Here it is, in all its glory: my April 2010 12 of 12.
Tag Archives: Chicago Cubs
Embarrassing
It’s never fun for me when teams I cheer for lose. The Cubs’ early playoff exit was brutal (I was going to write a blog or seven about the lack of heart the team showed, but I just couldn’t bring myself to relive it). FSU’s homecoming loss to Boston College was disheartening. But yesterday’s Bears loss to the rival Packers was embarrassing. I realize that many fans play “Monday morning quarterback.” My thing is, why doesn’t the Bears coaching staff do that? The Bears’ defensive scheme has come under fire this season for losing late leads or allowing mediocre quarterbacks to have careers days. The following are mini-letters to members of the Bears team, coaching staff, and front office. I apologize in advance if I sound bitter, but in light of getting whipped 37-3 and Fox turning to another game with over nine minutes left because “the game [was] no longer competitive,” you guys had to see some of this stuff coming. (For once, I don’t blame Fox for broadcasting another game. I felt bad that their “A” team had to call such a pathetic contest.)
* To Defensive Coordinator Bob Babich…your defensive scheme does, in fact, stink. And here’s why: it doesn’t utilize the players’ skills. The cornerbacks are ballhawks, yes, but they can’t make plays on the ball when they’re nowhere near it. Enough of this soft zone coverage with zero bumping at the line of scrimmage. And please please please please please take Brian Urlacher out of the void between the line of scrimmage and the middle zone, when he gets clogged and taken out of plays. He’s an athletic freak, blessed with size and speed. Use him either like an underneath free safety, roaming and waiting, or as another lineman crashing through the line ready to take out the QB. Is it any wonder that the lone defensive highlight yesterday was his check at the line, followed by his drop back into coverage and subsequent interception? Briggs and Hillenmeyer and doing fine up front, backing the line. Use Urlacher’s speed to its potential. Without someone patrolling the middle, opposing offenses will pick apart that section of the field all game long.
* To the Bears cornerbacks…any time you want to tackle some, it would be greatly appreciated.
* To Head Coach Lovie Smith…please stop babying the staff and the team. There are problems. Lots of them. It does no good to deny that fact. Say it public, then make some changes. Big ones.
* To the defensive line…wait, I forgot your names, it’s been so long since I’ve seen you guys.
* To Offensive Coordinator Ron Turner…Don’t forget about Matt Forte and the running game. Only handing it to him 16 times yesterday was a huge mistake. Offensive balance is key, but it’s also a matter of calling the right plays at the right time. The sequence at the end of the second quarter was horrendous, and set the tone for the rest of the game. The way I see it, Forte has proven he’s workhorse who’s capable of shouldering more than a few carries, despite his rookie status. Let him do it. Orton’s bum ankle will thank you, and it’ll open things up for the passing game. You know this. Everyone knows this. So DO IT. Oh, and use Greg Olsen more. Lots more. He’s big, strong, fast, and has great hands. And another thing: the Devin-Hester-as-wide-receiver experiment isn’t working. Either make him the centerpiece of the receiving corps or use him primarily on special teams. Much like Urlacher’s speed isn’t being utilized on defense, Hester’s speed and agility aren’t being taken advantage of on offense.
* To General Manager Jerry Angelo…Talk to Lovie. And I mean TALK to him. Like, ultimatum talk. And draft or sign a strong, fast, big-play wideout. (By the way, I still haven’t forgiven you for the whole Thomas Jones/Cedric Benson debacle.)
* To President and CEO Ted Phillips…Talk to Jerry. And I mean TALK to him. Like, ultimatum talk.
* To Devin Hester…I miss the old Devin Hester. Please come back.
Six games, three-way tie atop the NFC North division. There’s still time, but not much. The margin for error is about as skinny as I am (which is, sadly, very very skinny).
Fox Sux, Part 2
They did it again: Fox Sports screwed up yet again and chose to broadcast the Tampa Bay Rays game here in the Boston area. Why? I have no idea. Perhaps it’s because I live near Boston, and since the Rays are in the Red Sox’s division, the coverage up here was tuned in to that team. That’s the ONLY explanation I can think of. But even that argument doesn’t hold water because apparently Fox broadcast the Cubs in Washington, D.C. area, which is very close to Baltimore, home of AL East team and division rival of said Sox.
