The New Year Means Predictions (Part 1)
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Roger Grossman, Lake City Radio-
Predictions and sports go hand-in-hand, too. And, like the guy who will scream and howl on Friday about who is going to win the games on Sunday, most people don’t remember predictions made about sports (or anything else for that matter) any better than they remember their own new year’s resolutions.
That being true, making predictions this time of year is a fun activity with no pressure on the results. Actually, sometimes they are more fun when you plant your tongue firmly in your cheek.
So for the next two weeks we are going to give you 12 predictions for the upcoming year – one for each month. Here are the first six:
JANUARY: Former Warsaw Tiger quarterback Ben Higgins announced his presence with authority in the season debut of The Bachelor Monday night. OK, not really, but it was fun to write!
I am not into reality TV because I cover sports, which is real reality. And the dating shows are the worst. But, I must admit it does put a smile on my face to think that the Ben Higgins I used to talk to on the practice field every Thursday to get the scouting report on opposing defenses is now THE heartthrob of the entire nation.
PREDICTION: Higgins will be surrounded by babes of all shapes and sizes for two months of episodes but will get to the end of the show and walk off the set during the finale and take the last rose with him, realizing that he’s wasted his time looking for true love in a place where it’s not likely to exist, and women around America will rejoice with the hopes that THEY might become Mrs. Higgins. You’re the best Ben … good luck!
FEBRUARY: The predictions for February almost exclusively revolved around the Super Bowl. But this year the high school girls basketball tournament has been moved back to the four Saturdays in February, no longer putting the state finals in conflict with boys sectional championship games and eliminating a major step backward for the progress of girls sports.
Tippecanoe Valley rallied a community with a great run through the regular season and first two steps of the tournament trail last year, and then beat rival Rochester in front of a nearly sold-out Tiger Den in Warsaw for a trip to the state finals.
It is REALLY hard to do that two years in a row (especially in 3A and 4A), but if there is a team built to do it Chris Kindig’s team can. They will likely face a harder road this time, but it’s certainly not impossible.
PREDICTION: You don’t really think I am going to predict what 15 to 18-year-old girls are going to do, do you? I’m crazy but not insane. I will predict that Valley and Whitko will play well in the postseason and, well, how far they go is up to them.
MARCH: I would like to put in ink that this is finally the year that Purdue makes it to the Final Four. There is certainly a lot of talent there, but if one thing has been exposed in the last few weeks it’s that the boys from West Lafayette are vulnerable to a team with strong guard play.
PREDICTION: Purdue will make it to the Elite 8 and be stopped just shy of basketball’s promise land … but will still go deeper than the Indiana Hoosiers, and that will make it all OK for Boiler fans.
APRIL: Spring will be …“springing” (is that a word?) and thoughts in April will turn to Cubs baseball. The 2015 season was SO good for the Cubs and their fans that the ticket department moved the normal start for buying tickets for the general public up to December. That just never happens! The Kiddie Cubs that made it to within four wins of the World Series seem to have added the right pieces to erase a century of demons.
PREDICTION: I’d rather predict what high school girls are going to do than pick the Cubs to win the World Series. I’ll play this one safe and forecast the Cubs will play all of their home games next season at Wrigley Field.
MAY: The NHL Playoffs will be in full swing. The Chicago Blackhawks had to let go of several key pieces from their third Stanley Cup title in six seasons last year. They currently have the hottest goaltender on the planet in Corey Crawford, who has six shutouts this season (tops in the NHL) and has four in his last ten starts.
Goalies are to hockey what pitchers are to baseball – the team with this goalie who stands on his head in the playoffs tends to win a lot of games. The big difference, you can put your goalie out there every game instead of only every fifth game. Add to that the most creative player on skates in Patrick Kane and that gets the Hawks deep into the playoffs, but their past will catch up with them.
PREDICTION: The woman who originally claimed that Kane sexually assaulted her late last summer will come forward to tell her story at all the wrong time for Kane and his teammates. It will derail the defending champs and challenge the front office’s patience with the star of stars in the NHL.
JUNE: The rivalry between the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals is renewed toward the end of the month at Wrigley Field. The Cubs are eight games up on the defending NL Central Champs and Jason Heyward is not only having a great season but he is crushing his former team. Remember, the Cards offered him more money to stay in St. Louis and he turned it down because the Cardinals’ core players were getting too old for his liking. That makes it personal.
PREDICTION: The emotion will boil over under the hot Chicago sun on June 22 when Adam Wainwright hits Heyward with a pitch right in the ear hole to show him he’s not too old to ‘start something.’ It marks the moment the torch is passed up I-55.
