Final Thoughts on Chicago Sports

Jack's First Cubs Game

Ok, so the season is for all practical purposes over, and I've got the mother of all rants brewing.  But I'm going to skip all that for now, and talk about my son's first Cubs game.

Talk about a breath of fresh air.  Jack is a crazy Cubs fan, and he legitimately likes every player on the team.  Even Milton Bradley.  His favorite player is Soriano.  And Derrek Lee.  And Big Z.  And Fukudome.  And Sam Fuld.  And...<he'll keep listing names until he names every Cubs player>.  He knows every player, their number, and their position.  If someone's playing in a different position or not in the lineup, he immediately recognizes the oddity (such as the DH during interleague play a few months ago).  He puts on his glove and pitches when the Cubs pitch.  He swings a bat when the Cubs bat.  They can do no wrong in his eyes. 

So anyways, I had 2 tickets to Friday's game against the Mets, and I figured it was the perfect opportunity to pull him out of kindergarten and take him to his first game.  (Don't tell Ed Rooney.)   Every day he asks if he can go today, even if a) they already played earlier in the day, and b) they're on a road trip.   When we told him he was going Friday morning, he shrieked with excitement.  He wants to go see Soriano, and he wants to get a finger.  That is, a giant foam "We're #1" finger. 

He really didn't know what he was in for.  On the way down, he's asking questions like, "Are Len Kasper and Bob Brenly going to be really loud?"  "Are we going to see the pre-game show?"  "Are we going to see the commercials?" and on and on.  I think he thought we were going to still be watching the game on TV.  We aren't going to the new Texas Stadium, son.

So we get down to the Wrigley at about the time the gates opened, showed him my brick and got the requisite pictures by the Harry Caray statue and under the front marquee.  We walk in, walk up the steps, and he's all smiles.  He soaks it all in.  He's seemingly shocked at how far the Cubs are hitting the ball.  We mosey down to the wall to watch batting practice.  He gets excited to see...everyone.  There's Fukudome!  There's Jake Fox!  Look, Dad, there's Koyie Hill!  People were turning and looking...who IS this kid?!

After the Cubs were done, they ran into the dug out.  Jack is standing next to an even younger kid, and Rich Harden turns and runs directly towards us.  Jack gets a little shy and turns away a second, as does the other kid.  Harden has his hand out to give either kid the ball, but both kids have their back to him.  He leaves the ball on the ledge, turns and heads to the dugout.  The other kid finally turns around and takes the ball.  So close...

We grab a dog, a finger, and head to our seats.  Nothing beats a hot dog at the ballpark.  We were seated in the upperdeck, right under Len & Bob.  This is probably my favorite spot to sit in the stadium, by the way (outside of the 100 level, of course).  Just a great view of the game up there.  Total foul ball territory, too.

Cubs jump out to an early lead and Jack's ecstatic.  Jumping up and down, shaking his hat at triple deuces, and it doesn't even phase him when Soriano drops a popup in the 3rd (an inning after Bradley lets one drop off his shoe).  Did you see that, I ask?  "Yeah, he dropped it."  It doesn't slow down his fun, though, as he's still smiling ear to ear.  Lilly starts mowing 'em down.

Seventh inning, Bradley catches the most routine of popups and gets an enormous standing ovation.  I can only shake my head.  Have I got a rant about that guy.  Jack doesn't care, though.  I ask him if he likes Bradley, and he says, "yeah - he always gets on base!"  Jack doesn't listen to sports radio.

During the 7th inning stretch, Jack sings a little but spends most of the time working on his batting stroke.  Whatever, he's having fun.

Lilly gets into a jam in the 8th, and Kevin Gregg comes in.  "Mom says Gregg doesn't know how to pitch.  Did he forget?"  Mom's not just another pretty face, apparently.  Gregg gets one out but gives up one inherited run on a line drive to the wall, just off Soriano's glove.  (Nice effort, at least, but I bet Fuld would have snared it.)  Runner thrown out at the plate, bottom 8, Cubs down 2-1.

Bradley double, long Lee flyout to advance the runner, Aramis RBI single, tie game.  Really, I was watching the game through his eyes and I couldn't help get excited.  Two on, two out for Soriano.  This horrible season turning meaningless, and I wanted nothing more for Soriano to get the game-winning hit.  Jack loves Soriano.  Ever Cubs fan of age can't stand him, but he's my son's hero.  Why?  Best I can gather its his hot April.  He hit a fair number of leadoff HRs last year (when Jack first started paying attention), and he had a blistering hot April (like .340 with 12 or 14 HRs) this year when Jack started becoming obsessed with the team.  Does Jack care Sori's hitting about .160 in August with zero HRs?  Nope.  I ask him what's going to happen.  "He's going to hit a HR."  (To be far, he said that about Aramis and Jeff Baker, too, along with every other Cub I asked about.)

