By Marty Gangler
How meaningful is it that the Cubs are in first place in the NL Central? Well, we here at The Cub Factor think it’s sort of like being the tallest Fontenot. Or the largest shrimp in the basket. Or the least corrupt politician in Illinois. Oh yeah, we’ve got a bunch of ’em. It’s sort of like being . . .
* The most honest lawyer in the phone book
* The best golfer at the Putt-Putt
* The best episode of Real World: Cancun
* The best reporter on your local TV news
* The world’s strongest 80-year-old man
* Homeless but with a kickass cardboard box
* The best movie on Lifetime this year
* The best Coldplay song
* The smallest check you’ll bounce this week
* The first team that will get knocked out of the NL playoffs

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Posted on July 27, 2009

By Thomas Chambers
In baseball or football or basketball, it’s easy.
We see those guys, many obscenely overpaid, dog it and style it and then try to explain it and we know they’re just mooks. We know who they are and what they are.
But in Thoroughbred horse racing, you have the supreme intangible, the more than half-a-ton beast that has served man for millennia. Who knows which came first? The race, or the idea of betting on it.

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Posted on July 24, 2009

By David Rutter
1. Creepy Caskets
Even for those of us lured into the murky, pained catacombs of Notre Dame football fandom, this is really spooky.
The monks at the Trappist New Melleray Abbey in Peosta, Iowa, hand-carve caskets just for Notre Damers. For $2,560, you can get a hand-made oak ship set sail down the river Styx, and it you have left this world with a larger-than-normal butt, they have an oversized model for $2,800. I may need the XXXL model.

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Posted on July 23, 2009

By Dan O’Shea
The week of the All-Star Game is a godsend for some and a bit of bad luck for others, the sort of week where you see cellar-dwelling fantasy teams beat top-clubs if they happen to have all their pitchers starting or enough position playesr with Thursday games right after the three-day break.
You also have to be careful about working the waiver wire, because you sometimes see the odd reliever or call-up get a start as teams try to re-arrange their rotations around the break. You also might see pre-trading deadline trades give no-name players a batch of starts, though that doesn’t necessarily mean they will continue to start.
That’s why some of the hot hands you have seen on the waiver wire over the last week or so might seem unfamiliar. Here’s a Fantasy Fix Action Rating guide to some recent hot hands and what to do with them.

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Posted on July 22, 2009

By Eric Emery
Is Jay Cutler the Messiah?
He’s at least Messiah-like. He shares initials with the big guy, his middle name is Christopher, and he’s done battle against non-believers. In his (His) senior year of high school, he led his team to the state championship against Zionsville. Oh, and he was born in Santa Claus, Indiana.
If that isn’t enough for you, here are some other similarities between Jay Cutler and Jesus Christ.

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Posted on July 21, 2009

By Jim Coffman
Hey John McDonough, the next time you’re going to fire a flat-out successful general manager (the Blackhawks improved every season Dale Tallon was at the helm, culminating in an exciting run to the conference finals this year), maybe you should do it before he makes so many moves in the off-season that your roster is just about locked in for the next year. In fact, the Hawks are essentially locked in for the next couple years given all of their multi-year contracts and the NHL’s iron-clad salary cap (a team has to keep its payroll below the cap even if an owner would be willing to pay a luxury tax, like he could if he was an NBA owner).

Beachwood Baseball: The White Sox Report The Cub Factor will return next week

At least you should do that, John, if you hope to convince fans with at least an intermittent pulse that the move was due to anything other than a childish personality conflict. McDonough’s team was so lucky last year when it made another knee-jerk decision with significant consequences. That was when the Blackhawks waited until several games into the regular season before firing coach Denis Savard and bringing in Joel Quenneville. Of course, if they were even considering making a change early last season/pre-season, they should have done so well before training camp began, let alone the regular season. That’s what competent teams do to give the new guy a chance to comprehensively implement his system. But they caught a huge break when the veteran Quenneville hit the ice skating and was successful immediately and over the long haul of last season.

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Posted on July 20, 2009

By Andrew Reilly
There are two ways to look at the upcoming weeks and the Sox’ merciless schedule.
The obvious school of thought says it’s all over, that the season effectively ended with the savage beating the Orioles handed down today. Not that losing to the O’s means much in the scheme of things, but that the Sox’ opportunities to fatten up on mediocre teams have all passed, the Good Guys left with nothing to show for it but a slightly narrowed distance between themselves and the Kittens and a Minnesota team filling more and more of the rear-view mirror with each passing day. It’s as though these previous 91 games were a good time and all, but the Sox have to go home now and let the grown-ups get down to the business of playing serious, meaningful baseball.

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Posted on July 20, 2009

By Thomas Chambers

A few horseplayers in Chicago like to bicker about which is better, Arlington Park or Hawthorne Race Course.
It’s like Obama vs. McCain or Democrats vs. Republicans. There’s no good one – they’re all politicians. Or debating the merits as a metropolis of New York City versus Chicago. All I’ll say here is New York had a 200-year head start and the put-upon munchkin running this city called our tallest skyscraper “Big Willie” this week.
There is really no comparison and I don’t say that because of the facilities or that Hawthorne is considered to be in an icky neighborhood.

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Posted on July 17, 2009

By Dan O’Shea
Could the start of second half of the baseball season mark a new beginning for your fantasy baseball team? Maybe, but remember, there is less time left in your fantasy season than in the real MLB season, and less time still to make any trades. It’s definitely time to take stock of various underachievers, and do something about them one way or another. That means putting them on the trading block if you think you can get something, or maybe just on the chopping block if you think you can’t. Of course, there might also be a few worth keeping in the hopes they turn their seasons around. Here’s my take with a new Fantasy Fix feature, the weekly Fantasy Fix Action Ratings:
Player: Josh Hamilton, OF
Fantasy Fix Action Rating: TRADE
Comment: Back from injury and hitting again, but no homers yet since his return. The promise of easy production in the Rangers lineup is still there, but you’d be better off with a mid-tier outfielder with a clear power streak.

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Posted on July 16, 2009

By Mike Conklin
Did you know the U.S. Soccer Federation, which has its headquarters in Chicago, is bidding to host the World Cup in 2018 only two years after the Olympics could be here? And that some important matches – possibly the championship contest – could be played at Soldier Field?
Didn’t think so. At best, soccer receives token coverage in Chicago.
There was a reminder of this in June, when the U.S. men played Honduras – yes, the same Central American nation currently working its way through a coup attempt – in a World Cup qualifier here. Playing in poor weather, the contest still drew 55,647 spectators to see the U.S. win 2-1. Aside from Game Day coverage that got buried, the contest received little notice.

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Posted on July 15, 2009