Contest Part II

And then there's the Bears...Lovie Smith is in a similar situation as Vinny Del Negro, but there are way more complications involved. This Blog is one of many outlets who have called for Lovie to be fired. Last Monday Night's victory against the Vikings seems to have breathed some life into Smith's job status for next year. That hasn't stopped Lovie from being asked about his job status more than he cares to talk about it. His status appears to be up in the air going into this weeks finale against the Detroit Lions. Appearances can be deceiving though, especially when it comes to the Bears.

So here's the situation in The Beard's view. This is the third straight year the Bears haven't made the playoffs since Lovie told everyone "trust me" after the Super Bowl. He has fired assistants that didn't need to be fired, and he promoted assistants that didn't deserve to be promoted. He has lobbied for Jerry Angelo to sign players such as Adam Archuleta, when everybody knew he couldn't play football anymore. He has continuously been on the losing end of challenges, and (worst of all) sticks with a defensive scheme that isn't interested in stopping the run or the pass.

This, along with various other issues, injuries, personnel decisions and incidents, has led to numerous blowouts, lackluster/uninspired play and overall embarrassment this season. It's also led Jerry Angelo to go out of his way to pull a GarPax and tell everyone that Lovie is under review, after the Ravens game. Whether or not Jerry Angelo is flexing power he may not even have since he might be under the gun too, is irrelevant. What is relevant is Lovie's contract is signed for two more years.

That being the case, the question then becomes, if Lovie goes, who will be brought in? All signs point to Bill Cowher heading to Tampa, and Mike Shanahan heading to Washington. Does Jerry Angelo wait for other guys like John Fox to get fired, quit, or suddenly become available? If any of these coaches are available, how much will it cost to bring them in? Whatever it would cost, there is a lurking, and all signs pointing to unavoidable, Lockout in 2011. The Lockout would also lead to the salary cap being lifted in 2010. So not only would the Bears be paying Lovie to not coach for two seasons, but whoever the Bears bring would also eventually be paid not to coach as well, for however long a potential Lockout would last. While the Bears have relatively shed their reputation for being cheap recently, it still doesn't seem to make a lot of financial sense to fire Lovie now.

If they decide to go with the more economical route and retain Lovie, what happens with his assistants, particularly with the Offensive Coordinator position? Ron Turner seems to be about as popular as rug-burn these days among both fans and players. Cutler had the chance to say he wants Turner back next year, and he took a pass on that. Personally speaking, that's a big deal when the QB doesn't vouch for the Offensive Coordinator. Huge. Can you imagine John Elway, Dan Marino, Joe Montana, or Tom Brady not commenting on whether they want their Offensive Coordinator back? That coach would be fired that same evening.

Also, what about the Defensive Coordinator position? Who would be available, and what type of scheme would they run? The Green Bay Packers broke away from their commitment to the 4-3, unearthed the corpse of Dom Capers, and placed him in charge of their defense this season. The results of his 3-4 scheme have been a #2 total ranked defense in the NFL, two Pro Bowlers in Charles Woodson and Nick Collins, and a developing rookie in Clay Matthews who has 10 sacks this season. Maybe bringing in an innovator with a completely different and forward thinking defensive philosophy would be enough to make the Bears a playoff team? Nobody knows for certain, but it would certainly help.

One thing that is certain, Lovie Smith will not be in charge of hiring either of the coordinators, Jerry Angelo will be. Whomever Jerry hires, will definitely be put in a position to become Lovie Smith's replacement if things do not turn around the way the Bears and Jerry Angelo anticipate. Either way, this is a one FINE mess the Bears are in, and it will be far from boring to watch them try to dig their way out of it.

Contest Part I

It seems as if the Chicago Bears and Chicago Bulls are having a contest to see which front office can be more indecisive, less certain of their long term vision, and look more inept than the other lately. It has now gotten to the point where it's being watched nationally.