Sori goes down 0-2 with a weak swing and the catcher walks out to the mound.  I can only imagine the catcher saying, "if this next ball is within 3 feet of the plate, I'm going to kick you in the jimmy."  At that point, I put the odds of Sori getting a hit around one in a thousand.  Instead, meatball over the heart of the plate - gone.  I couldn't believe it.  Jack is jumping up and down like crazy.  His first Cubs game, his first home run.  Cubs lead, 5-2. 

Marmol walks one but otherwise zips through the ninth.  Strike 3 on Gary Sheffield (one of the few Major Leaguers to actually bat for the Mets that day - man, are they banged up) and Cubs win.  Go Cubs Go!  Dancing in the aisles.  Unbelievable. 

I still can't believe Soriano hit that homer.  Its like Jack's good karma made it happen.  Or the pitcher on the Mets had a complete brain fart.  One or the other.

On the way home, listening to sports radio, and yet another set of unflattering quotes from Bradley hit the airwaves.  Jack pays no mind.  He's just happy the Cubs won and his hero hit a homer.  He asked me what place they're in, and I say 2nd.  Who's in first?  The Cardinals.  Long pause.  "Is Rock Obama Albert Pujols' dad?  He gave him a high five that day."  That would be the All-Star game 6 weeks ago, if you're paying attention.  Kids remember the weirdest stuff.  He then fell asleep and slept hard for the next hour, while I navigated traffic.

Bears Look Good in Second Tuneup

The Bears starters looked really good in beating the Giants 17-3 on Saturday night at Soldier Field.  The Bears starters gave a pretty dominating performance, and that's really all you could ask for.

Jay Cutler looked very good in his three drives, all of which led to Bears scores.  What you saw from Cutler was, IMO, Kyle Orton's ceiling.  In other words, while Cutler wasn't exactly Joe Montana out there, he easily looked at least as good as Orton has ever looked (when not facing Detroit).  And the fact that this is just his second preseason game with the club gives me the warm fuzzies.  He's gonna be a good one.

Matt Forte was excellent in his 2009 debut, and looked as fast as I've ever seen him.  He should be well worth that 3rd overall pick in fantasy this year, and he's going to make a lot of people happy.  Kevin Jones and Garrett Wolfe also looked solid, at least when the latter wasn't fumbling in the end zone.

Greg Olsen, Earl Bennett, and Devin Aromashadu all made really nice plays with the first team.  Brandon Rideau and Juaquin Iglesias made plays for Hanie (who himself looked quite solid).  And then there's Hester. 

Hester had two catches, neither of which really amounted to much.  But he was WIDE OPEN on one play in the 2nd, about as open as you can get in the NFL.  Cutler scrambled out of the pocket and absolutely whipped the ball downfield.  Hester stuttered a step, seemingly thinking that he might have outrun the ball, only to see the ball land about 2 yards in front of him.  I'm convinced that without that stutter he catches the ball perfectly in stride for a 90 yard TD.  Amazing throw.  Should have been a great catch.  Oh well.  I'm not going to say, at this point, that "Hester as legit number one" is going to fail, but I will say that it doesn't look overly promising at this point.

I should point out that the starting O-line has been playing well.  Pace, Williams, Omiayale, Kreutz and Garza.  They look like they've been playing together for years, even though 3 of those guys just got here.

As for the defense, the Bears did a nice solid job overall.  Outside of when Brandon Jacobs touched the ball, they tackled well, tipped passes, and got to the QB.  (Eli was pretty lousy.)  Urlacher continues to look reborn, as does Mark Anderson, and I like what I've been seeing in the secondary.  The secondary is by far the biggest concern going into this season, and thus far everyone but Vasher has been holding his own.  How about that Al Afalava?  Looks like he could be another patented great late-round pick for Jerry Angelo.

All in all, a good showing. No concerns at this point.  Just have to stay healthy.  I'm ready for the regular season.

BEAR DOWN

Bears Training Camp, 2009

Went to Bourbonnais today to take in my first few glimpses of Jay Cutler and the 2009 Bears.  I gotta say, I was very impressed.  Cutler's throws cut through the air unlike any Bears QB I've ever seen.  SO impressive.  He makes Orton and Grossman look like, well, Orton and Grossman.  It's going to be a treat to watch him lead the Bears for the next 10-12 seasons.  And saying that always leads us to the following question, which is, "who's he going to throw to?"

The most impressive of the receivers today, by far, was Brandon Rideau.  Hester sat out, so Rideau made the most of his opportunity with the first team and he got his money's worth.  He was tall, he was fast, he has good hands, and he made huge plays.  I don't see how he's any less than the 3rd receiver on this team come September.  (Oh, and apparently his name is pronounced "REE-doh", not the "ri-DOH" everyone called him last season.  Who knew?)  

