By Thomas Chambers

It would be impossible for anyone, from President Hope on down to Grand High Exalted Mystic Minion Ron Huberman, to start a “No Horseplayer Left Behind” initiative.
The teacher prays Dick and Jane remember the answers they were given. To get the “free” money. In the pari-mutuel world, there are no answers ahead of time and the results can’t be cooked in the district office. Win, Place, Show. That’s it. Plenty get left behind. That’s just tough.
But as we sit here on the eve of the 136th Kentucky Derby, there’s a certain calm, emanating from a resignation that no one on Earth has even the slightest idea who is going to win this race. This race borders on, or has already become, what they call inscrutable. There’s no rhyme, reason, form, trends, tendencies or strengths to depend on.

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Posted on April 30, 2010

By Drew Adamek

I don’t really like the Cubs – 1984 turned me into a White Sox fan and an eternal baseball pessimist.
I’ll admit it outright: I am not a Cubs fan because I like winning once in awhile. I don’t buy into the lovable losers bullshit; being a baseball fan is too expensive and time-consuming to embrace constant mediocrity.
The Cubs are just too goddamned disappointing every year for me to invest any interest in them. One devastating childhood heartbreak is all a team gets out of me.
But there is one thing that I like about the Cubs: Wrigley Field. The only thing about the Cubs worth a damn to me is their ballpark. I love all great ballparks: Camden, Wrigley, the old Milwaukee County Stadium. The experience of going to a baseball game in a real park – the sun, the beer, the hot dogs, the history – is as American and traditional as it gets.
Wrigley is a baseball – and a Chicago – treasure and it therefore breaks my heart that it’s going to be defiled and desecrated in such a crass, commercial way. I am talking, of course, about the proposed Toyota sign. If this act of commercial graffiti happens, it will be an unforgivable defacing of one of the only true baseball temples left.
I fear exploiting and weakening the tactile experience of going to a game more than I fear physical, cosmetic changes. Common places – ballparks, museums, plazas – collectively mean something, and when we change those places, we change our identity. Our experiences and memories become different; we lose something about ourselves every time we sell out our sacred places.
If our temples are simply marketing opportunities then what do we keep sacred? (Right, before we go on about baseball as a business, I am asking that we keep one or two places culturally pristine to preserve what is great about America.)
But fuck it, if the floodgates to commercial desecration are open why not go all the way? I mean, if you paint over Mona Lisa’s smile, you might as well turn the rest of the portrait into a CoverGirl ad, right? If we can’t enjoy simple pleasures without commercial intrusion then why bother anymore?
Here, then, are my suggestions for ways to further desecrate Wrigley by leaving no marketing stone unturned:

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Posted on April 29, 2010

By Dan O’Shea

If someone told you that a second baseman was tied for the National League lead in home runs, you would have to guess it was Chase Utley (or Ryne Sandberg if you happened to not know what year it was).
But the 2B who has swatted seven homers already this season and was tied for the NL lead through Monday was none other than the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Kelly Johnson.
Fantasy Fix was so down on Johnson in the pre-season, I said to avoid him in your draft.
Don’t look at me like I’m crazy – there was good reason I slammed him.
In 2008 with the Atlanta Braves, Johnson looked like a budding fantasy star at a position traditionally lacking such. He amassed 12 HRs, 69 RBIs, 11 SBs, a .287 average, 39 doubles and six triples that year.
Furthermore, when 2B Dustin Pedroia won the American League MVP in 2008 and Utley got serious consideration in the NL, prospect-minded fantasy team owners had their eyes on Johnson as the next great 2B discovery heading into 2009.
But a .224 average, 8 HRs and 29 RBIs in 106 games last year left most people feeling burned, so it was no surprise not to see him drafted in many leagues in 2010.
Now Johnson has one less homer in April than he had all of last year. Can you trust that power, plus a .302 average, to continue?
I’d still say Johnson will be nowhere near the league lead in anything at the end of 2010, but I’ve already been wrong about him once. If you need a 2B – and the position remains pretty shallow, so many teams do have that need – then by all means snap him up and enjoy the ride.
*
It’s Week 4 in the fantasy baseball world, and for my money, Robinson Cano is the new Dustin Pedroia.

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Posted on April 28, 2010

Bring on the Canucks.
1. How the Hawks won.

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Posted on April 27, 2010

By Jim Coffman

Where to start breaking down that ludicrous Saturday afternoon hockey game? I’ll tell you where I was going to start until the clock struck 0:13.6 . . . i.e. until Patrick Kane notched that miraculous game-tying tally (I can’t find anyone who can remember another game that the Hawks tied in the final 15 seconds while killing a penalty with their net empty). I was ready to flog Dave Bolland . . . ceaselessly.