Lets start with the Bulls. John Paxson's puppet Gar Forman took a pass when given the chance to give the dreaded vote of confidence to Vinny Del Negro. This is counterproductive in a couple of different ways. The time to fire Del Negro was a month ago. Vinny's length of tenure has been the beneficiary of a supposed "classic" playoff series between the Bulls and Celtics last postseason. Most people who are capable of remembering the circumstances surrounding that series however, will remember that Kevin Garnett was not playing in any of those games. Had Garnett been playing, the Bulls would have most likely been swept under the rug in 4 games post haste, and Vinny might not have survived for this season.

That didn't happen though. What did happen though (besides a record collapse to the Sacramento Kings this year) is that the Bulls have shown that the best basketball they are capable of playing...is when they ditch running Vinny's offense! Del Negro has done plenty of other things to show that firing him would be understood, and the Bulls could at least start going in another direction.

So since that hasn't happened either, you would at the very least expect some combination of Paxson or Forman or both essentially come forward and say, "Vinny is our guy for the rest of the year" and put an end to all speculation, not only for the players and fans sake, but for Del Negro's sake as well. Instead, the Bulls have decided to let everyone continue to urinate into the wind and continue to live in the netherworld of "Is this the day Vinny gets launched?". Oh and by the way, they are also doing this while allowing little rumors of Doug Collins and Lawrence Frank being spoken with by Bulls brass to periodically pop up...If the Bulls are going to go anywhere, they can't be caught in-between like this. They need firm leadership and direction from someone, be it Vinny, or Paxson/Forman, or another coach. Make no mistake about it, this is a "Take your time @ssh*le" moment for the Bulls Brass. Lets hope they make their mind up soon.

Don't Be Fooled...

Jay Cutler finally showing what he's capable of when his offensive teammates (particularly up front) around him are interested in playing football, and chucking 4 TD's, including the game winner=Awesome! Devin Aromashodu showing more than just potential, with a breakout game tonight=Fantastic! The defensive line stepping up in overtime, and Hunter Hillenmeyer punching the ball out of Adrian Peterson's grasp=Sweet! The Bears ending the Vi-queens chance at the number one seed in the NFC Playoff Picture=Fun, Fun, (schadenfreude) FUN!

As thrilling as tonight's victory over the Minnesota Favre's was, unfortunately it's a hollow victory at best, and no reason to overlook glaring problems with this team, at worst. Once again, there is plenty of evidence from this game, no matter how pleasant the outcome, to show that this is a fundamentally flawed team.

Lovie Smith's vaunted defensive play calling after a very impressive first half, didn't trust his new safeties and stuck with that beaten scheme that is the Tampa 2 (with the stupid fake blitz up the middle with a linebacker). The Tampa 2 promptly went out and allowed 30 second half points, 321 passing yards from Brett Favre, 94 yards and 2 TD's from Adrian Peterson, and 423 yards allowed overall. Once again, Lovie has nobody to blame for his porous defense but himself. His pointless loyalty to a scheme, that zero playoff teams including the Colts even run anymore, allowed Favre to work the middle of the field and deep sideline routes ad nauseam for pretty much the entire second half. And that's just the defensive side of the ball...

Offensively, the execution was much better than in recent weeks, but then again it was hard to get any worse. For as much as Olin Kreutz wants to run his mouth calling for "top to bottom" organizational changes while still playing like a swinging gate, he did nothing tonight to convince anyone that he's not overmatched in the trenches and that he can still play at an elite level in the NFL. Matt Forte looked better, but still seems to missing something that rhymes with "burst". Aromashodu again had a great game, Olsen, Clark, and Earl Bennett had good contributions. In this blogs view, all of the success largely was due to Jay Cutler's fearless play. Cutler showed that when he's given time, and his receivers execute their routes, he can make Lame Duck Ron Turner's offense look good. Imagine what he could do with a good team and a real offensive coordinator...

So for now, HUZZAH to the Bears for tonight, and refocus on making this franchise a playoff contender next year for tomorrow.

You Knew This Was Coming...

