Soul

Why do something today that you can put off until tomorrow.

No team has more discussion of piss than the Cubs. Why is that?

No, but Hendry typically talks himself into a corner by enraging the meatheads to the point that no solution is acceptable other than the banishment of said player. GMs will lowball him because they know he HAS to make a move. Had all parties just shut up and kept the clubhouse business in the clubhouse, no one would be wise to any of this today. If the player has value to multiple teams, the fact that we have to move him becomes somewhat irrelevant. But when you paint the guy as a disruptive force, you're diminishing his value. Obviously Hendry finds merit in that sort of thing, so it would be naive to assume other GMs don't. You can't pretend essentially saying "this guy is a problem we need to rid ourselves of" isn't going to have bearing on how much perceived net value he has and how much others will give up for him. You basically put youself in a position where the player is persona non grata on your team, and other teams have all the leverage. Come on. That's not happening because of Hendry. Everyone in baseball knows what Zambrano is at this point. Everyone saw what was happening last night. Everyone saw the deliberate throwing at players to get tossed. That all happened before Zambrano's clubhouse antics came to light. Hendry's not going to be able to cover for that. Quit painting this as Hendry's fault. Look, I don't like Jimbo either. But Zambrano's simply a lunatic. Everyone already knows it. We're way, way past any usual tactics to keep truths behind closed doors. That horse left the barn long ago.

I just saw that Cialis commercial and realized the joke.

That's a great Cutler article. I wish people heard more about him like that, the things he does quietly and gets no credit for.

So good, posting it once would have been a crime.

and how did that turn out for the cubs? certainly none of those big contracts have hurt the cubs in the past few years. but hey, we were pretty for 2 years in a row, so who cares. Well they won the division, and in one of those years even lead the whole NL in wins. So....good? The only big contract hurting the Cubs is the Soriano one, IMO. MAYBE the Zambrano one, but at 30 he's got plenty of time to turn it around. Even if people are to argue that Jim Hendry is the only Cubs GM to ever take them to 3 playoff appearences and 2 in a row, the fact is that he's also the only Cubs GM to be given the kind of open checkbook that he was, and considering that The Cubs are the lone big market team in the division, he really should have been able to do more. To be fair, the open checkbook era began once MacPhail left. Hendry got handcuffed on a number of bigname guys he wanted to sign. The more I think about it, it was '08. We won a ton of games, and we were primed to roll in the playoffs. But then we slowed down leading into the playoffs and just got killed once we got there. At times in '08, we were destroying teams. Just wiping them off the field like they weren't even there. During that season, I felt like I was watching some of the best Cub baseball I've ever seen. Hendry may have gotten lucky on a few career years & such, but I'll give him credit for assembling that team. I still don't think he's the guy to take us forward, though.

I'll stick my head out on this one. Surely blocking is an underrated component of being a great WR. And surely Knox is well below average in this department. I also buy the idea that Knox has caused interceptions. He runs terrible routes, and quits often. Doesn't fight through coverage. To me he's a deep threat guy, but a liability in many other areas. The fact that he lead the team in receiving yardage just speaks to the lack of talent we have at the position, more than anything else. Knox is a specialist on a good WR team, and not much more. I don't see how anyone could have a contrary view on him, frankly. I still like having him on the team -- don't get me wrong. But he should be guided into his proper role, preferrably with the acquisition/development of better talent at the position.

You were a young man once, vance. 8-)

Yeah, this will likely flip flop all over the place, probably well into the season. I listened to Tice blowing smoke up everyone's behind for about 15 minutes on the radio. Seriously Mike, you can't believe this rosy crap you're shoveling. To call this line shaky is being very, very polite.

I hope someday it happens. Maybe not after this year, but let some more time go by and we'll see.

Derrek Lee and Ryan Ludwick will lead them to the ring I at least hope they win 82 games this year. Of all pro sports franchises, the Pirates fans (both of them) deserve a winning season and some hope. Completely disagree. They've sucked for 20 years. Big deal. Pirates fans are Steelers and Penguins fans, and their teams have won multiple titles since that time. So by your logic, Cubs fans can't complain about the lack of a championship in our lifetimes because most Cubs fans are Bulls and Blackhawks fans, and those teams have won championships in recent memory? That makes no sense. No, he's just coming up with a reason not to have sympathy for them. Just like they will come up with whatever reason they have to in order to not have sympathy for anyone else.

