By David K. & Andy Weise

 

AL

 

East- Boston
How do you pick against them? The pitching is always good, the hitting is always good, everything is always good. Can Ellsbury duplicate the success from last year’s postseason? Will Clay Buchholz and Jon Lester be able to hold down rotation spots for a majority of the season? Those aren’t bad questions to have because those are damn good players.

 

Central- Detroit
The Tigers looked unstoppable at points last year, a year after they went to the World Series. Now a couple seasons removed, they’ve only upgraded on talent. While Dontrelle Willis was a solid pickup for the rotation (even though he struggled in spring training), getting Miguel Cabrera might be the best pickup of the off-season. I don’t see how anyone in the central can stick with the Tigers. Only the Tigers can beat the Tigers.

 

West- Los Angeles
Losing Escobar for the season could be rough but this is virtually the same offense adding Torii Hunter. Hunter statistically has had the best two years of his career in ’06 and ’07 so he looks to continue down that road for now. As long as Weaver and Lackey hold down their spots, I think the Angels should be fine in the west.
 
Wild Card- N.Y. Yankees
I was hoping A-Rod would land elsewhere this offseason just to make things interesting but he stayed. The Yankees [More …]

By Paul M. Banks

There is a reason jokes about the Cubs and their incessant losing have become a pop culture staple. References to this ineptitude have been made in many places including Friday Night Lights, The Simpsons Halloween specials, Back to the Future and country music ballads. Read on to find out why.

Remember, like Wham told us in the ‘80s, “there’s no comfort in the truth, pain is all you’ll find.”

1876 A baseball team is founded as the White Stockings. (They would also be called the Orphans and Colts before settling on the Cubs nickname in 1902) They win the first NL pennant as well as six of the first eleven titles. Talk about peaking early in life! It would soon go downhill from there.

1906 Cubbies set a record for wins in a season (116) that still stands to this day. No, I’m not kidding! As for the World Series that season, see “A brief history of the Chicago White Sox timeline to see how that one turned out.

1907-08 Cubbies become first team to repeat as World Series champions in baseball history! These were the teams of Three-Finger Brown, Orville Overall and the immortal Tinkers-Evers-Chance combination. The team’s website states: “what a decade for Cubs baseball which is exactly what it was” huh? Although this was their best decade, this redundant statement doesn’t seem to make sense. How did this get past the editors?

1918 Until 2004, this was the date that lived in [More …]

By Paul M. Banks

In the spring of 2006, I wrote an in-depth feature on the marketing of Chicago’s two major league teams. The article features an exclusive with White Sox Vice President of marketing Brooks Boyer and 670 the Score’s Dan Bernstein

http://www.therealchicago.org/0104cubssox.htm

And here’s a recent piece from the Kane County Bulletin describing my night on the field and behind the scenes with the Kane County Cougars. 

It was doggie night at Elfstrom Stadium

The Clinton Lumber Kings welcome home their first runner of the evening

On-Field with the Cougars Promotion Team

By Paul M. Banks

Outrageous and unorthodox ballpark promotions are one of the first things many people often associate with minor league baseball. These promotions are perfect examples of the way a minor league baseball organization attracts the consumer. Baseball is the product, the fan is the consumer, and the promotions are part of the brand: the experiences, thoughts, and emotions that the fan associates with the game. My night being both behind-the-scenes and in the public eye with the Kane County Cougars was their ‘Bark in the Park Night.’ I joined the on-field doggie parade, set to the BahaMen song ‘Who Let the Dogs Out?’ This may be the dogs’ day, but this is the home of big cats. The Cougars logo behind home plate is freshly painted every day. It is there that [More …]

By Paul M. Banks

 
Requesting Reinforcements: It’s no secret where the Patriots are going to go on draft day, the back eight on defense. On opening day, the secondary will look very different from what it was in 07

For the full article click here http://www.nfldraftblitz.com/patriotscolumn.htm 

With the draft just about a month away time to reflect on 2007’s Draft.
 
