just sports 8/22

so boo-boo lou finally says good-bye. so what? i heard cub fans over the last month praying he would quit but as usual, cub fans just don't get it. if your stable man quits, all it means is that someone else will eventually show up and have to shovel the large piles of crap side but no matter who's shoveling, it's still crap.

mike quade takes over as interim manager. hmmmmm. that pretty much eliminates bench coach alan trammel from the managerial hunt and that's a good thing because no matter who gets the job, they have to clean house totally. coaches, players and the drek that's working upstairs. this is an organization with totally empty cupboards and they need to be jump started with a large broom & garbage can.

rumor has it that gm jim hendry doesn't want ryne sandberg as the new manager. if that's true, then take your pick from joe girardi (whose contract with the yankees is up--and he grew up in highland park), joe torre, bob brenly the tv analyst or bobby valentine from espn. anyone is better than lou.

the white sox are like a vampire. i pronounced them d.o.a. in may and then they escape the casket and go on a run where they win 80% of their games and manhandle the better teams on their schedule like texas & atlanta, sweep the tigers and even beat stephen strasburg IN d.c. but now they can't beat baltimore or kansas city and they never could beat minnesota so by the powers vested in me by the baseball gods, i hereby pronounce the white sox officially dead. again. maybe.

FYI- i received the invoice saturday from the sox for world series tickets. the deadline for mailing in the money is september 7th. i think i'll wait.

and now the bears. the defense is getting run over and the offense is a maybe but if you can't stop them, it means you have to score every time you have the ball and that ain't happening. THIS pre-season game against arizona on saturday means a great deal. believe it.

if you like baseball, look for ken burns' followup to his major league series from 1994 when he releases "the 10th inning" which will cover baseball from 1990 to present day and deal with the steroid era. burns also produced the classic series on the civil war.

lebron james is a coward and there is NO WAY that miami beats the bulls' record of 72-10. no way.

cheerleading a sport? no. not until they make poker and chess a sport. with a few exceptions.....if you can't play defense, it's not a sport. now if the other team's cheerleaders got a chance to knock over the pyramid..........

and finally, i have my fingers crossed for #10 virginia tech to beat boise state in their 9/6 opener so i don't have listen to all that drivvle about how boise state belongs in the bcs bowls. try playing a real schedule all year long. done.

chicago cubs economics 101

ok, listen up class! you're about to get a lesson in what it means when a true businessman like tom ricketts owns the cubs rather than an eight-headed monster like the tribune that couldn't make a decision in less than a year's time because everyone had to sign off before plowing forward.

tom ricketts is a guy who likes to make money and he doesn't look at the cubs as a tax deduction. HE is the guy in charge and after spending a almost a BILLION DOLLARS on this steaming pile of doo-doo and watching them underachieve all season (what a surprise), he's just started with his free business lessons to cub fans. to wit:

he is stuck with the LARGEST payroll in the national league at 147 million dollars and one of the worst teams. he's noticed thru the years that cub fans continue to show up to watch this crap and although they leaving earlier now to get a good spot in a wrigleyville watering hole, the bottom line is they've still purchased three million tickets and the waiting list for season tickets is growing, not shrinking.

light bulb goes on in the thought balloon above the head of tom ricketts! unload salary and replace the overpaid players with minor leaguers. BRILLIANT!!! the first math lesson happened just last week when ted lilly & ryan theriot headed west with their combined 15.6 annual salaries and what did the cubs get in return? blake dewitt and his $400,000 salary. total payroll reduces from 147 to 132 with just one phone call. then you cut bob howry and his two million and the total is 130 million. but it gets better........

i think tom ricketts believes that he can reduce the salaries by a third before next year and i believe him. subtract derrek lee's 13 million when he becomes a free agent and you're at 117 million but you still have work to do. enter carlos zambrano.

EVERYONE knows that carlos zambrano is on the last train to clarksville as soon as the season is over. incredibly, Z makes just shy of 19 million a year. (way to go jim hendry) and the cubs will have to eat at least half of that when they get 2 minor league prospects for him but that will cut another ten million and then the goal line will be in sight!

but wait, dan. who takes their places, high priced free agents with multi-year contracts??? no, little jimmy, your team will be filled with at least 15 players making a COMBINED eight million dollars. multi-year contracts will disappear on the north side but it will be a lot of fun watching the kids play.

but won't that mean that the cubs will suck? yes it will, little jimmy, but the cubs have sucked for over a hundred years and tom ricketts will carry on that tradition with sound economics and the cub faithful will continue to march like lemmings to the sea. this team now moves from disappointing to pathetic for the next four years. think pittsburgh pirates and kansas city royals. enjoy.