Soul

i wish i could gamble on things like this, but id be willing to wager that a team that does not currently exist will win the world series before the cubs do. OUCH. I agree. This is the worst time ever to be a Cub fan. All curses are gone except ours, now the Cards are going to win it----and with the worst team they've had in years, no less----and there really is precious little light at the end of the tunnel with our club. Go Bears. And Bulls.

Maybe a little talk with Billy Beane. I like what Lou says about woirking the count. Don't just take pitches without a plan, have a plan and work it the way a hitter should by making a pitcher pitch and hit your pitches and not his. Perhaps Dusty himself really doesn't believe in taking no walks and swinging at everything. Maybe that's really Hendry, and Dusty was just trying to carry out his plan. Which of course failed miserably.

This makes sense. Joe is very young, and let's face it that Nationals gig isn't all that attractive. I agree, once the Cub job was gone it was probably a foregone conclusion that Girardi would sit out this year.

Agreed. After what I've seen so far tonight, my level of concern just jumped 2 or 3 notches. This is bad news.

My best advice is for everyone to stop stealing copyrighted material and pay for the product. Seriously.

I don't think anyone should underestimate the 9ers. Not after that Cards game, and not after the sudden injury bug we seem to have acquired. I won't be thinking the Bears will blow out anyone. 9ers are better than the Cards, IMO. In fact, an argument can be made they were the weakest team on our schedule, especially after the egg they just laid in Oakland.

I'd imagine Muhammad will be fine, but Manning Jr. and Harris would be big losses. Probably more so Manning Jr. I heard Muhammed will definitely play, and Harris definitely won't. Manning says he will play, but the trainers aren't so sure.

I'll probably be flipping back and forth on this one. Sorry baseball, but the Bulls are on Comcast and this is my first chance to check out the rookie sensation, Tyrus Thomas 8)

Who's demonizing Rogers? He beat the Cards w/o that crap on his hand. The only people whining about that are sore losers. Pine tar on bats is necessary to control the bat, if for nothing else than safety reasons. A foreign substance on a ball has no other purpose than to improve someone's stuff. There is no safety factor there. None. There is no double standard. I'm sure if pitchers wanted to wear body armor on the mound they could. Too bad it restricts the pitching motion so much it won't happen. That's the physical realities of the world we live in my friend. Careers are ended by fastballs to the elbow. There are rules to prevent players from just sticking there armor out there or not even attempting to move out of the way of a pitch. You can't make that safety argument. Well, I mean you *can*, but it doesn't really fly. Pine tar is optional equipment. Not required. "Oh, I'm sorry you got your head bashed in and wound up a quadrapalegic, but Mr. Edmonds doesn't like to use pine tar." If it was for safety reasons, it would be required. As for pitching equipment, last time I checked screens don't restrict the pitcher's movement. So let's have pitchers use screens so their freaking FACES don't get bashed in, because after all a hitter's elbow must be protected at all time. That's just silly all the way around. Here's a better idea: no foreign substances at all, or else everyone should quit turning Rogers into a "cheater" for having a little pine tar on his hand in 38-degree weather. I'm good with either one, but I'm not good with the hypocrisy and witch hunts.

He just went to blowing in his hand, and that provided the grip he needed, which he then proceeded to use to completely punk the Cards for another what? 5 innings? I'll bet he didn't think anything of it. Pine tar is used, probably by every pitcher in the league when it gets cold. This whole thing is becoming ridiculous. Hitters coming up, slathering up their bats with stickum, wearing better armor than our soliders in Iraq, roiding up like mad until they look like they're going to pop. Then Rogers uses a little dab of pine tar so the ball doesn't fly out of his hand in the cold and suddenly he's a demon. Wow. Am I seriously the only one who can see the double (triple? quadruple?) standard here?

You don't see the difference between pine tar for a grip on a bat, and banning a pitcher from using foreign substances? If he's using the pine tar to alter the motion of the ball, then yes, that's a problem. But if he's using it to get a better grip on the ball, then he's doing nothing different than the batter is doing. Yeah, let's not let hitters use pine tar ever again. That way some unsuspecting fan or athlete can take a bat to the head. It's a safety rule as much as it helps the hitters control the bat. Pine tar on bats doesn't change your ability to hit, only to hold onto the freaking object. Pine tar (plus other stuff) on a ball changes a pitchers stuff. It's pretty noticeable. You don't think having a better grip on the bat helps you hit? Sorry, but I don't see equity when one player can use foreign substances on their equipment and all kinds of body armor and yet another can't. And I never will, because it just isn't equitable.

I get it. Hendry is the aintchrist! :wall: If he was the antichrist we would probably have 10 WS championships by now. I get it: you don't think Hendry is all that bad. That's cool. I disagree.

There's a double standard, but it's in favor of the hitters, not the pitchers. Think about it. Why should hitters be able to use pine tar then? How about body armor? Hitters use it for the same reason----to get a better grip. Yet if a pitcher tries to, then he's demonized and called a cheater. Double-standard. If hitters can use it to grip their bats better, then pitchers should be able to use it for the same reason. But the double-standard lives because TV ratings go down when it's the 8th inning and only a couple runs have been scored. Silly.

LaRussa: routinely in the playoffs & World Series, believes in pushing the limits of the rules. Cubs: nearly always a junk team, believe in good-natured beer-drinking fun and being nice guys. Hmmmmmmmmm. I think I prefer the former.

