Incredible…Wet Blanket

The Bears scored ten points with 2:04 left in regulation to force overtime against the Packers in a rocking Soldier Field last night and then went on to win on a 46-yard touchdown throw from Caleb Williams to DJ Moore. Nothing short of incredible. Now for the stuff that might otherwise be forgotten in all the excitement, like ten penalties for 105 yards. That can’t happen in the postseason. Same goes for time of possession. You can’t expect to beat a good team by letting them control the ball over twelve minutes more than you do. And you can’t expect to beat a good team by knocking out their starting quarterback with a concussion, which is what the Bears did to Jordan Love in the second quarter. And you can’t let the backup quarterback perform like he was the starter. Malik Willis went 9-for-11 for 121 yards and a touchdown, with no interceptions. Willis also rushed for 44 yards on ten carries. Pout it all together, and he had a 142.8 rating. The Bears struggled to beat a Packers’ team without edge rusher Micah Parsons playing and Love playing just over a quarter; there were other Green Bay injuries as well that, together, probably explain why they went 0-for-5 in the red zone. You can’t expect the opposition to misfire like that in the postseason. Speaking of misfiring, Bears’ coach Ben Johnson must wondering how long his quarterback will keep scrambling to his right only to heave desperation throws; it isn’t pretty, and it isn’t effective. If I’m reading the stats correctly, Caleb Williams has been called four times for intentional grounding while doing his escape act, right, left or in the hands of an opponent. Of the four teams that have done it four or more times, only the Bears are going to the postseason, where you definitely don’t want it to happen. That said, a win’s a win, and a win against the Packers is always nice.

A Pulse

Not only have the Bulls won two in a row, they beat the same team, the Cavaliers, who have a winning record. What gives? In part, injuries and sickness, along with the truth of “what goes around, comes around.” The Bulls are only recently healthy, playing with everyone they need over the past week or so. They needed a full roster to beat back Donovan Mitchell, who scored 32 points against them Wednesday but sat out last night’s game due to illness, and All-Star guard Evan Mobley missed both games with a calf injury. Hence, maybe, the win. Next up are two games against the Hawks, with guard Tre Young, another Bulls’ nemesis, coming off of injury. The nice thing about being healthy is, coach Billy Donovan cand throw a lot of people at the opposition; when guard Kevin Huerter and center Zach Collins are getting significant playing time, it’s a good thing. Last night, they combined for 27 points and eight rebounds off the bench. Guard Tre Jones also contributed sixteen points and six assists in 22 minutes. If the Bulls can beat Atlanta both games, we’ll see. Otherwise, whatever.

Sign of the Times

The White Sox finished the overhaul of their coaching staff this week. Of the ten coaches who’ll suit up for a game, only one, bullpen coach Matt Wise, has major-league experience. The assistant pitching coach is 29, one of the bullpen catchers 22 (!). Journalist Jimmy Breslin once wrote a book, Can’t Anyone Here Play This Game?, about the hapless ’62 Mets (more hapless than the 2024 Sox?). Breslin wrote back when teams tended to hire people with major-league experience out of the belief they could impart lessons learned playing to current players. Those were the days. Now teams hire callow youth that already seems to know it all.

Road(s) to Nowhere

Bears’ President and CEO Kevin Warren is broadening the team’s search for worthy home for a “world-class stadium” fans can be proud of to include—wait for it—northwest Indiana. This is a ploy equally pathetic and funny. Warren sent a letter to season-ticket holders yesterday relaying the news. He also deigned to talk to the Tribune about the stadium situation. The one thing he failed to do was tell the truth and admit the Bears were issuing an empty threat in a sad, sad effort to gain some leverage. If Warren were being honest, he’d note how hard it would be for fans to get to a world-class stadium in Indiana, an oxymoron if there ever was one. Are fans going to take the Skyway? Sure, provided they’re ready to shell out $7.80 in tolls to get there, or $15.60 for a roundtrip. And then what, a site along I-90 or I-80? Pick your poison, unless bumper-to-bumper semis going 70 mph or more is your cup of tea. All those trucks on a Sunday night, all those fans slightly tipsy after a game. Imagine the possibilities World class? Hmm. The Bears think the 326 acres they own in Arlington Heights would be perfect, if only the General Assembly rolled over and gave them the power to negotiate property taxes with local governmental agencies. No doubt, they’d get that in Indiana, but where, exactly? For 326-plus acres of property across the state line, odds are it won’t be pristine. Far more likely, the land will be a brownfield in need of major remediation. Check that. It’s Indiana. Passing a magic wand over the site should suffice for cleanup. Bears’ fans might glow in Indiana, but it will have nothing to do with beating the Packers.

