When the White Sox finished choking at the end of the season and the Detroit Tigers won the AL Central Division, it was time to pick who I didn’t want to win. In the National League, anyone but the Cardinals would be fine. Beside the rubes and hicks that make up the majority of their fan base, I just don’t like barely making the playoffs and then counting on getting hot during the postseason and winning it all like last year.
When the Cardinals beat the Braves in the one game playoff, and then the upstart Nationals in the NLDS, St. Louis was way about its collective heads again. Taking a 3 games to 1 lead over the Giants made it look like this collection of overachievers, now without the most dangerous slugger in the game Albert Pujols, would make it to the World Series again. But the Giants, who knocked off the Reds in the NLDS, rallied to win the final three games and put an end to the Cardinals overachieving for this year.
In the American League, the A’s and Orioles were nice, from out of nowhere stories, but they were out quickly. The Rangers were reigning AL champions, but after losing two consecutive World Series, it was time for someone new (unless the Rangers were going to do something new, like win). But the Rangers did their annual October swoon, first losing the AL Western Division title to the A’s, then going out of the playoffs, but earlier than other years.
Of course, everyone who is not from New York hates the Yankees, and I’m not any different; and now that the Tigers are in the White Sox division, I’m torn – I don’t like the Tigers, but if they did win, it’s cool because if they win at least it’s the team that knocked us out.
So now we have the Giants and Tigers in the World Series, and as I write this, the Giants have won Games 1 and 2 and the series heads to Detroit. This series is far from over, but the only team that I don’t have strong feelings for or against is in the driver’s seat, and I can live with that.

Americans are weird beings in that we love to elevate our heroes in sports, politics, even business, to pedestals so high that the person being adored can barely be seen from the ground; and we seem to take glee in taking out the steely knives to bring the person back to earth, especially if that person lied to get to the top.
Which, of course, brings us to Lance Armstrong; everyone remembers the first act of our drama. Diagnosed with testicular cancer, he fought the disease, recovered and went on to be the greatest long distance bicyclist of his generation, winning an unheard of seven Tour de France titles. In those days, summer in France belonged to Armstrong. No matter who wore the yellow jacket as leader, you knew that once the cyclists reached the mountains, it was Armstrong time.
And Armstrong did the celebrity thing to the hilt. Some of it was positive: creating the Be Strong Foundation to raise money for cancer research and treatment. The group has done a lot of good through the sale of yellow rubber wrist bands with Armstrong’s name on it. Some of it was typical celebrity hubris: he dumped the old wife and kids for singer Sheryl Crow (who eventually dumped him), he married again and started a new family.
But the dirty not-at-all secret about big time bicycle racing is that participants are among the most active users of performance enhancing drugs of any sport. Whether it was the lax testing and controls, or simply the culture of the sport, cyclists were testing positive for PEDs constantly. But not Armstrong; he defended himself vigorously for years, even after other members of his team tested positive and were stripped of their titles. Some of those team members came forward and told on Armstrong to the press, but, like Pete Rose did for decades before “coming clean,” Armstrong proclaimed his innocence.
That is, until he didn’t anymore. A few months ago, Armstrong announced that he wouldn’t appear earlier decision made by the US Anti-Doping Agency and the cycling commissions that he had taken PEDs for years anymore. His people said that he didn’t have the strength to defend himself anymore, but that the testers still didn’t have evidence against him. Well, that ended last week when a voluminous document was made public with dozens of people, including 11 former team members detailed a vigorous cheating scandal headed by Armstrong.
There wasn’t much more to say at that point: Nike dropped Armstrong as an endorser, and Armstrong himself stepped down as head of his own foundation. Lance Armstrong is no longer credited as winning 7 Tours de France, all of his accomplishments join those of sprinter Ben Johnson, track athlete Marion Jones, and so many others as chemically enhanced cheats.
Now, what is left to Lance Armstrong? A world renowned liar and cheat, but, it should be noted, he did good things through his foundation (not like former Penn State Assistant Coach Jerry Sandusky who used his foundation to find kids to molest). Shouldn’t that have an impact on his legacy? As they say in the movie business, is there a third act here? Can Lance Armstrong find redemption?
For starters, the Foundation should either change its name, or be merged into another non-for-profit organization doing similar work. The work the Foundation does is too important to end despite the sins of the man that started it. As to the rest, it is up to Lance Armstrong. If he continues to proclaim his innocence (as in being introduced at a public event a few months ago after he accepted the doping rulings as “Seven-Time Tour de France Champion,” he will be a worldwide laughing stock. (I always hated Joe DiMaggio who, when he was alive, demanded that he be introduced everywhere as the “World’s Greatest Living Ballplayer.” To my mind since Willie Mays (and even Hank Aaron) were alive then and continue to be now, that was the greatest bunch of BS in sports.)
What will be the legacy of Lance Armstrong? What does this say about cycling? Is it indelibly tarnished for all time? Will people stop paying attention, assuming (like I do) that they are all steroid-filled freaks and undeserving of attention? Or will we just say that all participants should get the same drugs, so you have an even playing-field, and let the Tours go on? Should we even care?
I don’t know the answer to any of these questions since I can’t see the future. It will be interesting to see what happens.

