By Steve Rhodes
From our very own White Sox Report:
“Over/Under: 100. The number of times something like this has happened in Jay Mariotti’s career. From the Trib’s live blog:
“‘According to my spies in the press box: Sun-Times hero and fan favorite Jay Mariotti asked for a security presence to safeguard him from his colleagues.'”
From our very own Cub Factor:
“The Second Basemen Report: Joe Morgan called Mark DeRosa ‘a fixture’ at second base for the Cubs on Sunday night’s broadcast. Well, the “fixture” only played second base once this week, with Mike Fontenot starting two games and Ronnie Cedeno starting three. So we learned again this week that Joe Morgan sucks because as a homeowner I know that you don’t replace your fixtures that often in a week.”
From our very own SportsMonday:
“Any semblance of a debate regarding the Bulls’ No. 1 pick ended last week when it was revealed that Michael Beasley stands three, count ’em, three, inches shorter than his listed height at Kansas State last year . . . I think these Bulls may still be debating whether to draft Rose or Beasley. Of course, I also hear they’re still not sure about Peyton Manning over fellow quarterback Ryan Leaf in the 1998 NFL draft.”
From our very own Beachwood Sports Audio Desk:
In 2005 the champagne tasted great
The Cubs ain’t won nothing since 1908
Champions, World Series, Losers, curse theories
Let’s call the Crosstown off!
Crosstown Classic
I’ve never thought the idea of Hillary Clinton as Barack Obama’s running mate made such sense, but Jerry Springer makes a pretty good brief for it in the Trib today.
Exile in Lameville
“[Phair] also admits that she was willing to lie and ‘take advantage of people’ to get her music heard and her bank account fattened,” Greg Kot wrote on Sunday.
Flood Fallout
“The Midwest floods have washed out an estimated four million acres of prime farmland, crimping this year’s harvest as the world desperately needs more grain,” the New York Times noted over the weekend.
Broken System
“Hours after Sen. Barack Obama rejected public financing for his campaign on Thursday after failing to negotiate with rival Sen. John McCain as he said he would, Obama made a stop not publicly disclosed by his campaign: He visited with some of his elite corps of fund-raisers on his National Finance Committee who were meeting in Chicago for briefings and to map fund-raising strategy for the general election,” Lynn Sweet writes today.
“More than half of Obama’s money, for all his talk of micro-donors, comes from check writers of $200 and up, with much generated by bundlers who use their networks of wealthy friends to raise money for Obama.”
In fact, reports Sweet, “Warren Buffet headlines a $28,500-per-person event July 2 in Chicago for Obama at the home of Obama finance chair Penny Pritzker.”
Park Patronage
“Beer vending used to be a classic Chicago job where they don’t want nobody nobody sent.”
– White Sox vendor Bob Chicoine to the Sun-Times (unavailable online)
Tin Lizzy
“Exile in Guyville, arguably the most important indie-rock record to spawn from Chicago in the 1990s, not only was an eye-opening success crafted by a girl in a boys club, but also a sweaty, personal introduction to a songwriter who would wow us with such natural expression and talent only to break our hearts later in gross disappointment,” writes Tom Lynch.
Ferris Bueller in . . .
. . . Melodramatic Monday.
Park District Dead
“Harvey’s park district shut down on Friday, an apparent victim of corruption and a political power struggle,” Phil Kadner wrote on Sunday.
A spokeswoman told Kadner that “The last park district board meeting apparently erupted in a lot of shouting.”
That’s Todd!
The Daily Herald fact-checks 10 claims Todd Stroger made while visiting Palatine last week. Only three were verifiably correct.
Neo Geo
“‘I’ve told the story before, and he doesn’t like me to talk about it,’ said the Cubs’ TV color analyst, Bob Brenly, who’s a former catcher and series-winning manager himself, ‘but when the celebration was going on in Cincinnati last year, when they clinched [first place in the Central Division and a playoff berth], Geovany stuck his head in Lou’s office and said, as the beer and champagne were flying everywhere, In a couple years I’m gonna be your captain.'”
– From Ted Cox’s excellent profile of Geovany Soto
George Carlin
I was never much of a George Carlin fan, but his influence was in evidence just this weekend in a cartoon by Jim Borgman of the Cincinnati Enquirer drawn and published over the weekend before his death (and appearing in the Tribune).
* Seven Dirty Words.
* On religion:
The Beachwood Tip Line: Be dirty.
Posted on June 23, 2008