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The Bears dropped a Ted Phillips quote on Twitter the other day, which is hardly expected and never welcomed. But they did, and it revamped the rumors — now confirmed — that the Bears are exploring a move to Arlington Heights.
The Bears have been teasing this idea constantly — they even did so in the 1970s — in order to gain leverage against the city. They’re doing the same now, and I do still believe it’s a bluff to get the city to pony up more money — or more lenience — for extra renovations to a stadium that was completely redone less than 20 years ago.
The Bears have a lease at Soldier Field that extends until 2033, but it’s unclear how much that would matter if the team actually did try to move to Arlington Heights.
Calling this a bluff seemed like the only warranted response until a shocking amount of Bears fans and sports media personalities came out in support of the move, which, frankly, was astounding to me.
The Bears moving to Arlington Heights would be the worst move the franchise has made in modern history, and for such an incompetent organization, that really says something.
I get that people liked going out to the Arlington Race Track to bet on the ponies and drink a few beers. So now it’s a better place for the Chicago Bears to play football?
If I hear one more complaint about how hard it is to get to Soldier Field in a goddamn car, I’m going to lose my shit. First of all, if it’s that much of a burden, stay home and watch it on your flat screen television. Sports events are generally a hassle to get to in a car, and in Chicago, there’s plenty of ways to get there without driving.
If you’re coming from the suburbs, either suck it up and leave a little bit earlier or make your charcuterie board, put your polka-dot socks up on the coffee table, stay at home, watch it on FOX, and shut up.
If you want the Chicago Bears to move out of the city they represent because parking is difficult, unsubscribe from this newsletter immediately. What a pathetic reason to relocate a franchise that plays right on the edge of Lake Michigan.
Forget the awesome shots of the lake and city on Sunday Night Football guys, Jeff and his wife Karen needed better parking spots so we moved an hour away.
Every major sports team that plays outside of the city it represents is a joke. Even Dallas’ allure is dimmed by playing in Fort Worth, Texas. We’re going to be like the Atlanta Braves and play football in a suburb not even close to the city the team supposedly represents?
You immediately become a joke of a franchise if you play outside the city limits. People make fun of suburbanites who claim they live in Chicago. What’s much worse is being the goddamn Chicago Bears and playing in Arlington fucking Heights.
So, the surbanites and Northwest Indiana residents (who deliberately live outside the city to avoid paying taxes) get to decide where the team plays, and people who live in the actual city instead have to commute outwards to cheer on their team? All so the Bears can make away with more money to fund the family business.
That’s special logic there, especially considering the fact that Chicago taxpayers forked up over $430 million mere decades ago to revamp Soldier Field. The Bears only spent $32 million of their own money, and yet have the audacity to suggest they’re considering leaving those taxpayers’ city.
“Oh, Arlington would be amazing, there could be hotels, restaurants and bars with plenty of parking next to the stadium!”
Hotels, restaurants and bars? I mean what the hell are we talking about here, guys? Walk across the goddamn street and you’re in the heart of Chicago, which has some of the best hotels, restaurants and bars in the country.
Worse yet, there’s people talking about the events the new stadium could host. We could get a Super Bowl! Excuse me, why the hell do I care if there’s a Super Bowl being played in Arlington Heights? What does that do for me, especially when the Bears are likely not playing in it?
I also do not care if this new site could host final fours, or any other sporting events. Yeah, let’s line the McCaskeys pockets so they can keep putting out a shit product on the field, just an hour north of the city.
If I needed a ballpark village, I’d go down to St. Louis, which has a ballpark village of restaurants, bars, and hotels because the rest of the city sucks.
The advocates of this move must love Rosemont. Plop down a bunch of random shit in an area outside the city and act like going to a steakhouse there hits the same as the original one in River North. Not buying it, buddy. The highway is right there, I can see it.
The Bears currently play, for my money, in the best location of any professional sports site in the country. Imbedded between the lake and the city, with both clearly visible, Soldier Field is one of the only consistent, redeeming qualities of the team, whether you like the physical stadium or not.
If the Bears move to Arlington Heights, they will no longer represent Chicago, which has provided them a fanbase that has stuck with them through very little thick and a whole lot of thin.
If I wanted to watch final fours and prance around a gimmick, cheaply-made “town” surrounding a stadium, I’d go to Indianapolis, a town that everyone says is cool, but when pressed, can’t name anything cool about it besides the fact that they host the Final Four and Super Bowl every once in a while.
Let’s get to a Super Bowl before we worry about hosting one, Ted Phillips.
Lori Lightfoot, who probably has around an 8% approval rating in Chicago, put it quite nicely, in my opinion:
Our city is home to some of the world’s finest sports teams who have played a vital role in the city’s re-opening. As part of the city’s recovery, many organizations are doubling down on their commitment to Chicago, and we expect the Chicago Bears to follow suit.
