March 2008 Archives

but probably not. His form is better than mine, that's for sure.

Maybe I could throw like one....

well - I know I look better on the golf course than one...

I don't know why, but this posting on Petfinder.com brought about tears of laughter....Who names their pigeon that? For more on "Greg" - click here....

The White Sox caught a break today....

And the Bears didn't....

And Carlos still hasn't figured out that water exists...

the following video from Sunday made me cry tears of sympathy (ok, not literally) - because I've been there and done this...(what you want to see is 2:41 in - and Johnny Miller's priceless comment)....Then Austin calls himself a "choking dog" at about 3:25...then puts it in the water at 4:43!!!

...and this just isn't good for anybody (Well, it was probably good for Mosley for a little while at least).

Will he make his major league debut in 2008? He thinks so....and it's hard to doubt him.

He's also one of the most coveted prospects in baseball - so do you think Boston parts with him in a trade?

So who will be the new varsity boys basketball coach at Aurora Christian? If my hunch is correct, the fellow's name will have a very familiar ring to it.

Athletic Director Don Davidson has stepped down as coach after 31 seasons but will remain as AD and coach middle school ball, something he hasn't done in 41 years when his first coaching job was the eighth graders at Yorkville Junior High. He plans to name his replacement early this week.

I'm no whiz at mathematics, but I think this one comes down to simple addition and subtraction, which even I can handle.

In the press release announcing his retirement, Davidson noted he has 10 grandchildren, nine of them boys. He added that "seven of those boys will be attending Aurora Christian next year with the oldest being in sixth grade."
Hmmmm.

If that's the case, it would appear Davidson's son Marc and his wife, Lisa, will soon be moving back to the area. Their five boys account for half of Don Davidson's grandchildren.

Marc is Aurora Christian's all-time leading scorer and rebounder who earned a scholarship and played for two years at the University of Illinois before transferring to Trinity International in Deerfield. He had two tours of duty playing professional basketball in France that totaled eight years, sandwiched around a three-year stint as athletic director, coach and teacher at Macomb Christian School in Warren, Mich.
Where are they now?

Marc Davidson returned to the states to coach basketball at his alma mater, Trinity International, in June of 2006. In his first season, his team advanced to the NAIA National Tournament for the first time in 12 seasons. In the recently concluded season, his club went 8-21.

In his bio on the Trinity International website, it says Marc and his family reside in Gurnee. That would be one heckuva daily commute for grade school students, wouldn't it?

Who better to succeed 62-year-old Don at Aurora Christian than Marc, who would be a good candidate several years from now to succeed his father as athletic director, too.

to the Zurich Classic in New Orleans today and tomorrow? Because a Masters invite is on the line!

When the powers that be decided to once again allow tournament champions from the previous year into the field at Augusta, they single-handedly made every tournament (except opposite field & fall series) events relevant again - regardless of whether or not Tiger plays.

I know I'll be watching....

Since I'm old, I refer to someone going on a scoring tear in the NCAA tournament as "doing a Glen Rice". Rice was a forward at Michigan who went unconscious for three weeks and led the Wolverines to the 1989 NCAA title, scoring a tournament-record 184 points in six games.

I think I've gotta update that. From now on, it will be called "doing a Stephen Curry", in honor of the Davidson sophomore guard who has led the Wildcats to the Elite Eight. He scored 40 and 30 points in his first two games, and added 33 for DC in Friday's win over Wisconsin.

Curry is the son of Dell Curry, who carved out a nice NBA career as a 3-point specialist and probably had one of the quickest releases on his jump shot as any player in history.

So a school with 1,700 students (roughly half the size of the enrollment at West Aurora) is one game from the Final Four. The school ponied up for a bus trip, tickets and two nights in a hotel for close to 300 students who wanted to see the school play in Detroit this weekend, think they'll do the same thing next weekend if the team gets to San Antonio?

Whatever happens on Sunday, Davidson is by far the best story of the tournament, and Curry is now on everyone's radar as an All-American candidate next year. The kid's no flash-in-the-pan, either, as he had nice games against North Carolina (24 points), Duke (20) and NC State (29) earlier this season and ranks fourth nationally at 25.7 points per game.

