Da' Bears & Da' Cubs

Watching the Bears game tonight was like playing BINGO. Just when you were one number away, some old biddy yelled out and won pissing you off. 37-30 loss to SF which doesn't really have me feeling good.

Orton looked pretty good and the offense was gellin like a felon. Rashied Davis looked really good catching some long passes, Forte looked good running smart up the middle, and Olsen really has the makings of a great TE (although he'll need to share that with Des Clark for awhile). Sexy-Rexy still sucks the big egg. Danieal Manning looks almost like Hester Jr. with his kick returns. But what the hell happened to the Defense tonight? What a sieve!

Unfortunately my favorite whipping boy continues to be Charles "Peanut" Tillman. He continues to underwhelm and totally miss coverage on just about everyone. On SF's first touchdown pass, he blew the contain on the outside with his blitz and then dove at O'Sullivan. The minute he left his feet, O'Sullivan stepped up and then launched a huge pass into the end zone. Later he played incredibly soft at the end of the half giving 12 yard cushions and then slipping on the grass (how does this guy NOT have the right spikes on his shoes??). He slipped at least five times that I saw.

Peanut has, at least for the last 4 years, blown coverages and made stupid mistakes more than most anyone on the defense. How they keep hanging on to him is a mystery. Maybe he has dirty pictures on someone, or maybe he has copies of the nasty text messages Urlacher sent to his baby's momma?

On the positive side in Chicago tonight. Cubs win another series (losing a heartbreaker yesterday) over the Reds and Dusty (we don't trusty). Zambrano hits another homer in his own support, but the man who really has been surprising everyone as of late is Mark "two sport athlete" DeRosa. If you didn't know DeRosa was the QB at Penn when he went to school there but then chose to play baseball (sort of like Samardzija. There's an interview DeRo did with Samardzija on his blog....click the link in the right column for DeRo's blog). He's on a tear and when a guy who's in the 7th or 8th position in the order is on this sort of tear, well, you are going to be winning a lot of games if the top of the order just is average.

MK and I are going on Saturday (Dempster going for his 15th win) and the Nationals are in town. They are horrible, but those are the kinds of clubs that come in and bite you in the backside if you're not careful.

Cubs are 5.5 up on Milwaukee and we're almost in September. It's gonna be a good battle but one that the Cubs should handle without a problem.

It's almost Hockey Season!!!

...and in honor of the New Year's Day game at Wrigley, here's Jeremy Piven reminding us why we all LOVE to be Blackhawk fans.


I have to admit, it sounded so much better in the Old Stadium/Madhouse on Madison.

Phelps, Spitz and my memories

Watching Michael Phelps has brought back some very fond memories of my childhood.

I was quite the swimmer as a child, but I didn't start out that way. I remember my first lessons at the Central YMCA (now called the Austin YMCA at 501 N. Central, Chicago) where I cried my eyes out because as I would reach for the side wall of the pool, I'd get whacked with a long pole.

But then I moved on and became very good and did the annual "Swim for the Heart" fundraiser at the Lakeside Pool & Tennis Club (long gone, turned into condos) where I'd take my Mom and Dad's friends money and raise a ton each summer. It was from this love that my parents decided for no really apparent reason to bring my Brother and I to see the Olympic Swimming Trials at the Portage Park Pool (4100 N. Long Ave, Chicago) on an early summer night in 1972. This is a more current aerial shot, but it's nice to see it's still there, just north of Irving Park Road and just east of Central.

I only have a few memories from this night, but I do still have an Olympic patch that says Munich 1972. Of course, those Olympics are remembered for two things. The death of the Israeli team members at the hands of the Palestinian terrorists and Mark Spitz winning seven gold medals in Swimming. I remember the coverage on ABC Sports and my parents reminding us that we saw him qualify for some of the events he won.

I think fondly of those days. They were fun (well, not the Israeli team part clearly), but I couldn't say Munich and called it Munch, I really had a love of swimming and I think at 6 years of age, I actually started figuring out what world records and Mark Spitz were all about.

So now 36 years later, I'm watching someone who ALMOST could be my kid reaching incredible heights of fame and success. Of course, it gives NBC the chance to throw Mark Spitz back onto the satellite to talk about his success. It's a weird passage of time for me. It truly does seem like yesterday but it clearly is NOT.

