Is It Time To Retire The Term G.O.A.T.?
All season, NBA fans and media have been awaiting the day in which LeBron James passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for all-time scoring leader. This of course led to the inevitable crowning of LeBron as the G.O.A.T. – the Greatest of All Time. Living in Chicago, that has the locals buzzing like mad hornets that the “true” GOAT is Michael Jordan. Of course, Jordan’s exploits are legendary, and so are LeBron’s but he does not have the titles, the championships, the reputation for late game heroics as Jordan.
Jordan has been quoted that he doesn’t consider himself the GOAT because it disrespects all of the players who came before him (although given his Type A nature, I would be surprised that he really means that). I have never believed that James was the GOAT. He is one of the 5 best ever to play, he has been an exemplary role model, putting millions into charities and even producing Black themed films (like “Black Ice” the film about Black hockey players in Canada). But he will never completely erase “The Decision,” the unfortunate ESPN show in which he announced that he was leaving Cleveland for the Miami Heat. The fact that he has pulled strings to play with people who can best bring him more titles which worked in Miami and Cleveland when he returned but has devolved into a nightmare for the Lakers. Jordan may have complained about his comrades on the court (even yelling and embarrassing them as we found out in “The Last Dance”) but Jordan couldn’t talk to then GM Jerry “The Sleuth” Krause or Owner Jerry Reinsdorf and court people to come play for the Bulls.
The bigger point is the whole concept of a GOAT. This week, James passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, but no one ever called him the GOAT. Besides being an amazing mind and author, people forget that the sky-hook was the more feared and unstoppable force in basketball history. Some people have made the point that Jabbar played most of his career without a 3-point basket, but I can’t see Jabbar launching threes – that’s a recent development with Dirk Nowitzski opening the flood gates of sharp shooting big men, but Jabbar scored most of his points in the paint. Before Jordan, I though Oscar Roberson was the GOAT – no one had ever averaged a triple-double for an entire season. Then there was Magic, who played Hall of Fame point guard, but was only 2 inches shorter and 15 pounds heavier than Bill Russell. Then came Jordan, who is the GOAT in my mind, but the point is – is there a GOAT other than making for interesting bar conversation?
To my mind, you could argue for any of these men – Robertson, Johnson, Jordan and/or James, but let’s not forget Abdul-Jabbar, Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Pete Maravich, Kobe, Shaq, Larry Bird and Jerry West. I think, depending on which way the wind’s blowing, you could reasonably pick any of them. Yesterday on ESPN’s “Around The Horn” it appeared that most were leaning toward James, especially blowhard Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times, the most LA centric “homer” perhaps in the history of sport. To him, James and Kobe were the only players deserving to be in the discussion.
I think I’m going to stop using the term GOAT – too much aggravation for a question that has no answer.

One year to the day as the last time he retired, Tom Brady announced his retirement from football. This season, he led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the NFC playoffs only due to a weak division as the Bucs made the playoffs with a sub- .500 record (8-9). As a division winner, they hosted a Wild Card game, but faced Dallas who were 12-5, one of the three teams from the NFC East to make the playoffs. Dallas was vastly superior but one can never count out Tom Brady, especially in the 4th quarter or overtime, as the announcers have been telling us for over a decade. Brady’s luck ran out and Dallas rolled 31-14.
This season, it wasn’t the same Tom Brady as before. While he still passed for nearly 4,700 yards, 25 touchdowns and only 9 interceptions, his QRB was 90.7, his worst rating since 2018, a lot of his passes missed badly and looked bad many times. The media was split between people who thought Brady would continue to play and those who thought he would retire. The speculation was the Brady, a free agent, would return to his native California with the 49ers a quarterback away from being a Super Bowl team. Others had him going to the Las Vegas Raiders since his old coach Josh McDaniels is the head coach there and they need a QB since they appear ready to part ways with Derek Carr. There were those who even thought that Brady would go back to New England.
A smaller number of observers thought he would retire. Some believe that, like last year, Brady will change his mind again. The announcement sent shock waves through the league, Besides Carr, Aaron Rodgers’ continued frayed relationship with the Packers, and the teams who need QB’s – Tampa now, Houston, Indianapolis, the Jets, maybe Tennessee and Baltimore if they can’t come to terms with Lemar Jackson, and that’s just the AFC. In the NFC, teams seeking QBs are Washington, Carolina, New Orleans, and Atlanta. Despite Brady being off the board, the GMs are waiting until after the Super Bowl to consider deals. The Chicago Bears, “on the clock” with the first pick in the 2023, the pick is even more valuable.