 First Round: (21st) Brandon “Hollaman” Meriweather, S, Miami
Only draft pick to make an impact, he could start in Samuel’s place, now that Asante bolted. Had 27 tackles, 18 solo. He didn’t contribute all that much on the field, but at least he has his amateur rap career as “Hollaman” to help keep him busy. You can hear his x-rated rhymes with the “7th Floor crew” here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IPqjgS0Of8
 
 
Fourth Round (127th): Kareem Brown, DT,  Miami
Did not make team
 
Fifth Round (136th): Clint Oldenburg, OT, Colorado State
Did not make team
 

 
Sixth Round: 
(180th) Justin Rogers, OLB, Southern Methodist
Did not make team
(the copy and paste function on my laptop is getting quite a workout here!)
 
(202nd) Mike Richardson, CB, Notre Dame
Made team, but never registered any statistics in a single game box score. So he affected the team about as much as salads and rice cakes impact his former coach Charlie Weiss’s grocery list.
 
(207st) Justice Hairston, RB, [More …]

By Paul M. Banks, Peter Christian, David K.

By the time the Michigan State-Memphis Regional Semifinal ends it will be about midnight in the Eastern time zone. So when the witching hour comes, what will the mood “On the Banks of the Red Cedar {where} there’s a school that’s known to all” be? Will they be celebrating a win? Or starting their annual elimination riots which make East Lansing, Michigan resemble Detroit on “Devil’s Night?” In round one, Drew Neitzel was off, and Raymar Morgan was dominant. In round two, Raymar was invisible, but Neitzel had the hot hand. Unless both of the main scorers come to play on Friday night, the students will be burning couches in frustration on Grand River Avenue. Memphis may only have one loss, but they are susceptible to the Spartans. Joey Dorsey shoots a laughable 41% from the foul line, and the Tigers as a team (59%) are third from the bottom in the entire nation! So get all the big oafs in the middle ready to play hack-a-tiger defense and Memphis will see themselves home for April like they usually do. Like attending a formal event, you need to have your Suton (thanks. I’ll be here all week. Please remember to tip your bartenders!)  in order to succeed. Goran Suton had 14 points and 9 rebounds in the big win over Pittsburgh. He’ll need to score on the offensive end and Spartan career blocks leader Drew Naymick will need to lock down [More …]

The dollar may be dropping, but David K.’s NBA Draft Stock Report is increasing in value 

An update of whose NBA Draft stock is rising and falling

Now, more so than ever, NBA scouts have their eyes glued on college basketball and the NCAA Tournament.  A good performance in the Big Dance can do wonders for a future NBA prospect’s draft stock, while bombing on the big stage can have the opposite effect.  Here is a look at who helped raise their stock after the first weekend of the tourney:

 

BUY:

Stephen Curry, Sophomore, G, Davidson

College recruiters from the ACC and SEC overlooked Curry coming out of high school.  While he may look like he is twelve years old and have a skinnier frame that Calista Flockhart, the kid can flat out shoot the rock.  Curry was undoubtedly the MVP of the first two rounds, dropping 40 points on Gonzaga in the opening round while scoring 30, 25 of which in the second half, in a come-from-behind defeat of Georgetown.  I would be shocked if Curry tested the NBA waters, but if he can add some muscle and improve his ball-handling skills, it will be hard for NBA scouts to overlook him in the near future.
 

Mario Chalmers, Junior, PG, Kansas

Chalmers followed up a 30 point, 6 assist performance against Texas in the Big 12 championship with two solid tourney games.  He scored 17 and 16 points respectively in the Jayhawks’ first two rounds.  [More …]

By Paul M. Banks, The Soxman, Peter Christian 

Banks’s questions in bold. Soxman’s answers in normal type, Christian’s answers in italics

Do you draft Roger Clemens or Barry Bonds?
 
My gut tells me that the most recent government perjury inquiry into Roger Clemens, combined with the fact that evidence (albeit circumstantial) suggests he was tainted will keep Roger out of baseball on 2008.  Therefore, I’d avoid drafting him.
 
Interestingly enough, I’ve participated in two drafts now and Barry Bonds was drafted in both of them.  If you are in extremely deep leagues (such as myself), he might be worth taking an “end of draft) flier on. In leagues where on base and slugging percentage are scoring categories, Bonds is one of the best ever, regardless of “how” he got there.  Fantasy Baseball does not have a drug test either.   
 
