HAPPY... HARPY... HARPER New Years, Cubs.

Sorry.
Except for the Bears, this Bryce Harper thing seems to be the Headline of the End of 2018.
I'm actually still all in on let's just update the bullpen and I'll be plenty happy with that.
There is some real anxiety and anger out there about this Hot Stove being sort of... WE'RE BEING LEFT BEHIND THE ONLY THING THAT CAN SAVE US IS HARPER. 
Sometimes I miss the days before the internet and the off season was just called "Football Season".
"Hot Stove" was something general managers talked about.
If an important trade happened, it showed up in about two column inches of black type on page 7 of the Sports Section.
If someone along the lines of Kendall Graveman signed, you wouldn't hear about it until Harry said something like, "... here comes Gruh... Grave-Man. The Cubs picked him up over the winter. He used to be on the A's and now he's here. Hey, Graveman spelled backwards is Name-Arg!"

But it's not then, it's now, and like I said there's Harper Angst all over the place.

Oh well, how 'bout them Bears?
I could not be happier for any human than I am for Kyle Long.
His first season, 2013, was Marc Trestman's first, and the 8-8 record that year would be the best on any Bear team Long played for.
Until now.
It was so painful to see him head to the DL at the start, and extra super sweet to see him come back just in time for the playoffs.
Yesterday's impressive 24-10 W to knock out the Vikings was amazing.
Yeah I was screaming at the tv when Trubisky was running with the ball at the end there.
Had he gotten hurt, I can't imagine the Collective Scream.
The injuries that did happen were to wide recievers - Anthony Miller with a shoulder (he dislocated it in September, didn't need surgery and was back after a week off), and Taylor Gabriel with a rib injury (luckily that's not painful or anyth... WAIT IT IS TOO!)
And the defense is just so damned good.
It's so great that the offense has the great line, amazing backs and an actual QP with talent, promise and brains.
But nothing makes me happier than this Bears D.
I just looked at the Pro Football Reference Bears Team Encyclopedia page.
See the top 12 players with their pics up top?
7 are from the '85 Superbowl team.
Then Butkus, Urlacher, Briggs, Forte, and Olin Kreutz.
Hard to argue with those names, but I bet there's a re-structuring of that list in the near future.
And I've got nothin' but confidence in their chances come next week.
When they play the Eagles at Soldier Field in the Wild Card game.
Playoff football.
I completely forgot your face.

Okay.
Happy New Year everyone.
And Go Bears!

Comments

[Bud]

You get old enough, and you realize things.

Like they don't do stuff the way they did when you were younger. Your grandpa said it. Your dad said it. And now it's your turn to say it. How about a little perspective?

Some (many?) of us here are too young to remember the early days of baseball free agency. In 1978, when the Phillies signed Pete Rose for the unheard of sum of $800K per year. MLB writers and fans alike were shocked! By golly, that was nearly SIX times the average MLB salary at the time! Commissioner Bowie Kuhn joined the hue and cry, saying free-agent bidding would "inevitably lead to a group of elite teams controlling the sport".

The AVERAGE MLB player salary last year was $4.38 million. Good ballplayers who are free agents get, guess what?... about SIX times that.

The sport is not ruined.

Today, I watch TV ads and see marketers who are not interested in me and my demographic. They're courting customers in ways I don't understand. Life moves on, but most of us older guys remain stuck with our opinions that were formed long ago.

So yeah, times change. The winter is no longer the "off season". Decisions that are made in Jan-Feb-Mar have as much impact on next year's team as ones that are made at any time during the season.

They don't do stuff the way they did when we were younger.

Tell your kids...

[Tim@Cubby Blue]

Hi Bud,
Oh I know.
We can't not pay attention to this time of year.
But maybe I should take a vaca from all the social stuff.
I read one article at the Athletic that actually claimed the Cubs will be better next year with a healthy Bryant and Darvish - you wouldn't believe how rare that kind of article is. And it seems so obvious.
Anyway, that article still ended with it sure would be nice to get Harper.