Wrigley Field will now host the Captain Morgan Club (a restaurant) and the Smirnoff Patio and provide lovely mixed drinks to the fans that like to do a little drinking around 10 am at home and then ride the El to Addison and start downing car bombs around 11:30 am for a 1:20 pm start.
Also gratuitous: the entire 2008-2009 NCAA women’s basketball season. The University of Connecticut Huskies won their 39th straight game by double-digits to complete their undefeated season and claim the nation’s crown.
Stanford University of Louisville kept this game competitive for about as long as you’ve been reading this article thus far, which still might be the best effort of the year for a UConn opponent. This could be the point for a snide joke about going pro in a little something we call life, but these young women are already professional assassins. Yikes.
We know the short-lived hole in the media filter (and the filter on media members themselves) caused by Twitter will soon close and leave us with more canned responses and layers of personal marketing protection. As we speak, there are businesses springing up around the management of social spaces and new media integration and other phrases that dampen the soul.
For now, though, we live in truly awesome times. Example: Bill Stewart (West Virginia’s head football coach and the antithesis of R-Rod) has been carrying on like a blessed fool on Twitter, including how he threw all the kickers out of a meeting or how he gets so fired up by Chubby Checker that he sprints into practice at 4:15 am.
Go like this, Coach Stewart. Go like this all morning long.
Stan Kasten, president of the Washington Nationals, went on Philly radio and told Phillies fans just how much they were welcome to fill those increasingly empty seats at Nationals Park, having apparently forgotten that D.C. sports fans survive the surprisingly harsh winters by burning compressed carbon logs of their own hate for other teams. You’d think Stan Kasten had bigger fish to fry, frankly. For example, Dmitri Young just called Stan Kasten’s house because he heard Kasten’s hosting a fish fry.
Senator Ted Kennedy threw out the first pitch at Fenway Park on Opening Day. Senator Bill Frist saw this video and declared Kennedy alive and well, raising his batting average to .500.
The San Diego Padres have one chance at a title: Miss California Carrie Prejean (a former “Deal or No Deal” model) will be competing for the Miss USA title in Vegas on April 19th and she’s a former member of the Padres’ “Pad Squad”. It’s good that she’s no longer with the organization or Becky Moores might demand weekend visitation rights.
As always, sports governing bodies’ petty infighting makes for complicated reading. Therefore, please forgive us an analogy: baseball couldn’t hook up with softball to make a 2016 Olympics baby, so they’re slumming with women’s baseball to try to reproduce a “women’s component to its bid to get reinstated for the 2016 Olympics“. (The IOC is loathe to add a boys’ sport without adding a girls’ sport as well.) Of course, the idea might go over better if there were more than a thousand high school girls in America that played baseball, much less in other countries.
Then again, maybe this would all be helped if these sports governing bodies weren’t so monochrome in their leadership that one expert found that the “whiteness is distressing.“
When you think great football, you don’t usually think Northwestern. As an NU alum & fan, I’ve sat through my fair share of woeful Wildcat seasons. But things are looking up for the perennial Big Ten basement dwellers. We have a young & exciting coach in Pat Fitzgerald. We just completed a surprising 9-4 season with yet another bowl game appearance - and we almost won it this time. (Damn Missouri.)
And now NU AD Jim Phillips has come up with a great idea to bring further fun & exposure to a pigskin program on the rise: Play a game against rival Illinois at Wrigley Field.
The Friendly Confines proved to be a fabulous success hosting the outdoor NHL Winter Classic between the Blackhawks & Red Wings. And even more so, the Bears called 1060 W. Addison home for many, many years until settling at Soldier Field.
With so many Wildcat & Illini alums in the Chicago area, and the opportunity to attend a football contest inside such a historic venue, the game would most certainly be a guaranteed sellout.
But there’s only one problem - Illinois doesn’t want to do it.
With apologies to Keith Olbermann: we have found the worst person in the world, and they live in Chicago. It’s not easy to ruin the very special Winter Classic, especially for a Detroit fan, but it happened to a 14-year-old boy when someone claiming to work at Wrigley Field walked off with the boy’s once-in-a-lifetime souvenir.
(Artist’s depiction of the victimized child.)
Kalan Plew rushed rinkside to see his Red Wings leave the ice after the game, and maybe even get a high-five. But he caught Henrik Zetterberg’s eye, and the Wings winger gave him his stick. As the boy sprinted to show his father, someone dressed as a security guard told the boy he couldn’t have the stick in the stadium, and he could pick it up at the customer relations office. You can guess what happens next: the man just walks off with the stick, which is probably on eBay as we speak.
Mark Teixeirais a Yankee. It’s a crushing blow to, well, just about every team outside of New York. The big fish — Red Sox, Angels — wanted him. The little fish — Orioles, Nationals — wanted him even more. Still, if you thought one of those jilted big fish was about to wade back into the pond for another bite, well, think again.
(Neither Manny nor the LADIES… know where he’ll will end up.)
According to Angels GM Tony Reagins, the team was absolutely, positively, never ever interested in moving on from Teixeira to Manny Ramirez. Let’s repeat that: the Angels were never interested in Manny. Wait, let’s just let Reagins do it himself, in this exclusive audio provided by KLAA 830’s THE SPORTS LODGE show:
Yup, you heard that right. The Angels never wanted Manny Ramirez, probably because he’s, well, Manny Ramirez. And that makes him borderline clinically insane. Or retarded. One or the other.
