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.