Still Gotta Come Through Chicago
Still Gotta Come Through Chicago
Week 26—A bittersweet weekend in Chicago sports
This week in Chicago:
Bears: In London vs. the Raiders at noon
Blackhawks: In Prague on Friday vs. the Flyers at 1 p.m.
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Thread:
What are your thoughts on Joe Maddon’s exit?
Any and all Bears reactions, including your thoughts on the QB situation.
These threads have been awesome these past few weeks. Everyone should dive in.
Comment here. I repeat, Comment here.
Trivia: On average, how many points would you guess the Bears have allowed in the first half since the 2017 season? The league average is 11.0. Answer is at the end of the Bears section.
That 60 minutes ticking hit differently tonight. A long weekend of sports has come and gone and the come down isn’t going to be kind to any of us. That’s what this newsletter is for. Hopefully, at the very least, we won you some money on the bet of the week (Saints +3). It’s going to be 85 degrees today in Chicago, so you’ve got one of two ways to jump in your co-workers ears on Monday morning:
“Can you believe this weather? I want it to be fall already, ugh!”
Or
“Is Chase Daniel our guy?”
This weekend was filled with ups and downs for Chicago sports fans. The Bears defense showed out more than Kyle Long’s genitals in Tarik Cohen’s livestream last week. Mitch Trubisky got hurt, but it says a lot about our current quarterback situation that no one really batted an eye. Roquan Smith got scratched from the actives list just before kickoff and I’ve been told about five conspiracies about why since kickoff.
The Cubs season ended like an ugly divorce. You’re sad to see the relationship end—everyone invested a lot of time in it—but it’s better for everyone that it’s over now. Our collective health is better off now that the Cubs bullpen can’t blow a game. The first edition of this newsletter was after the Cubs started the season 2-7. There were ups and downs but overall it was the worst season to be a Cubs fan in a long while.
Joe Maddon is gone. I was on board for this move, but it really hurt when it actually happened. All Cubs fans should appreciate Joe. Despite his missteps in the World Series, he was the manager of the first Cubs championship in 108 years. He came here when we were still shelter dogs, too afraid to trust anyone and too worried that hope would lead to hurt. There’s no way that the Cubs become as successful as they were in 2015 and 2016 without him, by my estimation. Maddon coming to the Cubs meant a new era was being ushered in on the North Side, and he delivered. If you were told the Cubs would win a World Series and make the playoffs four out of five of the years that Maddon was our manager when he was hired, you’d ask why this year was going to be his last. Our expectations have changed, and that’s a good thing. But don’t forget where we came from, or who helped us get to the point of privileged fandom we’re at now.
If the Angels fire Brad Ausmus and Maddon goes back to the organization where he spent 31 years of his career, I’d be ecstatic for him. I wish continued success for a genuinely good man that made some managerial decisions we didn’t agree with over the last few years. Despite not believing in anything like ghosts, horoscopes, or spirits for the greater portion of my life, a large part of me believed my favorite baseball team was legitimately cursed. Then he came in, bought a shot and a beer for everyone at his introductory press conference, and told us that that was nonsense. And it turned out that it was.
He went out the same way he came in, this time splitting a bottle of wine with Theo Epstein on Saturday night in Theo’s hotel room. So this weekend, make a toast to Joe Maddon, an imperfect manager who was the perfect man for the job when he took it five years ago.
Then the author wiped the tears out of his eyes, thought about Kirk Cousins attempting to navigate around the Bears defense today, and smiled.
Continuing with the theme of ups and downs, we move to the South Side. Another dreadful season is in the books. The Tigers and Sox got rained out on Friday and the MLB said please, god, whatever you do, don’t try to make up that game. No one wants to see that. But Timmy Anderson, a star of the first Still Gotta Come Through Chicago baseball season, won the batting title. His .337 mark was 8 points better than anyone else in the league. Then again, he needs to walk more. He only did so 15 times this entire season. That’s the difference between being a good offensive player and a great one. Jose Abreu won the AL RBI title with 123. But he also accounted for a disproportionate amount of the Sox runs batted in at 18.5 percent. If they’re going to be good moving forward, they need more production from the entire lineup. They won’t be able to rely on a first baseman on the wrong side of 30 to drive runs in at that high of a rate for long.
And for those of you who are more drawn to the winter sports, help is on the way. Believe it or not, the Blackhawks play their first regular season game on Friday in the beautiful city of Prague (I know it’s beautiful because I studied abroad). The Hawks 1st round draft pick, Kirby Dach, will most likely be with the team for the first nine games. That’s when the team can decide whether to keep him up or send him down. He’s in concussion protocol, but advancing nicely, according to the team.
