Chicago - A message from the station manager

Derrick Rose’s Week So Far: Money, Sex And Surgery

By Roger Wallenstein

The elbow applied to Derrick Rose’s face during the Bulls’ first preseason practice couldn’t have come at a better time.
The surgery scheduled for Wednesday and the amount of time Rose will miss took center stage, sending Rose’s opening press conference comments and his outstanding civil suit to the sidelines. That’s nice news for the Bulls’ sometimes star.
Rose’s comments last Monday cast him in a poor light in some circles, but he merely was voicing the mindset of many professional athletes and entertainers. The American Way also was on display.

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Posted on September 30, 2015

Fantasy Fix: Get Used To It, Chicago

By Dan O’Shea

After three weeks in the fantasy football crucible, we’re learning a few things, in most cases thing we should have known already, but probably ignored:
Don’t bet against Rex: Buffalo Bills Coach Rex Ryan is a complete nut, but has his team at 2-1 and has helped create unforeseen fantasy relevance for a number of players, including QB Tyrod Taylor, RB Karlos Williams, TE Charles Clay and long-lost WR Percy Harvin.

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Posted on September 30, 2015

Yogi Berra Was A World-Class Shill

From Cat Food To Foot Spray, Never Met A Product He Wouldn’t Hawk

“In 1993, Berra’s sons, Larry, Tim, and Dale, and Tim’s wife Betsy, formed LTD Enterprises,” Carlo DeVito writes in his 2014 Yogi: The Life & Times of an American Original.
“According to business reporter Patricia Winters Lauro, their intention was ‘to market their father’s career after they realized that Mr. Berra was inundated with about 100 letters a week, most of them seeking his autograph. As sports memorabilia grew in popularity, the sons decided they were better suited than agents to protect and promote their father’s image. LTD now runs a thriving mail-order business and has a Yogi site on the World Wide Web, complete with a Yogi store, a whole range of memorabilia, and Yogi links to to favorite sports sites.’

“I couldn’t sell widgets, but I can sell Yogi Berra – it’s so easy,” said Dale.

Oh, but it started decades before that – when he was still playing. Let’s take a look.
1987 Miller Lite, With Jason Alexander.

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Posted on September 29, 2015

SportsMonday: Please, Seahawks, Don’t Hurt Us

By Jim Coffman

Week 4 of the season (I suppose it is still Week 3 until the Packers and Chiefs wrap things up tonight but I am moving on as quickly as possible) and already the imagination is curdling.
Of course there are a few clever observations to offer up in the aftermath of the Bears’ 26-0 loss to the Seahawks. One can start with the line for next week’s game.

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Posted on September 28, 2015

Back To Meaningless Baseball

By Marty Gangler

Finally! September baseball that is completely meaningless.
With the Pirates pretty much icing up the home field wild-card game, we are back to not really caring what happens during the last week of the season. So let’s all take this week to relax, maybe step away for the team for a few games and enjoy life a little.
Because that game on Wednesday, October 7, is going to be a real doozy. The ghosts of playoff pasts may not haunt these happy-go-lucky Cubs, or this manager, or this management staff, but they haunt the fans. They haunt the fans a lot.

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Posted on September 28, 2015

Berra, Berra Bad Memories

By Roger Wallenstein

The Yogiisms and the lovable gnome of a man are not what I remember most. No, the havoc Lawrence Peter Berra, who died last week at the age of 90, wreaked on a consistently talented White Sox team in the 1950s is what I recall most clearly.
As the current sorry edition of White Sox players – most of whom no doubt recognize Berra solely from AFLAC ads – gazed from their dugout at Yankee Stadium prior to last Thursday’s game as New York manager Joe Girardi, a former Yankee catcher for four seasons in the ’90s, along with three present Yankee catchers laid a flowered wreath in the shape of Yogi’s number 8 in the catcher’s box at home plate. No doubt nostalgia hung from every rafter of The Bronx shrine, but aging Sox fans could be excused for recalling the manner in which Berra extinguished hopes and dreams.

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Posted on September 28, 2015

The Blue & Orange Kool-Aid Report: Jay Cutler’s Dog Days

By Carl Mohrbacher

Ouch . . . My Hamstring
In a game that felt like the Arizona Cardinals won 51-17, the Arizona Cardinals won 48-23. A demoralizing afternoon in which the Bears not only lost the contest, but their number one receiver (prior to) and their number one quarterback (during) the game.
And that one really would have hurt if Arizona offensive coordinator Harold Goodwin hadn’t called (effective) passing plays well into the last two minutes of the game despite an insurmountable lead . . .
Oh.
At this point I’m confident in saying that Bruce Arians was having a little fun at the expense of this franchise after losing out on the Bears head coaching job to Marc Trestman in 2013.

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Posted on September 23, 2015

Fantasy Fix: Bad Luck vs. No Luck

By Dan O’Shea

Almost without argument, the most disappointing fantasy football performer of the first two weeks has been the Colts’ Andrew Luck.
In the preseason, Luck was considered the top fantasy QB by a clear, if not wide, margin. After a season of more than 4,700 passing yards and 40 pass TDs last year, you were not in the minority if you thought he could and would do better this year.
Yet, through two games, he has 493 passing yards and three TDs against five INTs. The yardage is not bad at all, but he has only accomplished it playing from behind and chasing his own mistakes

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Posted on September 23, 2015

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