So Sports Illustrated continued it's perfunctory "2000s The Decade In Sports" series on si.com, and my brother directed me to something struck my ire, as well as his. In their "MLB Highlights and Lowlights" section they list the 2009 New York Yankees as the best single season team of the decade. While on the one hand it's become customary to just accept that New York, Boston, and the East Coast Bias/Posterior Kissing, is not just limited to the BooYah Network in Bristol, on the other hand, something about this really didn't sit right. Not to mention, while going over some of their other lists, SI seems unable to remember anything beyond 2 years ago. With that in mind, lets take a look at the breakdown:

SI claims that the 2009 Yankees get the nod because no other team won over 100 (103) games AND the World Series in the same year. OK...that's certainly one way to look at it...not necessarily the best or most objective/accurate way, but it's one way. The two teams with the highest regular season win total that won a World Series were the Wild Card Winning 2002 Anaheim Angels, and (drum roll) the 2005 Chicago White Sox-each with 99 regular season wins.

Since the 2005 White Sox were division winners, lets for the sake of argument compare them vs. SI's pick of the 2009 Yankees. Numbers and Stats wise the breakdown is as follows:

NY '09 CHI '05

Team Batting Average: .283 .262

Team OBP: .362 .322

Team ERA: 4.28 3.61

Team Fielding Percentage: .985 .985

Runs Scored per game: 5.6/game 4.6/game

Runs Allowed per game: 4.6/game 4.0/game

Home Record: 57-24 47-34

Road Record: 46-35 52-29

Interleague Record: 10-8 12-6
Record in One Run Games: 22-16 35-19

Record vs Rightys: 67-41 76-43

Record vs Leftys: 36-18 23-20

Record vs teams below .500: 51-24 60-30

Record vs teams above .500: 52-35 39-33

Days in First Place: 82 161

Farthest Games Behind: 6 1/2 never

Most Games Below .500 2 never

So far, the 2005 White Sox have the advantage 10-6 in the above statistical categories, with a tie in Team Fielding Percentage for both clubs. The numbers strongly suggest that while the '09 Yankees were a much better offensive club, the 2005 White Sox clearly had much better pitching. The numbers also suggest that while the '09 Yankees were much more dominant at home, the '05 White Sox were fabulous on the road. The '09 Yankees dominated left handed starting pitching, and played very well against teams above .500. The '05 White Sox had a better interleague record, were terrific in one run games, and dominated sub-par competition. Also the '05 White Sox, were never below .500, and stayed in first place the entire regular season wire to wire. The '09 Yankees didn't even come close to wire to wire.

Still not convinced the '09 Yankees are not the best single season team of the decade? OK, let's look at Postseason Performance (based on totals of all 3 combined ALDS, ALCS, WS):

NY '09 CHI '05

Team Batting Average: .257 .270

Team OBP: .350 .345

Runs Scored/game 5.33 5.50

Team ERA 3.26 2.55

Runs Allowed/game 3.47 2.83

The numbers strongly indicate that the '05 White Sox were much stronger in the postseason than the '09 Yankees. Not only did the '05 White Sox continue to outpitch the '09 Yankees, but they were also better than them offensively too! Couple that with (count 'em) 4 straight complete games from the starting staff in the 2005 ALCS which was the first time that had happened in the postseason since 1956, and it becomes even more clear that the '05 White Sox were better than '09 Yankees.

So why did SI choose to overlook the '05 White Sox? Pick any number of the same ole reasons. East Coast Bias, Short Term Memory, Chicago teams get no respect nationally, etc...All that matters though, is that White Sox meatballs like myself and my brother will continue to painfully remind people that the '05 White Sox were not just great that year, they were historically great. Along with the ALCS pitching performance, the '05 White Sox are one of three teams in baseball history to go wire to wire, and sweep the World Series. The other two teams? The 1990 Cincinnati Reds, and the 1927 New York Yankees. Repeat....the 27 YANKEES!

Lets make sure the 2005 White Sox monumental baseball achievement will never be forgotten.

Yule Log

Going to be spending some quality time with the family for the holiday. So Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to you and yours! This blog will be back real soon for some more fractured takes on the world of sports!!!

Yeah it's a Blackhawk Post....