That’s right, in case you didn’t get the picture, the Angels really, really, really want nothing to do with “Manny Being Manny.” All of which begs the question: Where in God’s name is this guy going to end up? There really aren’t any big market teams interested — the Angels, Mets, and Red Sox (obviously) are all out of the picture. The Cubs and White Sox have absolutely no need for another overpriced outfielder. The Orioles, where Manny loves to hit, say they’re not interested.
So will Manny have to go back to the Dodgers? It’s a real possibility, just because there’s so little competition out there. The Nationals? They claim they aren’t interested, yet that may not be the case now that Ted Lerner has finally been outed by agent Scott Boras as an owner who does, in fact, have bags of money.
Of course, despite losing out on Teixeira, it wasn’t all a bad day for Boston. After all, the Celtics won again. That’s right, Boston won a 19th-straight game. Nineteen in a row. Without a loss. It hasn’t been done since … well, last year, when the Houston Rockets won 22 in a row. (And who stopped Houston’s streak? Yes, the Boston Celtics.) And every team that’s had a streak of 19 or more games has gone on to win the NBA title … except for last year’s Rockets. That’s the kind of stat that’s a little hard to minimize.
In the past week, as Boston’s winning streak careened past the level of “improbable” into solid “something’s got to give eventually” territory, there was a rush to minimize the accomplishment. “They aren’t playing anyone good,” said one Grinch. “They’re healthy when other teams are banged up!” chimed another. Both are somewhat valid points, but they do little to minimize or trivialize what the Celtics achieved by winning a 19th straight game last night, knocking off Philadelphia 110-91, at T.D. Banknorth Garden.
Perhaps more significant is the way that the Celtics are winning these games. Boston isn’t just beating teams, they’re blowing them out. The Celtics are playing better than they did all of last year en route to the title, yet they insist they can get even better.
That’s more than you can say about Boise State. They finally lost — by a point, a crushing point — to TCU in the Poinsettia Bowl, which might just be the lowest status bowl to ever host a No. 9 vs. No. 11 matchup. Think about it: The Outback Bowl on New Year’s Day has No. 15 vs. No. 20. This was the stinking Poinsettia Bowl. On Dec. 23rd. Amazingly, it was also an incredible game. It might just be the best game of the bowl season that isn’t part of the BCS (for that matter, it might be better than the BCS, too).
Remember how Shaquille O’Neal — and then the REAL Shaquille O’Neal — showed up on Twitter one day? Well, evidently he’s not alone among athletes in the new technology. In fact, he’s not nearly as good looking as the newest addition, one Natalie Gulbis. Read her early entries here, via our friends over at RANDBALL.
You know, this Devin Harris guy is starting to look pretty good. Just check out the composure. We’ll take one of him and one Brandon Roy in the three-point contest, please.
Wow. Think it’s too late to start a soccer career? More unbelievable photos here.
That’s dedication, homes: Former NBA star and accident victim David Wesleyis a student manager of the Baylor basketball team while finishing his degree at the school. Seriously.
If this isn’t the best thing you’ve seen about Monday night’s Bears-Packers divisional brawl, well, you’ve probably been reading far too much NFL copy.
German soccer superpowers Bayern Munchen are really, really pissed off that their stadium — the Allianz Arena — is being blown up in this clip from a forthcoming movie.
Speaking of soccer, does it look like Arsenal’s Robin Van Persieis getting hugged by a four-armed man in this shot? KICKETTE thought so, and we agree.
Say what you will about ESPN — and we often do — but this ad is absolutely great.
The beards on Billy Mays‘ wife and kids are totally realistic looking. Admit it, you want one.
It’s been a long-time tradition at Wrigley Field that when an opposing player hits a home run, the ball is thrown back. During yesterday’s loss to the Dodgers, one Cubs fan was a little late with his throwback response - instead waiting for the chance to bean Manny Ramirez.
(At least Cubs pitcher Carlos Marmol kept it civil with Manny)
The CHICAGO SUN-TIMES reports that 31-year-old Paul Solans was arrested after reportedly throwing a ball right at the Dodgers left-fielder.
When they show aerial shots of Wrigley Field during this evening’s NLDS game between the Cubs and Dodgers, you might notice a bright orange blob in your picture. No, it’s not a group of confused Dutch soccer fans who couldn’t get in to the game. Instead, it’s somebody’s idea of a protest, and it will actually be much smaller than initially planned.
(“Did someone say orange protest?”)
Chicago mayor Richard Daley was freaking out late last week when State Senator Richard Meeks threatened to completely ring Wrigley with 6,000 protesters in bright orange shirts. What are they protesting? The disparity in education funding in the Chicago area. I guess they must think it’s Ron Santo’s fault.
If there’s one thing Chicago Cubs fans love to do, it’s drink. Whether celebrating a possible reverse of the World Series curse, or drowning their sorrows in another “Just wait ’til next year!” season, you can be sure the Old Style will be flowing inside & outside Wrigley Field.
However, if one Chicago city official has his way, booze sales at bars around 1060 W. Addison will cease during pivotal postseason games - if only temporarily.
