UMFan83

I think that's exactly it. What is he going to do, threaten to move the team? Close down the Cubs? Are people going to stop visiting the "3rd biggest tourist attraction" if the state doesn't give them money? What are the #1 and #2 tourist attractions? Are they raking in as much profit as the Cubs? I think Ricketts has no leverage and also these people are feeling Ricketts out. They aren't going to just hand out money to some guy who just spent close to a billion dollars on the team because he asks nicely. He needs to play hardball with them, but how?

I think they can be. They haven't acted like it so far this year.

I worry about the Marshall thing too. Especially because Jennings seems to be the guy they are putting on the #1 WRs these days. Jennings is 5'8'' and Marshall I believe is 6'4''. That's 8 inches he has on Jennings. Any jump ball to Marshall is going to embarass us.

That's the last thing I need is to add another guy I've hated for years to our team and have to cheer for him. All bias aside, still no. I'd be very wary of hitters in their mid-30's that have one of their top 2-3 seasons at that age. You'd be overpaying (because of his season) for a player that all statistical research suggests is due to decline significantly. It's just a very big risk. I have no idea why Konerko had the year he did last year, much like Lee the year before, but I know enough to think its a huge gamble to expect him to put up even remotely similar numbers this year.

They brought in Donovan McNabb's agent to negotiate the deal.

Probably more rewarding to go to Chicago during the holidays than Boise or some other locations. Valid point. However, Chicago in the dead of winter is just brutal. The players would probably just stay in their hotels the entire time. Luckily December is typically not nearly as bad as far as dangerously low temps go than January and February.

Jacque Jones turns into Dan Uggla. How swell.

LOL I can see Ohio State ruining their National Title hopes due to losing the Big Ten title game because their receiver ran into the RF wall trying to grab the game winning TD. I like the idea of a bowl. Wouldn't be the first bowl game played at a baseball-only park (SBC park and BOB come to mind). But how many bowls are played outdoors in northern cities? How rewarding would it be for a bowl team to have to play their extra game in 8 degree temps?

I'm setting the o/u on Bears players leaving the game on Thursday due to injuries at 4.5.

The sad thing is, I wouldnt hate that. I'm gonna assume if they signed Westbrook they wouldnt trade fukudome for Dice-K kicking Wells or Gorzelanny to the pen along with Silva. So lets say they trade him for a bat to come off the bench or platoon with another starter. Lineup: 1. Byrd, CF 2. Castro, SS 3. Ramirez, 3B 4. Dunn, 1B 5. Soto, C 6. Soriano, LF 7. Colvin, RF 8. DeWitt, 2B Rotation: Zambrano Dempster Westbrook Gorzelanny Wells Pen: CL - Marmol 8th - Wood 7th - Marshall MR - Cashner MR - one of the other guys that was decent last year LR - Silva Bench: Castillo - C (jettison Hill) Baker - MI Hall - CI/OF Fuld - OF Piece from Fukudome deal - OF/IF 2nd or 3rd place here we come!

That's fine, we play who is on the schedule. And we've won 6 of the 9 games. We haven't destroyed anyone besides Carolina and sort of Minnesota, but we also haven't been blown out either. We lost to the Giants by 11 when we lost our starting QB for half the game, and we had a couple of bad losses to the Seahawks and Redskins, both by 3 points. We also have the 2nd best scoring defense in the league so far this year. Look at these 2 resumes Team 1 Record: 6-3 Record +500 teams: 1-1 Losses by 12+ points: 0 (yeah statistical bias, I don't care) Wins by 12+ points: 2 Point differential: +29 Team 2 Record: 6-3 Record +500 teams: 0-3 Losses by 12+ points: 2 Wins by 12+ points: 1 Point differential: -18 Which team would you vote 11th and wh ich team would you vote 21st like Sando did? that's the worst thing, he purposely justifies his Bears at 21st pick by saying 5 of our 6 wins were against under .500 teams when the Bucs haven't beaten ANYONE with an over .500 record. The ONLY thing the Bucs have on us is that all of their losses have come to contenders, while we have 2 bad losses. But we also have a 1-1 record against contenders. Everyone has bad losses every season.