Regrets?

I wonder if Billy Donovan ever regrets saying “Yes” when Arturas Karnisovas offered him the Bulls’ head-coaching job? I would. The latest installment in “how low can they go?” came Sunday at the United Center with a 114-104 loss to the five-win Pelicans. Yes, two of those wins have come against the Bulls. I swear Zion Williamson comes off the injured list just to play the Bulls. In the Pelicans’ first win the big, fragile one scored 29 points; on Sunday, he came off the bench to rack up eighteen. It was his first appearance in two weeks. Everyone knows the Bulls have to do something. The players keep saying the right things while doing none of them. To watch Coby White and Nikola Vucevic on the floor is to see two players who have basically given up. How long until Matas Buzelis and Josh Giddey join in? Yet Karnisovas sits sphinxlike, without a care what the public or the media think. How low can they go? Good question.

Double or Nothing

I’ll say this for writers in The Athletic—they’re not afraid of coming off dumb. For example, take Jayson Stark, who on December 3 wrote a column, “The gapper is dead: Who killed the double and triple — and what can MLB do about it?” According to Stark, analytics have dictated a switch in outfield defense. Everyone plays deeper, which reduces the number of extra base hits, that plus far more athletic outfielders. To help prove his point, Stark notes a precipitous decline in the rate of doubles since 1992 and triples since, well, forever. The answer to the problem? Draw a line in the outfield that outfielders would have to be standing at when a ball is hit. Sounds dumb to me. Even worse, at no point in his article does Stark note another, even greater, affect of analytics on baseball, that the expected result of every at-bat should be a homerun or a walk at the risk of a strikeout. Once that idea becomes standard operating procedure, doubles and triples become an afterthought at best, stolen bases something even less. With this mindset, the baseball establishment emphasizes power above all else. I wonder what kind of careers Lou Brock and Rickey Henderson would have today, or Dustin Pedroia. Albie Pearson or Freddie Patek, both 5’5”? Forget about it. I continue to believe female ballplayers could easily play at the level of Pedroia, but will be ignored for a perceived lack of power. Did I mention Pedroia has more than a few HOF supporters? Once upon a time (think before the computer), players were encouraged to “think two” the second they hit the ball. Think Kirby Puckett, who hit 39 doubles at the age of 35. Players without power contributed by going from first to third or stealing bases, the latter of which explains Maury Wills and Patek, who had 385 stolen bases over a fourteen-year career. Those days are gone. And drawing a line in the grass won’t bring them back.

Why, Why, Why?

The Bears couldn’t have asked for an easier opponent than the hapless, three-win Browns. After three bone-chilling hours of play (and windchill of minus-eight degrees at the friendly confines of Soldier Field), a final score of 31-3, Bears. The score was 28-3 going into the fourth quarter. So, why in heaven’s name did quarterback Caleb Williams play the entire game? Williams passed four times over the course of two possessions and was sacked once. Any one of those plays could have resulted in injury. Just ask Patrick Mahomes. Teams have backup quarterbacks for a reason, yes? While we’re at it, why oh why did FOX have to make a prophet out of me by showing some clown shirtless in the cold? I told Michele Saturday night this would happen. The prophets speaks again—expect FOX to show that same clown or one—or more—just like him doing the same thing Saturday night when the Packers come to town. Keep it on, and keep the Cheeseheads out of the end zone.

"I Can't Wait"

The weather outside may be frightful (eight degrees, wind coming out of the northwest, you do the windchill), but Clare is getting ready to sign up Leo for t-ball in the spring. Sticker shock made both for an unpleasant surprise and a quick decision. Apparently, hoity-toity suburban t-ball costs an arm and a leg; by volunteering to help run the program, a parent saves a leg. My daughter is nothing if not Halas-like with her finances. So, she’s going to help. No, let me rephrase that. She’s going to help coach. She told me yesterday from the kitchen during the first or second batch of snicker doodles. “I can’t wait to see what the dads will say when they see a mom coaching their sons,” Clare offered while pulling duty as assistant baker to Michele. Well, if they’re smart, they’ll keep their mouths shut and be thankful somebody who knows how to hit—and is already teaching her son—can impart some building-block wisdom onto their kids. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a bunch of mini- Bronx Bombers come May.