There's plenty of coverage about Phelps so I won't go into him, but Spitz... The thing about Spitz that I just learned from my Dad yesterday is that he really was a son-of-a-bitch. His teammates (except for maybe Gary Hall) hated his guts and thought he was arrogant, and he was. It's sort of funny then watching him talk to Michael Phelps last night on tv. You'd never know and I guess that's what makes history fun. Although it can't be re-written, people CAN make up for the sins of their pasts and move on. It was surreal seeing one of my childhood heros on tv last night congratulating a man who likely is a childhood hero for many many children around the world now.

Da da da da da da da... HEY!

Gary Glitter gets to go home!

Go Gary, Go Gary, Go Gary! He should be getting home just around when the Olympic athletes land in London.

100!!

This is my 100th post or as some people call it, babbling. There's almost this sense of having to do something significant in the post, but I don't know if I can.

Favre has been traded to the Jets. Good riddance, enjoy the brutal press and no one to throw to. I'm sure fantasy owners are drooling.

Facebook has a "new Facebook" option now, which is just a newer interface for you to putter about and post things. Ironically with my 100th post, I'm almost at 100 friends on Facebook as well.

I just found an old friend from college via Facebook, Mike Baxendale who is doing radio up in Springfield, MA. He did radio when we were at Marquette with one of my high school chums, Mike Wukitsch. Wookie and the Bax were all the rage. I even used to call in with a "Saga Update" which was basically a food review of what the hell they were chumming out of the kitchens in the dorm food service. I know he worked at QFM in Milwaukee for awhile but he's originally from MA, so it's nice he's been back at home for what looks like the last 13 years. He's a really funny guy so if you're up in Western MA, or even the northern parts of CT, check out Rock 102, Springfield's Classic Rock from 5:30 to 10:00 in the mornings.

Oh, and hi to Steve Winkel who I know professionally. He landed here on the blog and saw that I spent last weekend with my family in South Haven, MI, which is where he grew up for awhile. Small world (no it's not). Kinda cool though.

So that's about it. A totally uninspiring post for numero cien. Sorry about that.

Fun in the sun with my son

We took a long weekend and went to South Haven, Michigan. What a great, nice, peaceful little trip. Two hours from our door and we're on Lake Michigan and enjoying some fun and relaxation.

We checked in to the hotel and had a little time so Aidan and I just played on the bed for awhile. He's really crawling a lot now so it's a trick to keep our eyes on him. Here's a shot of us having a laugh.

We enjoyed a nice Friday meeting up with Mary Kay's friend Linda and had dinner at Clementine's which was fantastic. If you ever go, you MUST have the 12" pile of onion rings. They are very tasty and somewhat addictive.

On Saturday we headed over to the house that Mary Kay's college friend Kay and her family rent for a couple weeks in the summer. It was Aidan's first time in a pool (he's been in a small lake before) and after a few minutes of stress and fear, he ended up having a good time with his Daddy.

We then headed down to the beach and had a lot of fun. Here's a shot of Aidan passed out after all the fresh air and water.

After the long day at the pool and beach we headed over to Sherman's Dairy Bar and had some unbelieveable ice cream.

We had a great weekend and Aidan travelled very well in the car. He slept the whole way home after the long weekend.

180 degrees of separation anxiety

When is retirement not retirement? When you're stupid Brett Favre.

For two consecutive seasons he played with the media on whether or not he was retiring. First leading up to the New Year's Eve game and win over Chicago in 2006 and now, after officially retiring to the league in 2007.

So this...
DOESN'T mean that "I'm done", nor this...

nor this...So the league has accepted his request to be reactivated and the @#$%^ Packers have publicly said that it's an "open competition" for the starting QB job. Oh yeah? So after all of management and the coaching staff said that Aaron Rogers was their starting QB, they are all taking it back because of a man who can't walk away as the legend he became?

If I'm Aaron Rogers, I tell the Packers to take their open competitions and shove it right where it counts.

What's next? Jay Leno tells NBC on May 29th next year that he doesn't want to go and then Conan O'Brien has to just wait? I don't think so.

I will just publicly go on record now that when I officially retire, trust me, I'm not going to turn back. I won't have any "burning desire" to get back to the daily grind and I definitely won't have any regrets. I just wish Brett could have done the same. Dude, you're a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame and you're just making it a mess now.