Sports and Entertainment

So some start up team I never heard of called the Yankees made it into the World Series.  I think it’s their first time, I’m not sure.  They’ll be playing the Phillies.  So the important question is:  Who is your pick?

I am a National League guy so I would love to see the Phils repeat.  BUT, I think the Yanks win in 6.  Comment below with your picks.  The winning prediction gets a Bozo button.

Derek Jeter loves Bozo buttons based on this picture of him diving after one.

Just a real quick shout out for White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle.  Congratulations on a perfect game.  Fun fact:  I had tickets to this game but couldn’t go due to work related issues.  Thanks a lot work! Again, I am a Cubs fan, but have to tip my hat to one of the good guys in the game.

Hello my friends.  Today is a good day.  Today is January 26th.  Or as most of you know it as, the day the best team in football history won the biggest game in football history.  Today is the anniversary of the best Super Bowl team ever.  So without further ado………

Bears…..Bears……Bears……Polish Sausage…….Bears……

Tim Falletti

If you watched the Cubs lose to the Dodgers last night, you witnessed evolution at it’s finest.  It wasn’t long ago when you would walk into Wrigley Field, rain or shine, and hear the amped up noise of 42,000 strong screaming for their team, win or lose.  Attendance has been steady sellouts for years with frat boys and beautiful women filling every seat for an excuse to watch some baseball and get a little tipsy.  It didn’t matter to the fans that the Cubs lost, because that is what the Cubs did:  They lost. 

When Lou Piniella took over two years ago, the Cubbie swagger changed.  The team was expected to win.  And win big.  For 100 years the Cubs have been the “Loveable Losers”, and Lou didn’t like that moniker at all.  He wanted to be a winner.  The management agreed with Lou and GM Jim Hendry went out and got himself the best team in the National League. Things were changing for the Cubs.

The fans at the ballpark changed too.  With signs that said “Believe” and “Miracle on Addison St.” and the most popular, “It’s Gonna Happen” the Wrigley Field faithful suddenly had high expectations.  They knew that the team on the field weren’t losers.  They were the best chance in 100 years for the Cubs to win the World Series.  They believed this because the media and the team told them to believe it.  They bought into Lou’s “Lovable Winner” mentalilty, and have followed it blindly like cattle. 

After a Mark Derosa two run homerun early in the game yesterday you could hear the cattle mooing and grazing loudly.   But when pitcher Ryan Dempster suddenly forgot where home plate was, and walked the bases loaded, you could feel the cattle getting restless.  Getting prodded with every pitch three feet above the strike zone.  Then came the inevitable shot to the forehead.  A grandslam to put the Dodgers up….for good.  The Wrigley Field cattle, with wide eyes and broken hearts, sat on their hands— and in silence, watched as the Cubs lost game one of the NLDS. 

It’s no longer acceptable to a Cub fan for their team to lose.  It’s not lovable.  It isn’t cute.  After waiting 100 years for a team with this caliber of talent, it is not even remotely OK for this team to lose.  Evolution has taken over, and the fans have been clamoring and wanting a winner for so long, dreaming of a day when they can hear Joe Buck say those little words, “The Cubs have won the World Series”……. that failure is not an option.

Don’t expect Cub nation to remain faithful if the Cubs go on and lose this series.  They shouldn’t have to be any longer.  They have been tormented for far too long, and have been the butt of the joke too many times.  You can only have your heart broken so many times before you can’t pick up the pieces.  100 times the hearts of Cubdom have been broken, and this might be the final time.

By the way.  Moo.

“I guess I’m back,” pitcher Carlos Zambrano said on Sunday.  “I’m a little confused right now.  It’s a great feeling, a feeling that you can’t describe.  I still can’t believe it.”

Believe it Z.  Pitching for the first time since Sept. 2, and due to Hurricane Ike was cheered on by thousands of Cubs fans at the coined Wrigley Field North a.k.a. Miller Park in Miliwaukee, Zambrano put an emphatic stop to a red hot Houston Astro team. 