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Aurora Christian coach Don Davidson announced his retirement today after 31 years on the sideline. Best wishes to the coach, who combined to win 631 games (between Yorkville and ACS) in his career and took the Eagles downstate twice.

A class act and a man whose commitment to his faith, his family and his school commanded an immense amount of respect, will stay in coaching but will be moving to the grade school level. He might be changing gears on his coaching career, but I doubt that will change the impact he will have on his athletes.

I couldn't help but think about this last night as I watched Tiger Woods have to apologize for cussing out a photographer that distracted him during the final round at Doral.....

If anyone of us - or anyone else on the PGA Tour (or Krypton) for that matter - did the following, every muscle in our backs would fly off the bone, followed shortly by our shoulders leaving their sockets.

And then, if anyone of us did the following our hands and wrists would follow our shoulders across the fairway....

Alright, alright - I'm done making us feel inferior. The following is from the 2005 Western Open - and we've all done this

That Michelle Wie is drifting toward irrelevance, largely because of injury.

I'll be honest, I'm thinking that this has more to do with mismanagement (again) on the part of her camp. Wrist injuries are very serious in golf, yet she keeps getting trotted out for sponsor exemptions, only to either get hurt again, or play so poorly it only damages her already shaky reputation.

The smart thing would be to 1.) Make sure she doesn't need surgery 2.) let her rest until she's pain free.

She's only 18. She can heal. And she deserves that chance.

I covered Wie during the 2005 John Deere Classic when she finished just two shots away from making the cut. The double-bogey/bogey down the stretch showed the nerves of a 15 year old, but her talent was undeniable.

Hopefully, this latest injury is the cold splash of water on the face for Michelle and her camp - sit it out. There's no reason to risk a broken bone or torn tendon that permanently affects her career.

It was interesting to learn today that the San Francisco Giants have pretty much removed any reference to Barry Bonds from AT&T Park. The first thing that popped into my mind is the line from the Bob Seger song "Night Moves":

I used her, she used me
But neither one cared
We were gettin' our share

Now that Bonds' chase for Hank Aaron's home run record of 755 is over, it's obvious that the last few years of his marriage to the Giants was one of convenience. The team estimates that the chase itself brought more than 150,000 more fans to the park last season, covering his salary, and then some, and they had the pleasure of Bonds breaking the record in his hometown and in a Giants uniform.

Bonds, meanwhile, got to play his home games where his name and image were plastered all over the place, which probably more than fed his massive ego, and also gave him the opportunity to play where he was engulfed in a bubble of love and admiration.

But now that he is sitting on 762 home runs, the sex appeal is gone, and the Giants have moved on -- going young and in rebuilding mode. Barry, meanwhile, is still in search of a job, and given the fact his 43-year-old body is breaking down quickly, his choice of where to go is limited, most likely leaving him on the outside looking in until perhaps a contending American League team wants to take a chance on him late in the season.

It's kind of an odd way for one of the game's all-time greats (it pains me to say that) to end his career. But hey, at least everyone for the most part got what they wanted out of the deal, and it was fun while it lasted.

Here are our picks. Click on them to read our four corners entry that appeared in Thursday's paper.

Rick Armstrong: N.C. State vs. Houston (1983)
Mike Knapp: Georgetown vs. Villanova (1985)
Todd M. Adams Duke vs. Kentucky (1992)
Jason Bauman Illinois vs. Arizona (2005)

So, what do you think? Comment here.

The Chicago White Sox' advertising campaign for the 2008 season will be built around the slogan "White Sox Baseball: Share The Passion. Show The Swagger."

I don't know about you, but you can't have the passion without the fire, the fire without the passion.

They say you can't judge an NFL draft until 3-4 years later (which I find absurd since the average length of most careers is about that long), so as we approach the 2008 draft, I figured it was time to look back at the 2004 Bears draft...

