Chicago's Three-Headed Bull

The Bulls were the only winning team in the Eastern Conference not to have an all-star on their roster. In the Western Conference, the Golden State Warriors did not have an all-star either. Can anyone recall how they did in the playoffs this past season? Just like the Warriors took down the Mavericks, the Bulls find a way to do this as well. Known mainly for their defense, the Bulls depend on these three players to carry the offensive load.
Luol Deng- Why the hell was he not an all-star last year?? Everyone was saying he should be. Somehow Washington's Caron Butler made it just because of a short first half of the season burst. But whatever...everyone knows the game of Deng. Deng is one of the best inside spot-up shooters, as well as a deadly slasher. Second on the team in rebounding and third in steals, Deng knows how to play a little defense as well. Averaging the most minutes for the Bulls with 37.5 a game, Deng will play every game like it's his last. Deng will come back this season stronger, faster, and even better.

Ben Gordon- If the Bulls could have one go-to guy, Ben Gordon would be the closest thing. Chicago gets a lot of criticism for not having a game finisher who the Bulls could turn to in a time when the game is on the line. But Gordon has gotten it done before. Ray Allen gets a lot of credit for being one of the premiere shooters in the NBA, but Ben Gordon actually had a better field goal and 3-point percentage than Allen. Gordon has improved majorly at driving and drawing the foul. Whether he's in the starting line up or coming off the bench, Gordon will be getting down to business.

Kirk Hinrich- Kirk has a tendency to be a hot-cold, as well as foul-prone, but Coach Scott Skiles turns to him to be the leader of this team. Kirk has come a long way since he was drafted in 2003. Over the years, his stats have remained consistent, but he helps his team improve. Whether he is dropping the 3-ball, dishing out the assist, or locking down on defense, Hinrich is never dorment. His love of the game and his team are all a part of his tremendous attitude. Hinrich, in my opinion, is one of the most under-rated point guards in the NBA.

These are the heads that make up this Chicago monster. These are the guys who walk into any game with no fear in their eyes. Deng, Gordon, and Hinrich all depend on one another to carry their load every game and to help each other out along the way. All I have to say about these guys is that the size of their wallets is no match for the size of their hearts.

Not quite yet….

So Jim Thome didn’t hit his 500th career home run last night, but look on the bright side, the Sox won! The score was 5-3 in the South Siders victory over the Angels.

Many were involved in the win, although Thome was not one of them, surprisingly. He went 0-4, not what many would have suspected. The key players however, were probably Konerko and Dye, both who finished the game with hits and a few RBIs. Another contributor is Jose Contreras, who led the Sox to the victory. This was a good game from Contreras, especially compared to what we have seen this past season.

Despite a hitless game, Thome has brought excitement back to U.S. Cellular Field. With the Sox officially eliminated from the postseason, they haven’t really given the fans anything to cheer about or a reason to be excited, until now.

It’s not over yet. Thome still has two more home games before the Sox take it on the road for another seven. So he’s got time. My guess is that he will probably hit 500th career home run off a right-handed pitcher, since 411 of them have been off right-handed pitchers and only 88 were off left-handers.

Hopefully the best is yet to come, and hopefully the best will happen at U.S. Cellular Field. But, if our wishes don’t come true, Thome still has a couple more chances to make this the best season he has ever played. We’ll have to wait until the Sox game tonight against the Angels to see.

The Windy City Is Going To Blow Over Bean Town

I'm calling it right now. The Chicago Bulls will win the season series against the Boston Celtics. I don't care if they have Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, or Paul Pierce. These players have never been on a team where someone else was in the spotlight. There points per game averages last year come to a combined 71.9, and the average of that is 23.9 points per game. There is no way in hell that team basketball will be played in Boston. Somewhere along the season, one of these guys will get ball greedy, but then again...you never know.