The Bulls play their first preseason game the following Monday against the Bucks. There’s uncertainty headed into the season, and even though I try to be the tough guy who criticizes the Bulls as much as possible, it’s because I’m probably the biggest fan around (next to my younger brother, who we considered sending to a psych ward every time the Bulls lost a playoff game when he was younger.). And that means I’m excited for the Bulls to try to be competitive again this year.
Regardless of the ups and downs, you know what still has to happen this week. You Still Gotta Come Through Chicago, and that’ll never change.
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https://sgctc.substack.com/p/week-25-thread/comments
Back to the Bears:
What an m’fin win. There’s a lot to unpack, but we can start with the positives. Khalil Mack is the best player in the NFL, for my money. I have not seen a better defensive player for the Bears in my lifetime, and that is an extremely high mark to achieve. I’m not saying he’s a better Bear than Brian Urlacher or Charles Tillman or anyone else that has led a Bears defense before him. But right now, the way he’s playing, I’ve just never seen anything like it.
You know how sometimes when you were younger, you’d have thoughts that weren’t constrained by the bounds of adulthood dogma? Ones that sound stupid when you say them out loud but make complete sense to you? For instance, I’d always just think to myself, Why don’t players always try to hit the ball out of the quarterback’s hands? That way the progress of the play is stopped (as good as a sack) and you have a chance at getting the ball. Well it turns out that Khalil Mack and I were onto something. He has nine forced fumbles since he put on a Bear uniform. At some point this skill has to enter into the psyche of opposing quarterbacks. He makes the defense better in so many ways that his stats aren’t even usually worth mentioning. You have to watch the games to truly understand the impact he has on the field.
Other notables:
My guy Patty Pancakes (spur-of-the-moment SGCTC nickname from 2 weeks ago that makes no sense), or Pat O’Donnell, had some unbelievable punts yesterday. This sometimes goes unnoticed, but in a low scoring game, it can make all the difference. He had five punts for 241 yards, including a rocket 64-yarder. Eddy Pineiro went 4/4 on kicks. The Bears special teams was just awesome overall.
Allen Robinson is a top wide receiver in the league. With Trubisky and Daniel at quarterback this season, he’s still been solid every game. Seven receptions for 77 yards yesterday.
Nick Kwiatkoski was draggin’ those big polish testicles across the park-district-maintained grass all day yesterday. For a guy that we usually only see in preseason, running at a snail’s pace, he sure made his presence felt. Ten tackles and a sack. He’s usually good in the run game, but he was even good in pass coverage today. Could not be prouder of that guy. Danny Trevathan (death, taxes, Danny playing good football on Sunday for the Bears) and Kevin Pierre-Louis also stepped up in Roquan Smith’s absence.
*Coach Nagy Voice*… “And how ‘bout that D-Line?” Similar to the linebacker group, the D-Line stepped up when everyone doubted how they’d hold up without Akiem Hicks. Not many teams in the NFL could lose two of their best defensive players and still dominate a playoff contender for 60 minutes. The Bears did just that. Roy Robertson-Harris had 1.5 sacks, continuing his breakout year. Nick Williams had 7 tackles and 2 sacks.
Chase Daniel looked like a gnome out there. Short little chubby guy just coming in on a moment’s notice and making some big-time throws. 195 yards and a touchdown for ol’ Chase. He’s not good, but he’s also not bad. And that’s all the Bears need when the defense looks that stellar. I think Trubisky has a lot more talent, but if Chase Daniel can be as effective without the risk of the bad decisions Mitch makes, things could get a little interesting.
On that note, this will be an intriguing storyline to follow this week: What do the Bears do at quarterback? The injury gives them the chance to explore options around the league without making things awkward with Trubisky or overtly saying they don’t believe in him. If he dislocated his non-throwing shoulder, chances are he’ll just have to rehab for a month or so. Surgery can wait until after the season. I know this because I, too, have dislocated my left shoulder. Like 100 times. And not in reasonable ways, like being pummeled in an NFL game by a Viking defender. No, I was swinging a baseball bat or playing basketball against a bunch of white dads who didn’t know their glory years were behind them. But still, I know. He’ll be alright. The issue is more psychological than physical. We’ve already seen all of Mitch’s warts, but if he comes back with an additional mental hurdle, he may have someone behind him willing to chase after his job. Get it? Please clap.
I may stay off Twitter on Sundays from now on and just see which of our star players are sitting out once the game starts. I mean seriously, what the hell is with that? I saw the Hicks and Taylor Gabriel hits coming. Hopefully we can sit them next week too, which would give them two weeks after that too— due to the bye— to recover. That’s the same for Kyle Long. He’s clearly beat up (it’s his hip this time). He was awful in Washington and him playing hurt is not worth it if that’s what his play will look like. But Ted Larsen, his replacement, got hurt too. We’ll see how significant that injury is, but either way, the bye week can’t come soon enough.
