Andy

Why's that?

I don't see how this is embarassing. USC isn't going to blow out everyone, but which national championship contender ever has? The Oregon game ended up being a blowout. To be quite frank, with this schedule, they should be blowing out the majority of their opponents. USC probably has better talent on their third team than half the teams in the top 25.

This is embarrassing. The last two games I could understand -- ASU and Oregon are solid teams. But Arizona??? USC might lose two of the ND-UCLA-Cal games at this rate.

Buffalo lost again today, so barring a complete embarrassment of a showing against W. Michigan my BSU Cardinals won't be last place on Sportsline next week! :) *sarcasm*

I joined from there too. If you like getting a non-Cub fan's perspective once in a while it's a great place to go.

Iowa State just lost to Baylor 23-13 at home. I'd say the Tigers have a good shot in that game.

I wholeheartedly agree with every word of this post, except for the Astros part only because I don't know any Astros fans myself.

Less than 3 mins left in the 1st half and it is 7-7 between Arizona and USC. I get more and more convinced each week that I will be attending a great win for ND over USC next week.

Texas wins 45-12. For the 2nd straight week Corso picks an upset and his chosen team gets destroyed. Last week he foolishly went against Charlie Weis and my Irish.

I think the Buckeyes will rout PSU. I hope I am wrong though because I can't stand Jim Tressel and that joke of a program.

Interception! Wildcats win!

I guess I'm the only Carolina Panthers fan on this board. I'd like to issue my sincerest annoyances that you Bears fans made all the Panthers-Bears tickets like 100 bucks on the Internet. Quite disappointing. :wink:

Darn. Leinart not playing means USC might only win by 50 rather than 70. Not a big deal. If he doesn't play it's just to rest him for ND. Go Irish! :)

This game has been wild as hell. I don't even care about the Big 10 (other than hating Michigan) but I'l be pumped if NW wins this game.

Red Sox are one of the most explosive offensive teams in the league. That was El Duque pitching from the core of his soul, make no mistake. That pitch to Damon was nothing short of brilliance. D has no idea where that ball was. He swung out of total confusion, and couldn't hold up. Cubs did have some luck in 2003. And I didn't notice anyone pointing it out at the time in Cubdom. So it's a bit disingenuous to claim we would be pointing out our own luck in the heat of a World Series run. Maybe afterwards, but not during. I don't buy that for a second. Well, just like White Sox fans now and most other sports fans on this planet, we have a hard time being logical while our favorite team is making a run. I don't think that makes us any lesser fans. I would be annoyed if a Cub fan played the luck card in the middle of a playoff run because I would want to concentrate on the run itself.

I would and I'll go further, I thought the Cubs in 2003 were pretty lucky. Not many teams would have gotten away with winning division titles with Alex Gonzalez, Mark Bellhorn, Eric Karros and Damian Miller starting for substantial portions of the season. Even fewer would have done it relying on a rotation of mostly young guys with no real veteran presence (other than maybe Estes) helping them out. Hendry made some great moves that year (Hundley for Grudz/Karros and Hill/Hernandez for Ramirez/Lofton/Simon) but the Cubs would have never gotten where they got without some luck. I just feel the ChiSox have had an inordinate amount of it this year. As for the El Duque comment: ANY team should be able to get one run out of bases loaded and nobody out and most should get two, especially the Boston F---ing Red Sox. I don't care how good the pitcher does you need to get it done and the Red Sox did not. Just because the Cubs constantly screw them up doesn't mean other teams do.

But that's my whole point. Podsednik had a .313 OBP last year, downright Macias-esque. The fact that Scotty improved by a fair amount this season was not entirely unexpected, but it was just as possible that he would not have gotten any better and that is where you throw your chips into the pot and hope for the best, so to speak.

I agree with you that mediocrity is unacceptable. This year was never going to be that successful, though. Even though I went with my heart and picked the Cubs to go to the NLCS this year, realistically the year after we traded a player like Sammy was always going to be a rebuilding year. I have a lot of faith that if Jim Hendry can make some good moves and if the injury bug can go bite some other team next year for a change, that the Cubs can compete for a title in 2006. I don't know what those right moves would be but hopefully Jim does.