Now Tom Brady may start working for Fox as a very well-paid analyst. I am ambivalent about hearing Brady on television. Some celebrities you like, even if you don’t know them; others you don’t for PR or overexposure. Tom Brady has points on both sides of the ledger: pros – he is the winningest quarterback in the sport’s history, he is telegenic, he has fully accepted responsibility of the son he had in a premarital relationship with Bridget Moynihan. The cons – he has become football’s Kardashian, a celebrity in great part because of his marriage and then divorce to super model Gisele Bundchen, and his own publicizing of products and self-help philosophy. Plus, he is the ultimate white boy, clean cut, generically pretty boy; beautiful and rich ex-wife, many pretty women to date in his future (but I’m not jealous…)
Personally, I’m tired of hearing about him. Television broadcasters have touted the best quarterbacks, especially those who are calm under pressure and lead last minute comebacks. John Elway, Rodgers, Mahomes, now Jake Allen and Joe Burrow are always subject to “the (Blank team) has left too much time on the clock for (fill in QB name here).” Brady was the same, hyperbolic praise lavished on these men by the broadcast team. They said it so often that it became a cliché of its own.
I do wish Brady well, and if he’s on television, I hope he’s successful – if not, I will mute the television. Most of all, I hope he fades into some level of obscurity so we don’t need to hear as much about him, or only in the football season.
I have a feeling he’d like that too…

No person is all good or all bad. When a famous person dies, you see the tributes, all of the great things that person did, but often without the blemishes. That won’t be the case with Bobby Hull, who left us this morning. What can be said is that he did live life to the fullest, good and bad. His life was almost stereotypical “hockey player” for good and ill.
Of course, in the sports world, especially here in Chicago, Hull was a legend. Hull played 15 seasons with the Blackhawks, 1,063 NHL games, accumulating 610 goals, 560 assists, 1,170 points, 640 penalty minutes, three Art Ross Trophies, two Hart Memorial Trophies (he finished second or third in the voting an additional six times), a Lady Byng Memorial Trophy, and a Stanley Cup Championship, adding 62 goals and 67 assists for 129 points in 119 playoff games.
Many people will blame/agree with him when he left the Hawks for the WHA for much more money than Arthur Wirtz (father of “Dollar” Bill Wirtz and grandfather of current owner Rocky Wirtz). He played in 411 WHA games, scoring 303 goals, 335 assists and 638 points, adding 43 goals and 37 assists in 60 playoff games. His North American major league professional total of 1,018 goals (NHL and WHA including playoffs) is the third most of all-time after Wayne Gretzky (1,109) and Gordie Howe (1,071), although the NHL does not recognize scoring statistics from the WHA in players’ career totals. (In case you’re asking, Alex Ovechkin stands at 878 goals all time regular season and playoffs.)
He was as big a presence off the ice as he was on the ice. I think he really was the Paul Horning of Hockey (minus the hanging with gamblers). Like the stereotype, Hull caused problems, because young hockey players never really mature. Hull was born in Pointe Anne, Ontario then played minor hockey in Belleville, and then Junior B hockey for the Woodstock Warriors in the fall of 1954. Hull led the Warriors to the 1955 Sutherland Cup as Ontario champions. Later, he played for the Galt Black Hawks and the St. Catharines Teepees in the Ontario Hockey Association, before joining the Chicago Black Hawks in 1957 at the age of 18.
In many ways, Bobby Hull was the stereotypical privileged hockey player from a very young age. For example, the player has no fidelity in their marriages, and being the 1960s and 1970s, domestic violence was much more “normalized.” Hull’s marriage to Joanne McKay ended in divorce in 1980 after several abusive incidents. In 1986, he was accused by Deborah, his third wife, of assault and battery. While she eventually dropped the charges, Hull was convicted in 1987 of assaulting a police officer who intervened in an argument between Hull and. A mini-documentary by ESPN in 2002 included his previous wife, Joanne, recounting a fight in which Hull beat her in the head with a steel-heeled shoe, then held her off a balcony in Hawaii. Hull’s daughter, Michelle, who became a defense lawyer for female abuse victims, also detailed Hull’s history of alcoholism in that documentary.
