Cubby-Blue

The 2010 Chicago Bears Roller Coaster.

From the hellish depths of the NY Giants sack dance pasting to the heavenly skies of a thrilling Philadelphia Eagles beat-up and shut-down, the Chicago Bears are one up and down team.
So far.
Everybody keeps pointing to the offense changing from all-passing to even-steven running and passing for the reason the O switched on.
The D has pretty much been awesome all year.
I was shocked when the Bears beat the Vikings, buy yesterday?
I was prepared for a 20 point loss.
Look what happened.

Matt Forte was unbelievable, Jay Cutler (except for the Carlos Zambrano imitation leading to his penalty) was the best he's ever been as a Bear, and that game-changing red zone interception of a Michael Vick pass was impossible.

Plus, and this will sound insane, but if I'm any other team kicking off in the NFL against the Bears, I might be more afraid of Danieal Manning than Devin Hester. 

Yesterday, everything changed with a 31-26 victory over a first place Eagles team.
It's possible that the Bears are actually coming together right when the schedule gets tough (for everybody - see Green Bay Packers).

It's a long, blind roller coaster with these guys, and the bottom can go away at any moment.

If I keep expecting that, maybe I won''t hurl.

 

Lance Briggs is Vick's Vaporizer.

If the Bears beat Michael Vick and the Eagles, it'll be a season changer.
Beating the Bills and the lost-without-a-cause Vikings and a 3rd string qb'd Dolphins is one thing, but beating the Eagles when they're so on fire and with Michael Vick lookin' like Superman would be... off in another world.
Without wishing any extreme violence on another player in today's new-rules era, here's hoping Lance Briggs vaporizes Vick on numerous occasions.

Go Bears.

 

Thanksgiving's over, Cubs. What you gonna do with your leftovers?

I was trying to amuse myself while helping put away Thanksgiving dinner by naming some of the leftovers after Cubs. It started with leftover stuffing: Carlos Silva. Appropriate for some reason, yes? Then the casserole that didn't turn out right: Kosuke Fukudome. Jeff Baker was of course the leftover pie. Soriano the leftover gravy made with exotic mushrooms we paid way too much for. But the leftover turkey was for sure Koyie Hill because he was the king of horrible last season.
Not that the turkey was horrible, mind you, just the memory of Koyie Hill's year (from ESPN):

Yeah, he ought to just be a good pitcher guy, good defensive guy, we shouldn't really worry about his bat, right?
Still, I wanted to see more of Welington Castillo...

Anyway, we pretty much take ALL the leftovers and make 'em into a thick soup. 

First you boil the turkey uh, carcass (do you call it that?) to make the broth and get all the rest of the meat off. Then you can literally throw in everything to make soup - the mashers, gravy, casserole, stuffing... anything but pumpkin pie or cranberry sauce (which you want to save for the turkey/cranberry/cream cheese sandwiches anyway). 

And this soup, it always turns out fantastic.

Wouldn't it be AWESOME if the Cubs could take their leftovers and make something fantastic out of them?

Take Kosuke/Baker/Hill and make them into a set-up guy or a first baseman somehow? 

Probably I'm dreaming.
I heard the middle of an interview with Jim Hendry yesterday on the radio, and it was almost all about: why did he choose Quadeyadayadayada. I'm so over that. Spilled milk under the bridge, as they say. 

Okay, gonna go get started on that soup.
How bout you, Jim?

 

Let us give thanks to the Pilgrims, the first Cub Fans.

How long has it been since the Cubs last won the World Series?
A looong time, my friend.
And what many people don't realize is that some of America's earliest settlers were actually big Cub fans. 


The Pilgrims first came to America in the early 1900's, bringing the game of baseball with them.
You all know about the famous Pilgrim Cub Fan explorers Louis and Clark and their famous expedition where they famously found Wrigley Field.

Interestingly, the ballpark was located on Addison Street. But walking around the corner, the duo discovered another street running north/south. And as the story goes, they flipped a gold doubloon to see which explorer the street would be named after.
Of course the winner was William "Clark".

In 1908 the Cubs won the World Series. Pilgrim Cub Fans were so thankful and turkeys so aplenty, they decided to invent Thanksgiving.

They hunted turkeys down and wrung their turkey necks, boiled them in a vat of oil til they were done just so, and proclaimed the holiday.

 

 
This is believed to be Geovany Durocher, Leo's great grandfather, at one of the early Thanksgiving Feasts.

As you would expect, there were many women Pilgrim Cub Fans showing their true colors back in the day. 

Many current Wrigley Field traditions were actually the contributions of Pilgrim Cub Fans.

So as we sit round the Thanksgiving Table tomorrow night, let's give a word of thanks and admiration to the Pilgrim Cub Fans, inventors of Thanksgiving, and the last people to actually experience the Cubs winning a World Series.

This article was the contribution of guest author and noted historian Cornelius Goat, and has not been fact-checked. - Tim

Marlon Byrd sends MVP Joey Votto his congratulations.

You remember the All-Star game thing, right?
No shakey handsey with Marlon after his awesome defensive play?
Votto said this later: "I don't like the Cubs. And I'm not going to pat anybody with a Cubs uniform on the back. But because he made that really cool play, it turned out to be a really cool experience. I'm really glad we got the win today." 

Still, I'm pretty sure Marlon Byrd would actually have nothing bad to say about Joey Votto. This was a buncha nothin' and I'm guilty of piling on top of nothin' because there's nothin' goin' on right now. In fact, as I write this post Joey Votto hasn't even officially been named the MVP, but I'm 99% certain that'll happen when they announce today at 2pm.

But since Joey's a left-handed power hitting first baseman, what he does do is remind me that oh yeah, the Cubs don't even have a first baseman right now. 
If you go to Cubs.com, this is what you'll see on the depth chart:

See, Micah Hoffpauir took a job with a Japanese team called Nippon Ham Fighters (Wittenmyer here).
And Jeff Baker is... well I've never figured it out. Who IS Jeff Baker and how did his name get on that depth chart?

Apparently we'll have to wait until Jim Hendry can dump even more salary over the winter, which means figuring out what to do with Fukudome, Zambrano, and Silva. And then we'll see who the Cubs can afford for a first baseman. Names that have come up include Adam Dunn, Adrian Gonzales, Adam LaRoche, and of course Aaron Miles is always gettable.
Whatever they do my hope is that Tyler Colvin would remain a right fielder and if he does play first it's because of some on-the-field emergency, or maybe it's the 7th inning and Cubs are up by 14 against Pittsburgh.

And now it's almost Thanksgiving and another Detroit Lions game, this one vs. New England. 
Should be AWESOME!