As is Jerry Angelo's M.O., he went mostly defense and several of the players listed below were very instrumental in the team's 2006 Super Bowl run. But it is worth noting who the team passed up to make their picks.

I have no issue with Tommie Harris, but I'd say aside from Nathan Vasher, they missed after that.

1st round: No. 14 - Tommie Harris
passed on Michael Clayton (No. 15 to Tampa Bay); Shawn Andrews (No. 16 to Philadelphia); Will Smith (No. 18 to New Orleans); Vince Wolfork (No. 21 to New England); Steven Jackson (No. 24 to St. Louis)

2nd round: No. 47 - Tank Johnson
passed on Devery Henderson (No. 50 to New Orleans)

3rd round: No. 78 - Bernard Berrian
passed on Chris Cooley (No. 81 to Washington); Matt Schaub (No. 90 to Atlanta);

4th round: No. 110 - Nathan Vasher
No. 112 - Leon Joe
passed on Jared Allen (No. 126 to Kansas City)

5th round: No. 147 - Claude Harriott
No. 148 - Craig Krenzel
passed on Michael Turner (No. 154 to San Diego); DJ Hackett (No. 157 to Seattle)

7th round: No. 215 - Alfonso Marshall
passed on Patrick Crayton (No. 216 to Dallas)

For anyone who didn't notice, Jim Owczarski's pick to win the NCAA Tournament was UConn. The Huskies lost in the first round to San Diego, 70-69.

The other three staff picks -- UCLA (by Jason Bauman), Memphis (by Rick Armstrong) and Kansas (by me) are still alive.

Check out what we said in our new "four corners" feature last Thursday ....

Jim's UConn pick

Jason's UCLA pick

Rick's Memphis pick

My Kansas pick

After the first two rounds, I still like Kansas, although North Carolina looks pretty good too.

What do you think?

Anyone out there excited about the upcoming baseball season around here?

Well, "upcoming" isn't the right word because technically the season has started already. Some teams have been fortunate enough to get in some games, but for the most part we've had more snowouts, washouts and cold-outs than groundouts, popouts and strikeouts.
So, who's your favorite? Batavia has a unique core with a veteran infield and outfield, but Geneva is the defending conference champs...

Can West Aurora and Waubonsie ride their pitching to success? Are the Milroy boys and "professional hitter" Robert Reder enough to push Marmion up the ranks in the SCC?

Will the Plano Reapers draw from the success they've had in other sports, will it translate to the diamond? How well will the young arms of Hinckley Big Rock adjust to varsity?

Do you have any pre-season favorites at this point? Any sleepers you want to tout? Let us know!

When UConn guard AJ Price went down with a knee injury yesterday, so did my entire for-entertainment purposes-only NCAA bracket.

As you all know, I picked the Huskies to win the national title - but when he went down, so did their spirits and the team in a first round loss.

So, I tore up my bracket and tossed it in the trash - which leaves me a free weekend to just watch Tiger at Doral (so things aren't so bad).

Anyone else bust out in the first round?

Well - since I couldn't get out to see East/West baseball today because of SNOW! - ugh - I have nothing else to really talk about.

Sure, I could talk about the three Sweet 16 and one Elite Eight team in my purely-for-entertainment-purposes NCAA pool that lost on Thursday, but I won't.

I'm going to throw my 2 cents in about the Joe Crede/Josh Fields situation on the Southside.

Most Sox fans love Joe Crede. I'll never forget leaving Irish Fest on the Southside and a drunken fest-goer hanging off a light pole yelling "Joe Crede!" at passing cars - if that's not love, I don't know what is.

But here's the thing: Joe Crede is a career .259 hitter. You read that right. .259. He only has a career .305 OBP. And since becoming the full time third baseman in 2003, he's missed an average of 17.8 games per year before losing 115 games last year with the back injury.

18 games a year doesn't seem like much, but he's been trending downward: 2003 (11), 2004 (18), 2005 (30) before a rebound year in 2006 (12). The thing is, he doesn't miss time because he needs a day off. He misses time because he has the back of a 50-year-old.

