A sports blog by and for Midwest Sports Fans
I don’t want to come off as the type of person who tells people how to raise your kids or how to be a parent; but I feel, as a victim of what I’m about to discuss, that I need to speak out.
Please, whatever you do, do not raise your child as a Chicago Cubs fan.
Just after watching the Chicago Bears’ solid win over the San Diego Chargers to extend their winning streak to five and keep playoff hopes alive, I see tweets that say Jay Cutler has broken his right hand thumb.
At first I didn’t worry too much. Cutler seemed like he wasn’t in pain, he didn’t mention it bothering him during the post game interview, and it didn’t seem to affect his game play. Besides, Matthew Stafford is playing with a messed up throwing hand, so I assumed Cutler would have no problem dealing with the injury himself.
Not 10 minutes later do I see news coming out that his injury will likely need surgery, forcing Cutler to sit out for at least the regular season with hopes of returning in the playoffs if the Bears do make it in.
And just like that my heart sank, and I remember why sports suck sometimes.
Last night, the St. Louis Cardinals blew a 9th inning lead to the Texas Rangers, which evened the World Series at 1-1. In that fateful 9th, with runners on but no runs yet in, La Russa pulled closer Jason Motte from the game despite Motte’s ridiculous track record this postseason. It left La Russa open to criticism, and he isn’t the only one. Albert Pujols is also taking heat from the media for not hanging around afterwards to face the music for his 9th inning error.
But who cares about all that? I just stumbled upon (hat tip to Deadspin) a video of a decades-old appearance that Tony La Russa made on the game show “To Tell The Truth”. So quit second-guessing the tinkering, feline-loving La Russa and take a few moments to watch this video, shot way back in the days when La Russa was mixing up his mad baseball chemistry on the South Side.
White Sox catcher and agitator A.J. Pierzynski, who is providing analysis and frosted tips during FOX’s MLB playoff coverage this year, was asked by Dan Patrick today (hat tip: Chicago Tribune) about the Boston Globe report that one reason for the Red Sox late season collapse was a propensity for their pitchers to partake in beer and fried chicken during games.
Patrick inquired as to whether AJ and any of his teammates had ever done the same, and AJ responded, well, he responded like really only he can or would; thusly:
I have to admit, I’m a bit flabbergasted.
MLB Trade Rumors is reporting that the White Sox have named Robin Ventura to replace Ozzie Guillen as manager.
GM Kenny Williams says Ventura topped his managerial wish list.
“I wanted someone who met very specific criteria centered around his leadership abilities,” Williams said in a statement. “Robin Ventura was that man.”
One of the most successful managerial tenures in the history of Chicago baseball came to a close today, and as a White Sox fan who has lived and died with this team for the last 15 years I can sum up my feelings in one word: melancholy.
If you haven’t heard yet, Ozzie Guillen is out as White Sox manager, effective immediately, with all signs pointing to him becoming the next manager of the Miami (yes, Miami…like in Back to the Future 2) Marlins.
As I said on Twitter earlier tonight, it’s a rather bitter end to what was, all in all, a pretty damn sweet tenure for Oz in what will always be his baseball home: the South Side of Chicago.
The 2011 White Sox season — you know, the one in which we were supposedly “all in” — has pretty much been a disaster. The White Sox are definitively a .500 team that has tried to masquerade as a contender. The Tigers put an emphatic end to that over the weekend.
But all is not lost in 2011, at least for someone like me who considers Mark Buehrle to be on his Personal Sports Mount Rushmore. And it’s all thanks to Reva Friedel, my new #1 favorite White Sox fan. (Sorry Josh and KVB.)
The buyer ready experts and M&A consultants at Generational Equity continue to be kind enough to sponsor yet more episodes of the MLB Trivia Challenge Podcast, and so we continue to excitedly produce them.
This week it’s time for Episode #10 of the MLB Trivia Challenge Podcast, which features Jim Margalus of South Side Sox.
Way back in February, USA Today’s 2011 MLB Preview Magazine published a lengthy piece by yours truly, whereupon I rendered my thoughts on who the most over and underrated players in the game were as we approached the new campaign.
I figured I might as well do monthly updates on these “predictions,” so as to capriciously praise or condemn myself.
In the 8th installment of the MSF QuickCast, I discuss last night’s classless exit and apparent retirement of Carlos Zambrano, which effectively ends a frustrating decade on the mound for Cubs fans that began so promisingly.
In Zambrano’s exit, and juxtaposed against the disappointment of the Wood-Prior-Zambrano trio, I find yet another way to appreciate their underappreciated contemporary: Mark Buehrle.
Kevin Bertolini (known around these parts as KVB) and I go way back. We met during our freshman year of high school, immediately developed scores of hilarious inside jokes, then promptly got separated by our teachers in almost every class we had together. We were also once told by our freshman year basketball coach to, “quit playing grab ass.” We’ve been great friends ever since.
Fortunately, we’ve never forgotten nor stopped developing our inside jokes, and our friendship – built on a firm foundation of constant laughter, random silliness, the White Sox, and yes, grab ass – endures to this day.
In the fourth MSF QuickCast, Jerod Morris discusses his beloved Chicago White Sox and how they can still improve their hand internally as we enter the final two months of this “all in” season that has, thus far, been terribly disappointing.
Way back in February, USA Today’s 2011 MLB Preview Magazine published a lengthy piece by yours truly, whereupon I rendered my thoughts on who the most over and underrated players in the game were as we approached the new campaign.
I figured I might as well do occasional updates — especially here at midseason — on these “predictions,” so as to capriciously praise or condemn myself.
It shouldn’t have to come to this, but such is life with the screwed up and always controversial way that Major League Baseball selects its All Star rosters.
Paul Konerko – the ONLY player in the AL currently in the top 5 of all three Triple Crown categories – was NOT chosen as an All Star this year. There is not one person who doesn’t think, in the immortal words of Bob Knight, that such a snub is absolute fucking bullshit*.
Luckily, MLB does have a way to write egregious wrongs such as this.
Editor’s note: Amanda Lawson is a lifelong Green Bay Packers fan who is getting into baseball for the first time this year. After much deliberation and counsel, Amanda settled on the Minnesota Twins as her team. With “Beginning Baseball” Amanda is documenting her first season of baseball fandom.
It doesn’t matter what sport you are talking about, games against your team’s biggest rival are the ones that get you pumped up the most. Whether the team is awesome that particular season or not, rival games bring out the best trash talk and have a make-or-break atmosphere that keep you coming back for more.
As a new baseball fan, I was excited to find out who the Twins biggest rival was. I never really asked who the Twins’ greatest rival was, but just learned from the smack talk and defensive comments I got from certain fans.
Until one day there was a comment on Twitter that made me think twice about my initial perception.
