World Series Here to Wipe Away the Bad Memories

Rather than providing excitement, drama or (god forbid) hope for a franchise I love, the start of the World Series instead once again simply signifies the beginning of the end.  It puts us on the doorstep of the offseason, though Philly and Tampa fans obviously fill differently.

Not to take away from their moments to shine, but forgive me for still dealing with another season lost for the Chicago Cubs.  I will always appreciate the spectacle of the World Series, with the teams playing in front of frenzied packed houses knowing the ultimate goal is so close from being realized.  I just wish it were my team doing it.

With that, I pass along a few quick parting thoughts regarding the most recent round of the playoffs.  Good riddance, LCS.

• Thank God the so-called curse of the Cubs didn’t pass through one fan and onto that of another franchise.  Yes, I was nervous when I publicly put my support behind the Phillies.  In the wake of my meaningless endorsement, Philly promptly lost Game 3 of the NLCS and fell behind in Game 4.  I was prepared to deal with the backlash had the tide of the series flipped for good.  But I’m certainly happy it didn’t.
• Thank God the Red Sox are out of it.  Is there a more annoying franchise in all of sports?  Well, probably, depending on your personal allegiances and your region of the country.  But that team annoys me to no end.  Sure, their ability to fight back from the brink of elimination has been pretty amazing.  It’’s also amazing how quickly the Red Sox’ recent winning has erased the memory of their snatching defeat from the hands victory at Shea Stadium in 1986.
• When they were together in St. Louis in the late 1990s, did Dennis Eckersley and Tony LaRussa make a pact that they would each maintain the same hairstyle for the rest of their lives?  Seriously, what year is this?
• Wasn’t Frank Caliendo a lot funnier when he was only on the Fox NFL Sunday pregame show?  I’ve never even watched him on a regular weekly basis on Fox, and that won’t change now that he’s apparently attempting to impersonate every major news/sports/Hollywood personality … during every commercial break.
• Anyone still on the fence trying to decide who to root for?  Here’s a tiebreaker:

You don’t really want to side with Dickie V, do you?  Oh, and by the way, the Backstreet Boys just sang the National Anthem.  How does that make you feel about Tampa, men?

Finally Ready to Talk about the Playoffs (Kind of)

This wasn’t the context in which I expected to talk about the MLB playoffs during the second weekend of October.

I don’t believe in curses, and I’m not one of the people my brother describes as “self-loathing Cubs’ fans.” My Chicago-residing brother talks of that breed a lot and says there are many of them in his part of the country — in the media and among the public. These are the folks who claim to be pulling for the Cubs but are clearly just waiting for the collapse, knowing that there’s no way the Cubs will actually win. This sad group of so-called fans, says my brother, is lost when the Cubs do achieve success.

Of course, the ultimate measure of success is league championships and World Series titles, and we all know how long it’s been since either has been achieved by my team of choice.  But that honestly wasn’t in my mind when I travelled from Kansas to Chicago on October 1 to witness Game 1 of the National League Division Series.  It only took a couple of days to grossly derail my hopes. 

Still, the Ryan Dempster walkathon, followed by the Game 2 infield errorfest didn’t make me believe at any moment that my team was doomed for long-term failure and may, in fact, never win another World Series.  No, the NLDS simply pissed me off, prompting living room tirades, elevated blood pressure and the general feeling that much of the energy I’d spent over the last six months had been flushed down the toilet.

So now the “Wait Til Next Year” kids are left to do just that.  There should be high expectations again for Lou Piniella and crew come Spring 2009, and hopefully they’ll earn the chance to show a little more fight in October.  Is there more pressure on the Cubs than on other teams when the playoffs roll around?  Well, they’re the Lovable Losers, so why should they feel pressure to win?  But when the stands are so often filled with signs that read “It’s Gonna Happen” and “This is Next Year” it’s clearly more than just the weight of the North side on your shoulders.  It is indeed the weight of 100 years.