The Bears are locked into a lease at Soldier Field until 2033. In addition, this announcement from the Bears comes in the midst of negotiations for improvements at Soldier Field. This is clearly a negotiating tactic that the Bears have used before.
As a season ticketholder and longtime Bears fan, I am committed to keeping the ‘Chicago’ name in our football team. And like most Bears fans, we want the organization to focus on putting a winning team on the field, beating the Packers finally and being relevant past October. Everything else is noise.
Sure, she may be overstating the city’s power here, but I don’t disagree with any of that.
I’m sure it’s a free agent’s dream to play for the people of Arlington Heights.
The Bears have far bigger fish to fry — and owe more to their fans than overpriced restaurants and hotels in Arlington Heights, Illinois.
Still Gotta Come Through the AH? Disgusting. Keep the Bears — an institution — in the city that loves them for no good reason.
Before the MLB season kicked off, if I told you that the Sox would hold the best record in the league nearly halfway through, you’d assume that everything had gone right.
And yet, here the Sox are, fresh off a series win against the team boasting the other best record in the league, in that exact position. And yet, a lot has gone wrong.
If I gave you the injury report from this past week in April, you would have a fit as a Sox fan. You’d assume a third-place finish was in the cards, that the window to compete just shrunk by another year.
That’s why it’s pretty remarkable what the Sox are doing. And while it sounds cliche, someone always steps up in these games.
Take out last night’s loss, where Dylan Cease again struggled against a good team (his ERA is starkly different against the Tigers and Royals of the world than the stiffer competition).
The Sox haven’t just relied on the stars left on the field, or solely their fantastic starting pitching staff. They’ve also gotten timely hits from the Jake Lamb’s and the Danny Mendick’s.
The knock on the Sox until the Rays series was predictable: they play in arguably the worst division in the MLB, and therefore have been able to win a lot of games with a lesser lineup than they figured they’d have. Then they go out and handle the Rays, powered by guys formerly in slumps and players who you’d never thought you’d see in the starting lineup so frequently.
And still they have Luis Robert’s return to look forward to. And Eloy Jimenez’s, who somehow is only a month away from a rehab assignment — meaning he could be back even earlier than the expected late-August return date. That was surprising to me, considering the injury. Michael Kopech will also be back soon.
So while the Sox may be somewhat active at the deadline, their own players returning will create more added firepower than any trade could.
Nick Madrigal is out for the season with a torn hamstring, but another interesting note surfaced for the Sox yesterday. Jake Burger, one of the top prospects in the entire farm system, started at second base for the team’s AAA affiliate, his first time ever doing so.
There’s nothing concrete to draw, but it’s clear the Sox are at least toying with the idea that Burger could fill in at second late in the season for Madrigal. Burger has had a hell of a journey to even be where he is now. He tore his achilles twice, and now could be starting for the Sox by year end. He has a .826 OPS in 135 plate appearances this year, homering again in last night’s game.
Until then, Danny Mendick has been mostly good in the field and fine at the plate. The Sox truly do have an embarrassment of riches, and somehow, probably haven’t played their best baseball yet, even if the starting pitching does regress.
Jed Hoyer said on 670 The Score yesterday that the Cubs would need to make intelligent moves, and not emotional ones, when evaluating the team’s players at the deadline and after the season.
To me, that sounds pretty pointed at one player: Anthony Rizzo. Getting rid of Craig Kimbrel, after all, would not make too many Cubs fans emotional. Perhaps giving up baseball’s best closer would be frustrating, but I wouldn’t be crying in my pillow.
Many fans may be crying in their pillow, however, if the player that has been the face of the Cubs successful rebuild over the last decade went to another team because the team couldn’t strike a deal with him.
Hoyer is right — that is how teams should make decisions, for the most part. But was trading Yu Darvish for Zach Davies and a pack of high schoolers an intelligent move, considering the Cubs are currently alone atop the NL Central?
Is getting rid of Kris Bryant, one of the top players in all of baseball this year, because you don’t want to pay him, an intelligent move?
I truly believe that Jed Hoyer thought the Cubs would be anywhere from decent to slightly below average this year. That would have made the deadline easy for him.
Instead, Wrigley Field is at full capacity — more electric than ever — and the Cubs are a good team and in first place.
That complicates things.
The goal of any front office is to look out for the team in both the short- and long-term. But with a very underwhelming starting pitching staff, thanks to the front office, the Cubs are still top-10 in ERA thanks to the bullpen (also thanks to the front office, credit where it’s due).
They’ve hit remarkably well despite a slew of injuries since mid-May, and have a clear shot at the NL Central.