With the 3 INTs Romo threw in basically 2 quarters of play, one would have to wonder what that purpose might be. I think the Boys are just overrated. They clearly can't stop a good running game on D, and their O Line is quite possibly the worst in the league. Very few teams indeed can be considered good football teams with a poor OLine and an inability to stop the run. Much as the national media doesn't want to have to admit it, the fact is the Cowboys are one of the weaker teams in the NFC East and have little chance at the playoffs.

that's a lot of points for looking pretty bad on Monday night. Classic bounce back game expectations. I'd like to think the bye week will help the Bears but they are 0-2 in Smith's career after a bye, including an embarassing loss at Cleveland last year. Not the biggest sample size ever. I think it'll be more the bounce back game than that the game is after a bye. Yeah, the first year the team was terrible, so a loss after the bye didn't really mean much. And last year's team was quite shaky, and 1-2 going into the bye, so I'm not sure the bye was going to help anything. I'd take the 49ers and 16 points, thank you very much. I don't believe in spreads > 14 points. When you look at the history, the dogs usually take those. I think we would all do well to forget about margins of victory, and just celebrate wins however they come. This isn't college football. Any win in the pros is a good win, period.

I'll be in Vegas... Hopefully, I can find a good sportsbook to go watch it at. LOL. I don't think you'll have too much trouble. Have fun :)

He probably would have if the Lee deal hadn't materialized. I will say at least Hendry was good enough to pull that deal off. But back then, he was dealing from a position of strength. Now he's not, and I don't see how he rebuilds this ballclub in its current state, with precious few chips to deal with, and real limits on the amount of money he can spend.

I think you're reading a bit too much into it. Did you read the last Tribune article? He didn't want to leave Seattle with Pieniella, but felt he had no choice. Him and his wife prefer Seattle. He wants to manage and wants to get from under Pieniella's shadow and Hargrove is likely out the door after another poor season. Nothing to do with Hendry, just a better opportunity. That's probably a pretty accurate assumption. He loves working with Piniella, but his family really enjoyed Seattle. He's also closer to a managerial position in Seattle. I'd hoped McLaren would have come here, but I don't think it had anything to do with how McLaren sees the Cubs' future. It's not as if the Mariners have a bright future either. I doubt coming to Chicago would preclude him from returning to Seattle if a managerial position opened up. Think of it this way: if it was the Yankees, McLaren is so in NY it isn't even funny. OK. You want to be a manager. You get a call from the GM of a team that you know the manager is on the way out. You love the city. You realize that you have been labeled as part of Pieniella’s posse and know it would be a good career move to make. You are pretty much guaranteed to be a manager within 12 months. Why would you accept the same job without any possibility of managing somewhere else? Why would you take the chance of potentially burning a bridge? Pieniella, Girardi, Sandberg, Brenly and more wanted the manager job, but this guy is turning down a coaching job because of the orginization. I don't think so. But of course it’s Hendry’s fault; as are the Iraq war and global warming. :D He would still be a manager in 12 months regardless of whether he left Seattle to bench coach Piniella or not. It's silly to think he has to hang around the Mariners to get that job when Hargrove is fired. And yes, a large part of our current woes are due to front-office incompetence. That's a man named, oh wait did I forget his name-----nope, try as I might I can't------HENDRY. Like I said, if this is the Yankees? McLaren packed his bags and is in NY the day after Piniella signs. And I dare say you know it, sir.

Wow, a veritable cornucopia of negative vibes!! I suppose the Hawks have earned that much over the years. I'd still like to see what happens (if anything) when Havlat & Ruutu both come back, which should be at about the same time in early November.

Beagles = Eagles.

I think you're reading a bit too much into it. Did you read the last Tribune article? He didn't want to leave Seattle with Pieniella, but felt he had no choice. Him and his wife prefer Seattle. He wants to manage and wants to get from under Pieniella's shadow and Hargrove is likely out the door after another poor season. Nothing to do with Hendry, just a better opportunity. That's probably a pretty accurate assumption. He loves working with Piniella, but his family really enjoyed Seattle. He's also closer to a managerial position in Seattle. I'd hoped McLaren would have come here, but I don't think it had anything to do with how McLaren sees the Cubs' future. It's not as if the Mariners have a bright future either. I doubt coming to Chicago would preclude him from returning to Seattle if a managerial position opened up. Think of it this way: if it was the Yankees, McLaren is so in NY it isn't even funny.

....only if Wale can play and somebody steps up to take Mike Brown's place. Otherwise, we will be giving up more points in future games if we must play minus 2 pro bowlers every week.

Anyone worried about the division? If they can beat NE next week in the dome, they can breeze to a 13-3 or 12-4 record As the resident Vikings fan on this board (are there any others?) don't be worried about the division. We're looking good and our schedule looks nice after next week, but we have a 2 game hole and that Bears schedule is just too nice. Like someone else said we're between a 9-11 win team and the Bears won't fall back to that. Now had we simply not fumbled a handoff in the last minutes of the Bears game and if the Cardinals don't completely melt down Monday night, you would have reason for worry. I think there's a few other Viking fans lurking on this board somewhere... Anyway, I'm of the opinion the Vikes lose today if they don't get lucky and Hasselbeck goes down. I'm also of the opinion that the Bears have a 3 game lead on the Vikes, because they've shown the only thing they can do in Soldier Field is get their collective butts handed to them on a platter, served up medium-rare. The net result is positive for the Bears, provided we take care of our business. With Hasselbeck out, and the Beagles looking weaker each game, there's fewer power-contenders in the NFC than ever before to stop the Bears. If we take care of our business, everything goes through Soldier Field, were it looks like only Steve Smith has the magic key.

Don't you love how every team ESPN tries to crown as the "best in football" suddenly looks bad? I think 2 things: 1) Lovie should ban ESPN watching. It's bad for your career, just from the flood of hyperbole and illogic alone. 2) I'm damn glad we escaped our "crowning" with a win @ Arizona. This week, the Chargers weren't so lucky. And before that, the Bengals went on a losing tear following their coronation that they still haven't really recovered from.