Paul Pierce missed 35 games last year due to injury and Ray Allen missed 27 games from injury, where as Kevin Garnett only missed 5 games. The aging veterans don't expect for good health to be on their side the whole season. There will never be a Cal Ripken Jr. of basketball. For crying out loud, the season hasn't even started and Portland already lost Greg Oden for the season due to anthroscopy and microfracture surgery on his knee. Boston is counting on a 32 year old KG, a 31 year old Allen, and a soon to be 30 year old Pierce. The average age of the Chicago Bulls is 25.1 years old. But it's okay because Boston acquired Bull-killer F James Posey, who can plow over any Bull on a fast break and get the occasional ejection.

I say the fresh legs of the Bulls and the all-around team play will be too much for the aging Celtics to keep with. I believe our front court defense will be key, and Kirk Hinrich will more than likely be designated to guard Ray Allen. The Bulls believe in that little word called "sharing". KG still has "MVP" ringing in his ears from almost 5 years ago. So before "championship" can be spoken by Boston once again, how about they just focus on on word: playoffs.

Here is a brief recap of a game from last year. Let's see what the Bulls do to the Celtics. Enjoy!

Thome launches No. 499, but will tonight be the BIG 500?

Jim Thome is just one blast away from becoming the 23rd major league player to hit 500+ career home runs. The 37-year old smacked a 366-foot solo home run in the 4th inning during the last game against the Indians on Wednesday. But Thome was not in it for himself. He also singled twice and had 3 RBIs. That doesn’t necessary mean that he wasn’t trying though… “The one, I almost fouled it out of the stadium. I got a little quick on it. But there's a lot of emotion, there's a lot of emotion that goes through you. That's what makes it so tough to do, trying to control that emotion and keep those emotions in, but be ready to hit." Thome could have been the first major league player to hit No. 499 and No. 500 in the same game… ever. Pretty amazing, huh? He will, however, be the third player this season to reach the big 500. That is, if he makes it (which we all know he will).

Well let’s all hope that Thome can smack No. 500 in the next three games, which will be his last of the season to make the historical milestone at U.S. Cellular Field. Who knows… maybe that special night will be tonight, when the Sox host the Angels. We’ll just all have to wait and see and hope…

Bears vs Chiefs

Sexy Rexy Report: Looked terrible last week, we can only hope he has one of his good games this week. The Chief's defense allowed the Texans to score 20 points. Maybe Rex can at least lead his offense to score this time. I'm not calling for his replacement by Griese because I don't believe Griese is that good of a quarterback. I'm calling for them to get rid of Orton and give Leak a chance.

Key Matchup: Bear's Linebackers vs LJ
After the Bears completely LT, I'm hoping they can do the same with LJ. LJ only had 43 yards against the Texans, but he did that on 10 carries giving him a 4.3 yards per rush which is pretty decent. I don't really see Kansas City's passing game as much of a threat, considering Damon Huard had a worse game last week then Grossman did (hard to believe, I know).

Other News: It seems Ron Rivera is running his mouth about Grossman, but when called out on it he denies it. The funny thing is that it's Rivera's own linebackers who are telling people Rivera is talking shit. Rivera was a Bears coach before this season, and is now a coach for the Chargers. Somebody needs to get their story straight.

Oh, They Want It

Just because baseball players earn more money than anyone of us could ever dream of doesn’t mean that they don’t care when they lose. In the case of the Cubs, they show their frustration.

When it came to losing two of three games to Pittsburgh, the boys weren’t at all happy. Lou Piniella was actually pleased when he heard the news.

“The guys were upset," Piniella said. "That's good. Look, our players want it. They just have to go out and grab it, but they do want it.

What do they say? That sports are 90% mental? Or is it 99%? No, that can't be right. You can't just play with 1% of talent. That means I could be playing professional baseball and I know the world isn't ready for that. Anyway, I don’t know the exact percentage but it’s more mental than physical is what I’m getting at. And if a team wants it bad enough, can see every run scored and every game won, that’s more than half the battle. This is clear. The Chicago Cubs want it.