The Roquan Smith thing was the strangest of them all. When I saw he was scratched from the game due to personal reasons, I figured he had a death in the family. That still could be the case. I hope everything is okay. But for some reason everyone in Chicago thought there was something more nefarious going on. A few people told me they heard he was out drinking in Chicago the night before the game. Then people thought a crashed car in River North was his and that he was drunk driving (later proven false). I’m curious to how the Bears will handle this, but it does strike me as odd that we have no idea why our star linebacker didn’t play today. I sincerely hope it was nothing that will jeopardize the rest of his season.
Title of an article on the Vikings wire in USA Today: “Vikings get absolutely embarrassed by the Bears”. That made me laugh out loud because, while it doesn’t sound very professional or newspaper-like, it definitely sums up the game well. Hey, we’ve got our quarterbacking troubles. But at least we aren’t going to pay Trubisky or Daniel 84 million guaranteed.
BOOM! Another pseudo must-win game in London against the Raiders next week. You think Mack will be ready for that one? Bear down.
Trivia answer: The Bears have allowed an average of just 4.9 points in the first half since 2017. That’s more than 6 points less than the league average (11.0).
Back to baseball:
The page is being turned on the North and South Side and it’s hard to know what’s next for either team.
The Cubs missed the playoffs for the first time in five years under Maddon. He won’t be there when they take the field for Opening Day 2020. The question is, who will? I’ll get more into that next week during a comprehensive breakdown of what’s coming for both the Sox and Cubs this offseason. But it’s an interesting question to ponder. All I’ll say is there’s not a single iota of me that thinks David Ross is the right man for the job.
But while we’re on the topic of well-liked Cubs players who will no longer be with us, I’d be remiss to not talk about Ben Zobrist. There’s a lot of rumors swirling around about Zobrist’s absence from the team this year and what caused his divorce. I mess around here and am not afraid to get into sensitive subjects. I still don’t feel comfortable touching that one. I’m sure you’ve all heard something along the lines of what I have, and I’ll leave it at that.
Either way, if this is the last time we hear from Zobrist as a Cub, I don’t want our memory of him to be tainted by the 2019 season. This is a man who should never pay for a meal in Chicago again. He’s up there with Lester and Maddon, guys who came in and changed what the Chicago Cubs were all about. The World Series MVP. Even if he wasn’t a productive player for the rest of his time here (he was), that would be enough for me. That double down the line in the World Series is one of the best moments in Cubs history. A religious man, he stared at that curse right in its eyes and told it to go to hell. He was our saving grace on that rainy Wednesday night in Cleveland. And we should be forever grateful for that.
Things needed to change around here. Everyone who watched the Cubs regularly this year could tell you that, even if they had made the playoffs. And so they will. But the end of this year and the subsequent exits feels a lot like graduating college. It’s probably time we move on, but the memories we made along the way were good enough to make the end of it quite sad. But being sad and nostalgic about the last five years means that things went right more than they didn’t. For a fanbase that grew accustomed to things going terribly wrong more than they went right, that’s also something to be grateful for.
Gratitude.
You also could be a White Sox fan and have your front office spewing nonsense about how next year still might not be the year the team is going to compete, despite not going to the playoffs for over a decade. That needs to stop now. The fans have waited long enough. Money needs to be spent and prospects need to deliver in 2020. It’s put up or shut up time at Guaranteed Rate, where the only thing that has been a guarantee for the last ten years has been a good hot dog.
The only guy in Chicago that is happy about the week turning is Rick Hahn. He reached the conclusion of the season and now doesn’t have to answer to Luis Robert and Nick Madrigal questions until March.
Steve Stone, take us away:
Some final thoughts on Joe Maddon’s exit, from people other than myself (the Javy video is must-watch):
Historical Perspective:
The Bears 1936 throwback unis were awesome yesterday, but they were first worn during a 12-year NFL ban on black players. A guy who I’m lucky enough to call an internet friend, Jack Silverstein, wrote an incredible piece on it a few weeks back here. The Bears inadvertently were calling back to a disgraceful time in NFL history, but unlike many sports organizations these days, they responded to Silverstein’s article by tackling it head on:
Great move by the Bears, but probably one that wouldn’t have been made if Silverstein’s reporting hadn’t been done. He’s a subscriber too, by the way. Well done my man! Follow him at @readjack. He’s the best Chicago sports historian in town.
Betting pick: Nice win this week with Saints +3. That brings our record to 13-6 on the newsletter. This week’s pick:
Arizona Cardinals +5 in Cincy on Sunday
Tough board for both CFB and the NFL this weekend.
Thanks for reading, as always. Next week will be the best newsletter yet, as always. Keep telling your friends to subscribe. I’d really appreciate that. Next week, we’ll have some winter sports to talk about, a Bears recap, and offseason previews for both baseball teams. Also, hopefully, an awesome audio portion. Keep looking out.
Don’t forget to comment on this week’s thread.
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