Beachwood Baseball The Cub Factor. The White Sox Report. Agony & Ivy.

Analyst Pierre McGuire (who often plays bad cop to Eddie Olczyk’s good cop on the very good NBC playoff broadcasts), made it clear the second-line center blew defensive coverage on Nashville’s third and fourth goals (while McGuire was holding defenders accountable, Olczyk sang the praises of the Nashville playmakers). Both times Bolland skated toward players who were already covered and away from the guy who was clearly his responsibility and both times that guy then made a goal happen.
And worst of all, even though the TV guys gave him a pass, Bolland had plenty of culpability for the Predators’ second goal as well. Kane was the big goat on that one after his ill-advised blind pass between his legs triggered a Nashville 2-on-1. But there was more to it than that.

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Posted on April 26, 2010

By Andrew Reilly

It’s nice to see the Sox returning to their roots. After so much bluster about “grinding” and “Ozzieball” and “not being a total disgrace,” they’ve finally acknowledged what we all have been saying for so long: the Sox are not a well-rounded, fundamentally sound team, but one that will live and die with its in-house power company. And why should they be anything else?
Why move a runner over when you’ve got an early contender for Comeback Player of the Year launching late-inning anti-aircraft weapons?
Why make routine plays at third when Alex Rios might have a trick up his sleeve?
Why close out an inning when Paul Konerko has more home runs than anyone?
And lo, when they embrace that, look what happens: they win. Yes, they look ridiculous and half of their wins for the season are now totally transparent but that’s worlds better than looking like, say, the Royals, who only own the basement thanks to a miserable defender so pivotal in bringing the Sox out of the darkness so long ago.
So they can win with home runs, and they’ve embraced this just in time, as none of the next few series are likely to act as clinics in old-school, play-it-the-right-way baseball any time soon. They seemed so hopeless, and yet they’ve found hope; they looked doomed to lose forever, and yet they enter the week on a fantastic little winning streak. These good times probably won’t last but, by surprising us all by merely existing in the first place, maybe they don’t have to.

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Posted on April 26, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

Editor’s Note: Cub Factor columnist Marty Gangler slipped in the hot tub and is limited to towel drills this week, so I’m filling in.
The big news this week was Carlos Zambrano’s move to the bullpen. The Cub Factor has learned that Lou Piniella is considering other dramatic changes. Such as:

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Posted on April 26, 2010

By The Beachwood Blackhawks Bureau

“The Chicago Blackhawks didn’t play the prettiest of games but they were still able to tie their best-of-seven quarterfinal series with the Nashville Predators at two games with a 3-0 victory,” Jesse Rogers writes at ESPN Chicago.
“The signature moments came in the second period when the Hawks clearly got outplayed, yet won the period, 2-0. Antti Niemi earned his second shutout of the series, arguably playing his best game while facing 33 shots. Three of those came on a 5-on-3 sequence in the first period with the Hawks clinging to a 1-0 lead.”
1. The highlights.

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Posted on April 23, 2010

By Steve Rhodes

What do you call Michael McCaskey’s retirement or 100 Lawyers at the Bottom of the Ocean? A good start!
– BearGogglesOn
If only.
“It looks as though Bears fans will have the McCaskey clan to kick around for another generation or two,” the Sun-Times reports.
“That’s the upshot of the Bears’ surprise announcement Wednesday that chairman of the board Michael McCaskey is retiring from that position after the 2010 season and handing off the job to younger brother George, who currently serves as the team’s director of ticket operations.”

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Posted on April 22, 2010

By Dan O’Shea

Who will be this year’s Zack Greinke?
Who among all the young, supposedly talented head-cases out there will suddenly shake his inconsistencies to have a Cy Young-worthy season?
Could it be Matt Garza?
The 26-year-old Tampa Bay starter has been not quite living up to his billing since his days in Minnesota. Despite supposedly killer stuff, his best year so far was 2008, when he had a strong finish to carry him to an 11-9 record with three complete games and two shutouts. His record regressed to 8-12 last year, but 189 strikeouts in just over 200 innings seemed like a positive sign.
This April, he’s looking like an elite pitcher pulling everything together at the same time, with a 3-0 record, a 0.75 ERA and 19 strikeouts in 24 innings. Plus, the Rays’ offense looks like it’s back to 2008 form, and assuming Garza can keep it together, a season better than Greinke’s 2009 isn’t too hard to imagine.
And Greinke?
Unfortunately, right now, he looks more like his old self, a little shaky and winless.
It’s Week 3 of the fantasy baseball season, and still not time to pick up Jeff Samardzija.

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Posted on April 21, 2010