Maybe the cruelest thing about the Cubs epic collapse is the way the season just ended. One Paul Bako pop-up and poof it’s over. Normally, we can predict the end of the Cubs season with the accuracy of a Chinese compass. You just look at the last day of the regular season and barring some sort of weather event, that’s it.

But one of the fun things about this summer was that we all become completely engrossed in the Cubs. There was something to look forward to every day from April through October 15. Now it’s over. It didn’t really hit me until Saturday.

I watched Notre Dame just get completely outclassed by USC. It was like USC brought their JV team to South Bend and had them wear blue. It was embarassing.

NBC had Bob Costas set up a card table behind the north end zone and he interviewed Mark Prior at halftime. Mark said typically naive things like, “We’ll get them next year,” and stuff like that. I spent the segment full of pity for Mark and throwing my shoe at the TV.

I downloaded the 2003-04 rosters for NBA Live 2003 and played a few games as the Bulls. I’m not going out to buy NBA Live 2004 when we all know it’s the same damn thing as 2003. I think I can live with the Cavs still wearing baby blue and the Nuggets still wearing navy. Whoever did the rosters did a nice job. I had to update some of the end of summer transactions (that confusing Sprewell-Big Dog, etc.) trade, but the guy did a nice job creating the rookies, even down to Kirk Hinrich’s epically bad haircut. Though, he might have made Kirk a little too good, if I see him doing double pump dunks during the preseason, maybe then I’ll think otherwise. The roster even had the change of Nene Hilario’s name to just Nene. I think we all know how important that is.

I tried to watch some of the game one of the World Series, but instead I watched Dumb and Dumber for the 1203rd time on Encore. I think they should remake Dumb and Dumber with El Pulpo and Dave Veres.

Pulpo: “You know what the most irritating sound in the world is?”
Veres: “DK 57!”

I threw the CD player on random and I’m not making this up, these were the first four songs it played Saturday night.

Van Morrison — “Into the Mystic”
John Hiatt — “Have a Little Faith in Me”
Bob Dylan and Van Morrison — “Crazy Love”
Simon and Garfunkel — “A Hazy Shade of Winter”

These are not exactly four songs you’d prescribe to anyone with depression, and while I’d been feeling pretty good after Dumb and Dumber these immediately killed the buzz. Besides, there are 60 CDs in that changer and I got two Van Morrison songs? Why not just have SONY mail me a box of razor blades?

Anyway, Into the Mystic is one of my favorite songs. It’s not even really a sad song, it’s about a sailor coming home to his true love.

Into the Mystic

We were born before the wind
Also younger than the sun
Ere the bonnie boat was won as we sailed into the mystic
Hark, now hear the sailors cry
Smell the sea and feel the sky
Let your soul and spirit fly into the mystic

And when that fog horn blows I will be coming home
And when the fog horn blows I want to hear it
I don’t have to fear it

And I want to rock your gypsy soul
Just like way back in the days of old
And magnificently we will flow into the mystic

When that fog horn blows you know I will be coming home
And when that fog horn whistle blows I got to hear it
I don’t have to fear it

And I want to rock your gypsy soul
Just like way back in the days of old
And together we will flow into the mystic
Come on girl…

Too late to stop now…

So maybe it’s a sign. Or maybe my CD player just knows which songs are the good ones?

Or perhaps, like the 2003 Cubs that guys boat gets lost in the fog and crashes in a big heap off the coast, never to be seen again?

Nah.

I was going to do a Notre Dame Replay, but it’s obvious that starting off with USC, who might just be the best team in the country, was a bad idea. We’ll ease into one with BC next week.

But a few things about the 2-4 Irish.

Ty Willingham can still coach. This is about the kind of season we expected to suffer through last year. So far the losses are likely to the three best teams in the Big Ten and the best team in the nation (how the hell did Cal beat USC?). The wins are over a pair of good, ranked teams. But you have to like what you see in Brady Quinn. You have to like what you see in the offensive line the last two weeks and defensively? Well, nobody’s been able to stop SC for two years now, so we’ll reserve judgement.