With training camps, the entire exhibition season, and the first two weeks of the regular season already cancelled, the NHL owners rolled out a 50/50 split of hockey revenue proposal to the players’ association. While it appears that the deal won’t end the lockout, it is the first significant movement by the league. What is says to me is, what took them so long?
I realize that in negotiations, you start out with a very low ball offer, but the owners’ first offer was an insult to me as a fan, much less to the players – 43% of revenues, down 14% from the old collective bargaining agreement. But instead of this as a starting point, the owners’ stance hardened, which made no sense. The owners are the ones offering the huge salaries, ridiculous long term deals to evade he old salary cap. Besides, it is flatly obvious that the NHL is in a much stronger position economically than it was when Commissioner Gary “Mr. Lockout” Bettman cancelled the 2004-2005 season.
I don’t know if the pendulum of labor relations is swinging in the other direction as a result of sports and the Chicago Public School teachers strike, but the trend of smashing labor may be coming to an end (and about time). Why the NHL owners thought they could crush the players union is stupid and wishful thinking. With Don Fehr, former head of the Major League Baseball players association now leading the hockey players, he has been in harsh negotiations that make the NHL’s labor issues seem like a waltz in the park.
Plus, once again, the owners wanted the players to protect them from themselves. If you can’t afford that huge contract, give up on that player. If other teams have lots of salary cap space and you don’t, then you’d better trade someone or two, if you can. Attendance is way up from 2004; television ratings and revenue are as well; so, especially in today’s election climate, we aren’t going to shed tears for the billionaire owners.
Hopefully, the latest proposal will break the logjam and get this deal done and get the news about hockey out of the conference rooms and onto the ice where it belongs.

I had the honor to know Bill Jauss, retired Chicago Tribune sportswriter and panelist on “The Sportswriters on TV.” Jauss died today at the age of 81, joining Joe Mooshill, AP writer and “back-up” TV sportswriter, who died a couple of weeks ago. In many ways, it was Jauss who got me involved with that show, and led me to write for you good people.
The show was on SportsChannel in the late 1980s and my grandmother and I were ardent watchers of the show. Being opinionated, I wrote two long letters to Rick Telander who was at Sports Illustrated at the time (now at the Chicago Sun-Times). He told me later that the letters were too long to reply to, but that he liked my letters. I told him I wanted to attend a taping, but he never got back to me.
It was a DePaul basketball game at the Rosemont Horizon (now Allstate Arena) that I met Jauss. I went down to courtside to talk to him at halftime, and we ended up talking the entire halftime away. Even though he had been a sportswriter for decades and was on television every week, he was kind and listened and we enjoyed each other. He got me in to a taping; then another, and eventually John Roach, the producer of the program and I had a 45 minute conversation on race and sports and the show, and out of that came a request – write a synopsis of the big sports events of the week and add my slant. No money (of course), but I got a credit at the end of nearly every show (time permitting) and I began an eight year side job writing for television.
And all that time, no matter how many times he saw me, Jauss was never egotistical – he thanked guests for coming and watching the show every time; he liked my writing and encouraged me to continue, and he even pushed for me to get paid (which was nixed by Bill Gleason). A few times, my grandmother and even my mother attended tapings and Jauss was always super-nice to them and never failed to mention what a good writer I was and how I added quality to the show.
I got to meet Kenny, the love of his life and our baker for the show. Kenny always was sending in brownies and other confections, which we gobbled up as though we hadn’t eaten in months. She was as nice as her husband – like everyone’s grandma.
Jauss was an excellent writer as you’ll hear and read on many testimonials; he was always interested, and therefore always interesting to read, whether he was covering high school sports, or the Cubs or Bears. after I got to know him, reading him was like being with him on the road, sitting in the press area. He was a devoted liberal, and he and I loved to rile Gleason on current events. I enjoyed visiting with him at Northwestern games, because he lived very close to the stadium and we could spend sometime together after the game.
The last time I saw him, he and Kenny were in O’Hare, heading off to cover some event and they met the Indignant Family (before the Indignant Youngest Daughter was born, I think). We talked like no time had elapsed, and they were delighted to play with the Indignant Oldest Daughter. He treated me like a colleague, even though I had neither the pedigree nor the accomplishments. I always looked up to him.
Now, Jauss has passed on. I extend my sincerest condolences to his family, and I will sincerely miss him.