Baby Step

The Bulls ended their losing streak at seven games last night, beating the Hornets 129-126 on the road in Charlotte. It’s a start. Something other than the win is worth noting here—center Nikola Vucevic only played 21 minutes and sat out the entire fourth quarter. And we’re not talking injury. No, Zach Collins and Jalen Smith took over for Vucevic, a combination that generated 21 points and eighteen rebounds. Rumor has it the Timberwolves are interested in guard Coby White, and a trade might be a really good idea. White’s return hasn’t resulted in much of a boost, with the Bulls just 2-5 with him back on the court. Worse, the seven-year guard isn’t playing much, if any, defense. In comparison, Vucevic looks like the second coming of Bill Russell out there. Make a deal, hope for health; Isaac Okoro’s return to the lineup certainly helped. Maybe, just maybe, this ship can be righted, even with Arturas Karnisovas at the helm.

Extremes

I don’t get it, how mlb.com lurches from one extreme to another. Right now, MLB’s mouthpiece is in its breathless, gossipy phase. Will the Mets pull off a blockbuster trade for pitcher Tarik Skubal? What are the chances Alex Bregman re-signs with the Red Sox? Take a look at the three-year deal closer and “absolute stud” Robert Suarez signed with the Braves. Report the news or fan the desire of front offices to make news? Either way works for mlb.com Then, Boom! Work stoppage, and the site has nothing to say, or had nothing to say once the player lockout began in December of 2021. Odds are the same thing will happen again with another lockout predicted when the CBA ends after next season. From rumors to crickets in a flash. How mature.

Bullet Dodged, I Think

One of the weirder rumors coming out of the winter meetings this week was that the Red Sox were experiencing some seller’s—as opposed to buyer’s—remorse over the Garrett Crochet deal of last winter. Oh, Boston is way happy with Crochet (who wouldn’t be after his 18-5 season in 2025?) just like they were back in 2016 when they acquired Chris Sale from us. Only it appears the Red Sox wish they hadn’t included catcher Kyle Teel as part of the deal last December. Which may prove lightning doesn’t strike twice or that you can’t fool the same organization twice or that Rick Hahn wasn’t around to accept another deal with the updated versions of Yoan Moncada and Michael Kopech. Take your pick. Anyway, Hahn’s replacement as White Sox GM didn’t bite, yet. And, if Chris Getz is serious about engineering a successful rebuild on the South Side, he’ll hold onto a player who looks exceptional at the plate and not-too-shabby behind it.

Now What?

The White Sox lucked out yesterday by winning the first pick in the 2026 draft. Depending how he does his junior year, UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky is the consensus top talent in the draft. Do the Sox pick him? Right now, they have a promising shortstop in Colson Montgomery, and their first-round pick in this year’s draft was shortstop Billy Carlson, who wowed more than a few observers with his defensive abilities. Plus, in the same draft they picked shortstop Kyle Lodise, now ranked as the ninth-best prospect in the system (Carlson is third) while Caleb Bonemer, a shortstop/third baseman, is ranked right after Carlson. Who’s going to play where? Only time and talent will tell. It’s a safe bet, though, that third base and centerfield on the South Side will go to a couple of ex-shortstops before long.

DOAT

Hats off to sportswriter Grant Brisbee who wrote what I believe is the dumbest column I’ve ever read in my life. The piece, “Jeff Kent is a deserving Hall of Famer, and so is Barry Bonds,” ran in The Athletic, 12-8-25. Brisbee made one obvious if not-too-dumb observation, that Kent’s offensive numbers benefitted from having Bonds in the same lineup. After which, Brisbee races to the dumbest of the dumb, wanting to know “did you see what Bonds was doing at the same time? It was alien. Absolutely alien. The sport will never, ever see anything like it again.” Why do you think that is, Grant? Because Barry Bonds was using PEDs bigtime, that’s why. What makes Brisbee’s argument pathetic as well as dumb is he doesn’t even employ the “it wasn’t banned at the time” defense that Ken Rosenthal and others trot out. (If it wasn’t banned, then why didn’t PEDs’ users admit to using at the time? Because they wanted to minimize the number of cheaters so everybody wouldn’t have inflated stats, that’s why). No, Brisbee goes full ostrich and doesn’t mention PEDs or steroids once. Instead of letting juicers into Cooperstown, I have a better idea—kick out Bud Selig, the commissioner who turned a blind eye to PEDs.

