Cubby-Blue

Crazy NFL Sunday for the Bears/Ravens. What about some new turf at Soldier Field?

I park below the AON Center for work every day.
If you're going to a Bears game, it's the perfect place to park with the busses picking you up literally in front of the building.
This morning when I was parking for work, there was a Bears Fan just leaving.
Yesterday was one loooooong day if you actually went to Soldier.

I will continue to learn the tendencies of Marc Trestman as time goes along, but I had a heart attack at the end of regulation when he... didn't call any timeouts.
He bet all his money on the D being able to hold the Ravens to a field goal, and... well... he won.
Incredible game.
Lions lose, it's all good for Bear Fans.

But tornadoes (if I hear "tornadic activity one more time I'll go ballistic) at Thanksgiving are something I never signed up for.
It was the most surreal day ever.
I watched the weather guy just like you did, saw the first photos of incredible devastation - whole sections of towns just flattened and they're talking to some guy who is there and that biscuithead voice - whoever was asking questions to the person "on the ground" is looking at the same pictures I am and asking (my words), "You mean to tell me that houses have been destroyed?"
Not a word about injuries.
Then cut to somebody else who says (again, my words), "Well the most important thing is if you've just turned on the tv, the Bears game has been delayed so you're not missing anything..."
Huh?
Just a crazy day.

Anyway, on the field there actually was some amazing football.
When you have to play (or surf) on a field of grass that just moves under your feet and there's nothging but water and mud underneath, it's pretty awesome to have Matt Forte on your team, an actual offensive line, and a backup QB like Josh McCown.
And a kicker like Robbie Gould.

Bears 23 Ravens 20.

ps: The grass at Soldier Field? Hmmm.

ps ps: this rainbow popped out for about 3 minutes after the first storm.

Hoyer vs. Hendry: why Cub Fans should know that there's no such thing as a quick fix. (gif)

Well, isn't THAT an oversimplification, Tim?
Maybe.
But when I read around and find comments from angry Cub Fans who wish the Cubs would change their plans and suddenly hurry the whole deal up?
This is actually a pretty good illustration of what happens.
Quick fixes don't work.
The Cubs are not only NOT trying for a quick fix, they're doing something that's probably historically never been done, which is a complete cleaning house/overhaul of a major market team in full view of it's fan base.
Can you think of one?
It's as ballsy a thing as I've ever seen in sports, and it's not even on the field.
Does it make me have a kind of split personality?
Sure.
What else would I write and draw about if not created by the whipped dog Cub Fan personality I've developed over a lifetime of losing.
It makes you sort of crazy.
But we've never seen anything like what's going on right now.
The very idea of actual Cubs making up a whole team of Cubs rather than players from every other team making up the Cubs is mind-blowing.

I'm sure the impatience will get even worse as time goes on.
But hell man, this thing is going to pay off and our time will come.
Do what you have to do to survive this period, but I hope your frustration comes on one side of your head while the other knows this is the right path, right now.
That quote from Jed Hoyer, and I hope I transcribed it exactly, is from a radio interview with David Kaplan on WGN radio.
The Jim Hendry part I cobbled together from here and here.
Jed will probably have to repeat that message about a million times again, too.

Ahh that's better - I just wanted to get that off my chest.
And of course I reserve the right to switch to the other side of my brain tomorrow and wallow insanely with more "what do do while waiting for the Cubs to win a World Series" type stuff.

Now, you wanna get happy?
Click over to Bleed Cubbie Blue and watch this 1965 Cubs vs Reds game everybody's talking about courtesy of Al Yellon.
It's in jaw droppingly gorgeous color, and loaded with the kind of Cubs History that made me what I am today.
The Cubs get no-hit, of course.

Lastly, GO BEARS!

Read about Kris Bryant and see what happens to you, Cub Fan. (gif)

I can't write this stuff.
I'm not a reporter or some kinda pro guy with access to players or scouts.
I'm a simple cave man Cub Fan, so all I can do is try to show what it feels like.
Like after reading about Kris Bryant.
I went from comments on The Cub Reporter, which led me to a story on Bleacher Nation, which led me to the root of it all at Fan Graphs.
Kris Bryant is making me all woozy and I've never once seen him even swing a bat.
Read those numbers.
Read about what his approach to hitting.
Buddy, if that's the Cubs Way, then I'm all... okay well I was already all in, but this Kris Bryant stuff just makes it more "in" or something.

LIke...
It was my Dad's birthday this last weekend, so we flew out to Arizona to surprise him.
On the way to Prescott, we got hungry for lunch and saw this sort of cowboy lookin' place off the highway called the Rock Springs Cafe. 
It had a big sign that said "saloon" out front, so I was all in.


But THEN, I saw another sign that said this:



THEY HAVE PIE?
I'm even more in.

So, today's lesson is that Kris Bryant is like.. the pie... at the Cubs Way Saloon.
Class dismissed.



Seriously, they had pie.
Like every kind of pie you can imagine.
If you're ever north of Phoenix, you gotta stop.

Related articles

VIDEO: Kris Bryant Arizona Fall League Interview

Bears' clean up crew had to clean up all the points left on the field. (cartoon)

No time for a depressing recap today.
But you probably saw the same thing I did.
They shoulda won, man. 

Bears vs Lions. A HUGE opportunity for Chicago. (gif)

You've been thinking about this all week.
What if the Bears can beat the Lions and the Packers lose to the Eagles?
I think any dang thing can happen in that Packers game.
But the Bears, they ought to be a bit more motivated this weekend.
A home game, revenge for the last loss, Cutler out to prove he's healthy... it's just a huge opportunity for the Bears.
Because, and I'm certain you've done this math too, it could go from 3 teams tied at 5-3 to one team (that would be the Bears) at 6-3, and the other two at 5-4.

Giant day for the Bears.
As for me, well that's in the cartoon.
(of course that's a joke - nobody has the rights to the remote on NFL Sunday but me) 

BEAR DOWN! 

Rick Renteria. Finally a new Cubs manager.

Yay.
The Cubs hired a new manager, ex Padre bench coach Rick Renteria.
It's not all baseball celebrity-atory like Joe Girardi would have been, but it is fantastic they got a guy who's supposed to be a good teacher and speaks the language of some of the Cubs most promising players.
Plus he kinda looks like Earl Weaver with that older guy white hair thing going on - looks like a baseball man.
I'm also glad they hired him just because it was taking forever.

So lets see if Starlin Castro can get back on track.
Remember at the beginning?
All that promise that sort of just flattened out last year.
I can't believe that was all Dale Sveum's fault, but that doesn't matter now - there's a new guy and I'm dying to hear what Theo Epstein has to say about him at the press conference even though Renteria won't be there due to some hip thing that won't allow him to travel.
Maybe somebody with an i-Phone will video him putting on the Cubs jersey.

Lastly, it's just an eye-poppingly gorgeous fall day in Chicago.

And now... back to your regularly scheduled wait for the World Series...