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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Is it bad when the link for the dildo directs you to the Pope?
Uh-oh, I’ll bet I get ex-communicated for that.
I’d better fix it.
When Prior told Costas that "we’ll get them next year", the USC grad was talking about the fact that USC lost to CAL this year, thus destroying USC’s chances for a national championship.
Phew… I thought he was talking about me!
USC’s chances for a national title are destroyed? As long as you lose you’re one game early you’ve always got a chance. Miami and Virginia Tech play each other and Oklahoma and Georgia have to play confrence title games. Strange things happen. Remember Nebraska two years ago?
Sorry Anthony, There is a difference between losing to a nationally ranked team and losing to a team that has lost more games than it won.
The difference showed on 1/03/02 against Miami.
The polls don’t seem to notice the diffrence. Ohio State lost one game, to a RANKED team, and they’re lookin’ up at the Trojans. It’s not who you lose to, it’s when you lose to them.
Let’s ask some penetrating questions about the "Billy Goat Curse". How is it that some guy who dates male goats has enough influence with some supernatural power to be able to keep the Cubs from winning a World Series for eternity? What is it about goats anyway? Is a goat a form assumed by Satan? Was Mr Siannis a Satan worshipper? Was the goat a Cub fan? Did it really want to go to a Cub game? Why couldn’t Mr Siannis just have taken it to a nice restaurant a movie afterward? Why to a World Series game? Did Siannis expect a goat to quietly occupy a seat in the reserved section? Who would the goat cheer for? How would the goat cheer? Was the goat paper trained? If he bought the goat a souvenir program would the goat read it or eat it? Outside of the junk food, what was there to hold the goat’s interest for nine innings? If Mr. Siannis thought that that he was impressing the goat by taking him to Wrigley Field, then in my opinion he had a lot to learn about what a goat thinks of as a "fun time".
No. It was publicity stunt, moron! Sianis did it to drum up more business for his tavern, then across the street from the old Chicago Stadium. A few years later, they moved to lower Michigan and Hubbard when they lost their lease on the West Side.
Between the curse and my columns bragging of my drinking exploits there (I even took Belushi there and he helped devise an SNL skit about the Goat in the 70s), you have people visit the dump in tour buses now.
The place is a hell hole now. There are no more good bars in town, but it doesn’t matter because I’m dead, and I can’t get loaded, get picked up for DUI and fight with cops anymore.
In case nobody of you noticed, Bill Simmons’ ESPN.com article for today equated Fox’s "Skin" to "Romeo and Juliet". Which I only told you guys about a week ago.
Here’s the exact quote from Simmons:
"That reminds me, I was on the phone with one of my buddies this weekend talking about "Skin." Has there ever been a show with a shorter shelf life? Wouldn’t it have been a much better mini-series? Sure, they’re doing the "Romeo and Juliet" thing, and the DA will be battling the porn czar and stuff. But how much mileage can you get out of that? By episode five, the ads will be like, "And on a very special Skin, Julia runs away from home again!" If I were them, I would have switched the families and had the daughter’s Dad be the district attorney — this way, Ron Silver could have lured her into the porn business after she dumped his son. But that’s just me."
For those of you who want a heads up on all things TV-wise, you’d better stick with us Desipio writers and readers…
Not a very likely cover story, Mr Royko. Did you by any chance double date with Mr Sianis and his goat, or was it a threesome?
cubbiebluestew how long have you been following the Cubs? It’s hard to believe that a Cubs fan exists who hasn’t had the story of the damn goat drilled into his or her damn head by the press. The Billy Goat Curse is like the Curse of the Bambino, its a cute and fuzzy excuse to fall back on when everything goes FUBAR for the Cubs or Red Sox(although the BoSox should probably blame the Curse of Instituional Racism). Every damn year since the 1980’s, the Billy Goat’s current owner drags a damn goat over to Wrigley to remove the curse and get some more publicity. It’s quite possibly the longest running publicity stunt in the United States.
Only since 1942. Got some sense of humor there, CT.
Sorry stew, I’ve just heard about too many curses this past week, I guess.
Funny thing is, I and just about everyone else was oblivious to the incident in 1945. It was decades before I heard anything about it. Of course, after a couple of decades I and everyone else started flailing around looking for logical or even illogical reasons for the drought. It would be interesting to research to see when this thing hit the media.
CT,
Institutional racism was Royko’s point about the Cubs as well. It was even the topic of what turned out to be his last column he wrote before he died ("It Was Wrigley, Not Some Damn Goat"), whereby Royko discusses PK Wrigley’s reticence at signing black players after Jackie Robinson was signed. The Cubs didn’t sign one until 1953, SIX YEARS LATER (Gene Baker was the signee, although I believe Ernie was the first to actually play for the Cubs–I could be wrong on that)
Of course, Boston’s got everyone beat by not signing their first brother until nineteen freakin’ fifty-nine! They were obviously the last ML team to do so.
Royko’s point was, and you sort of touched on it with regards to the Bosox, was that the organization was set back by not being more proactive in terms of signing black ballplayers.
And that was hardly the Cubs’ only self-created setback — how about the Brock trade, the College of Coaches, the Lee Smith trade, the departure of Greg Maddux, etc. . . . You can’t blame half a century of bad management on a goat.
Hey, MD, we didn’t sign our first "brother" until 1991! And we’ve been in two World Series in six years. OK, that might be a bad example.
MD, I agree with you on the Cubs penchant for institutional racism as well, it just seems to be more well documented in Boston (last team to integrate, passed on signing Willie Mays). Actually, one of the worst Cub decisions was ownership’s moving of Bill Madlock (we HAVE had a good 3rd baseman since Ron Santo) because he "didn’t know his place". Although another reason I think that racism was a bigger factor in Boston is that it was also percieved as a problem with the fans there, not just ownership. Rightly or wrongly, the Boston fans have gotten a reputation for having problems with black players.
I agree with that reputation.
100 percent.
There seems to have been quite a span of time prior to the integration of baseball where the Cubs & Sox weren’t particularly proficient at picking white dudes either.
In the domain of political economy, free scientific inquiry does not merely meet the same enemies as in all other domains. The peculiar nature of the material it deals with summons to the fray on the opposing side the most violent, sordid and malignant passions of the human breast, the Furies of private interest. The Established church, for instance, will more readily pardon an attack on thirty-eight of its thirty-nine articles than on one thirty-ninth of its income. by texas holdem