Congrats to the Chicago Blackhawks for a thrilling 3-0 shutout of the Detroit Red Wings tonight, and for their second shutout of the Red Wings in four days. It was vintage Hawks as their #1 ranked goals per game average, and #2 ranked penalty killing percentage were on full display at The Joe. Not only did the Hawks look very crisp with their passing and stickhandling, but the game itself was also chippy, with plenty of pushing, shoving and glove smelling on both teams part. Once again Antti Niemi showed that he might be more than just a capable backup tending the net as he posted his 4th shutout in 9 starts, and pushed the Hossa storyline to the back burner, even though Hossa had an assist.

It was also a very important bounce-back victory after a bit of a downer loss to the San Jose Sharks the night before. The Hawks are now tied with the Sharks for the most points in the West with 51. The Blackhawks continue to put a quality product on the ice that their (ever increasing) fanbase can put their trust in, but the NHL as a whole continues one of the biggest and unlikeliest comebacks in terms of relevance in the world of sports. This Blog is one of many who have "Committed to the Indian".

NFL Nuggets

Fresh off the heels of another embarrassing national TV loss against the Carolina Panthers, the Minnesota Vikings decided to make a bad situation, much worse with some pointless sideline drama. Head Coach Brad Childress actually tried to take Brett Favre out of the game, not for his ineffectiveness, but for fear of Favre getting injured. Favre took exception to this, "talked it out" on the sideline, and remained in the game.

There's two sides to this obviously, but why would Childress start worrying about Favre's safety NOW? Favre is 40 years old, admitted that he played injured last year and didn't tell anybody, and is known as being one of the great "competitors" in the history of the game. Childress and the Vikings were willing ignore the dangers and risks behind these facts this past summer, so why fret about it at this point in the season? The Vikings are fighting for home field advantage, and had a huge opportunity to close the gap between them and the Saints. They blew that opportunity Sunday, and now have to deal with questions like "Who is really running the team, Brett, or Brad?" and "Are you really more concerned with Brett's health than home field advantage?" Not the best way to handle things when you just got a 4 year contract extension Brad Childress. Fortunately for you, the Bears are next up on the menu.


It would be remiss to not address recent changes in Whitey Guccione's very own Cleveland Browns. Brady Quinn is now done for the season and now Derek Anderson will have to, once again, show that he can't play in the NFL all the way to the finish line. Hope is looming on the horizon for Whitey, as Mike Holmgren has agreed to become Team President.

Congrats to him, Whitey, and the rest of Browns Nation. Holmgren has more than his work cut out for him. The big debate will be what his first move is coaching wise. Eric Mangini (shocker) says he isn't worried in the least, and is showing in his own words a "flippant" attitude towards his future. In this blog's view, Mangini might be hanging out with Charlie Weis very soon...


$100 million dollars doesn't equal happiness? Albert Haynesworth made a point to say exactly that today as he lambasted his head coach Jim Zorn after one of the most humiliating loss in Washington Redskins history. What is interesting is the words Haynesworth used in describing the problem, "We need somebody to lead us in the right direction."

Ummmm Albert, you're supposed to be one of the "leaders" buddy. Role players, and foot soldiers don't get $100 million dollar deals, leaders do. Leaders, let their practice habits and play, set the example. Leaders don't throw their head coaches under the bus, no matter how justified it may be. Leaders don't sit around and bitch about how bad things are when they produce a walloping 4 sacks for the season. You think the Redskins are missing a leader? The best place to start looking for one is staring at you right in the mirror.

One more thing about the Redskins. Yeah Jim Zorn is not a good coach. Sure he was way under-qualified when he got the job from Dan Synder last season. Of course he was effectively fired the day Sherm Lewis showed up at Ashburn, VA in the middle of this season, and everyone is entitled to rip on the Redskins if they choose to do so. The one guy who should NEVER get to rip on the Redskins, or anyone else's team, is Matt Freakin MILLEN!! I'm so glad Mike Freeman of cbssportsline.com caught this too. How many coaches did you fire because you kept drafting wide receivers again Millen? Next time you feel like laughing at someone, remember that you are the worst GM in the History of the National Football League and you're lucky to have a broadcasting job again.