If that wasn’t enough, Hull was quoted saying racist comments. In 1997, a Russian publication quoted Hull praising Hitler for “good ideas,” claiming the Black population was growing too fast and expressing support for genetic breeding. Hull denied the comments and sued the publication at the time.
Despite this background, when Rocky Wirtz inherited the team and changed the culture of his father to great PR improvement. Despite the history, Hull was chosen in 2008 to become a Hawks team ambassador alongside Chris Chelios, Denis Savard and the late Stan Mikita and Tony Esposito. Three years later, the team erected a statue of Hull and Mikita along Madison Street outside the United Center.
But, when Wirtz and the Blackhawks got into trouble for covering up sexual abuse conducted by the team’s video coach during the Hawks’ 2010 Stanley Cup Championship run, heads rolled. GM Stan Bowman was fired, former Coach Joel Quenneville was forced to resign from his head coaching job in Florida. With sexual abuse allegations ravaging the team and its public face, it probably wouldn’t be a good thing to have a team ambassador with a well-known history of spousal abuse and infidelity. In 2020, the team and Hull agreed to part as an official spokesperson, but Hull continued to make many local appearances and sell photos and memorabilia for money. Of course, Bobby is better known to younger hockey fans as the Dad of Brett Hull, who followed in his father’s footsteps scoring 716 goals and winning one Stanley Cup (like his father).
I met the Golden Jet a few times, and he always seemed decent, although perhaps his feelings about Black people colored his judgement (I was usually the only Black fans around at the time). So, it is sad that we lost Bobby Hull today; another legend gone, but it appears that the media is covering his faults along with the hockey glory,

Probably due to its long history, the Baseball Hall of Fame nominees, election and enshrinement get boatloads of attention from the media and the public. The media coverage is understandable since the Baseball Writers of America (“BBWA”) are the voters. There is usually more controversy about who isn’t voted in: Pete Rose still banned from baseball and even being voted upon; and of course, the Steroid Boys – Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and the others.
This year, there is less controversy – Bonds and Clemens have been on the ballot for 10 years and haven’t made it, so they aren’t on the BBWA ballots anymore. Rose’s situation hasn’t changed. This year, it’s who did get elected. Scott Rolen was the only player elected this year in the regular vote, getting five votes over the number required to be enshrined. Rolen was a great fielder having made 7 All-Star Games, and was an eight time Gold Glove winner. As a hitter, the numbers, especially in comparison to Hall third basemen: a lifetime .281 hitter with 316 home runs and 1,287 RIs in a four-team 16-season career. Compared with other Hall third basemen he tends to end up ahead of the early game third basemen only: he ranks ninth in hits; 7th in runs scored, but sixth in homers; seventh in RBIs; 10th in batting average. First baseman Todd Helton was second with 281 votes (72.2%) and Billy Wagner was third with 263 votes (68.1%). The Steroid Gang that’s left on the ballot garnered approximately the same vote percentages as last year – Alex Rodriguez got 35.7% of the number required and Manny Ramirez garnered 33.2%. Of the first timers on the ballot, Carlos Beltran got the most at 181 (46.5%), hurt no doubt by his involvement in the Astros cheating scandal.
Back as a kid, the Hall of Famers were God – they were obvious, we used to discuss who we thought were obvious Hall of Famers. Partly because we were kids, because the other sports weren’t as popular, as all encompassing as baseball was. Over time, baseball stars have become smaller as basketball and football and hockey stars have gained in significance. It doesn’t help that this period’s superstars are nearly all tainted by performance enhancing drugs.
But Scott Rolen? Not someone I remember as being Hall of Fame level great. He never came to mind as one of the great hitters (unlike Chipper Jones, another third baseman who, astonishingly, Is not in). He was an All Star level player, not a Hall of Famer on first look. Baseball took a needed step in having more players make the Hall when they created a Contemporary Baseball Committee and a Golden Age Committee, players in the Contemporary committee, players and historians in the Golden Age Committee. Already, the Contemporary Committee has elected players who came nowhere near the level required to be elected by the BBWA. For example, Fred McGriff “The Crime Dog” will be enshrined along with Scott Rolen. While McGriff was never going to be elected by the BBWA, the Contemporary Committee voted in McGriff unanimously. I know that this may be sacrilege to White Sox fans, but the surprise enshrinement of White Sox star Harold Baines is in the same category as Rolen. Great player, but not someone I automatically think of as a Hall of Famer. And there are a lot of players who belong like Bill Madlock, Sweet Lou Whitaker, Dick Allen, Dave Parker, Dwight Evans, Reggie Smith, and Don Baylor among so many others.