Roger is untouchable. Especially in leagues with only a few bench spots. Barry on the other hand might be worth keeping an eye on. Depending on how the draft plays out and if I have a solid team that I’m confident in, I may forgo depth at a certain position to take a flyer on the Homer (Drama) Queen. Whether I draft him or not, I’m definitely keeping my ear to the ground about any possibility of him joining a MLB team mid-season.

What about the other players in the Mitchell Report? They’re saying this could just be the tip of the [More …]

By Sarah Spain

Lugging a blue Cubs blanket, a squishy seat cushion and not a hint of a smile, a heavyset, tired-looking, middle-aged woman trudged out of the front gate of Hohokam Park, reluctantly following her husband. He paused to let her catch up and said, exasperated: “It’s an experience. Nobody ever said you were gonna have fun. I said it’s an experience.” 
 
At that moment I realized that a Cubs Spring Training game in Mesa, Arizona, wasn’t everyone’s idea of Heaven on Earth. But it was sure mine.
 
For a few days the second week of March I was deliriously, blissfully, totally and completely happy. It wasn’t just the baseball—I’ve been to plenty of ball games. It wasn’t all about the sunshine—I live in Los Angeles, where sunny days are a given. It wasn’t just the beer—though there is something wonderful about a cold can of Old Style delivered right to you. It wasn’t even about the people—in fact, I went to all three games by myself. footnote 1
 
It wasn’t any one thing, it was everything. 
 

A lily, Ted Lilly, flourishing in the desert

Some people find baseball to be too slow. The stretches between hits can seem like hours and teams sometimes win by scoring just one measly run. I have a few friends that could even find a way to hate Game 7 of the World Series. Just imagine dragging one of them [More …]

By David K.

3/22/08 

When it came down to crunch time, it was a battle of Marquette’s Jerel McNeal against Stanford’s Brook Lopez.  At stake: a trip to the Sweet Sixteen.  Both guys played unbelievable in the final minutes of their NCAA Tournament second round match-up.  Unfortunately for the blue and gold faithful, Lopez’s shoulders were able to endure more weight and pressure than his counterpart’s.

After dealing with foul trouble that caused him to sit for the final ten-plus minutes of the first half, the less goofy-haired Lopez was unstoppable.  Constantly abusing the Golden Eagles’ undersized post players, the seven-footer established himself on the block, going off for 28 points after the half, eight of which came in the extra session as Tom Crean’s crew never had an answer for the future NBA lottery pick.  With Cardinal Nation on his back, Lopez hit the dagger with 1.3 seconds left.  The Disney-loving Stanford sophomore was able to angle his upper towards the hoop as Dwight Burke practically forced him to fall out of bounds while hitting a near impossible shot, further cementing Lopez’s status as one of the top big men in the nation. Credit Burke for playing extraordinary defense on the game-winning play, but to no avail.  You knew they were going to feed Lopez in the post, and nothing could have been done to stop him from putting an abrupt end to Marquette’s season.

McNeal was an absolute beast for the Golden Eagles, accounting for 16 [More …]

By David K. & Andy Weise

MERRY CHRISTMAS and welcome to our reunion –months after our rendezvous for the NBA draft, we’ve reunited in a place that we both said we desperately wanted to get out of last spring– Eau Claire, WI. This is the spot – you got an Irish bar called Dooley’s pup (normally considered the “hockey bar,” but transformed into a college hoops bar today) with a house mug –$3 for the mug and first drink and only a $1.50 for every drink after that. When’s the last time you sat at a bar for five or six hours and came away spending less than $20? We’re trying hard not to steal Bill Simmons’ diary (which is hard because it’s GENIUS!), but here are our random thoughts on the first day of the NCAA tournament. 

-Anytime something blows up or erupts, or when you do the old bar trick of banging your bottle of beer on top of your friend’s beer so it foams should now be referred to as “Peter Northing” somebody.  As in, “Bill totally Peter Northed Joe’s beer.”

-Two great trivia questions to obsess over when you’re at a bar with your buddies: 1.) Name the two members of the Baseball Hall of Fame who were not: a player, coach, owner, commissioner, or a broadcaster.  2) Since 1991, every NCAA Champion has had at least three players on their roster picked in the first round of the NBA Draft (with Syracuse 2003 being [More …]