thedaymen

Soon we'll find out that "Cesar Izturis" is Roman for "Neifi Perez."

I have to admint, I'm pretty pessimistic about this year...I just don't see this being a great team. Better than last year, but not a playoff contender unless the division is won by a .500 team again. I think Lee and Soriano are going to give the Cubs around 65-70 hr's, good numbers certainly. However, I think a lot of the fans here are expecting them to equal their career best numbers this season. Remember, Lee has only had one year where he was a superstar hitter, and Soriano has been known to be inconsistant. Will they be better than the production the Cubs got last year? Yes. A lot better? No. The Cubs still have a hole at the bottom of the lineup with Izturis and DeRosa both probably contributing sub-par years. Throw those two together with the pitcher's spot, and you're putting almost all of the run scoring stress on the first six spots. Then there's the rotation...Z, Lily, Marquis, Hill, ?. You got an ace who's been abused during his early years, a .500 pitcher, the Cardinals' 10th starter from last year, a second year guy who has a lot of expectations and an unknown. Its not a terrible thing to have a ? in the fifth spot, especially since it could be Prior and be a find or Miller and be average. The Cubs' have a decent rotation that could end up being terrible, if Z's mileage catches up with him and Hill regresses, or could be great...no problem with Z or Hill, Prior regains some of his old form. To look at this team and see a lot of power at the top of the lineup and a lot of concerns isn't unreasonable. I think they'll be better, but better isn't always good enough.

The thing I don't get is why the Cubs are absolutely certain they need to get Marquis into the rotation...don't they remember last year?

I totally agree with you. I'll spend the $180 on something else. Like tickets to some playoff NHL.

If MLB really doesn't want me to watch their product, who am I to argue with them?

Guess I'll book my plane tickets to Arlington now for the Cubs-Rangers WS.

I tried when I bought it to get one that was 5xl. The highest I could find was XXXL. It should be noted that I usually wear a regular XL and its those are loose on me.

I'm wearing my Perry jersey and when outside my Bears winter hat I had in high school. I'm getting some weird looks also, but you have to remember: a) I work in New York b) I work for an environmental group and only one other person in my office knows what a Chicago Bear is

I used to make that joke about every pass thrown by Cade McNown.

Special teams loomed huge yesterday, but it wasn't Hester and Bush that were the showstoppers, it was the difference in placekicking (automatic Gould vs. Rally-killer Cundiff and invisible Carney) and punting (gameball to Maynard, and not just for that one punt in the third). I got a top secret memo from ESPN on how they're going to tell stories before the Super Bowl 1) Tale of two qb's: Legenday Payton Manning vs. Drunk and perhaps legally-blind Rex Grossman 2) How the NFL and Lovie Smith conspired to keep Tony Dungey from becoming the first black head coach to win a Conference Championship 3) Why the NFL should allow the Chargers to take the Bears' spot in the Super Bowl 4) ESPN doesn't support gambling, but lay the points. What are you, stupid? Its free money! 5) Can Tank Harris, Brian Uhrlacher, and Lance Briggs prove they didn't personally use Katrina as cover to vandalize Archie Manning's house? 6) Mike Brown...actually hurt, or insurance scam?

If the announcement is that they to, are ready for some football, I'll be dissapointed.

I was going through my closet this weekend, cleaning out old baseball stuff. As I was going through some old VINE LINES, I noticed that CM was one of their freelancers in the late 1990's. Given that she's used to writing positive pieces on the Cubs, I no longer question why she was hired for the website.

There is nothing like the atmosphere in a good football stadium in professional sports. Living in NJ, I sorely miss Baltimore's stadium because the place was electric. Dangerous. But electric as well. Going to Giants Stadium to see either the Giants or the JETS is like going to a masoleum. This year for the Bear's back to back games in the Meadowlands the atmosphere was great, but it was because of the Bears' fans that flocked to the place. The Nets are dead. The Knicks are dead. The Devils' fans show life, but there's only like 10 of them at any given game. I went to one Blackhawks playoff game in the 1980's when I was randomly in town (they were playing Edmonton). If a Bears playoff game is like that with more people, then go...go...go...

I dunno what you guys are talking about. Last year was the first year in about half a decade I didn't have MLB extra innings. Saved $160 and didn't feel obligated to watch the Cubs more then the once or twice a week they were on WGN. If DirecTV is making that decision easier, you should be thanking them.

But they don't have any offensively worthless players who play with more grit, scrap, and heart than everyone in league history combined, so they'll be done at latest in the second round. I guess Deion Branch is sort of the opposite of David Eckstein...

