Jon

I'm a bit skeptical about Pie being able to reach his ceiling, but the real negative for me is my lack of faith regarding the Cubs' ability to develop him at the big league level. He's not untouchable for that reason alone.

It was Cubs.com for my first year of college. Students these days have it lucky.

Roberts may very well have been a regular user, but you can't just assume that based on an admission of guilt for taking steroids once. I'd have to believe that most players who have taken steroids or HGH do not do so regularly, but have only taken them to help their body recover from lingering injuries. It's not like most have been injecting on a schedule over the course of several years. If we just believe that anyone who has taken a performance enhancing drug has done so just to build strength, we're really missing the big picture. It seems to me that most are too quick to dismiss the role that these drugs have in helping the body recover. And logically, doesn't it seem more likely that usage would be higher among older and/or injured players trying to extend their careers as their bodies can't do what they once did than players at their physical prime using just to try to gain an advantage? The latter group would be risking far more. That's not to say there aren't many younger players who have used, but again, it's not just taking steroids and hitting homeruns. As far as Roberts is concerned, we simply don't know the entire truth and probably never will. The same goes to most users.

The Popeye analogy is an interesting one...I probably wouldn't want the media to focus on the Mitchell Report for long either if I had a desire to purchase a major league baseball team.. He's right. Most media sources will just continue to talk about individuals isolated from baseball. It's all about the personalities and that's how they're driven. Just look at the WNBC list misfire. Heck, even the word "steroids" has so much behind it now that people continue to ignore amphetamines. Others will talk about steroids and how it effects high school players. That's important, but it should never enter the conversation of how MLB deals with steroid use. The main voice in the media that focuses on MLB as a whole foolishly believes that the Mitchell Report delivered some huge blow that will take years to recover from. That's just utter nonsense. How about they talk about the actual role of steroids in baseball, what they do, what kinds of players they're primarily used by, etc. As I've said before, there's absolutely no context in this discussion. Explore the issue instead of becoming scandal pages for guys who aren't even serious factors in the game anymore.

Maybe I was in the process of moving or something at the time, but I don't remember that at all. Clearly it's a home run, but what's so special about it? The parrot. Still makes me laugh...

I'm glad I remembered to record the FIFA Club World Cup final. It was certainly entertaining despite not being too close the final 30 minutes or so. Now it's time to start the Aresenal/Chelsea match.

The TV coverage already bores me, as I'm sure the report will once it's released. I'll go out on a limb and say even ESPN won't even be talking about it that much in a few days.

Prior wasn't in Chicago nearly as long as Wood was. He was also abused by the coaching staff and treated terribly by the fans and media. But since it's a business, that's how the decision should be made. It would have been in the best interest of the Cubs to tender him a deal.

I'm unhappy.

who? seriously, is he on the coaching staff? i only know of Hall, Johnson, McQueary and Bradley EDIT: ah, assistant coach/linebackers. huh, you never hear his name around here I hear about him some. He's highly thought-of as a recruiter and a defensive coach. Would Vanderlinden leave PSU to go back to a job he had 10-15 years ago? Not sure. Tom Bradley is HC material, and Larry Johnson and Ron Vanderlinden are both DC material at least. They've shown a lot of loyalty to the program, and one rumor I've heard is that there is some sort of succession idea in mind, where Bradley becomes HC and either Johnson or Vanderlinden move up to DC. That leaves one of them without a promotion, though. Bradley has been here since he played for PSU in the last '70s; I can't see him going anywhere at this point. Larry Johnson has been here 12 years, and seems to comfortable in the area. If any of the three of them is going to leave, I suspect it would be Vanderlinden. LBers coach and assistant head coach certainly isn't insignificant with a program like Penn State, but he'd be a DC and assistant head coach over here (once he cleans house with the defensive staff). It's pretty hard to read him since he's never in the public eye. Of course, with our new AD search likely to take at least another couple of months, I'm not sure how much money we can spend on a new DC. Plus, he'd be going from State College to the 8th most expensive cost of living area in Division I sports. I sure wish we had a billionaire booster to provide coaches with free housing like Stanford...

If it only turned him away from the Soriano contract... Nice article.

who? seriously, is he on the coaching staff? i only know of Hall, Johnson, McQueary and Bradley EDIT: ah, assistant coach/linebackers. huh, you never hear his name around here According to Rivals, he recruited 3 of Penn State's 12 commits for the '08 class and co-recruited 2 others. He's a strong recruiter and was known for his attacking defensive style. He was assistant head coach and DC at Northwestern when Fitzgerald was playing and was the head coach at Maryland, where he gave Fitzgerald his first coaching job in the late '90s. They're pretty close, but the biggest issues would be whether or not he'd feel comfortable coaching under Fitz and when he wants to try for a head coaching position again. There was talk a couple of years back about him possibly replacing Paterno when he retired, but I'm guessing nobody is really throwing his name out there anymore.

Any Penn State fans have a sense at how committed Vanderlinden is to the program and what his chances of taking over for Paterno are? Just about every NU fan has his return to Northwestern at the top of their DC wish list.

You're right, maybe I should write a Wikipedia article on it in order to save it so everyone will know. Mwahaha. * Also write down a note not to make a title like that again.

I'm not sure the last time I was more optimistic about a FA signing.

Hopefully sometime between the "Yankees suck!" chant and the Super Bowl.

That could be a disaster. Another one, that is.

UGH

Is this between Yankees fans and Red Sox fans or Yankees fans and Boston fans? There might not be a huge difference, but there are plenty of bandwagon Red Sox fans who don't care a lick about the Patriots or Celtics. Either way, Boston fans.

Apparently it takes more attempts for the Lions to blow this game against the Cowboys than it does to get to the center of a tootsie pop, but now we know exactly how many. That was ugly.

Lions can't even cover up an easy fumble recovery to seal the game.

The Cowboys aren't letting the Lions try to lose.

And a nice 2-0 win.

Sweet. Northwestern just beat (upset?) Western Michigan at Kalamazoo 65-63.

Wow. 3-1 Reading.