Perhaps the rules for the Hall of Fame need to be reviewed? Like what should be done with the Steroid tainted? One can make a good argument that Bonds and Clemens would be Hall worthy before they started taking PEDs. Many people think they belong in the Hall. Some people think that Pete Rose belongs in the Hall (as do I), but I am certain that he will make it posthumously (a vindictive bunch is in Baseball). Should BBWA members under a certain age be limited to voting on players who played while they were alive?
I’m not saying that Scott Rolen doesn’t deserve the Hall of Fame. Based on the numbers, he is worthy. His Gold Gloves and All-Star Game appearances confirm his worthiness as well. But he wasn’t a feared hitter, not a man who teams were scared of his batting prowess. The Hall of Fame continues to be in flux and a bit out of control. Someone, perhaps Commissioner Rob Manfred should work with the BBWA, the hall alumni, baseball historians and others to clear up the Hall of fame entrance requirements and voting requirements?

I should know better, but I just can’t help it – after decades of participating, I still participate in the WXRT Listeners’ Poll. WXRT is the worst in hypocrisy, promoting itself on its wide playlist but despite the great number of artists that they play, they only play the same 2-3 greatest hits by all of them (except the Beatles and Talking Heads). The “new” artists they play are all record company artists who generally play mid-tempo soft rock or reconstituted 1960s and 1970s R&B (which to me is a form of ageism – old folks don’t want to rock out). As the famous saying goes, if you keep repeating the same lie often enough, people will begin to believe it. You can’t imagine how many how many angry notes I get when I complain about how limited and redundant the station is.
I have voted in the Poll for years and have tried to keep up with how many of the records I have purchased that year. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, the station would list 30-50 top vote getters, an I always had 90%+ of the list. As time as gone on, the station stopped posting more than the top 10, primarily, I believe because they don’t play 30-50 new records pee year, and the regular listeners don’t hear more than 10-15 new records per year. Some years, I’ve had one record and usually when a big act like Springsteen or the Stones release a record.
Looking at the 2022 List, I actually own three of the releases, two of which were on my personal Best of 2022 list: Wilco’s “Cruel Country” at number 4; Eddie Vedder’s “Earthling” at 8; and Florence + The Machine’s “Dance Fever” at number 9. Wilco usually appears on their list because it’s easy – everybody’s heard of them, they generally make interesting, non-traditional music, and their home base is Chicago. Vedder of course leads Pearl Jam and he was raised here; Florence has always been a favorite of Chicago. (Vedder’s record did not make my Top 10.)
The rest of the list are the easily influenced lemmings who only own 100 records and who thrive on repetition. One of my least favorites, The Heat and the Heart are there, as usual. Tedeschi-Trucks Band and Death Cab for Cutie and The Black Keys are talented and do good work, but generally have never appealed to me personally. Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats just make me want to listen to the Stax records from the 1960s and 70s that they have ripped off. Worst of all, boring mediocrities Caamp and Spoon were the top two albums. Cammp is marginally tuneful and I’ve never liked Spoon, but the lemmings lap it up.
The list of live concerts fall in line: Wilco and Arcade Fire (both of which I wish I had seen), The Lumineers and Caamp (I would have been in a coma for that show), Spoon, Avett Brothers, The Killers (overrated, overplayed Queen for the 21st Century), and of course, the synonym for boredom, Coldplay. The only show on the list I did attend was Roxy Music at number 10.
I wish I could say that the list is disappointing, but after all these years, I know that it’s going to be bland, dull and filled with the crappy bands WXRT plays incessantly. My expectations were met.

Carlos Correa is a terrific shortstop. At 28-years-old, Correa has already been AL Rookie of the year, won a World Series title (albeit on the cheating Houston Astros team of 2016). He has been an All-Star twice in his brief career dating back to 2015. This Hot Stove League winter of 2022-2023 has been the Winter of the Shortstop. Perhaps no offseason in baseball history has boasted more talented young shortstops entering the market. The signings have been fast and furious: Trey Turner left the Dodgers for the Phillies and a $300 million contract; Xander Bogaerts signed with San Diego, leaving Boston for $280 million; and Dansby Swanson signed with the Cubs for $177 million. Others may have been younger, but Correa is a proven veteran who is in the prime of his career.