Everytime I go to a game and Joe West is umpiring I bet with a fan around me that he makes a bad call that decides the game OR throws a player out after antagonizing him. In 1988 Dawson is called out on strikes. The pitch was about a foot outside. He yells at "Country" Joe West who gives him the quick hook. Dawson then explodes and is restrained while West smirks and shouts back at him. As Dawson is walking away, West shouts something else at him and Dawson empties the back rat. West takes out his pad and starts writing and says he's counting each of the bats. Dawson throws even more bats on the field (later, on an ESPN interview Dawson says West was shouting at him that he was counting each of the bats for a fine and Dawson said, "lets see if you can count bats as well as you see balls and strikes" before hurling the second round of the bats on the field). The fans start throwing stuff on the field and Dawson got an extra fine for inciting a riot. Here's the thing, while Dawson is hardly a saint in this instance, WEST IS CLEARLY ANTAGONIZING THE SITUATION AND MAKING IT WORSE AT EVERY MOMENT. That he umpired the rest of the season is amazing, that he continues to mangle the rule book, bait players, and even call playoff and WS games defies imagination.

AFC: Colts over Chiefs - As a Penn State guy it pains me to watch LJ get abused like he has this season. What's he carried the ball, 425 times? Thats too many, even if he has carried this team into the playoffs. He'll have a big day against the Colts, but I can't imagine Payton going out at home. I have a hard time rooting against Payton because of what he's meant to my fantasy teams these last two years. Pats over JETS - I hate the PATS. It seems like the sports media wants to talk about what classy guys they are and how they're such good people when they run up the score and get just about EVERY break imagineable during a game. Its like Belicheck has Dick Bavetta on speed dial. Add to that what an arrogant jerk Belicheck has been to Mangini and I'd really love to see the J-E-T-S take it to NE. But I can't imagine they're ready to do that. NFC: Seahawks over Cowboys: Ladies and gentlemen, meet the NFL's St. Louis Cardinals. Named after a bird? Check. Lost big players to FA in the offseason? Check. Recently dissapointed in the title round? Check. Bad season in large part do to injuries but made the playoffs because you're in a division with the Rams (Reds), Cardinals (Cubs) and 49ers (Astros)? Check. Aren't they supposedly invincible at home? Add to that, I can't tell Romo from Bledsoe anymore. I go with the Hawks. Giants over Eagles: When I first moved to NY, I commented to my fiance that I wondered what Kerry Collins' qb rating would be if Ike Hilliard ran his damm routes and didn't give up on plays. It seemed like somewhere betweeh 1/3 and 1/2 of KC's int's had to do with his recievers dogging it. Fast forward to today. I wonder what Eli's completion rating would be without Jeremy Shockey, a man with an amazing ability to get open and drop the ball. A man who doesn't block and runs his mouth constantly. How he got a pro-bowl nod is beyond me and every Giants' fan I know. Anyway, the key to this game is going to be what team sticks to the run. The one that does probably wins. I trust the Giants more then the Eagles to stick to that.

Coughlin might...anything to avoid responsibility for the horrible job he's done the last two years. He's positively Dustyesque in every sense of the word. (Except he never batted behind Hank Aaron...and his bad player that gets to play for no apparent reason really is his son-in-law)

I expect the Cubs to contend within their division.

Probably even as a result of. EDIT - Or, better stated, the new signings continue to illustrate just how terrible he is. Well, yeah...I'm not a fan of this offseason. To think that for Lily and Marquis we could have afforded Matsuzaka.

I have to be honest here, if I was a Lions fan I would be fuming right now. Why does Millen still have a job? Has anybody had worse drafts than this guy? He is just plain terrible. I've always wondered why you don't have Millen in your sig. file. He's worse then both Hendry and Thomas. McHale (T-pups) as well.

The best way to watch a game on the NFL Network is to pretend that Collinsworth is broadcasting the game with Sesame Street's Ernie.

Wow, a couple of months ago you would put your hand over your eyes and ignore my sarcastic posts about how the Cubs were going to go after Floyd and Trachsel, not it seems like you've talked yourself in to Floyd and Marquis. I guess compared to the other signings this winter, they don't seem so bad?

I don't know why everyone is talking up Dallas. They lose this week and they're back in second place. The Giants are getting Short and Umenyoria back this week with Strahan waiting in the wings. They're ready to go on a run, and Romo is about ready to flame out.

I don't feel that either belong in the HOF, but I'm curious as to how you can vote for Jack Morris while not voting for Tommy John. While Dawson and Murphy were very good players, I think they both fall a little short of being considered HOF-worthy. Morris over Tommy John was an editing error. I think I can only vote for 10 people, correct? I notice that almost none of the great power hitters of the 1980's will make the Hall...Mike Scmidt...thats pretty much it. I think Rice, Andre, and Murph belong as well.