Mike Sando is the one that skewed these results, voting the Bears 21st. The other 3 voted them 12th, 13th, and 17th. He has the Bears below Jacksonville, Houston, Seattle and St. Louis in his rankings. So he has the Bears below every 5-4 team, and every 4-5 team except Washington, who beat the Bears 3 weeks ago. So he thinks the Bears are comperable with 6 different teams with negative point differentials. No surprise, Sando is the NFC West blogger, and sneaks 2 of his crappy NFC West teams above the Bears in his rankings. I'm surprised he didn't find a way to sneak SF and Arizona ahead of the Bears too.

Sweet, the Bears moved from 19 all the way up to 17 in ESPN's latest power rankings. Wait what? Are you kidding me? So let me get this straight... The Bears lose to the Redskins and drop from 12 to 15. OK that sounds right. The next week they have a bye and drop from 15 to 17. Hmmm... The very next week they beat the Bills and drop from 17 to 19. Then last week they beat up on the Vikings and rise from 19 to 17. So in the past 3 weeks the Bears have played 2 games and won both of them and dropped 2 spots in the rankings. Here are some of the teams ahead of the Bears in the rankings. Buccaneers (6-3, 11th) - AKA the only 6-3 team with a negative point differential and less impressive victories than the Bears Raiders (5-4, 12th) - Rising team for sure but...I mean they don't exactly play in the strongest division Titans (5-4, 13th) - I've liked the Titans all year, but its still hard to put a team with a worse record and nothing to justify the worse record ahead. Dolphins (5-4, 14th) - They are on their 3rd string QB. Come on guys! Nice win over Tennessee though. Chiefs (5-4, 15th) - This team is in a free fall right now. But not a far enough fall to be worse than the Bears Chargers (4-5, 16th) - Look I know the Chargers are better than the Bears most likely. They have great numbers everywhere but their standings. But when they adjust according like with wins, feel free to boost them right up to the top. It's an insult to see a 4-5 team ranked higher than a 6-3 team. Thank God we are at least higher than the Texans and Jags who are immediately behind the Bears.

They were close in that Halladay finished 1st and Wainwright finished 2nd :)

Yeah the challengers for the 2 wild card spots are 1) Loser of east race (NYG/PHI), 2) the 2 losers in the south race (ATL/NO/TB), and 3) the loser of the north race (CHI/GB). At this point I don't think anyone else can really contend unless they get really hot, as all the teams mentioned above are 6-3 or better, and there are no 5-4 teams in the NFC besides Seattle (who is 1st in West). So it will be 4 teams fighting for 2 spots. I gotta think Philly and NO are looking the best right now (without viewing everyone's schedules). But if one falters the Packers/Bears loser is looking better. 2 keys for the Bears in this race are: 1) They've already lost the tie-breaker to the NYG, and have a chance to win or lose the tie-breaker with Philly next week. 2) They currently have the worst conference record of all of the WC contenders at 5-3 (or NFC contenders in general). They have also played the most conference games of all of them, so there are chances for the other teams to lose conference games, especially in the South as I'm assuming they all have to play each other again. So that tiebreaker is far from decided, but right now the Bears are trailing.

The likliest scenario for a 10 win season would be @ Miami - W v. Philly - L @ Detroit - W vs. Patriots - L @ Vikings - W vs. Jets - W @ Packers - L But I find it hard to believe we are going to win in the dome. We never ever do. The only time we've done it since I think 2001 was in 2006, our 13-3 year. And in that game we probably should have lost if it weren't for Tommie Harris making a game saving strip of the ball. At that point in the game, there was 3 minutes left in the game and the ball was near midfield. Even then they still needed Grossman to get them a TD on that drive, which he did. Anyways, if we can find a way to go 2-1 at home and 2-2 on the road (where our 3 easiest remaining opponents are), we'll get our 10 wins and likely a playoff spot.

