Get Your Act Together!

Are you as embarrassed as I am, because you should be! Our city’s football organization is the current laughingstock of the NFL. It’s a joke, nay, it’s a BAD joke! Da Bears organization has somehow found a way to worsen its credibility with this abomination they call a process of hiring coordinators, especially for the offensive coordinator position. First of all, how could your fire anybody before having at least a slight idea of who you want to replace your current staff member? How do you not have a short list of names before you do anything else? How do you, Lovie, say that anyone would love to come to Chicago for a job in this organization when you and everybody else knows that this would be an awful situation to get one’s self into. Secondly, how could you interview guys for the job not in the order of your preference AND admit it on your official website? LIES! You were probably just assuming that Bates and Fewell would come here at the drop of a dime and taking it to the bank before you even made a phone call to see if they would even consider joining this mess. Now, we’ve had a revolving door of clowns passing through as you try to low-ball somebody into this potentially temporary job. Hue Jackson even took the job security in Oakland rather than a chance at calling plays with a QB like Jay Cutler for one year, I don’t care if he’s from the Bay-area or not! Finally, how could you resort to interviewing Mike Martz for the OC position? Are you kidding me??? We just got a franchise quarterback, let’s try to keep him and not get him killed or send him to an early retirement! We don’t have the offensive line to take 7-step drops and fill the air with footballs. We can’t risk putting him in an empty backfield where Martz’s QB’s have been sacked 54, 55, and 63 times in his last play-calling stints. There’s a reason this man hasn’t had a job in the NFL for a year! The potential upside of his system is greatly outweighed by the potential downside. Sure it would be nice if Cutler could throw 5 TD passes against a crappy Detroit defense, but is it worth risking his health against a great D-line (i.e. the Vikings’) and having Caleb Hanie mop up the rest the minutes, or maybe even Brett Basanez? Jerry Angelo, please do one of following two things. Do NOT allow this hiring… I understand that he’s probably the most qualified of all the guys that have come through the door, but hiring a guy by default would be ludicrous…OR…have another press conference, apologize to the fan-base for the terrible mistake that you’ve made and are now going to correct with the firing of Lovie and the potential hiring of his cronies, and hire a good coach that will bring in a qualified staff. Bill Cowher any one? You and Ted Philips need to stop using the lack of the Collective Bargaining Agreement as a crutch and get this organization’s act together!

Ozzie Bowl-Leabs in Dis Bo-Club

This season will be the crux of Ozzie’s career as the White Sox Manager. He asked for it and he got it. With the exception of Konerko, Ozzie was able to get Kenny Williams to agree to not sign or re-sign the base-clogging, station-to-station sluggers such as Jim Thome and Jermaine Dye. Instead, he’s got the (somewhat) speedy, run-producing lineup he’s been pining for. The power is still there, it’s just spread out more throughout the lineup with guys like Teahen, Rios, Jones, and even Alexi Ramirez. It’s not congested in just the 4, 5, and 6 spots like it has been for years. Ozzie’s going to have more control over the games than ever before, it’s not going to just be pitching changes any more. There’s going to be squeezes of the safety and suicide variety, double-steals that may turn into triple-plays, bunt-and-runs, hit-and-runs, delayed steals, and whatever else Ozzie’s mind can conjure up and we’ll probably see such plays being executed at the oddest of times during a ball game. It wouldn’t surprise me if we see a couple of crazy first-and-third plays like the elementary “walk-off” play or a Ty Cobb special and taking off for second base after a base on balls to try to get another guy in scoring position or have him distract the infield to get the runner on third to cross the dish. Ozzie-ball will be played out to its full potential. I’m still skeptical about the DH-by-committee plan and I’d still rather have an every day DH though it won’t be a power hitter like Thome who signed with the Twins, but I personally like the game plan to score runs early and often because we have the pitching rotation to hold off teams and a deeper bullpen than most people may think. With games being shortened to 6 innings with Putz, Thorton, and Jenks rounding out the back of the bullpen, I have the White Sox projected to win 94 games and winning the Central Division Championship by 6 games over the Twinkies. I may be a homer, but I think the depth of the rotation and bullpen, and the run-production potential of the lineup will carry the Sox to the World Series (barring significant injuries). The fate of the White Sox rests on Ozzie’s shoulders, and Ozzie bowl-leabs we can ween wit dis bo-club. Do you bowl-leab in Ozzie?
Remeber to listen to your new favorite radio show Cover 3 with me every Monday evening 7 to 9 on sportstownchicago.com. PREACH.