Hire an outside firm to do it. And maintain it. I don't think this current bunch has a clue what they're doing, field turf or grass, or bare dirt.

Me too. But disappointment.....it's part of life as a Cub fan.

Park district wants to do the field turf. The Bears have not agreed to let them. I was under the impression the field district wants to keep natural grass because international soccer teams prefer it, and after the Bears, that's the next biggest source of income from Soldier Field. They're sure making it sound like it's all on the Bears wanting to keep the grass. At least announce early enough that you borked the watering with a few hours to spare. This had to be known before 6pm. Regardless of the point they're trying to make, if that's what is happening.

The explanation is simple. Incompetence.

Bears family night cancelled.......because they "miscalculated" the field care over the last day, and seams opened up. I read this as, basically, they didn't water the [expletive] field. And they announced it too late for people to avoid the traffic nightmare of Chicago on a Friday night.

The only reason it's not an F is because it hasn't ended yet. Those high risk high reward guys probably aren't nearly as high a reward as we hope they can be. The fact is they needed "known quantities" at a couple spots. The team doesn't suck, but this free agency period did. It reminds me of the post Super Bowl draft which was a disaster - a whole bunch of a cocky "yeah yeah yeah, we don't care what you think we know football players and how to coach them" that blew up in their faces. There's something to be said for finding steals, but those should be the icing on the cake, and the Bears didn't bother to bake a cake this summer. Very good articulation and analogy. This is exactly the same as 2007. The Bears think they can win again with "their guys". Whether that is the guys that have been here all along, the guys they drafted that many thought were reaches (Conte this year; Bazuin, Wolfe, etc. in 2007 draft), highly drafted guys they think were miscast that they think can fit in their genius scheme (Okoye, Gholston this year; Jimmy Kennedy 2007), or the guys that played well for members of the staff in the distant past (Roy Williams this year; Archuleta in 2007). Hope it works out better this time. I do, too. I'm not cutting them slack for it, but with the short period of FA, I'm thinking Angelo might be better off waiting until he can think things through. He's not the quickest mind in football. Man the Eagles just raped.

It's gotten us to division titles immediately after awful seasons twice in the last decade. No reason not to try for a third. Of course. Let's try with someone better than Jim.

While it isn't fair and I don't necessarily agree with it all, every columnist/talking head (even the ones I think a lot of people around here respect) has bashed the Cubs since the deadline. This team is the laughing stock of the league right now. Someone has to be held accountable. By your logic we should never make a move. Too much acceptance of loser culture in this fanbase. That's not my logic at all, and while this year sucks that doesn't mean they're bound to suck next year. All these little things...people laughing, calling for heads, and being a league wide joke (which I guess is new to the Cubs)...are a product of not winning. But any team can say that. Can any team say they have a massive financial advantage over their crappy division which stands to get much worse this offseason due to free agent departures? No. But any team can say they might be better next year. I don't see how that means we should keep Hendry. We could do better with a better GM, too, so even if we agree the Cubs have a good chance of being better with Hendry, it *still* doesn't mean we should keep him.

While it isn't fair and I don't necessarily agree with it all, every columnist/talking head (even the ones I think a lot of people around here respect) has bashed the Cubs since the deadline. This team is the laughing stock of the league right now. Someone has to be held accountable. By your logic we should never make a move. Too much acceptance of loser culture in this fanbase. That's not my logic at all, and while this year sucks that doesn't mean they're bound to suck next year. All these little things...people laughing, calling for heads, and being a league wide joke (which I guess is new to the Cubs)...are a product of not winning. But any team can say that.

I think so, yes. Especially if you haven't been there before. You can see, for the most part. You'll be at or near the level of the players, so sometimes the players themselves block the action. If you get there reasonably early you should be able to find a spot without too many other fans in front of you. Come late and you will likely have a more disappointing experience. As for access to the players, you will be able to shout at them as they enter and exit the practice field. Whether they decide to come over and interact with you is up to them. Some of them do. Kids are usually able to grab a few autographs. Occasionally, if you are in the right spot along the field(s), a player might come over and sign autographs, or even engage in a bit of small talk. But they do control access to the players, because they are there to work.

Ahahah!! Best ever.

Damn. I kind of wanted to see one more blown call, to hear Brenly mumble more isht under his breath.

Hah. Brenly just doesn't give a damn. Awesome.