The Penalty Box
November 17, 2020 at 11:39 p.m.
By Roger Grossman-
There is a general and well-founded concern about the current state of affairs of the five major sports teams in the big city up the road.
Let’s review.
The Bulls. They have a new coach, again. But in Billy Donovan, it feels like they have put an end to the parade of warm bodies that have occupied the most important seat on the Bulls bench.
However, the players still aren’t very good or are very young and the team has absolutely, positively no identity whatsoever. They struggle for long stretches on offense, and they counter that by being consistently porous on defense.
To go along with that, their high draft picks haven’t worked out and free agents have had virtually no interest in coming to the Chicago. Maybe that changes with the new coach, but Bulls fans and NBA followers are very much entrenched in the “we’ll believe it when we see it” camp.
The Blackhawks. After winning three Stanley Cup championships in the first six years of the last decade, the other resident of the UC seems to be on very thin ice.
After the 2016 Cup hoisting on home ice, the ‘Hawks backed that up with a 50-win season and were poised to make it four-out-of-seven. They faced Nashville in the opening round of the playoffs that spring and were promptly swept while being shut out twice at home and scoring three goals in four games.
From that point on, they’ve made the playoffs only once in three years, and only their stunning upset of Edmonton in the COVID-altered post season this summer allowed them to sneak into the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The architect of the title run, President John McDonough, was sent packing.
Goalie Corey Crawford, who raised the Cup twice with Chicago, was told he wouldn’t be back.
The winning window has closed for the Blackhawks, and hard winter nights are coming on the west side.
The Cubs. Speaking of windows closing…the north siders’ run seems to be over, too.
The front office says there is no money to sign their existing core group of stars let alone new players to compliment them. For the second straight year those same executives promise massive changes, including the trading of one or many of those aforementioned core players.
After ending 108 years of frustration and pain in 2016, the Cubs have been in a steady decline. They strike out a lot and leave a lot of runners on base.
But can you imagine going back to the rebuilding mode of 2014—where there was no pretending of the team’s intentions to not win games?
Nope, me neither.
The Bears. At least the Bears have an identity. Their defense is really good, but it can’t do everything. It does its job, but the offense is miserable and changing the play-caller sure didn’t make things look any better.
In Chicago, you must be able to run the football—and this team can’t.
At the game’s most important position, the Bears offer a carrousel of quarterbacks. I just don’t even know what to say, or write, about that dumpster fire.
The offensive line was shaky to start with, but it has suffered injuries and COVID-related losses during the season and there is no sign of improvement this side of the NFL Draft.
Faith in the Bears front office is understandably non-existent.
The White Sox. The one shining light in the city with the stars on its flag would seem to be the Sox. Through some really favorable trades and some excellent free agent signings, the Sox have the attention of everyone in the sport.
Seeing their window of success opening, they jettisoned manager Ricky Renteria to find a proven winner to lead the franchise back into title contention.
And with half-a-dozen really good candidates to do just that, they baffled us by turning to 76-year old Tony LaRussa.
For 24-hours, the Sox front office had to answer the question of “how can it get worse than bringing back a guy you fired 34 years ago who has been out of the game for a decade and who repeatedly barks about bat flipping and fist pumping?”
Then it got worse.
The Sox admitted they knew that TLR had been arrested in February on a charge of drunk driving in which he damaged his vehicle and blew a .095 BAC.
It was his second arrest—and after the first one he famously boasted that he had learned his lesson and would never do that again.
Charges were officially filed in that case the day before LaRussa was announced as manager.
You might say Chicago sports is on the brink…of becoming Detroit.
There is a general and well-founded concern about the current state of affairs of the five major sports teams in the big city up the road.
Let’s review.
The Bulls. They have a new coach, again. But in Billy Donovan, it feels like they have put an end to the parade of warm bodies that have occupied the most important seat on the Bulls bench.
However, the players still aren’t very good or are very young and the team has absolutely, positively no identity whatsoever. They struggle for long stretches on offense, and they counter that by being consistently porous on defense.
To go along with that, their high draft picks haven’t worked out and free agents have had virtually no interest in coming to the Chicago. Maybe that changes with the new coach, but Bulls fans and NBA followers are very much entrenched in the “we’ll believe it when we see it” camp.
The Blackhawks. After winning three Stanley Cup championships in the first six years of the last decade, the other resident of the UC seems to be on very thin ice.
After the 2016 Cup hoisting on home ice, the ‘Hawks backed that up with a 50-win season and were poised to make it four-out-of-seven. They faced Nashville in the opening round of the playoffs that spring and were promptly swept while being shut out twice at home and scoring three goals in four games.
From that point on, they’ve made the playoffs only once in three years, and only their stunning upset of Edmonton in the COVID-altered post season this summer allowed them to sneak into the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The architect of the title run, President John McDonough, was sent packing.
Goalie Corey Crawford, who raised the Cup twice with Chicago, was told he wouldn’t be back.
The winning window has closed for the Blackhawks, and hard winter nights are coming on the west side.
The Cubs. Speaking of windows closing…the north siders’ run seems to be over, too.
The front office says there is no money to sign their existing core group of stars let alone new players to compliment them. For the second straight year those same executives promise massive changes, including the trading of one or many of those aforementioned core players.
After ending 108 years of frustration and pain in 2016, the Cubs have been in a steady decline. They strike out a lot and leave a lot of runners on base.
But can you imagine going back to the rebuilding mode of 2014—where there was no pretending of the team’s intentions to not win games?
Nope, me neither.
The Bears. At least the Bears have an identity. Their defense is really good, but it can’t do everything. It does its job, but the offense is miserable and changing the play-caller sure didn’t make things look any better.
In Chicago, you must be able to run the football—and this team can’t.
At the game’s most important position, the Bears offer a carrousel of quarterbacks. I just don’t even know what to say, or write, about that dumpster fire.
The offensive line was shaky to start with, but it has suffered injuries and COVID-related losses during the season and there is no sign of improvement this side of the NFL Draft.
Faith in the Bears front office is understandably non-existent.
The White Sox. The one shining light in the city with the stars on its flag would seem to be the Sox. Through some really favorable trades and some excellent free agent signings, the Sox have the attention of everyone in the sport.
Seeing their window of success opening, they jettisoned manager Ricky Renteria to find a proven winner to lead the franchise back into title contention.
And with half-a-dozen really good candidates to do just that, they baffled us by turning to 76-year old Tony LaRussa.
For 24-hours, the Sox front office had to answer the question of “how can it get worse than bringing back a guy you fired 34 years ago who has been out of the game for a decade and who repeatedly barks about bat flipping and fist pumping?”
Then it got worse.
The Sox admitted they knew that TLR had been arrested in February on a charge of drunk driving in which he damaged his vehicle and blew a .095 BAC.
It was his second arrest—and after the first one he famously boasted that he had learned his lesson and would never do that again.
Charges were officially filed in that case the day before LaRussa was announced as manager.
You might say Chicago sports is on the brink…of becoming Detroit.
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