Sports: July 2008 Archives

The Chicago Cubs begin a four-game road trip to Milwaukee tonight to play the Brewers. Cubs fans should be aware. Aware of what, you ask. The Hound will tell you. Read on.

Most Illinoisans use their weapons to hunt deer, small game and fellow humans. Milwaukee residents use their weapons to shoot their lawn mowers. Yes, the story of Keith Walendowski, 56, moved over the weekend from The Associated Press, which noted he allegedly shot his Lawn Boy after it wouldn't start.

When police arrived, Walendowski was charged with felony possession of a short-barreled shotgun (i.e., a sawed-off shotgun) and misdemeanor disorderly conducts while armed. If convicted, this Brewer fan could be sentenced to six years in prison and fined $11,000.

As to why he shot his mower, he told police: "...it's my lawn mower and my yard so I can shoot it if I want."

Also from the AP, it appears correctional officers from a boot camp for alcoholics and drug addicts took their charges to a bar where alcohol was served to other patrons to hear a motivational speaker. Sitting in a bar surrounded by booze sure sounds motivational for addicts to The Hound, and Brewers' fans.

A warning for Cubs fans going to the game. Behave. Milwaukee County sheriff's deputies are notorious for loving to throw Chicago fans in the slammer. Go Cubs!

The Hound must have missed something. The Cubs are battling for a National League pennant. The White Sox are battling for an American League pennant. These are first-place teams. Yet, we see the Blackhawks are going to play a New Year's Day game at Wrigley Field and the Bears training camp opens today in the pride of Kankakee County, Bourbannais. What happened to summer?

We're still in summer, according to not only meteorologists, but the Old Farmer's Almanac. So what's the deal?

The deal is that the Chicago media have fallen for slick public relations flacks peddling their fall and winter wares. Even the great Brian Urlacher (listen, folks, he lives off St. Mary's Road in Libertyville Township if one wants to escape driving 90 miles to Bourbannais) has joined the early fall parade. He just signed a multimillion dollar contract extension. The Hound wants one of those.

Oh, The Hound forgot. The Bears' first pre-season game is Aug. 7 at Soldier Field, which also coincides with the first day of Gurnee Days. That's a real choice: Bears vs. Gurnee Days.

If the pros are ready to rumble, where's the collegians? Buying their dorm wardrobes? Is this a summer lost?

In an attempt to rebrand the Chicago Blackhawks and get us to actually watch "cold steel on ice" after banning couch potatoes for years from the game, the hockey club has decided to play an outdoor game on Jan. 1, 2009 at Wrigley Field. Ball hockey! What's this about?

The National Hockey League has given the team the go-ahead to play the Detroit Redwings outdoors. Similar games have been held at other venues and supposedly drawn pretty good crowds. The Hound's uncle still tells tales about his uncle taking him to Blackhawks games when the hated Wings would play in the old Chicago Stadium. That's when the old timers would heat pennies and heave them on the ice or throw out a dead rabbit or two. Or at least that's what The Hound's uncle says.

The Wirtz family, owners of the Blackhawks, date back to the Mundelein area, where their relatives were farmers about the turn of the century. The property is still there around Route 83 and Peterson Road. However, they won't get The Hound to freeze a tail on Jan. 1.

While some purists may scorn the attempt to play hockey in Wrigley Field, The Hound has been told the Chicago Bears used Wrigley Field to play football (hence the Cubbie Bear lounge at Clark and Addison), while the Chicago Sting soccer club played there in the early 1980s.

Still, The Hound's New Year's resolution will be not to sit outdoors at a hockey game. Unless free tickets are involved.

The Hound was paging through the sports section the other day and came upon Jeff Bonato's Extra Point column where he noted that Highland Park and Vernon Hills high schools have canceled their traditional Week 2 prep football tilt and instead will be on the road for games. These two schools must have gas to burn, at $4-plus a gallon.

According to Bonato, Highland Park's Little Giants will be on the road to Minooka, a 140-mile round trip; Vernon Hills' Cougars will make a 55-mile round trip to South Elgin High at Streamwood. Previously, the two teams played within 22 miles (round trip) of each other.

Perhaps this is some sort of contractural agreement the two teams have to play in Minooka and Streamwood, but in these times of diminishing supplies and increasing costs, seems sort of wasteful. The Hound knows where Streamwood is but had to check where Minooka (Supposedly Pottawatomie meaning "contented", although The Hound believes it means moose meat) is. The Hound gets confused among all these "M" towns we have in Illinois, like Mundelein, Manteno, Marion, Mattoon, Macomb, Mendota, Mahomet, Malta...you get the idea. Minooka, turns out, is near Joliet.

In addition, seems sort of .politically incorrect for those liberals from Highland Park High traveling all that way to play a team whose nickname is the "Indians". Minooka must be one of the last in Illinois to use that name. They took the Chief away, after all.

Highland Park High does have this new E85 fuel depot so they have an excuse. Maybe they'll fill up in corn country for the return trip back. But what's Vernon HIlls' excuse? Wonder if District 128 taxpayers know about this traveling band? Oskeewowwow!