As for the other receivers, Bennett and Davis made some catches today, none of which were particularly flashy.  Olsen was a big target, and he rewarded Jay with some nice diving catches.  Rookie Johnny Knox also looked awfully good in shaking Nathan Vasher out of his shoes and scoring a nice, fast TD.  He's a lock to make the team as well. 

If today was any indication -- Hester, Bennett, Rideau, Davis and Knox will be your five receivers this season, with Iglesias (who I didn't even notice today) as a redshirt inactive most weeks but on the roster if only because of his draft pedigree.  Look for Aromashodu on the practice squad again.

Got an opportunity to watch Rod Marinelli work his magic on the D-Line.  They were particularly spirited in the time I watched them, far more action than I ever saw from anyone on the defense the last two times I went to camp.  I'm drinking the kool-aid on the Marinelli signing.  Mr. 0-16 looks like he'll be able to whip those underachievers into gear.

Apparently Mark Anderson got in a dustup with Chris Williams at the end of practice today, but I missed it because we were packing up and heading out.  (There were scattered showers and a light drizzle soaking us all day, and after 2 hours it was time to leave.  Besides, Hanie was coming in.) I like how these camp fights get reported.  They are literally NOTHING and nearly everyone acknowledges them as such.  Yet every news organization proceeds to beat each one of them into the ground like a dead horse. 

Speaking of Hanie, he looked pretty decent.  At least as good as Orton looked two years ago, which is all you can ask from a backup.

Oh yeah, and I almost got hit by Urlacher and Briggs' golf cart.  I was walking around the corner of the north end of the field just as 54 and 55 were showing up for practice.  I froze for a second, moved out their way and let their caddie drive their bored-looking butts to the field.  I mustered up a mild "hey" as they stopped and were idling a mere four feet from me, and Urlacher kind of half-raised his eyebrows as an acknowledgement.  I don't know if I'd call that a brush with fame or a brush-off with fame, but whatever.  It was what it was and I was satisfied with the brief interaction.

All in all, a nice day at camp.  Got to see me some Cutler, some Marinelli, and loved me some Rideau.  I'm ready for the first preseason game.

BEAR DOWN.

Cubs Thoughts: Closing Time

Ok, Kevin Gregg isn't very good.  That 600-foot home run that Dan Uggla hit on Sunday, as part of back-to-back blown saves, is pretty much all the evidence you need.  But you know what?  I'm not worried about the Cubs at this point.  I've pretty much given up hope. 

I have absolutely zero confidence that this team can both a) outlast the Cardinals, and b) win 11 games in the postseason.  Well, I think they can outlast the Cardinals without relying on cosmic forces, but I'm still of the firm belief that the postseason is all luck.  And at this point I have no more or no less confidence in the team's potential October success than I had for the team that won 97 games last season.  Would I rather have a better, DOMINANT closer with grade-A nasty stuff?  Sure, who wouldn't?  But having that wouldn't improve their odds of winning in the postseason all that much.  It just matters who's hot.  And Gregg can get hot.  Is he as likely to be hot as, say, Mariano Rivera circa 1999?  No, probably not.  But he can surely string together a a dozen good appearances over the course of a month.  In fact, he had a seven-week stretch in June/July where he more or less dominated.  If that happens in October, along with another 5-7 Cubs playing about as well as they typically play in the regular season:  Cubs win.

So there's no sense fretting over the closer at this point.  They don't have a better option on the roster.  Marmol might be better, but he's allergic to throwing strikes.  Guzman's a better pitcher, but he's been pretty shaky during the few times he's been asked to finish up games.  And there's nobody out there in free agency or available via waiver-trade either that's any better.  The only guy that may have been available is Heath Bell, but as of last Friday its too late for that.  So no sense wasting energy on that.  It's Gregg or bust in 2009.  Worry about the closer for next season, if you must.

Speaking of acquiring players, let's talk about Jim Hendry a minute.  Yes, he had a pretty horrible offseason.  But I'm cutting him some slack.  Up until last November, a significant percentage of his moves for the Cubs have worked out well.  And it's really hard to argue with three division titles in six years, in addition to contending this year.  Yeah, the Bradley and Gregg deals haven't exactly worked out, and neither has the subtraction of DeRosa.  Miles blows, Gathright was an abomination, and even Hank White has been missed these last few weeks.  Would he like a few do-overs?  Sure, but who cares about hypotheticals.  Live in the now.   If he has any real weakness at all, it has been the in the draft.  The Cubs have probably the worst draft record of any team over the past 25 years.  But the farm system has come around a bit and produced a few keepers the last few years, so that's something.

I don't know, I guess I just want to stop worrying about it and enjoy the games for what they are.  Small victories.  So I'm going to do what the famous bleacher t-shirt suggests: shut up and drink my beer.