Next week, when the high temperatures are around 20 degrees, we’ll make predictions about July and the rest of the year.[[In-content Ad]]
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Predictions and sports go hand-in-hand, too. And, like the guy who will scream and howl on Friday about who is going to win the games on Sunday, most people don’t remember predictions made about sports (or anything else for that matter) any better than they remember their own new year’s resolutions.
That being true, making predictions this time of year is a fun activity with no pressure on the results. Actually, sometimes they are more fun when you plant your tongue firmly in your cheek.
So for the next two weeks we are going to give you 12 predictions for the upcoming year – one for each month. Here are the first six:
JANUARY: Former Warsaw Tiger quarterback Ben Higgins announced his presence with authority in the season debut of The Bachelor Monday night. OK, not really, but it was fun to write!
I am not into reality TV because I cover sports, which is real reality. And the dating shows are the worst. But, I must admit it does put a smile on my face to think that the Ben Higgins I used to talk to on the practice field every Thursday to get the scouting report on opposing defenses is now THE heartthrob of the entire nation.
PREDICTION: Higgins will be surrounded by babes of all shapes and sizes for two months of episodes but will get to the end of the show and walk off the set during the finale and take the last rose with him, realizing that he’s wasted his time looking for true love in a place where it’s not likely to exist, and women around America will rejoice with the hopes that THEY might become Mrs. Higgins. You’re the best Ben … good luck!
FEBRUARY: The predictions for February almost exclusively revolved around the Super Bowl. But this year the high school girls basketball tournament has been moved back to the four Saturdays in February, no longer putting the state finals in conflict with boys sectional championship games and eliminating a major step backward for the progress of girls sports.
Tippecanoe Valley rallied a community with a great run through the regular season and first two steps of the tournament trail last year, and then beat rival Rochester in front of a nearly sold-out Tiger Den in Warsaw for a trip to the state finals.
It is REALLY hard to do that two years in a row (especially in 3A and 4A), but if there is a team built to do it Chris Kindig’s team can. They will likely face a harder road this time, but it’s certainly not impossible.
PREDICTION: You don’t really think I am going to predict what 15 to 18-year-old girls are going to do, do you? I’m crazy but not insane. I will predict that Valley and Whitko will play well in the postseason and, well, how far they go is up to them.
MARCH: I would like to put in ink that this is finally the year that Purdue makes it to the Final Four. There is certainly a lot of talent there, but if one thing has been exposed in the last few weeks it’s that the boys from West Lafayette are vulnerable to a team with strong guard play.
PREDICTION: Purdue will make it to the Elite 8 and be stopped just shy of basketball’s promise land … but will still go deeper than the Indiana Hoosiers, and that will make it all OK for Boiler fans.
APRIL: Spring will be …“springing” (is that a word?) and thoughts in April will turn to Cubs baseball. The 2015 season was SO good for the Cubs and their fans that the ticket department moved the normal start for buying tickets for the general public up to December. That just never happens! The Kiddie Cubs that made it to within four wins of the World Series seem to have added the right pieces to erase a century of demons.
PREDICTION: I’d rather predict what high school girls are going to do than pick the Cubs to win the World Series. I’ll play this one safe and forecast the Cubs will play all of their home games next season at Wrigley Field.
MAY: The NHL Playoffs will be in full swing. The Chicago Blackhawks had to let go of several key pieces from their third Stanley Cup title in six seasons last year. They currently have the hottest goaltender on the planet in Corey Crawford, who has six shutouts this season (tops in the NHL) and has four in his last ten starts.
Goalies are to hockey what pitchers are to baseball – the team with this goalie who stands on his head in the playoffs tends to win a lot of games. The big difference, you can put your goalie out there every game instead of only every fifth game. Add to that the most creative player on skates in Patrick Kane and that gets the Hawks deep into the playoffs, but their past will catch up with them.
PREDICTION: The woman who originally claimed that Kane sexually assaulted her late last summer will come forward to tell her story at all the wrong time for Kane and his teammates. It will derail the defending champs and challenge the front office’s patience with the star of stars in the NHL.
JUNE: The rivalry between the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals is renewed toward the end of the month at Wrigley Field. The Cubs are eight games up on the defending NL Central Champs and Jason Heyward is not only having a great season but he is crushing his former team. Remember, the Cards offered him more money to stay in St. Louis and he turned it down because the Cardinals’ core players were getting too old for his liking. That makes it personal.
PREDICTION: The emotion will boil over under the hot Chicago sun on June 22 when Adam Wainwright hits Heyward with a pitch right in the ear hole to show him he’s not too old to ‘start something.’ It marks the moment the torch is passed up I-55.
Next week, when the high temperatures are around 20 degrees, we’ll make predictions about July and the rest of the year.[[In-content Ad]]
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