*****

And where does that leave me, the jilted fan who has to watch yet another MLB Final Four that doesn’t include the Cubs?  While I’ve been led to believe that all of the baseball world wants to see Manny vs. the Red Sox, I’m hoping for the opposite.  Yes, it would be awfully painful for a Cubs’ fan to see a team so young as the Rays to reach the World Series, but the alternative is the Red Sox.  And to that I say “No thanks.”  Frankly, the Rays have earned it.  The team has been built the right way, relying largely on its on system and making a few savvy moves to bring in the likes of Kazmir, Garza and Pena to help lead the way.  It’s not like the front office has spent its way to the top.

But when it comes down to it, I go back to the National League.  Watching Game 1 of the NLCS, just one electric inning of it actually, made me pine for more postseason action at Wrigley Field.  Although it can’t be at Wrigley, I can at least take sides against the Dodger Blue.

Color me a phanatic.

The Cure for Political Posturing

Maybe Barack Obama will provide more tax relief to the middle class than will John McCain.  Or maybe the vice versa will be true.

Of course, McCain was first to warn about the dangers of Freddie, Fannie and the subprime time bomb.  Or was it Obama?

Each seems to make the same claim, so when it comes to debate time I guess it depends who has the last word.  It’s who can provide the last counter-punch to say, “Really, it was me.” 

My solution is a late-1990s pop culture staple. 

Pop-Up Video was a sometimes-insightful, sometimes annoying VH1 program that broadcast music videos along with pop-up bubbles that provided information on the song, artist and lyrics, as well as some odd factoids that could be tied to the song, artist or lyrics.  One of my favorites was Alanis Morrisette’s “Ironic”, during which Pop-Up Video pointed out that Morrisette’s lyrics didn’t really point out true irony, but rather simply a series of “bummers.”

I think this is clearly the solution to clearing up the ambiguity in political debates.  Yes, we learn a little bit about how the candidates can react under pressure, attempting to handle direct questions and refute the charges from their on-stage rivals.  However, too often the audience is — as usual — left to wonder who is in fact telling the truth. 

So the answer is Pop-Up Video.  Of course, the debates would have to be pre-recorded to allow time for the fact-checkers to get their bubbles ready, but I think I’d be willing to sacrifice live television for the sake of accuracy. 

Obama voted to raise taxes how many times?

McCain said what about deregulation?

No more stretching the truth.  No more taking things out of context.  Let the bubble decide.

What I Learned Watching Football This Weekend

Yep, this is a bit late, but I had to allow time for Monday Night’s game and to help tend to my sick children.  After a painful few days, here are a few things I learned after a strange few days. (And no need to point out the obvious: T.O.’s a punk, Al Davis is an old psycho, etc.)

Kansas City Chiefs’ Fans = Ungrateful

I’m not convinced the Kansas City Chiefs still aren’t the worst team in football despite beating previously undefeated Denver.  There are a few nice parts, young and old, i.e. Larry Johnson, Derrick Johnson, Glen Dorsey, but this team right now is still neck-and-neck with the likes of St. Louis, Cincinnati and Detroit.

So you’d think fans would be uproariously happy with a win over the hated Broncos Sunday at Arrowhead.  Well, they were to an extent, but a frightening amount of the talk I’ve heard on the local airwaves has dealt with the inability to get Tony Gonzalez the ball enough to break the all-time receiving yards record for a tight end.  (He finished two yards shy of setting the new mark.)  It wasn’t enough that this unimpressive lot actually came together for a win, let alone one against a decent team — keep in mind the mighty Chiefs have already been blown out by Atlanta and were dominated at home by Oakland.  Nope.

For the record, when my family moved to the KC area in the mid-1980s the Chiefs were a similarly hideous product on the field.  Half-filled Arrowhead Stadium was a depressing place then, so I loudly called B.S. when the Schottenheimer years (and those that followed up until a couple of years ago) gave Chiefs’ fans the reputation among the best in the league. 

They’re getting what they deserve now.

