September 2009 Archive

Chicago-5 roundup: a quick glance around the city

by Ricky O'Donnell on September 30 at 2:41PM

Remember when this site used to be, like, 80 percent roundups? Ah, the glorious spring of 2009. I remember it with youthful bliss. It was a time when I had school, homework, work, and a few more sports blogs on my plate. All of those things prevented me from not only giving my full attention to this site, but rather from giving my full attention to Chicago sports.

Remember that epic Bulls-Celtics playoffs series a few months ago? Of course you do. Epic is the only word to describe it. Yeah, well I watched, I believe, three of those games. Most of you will probably list it as one of your favorite Chicago sports moments ever, and with good reason. But you can't get out of night class to watch basketball. You can't get out of work to watch basketball. So I didn't really watch all that much basketball, despite the fact that there was nothing more I wanted than to soak in every second of those seven games.

The roundups were the only thing I was capable of doing during those days. I was spread too thin.

Anyway, I kind of want to bring them back when I don't have one good subject to ramble on about, so here we go. 'Chicago-5 roundup' is a pretty terrible name for this, so feel free to throw your pun-laden suggestions in the comment section. And these banners were Stompy's idea from a looooong time ago, so if you don't like them, blame him. Or me for my crummy MS Paint skills

Off we go!

Emotions are for the weak. Rod Marinelli ditched those sumabitches years ago. He's like the Terminator of defensive line coaches.

Case in point: Marinelli was asked about the Bears' opponent this week, the Lions of Detroit. As you may remember, Marinelli was the head coach of these Lions as recently as last year. In his final season, he guided them to an 0-16 finish.

You would think he would have some thoughts on the franchise right about now. Perhaps he'd be overcome with joy now that the players he coached just nine months ago finally won their first game since 2007. Right? Ah, not so much.

''I focus on my opponent. I don't even acknowledge them,'' Marinelli said. ''I just work on what we do, each and every week. I know it sounds cliche. I'm not a cliche guy. I'm just telling the truth. No one here wants to believe it. That's how I live.

If Rod Marinelli were born in, say, the late 1890's, is there any doubt he would have made one badass WWII general?

The other day my friend Mike told me he couldn't wait for Bulls season to start. "Why?" I responded, about as smugly as possible. His answer was perfect: "Because I like watching them."

Wait a second...I like watching them too! The NBA is back in our lives, people, and this is a wonderful thing. The Bulls first preseason game is Friday, and we'll have plenty of time between now and the start of the real season - October 29 at home against the Spurs - to discuss all things Vinny Del Negro. Should be fun.

Now isn't the time for prognostications and Aaron Gray jokes, though. I want to bring up something I missed from a couple of weeks ago: Ben Gordon is making a documentary.

Bulls Confidential has the scoop.

The documentary starts on March 1st, as the Bulls are hoping to make a charge to the playoffs and continues on through his signing with the Pistons recounting the playoff chase, playoffs against Boston, and the free agent wooing process all from the perspective of a star player in a contract year.

Basically, this is just going to be Gordon ripping the shit out of Jerry Reinsdorf. No matter which way you lean on the "Should the Bulls have brought back Gordon" argument, this should be a fun watch.

Don't dismiss this question immediately: is Sun-Times White Sox beat reporter Joe Cowley actually worse than Jay Mariotti? Sounds crazy, I know, but I really feel like Cowley has went off the deep end recently.

The only thing separating him and Jay is scale. Jay is a national nuisance. Cowley only gets to write about one team for one dying newspaper. Regardless, he has been Grade-A insufferable recently. Just check out some of these tweets.

Cowley - a Steelers fan - before the Bears played Pittsburgh in Week 2...

After the Bears won...

On the city of Cleveland, after the Browns beat his Steelers last week.

Classiest of all, on Ted Kennedy during the Red Sox's tribute to the senator the day after he died...

This man is BY FAR the worst person in the Chicago media. Rick Morrissey doesn't know anything about sports, but at least he doesn't go out of his way to antagonize the fanbase of the teams he writes about. Only one other person does that: Mariotti. Cowley is a terrible, terrible, human.

Hey, the Hawks start for real on Friday? After such an, um, eventful offseason, that sort of snuck up on us, no?

2009 is 100 percent, no doubt "Stanley Cup or bust" for the 'Hawks, and that's a wonderful thing. They're the best team in the city, and have a legitimate chance at winning a championship. I'm going to be there every step of the way this year, taking full of advantage of my "ignorance is bliss" approach to hockey.

Making things even more high stakes is the fact that one or two of the Kane-Toews-Keith trio could be gone. This is awful - how the 'Hawks screwed up their cap situation this bad is damn near unfathomable - but let's not think about that quite yet. It's about championships, and the 'Hawks could actually win one this year.

2000-2009 gave us only one title in Chicago sports. Hopefully the 'Hawks get the next decade started off right.

Speaking of championships....

You have redeemed yourself, Tribune editors!

It's....it's.....beautiful.

September 2009 Archive

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