And in that yearning for success, big guys are delivering. We all know that Derrek Lee is one of the best first base players out there. He’s at the top of the list in the fielding category with only four errors in 132 games played. But he’s also 13th on the overall batting average list with a .312. There can be no denying that Lee has come up with some fantastic hits when it’s needed the most. And what about Aramis Ramirez? He’s 10th on the batting average list with a .315. Let’s not forget about Alfonso Soriano. Even though he was injured while base running, he’s come back and helped Chicago win. He’s 28th on the list with an average of .289. Some people are worrying about the Cubs pitching heading into the middle of September, but Ted Lilly is going to be there for the team. He’s 33rd in pitching with an ERA of 3.85. And of course the other players, Zambrano, Theriot, DeRosa, etc. are going to be key factors as well.




I don’t know about you, but I feel pretty good about the rest of September. It’s not going to be easy and it’s probably not going to be pretty (at times), but these guys and the rest of the team are going to pull through. The Cubs are now .5 games ahead of Milwaukee and I can only hope that they are going to keep extending this lead. If Lee, Ramirez, Soriano, and Lilly have anything to say about it, I’m betting they have a pretty good chance at doing just that.

The Worst of the Terrible

The Story: The Bears have never had much success in choosing a quarterback. You would think that they would learn, or at least try to get a decent quarterback, but they don't. Why don't they bring in someone who has had some success at choosing a quarterback? Who knows, I certainly don't, but here is my list of the 5 Chicago Bears quarterbacks that I remember who have sucked the most:

5. Jim Miller. The best I can say about him is that he was the first quarterback to be suspended for violating the league's substance abuse policies. Oh, that and he had 55 rushes for 4 yards during his career. While having a not completely awful quarterback rating of 75.2, he lost his starting spot to another Bear's quarterback which doesn't say much for him. He did give the Bears the middle finger in 2004 when he won a Super Bowl ring as the back up for Tom Brady.

4. Chris Chandler. If the NFL were a reproductive organ, Chris Chandler would most likely be an STD (my guess is Syphilis, because Syphilis's symptoms are indistinguishable from other STDs, just like Chandler). He played for 17 seasons in the NFL, which makes you think he is tough, but his nickname of "Crystal Chandelier" tells the real story. When not being injured or standing on the sidelines injured, Chandler enjoys poodles, long walks on the beach, and anal.

3. Jonathan Quinn. I realize he only played 5 games for the Bears, but even they were smart enough not to keep his lousy ass around. He put up some amazing stats during his five games. 1 touchdown pass and 3 interceptions. He seems like Rex Grossman's idol to me. Had he played more games for the Bears, he would have made it higher on the list.

2. Craig Krenzel. Very promising player from Ohio State, turned out to be a piece of shit. In his unpleasantly short NFL career with the Bears, he threw for 6 interceptions and 3 touchdowns. His 52.5 quarterback rating says it all. He also had a debilitating skin condition which caused deposits of dark melanin to form on his face, more commonly known as freckles.

1. Cade McNown. Drafted 12th overall in 1999, he was the highest drafted quarterback for the Bears since Jim McMahon. That says a lot about how much the Bear's management thinks of getting a decent quarterback. Anyways, back to Cade. In two seasons he had 19 interceptions and 16 touchdowns and a beautiful 67.7 quarterback rating. He ranks as the worst Bears quarterback because of all the faith we had in him. Instead of being our savior, he turned out to be shit in our cuts. The highlight of his career was getting inside of these two Playmates.

A four year extension for Guillen

So Ozzie Guillen will continue to coach the White Sox until 2012 with the newly signed four year extension. Good Idea?? I’m not quite sure. With the Sox currently being in last place and having a real sucky 2007 season, is it the right choice to renew the contract? Obviously the Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf and general manager Ken Williams thought so. Williams stated, “It has never not been in my mind that he would not be the guy…. The problems that we are having right now, I simply do not believe that they are problems that are with our coaching staff or with our manager.” Ok… well that means he is doing what? Blaming the disappointing season solely on the players??