I like Joe. I think he's one of the top 2 or 3 glove men in the entire game. He's a clutch hitter, but not a consistent one. So how much is that glove worth?

Is it worth having Pablo Ozuna or Alexei Ramirez playing 3B 12-30 times (or more) a year? Is it worth sending Fields to Charlotte, or to the bench, or to left field. Especially when Fields can easily hit .259 at the major league level.

I don't know - so I'm asking you - how much is that glove worth?

While watching the end of Belmont's near-upset of Duke Thursday night did you catch the young man in the blue shirt and slacks near the end of the Bruins' bench? Former Waubonsie Valley standout and Beacon News All-Area selection, Jon Rice, had a great seat.

A 6-foot freshman guard, Rice is being redshirted this season.

Rice and Belmont could very well be back in the Big Dance again next year. They lose only one senior off their 14-man roster: 6-2 guard and leading scorer (14.9 average), Justin Hare.

The search is on for a new athletic director at Northern Illinois University. A 14-person screening committee has been appointed and an executive search firm enlisted, all by NIU President Dr. John Peters, to aid him in the search to replace Northwestern-bound Jim Phillips.

Want to throw your hat in the ring? Know someone (I am not a candidate, nor will I accept my party's nomination) who should be considered?

Send an application or recommend a candidate by contacting Parker Executive Search, Five Concourse Parkway, Suite 2440, Atlanta, GA 30328. 770-804-1996

This is only going to reinforce people's beliefs that Kerry Wood destroyed Sammy Sosa's infamous boom box a few years ago...

and if Wood was involved - that's interesting - considering he missed a turn in the bullpen due to back spasms.

Then again, if someone said "hey, wanna smash up a car?," I think any pains I had would wash away real quick after taking out that first headlight.

1. Kerry Wood is hurt.
2. Nomar Garciaparra is hurt.
3. The Second Coming (aka Terrelle Pryor) is an idiot (see 4th paragraph)

Pratt, who was Mr. Everything for the Kane County Cougars last year, is returning again this year, but this time in a coaching role, taking over hitting coach duties from Benny Winslow, who resigned from the Oakland organization.

Pratt played four seasons in pro ball after being drafted in the 30th round by the Athletics out of the University of Arkansas in 2004. In 64 games last year he hit .223 and with 10 homers and 28 RBIs.

"Stepping into a coaching role is what I've always wanted to do," Pratt said. "To work in a leadership position with these players and help them achieve success is something that I'm really looking forward to."

At just 26 years old, Pratt becomes the youngest coach in franchise history. In 2007 he wore a myriad of hats for the Cougars, playing first base, serving as the designated hitter and emergency catcher and making four appearances on the mound, posting a respectable 1.59 ERA in 5.2 innings of work.

Though he wasn't considered a prospect, Pratt was highly respected in the clubhouse for his work ethic and positive attitude. As the oldest player on the team, he was a big help to the younger players who were going through their first full pro season.

Very large (6-foot-3, 225 pounds) and sort of introspective, Pratt comes across as an imposing figure at first but once he opens up is very intelligent and engaging. He seems to have a great feel for the game and should be able to pass that along to his players.

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West Aurora product Preston Larrison was optioned back to the Detroit Tigers' minor-league camp today. Larrison has had a good spring, with a 1-0 record and 2.25 ERA in eight innings of work. Denny Bautista, who pitched for the Cougars in 2001, remains in the hunt for a roster spot with the Tigers, having not allowed a run in 10 innings (seven appearances).

View imageI really don't care about the NCAA tournament, so I always root for upsets and good stories. Right now, my rooting interest is UGA. The Bulldogs aren't very good - yet they somehow manage to win 4 games in 3 days to win the SEC Tournament and earn an automatic berth.

about this kind of front homepage non-news today...do we care? No. Maybe two cities in two states care. Maybe. ....

about this type of March Madness...

about how smart (or dumb) college basketball players are... No one...as long as those guys on your favorite 12 seed stay eligible enough to pull off the yearly 12 over 5 upset in the first round of your office pool...

about Tyler Hansbrough? No one. Unless of course his Heels lose before the Final Four, therefore wrecking your office pool...

about Tony Stewart vs. Goodyear? Apparently enough to get over 100,000 Google results...