I'm Pro-Antti.......Niemi

All aboard the Niemi train CHOO CHOO!! There’s still some space available, but the tickets are going fast! Antti Neimi has been consistent the entire year thus far and he’s earned himself a second consecutive start for the first time this season. He’s got the hot hand and Coach Q is going to give him the nod against a good Vancouver team whom the Hawks beat in last year’s playoffs. His save percentage is a respectable .923. He has started less than half the games Huet has, yet he has just as many shutouts with four. The men between the pipes thrive on confidence and now it’s Niemi’s chance to make the most of his playing time. Huet has been coddled long enough. Coach Q’s decision may take its toll on Huet’s confidence level , but it also just might light a fire under his pads and make this goaltending tandem the last piece of the Stanley Cup puzzle. Niemi all ready has a shutout against the Canucks this year and knowing that he’ll be playing in advance boosts his confidence and gives him a good chance to put up a repeat performance.
The Blackhawks are just 2 points behind the Sharks for most points in the league and are 3-1 on the current road trip. They’ve been road warriors thus far and I’d be content with a 4-3 trip, but my expectations have grown since the beginning of the season and I anticipate at least a 5-2 record upon the completion of the road trip.
Don’t forget to tune in to my radio show as I co-host Cover 3 streaming live Monday evenings 7 to 9 on sportstownchicago.com

St. Louis: Home of the Mouth-Breathers

If you cheat and lie in St Louis, you will be cheered and revered by the mouth-breathers of the city that call themselves fans. In his first public appearance since his admission of steroid use, Mark McGwire received a gut-wrenching Standing-O. A Standing-O? Really St. Louis, really?!? Cards fans are on a planet of their own. I wonder if they’ve ever heard of the word integrity where they’re from. First Big Mac, along with the now bluish-green Sammy Sosa, played with our hearts in that magical ’98 season, which of course we all now know was a complete sham. Some fans may have suspected the cheating back then, but they were still bitter since the ’94 strike season that they were using this great spectacle as a reason to restore they’re faith in baseball. As a 14 year old myself, I thought the shattering of the single season home run record was the result of good, clean, hard work by a talented ballplayer in his prime. Now I know not to trust anybody.This includes you too, Mr. Pujols. I won’t be fooled again. I just wish I didn’t have to question other people’s honesty. I hope you’re not and never have been a user Albert, but nobody gets a pass. I do suspect people LESS, like Big Frank and Junior, but NOBODY GETS A PASS!

A Big Slap in Da Face

It’s taken the week it’s been since Da Bears press conference aired to recover from that atrocity. As a Bears fan, it was a downright slap in the face. The worse part of it is, the person who I wanted to stick around the most, Lovie, was the most arrogant, smug, and condescending person to speak at the lectern. I know he’ll still be here next year, but now I’m not so sure I want him to be. Ted Philips spoke for way too long about continuity (for the sake of continuity) and making a major change, which essentially didn’t happen and Jerry Angelo sounded like an incompetent moron, which he very well may be; however, they at least admitted their shortcomings and realize that the organization has problems that need to be addressed from top to bottom. But no, Lovie stood up there with his chest puffed out as he wore his (very temporary) cloak of invincibility and proceeded to blatantly offend the entire Chicago Bears fan base. Now I know that at this point Lovie can’t just abandon the Cover 2 scheme he knows and loves, but he agrees with Angelo in that they like their current roster. The current roster isn’t the right fit for the scheme and that’s why Da Bears haven’t made it to the playoffs the past three years! Big slap in the face. Do they think we’re dumb?!? I know there were a lot of meatball Bear fans out there, the ones who scream “Play with some stones out there!”, sat down on the fifth of January eating this up and thought Lovie stood up there exuberating unadulterated confidence restoring their faith in the Lovie regime and school of thought, but the rest of us won’t stand for smoke and mirrors as a substitute for an absent premise in an argument. We want results, not opinions. We want at least 17 games played a year. We want another successful team to talk about besides the ’85 Bears!