Tick-tock

You could point out Calbe Williams’ inability to put together a strong performance over the course of four quarters or a secondary that trotted while Green Bay receivers zoomed, and that would help explain the Bears 28-21 loss to the Packers yesterday in Cheese Land. Or you could read all the epistles that have been and will be written about the game, and you won’t read the criticism that follows here—head coach Ben Johnson mismanaged the clock at the end of the game with his team down by seven. The Bears had a first down at the Green Bay 47 with 3:26 left to play in regulation; they managed all of two plays between then and the two-minute warning. My guess is that Johnson was being too smart by half, wanting to score and deny the Packers any time to answer. But they had the ball at the Packers’ 17 coming out of the warning. Then it was three straight runs, bringing up fourth-and-one at the 14 with 27 seconds left on the clock. Only then did Johnson use the first of his three timeouts. Why not a pass or two before? Say they score with a minute left. OK, challenge your defense to hold. Why not use a timeout or two rather than run down the clock and face a fourth down with just 27 seconds to go? Williams ended up throwing an interception in the end zone. I can’t help but think the result would’ve been different had Johnson not been so clock-focused. The Packers visit Soldier Field in twelve days. Let’s see what, if anything, Johnson has learned by then.

Great Expectations, Not

The baseball winter meetings heat up tomorrow in Orlando. If the White Sox sign any free agents, it’s likely to be another Anthony Kay, a first-round bust for the Mets back in 2016 who went 17-15 with a 2.49 ERA over the last two seasons in Japan. Kay signed a two-year, $12 million deal. I’m guessing he gets flipped before the end of that contract. What I expect, hope, to happen is a degree of resolution on the roster—come spring training, will it include, Luis Robert Jr., Lenyn Sosa, Miguel Vargas? And what will happen to rookie catcher Edgar Quero? Does he stay, or does he go? Some combination of the above could bring a nice haul in return. Or maybe GM Chris Getz will borrow a page from his predecessor. Rick Hahn loved working under the radar, announcing a deal or signing out of the blue. Good thing there isn’t another Yasmani Grandal out there. I don’t need a sequel.

Look Out Below

This is how bad the Bulls are right now. The four-win Pacers beat them last Saturday, then lost their next two games, which brought them to the United Center last night. End of losing streak, 120-105. Meanwhile, the Bulls have lost six in a row. If Josh Giddey and Matas Buzelis are the future, they can’t cough up the ball like they did, five turnovers for Giddey, four for Buzelis. Giddey got himself a nice $100 million contract extension in the offseason. Let’s just say nine points on the night don’t erase those turnovers or justify that contract. Yes, the Bulls are injured all of a sudden—Ayo Dosunmu, Kevin Hherter, Tre Jones, Issac Okoro, Jalen Smith, plus Coby White’s calf is keeping him on restricted minutes. Maybe everyone comes back, and they dig themselves out of their hole. That still doesn’t explain the play of Giddey and Buzelis. Go, Bears.

Your Bias is Showing

I just finished looking at The Athletic. Talk about bias. Anyplace that doesn’t touch on the Atlantic Ocean—or the Pacific, provided it’s Los Angeles—doesn’t count, at least when it comes to baseball. Must be hard to make a case for the Giants and the Jets. Unlike baseball. Start with Jim Bowden’s winter-meetings’ wish list, which could’ve been written by the Mets’, Red Sox and Yankees’ front offices. In addition, Bowden takes on HOF balloting. If it were up to him, he’d have the Contemporary Era HOF Committee elect Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Gary Sheffield, likely steroids’ use be damned. The ex-GM of the Reds and Nationals also wouldn’t mind Don Mattingly’s selection. Hey, “It wasn’t his fault he had injuries, but that’s why he hasn’t gotten in.” [quote from story in today’s The Athletic] As ever, there’s more. Ken Rosenthal, to be specific. He of the bow tie thinks, “As Baseball Hall of Fame standards change, voters must recalibrate with them.” Pitchers don’t win 300 games anymore, injuries keep players from accumulating stats that were once used to guide Cooperstown enshrinement. Like Bowden, Rosenthal thinks the effect of injuries on careers has to be weighed, even at risk of going down the “slippery slope.” He also wants consideration given to character. Contemporary Era HOF candidates “Mattingly and [Dale] Murphy were considered shining representatives of the sport, as were [Carlos] Delgado and [Fernando] Valenzuela.” If “bad guys” like Bonds and Clemens—both of whom Rosenthal voted for—are to be kept out, then “good guys” should get a boost on character grounds. [quote from story, 12-4-2025] This is what I want to know: Will the standards that a HOF voter like Rosenthal employs to make his decisions ever evolve to include the likes of ex-White Sox stars Paul Konerko and Mark Buehrle? I mean, no injuries for either and never a hint of scandal. In fact, in 2014 Konerko and Jimmy Rollins shared the Roberto Clemente Award for outstanding character. One of my daughter’s favorite players also collected 1412 RBIs on 439 homeruns and 2340 hits. Keep in mind Rosenthal is ready to grant HOF entry to Giants’ catcher Buster Posey, with just 1500 career hits and 729 RBIs to his name. I can’t wait to see what A.J. Pierzynski, with over 500 more hits and 180 more RBIs, will have to say about that. As for Buehrle, those 214 wins, including two no-hitters (one a perfect game), didn’t happen for an East Coast or Dodgers’ team. Which means, in the world of The Athletic, they count for nothing at all.