Rough Times for My Alma Mater

Outclassed in front of 100,000+ in Happy Valley on Saturday night, Illinois has somewhat stumbled out of the gate in 2008 with a 2-2 start.  Keeping in mind that their losses have come to #4 Missouri and #6 Penn State, I’m hardly calling for Coach Zook’s head, but the Orange and Blue need to take care of business in the coming weeks with matchups against Michigan, Minnesota and Indiana to get back on the right track.  

The bumps and bruises reached former Illini in the NFL this week as well.  First-round pick Rashard Mendenhall, hyped to have his first pro start in primetime Monday night, was rewarded with a fractured shoulder early in the second half and is now on Injured Reserve.  Salt in the wound:  Former Illini fullback Carey Davis, getting carries for the Steelers in Mendenhall’s absence last night, was knocked out of the game with an ankle injury.

And there’s more.  Brandon Lloyd, having emerged as the #1 threat in the Bears’ passing game, left Sunday night’s game against the Eagles with an undisclosed knee injury.  Status: Uncertain.  This came just three days after Lloyd had injured his hip in practice.

I’m ready for some 2008 good fortune here.

Anquan Boldin is Rod Tidwell

Surely there’s a blogger who pointed this out at around 4:00pm EST Sunday, but I’ve already mentioned that I’ve been a little slow to the keyboard lately. 

Anquan Boldin was knocked out cold Sunday making a catch in the endzone in New York.  Thankfully it appears he will be okay. 

But this sounds like cinema to me.  Boldin has widely made it known that he wants to get paid … more.  And he’s blaming his current employer for his dated deal.   Remember mouthy Cardinals receiver Rod Tidwell?  He spent the 1996 season, at least on the big screen, trying to prove his worth after a ridiculous low-ball offer of under $2M for three years.  Those who don’t listen closely might have missed agent Jerry Maguire telling Mel Kiper and crew that Rod had 110 catches and 1550 yards the previous season.  Seriously, how much would that fetch a man these days?  Boldin’s best year was ‘06 when he caught 102 balls for 1402 yards.

Sounds crazy similar to me, though I think Rod probably needed the money a little more than Anquan.

Mistaken Superhero Sightings

Kryptonite comes in the form of a conference foe on a nine-game skid.

I understand that Florida’s humorous home loss to Ole Miss Saturday was not Tim Tebow’s fault.  His performance was fine enough.  But I still find it great that the fate of the Gators was sealed when the man often referred to as Superman failed to convert a 4th-and-1 on a quarterback draw.  Crying shame, I tell ya.  Urban Meyer, striving to appear as arrogant as Pete Carroll these days, looked wonderful in defeat.

On a non-sports note, I was surprised to see that the Invisible Woman was running for a State Board of Education seat in my home state. 

Sadly, this was not the Sue Storm I was expecting. 

At 5′6″ and 120 lbs. and worthy of being portrayed by Jessica Alba in two major motion pictures, for a brief moment I had high hopes for my district.

 

Alas, my enthusiasm for Kansas politics remains somewhat tempered.

Bloggers Are Passionate; Those Reading Blogs, Also Passionate

I don’t get many comments on my blog, and that doesn’t really bother me.  I write more as my own personal outlet.  (Wife’s not much into sports, and the kids are too young.)  But it’s good to know I can strike a chord every now and then.  Here’s what one kind soul had to say in response to my post Saturday morning BEFORE three other Top 10 teams had lost:

Comment:
Yes USC is known for losing a game to a unranked team but every team does this; just look at what happened this weekend FLORIDA GEORGIA lost. It’s quiet obvious you are just a hater so shut the f*** up and stop b****ing you a**hole. I am a USC fan and I got over the lose and you should too you arrogant cocky piece of sh**.      USC  FIGHT ON!!!

Lesson:  I guess next time I’ll wait until all teams have played for the week before pointing out the shortcomings of one … but I will FIGHT ON too!!

USC Laid Its Annual Turd, So Now What?

Maybe it’s because Pete Carroll comes off as one of the most smug SOBs around.  Maybe it’s because of the media’s obsession with USC.  Or maybe it’s just my way of raging against the machine.