As for the Bears? If there was ever a game they should have won it was yesterday. They outplayed Seattle, even with Brian Urlacher flanked by rookies and with Chris Chandler throwing to them. But, in the end they did what all bad teams do. They found a way to lose.

The pass interference call on Charles Tillman was a terrible call. Maybe the refs thought he was RW McQuarters? The thing that makes you mad is that the ref who made the call was behind the play and there was no way he could have seen if Tillman had hit the ball before the man (he did).

But with :54 seconds left the Bears had a shot to go down and tie the game. On the drive before, Chris Chandler had made some huge throws to Justin Gage and Bobby Wade, and a key one to David Terrell that set up the TD.

But on the final drive it was three passes to Dez White and one to Gage. Have we learned nothing about the Catch-22 that is Dez White? If you throw him 100 passes, he’ll catch 22.

Sigh.

An interesting thing about the game was how well most of the rookies played. Gage was impressive, except for that final drive drop. Bobby Wade finally got on the field and made a nice catch. Lance Briggs had a nice game until Shaun Alexander made a spot out of him on the carpet, and Joe Odom had his moments. So where’s Rex Grossman? Do we really think that Chris Chandler is going to be on the Bears the next time they play an actual important regular season game? Nope.

Oh, well. We’ll just play every rookie except the one who is most likely the best one. That makes perfect sense.

The NBA season tips off next week and then college hoops not long after that. So this place is about to be very basketball intensive. Because we know how you all love the GameCasts, (had the Cubs gone to the World Series, Desipio would have exceeded it’s allotted data transfer for the month–which is nice), we’re going to attempt them for basketball.

Baseball’s the easiest sport to do GameCasts for because there are so many breaks in the action, but we’ve done football and that was fun, and we’ll give basketball a shot. There will likely be very little attempt at any play-by-play, just a lot of smart assed commentary. You know, just the good parts. So stay tuned and we’ll let you know when our first crack at it will come.


David Huh says the Bears hung tough, but lost. And this is progress? That’s so sad.

Jerry Angelo–draft genius! OK, maybe not. Maybe the reason the rookies look good is because Angelo’s assemblage of veterans is so bad?

Bobby Engram’s not the kind of guy to get revenge. He’s also usually not the kind of guy to score touchdowns, either.

Charles Tillman thinks they’re picking on him.

Dusty Baker was at game two of the World Series. He should have been sitting in the dugout, not behind it.

Everybody on the Bulls is hurt. Ironically, except for Eddie Robinson.

Groucho is not a big fan of the Bryce Drew for a number one pick trade Jerry Krause made a few years back. Really?

Herb Gould says that even though they’ll be in the BCS Top 10 when the first poll is released today, that the NIU Huskies don’t deserve a BCS bid. Hey, didn’t anybody see Herb squatting over the punch bowl?

Peter Gammons gives his top five World Series moments of the last 30 years.

WOW! The Celtics just traded Antoine Walker to the Celtics for Raef LaFrentz and some others. Raef LaFrentz? What, Brad Lohaus wasn’t available?

Peter King with his Monday Morning Quarterback.

E! with more of Jessica Simpson’s favorite quips. My favorite one was, when she was giving advice to Nick on his video shoot she warned him that using their own money for a video was like “playing with water.” Huh?

The liberation of Iraq is complete! They now have their first Burger King.

The Pope says he’ll stay the Pope until God tells him not to. Uh, Pontiff, sir, don’t you think maybe the Parkinson’s was kind of a sign?

A Pennsylvania woman has been sentenced to probation for hitting a kid on the head with a dildo.

World famous BS artist David Blaine is out of the box. Whoop de damn doo.

Poor, poor, hot, horny Britney.

Drill magazine? Why not?

America’s finest news source hits the street to find out what people think of Gubernator Schwarzenegger.