on their faces, while players who didn’t make your preseason draft list end up at the top of the week’s fantasy stat board.
It’s the sort of thing that makes you want to hate the so-called fantasy experts. I forcefully hesitate to call myself an expert, and think of my role as much more of an assistant, helping you find your way to information that may prove useful. But I wouldn’t blame you if you hate me for not suggesting to you last week that Carolina QB Cam Newton would throw for 400-plus yards; that Green Bay WR Randall Cobb would score two TDs; or that troubled Cincinnati RB Cedric Benson would run for 121 yards. I’m kind of mad at myself, too.
The big question to ask though – while we’re filling the world with more hate – is how many of these Week 1 performances are indicative of future returns? Here’s my analysis of some surprising Week 1 stars:
Posted on September 14, 2011
By Mike Luce
Other 25 Update: Going into Week Three, the College Football Report Preseason Other 25 has posted a respectable record overall (34-13) and has posted a .500 winning percentage (10-10) against schools from BCS conferences (including Notre Dame) highlighted by South Florida’s win against the Irish in Week One. In view of ND’s last-second loss to Michigan on Saturday, the Bulls upset over Notre Dame might not look as impressive as the season rolls on.
The Other 25 has not fared nearly so well (2-5) against ranked teams, although we would be hard-pressed to consider that failing. After all, the ranked teams are supposed to be better, right? Against “the number,” the Other 25 has struggled as well, posting only 19 wins against the spread versus 28 losses. Later this season, we will do a bit more analysis to see how well The Other 25 fares in various situations: at home, on the road, as underdogs, etc.
Rearranging the Deli Counter or How the College Football Report Free Range Chicken Would Handle Conference Realignment: We think the experts should stop trying so hard and turn the realignment over to The College Football Report Free Range Chicken. After making short work of the BCS bowl predictions, the CFR FRC has been sharpening his beak for the next challenge. After reviewing his options, he pecked out the four new super conferences and divisions within each.
Posted on September 13, 2011
By Don Best TV
Jay Cutler is much improved and Mike Martz has figured out how to use Matt Forte, but the Saints will be able to move the football against the Bears in a way the Falcons couldn’t.
Posted on September 13, 2011
By Jim Coffman
Mike Martz has still got it.
In retrospect, the primary question for the Bears’ offense going into this season wasn’t whether the offensive line would hold up or whether Roy Williams would take the receiving corps to the next level. The No. 1 question was if Martz could prepare an offense and then make all the calls necessary to put a team in contention for a championship.
Because – and I’ve been harping on this for a while now – the Bears have a championship-caliber quarterback. Hello, NFL! The Bears have a championship-caliber quarterback! It is time for all of the experts to acknowledge what they should have figured out way back in the second half of last season. Maurice Jones-Drew and the rest of the short-attention-spanners who questioned Jay Cutler’s desire and toughness during and after the NFC championship game hadn’t paid enough attention to the Bears season until the final few games.
They hadn’t watched as Cutler survived a disastrous first third of the season in which his unbelievably bad offensive line literally put his life in danger. They hadn’t watched as somehow this team, with no receivers anyone would place in the top 30 in the league, somehow pulled itself together with Cutler at the helm and claimed the second seed in the NFC playoffs. The second seed in the NFC playoffs!
Now Cutler is back for more, and for the first time in four years he is playing in the same system for a second year in a row. It is amazing what just a little familiarity and a little comfort in a system will do, as evidenced by the Bears’ delightfully comprehensive 30-12 thrashing of the Falcons (last year’s No. 1 NFC playoff seed) in the season-opener Sunday.
Posted on September 12, 2011
By Marty Gangler
Okay, meaningless September baseball is something that Cubs fans are pretty used to. But extra inning meaningless September baseball is just the pits.
I mean, these guys have angered us all season, can’t they do us a solid and just end the game in the normal allotment of innings? Isn’t that fair?
Can’t we ask baseball to institute some sort of rule where teams flip a coin after nine innings when both teams are officially out of the pennant race? Would anyone not be a fan of this?
Or maybe just use computer simulations the rest of the way. This season needs to end so the Cubs can actually get someone in charge of the baseball operations. Like walking and chewing gum, this franchise can’t do both at the same time.
Posted on September 12, 2011
