Around the Horn

By: Chicago Sports Review

We know you thought this would happen.

So pardon us for feigning, no, actually displaying pure shock. Still, while watching the Bulls land in the 4th spot in the East, we are still palpably surprised. Whether the glass is half full: the Bulls are a strapping, resourceful young team, or half empty: the East is more shallow and empty than Nick Nolte’s shot glass, this team will be hosting a first-round playoff series in 2005, making Jim Paxson a breakthrough scientific discovery short of the first Executive of the Year/Nobel Prize double winner.

Paxson, mostly through a great coaching hire and sincere patience, has earned early Billy Beane status in the NBA. Not that he’s won anything major just yet, (has Billy?) but he is the resident “genius” for now because, economics aside, he seems to have done the most with the least. That and people like to say the name Billy Beane.

Aside from Paxson, while rumors swirl more favorably in the direction of Nate McMillan of Seattle for NBA Coach of the Year, how could his victory over Skiles not be a slim one? Far too often, COTY honors are handed out based on poor pre-season prognostications, so we gluttonous, egotistical media are essentially rewarding McMillan for achieving in the face of our own faulty perceptions. Yet a simple glance at the roster shows Seattle with two bona fide All-Stars in Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis anchoring the roster. Chicago has none, and the Bulls starting line-up since the absence of Eddy Curry and Luol Deng would garner about as much pre-season respect as a Charlotte Bobcats reunion team.

Quite simply, Scott Skiles is the coach of the year in the NBA. And his boss deserves the Executive honor. Any other combination is granting far too much respect to poor media predictions from the pre-season. We do this routinely in the college ranks, where early predictions are about as fool-proof as a first day lead on Tiger, but lets not drag the idiocy into the pro ranks.

Facsimile?

For those in Chicago sober and lucky enough to recall the Cubs collapse last year that kept the team from a Wild Card bid, thankfully, this season has been a rough copy. Well, perhaps “thankfully” isn’t the word.

But bless the Cubs, who when they heard the phrase “Don’t forget history or you may be doomed to repeat it.” said aloud, “We can be the franchise that makes this phrase relevant!”

They promptly got mind-bendingly drunk on Trade Sammy Tequila, and forgot what really ailed the franchise during the stretch run: a bullpen more flammable than a Branch Davidian compound.

So before dealing Sosa, this franchise–one of four truly national franchises in baseball–defined its off-season with the acquisition of Henry Blanco.

In the pharmacy called a baseball front office, the Cubs have essentially treated leprosy with aloe vera, and the early returns will mirror the late-season returns from last year until a real cure is deemed worth paying for.

Either that or Jon Leicester will begin throwing strikes and Joe Borowski will come back as Keith Foulke.

Rrrright.

In that case, I’ll take another shot of Trade Sammy Tequila.

Perspective Anyone

For the larger portion of baseball nation, which equates the New York Yankee$ with Darth Vader, take this time to relish the possibility that the Death Star might in fact have a weakness. Remember, however, that 19 games into last season, the Yankees were three games under .500, George Steinbrenner was steaming in his suite, and Joe Torre was doing his typical (or possibly actual) impersonation of the only sane person in the New York metropolitan area.

The Yankee$ rebounded to win a customary 101 games, capture the East, and through some act of a god who hasn’t heard of Chicago, blew another shoo-in World Series appearance.

The Yankees this season are off to a rough start. However, let’s put this start in NFL perspective.

The New England Patriots have won back to back Super Bowls. In 2003, they started the season with a 31-0 loss at Buffalo. Last year, they opened on Monday Night Football and were remarkably fortunate to escape with a 27-24 win over Indy, in a game that had Vegas written all over it when it came to Indy chokes. (psst, Manning took the under!)

The point? Major League baseball has played barely one NFL week! We’re midway through the first quarter in Week 2.

Ask the Atlanta Braves, a team that routinely starts poorly, and then, like they have every year since the presidency of James K. Polk, won the division with relative ease.

So please don’t be the first person to pass out with drinkers fatigue before the ball drops.

Wild Bill

William “Wild Bill” Holden, a 56 year-old retired school teacher, is walking 2100 miles from Arizona to Chicago to raise money and awareness for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) in the name of Chicago Cub legend, Ron Santo.

Bill became inspired to undertake the journey after watching the film “THIS OLD CUB” about Santo’s career as a Cub and his harrowing day-to-day fight with diabetes.

Started on January 11th, Bill hopes to end his journey at Wrigley Field on June 30th. While he hasn’t spawned any t-shirts, given rise to popular bumper stickers, or created legions of dutiful (and jobless?) followers, Bill is running for a cause which fans can be a part of.

Visitors to www.thisoldcub.com have the chance to make a donation to the cause, with all money going to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF).

Buy the film while you’re at it. Profiled on ESPN.com by Chicago Sports Review writer Andy Behrens recently, the film is exceptionally well done. You need not be a Cub fan, or even a Santo fan to draw some inspiration, or at worst, be entertained.

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