ChicagoSportsBlogs : Non Compete

I was on the train today goofing around with my trust new iPhone when I noticed an article about Lance Briggs. I practically dropped this gem of a phone when I read the headline: Briggs nears agreement, could be in camp on time. This can't be right? After all that bitching and moaning, his devil-agent had an epiphany?

It probably went like this: "The Bears are really good. They're even better with a happy Lance Briggs. Imagine how happy Lance Briggs becomes when they win the Superbowl. Imagine the money we make when he becomes a free agent?!"

I would imagine that this was an easy decision to make. I bet the Bears started whispering to Drew Rosenhaus about how the Falcons had started calling about Briggs. That should make any football player and his agent nervous. Atlanta is not the town you want to be in during the Ron Mexico circus. So everyone wins in this scenario. Who would have imagined that Briggs and Rosenhaus would actually come to their senses. I guess it isn't that surprising. Afterall, $7 million is a lot of money to say no too.

BTW - anyone notice that the Sox beat the Tigers twice yesterday?! Imagine that, a good day to be a Sox fan AND a Bears fan! Whoohoo!

I needed to relay this story to both of my die-hard readers. As many of you know, I have family that has recently moved to the Big D! Detroit Rocks! Wait. That was Cleveland. Nevermind. It's not really Detroit, it's one of those posh suburbs. Whatever. The point of this little article is that we spent Saturday night watching a soccer game! Yes, that's right. I spent part of Saturday night indoors watching soccer. This wasn't just any soccer game, this was the LA Galaxy's friendly against Chelsea (a visiting club from London). It was David Beckham's premiere game and ESPN must have been loving the attention the worldwide press was giving Becks and his smoking hot wife. Reality TV shows, jerseys (check it out, Sports Authority actually gave him a url: www.sportsauthority.com/Beckham), ESPN prime time coverage! Holy Crap, is that Tony Parker's wife up in that press box? You know that hot one. Eva Longoria. That's it. Nice. I love this new sport, soccer. The coverage is awesome! I love how they break up the action with interviews of celebrities. Shit, that's the President of California! Ya! I am the Terminator. Wow. Amazing stuff. Ok - I can't continue that line of d-baggery because my sarcasm isn't coming out very well. I don't want the MLS bloggers coming after me. Speaking of MLS bloggers, anyone want to guess how many I could find in a Google search? One. And here it is. Not a bad start. The site is way better looking than ours (for now), but it does have a ton of multimedia ads that seem to crash Firefox every so often. I've watched a lot of soccer in my time, and I can assure all of you that the game was mediocre at best. I was a bit disappointed that Becks was only going to play the final 10 minutes, but an injury is an injury. I'm not sure if the rest of the press is going to be as forgiving as the soccer fans out there of his non-performance, but it really doesn't matter. I saw this man crush my hopes as a child when he made that freaking kick against the Greek National Team. He still has something left in the tank and the MLS needs something to keep it from going the way of NFL Europa. I wonder how hard it will be to get tickets when they come to Chicago to face the Fire. With the White Sox doing crappy, hockey being dead to me, perhaps this little British man and his hot wife are what I need to get into the MLS. Hmm...something to ponder while I wait for the real football to begin.

I have no excuses for why I haven't been posting as of late. It sucks following a horrible baseball team. It sucks even more to subject yourself to writing about a horrible baseball team. It isn't enough to actually watch the games and see how bad the White Sox are this season, when you run a blog like this you have to suck it up and write. So fine. Here goes.

The Sox are terrible. We are on the verge of being one of the worst teams in baseball. The bullpen is horrific, the injuries have been tedious, and the realization that the minor league talent we have is abysmal is icing on the cake. I really don't know what to do. I turn the game on every day. Most of the time I catch the middle of the third inning. The Sox are typically losing by this point. Hawk and DJ are making sarcastic comments on the telecast and this is my cue to hit the BBQ and flip the steaks.

In the past, my wife has hated the fact that I cook and watch the Sox at the same time. This was a problem last year, when the Sox always seemed to win. There was always something good "about to happen". I always needed "just one more minute" even though my steaks didn't. Nowadays I'm tuning in to see someone ground into a double play, boot a grounder into foul territory, or air mail a throw into the stands. You can guess how many times this team has had me glued to my seat. None. I guess we can go back to eating medium rare filets. See, that's the good news.

I haven't been reading much about the Sox online either. I guess that's a good thing. Deadspin has pretty much lost all its interest for me, Kissing Suzy is still funny but football season is a better time for that site, and the other Sox bloggers aren't really doing anything to cheer me up. Maybe I should step out and find something positive to enlighten all the down trodden Sox fans. It isn't as if reading about losing to the Cubs and the Orioles was going to make you happy. (that was directed to all you suckers who thought I was dead)

The problem with being this down on your team is that you start to resemble a Royals fan. Ironically, the Royals seem to be playing better baseball than the White Sox as of late. I can sense the audience thinning out with that last comment. Don't jump Sox fans! I do have good news for you. (no, I didn't save a lot by switching to Geico) Here it is:

The Sox just dropped the series to the Red Sox, by all accounts a good team, and it wasn't because the bullpen gave it up. It was because in sports, winning is infectious but losing is contagious. Anyone want to guess what disease the White Sox suffer from this year? Wait. Hold that thought. My steaks are done.

Welcome back from the 4th of the July holiday weekend. Per usual, the White Sox have been stinking the joint up something fierce. They were crushed in a double header this past Friday to the tune of a million to 14. It was horrible. I actually had forgotten that it was a double header against the Twins, so when I ended up at the bar later that evening I thought I was watching a reply. It was 8-0 and I figured Comcast was just trying to stick it to us Sox fans. (Who would want to watch a reply of that game?) It turns out I was wrong. We were getting killed in a brand new game that evening. It just looked like a replay.

Anyway, the All-Star break is here which means that I need to post my Mid-Season report card for the White Sox. I'm off to work this morning, so I'll get something posted before the end of the day. I bet you can't wait.

How many more days until training camp starts? 20? It can't come soon enough.

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