Regardless, it was with a great deal of satisfaction that I watched the #1 team in the land drop a big deuce in Corvallis, Oregon, Thursday night.  It seems Carroll’s Trojans are starting to make a habit of taking an annual siesta at least once during the conference slate.  Since falling to Texas in the BCS title game three years ago, after which Matt Leinart brazenly declared they were still actually the better team (and he was probably right), the upset bug has taken a big chunk out of USC each season.  In 2006, it was Oregon State.  Last year, it was the fighting tree of Stanford.  And, of course, this year it was the Beavers yet again.  What a crying shame.

You see, THIS is what’s great about college football.  Since I’m one of the seven people across the country who’s actually against a playoff system, let me please point out why this makes sense. 

Every game counts.  A LOT.  A title contender shouldn’t be let off the hook for getting clowned by a conference cellar dweller.  Now that they’ve lost a game, the mighty Trojans are appropriately at the mercy of the other upper echelon schools in nation.  Georgia, Florida, Oklahoma, Missouri, et al.  If a couple of these guys slide through their schedules unscathed, the Trojans are left on the outside looking in — and that’s the way it should be. 

Of course, if only one (or less) of the aforementioned schools goes undefeated, that’s when USC is at the mercy of the system.  There will be several one-loss schools, and the media will talk endlessly about how USC is still the most talented and dangerous team in the country.  But if they’re not blessed with a title game appearance, it’s still no one’s fault but their own. Just take down the vaunted Beavers.

If Pete wanted a playoff, he should have gone back to NFL where every team apparently wanted him.  But remember what everyone said?  In the pros he’d only get one first-round draft pick per year, and at Southern Cal he gets the equivalent of ten first-round picks each year.

Too bad all of those first-rounders couldn’t consistently tackle a 5′7″ guy named Jacquizz.

Have fun watching the scoreboard the next few months, Pete.

Let’s Talk a Bit About the Yankees

So the big question tonight does not deal as much with who’s in the playoffs, but who’s out. 

What’s the bigger deal:  That the Yankees aren’t in the postseason for the first time since 1993 (remember, no playoffs in the strike-shortened ‘94 season) or that the Yankees had actually made the playoffs 13 years in a row?

My vote is for the latter.  Say all you want about the payroll, the free agents, etc.  Still a pretty awesome accomplishment.  That being said, let’s not get too overwhelmed. 

1. Karl Ravech on Baseball Tonight said that since the home schedule had already been completed, Derek Jeter has still never played a ‘meaningless’ game at Yankee Stadium in his career.  Ok, I get that this is the first year he’s ever missed the playoffs, but what about the many years when a playoff spot had been sewn up prior to the end of the regular season.  I’m willing to go out on a limb and say there have been quite a few late-September games in the Bronx when the Yanks would have rather had Andy Stankiewicz at shortstop instead of risking a Jeter injury before the postseason.

2. Buck Showalter says the Yankees have some serious holes to address before next year.  What was left out was that these are ‘holes’ from the perspective of a team with a $200+ million payroll.  Assuming Bobby Abreu and Jason Giambi are gone, the projected lineup for 2009 includes Damon, Jeter, Rodriguez, Nady, Cano and Matsui, with Posada and Melky Cabrera as question marks.  See what a culture of winning and spending produces?  These are pieces any team would be pretty proud to have, despite Damon’s noodle arm and Matsui’s bad joints.  The real problem, as I’ve said for years, is the club’s poor pitching moves. 

3. Does any one give a damn about Roger Clemens anymore?  Apparently, he was heartbroken that he was left out of the final Yankee Stadium celebration.  That’s a real pisser.  Imagine how the Yanks felt after the ‘03 season when Roger ‘retired’ only to come back in the spring for a cushy deal near his home in Houston.  He went on to become the most dominant pitcher in the NL for a couple of year while the Yankees had to find a new ace.  Yes, they’re the one team who could really afford to do it.  But what was their solution?  Carl Pavano.  How’d that work out the last few years?  Throw in the alleged ‘roid needles and Roger’s perception today fits him just fine.

The Yankees will be back.  It’s how the route they take to get there that will provide all of the fun.