Crash and Burn

With their 113-103 drubbing at the hands of the now five-win Nets last night, the Bulls have lost five in a row—to the dregs of the NBA, no less, to which their name will soon be added—and eight out of their last twelve after getting off to a 5-0 start. Oh, my. There’s nothing to see here, unless your tastes run to six turnovers from Nikola Vucevic or having your shot blocked eight times by the opposition while returning the favor just once. Yes, these Bulls have a lot of injuries right now, but nobody given a chance to start or log significant minutes is seizing the chance to make a statement. I mean a positive statement. On top of everything, first-round draft pick Noa Essengue is out for the season with a shoulder injury. Bad luck? Maybe, but what do you expect to happen when an 18-year old generously listed at 200 pounds is plucked out of European club-play and deposited in the NBA G League? Gosh, you don’t think a lot of guys frustrated over their exile from the NBA took out on the kid, do you? This is all another feather in the cap of Arturas Karnisovas, the NBA exec who apparently can’t be fired.

Clueless in East Lansing

Ex-NU head football coach Pat Fitzgerald is taking over as head coach of the Spartans after being hired this week following the dismissal of coach Jonathan Smith. If I were a parent looking to keep my football-playing son out of someplace where hazing might occur, the Spartans would top my list of programs to avoid. Fitgerald told the media yesterday, “We [will] develop our young men as people, as students and as world-class athletes. This will happen through a values-based approach.” [all quotes from story in today’s Tribune] Fitzgerald did not bother to enumerate those values, which seemed to be missing in the locker room at NU. Like Sgt. Schultz on “Hogan’s Heroes,” Fitzgerald knew nothing, saw nothing. In other words, a football program based on the three wise monkeys. If we’re to believe Fitzgerald, the hazing scandal at NU affected him deeply. “The experience has made me a better leader, a better man, a better husband, a better father and a better coach. And it has reinforced my commitment to creating an environment that’s going to be built on trust, discipline, communication and accountability.” None of which, I would argue, was present during Fitgerald’s seventeen years as head coach at NU.

Bookish

You can never have too many books, I always say. Especially if they’re about the White Sox. For a while, I’ve wanted The Go-Go Chicago White Sox by Tribune sportswriter Dave Condon, who also did the “In the Wake of the News” column. Growing up, I read Condon all the time, and every so often the byline belonged to his daughter, Barbara. If memory serves, she’d start off by saying she was twelve before moving on to the subject of the column that day. The thing is, the prose didn’t read like it belonged to a twelve-year old. Anyway, Condon wrote the Go-Go book in 1959, a time when Chicago could go crazy for teams other than the Bears. It was a history of the franchise that went up to the six-game heartbreak of the 1959 World Series loss to the Dodgers. Condon made sure to include the players before Nellie Fox and Luis Aparicio, like Smead Jolley, who once made three errors on a play, and Jackie Hayes, an infielder whose eye infection led to blindness. A fan should know these things and the players they happened to. I bought a copy on eBay last week; it cost all of $7, considerably less than other copies I’d seen for sale. The book arrived yesterday, along with a mystery: Where is Pretty Prairie High School, whose library had the book, carrying a Dewey Decimal number of 796.357? Why, Pretty Prairie, KS, of course. Located in south-central Kansas, Pretty Prairie is home to some 660 people, down 20 from an all-time high of 680 per the 2010 Census. No one seems to have taken the book out since 1964, which helps explain how it got to be deaccessioned. Pretty Prairie’s loss is my gain, thank you, very much. Among those he thanked in the dedication, Condon mentioned the “late Mrs. Grace Comiskey, who was and always will be baseball’s first lady.” Different times, perfect to recall on a snowy day in early December.

Appearances

I’m the kind of person who believes in keeping up appearances—dress nice, don’t fight with the spouse in public, that sort of thing. College football is a whole different world. Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin accepted the head-coaching job at LSU but wanted to finish out the year with his current team, most likely bound for a postseason playoff berth. Nope, said the Ole Miss athletic director, maybe a little ticked that $9 million a year wasn’t enough to keep his coach, not when LSU offered a reported $13 million, totaling $91 million over seven years. Oh, and Louisiana governor Jeff Landry was busy behind the scenes making sure the old LSU athletic director was shown the door so a bright, new age could be ushered in. Louisiana, Mississippi—states where poverty goes to cut its teeth, and yet college coaches there can rack in the big bucks. Appearances be damned.