After seven seasons with Houston, he entered free agency guided by uber-agent (and considered the anti-Christ by many owners) Scott Boras and signed a three-year deal with the Twins which he later opted out of after his first season with the team. Having failed to sign Aaron Judge after he decided to remain with the Yankees, maybe the owners of the Giants, felt a need to make a big splash in free agency or felt that the team’s fans needed to be placated. So, they signed Correa to a 13 year, $350 million deal. The pundits saw a three-way battle for the NL West: the big money Dodgers, the equally big spending Padres, and the Giants.
Then, the unusual happened: while Giant fans were smiling and anxious for the season to start, suddenly Steve Cohen, hedge fund billionaire turned into Kreskin. In the wee hours of Dec. 21, Correa agreed to a 12-year, $315 million contract with the Mets. How did that happen? Isn’t a deal a deal? Well, the Giants’ deal fell apart due to concerns over the shortstop’s surgically repaired right ankle. The injury occurred in 2014, his final year in the minors. He has played every season without serious injury or missing games and had a stat line of .291/.366/.467, a OPS of .833 with 22 home runs and 64 RBIs.
The sublime became the ridiculous when The Mets were also concerned about the ankle after conducting a physical, and according to The Post’s Mike Puma and Jon Heyman, the team tried to get contract language protection in case the ankle would keep Correa from playing. The Mets were then willing to guarantee $157.5 million over six years, and he would’ve been eligible for an additional six years and $157.5 million had he reached plate-appearance and innings benchmarks.
Then, the Mets balked at the contract. So, Correa re–signed with the Twins. To no one’s surprise, the All-Star shortstop passed his physical with the Twins and the team announced the re-signing to a six-year, $200 million contract with the potential for another $70 million over four vesting years. Overall, while the total money is lower, the annual payout is actually more per season than the than the bigger deals, and in six-years, Correa will be 34, with lots of baseball left, barring injury, and a much lower risk to the team.
Only drawback: I was counting on having him out of the AL Central. The White Sox can use all the help they can get.

I had just been thinking that this past football season had a lot of very close games. Going back to the Bills-Chiefs playoff game last January in which the Chiefs scored with only 13 seconds remaining in regulation, before Patrick Mahomes worked his magic, brought the game to overtime and eventually a victory. If you include the College Football Playoff semi-finals a couple of weekends ago, there were exciting games no matter who one rooted for; even those with no dog in the hunt like myself were mesmerized. (Of course, the College Football Championship Game was a complete blowout.)
I thought it was just me; I thought the games were closer, more exciting. Even teams with numerous injuries and those with surprising backup quarterbacks like Brock Purdy who has gone from being Mr. Irrelevant in the 2022 NFL Draft (final player drafted) to leading the 49ers to at least Super Wild Card Weekend, at home against Seattle. Sometimes, my hunches are correct. As I was thinking about what I would write about this, and asking if you, sports fans, came to the same conclusion. One of the email subscriptions I have is from Axios Sports and on Wednesday, they confirmed my suspicions.
Axios’ writer Jeff Tracy did the number crunching: an amazing 45% of games this season (122 of 271) were decided by six points or fewer, the most since the league expanded to 32 teams in 2002. The next-most such games in that time were 41.8% in 2016 (107 of 256). To put that in perspective, 6.8 games per week (generally 16 games per week, not counting byes) were decided by no more than a touchdown.
In the great football heaven in the sky, former NFL Commissioner Pete Roselle is smiling. For those who don’t remember, Roselle was the commissioner who led the league to becoming one of the most successful sports leagues in the world. Roselle oversaw the increase of the league from 12 to 28 teams in great part due to the merger of the NFL and AFL, the creation of the huge television rights deals and the Super Bowl. That said, Roselle believed in parity, which he called “excitement.” Teams were competitors on the field, but partners in bags of money. Why is this important? Because this season’s particularly high percentage of close games can be called a product of the razor thin line between winning teams and losing teams – a record-tying 25 teams ended with a winning percentage over .400. With few great teams, and a few horrible teams, the adage that any team can win on any given Sunday was truer than ever. Another factor is that scoring fell to its lowest mark since 2017 — and second-lowest since 2009 — as fewer points yield less variance.
All in all, I think most fans, devout and casual found that this season will be one to remember. Let’s hope we have similar games for the playoffs and Super Bowl.