NFL Dealt Another Blow, But It Wasn’t “Inadvertent”

According to Dictionary.com, the primary definition of the word ‘inadvertent’ is ‘unintentional.’  So, in my opinion, it’s highly erroneous for everyone around football – including players, fans and media – to refer to Ed Hochuli’s whistle as such.

His blow of the whistle in Denver Sunday was not unintentional; it was, in fact, just wrong.  It’s not that he didn’t mean to do it.  There was no confusion other than the fact that he was making the wrong call.

And I’m not here to beat up on officials.  They have a really tough job and generally do a pretty good job.  I agree that Hochuli should be commended for owning up to his mistake, but what was his other option?  To ignore the rules simply because he knew he’d screwed up?  Honestly, is it possible that while under the hood Ed was thinking, “Do you think anyone will call me on this if ignore the whistle?”  

I certainly didn’t even think to listen for the whistle prior to the replay ruling, but if I were a Broncos fan I have to think I may have been scrutinizing every detail of that play during the many replays.

*****

So the NFL is off to a rough start in 2008.  Consider what happened in the weeks leading up to and including the opening weekend:

1. The death of Gene Upshaw
2. The life-threatening shooting of Jaguars’ OL Richard Collier
3. The season-ending injury to poster boy Tom Brady
4. A hobbled Peyton Manning limping to a home-opening defeat
5. The mockery of an idiotic WR changing his last name to spanish digits
6. The mockery of a gray-haired QB holding the sports world hostage due to his own indecision
7. The apparent insanity of a once-promising young QB in Tennessee
8. A hurricane causing enough damage to force the postponement of a game

But prior to the officiating error in Denver, it seemed we were dealing quite well despite a tumultuous opening to the season.

Upshaw has been appropriately honored in his passing.  Collier has improved.  Cassel stepped up and slayed the Favre monster in Brady’s absence.  Peyton rallied the short-handed Colts for a rather unlikely road win.  The Bengals’ ineptitude has made 85 irrelevant.  And Jeff Fisher’s Titans have prepared to move on – at least temporarily – without the Vinsanity they experienced after Week One. 

I certainly have no idea what to expect next.  And we’re only two weeks into the season.

Kansas City Would Welcome National League Baseball

Yes, I’m a Kansas City resident.  No, I’m not a Kansas City Royals fan.

But don’t think I’m a frontrunner or anything like that.  I’m from a displaced Chicago family, so my loyalties are back in the upper Midwest.  That being said, there’s little of interest to me these days at Kauffman Stadium. 

But maybe Big Bad Ike could change that.  The first two games of the upcoming Cubs-Astros series have been postponed as Hurricane Ike bears down on the Texas coast.  Smart move, but the two teams — one a true contender and the other trying desperately to be considered one — are put in a bit of a pickle by having two games scratched.  With each having a day off Monday, it’s possible a second game could be squeezed in, or maybe even a Monday doubleheader to cover the whole series.

But that’s all contingent on Houston not being soaked in post-hurricane rain on those days.  So the idea of moving the series, or at least a couple of the games, to a neutral site should be a legitimate topic of conversation.

Enter Kansas City, a pretty darn good halfway point between Houston and Chicago.  And trust me when I say KC could use the action.

Kauffman Stadium is in the middle of a renovation project that’s set to be done for Opening Day 2009.  The result as 2008 winds down to a non-competitive close is that half of the upper deck and the two sections of outfield seating are currently closed.  Not that it really matters, considering the club ranks last in attendance among American League teams with an average of just over 19,000 per game. 

In fact, the situation is so bad that the Royals are promoting “Retro Pricing” for the upcoming series against Seattle next week.  Fans can get into the park for just $3 a ticket.  (That actually may be a bit steep to watch the Royals and Mariners clash futile heads.)

But I’ll be honest.  My real gripe with this is interleague play.  Because of the retarded structure of interleague play, the Cubs haven’t come to Kansas City since 2000.  How long ago was that?  Ismael Valdez was the Chicago starter for the last game of the series.  The Cubs and Royals played in Chicago the following summer, but they haven’t met since.  The last time the NL Central and AL Central were matched up in interleague play, the Royals were the scheduling casuality as a result of the Cubs and White Sox having to play their annual home-and-home series. 