During Guillen’s four years with the White Sox, he has a record of 333-297 and is the 11th manager in Sox history to reach the 300-win level (which one might not believe after this year’s showings). Nonetheless, Ozzie Guillen will continue to be with the White Sox for another four years and general manager Ken Williams believes in Guillen. Williams declared, “He's got to know, the players need to know, the fans need to know that this thing -- we're far from done here. We've had a very disappointing year, but my coaching staff is getting better as the days go by.”

So I guess the Chicago White Sox’s following four seasons rest in the hands of Ozzie. We’ll just have to see what the next four years will entail.

References:
http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070911&content_id=2201951&vkey=news_cws&fext=.jsp&c_id=cws

Green Day Had it Right

Wake me up when September ends. Please. I can’t take any more of this losing to the Dodgers and then beating St. Louis and then having to watch Milwaukee cream Pittsburg. I mean, a person can only take so much. You might be saying, “That’s the best part of the sport; the upsets, the surprises.” Well, you are obviously not a Cubs fan. We’ve seen this happen all too often. We’re up, we’re up, and then we’re down and out. It’s not that I don’t have faith because I do. I wake up in the morning and look towards Chicago and think to myself how 2007 is our year. The year of the Cubbies.

We still have a long way to go until October and the big show. But as of right now, we’re .5 games behind the Brewers and my heart is racing. We’ve spent the last 24 of the past 25 days in first place. I can’t help but to think what would happen if we would lose this thing now. We need to beat Houston, we need the Brewers to fall off the face of the earth, and we need Cincinnati to keep up the good work.

We’re going to play 16 of our final 19 games against NL Central teams and I can’t decide if this is a good thing or a bad thing. All I know is that the rest of September better be good to us Cubs fans. I don’t know if we can take any more of this up and down thing.

But at least we’re not the Cardinals who have lost their past five games. Too bad, boys.

Who the hell is Joe Smith??

Apparently he's this guy. This is the guy Chicago picked up to replace PF P.J. Brown. Chicago lucked out on opportunities to retrieve such power forwards as Kevin Garnett, now in Boston, Zach Randolph, now in New York, and Jermaine O'Neal, still sadly in Indiana. I guess Joe Smith was the next best thing. I have heard of him though. He was that guy who came to the New World and fell in love with Pocahontas, right? I don't know...so I did some research on Joe Smith.

Drafted out of Maryland in 1995 by the Golden State Warriors as the number one pick, Joe Smith made an instant impact by putting up solid double figures in scoring, along with the occasional double digit rebounding. He averaged 17.1 points in three years while playing for Golden State. I found it interesting that he started all 211 games he played for Golden State. Once he was settled, Smith was shipped to Philadelphia in 1997. This is where he met the injury bug, as well as the bench. Almost every stat in the book went down, especially points, minutes played, and games played. Although there was a solid increase in personal fouls per game.

Smith is an avid traveler and loves touring the country. He has been all over the country in the last ten years. He spent one year in Philly, two years in Minnesota, and one year in Detroit. Smith decided to revisit Minnesota for two more years, and then settled in Milwaukee for three years. This past season, Smith started in Denver, but then ended up back in Philly as part of the Iverson trade. Now he wishes to find a home in Chicago.

<-This picture just screams irony. Thank God we have them both (I'm debating whether I'm being sarcastic or not).