Being in a position to win the division is hard to come by. The Cubs have desensitized us to that a bit over the past five years. Just ask the White Sox.
Throwing away a year for the long-term, despite being one of the richest organizations in all of baseball, won’t sit well with fans. They don’t want to hear about COVID-related financial losses, especially as this summer (and the next, and the one after that) is primed to be a goldmine for the Ricketts.
Most teams in the Cubs position would be buyers at the July 31 deadline, but the Cubs seem to be setting the stage to sell.
In some ways, it feels as if the organization is taking advantage of a rabid fanbase, as it did with the Marquee network. They know the money will likely come in whether they sell or not, so in their mind, why buy?
It’s a reality that’s hard to swallow, but it seems inevitable.
As for the continued vaccine conversation, which I did not want to continue, Rizzo and Jason Heyward have both come out to announce that they have also not been vaccinated, meaning they’ve contributed to the Cubs not hitting that coveted 85% threshold. Rizzo, though his logic was wonky, is easier to understand.
Heyward, on the other hand, is terrible, makes too much money, hasn’t been vaccinated, and had the audacity to say there were too many fans in the stands.
If you’re not vaccinated, that’s your choice, undoubtedly. But suggesting that others shouldn’t be allowed to do as they please — vaccinated or unvaccinated — when you haven’t made that sacrifice yourself is an all-time bad look.
I guess David Ross will have to keep his mask on to watch Jason Heyward hit into double plays for the foreseeable future.
Around the NBA:
LeBron James, our dear friend, launched into an idiotic rant the other day on Twitter after Kawhi Leonard hurt his knee and Kyrie Irving hurt his ankle.
He was right, he said, that the NBA shouldn’t have started when it did and it is now suffering the injuries thanks to the December start date.
Ah, LeBron, never change. His team lost in the first round, so there had to be a reason for that other than just getting beat. This is his way of delegitimizing a season in which he was not successful.
Just like he said Steph Curry was the MVP before they played the Warriors in the play-in game to set the stage for a potential loss. Just as he said the Cavs weren’t ready to compete for a championship in 2014 when he came back (despite having one of the best rosters in the NBA) so he it looked better when they inevitably did.
It’s all transparent, at least to those of us who have been following closely.
And for those of us who have been following closely, we know that this is all bullshit.
For one, if the NBA starting later, they’d have lost up to a billion dollars in revenue. Would LeBron have been okay with having half of his salary being held in escrow because of losses? I assume not.
Also, he’s sure that Kyrie Irving’s injury, which happened when he landed on someone’s foot, was because the season started too early?
Or that Anthony Davis, who has hurt every muscle and bone in his body since entering the NBA, would have been playing in the playoffs had it not been for that December start?
Don’t buy into this nonsense.
As for your Chicago Bulls, who are not planning on moving to Schaumburg for better parking, they’ve got a lot to consider this offseason.
We talked about the free agent options last week, but it’s becoming unclear whether the Bulls now will be committed to Coby White (who just got shoulder surgery) long term.
I like White, and I thought he showed great strides this past season. He’s not a natural point guard, and not a good fit next to LaVine, but he’s a good scorer off the bench, if nothing else.
But it seems NBA insiders believe he could be gone, as the Bulls search for better point guard options this offseason with limited cap space.
Gaining more cap space would mean cutting ties with Tomas Satoransky and Thaddeus Young, who were two of the top-six players on last year’s team, with Thad being top-2.
Even if you nab Lonzo Ball with that leftover money, does the team get better without those two? That’s where you get to the point where trading a guy like Coby would make more sense.
I’m not sure I’d do it, but I also do not want to get rid of Young. Satoransky is a SGCTC favorite, but he can be replaced. Young’s contributions to winning cannot be replaced easily.
More on this next week.
STILL GOTTA COME THROUGH CHICAGO!
Thanks for reading, as always, and thanks for spreading the word. Send the newsletter to a friend today:
And if you like the Bulls moving to Arlington Heights, I’ll see you in the comments, you low-class piece of shits:
I am vehemently against the move to Arlington Heights. Do people really think the ride to and parking in Arlington Heights will be better. Just like they told us the bathroom situation was going to be better after the rehab 20 years ago and it was actually worse? The Bears are where they should be. Case Closed!
Ahh, but then you bring our distinguished mayor into the argument. And she, like she always does, throws unneeded gasoline on the fire. Commenting on the product they are putting on the field when she is trying to negotiate with the Bears is childish and stupid. But everything she does is childish and stupid. Hey Lori, why don't you focus on the 85% increase in violent crime before you talk about the Bears?
Leave the Bears where they are and NEVER sell the naming rights. It must always be SOLDIER FIELD!!
Also, I did not like your shot at Carmine's Rosemont!