Change of Pace

Being a Chicago sports’ fan means facing a series of choices, mostly along the lines of “heads I win, tails you lose.” You get used to it or find something else to do. But it can be depressing. Bears’ fans want a real quarterback, somebody who can jump ahead of Sid Luckman and Jay Cutler on the team record lists. Rookie Justin Fields may be that player, only he comes with GM Ryan Pace and head coach Matt Nagy attached. The better Fields does, the more likely it is that Pace and Nagy are retained. This is how silver linings work in Chicago: The worse the rookie plays, the better the chances that the coach and GM will go. (Alas, the team owners will never sell.) Thank you, Aaron Rodgers, for doing your part in trying to make that happen. Cubs’ fans wanted a World Series win in the worst way, and with the Ricketts family, that looks exactly what they got. Certain Ricketts appear to be lukewarm at best to the system of representative government we have here in the United States. Fans got their title in 2016, and now a Ricketts or two—or three—may get Donald Trump as a presidential candidate in 2024. Bulls’ fans want a return to the promised land that Michael Jordan led them to six times, ending in 1998. How do you say “post-Jordan wilderness”? Try “Jim Boylan”. And White Sox fans? Well, we want a World Series, too, but hardly anybody thought Tony La Russa was the guy to get us one. Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf thought otherwise, and he’s the person who also hired Boylan. Which brings us to the Chicago Sky, who were winning the WNBA championship yesterday afternoon as the Bears lost, yet again, to Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers. In all honesty, I don’t follow the Sky, in part because I never encouraged my daughter to play basketball. Clare has a point guard’s build to go with an approach to defense better suited to Joe Frazier and Gordie Howe. She would’ve lasted, oh, five minutes before fouling out or drawing her two technicals. Still, hats off to Candace Parker for betting on herself when the L.A. Sparks, her old team, wouldn’t. Ditto for Kahleah Cooper; Diamond DeShields; Allie Quigley; Courtney Vandersloot; and the rest of the Sky roster for showing Chicago how a team can win. One other thing. Michael Alter, the Sky’s principal owner, shied away from cameras and reporters. The focus stayed on the players and James Wade, the GM/coach. How refreshing, and so unlike the world of Chicago sports.