Making Sense Of Nonsense: Chicago Cubs trade Kosuke Fukudome to Cleveland Indians For Prospects
Burn, baby, burn!
The fire sale (that Jim Hendry insists isn’t a fire sale) at Wrigley Field is officially underway with the news that the Chicago Cubs have traded outfielder Kosuke Fukudome to the Cleveland Indians for a pair of prospects.
This is the second trade Hendry has put together with Indians GM Mark Shapiro. The first was the deal that sent Mark DeRosa to the Tribe in exchange for Chris Archer, James Russell and John Gaub. Turns out the trade was one of the rare deals that benefited both squads. Cleveland flipped DeRosa to the St. Louis Cardinals to acquire closer Chris Perez, while the Cubs turned Archer (and other trade chips) into Matt Garza.
So, what did Hendry get out of Shapiro this time? (more…)
Roy Williams to the Bears? Depends on which one, I guess.
The Dallas Cowboys cut wide receiver Roy Williams today, and instinctively, the interest of Bears fans suddenly piqued.
A 6-foot-4-inch, 210-pound receiver familiar with the Mike Martz system to the Bears makes sense, right? (more…)
Joakim Noah To Play For France
Chicago Bulls big man Joakim Noah is taking his talents overseas.
That probably sounds like music to the ears of many Bulls fans, especially those who were disappointed with Noah’s play against the Miami Heat during the Eastern Conference Finals.
Noah averaged 11.7 points and 10.4 rebounds in 48 regular season games. But, in 16 postseason contests, the 6-foot-11-inch center averaged 8.7 points and 10.2 boards. That’s a significant drop off compared to last year’s playoff tear when Noah averaged 14.8 points and 13 rebounds in the five game series against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Alas, Noah won’t be gone for good — much to the chagrin of a certain segment of Bulls fans.
Instead, Noah will be representing Team France in the European Championships in Lithuania.
With the NBA lockout in full swing, here’s hoping Noah can somehow heal form the injuries that slowed him down this season and recapture the form he had during the early part of the year when he was a double-double machine and a force on both ends of the court.
The First Step Toward Rebuilding The Cubs Is Not Listening To Joe Cowley
Leave it to Joe Cowley to suggest the Cubs follow a new plan of attack and make minimal reference to said plan.
I guess that’s what it takes to be Chicago’s top columnist these days.
On Saturday, Cowley posted a column titled “Pirates on rebound, Cubs should take notes” from PNC Park as he took in the action featuring two teams headed in opposite directions.
Unfortunately, Cowley doesn’t do much to take readers through what the Pirates have done in the three years since Neal Huntington took over for Dave Littlefield. Instead, Cowley’s opening seven grafs (145 words to be preceise) are used to take us back to 1992, when Sid slid and Barry Bonds’ head didn’t require its own zip code.
(For those of you scoring at home, that’s 17 percent of the column wasted on something that happened when Starlin Castro was two years old.)
Eventually, Cowley makes his point. Then, it only takes Cowley 20 grafs Cowley gets to his real point. (more…)
Want To Tear Down Wrigley Field? Start With The Team Before You Get To The Park.
From where I stand, the Chicago Cubs are a sorry excuse of a baseball team.
They are 27-39, 10 games out of first place and 12 games under the .500 mark. If not for the always LOL-worthy Houston Astros, the Cubs wouldn’t just have the worst record in the NL Central, but they would own the worst record in the National League.
They have a Triple-A manager who seems overmatched, a Triple-A pitching coach who is understaffed and an owner who is resorting to Triple-A promotions to sell tickets.
So, naturally, the logical move is to run to Wrigley Field wielding torches and pitchforks and ask for Wrigley Field to be torn down.
Wait. What? (more…)
Ridiculously Long Post About LeBron James & His Ties To Barry Bonds, Michael Jordan and Hollywood Hogan
LeBron James constantly finds himself compared to some of the greatest athletes of a generation.
Problem is, we’re thinking about the wrong sport.
If you’re comparing LeBron James to Michael Jordan, you’re doing it all wrong.
If you’re looking for a fair comparison, look no farther than Barry Bonds.
Yes, that Barry Bonds.
The self-anointed King and the asterisk-ridden Home Run King have more in common than reaches the eye. (more…)
Of LeBron James, Juan Pierre & Hollow Numbers
LeBron James is proving that the most difficult people to please on this earth are sports fans.
In Game 5 of the 2011 NBA Finals, a game which James himself coined as the biggest game of his career, the Miami Heat star put all of his talents on display.
In the words of Ice Cube — you know, when he was a rapper and not a shell of his former self — last night LeBron messed around and got a triple double.
You want to think that 17 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists would be impressive in a way. Especially considering it came from a 6-foot-8-inch, 250-pound specimen of an athlete.
But really, it wasn’t. (more…)
Can We Cool It On The LeBron James-Michael Jordan Comparisons Now? Part II
The silly Michael Jordan-LeBron James comparisons were out in full force after the Miami Heat’s big Game 3 win in Dallas.
Last I checked, you have to win four games in the NBA Finals to go home with the Larry O’Brien trophy.
Furthermore, some of the game’s greatest analysts cautioned those who thought Kobe Bryant was Heir Jordan to Air Jordan that Jordan was a six-time NBA Champion and six-time NBA Finals MVP.
Apparently, those don’t apply to the game’s self-anointed Chosen One.
James scored eight points and had four turnovers as the Dallas Mavericks tied up the 2011 NBA Finals at two games apiece.
After the jump, a fun-fact about Jordan’s scoring numbers in NBA Finals games. (more…)
Absolutely, Positively Nothing Wrong With Carlos Zambrano’s Honest Assessment
Move over, Jay Cutler. Carlos Zambrano has re-taken his spot at the top of the list of most polarizing Chicago athletes.
The excitable and unpredictable Big Z did so Sunday with his post-game rant after the Cubs 3-2 extra-inning loss to the St. Louis Cardinals. The loss completed a sweep of the Northsiders at Busch Stadium and sent the team to its sixth straight defeat.
Via Cubs.com beat writer, Carrie Muskat:
“The problem wasn’t Pujols,” Zambrano said. ” The problem was the previous at-bat. We should know better than this. We played like a Triple-A team. This is embarrassing, embarrassing for the team, for the owners, for the fans. Embarrassing. That’s the word for this team. We should know better than this, we should know better than we did on the field. We should know that Ryan Theriot is not a good fastball hitter. We should know that as a team. We should play better here. We stink. That’s all I’ve got to say.”
Wait, so what was so bad about that? (more…)
Can We Cool It On The LeBron James-Michael Jordan Comparisons Now?
If you watched the last few minutes of the Dallas Mavericks victory against the Miami Heat in Game 2 of the NBA Finals, you witnessed history.
It’s not every day a 15-point lead gets blown in a Finals contest. In fact, it has been 19 years since such an event took place.
The sentiment of many, especially in and around Chicago, was that Michael Jordan would never allow that to happen to him or his championship Bulls.
Well, they have a valid point. (more…)
