Snobs vs. Slobs

This guy?

This guy looks like he eats children.

“I’ve never been an advocate of triples. They make you tired.” – Mark Grace

I still have undying love for Luol Deng, but the Bulls’ season has sadly, ended. Let’s hope that the Bulls can trade for Pau Gasol or Kevin Garnett in the offseason.

He led the Bulls in scoring yesterday after the Bulls took the first playoff game from the Heat in their first round series.

Also, Best column ever.

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We haven’t written about not-baseball in quite a while over in these parts (in fact, the last time was when the Bears got eliminated from the playoffs, but the the basketball playoffs are back again. (more…)

We’re getting to one of the heaviest parts of the sports calendar. The winter meetings begin next week in Texas and we’re already seen both Chicago teams bring in some new baseballers to their respective teams. The NFL stretch run is upon us and we’re getting into the meat of the NBA and NHL seasons.

That last point is what I’m going to get into today. There’s a lot of non-Sox and non-Cubs stuff going on in Chicago professional sports. While this site is about baseball, there’s something very exciting going on in Chicago that unites both team’s baseball fans: The Bears (and, to a lesser extent, the Bulls and Blackhawks). (more…)

Some interesting links for Sox fans that you may have missed in the recent excitement of the Sox’ run:

The Sox—The Times has a nice little piece about fans greeting the team’s plane upon its arrival at Midway. This brought up a question: Why the hell are the Sox flying into Midway and not O’Hare? This makes no sense whatsoever. Were they flying SouthWest?—The Trib’s piece on introducing the team/coaches is a must-read. For one thing, I learned that Joey Cora has an econ degree from Vanderbilt, which is pretty cool. I also learned that two Sox players have semi-famous girlfriends/fiances (Jon Garland is dating Lovieanne Jung and Scott Podsednik is engaged to Lisa Dergan). Nice work, boys.—Over at MLB.com, there’s a with facts about the team, not the players. It attempts to summarize 100 years of White Sox baseball, so, yeah, it’s not the best thing in the world. It is, however, a good read if you’re unfamiliar with the team.—If you get your White Sox news from us (and heaven help you if you do), Jose Contreras is going to start Game One of the LCS Tuesday. Jon Garland is rumoured to have picthed in a sim game today, to keep him sharp. In other news, Damaso Marte will have the opportunity to walk batters in the ALCS. Brandon McCarthy will have to watch the games like you and I.—In a development of news I didn’t know, one of the Sox’ PR people is writing a blog following the team. I guess all the teams have one, which is pretty cool. Considering MLB.com was the last of the three sports to get into the 21st century, this suprises me. Anyway, what’s important about is this quote, from an unnamed national media member:

“Do you think Jay Mariotti will rip the White Sox in his column tomorrow for choking and not winning this series in two games?”

Gotta like anything that tears apart that moron.—There is a rumour floating about that Manny Ramirez would like to play at the Cell. Considering he’s going to try and get Scott Boras as his agent (Kenny Williams refuses to deal with Boras), I want to say I don’t believe it’ll happen. With that said, he would look lovely in silver and black. Then again, anyone who could actually hit would look wonderful in silver and black.—Apparently, the Sox feel they’re getting no respect. They believe the less respect they get, the better they play. Personally, I’m torn. On one hand, the ESPNers (Kruk, Reynolds, Morgan, et. al) seem to like the anti-Billy Beane-ness of the team. On the other hand, I’ve complained all season about the Four Letter Network’s idea that there are only two teams in the league, and the Sox just eliminated one of them. If it works for the Sox, great, but my man Derek Jeter certainly is showing them some dap:

“They had the best record in the league, and they beat the defending world champs. … I know baseball players give them respect.”

Everything else—The ‘Hawks won their first game and I’m very happy. I was not able to listen to it, despite XM’s insistence that they’ll broadcast a ton of games. Unfortunately, this doesn’t include the ‘Hawks, but rather the NY teams, the Kings and the Maple Leafs.—I’ll be in Chicago in November, so I’m hoping to catch a ‘Hawks game. Maybe I’ll bring Taft along with me, despite his quasi-boycott.—The Eddy Curry trade went through, and the stories abound from it. Sam Smith has a snarky yet stupid react, John Hollinger has a statistical breakdown and Larry Brown is saying that Eddy will be running. As for me, I’m unhappy that the Bulls traded Eddy, but that’s life in the NBA, I guess.—The Bears lost today. Ho hum. I guess I would care in a normal year, but this year, the Sox are in the playoffs. Screw the Bears.