Sports Shorts

Some sports related topics that are on my mind.

The only way Joe Cowley could be more of a lapdog for White Sox management is if he licked Kenny Williams face when he walked in the locker room. This is not an anti White Sox bias. I hate when any reporter kisses up to management. I read the paper to get even handed opinions. The next time Joe Cowley writes anything negative about the White Sox it will be a first. Your job as a beat reporter is to report not be a mouthpiece for an insecure management team that thinks all media is out to get them. I am not saying you need to go “Mariotti” but there is a happy medium.

Yes, Sox fans the 2005 White Sox were lucky and there is nothing wrong with that. The other morning listening to the Score while driving in I heard Mike Mulligan get all upset when it was mentioned that the 2005 White Sox got a number of breaks. Well, duh? That does not mean the team wasn’t talented or didn’t take advantage of those breaks, because they did. But to not acknowledge the amount of luck that team had is not being honest with oneself.

Cliff Polite had an ERA of 2.00 that year. In no other year in his career is he even close to that. Scott Podsednick had his last good, healthy year in 2005 as well as Carl Everett. A.J. Pierzynski fell into their laps due to a bone headed decision by the Giants to first trade the farm to get him only to cut him a year later. Bobby Jenks also fell to them as the Angles cut him due to his past digressions. Only six pitchers made starts that year. That is a tremendous amount of health that you usually don’t get in a full 162 game season. In the ALCS the Sox got more breaks then a plane of glass in a hurricane. I don’t want to go into the A.J. dropped strike three thing again, but anyone with any objectivity will tell you the ump blew that call. With all that said any team that wins the World Series needs to get a tad lucky. Trust me I would kill to have that luck on the north side just once.

The Cubs scare me. Of course they always scare me. Everyone in the free world is predicating another division title, and I agree they should win. Still, I don’t like this team’s makeup. I don’t think we are as deep as we were last year and I fear we are taking a huge gamble hoping for health from two injury prone players in Harden and Bradley. I also think Derek Lee is on the downside of his career. Maybe I am just being my paranoid usual self. I still want to believe that this is the year but, I must say I felt a lot better about this team a year ago then I do now.

I hate the Bears right now. I am still and always will be a Bears fan but this team is one of the least likeable in recent history. Mike Brown was the last guy in that locker room I respected. Brain Urlacher is quickly becoming my least favorite Bear of all time. He exemplifies the stereotype of the dump jock. If he wasn’t born with athletic gifts, he would be pumping gas somewhere in New Mexico. Tommie Harris is a lazy malcontent. As bad as the team on the field is, the front office is what really is pissing me off lately.

The Bears have glaring needs on offense and so far they have added a backup tackle. I am all for building trough the draft but Angelo’s track record of picking offensive players in the draft is highly suspect. (Anyone remember Benson, Cedric?) Why not go after a receiver? Tory Holt was cut ,the Bears should be the first team calling his agent. The move makes so much sense that an infant could see it. But, I am willing to bet that Halas Hall makes some excuse as to why he wouldn’t be a fit. (The fact that he can actually catch the ball and run after he makes said catch would be I admit a unique talent among the current receiving core.) The real reason is that the Bears are cheap and have already sunk a ton of money into mediocre talent on the defense. That Super Bowl loss a couple of years ago only bought Lovie and Angelo so much credit and it is beginning to run out.

It is nice that the Blackhawks are relevant again. There was always a hockey fan somewhere inside of me but the last decade of watching just an abysmal product topped off by a total lack of talent or name players had turned me off to the Blackhawks completely. The last decade of Chicago Blackhawk hockey has been hard to put up with even for the most diehard fan. Last year we got a glimpse of things to come. At long last with the likes of Towes, Kane, Sharp, Keith and the some great goaltending by Khabibulin and Huet the team is finally clicking. (Admittingly they have hit a bump in the road lately.) Just making the playoffs this year is an accomplishment. Winning a series would be nice, as well. I still think they are a year away from Cup contention but, at long last there is hope on Madison Street.

Why are the Cubs so hated? Last I checked besides Sox fans, Cardinal, Brewer and now Astros fans really dislike the Cubs. My dad tells me the Reds fans also despise the Cubs. Is it because we travel well and take over a lot of road venues? I really have no other explanation for it. I mean we haven’t won anything so it is not like hating the Yankees or Cowboys. That I get. Hating the Cubs, what’s the point? The refrain I hear most often is that we are losers for supporting a team that never wins. Well, to that I say, in my lifetime the Cubs have won five division titles and a wild card. Yes, we still haven’t won the whole enchilada but we will one day. And in my mind it is much worse to be called a front runner or bandwagon jumper. When the Cubs finally repay my debt with a World Series I am telling you I will enjoy it on a level that the “new” Cub fans can only imagine. In some ways the 2005 White Sox was a very good thing in that it weeded out the fair weather fans. As I have said, I took names and those who put on Sox hats in 2005 are not allowed back into the club.