This is the first no hitter thrown at Miller Park, and the Brewers weren’t even there.

To add insult to injury, the Brew Crew were swept in their day/night double header in Phili.  The Cubs now have a 7.5 game lead in the division, and their magic number is 7. 

And the “Slowest news of the day” award goes to:  Dancing With The Stars!  Good for them.  ABC announced on Good Morning America yesterday the newest additions to this season’s already D list stars.  Sadly, Stacy Keibler has been omitted again.

Kim Kardashian, Susan Lucci and Lance Bass lead this gaggle of gay gooses of 13 dancers for the 2008 season. They are joined by R&B star Toni Braxton, celebrity chef Rocco DiSpirito, Olympic gold medalist Misty May-Treanor, Olympic sprinter Maurice Greene, “Hannah Montana” actor Cody Linley, “Married With Children” actor Ted McGinley, actress Brooke Burke and comedian Jeffrey Ross.

Dude.  Ted McGinley?  Freaking Jefferson from Married with Children?!  Awesome.  Dancing With the Stars starts….eh.  Who cares?  Stacy Keibler is breaking my concentration.

Tim Falletti

CHICAGO- Hitters are streaky.  One moment they can be 0-50, the next they can be 50-50.  In utility man Mark Derosa’s case, he is the later.  The hottest hitter on the Cubs hit his fourth homer in as many games yesterday to lead the Cubs to a 6-1 win. This is the Cubs’ 8th straight series win.  They haven’t done that since FDR was president in 1937. The Cubs are now 80-50, the first team in the majors to hit the 80 win mark.  They are also 30 games over .500 for the first time since 1984.

Pitcher Rich Harden continued to look impressive with a career tying 11 strike outs over 7 innings.  Harden is 4-1 with the Cubs with an incredible 1.47 ERA since his July 8th trade from Oakland.  So what caused this transformation?

I don’t know,” he said. “I think definitely you have to give a lot of credit to (catcher Geovany) Soto. We’ve been working pretty well together. I’m comfortable with him behind the plate. I think a lot of it is mixing up pitches, keeping them guessing.”

Speaking of Soto, the red hot catcher also posted some history yesterday when he hit his 19th homerun tying Randy Hundley for most homeruns by a rookie catcher.  Soto seems a lock for N.L. Rookie of the Year.

CHICAGO-  The Chicago Bears are a funny team.  On paper, they are quite possibly the most talented defense in the NFC.  In reality they have the best special teams in the NFL.  (I dare someone to say otherwise).  With two out of the three facets a lock, you would think that the Bears would do everything in their power to include the offense in their quest for another run at the Super Bowl.  But nooooo.  The Bears chose the lesser of two evils yesterday in Mr. Neck Beard himself quarterback Kyle Orton.

Orton will start the regular season against the Indianapolis Colts….the second best pass defense in the league last year…..(now with Dwight Freeney!)  The decision was based on Rex Grossman’s performance in the Seattle preseason game just 4 days ago.

“We take a lot of things into consideration,”coach Lovie Smith said. “But in the end, it comes down to a gut feeling you have.

“I feel good about Kyle leading our team.”

He’s about the only one in Chicago that feels that way.  While the fans certainly didn’t want Grossman under center, they aren’t too enthused about Orton either.  In my opinion, the quarterback position is the least of the offenses’ worries right now.  The Chicago Bears do not have a go to receiver yet, and their offense line is the worst in the entire league.  Throw in an invisible running game in rookie Matt Forte, and you have disaster on the offensive side of the ball.

The Bears seem to be leaning toward returner extrordinaire Devin Hester to give them great field position or at least put numbers up on the board dispite the offense, and they seem to be looking for the defense to do the same. 

“He’s got a lot better grasp of the offense, being in it another year,” offensive coordinator Ron Turner said about Orton. “Physically, he’s in really good shape. And he’s playing the best football of his life.”