Based on how the schedules have flowed the last couple of years, the two Central divisions should meet in interleague play.  I’ll be anxiously waiting to see when/where/if the Cubs and Royals will meet.

Until then, why not throw us Kansas Cubs fans a bone?

(But be nice, Ike.)

Not in Kansas Anymore

My expectations for television these days are pretty low as it is, so when fluffy, regurgitated fiction makes its way to the primetime surface there really is no need to be optimistic – even in this era that’s been overrun with just about any kind of reality program one could invent.

As I mentioned earlier this week, it was out of morbid curiosity that my wife and I DVRed the new 90210 series premiere.  Over the course of its original run, I believe I only watched two seasons of 90210, and those were somewhat toward the end.  It was a cheesy young adult drama at that point, but if I recall correctly, the original began much in the same fashion as its reincarnate, with a Midwestern family moving to the famous zip code and trying to adjust.

Appropriately, the first episode was titled “We’re Not in Kansas Anymore.”  The Wilson family has just arrived in Beverly Hills from Wichita and are immediately met with a different lifestyle and culture.  Now I’m not saying that as an actual Kansas resident I could move to SoCal and fit in right away, but would I be spotted right away as an outsider because of how I dress?  Apparently that is the case for the lead female role, Annie, portrayed be someone of whom I’d never heard or recalled seeing before.  But if she couldn’t fit in right away then no one could.

Chalk it up to ’suspension of disbelief’ I suppose.  That’s the basis upon which so many shows are built these days anyway.

Predictably, 90210 redux wasted no time digging into the drama right away.  After just one episode, we already have plotlines involving drug addiction, an illegitimate child, a small-scale cheating scandal and sniffs of racial friction.  Yeah, it was a two-hour premiere, but that covers a LOT of ground.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the show is the casting of Jessica Walter as the matriarch of the lead family.  Like I said, it’s only been one episode, but the writers and producers appear to be recreating Walter’s character of Lucille in Arrested Development.  She portrays the same kind of heavy-drinking, free-living woman, only in a completely different environment … I think.  One review called it a waste of her talent, but I think it’s amusing as comic relief — even though the comedy I have found so far is somewhat unintentional.

Looking for a silver lining in this trash can?  There always seems to be one solid standard on all of the CW shows that I’ve given a chance:  The Music is fabulous.  At least it fits my taste.  It leans toward modern rock (I hate that term, but nothing really fits it).  90210’s music had a little more of a pop lean, but any show whose opening scene begins with a Coldplay track in the background is getting itself off to a good start.

I don’t pretend to know what high school life is like these days now that I’m about 15 years removed from it, and I did that in the Wilsons’ old digs of Kansas.   I was certainly never quite as hip as these folks, but at least I had good taste in music, too.

Lance Armstrong Can’t Wait to Be Accused of Doping Again

Lance Armstrong is an amazing athlete.  His story of survival and success is one that we should all respect and appreciate.  And he strikes me as the kind of person who can achieve just about anything he sets his sights on, with a determination and work ethic unrivaled by his peers.

But why in the hell would he want to return to the Tour de France?

I understand the drive that these athletes have when they can’t quite stick to retirement.  We’ve seen it from Michael Jordan, Brett Favre, Ryne Sandberg and many others.  But, I’m sorry, I think this one is a bit different.  Not to belittle the sport of competitive cycling, but I think we’re talking a bit about apples and oranges.

And what makes it worse is the firestorm Armstrong will head into again when he returns to France.  International cycling is a tarnished sport, always ripe with controversy about who’s doping, and it’s no mystery that Armstrong has some enemies in the European press. 

So why pedal right back into the flames?  This guy must have one hell of a heart and some awfully thick skin. 

Or maybe he’s getting bored with his occasional appearances in the American tabloids and thinks it’s time for a change in bad press.