Da Bears: 7-9

7-9. (Thumb pointing downward while making a farting noise). There were high expectations for Da Bears coming into this season with the acquisition of franchise quarterback Jay Cutler, yet they couldn’t even finish with a .500 record let alone win the North Division. The organization in its entirety is problematic. I’ve shared my thoughts about the front office in a previous post, so I’m going to start where the game begins and ends, in the trenches. Angelo went out and signed a veteran and future Hall of Famer in Orlando Pace. Pace is simply past his prime. WAY past his prime like he went past the Seven-Eleven that would indicate that he’s gone too far and is now on a road that Google Maps hasn’t yet charted. He’s just too slow these days for the athletes that line up across from him at defensive end. This signing seemed like a great idea on paper, but it forced Chris Williams to move out of his comfort zone as left tackle to the opposite end of the line for his first full season as a starter and may have caused a domino effect on the entire offensive line. They didn’t provide the run blocking that Forte flourished under last year and the poor pass protection had Cutler rattled and off his game for most of the season. On the other side of the ball, we brought in ex-head coach of the 0-16 Detroit Lions Rod Marinelli as the defensive lineman/assistant coach. This didn’t bring in the results that Da Bears were hoping for, but I don’t think that he was the problem. He did some good things with what he had, running inside stunts amongst other things that worked when the players actually executed the plays properly. Tommie Harris is a dynamite football player…when he actually decides that he wants to show up and play. With the “Tampa 2” scheme that Lovie has implemented upon this defense, the most vital position is the 3-technique lineman. He’s there because he’s so big and so quick and so athletic that he can get up-field and be disruptive in the backfield or simply occupy space as well as the two O-linemen whose gap he’s firing into. This is a major nuisance for offenses and it allows our Pro Bowl caliber linebackers to clean up any leftover run-game messes or quickly drop back into coverage if need be. Losing Urlacher brought about a whole new set of problems for Da Bears and their scheme. Ogunleye did a fine job this year, of course it probably had nothing to do with it being a contract year I’m sure. Alex Brown had an average season and Mark Anderson really didn’t make the most of his playing time. Do I even have to mention Gaines Adams? (There’s more on him in the first December ’09 post). The point is we didn’t win many of the wars in the trenches, which is why we didn’t win enough games to make it to the playoffs. Also, for the most part, it was the fault of the poor performances of the players in those trenches, not that of the coaching. Again, it turned into a domino effect whether it put too much responsibility on the 34th string linebackers, caused Cutler to try to do too much and force the ball into spots he may normally not have with less than two seconds to survey the field, provoked our sub-par safeties out of position causing them to miss their assignments, or making our #2, #3, and #3 receivers to forever be on the wrong page and break off routes (and no that wasn’t a typo because we didn’t have a #1 receiver all year). I will give credit to Da Bears for showing up for Monday Night Football against the Vikings. Who doesn’t enjoy a victory over Favre and crew? They ended the season with two winners after a win over Detroit, which was still close until mid-fourth quarter. I’m afraid it was too little too late for Da Bears. I took it as a sign that they wanted to make sure at least Lovie comes back to coach, although O-coordinator Ron Turner will probably be added to my HE GONE list later this week, and maybe even GM Jerry Angelo, better yet President and CEO Ted Philips!

2010 HE GONE LIST

Although it wasn't outlandish, my prediction was correct...

Jim Zorn of the Washington Redskins...HE GONE!!!
Perry Fewell interim coach of the Buffalo Bills...HE GONE!!!
Ron Turner O-Coordinator for the Chicago Bears...HE GONE!!!
The O-line, Tight End, QB coaches and two assistants...THEY GONE!!!
Jim Mora of the Seattle Seahawks...HE GONE!!!

The Cubs: The '09 Debacle and Moving Forward

Everybody and their cousin picked the Cubs to win the National League Central last year. I even did so myself and on paper, they should have! Now I know they had some key injuries like when Aramis Ramirez went down with a separated shoulder, but that’s no excuse because all teams experience injuries throughout the season. D. Lee started out slow, but he finished up with some good numbers to finish the year. And who could have foreseen the debacle that would come about from the signing of Milton Bradley? I’m afraid there’s no cure for that cancer. Besides being lazy and lacking the ability to remember how many outs there are in an inning, he simply DID NOT PRODUCE. 40 RBI’s, really Milton? I could spend weeks on that pathetic excuse for a major league ball player, but maybe I’ll save that for another time. At least Jim Hendry was able to trade his bad paper for worse paper. The Big Z, more like the Big Baby. Who throws balls into the stands out of anger anymore, seriously? The man just looks for things to complain about. He had a decent season with an era of 3.77. He may be passionate and often eventful, but I think it’s strictly for personal reasons and individual stats. Zambrano has never been much of a teammate. Harden could only perform well under certain conditions when he wasn’t taking a visit to the DL, Dempster couldn’t relive the season he had prior, which would’ve been hard to do for anybody, Marmol couldn’t find the strike zone, Gregg couldn’t close a bank account, Soriano couldn’t lay off a slider in the dirt, and the list goes on and on with each short-coming contributing to the unacceptable ’09 season. Hendry has been pining to put together a team to get to and win the World Series and he’s back to work again. To sum up the rest of his moves thus far, he’s gotten rid of one of last year’s most consistent relief pitchers in Aaron Heilman and replaced him with an inexperienced Jeff Gray, He made the best and worst player dumpings in the same trade. The best dumping being that of Aaron Miles, what a joke, and the worse being getting rid of his best prospect in Jake Fox. I know he’s a butcher no matter where you put him in the field, but that can come with time. Fox can flat out stick and you put him on a plane to Oakland making Billy Beane the winner of that transaction. Hendry though, is gaining more prospects to stock-pile the Cubs’ farm system and hey, maybe it’ll work out within the next four or five years. But haven’t the Cub fans waited long enough?!? It’s been over a century! Forget the damn farm system and read a page from the book of Kenny Williams and realize that the time is now. I’m sure he’s not done just yet, but Jim better pull out the best trick he has in his bag, otherwise he’ll be seeing Pujols hoisting that coveted NL Central trophy again on 2010.

Stay here to ease your angry fix. I’ll be starting the 2010 HE GONE list citing the most significant firings of the year in all major sports. We should have a handful of names soon with Black Monday nearing. Feel free to leave any predictions in the comments section. My first prediction…Jim Zorn of the Washington Redskins…HE GONE!