Physically in week three, Orton will be out due to being sacked sixty times, and Grossman will be back in the starting job. 

 Tim Falletti

Good ol Danny Wetzel from the good folks at Yahoo just posted something very interesting on his blog.  He says that the current men’s basketball team in Beijing is playing at a higher intensity than the Dream Team of the 1992 Olympic games in Barcelona did.  He goes on to say that the current Redeem Team is deeper than that of the original. 

Now, Dan does give his nod to the Dream Team, especially MJ, but as he says, “Immediate reactions to blasphemy aside,” the debate will seriously heat up. 

BLASPHEMY!  Sorry Dan, there is no debate!  Look, this 2008 team is good.  It’s real good.  Hell, Wetzel makes some valid points in his blog.  But if you put these two squads in their prime on the same court, the MJ led Dream Team would wipe out Kobe and Lebron’s team by the average they beat everyone else by: 43.

Imagine some of these matchups if you will.  Kobe on MJ, Lebron on Pippen, Sir Charles Barkley on Carlos Boozer.  The Mailman Karl Malone on Chris Bosh! Ha!  Six foot Chris Paul couldn’t hold John Stockton’s jock.  And I think Chris Paul is fantastic!  But the real difference here is the post presence of each of these teams.  The Dream Team had The Admiral David Robinson!  They had Patrick Ewing!  This Redeem Team’s tallest “Center” is 6-11 Dwight Howard.  Dwight Howard vs. David Robinson is a laugher in the paint.

While I do agree with Dan when he says that this 2008 team plays at a higher level of intensity, I think the reasoning behind that is simple.  The 1992 team played what is essentially known today as “scrubs”.  Sure the competitors were olympians, but The Dream Team were on a whole other planet in terms of ability.  They didn’t have to play intense basketball.  I don’t think you can play intense basketball when you are up by 60 points.

As far as the Redeem Team being deeper…that is up for debate as well.  While Kobe starting and Dwayne Wade coming off the bench is pretty impressive, don’t you think Clyde Drexler coming off the bench is just as or even more impressive?  How about Chris Mullin?  Or Christian Laettner? Christian Laettner in 1992 was a fresh faced college kid that was damned impressive.  Jason Kidd?  Blah.  Michael Redd?  Blah Blah. 

Please don’t take this as a bashfest on this 2008 team.  I think they are enormously talented, and should easily win the gold in Beijing.  I’m sure other countries are better now than they were in 92, but still.  The Dream Team was just that.  The greatest team ever assembled, the best team you can only dream up.  Blasphemy Dan Wetzel.  Blasphemy.

BEIJING (AP) — He did it — barely, barely, barely.

Michael Phelps tied Mark Spitz’s record for the most gold medals at a single Olympics on Saturday, getting his seventh in Beijing by winning the 100-meter butterfly by the slimmest of margins — 0.01 seconds.

Phelps had dominated all his previous individual races, and some thought this might be a coronation because the butterfly is his signature stroke. But the 23-year-old from Baltimore looked like an also-ran for much of this one, not leading until the final inches. “I had no idea,” Phelps said.

Seventh out of eight at the turn, Phelps’ was closing on the lead headed home. It looked to be too little, too late as Serbia’s Milorad Cavic was gliding toward the wall, but Phelps did another mini-stroke and smacked the wall with his hands.

“I was starting to hurt a little bit with probably the last 10 meters,” Phelps said. “That was my last individual race, so I was just trying to finish as strong as I could.”

Phelps then pulled off his goggles and looked up at the scoreboard. When he saw the “1″ next to his name, he pointed, swung his left arm, then joyously splashed the water. He’s No. 1 all right. The greatest Olympian ever, his career haul now up to 13 golds. Add a pair of bronzes and he’s tied former Soviet gymnast Nikolai Andrianov for the most career medals by a male athlete.