Now - here's real news that we should care about. It's coming up on 12 years..Let's find those guys!

"I knew I had to make four to get into the playoff, and lo and behold I made a three." -- Tiger Woods, after making birdie Sunday on the final hole of the Arnold Palmer Invitational to win his fifth straight PGA Tour event.

Lo and behold? Is that what he calls it? The guy shoots 66-66 on the weekend and acts like he is a blind squirrel finally finding a nut. I think it is more "Three was the only score in my mind in the tee box so I did what I had to do."

The guy is so good and is on such a roll that he is almost able to will himself to do anything. If you like golf, or are just a Woods fan, clear your mind of any rational thoughts because what he may accomplish this year is beyond what any of us might be able to comprehend. Nothing -- the Grand Slam, Byron Nelson's 11 straight wins, maybe even a year when he wins every tournament he plays -- is beyond the realm of imagination any longer.

Remember at the end of a Seinfeld episode where Jerry is eating a bowl of cereal and the announcer says "And the Giants are going for it on 4th down! You've gotta love sports!"?

Probably no t- only people like me who watch the DVDs on a fairly regular basis remember that closing scene - but that's what popped into my head today flipping between the Arnold Palmer Classic at Bay Hill, the Illinois-Minnesota Big 10 semi and the Cubs/Sox spring training game...

first - it's so much fun to watch pro golfers play like us with sevens, snowmen, water balls....and now Tiger is back from 7 shots down to be in prime position to win his 5th straight tournament tomorrow.

second - i'm not a huge college hoops fan, but even I'm interested in the Big 10 tourney now. It doesnt matter if its Illinois or Minnesota, but the fact that either team has a shot to get into the Big Dance is exciting. "March Madness" is all about the underdog, so I'm rooting for 'em...

third - Opening day of the MLB season is just about two weeks away, meaning this is crunch time for players hoping to make the 25-man roster that comes north.

Finally - Make sure to check out Arnie's tournament on NBC tomorrow, beginning at 1:30 p.m. Trust me, you'll want to tell your grandkids you saw Tiger this year...

Let me say it right off the bat - not everyone can take a midnight train to anywhere.

And that means you, American University. (see 5th paragraph)

Steve Perry is our mascot. Don't try and call him for when you get matched up with Memphis in the first round because you better believe you're going to get pounded by 25.

Joe Crede, Aaaron Rowand and A.J. Pierzynski made Don't Stop Believin' the Sox theme song in '05 and, after their terrible rendition at the parade, it has been retired as a sports team theme song.

One of the great things about growing up watching Chicago sports in the 80's and 90's was the ability to watch athletes like Walter Payton, Michael Jordan, Ed Belfour and Frank Thomas on a daily basis.

The way they played the game is forever etched into your memory - and every now and then you read or see something that makes you think of them. In my case, it was this story that made me think of Payton.

I thought to myself, "Man, these guys nowadays can't hang. Payton played forever." I honestly thought he was pounding the turf at Soldier Field at least until his mid-30's.

Then I checked, and it shocked me that he retired when he was 33.

When it comes to certain Chicago athletes, it's not just nostalgia that makes us think they played longer than they did or were greater than they actually were. It's just that the way they View image">played, their style, their flair and their accomplishments truly makes the heart grow fonder.

Since nothing is funnier than guys getting kicked in the junk, this is what caused the spring training brawl between the Yanks and the Rays.

Which naturally leads to one of our favorite movie lines ever, from Weird Science, which is below (25 seconds in)

One of the hazards of MLB spring training is injury - it's bound to happen. I mean, look at all the back injuries there have been already.

But in no way would anyone ever, ever expect the types of injuries that the Cubs' Felix Pie and Astros' Kaz Matsui have suffered.

"Twisting" and "fissure" are not two words you want associated with those regions. Not at all.

Ouch.