There's no doubt that the Bulls need an offensive big man. After Chicago C Eddy Curry was sent to New York in 2005, the Bulls really never recovered their post game. The Bulls have relied mostly on the streaky shooting of Luol Deng, Ben Gordon, and Kirk Hinrich. These guys have done a great job, but something has to be wrong when your big man leader in scoring is Ben Wallace, who averaged 6.4 points in the 2006-2007 season. When Chicago traded Tyson Chandler to New Orleans for P.J. Brown at the beginning of this past season, Chicago was hoping that some sort of post game would be resurrected out of Brown that the Bulls have lacked for so long. What ended up happening? Basically, P.J. Brown flopped. There were some streaks of offense, but nothing that lasted long. He only averaged 6.1 points per game and was fourth in rebounding on the team. And to top it off, Tyson Chandler all of sudden decided to be good. He finished the season 2nd in the league in rebounding, averaged a career high 9.5 points, was one the candidates considered for Most Improved Player, and made the USA Men's National basketball team. What the hell?!

I'll tell you what the Bulls need. This is exactly what the Chicago Bulls need...

Just ignore the foreign language in this clip.

Well Damn

Sexy Rexy Report: Rex looked bad. San Diego's running back, LT, had more touchdown passes than did Rex, and LT only had one. On the plus side, Rex only threw one interception and he didn’t fumble a snap and lose the ball. People complain that he is inconsistent, but I don't agree with that. I would say he is consistent, consistently bad. He will have some good games, but that’s not enough. Rex is the opposite of Super Bowl quarterbacks; they have a few bad games, Rex has a few good games. The Bears can't win a Super Bowl with Rex, unless the defense performs at an unheard of level.



The Good: The defense made LT look like a high school level running back. Last year's MVP ran for 25 yards on 17 carries. Tommie Harris was quicker than he has ever been. He even made it across the line before the center could snap the ball and caused a fumble. The defense looked the best that they had in several games. The problem was that the offense couldn't keep the ball long enough to give the defense a break, or even move the ball enough to give San Diego poor field position.



The Bad: Where to start? Grossman was bad, and the running game was abysmal. Letting Thomas Jones go was the dumbest fucking thing I've ever seen the Bear's management do. In 2005 he rushed for 1335 yards, and in 2006 he rushed for 1210. The only reason he had less yards in 2006 was because they were trying to get Cedric Benson carries, and the reason Thomas Jones is gone now is because Benson was drafted 4th overall in the 2005 draft. Instead of swallowing their pride, the management decides to get rid of the better running back and show case their prized pick. Anyways, the only bright spot for the offense was the offensive line. I would rank them right behind the Patriots line as second best in the NFL. We can only hope Olsen helps as much as he is promised to. It was just nice to see the Bear's draft an offensive player in the first round of the draft. Devin Hester not getting the ball much also didn't help.



The Ugly: Mike Brown's tendons are apparently made of old rubber bands. He is now out for the season for the fourth straight year. He had an interception and a fumble recovery before he got hurt. He's one of the best defensive backs in the league when he's on the field, but now his vacant spot will be filled by the average Danieal Manning. Also, defensive tackle Dusty Dvoracek is out for the season with the same injury. He sustained that injury with out being touched. At least when the opposing team hurts a player you can be angry with them.

Indians slide away from the Sox

Monday night started off a very wet one at US Cellular Field. With rain in the forcast, whether a game was going to be played was up in arms. A cancelled game seemed to be the answer after there had been a nine minute rain delay before the first pitch was even thrown. However that was not the case. The umpires decided to go on with the game, but it had been a downpour throughout the whole night.

The White Sox started Gavin Floyd on the mound who pitched a total of 6 1/3 waterlogged innings. He gave up only three runs, two being earned, and five hits. The Sox then put in Mike Myers, who gave up a home run, right before a 2 hours and 32 minutes rain delay in the 7th inning. The rain delay left a score of 4-2 in favor of the Indians on the scoreboard for quite some time.

When the Sox finally returned to the field for the last two innings, let’s just say that they looked like anything but enthusiastic to be out there again… and it showed. From defensive errors to inactive bats, the Sox did very little to test the Indians.

After a lengthy 5 ½ hour game, with less the 200 fans left in the stands, the White Sox fell short to the Indians 6-2. Now tied with the Florida Marlins and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays for the worst record in baseball, the Sox season looks like it might come to an end quicker than the fans had intended.