A couple of points 1) Unless the Vikings completely give up the next few weeks, I'd have to think the Vikings will still be favored in the dome against us. Especially if we go 0-4 or 1-3 in the games leading up to that game to have a 7-6 or 6-7 record. 2) We won't go 0-7. Even if the team just collapses, its hard to lose all 7 of those games. People have to understand that while supremely flawed, the Bears collectively are a talented enough team to be where they are. 3) While these 7 games are tough, I think I heard that we've played the easiest schedule in the NFL so far this season in terms of opponent record. The teams we've played are 2-7, 2-7, 6-3, 6-3, 1-8, 5-4, 4-5, 1-8, 3-6. Only 3 winning records, and we've played 4 of the 5 NFL teams that have 2 or less wins this year (Cincinnati is the only one we haven't played). What this hypothetically is, is an evening of the schedule. But even still it's not horrific. 5-4, 6-3, 2-7, 7-2, 3-6, 7-2, 6-3. It's hard but not impossible. We'll be playing 4 of the top 10 teams in the

Since we're bringing up everyone, I'd also attribute some to Pisa T. being on the field this year. He's been quiet in terms of big plays and mentions on broadcasts, but I always see him being a factor in almost every play on his side of the field.

You can almost say they "Ryan Field'd" Wrigley. Northwestern will feel right at home. (No offense to Northwestern fans proud of their home field)

There's an article on ESPN.com suggesting that Henne might actually start for the Dolphins on Thursday. Thigpen is still the most likely starter. But Henne's injury isn't as bad as first thought. They also said Pennington's injury is "career threatening". Isn't this like the 5th career threatening injury he's had in his career? http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5809215 Long and Wake's status for the game is still unknown.

Ugh maybe. I just don't see the Pirates turning that team around. Maybe he does. I know they have prospects and all that, but I mean I'd just get depressed out of my mind playing with a rag tag group of no names in from of 10,000 fans en route to 90+ losses annually. Just doesn't seem like a very enticing job. Agreed that if has success there he'll be rewarded hansomely, but I personally don't see it happening. To each his own though.

Was it really ideal to take the "bird in hand" if that bird is the Pirates job? I mean the Pirates job is going to be 4 years of horrible losing in a small market town and then you get fired and getting another job is probably 10 times harder. I know there's only 30 manager jobs, but there are really good ones, good ones, ok ones, bad ones, and then there's the Pirates managerial position. It's a death sentence. I would have held out for the Mets job and if I didn't get it, join another team as a bench coach and wait for your turn.

I almost feel that works in the Bears favor, because under normal circumstances I hate their chances in Miami. I hate travelling on a short week. I hate primetime games. I hate going to Miami. Everything about this game begs for disappointment. But if they can win, that would be a huge shift in the potential final record, as much like the Dallas game, I've been penciling this in as a loss all along. Agreed on both. Last year, was the San Francisco trip on a short week. I chalked that up as a loss to start the season, but the Bears had every chance to win that game and would have if you take away any of the 5 Cutler INTs. UGH! That was the worst game ever to watch. We also had a Thursday night game against the Redskins, during the fallout of the Sean Taylor tragedy. In that game, none other than Todd Collins destroyed us (15-20, 224 yards, 2 TD, 0 INT, 144.6 QB rating in about 3 quarters of play). If it wasn't for our Thursday night win over the Saints in 2008, I'd assume we were just cursed on Thursdays.

When I was looking at the upcoming schedule, I actually was wondering if that game was gonna get picked up for Sunday Night football, or the 3:15PM FOX game. That's annoying, I hate 3:15 home games late in the year, it might as well be a night game.

Traditionally the Thursday night games are fairly sloppy for the first quarter, sometimes the entire first half until teams start to get into a rhythm. That's the scary thing about the game because anything can happen.