Wrigley Field ..... up close and personal

I wonder if anyone else ever gets chills when they see Wrigley Field when approaching it from the Red Line train in Chicago.
I do. Every time.
It's been about a week since my Cubs Destinations weekend, a 40th birthday present from my wonderful wife, Karen. It still hasn't totally hit me ..... the opportunity I had during the late-July weekend series against the Cardinals. Forget what happened during the games.
I'm talking VIP treatment off the field.
In a word ..... Amazing.
The package included a jersey (my wife correctly chose No. 2 Ryan Theriot for me), a Major League baseball, a 2010 Cubs yearbook, a tour of Wrigley, lunch and a meet-and-greet with a player and an opportunity to watch batting practice before the gates opened to the public.
As an aside note on the jersey, my wife picked the alternate blue jersey instead of the traditional white with blue pinstripes, figuring the way I eat, there's less of a chance I could ruin the blue one. So my brother, Mike, got the home Derrek Lee jersey, and he smudged a protein bar on it before the first game. Oh the irony.
Anyway, I now return you to your regularly scheduled blog already in progress.....

Are you ready for some football?

I wonder if I am going to lose any credibility, but then again, I wonder if I had any anyway.
I am the first person to speak out against pre-season polls, predictions, watch-lists, awards, etc.
I have always argued, much like William Devane in the Bad News Bears in Breaking Training, "Let them play, let them play."
But I was talking with a friend of mine while hanging out at GUCI in suburban Indianapolis and the conversation immediately moved in the direction of the NFL. It got me thinking about the upcoming season ..... who are the favorites, who looks good, whose going to struggle, who will suck (other than the Raiders and Lions), etc.
So if I'm going to be a hypocrite, I might as well be one of the first on the internet to predict the upcoming season.
So here goes ..... when this all happens remember where you read it first. And if none of it happens, this blog is part of that season of Dallas where Bobby Ewing never really died and nothing that you saw during that season ever really happened ..... it was all part of a dream.

Major League Baseball and the Scotty Awards

I wonder if anyone really picked San Diego and Cincinnati to lead their divisions at the Major League Baseball all-star break.
Honestly.
Did anyone?
I bet folks in Cali and Cincy didn't even pick their teams. They are among the nice surprises in what's been an interesting baseball season. And, they are among the nominees for the Scotty Awards. I would randomly give these out when I was in the sports writing business. Time to pull them out of moth balls.
The votes are in and have been tabulated by the accounting firm of Dewey, Cheatem and Howe.
The envelopes please .......

Biggest surprise: San Diego Padres leading the National League West. Can anyone name the Padres starting lineup? I can't. I know Adrian Gonzalez and that's about it. And I saw them play the Cubs in a spring training game. I still can't name anyone. Wait, they have some guy that used to play for the Reds. Denorfia, I think. Anyhoo, I don't see a more pleasant surprise. When anyone talked about the Padres the conversation was usually about when Gonzalez would be traded and to where.
Biggest disappointment: Cubs hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo. The Cubs paid beau coup dollars for the former long-time Rangers hitting coach, known all around baseball as a hitting guru, and it hasn't helped. Derrick Lee is struggling, Kosuke Fukudome is having his typical summer slide after a hot start and they are leaving too may men in scoring position and hitting into too many double plays. Their starting pitching is second in all of baseball with the number of starts giving up 3 runs or less and they are still 9 games out of first as I write this.

No. 23 sticks it to the Cavs again

I wonder what Miami does now. In the last couple days, the Heat received verbals from two of the Big 3 in the 2010 NBA free agency class ..... Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh.
LeBron James just announced to a national ESPN audience his intention to leave Cleveland and join the other two in South Beach. That announcement was supposed to answer the biggest question since Who Shot J.R.?
But I have more questions that are yet to be answered.
One: Who is going to get how much money and will all 3 be happy? There is a salary cap so the Heat will have to journey into the Land of Luxury Tax or one or maybe more of the South Beach Boys will have to take less than their market value.
Two: Will LeBron be happy not being "The Guy?" The Heat have the incumbent and fan-favorite Wade and Bosh, who previously said he wanted to be the centerpiece of the franchise, not a piece.
Three: Will there be enough shots to keep all three happy? 'Nuff said there.
Four: Who can the Heat afford to get to fill out the roster? Most likely they will be minimum contract guys. Michael Beasley is probably gone so they have a little more room for the A1A Alliance. All they have left, in reality, is Mario Chalmers. That leads me to the next question .....
Five: Will the Miami Three be enough to lead the Heat to an NBA title? With a roster of minimum contract guys, James and Co. (or is it Wade and Co.?) will probably have to play 42 or 43 minutes a game. They are going to be tired when the post-season comes around. What do they do to combat that?
It's going to be interesting.