Look, I’m happy for the Rays. Theirs is a feel-good, improbable worst-to-first story that’s great for baseball. But we’re talking about the Cubs here: one of the charter franchises of the National League, one with a storied past, with tradition, with a rabid, dedicated national fanbase. Tampa? They can’t even sell out their own stadium. The way I see it, if the Rays’ OWN fans don’t care about the team (except when it’s for some wonky promotion for national TV), what makes the bigwigs at Fox Sports think that anyone else around the country cares about them? If it’s truly about the numbers, then why didn’t Fox go with the Cubs broadcast nationwide? They do it for overblown, overhyped Yankees/Red Sox regular-season matchups, so why not do it for a division-clinching game for another marquee MLB franchise? Oh, that’s right: because FOX SUX. It’s not like the 100-year thing for the Cubs hasn’t been covered tad nauseum this season. There’s not a baseball fan (or perhaps even casual sports fan) who doesn’t know about the Cubs’ “curse” or World Series drought. THAT is reason enough to broadcast the Cubs game over the Rays game. If that’s not drama, I have no idea what is.
The Cubs are in the playoffs again, winning the NL Central title for the second time year in a row and third time in six years. Thankfully, TBS has broadcast rights to the NLDS. They’ll have their hands full covering all four series simultaneously, but I’m just glad it’s not Fox. Unfortunately, Fox has rights to the LCS and WS coverage. I can only hope that if when the Cubs make it to those rounds, Fox will send their “A” team to cover the games, even though I can’t stand Tim McCarver. Joe Buck is an excellent play-by-play announcer, however, and because there’s no other playoff story bigger than the Cubs this year, Fox needs to wake up and smell the ivy. Stop disrespecting Cub Country and give some other major market franchises NOT named the Red Sox and Yankees their proper due.
Fox Sux
I used to respect Fox Sports and their coverage. I had no trouble separating Fox Sports from its overtly biased and woefully inaccurate sister network, Fox “News.” I like their football pre-game show more than CBS’, and I like the fact that there are multiple regional networks that cover specific events for particular parts of country. But after Fox blew their baseball coverage last weekend and today, I’ll have a tough time giving the Sports division of the network viewing time in the future. Here’s how they blew it:
Last weekend was the final weekend for interleague play, the merits of which (or lack thereof) I’ll save for another entry. It was “proximity rival” weekend, so the Cubs were playing the White Sox, the Yankees played the Mets, the Angels played the Dodgers, etc. Fox was broadcasting the Cubs/Sox game, and I thought everything was fine and dandy (except for the fact that the Sox were winning the series). All of a sudden, Fox decides to switch the coverage to the Mets/Yankees game. I sat there on my couch in disbelief at what just transpired. First of all, they didn’t even wait ’til the inning was over; they just went to the Joe Buck (whom I like) and Tim McCarver (whom I can’t stand…more about him later) pre-game hoopla over the overrated “Subway Series.” Secondly, the Mets were a second place team and the Yankees a third place team, while the Cubs and Sox both held the top spots in their respective divisions. I was appalled that Fox would switch to the New York game just because it’s The Big Apple, in order to broadcast the game between two middle-of-the-pack teams when they were in the middle of covering a drama-filled contest between two first-place teams in The Windy City.
Then, today at 4PM, the second game of the Cubs/Cardinals series started, a battle between the top two teams in the NL Central. It just so happened that the Yankees/Red Sox game started at the that time, too. I was hoping Fox wouldn’t do it to me again, but they did. They chose to showcase the fourth-place Yankees and second-place Red Sox, while there was a nail-biter going on in St. Louis. WHAT?!? The Cubs/Cards game today actually affects the standings in a meaningful way, with only 2.5 games now separating the first-place Cubs from the second-place Cardinals. The Yankees won day, cutting their deficit in the division to a scant NINE games. Again: WHAT?!? Thanks Fox Sports, for perpetuating the no longer so-called “East Coast” bias. No one cares about Yankees/Red Sox any more: it’s overdone. Plus, the Yankees stink right now. The way I see it, had it been a game between top two teams in the AL East, then it would have been more understandable. But that was not the case. Wake up, Fox. The Cubs and Cardinals have just as intense a rivalry as New York and Boston, and the rest of the country just might be able to appreciate that if your choice of game coverage wasn’t so poor.
Oh, and speaking of poor, please let Tim McCarver go. He’s a terrible broadcaster whose glaring lack of analytical talent only brings down Joe Buck. McCarver’s analyses are wrong more times than they’re right, especially when it comes to replays, commentating as if he’s blind. I’m reminded of Joe Morgan of ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball.” They’re both know-it-alls who really don’t know much, or at least can’t express what they know on TV. They talk way too much and often either say the wrong thing or dwell on the obvious. Steve Stone’s a know-it-all, but I can tolerate him because he, indeed, does know it all. McCarver and Morgan may have been great players, but they’re awful announcers. They should take notes from the “Smartest Man in Baseball.”
Christopher Endrinal 