Why I Follow Sports

No doubt it’s different in NYC and LA, where gobs of money go into teams that win far more often than not. Chicago’s different, always has been. Mike Ditka once said Bears’ owner George Halas tossed nickels around like manhole covers. That’s pretty much the modus operandi in these parts. With the White Sox, they’re either too poor to compete (Bill Veeck) or act like they’re too poor to compete (Jerry Reinsdorf). Whatever team you root for in Chicago, you don’t go in expecting championships. It's individual performance that counts. I have a sense of what Luke Appling and Ted Lyons did a very long time ago, Minnie Minoso and Billy Pierce a long time ago, Mark Buehrle and Paul Konerko in what seems like a day ago. Plus Billy Donovan. If he knew what was good for the Bulls as an organization, Donovan would sit on his hands and let his team lose, again and again in order to get a better spot in the draft. But there was Donovan last night coaching his players to a comeback win on the road in Orlando, 125-123 over the Magic. Any night Coby White scores 44 points, you know it’s special. The win gives the Bulls a 25-38 record, as mediocre as it gets, or a little worse. Donovan—and for that matter, White—are Appling toiling away in obscurity, trying their best because that’s what they expect of themselves, whatever the result of the game. Which is what I look for in Chicago sports.