That's not marvelous, that's mediocre. Walker > Iguchi, Barrett > Pierzynski, Burnitz > Podsednik. Uribe barely had a higher OBP than Neifi. It's no different than Hendry's moves, probably worse. I'll say it again, unreal pitching while they built that divisional lead is why the Sox are in the playoffs. Not because of Williams, Guillen, Podsednik, the way they play, or anything else. Take a look at Crede's numbers, remarkable how similar they are to Patterson's prior to this year, while Crede is two years older. Crede's embarrassing offensively for a 3B. The Sox were 24th in 3B OBP. Rowand is an average CF after a career year, while Murton(who's had more than a September callup of 160 PA's) will be an average LF when he comes down from his hot numbers of this season. Also, why should the failures of the organization pre-Hendry even matter when comparing the two as they currently are? Mediocre if you take the individual stats only. Magical if you put them in the context of that TEAM. I love how you and others try to throw out entire season's worth of stats, marking them as "career years" just to try and twist the stats to fit your argument. That's pretty funny. But it doesn't matter. 99 wins does. A sweep in the ALDS does. Individual stats along the way don't. OK, let's forget the lack of position talent coming from the Cubs in past 20 years. Let's focus on now. Who is there? Murton and Cedeno? Pie, if he ever plays? Not much to hang your hat on. I hope Murton turns out good, but who knows if his performance was just due to the league not knowing him or what? Cedeno----you won't even remember he ever existed in two years, mark that down. Pie---who knows? The cupboard is bare, as it always has been position-player wise. Other teams bring up position talent on a yearly basis. We can't develop one, ever. Doesn't that even bother you? I love how you are throwing out '99 wins' and 'ALDS sweep' as rationalization for calling Williams a great GM. Just because his mediocre and in some cases downright stupid (Lee for Podsednik) moves have miraculously panned out for him doesn't make him smart.

Why is he not great? Because he doesn't fit the mold of a great GM? Help me out here. 99 wins. World Series run. Swept the World Series champs. Tons of moves in the offseason that have panned out. How is he *NOT* great? The facts would seem to be against you.... What has he done that was so great? His team winning a bunch of games doesnt make him a great gm. Oh, he's only put together the best team in the American league. In my book, that counts for something. If winning a bunch of games doesn't make you a great GM, then what does? That's kind of the whole point. Kenny Williams didn't do anything. He put a team out there that was actually WORSE than last year's team and they flukily won with some help from about 15 players on the team having career years at once, throwing in some opponents choking numerous times (witness the last two BoSox games), and a dash of a former no-good drunk in Jenks suddenly becoming just as good a closer as Hermanson, who had a complete fluke season after years of mediocrity as a reliever.

Minor league system comment -- let's take a look at the important ChiSox this year: Rotation - El Duque - not homegrown Garland - not (entirely) homegrown Buehrle - homegrown Contreras - not homegrown Garcia - not homegrown Lineup: Podsednik - not homegrown Iguchi - not homegrown Dye - not homegrown Konerko - not homegrown Everett - not homegrown Rowand - homegrown Pierzynski - not homegrown Crede - homegrown Uribe - not homegrown No one in the bullpen except Jenks came from the minors. So in total you have Aaron Rowand, Joe Crede, Mark Buehrle, and if you want to give them the benefit of the doubt, Jon Garland. Four players does not constitute a great minor league system. The Cubs had more ROOKIES play regularly this season from their system than the White Sox have total homegrown talent on their whole playoff roster. As for the great GM comment: Podsednik, besides his 70 steals, had a very below-average year last year. His OBP was a very non-leadoff-hitter-like .313. In my opinion, the Lee-for-Podsednik deal should have hurt the Sox offense more than it did and that is luck. Dye had his best year in five years this season. Last year he was no better than Preston Wilson and now he hits 30 homers and drops his K's by 30. Also not a great move, but a move that panned out. Carl Everett didn't even have a good year. How the Cubs miss the playoffs with Ramirez/Burnitz in the five hole and the Sox make it with this scrub is beyond me. Pierzynski had his best year ever this season, and much better than with a better offense (SF) last year. How that panned out is beyond me. Juan Uribe was worth nothing before he came to the White Sox. Somehow he has hit 39 homers over the last two seasons after doing absolutely nothing with the Coors-habitated Rockies. Also dumb luck. Also you throw in Contreras and Freddy both having career years, and Garland inexplicably having one of the greatest first halves in the history of baseball, and Kenny Williams is being made to look a lot smarter than he really is with this team.

I wouldn't sleep with Angelina either. I don't need her walking around with tattoos of my name and vials of my blood. Plus she probably has 200 different forms of VD by now. Give me Jennifer Aniston any day of the week.

Agreed, although I have different reasons. I just don't want to see a team I loathe win it all, and Atlanta and you guys are the only hopes I have left to see that happen.

The first Chicago World Series celebration in nearly a century HAS to be a Cubs celebration. If it is a White Sox celebration then the real possibility exists that the city may not survive the night. We can't let these people gather together in large numbers, especially to celebrate something.

Guerrero's on again. Does this guy ever make an out???