By Dan O’Shea

Me neither.
I still have a few weeks until my fantasy football drafts and, frankly, I will need every minute to decide who I like as my top 10 picks for the coming season.
To be honest, I am having a hard time deciding on my No. 1 player ranking, let alone the other nine.
For the first time in years, the top pick isn’t a clear-cut choice.
Some people like Chris Johnson, coming off huge year, while others still like perennial favorite Adrian Peterson, despite his fumble troubles and lingering questions about how often his team will pass. And, we can’t forget about Maurice Jones-Drew. Every league has a fantasy team owner that believes MJD should go No. 1 every year.
That said, here’s how I would draft the top 10 if I had every pick:

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Posted on July 28, 2010

By The Beachwood Vs. Affairs Desk

Compare and contrast.
Marlon: All-Star.
Robert: Dead star.
Robert: Was old as dirt.
Marlon: Gets uniform dirty.
Robert: Played in Washington as a senator.
Marlon: Played in Washington as a National, who were preceded by the Senators.

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Posted on July 27, 2010

By Jim Coffman

I took in the Cubs-Cards on Sunday night from my preferred perch in the upper deck reserved. If you drew a line from third to first and on up into the stands and then the balcony, I’m on it once it crosses the aisle and heads into the 500 sections. From my seats I can get to the men’s room and back in plenty of time between innings to not miss a batter. There are hot dogs and chips and PBR at the stand across the ramp from the toilet (and behind our seats). I drink better beer when I go to bars these days, but at the game Old Style or Bud will do. Or, every once in a while, I’ll decide to go back there and have Pabst Blue Ribbon for old time’s sake.
In between innings, we watch the people promenade between our seats and upper-deck boxes, and that show is often better than the ballgame. It gets a little annoying in the bottom of the seventh or at various times in big games when there are big surges to the washroom and folks are still out in the aisle obstructing our view when play resumes. But the area almost always clears quickly.

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Posted on July 26, 2010

By Marty Gangler

The big news this week, of course, was Lou Piniella announcing that he is going to retire at the end of the season. It kinda sucks because now you can’t fire him.
The next issue is trying to figure out what kind of manager you want next. A veteran who has been there before? Okay, but how could you get better than Uncle Lou or (un)Trusty Dusty?
Your star Triple-A manager? Hello, Bruce Kimm!
A college of coaches? Been there.
The Cubs have tried it all.

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Posted on July 26, 2010

By Andrew Reilly

Down an ace and up a few pleasant surprises, let us take a moment then to give thanks for the opportunity this week will present us. Not specifically in anything the team will or will not do, whether getting sweet revenge on Felix Hernandez or acquiring much-needed roster additions, but in what they generally do; in short, we get to see how closely the Sox’ walk follows the Sox’ talk.
Do they really have the finances to add payroll when it will help the team win?
Do they really value winning enough to boost payroll?
Which is better: an absolute present or a promising future?

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Posted on July 26, 2010

By Thomas Chambers

Chicago sports fans have – or think they have – stood on the precipice of extinction with their teams through the years.
After George Halas banished the Chicago Cardinals, generations of Daleys said and meant “fine” when the Bears used to threaten to leave in order to get a better stadium deal or a stadium itself. Jerry Reinsdorf made the same threat, at least publicly, and maybe he was Tonto doing the dirty work so Jim Thompson could mount Silver with his Lone Ranger bit, all a part of the power-brokers’ mating ritual. The Cubs, in a moment of pure “Cubbie,” threatened to move to the suburbs.
But what if you walk into a sporting venue under the real cloud that it very well may cease to operate in the foreseeable future?

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Posted on July 23, 2010

By Dan O’Shea

Scott Rolen has been having a great year (.287, 17 HRs, 57 RBIs), a comeback sort of year for a guy who was great with Philadelphia and St. Louis earlier in his career before an injury claimed his power stroke.
But now Rolen is injured again, this time with a hamstring problem. A few days ago, it looked like he was headed to the 15-day DL, but as of Tuesday, there were reports that Rolen was going to try to stay off the DL and recover from the injury on the Reds bench. Good for the Reds, who may still have Rolen’s bat available in an emergency, and good for Rolen, but bad for your fantasy team if you own Rolen.
That’s because you definitely can’t start him, but you can’t take advantage of putting him in a DL spot and picking up a replacement either. And, while Rolen has been very good, he is still barely in the top 10 at a very deep position. Do you dump him and replace him, or do you force yourself to dump another player and keep him, in hopes that his season isn’t over?

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Posted on July 21, 2010

Sixth in an occasional series.

–

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Posted on July 20, 2010

Last ones on the bandwagon are the first ones off.
Week in Review: Defining? Instead of holding serve with a split in Twinkie Town, the Sox blundered their way to losing three of a four-game set. Despite his statistical luck, Bobby Jenks was given the exit row seat on the flight to Seattle.

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Posted on July 19, 2010

By Jim Coffman

A few years ago, I wrote a series of columns for the Beachwood called T-Ball Journal. They chronicled a youth baseball season in which I coached my eight-year-old son’s junior-division baseball team. We played games that were part t-ball and part coach-pitch (a team’s own coach pitches to it and tries to groove it in there). I also wrote that summer about my six-year-old daughter’s debut season in the rookie division, which is all t-ball.
Since then I have resisted writing about the youth baseball scene. It is tricky to write about teams of kids with parents who may or may not want their and their kids’ exploits chronicled, and it isn’t as though there is a shortage of slightly higher level sports stuff to write about around here.
But my son’s team played in a memorable All-Star tournament this weekend and I thought I would go ahead and write up some of the details in this space. Then, a brief note on the Cubs.

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Posted on July 19, 2010