When one is a supporter of Northwestern football, hope is fleeting and disappointment never far away. We always get off to a good start (in past years, we played a number of “soft” non-conference game), but this year, we defeated three BCS level opponents in Syracuse, Boston College and Vanderbilt, before facing a “smaller” school in South Dakota. Then we got a scare, but defeated Indiana. All eyes were on the Wildcats as we went into Happy Valley to play Penn State looking to our first 6-0 record since 1962.
But the worst thing happened to NU – we were ranked in the national polls. With the exception of the magical 1995 Rose Bowl team, every time we struggle to reach the Top 25, we automatically lose. Which is what happened Saturday – leading 28-17 going into the 4th Quarter, the Penn State offense, which had kept the ball most of the afternoon, finally wore down the Wildcat defense, and the offence which had generated a school record 702 yards of total offense the week before against South Dakota, barely amassed ¼th of that total against the Nittany Lions and lost 39-28.
I can understand that the other team gets up for a ranked team, and often, the reputation for being a sorry program from our “bad old days” still hangs over us. But what I can’t understand is the impression that NU players are reading their press and “believing the hype.” I understand that swagger is important to an athlete; belief in oneself and your teammates is vital to success. However, in years past, we would take teams lightly (lowly Duke comes to mind from a few seasons ago), and this season, with the suspended Penn State and Ohio State and mediocre teams in the rest of the league: Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Iowa all have shown weaknesses, one could be tempted to look forward to Nebraska 10/20 and perhaps a Big Ten Championship Game appearance. Fans like myself can look ahead, but the team cannot afford to.
Then, Penn State, in front of nearly 100,000 fans shows that they aren’t chopped liver. And NU may not be that good. And so, as a fan, I hope that NU continues to “fly under the radar,” and don’t get ranked again – it seems to be like Kryptonite to us.
I believe that there are still a lot of winnable games ahead of the Wildcats, but they have to bring their “A” game each and every week. The road only gets harder from here.

Unlike many writing sports, following sports, I’m old enough to remember when Carl Yastrzemski won AL Triple Crown in 1967. My father, in one of his few bonding attempts took me to old Comiskey Park to see the White Sox and the Red Sox. (To be honest, I don’t think he took any time in choosing the game, and he probably just wanted to try and convince me to talk my mother into dropping the monthly child support payments.)
Anyway, I do remember seeing Yaz at that game (I think he got a single in that game), but to the seven-year-old me, I knew who he was and what he was doing. Which is why it’s so amazing that more has not been made of Miguel Cabrera winning the AL batting crown, and leading the league in home runs and RBI, the first man to do all three since Yaz in 1967.
Why is this? Why are we so blasé about this when this has been a once in a lifetime occurrence? No hitters happen every year; I remember when perfect games were so rare that you remembered the last one (When I was a kid, everyone knew that the last perfect game was Catfish Hunter’s for the A’s in 1968; it was 13 years before Len Barker threw one for the Indians). But for this Triple Crown, not much.
Yes, Cabrera has had problems with drinking, but so did Mickey Mantle who had a Triple Crown year in 1956. Cabrera playing in Detroit, which, while being a storied franchise and picked to win the AL Central Division which they did, does not have the ESPN spotlight of the Yankees and Red Sox.
I hate to step on the third rail of implications, but Cabrera is, obviously Hispanic, and so I have to ask the question – would the media reaction been much different if young white phenom Mike Trout of the Anaheim Angels had been close to winning a Triple Crown instead of a pudgy Latin?
Nevertheless, this does not take away from the accomplishment of Cabrera. The fact that he can hit for power is unquestioned, but to be able to hit for average instead of being a slugger who either hits the ball a long way or makes an out (or strikeout like the White Sox’ Adam Dunn) says a lot for the Tiger third baseman. He should be celebrated throughout baseball.

• It was a very disappointing season for Chicago baseball, and it’s good that it’s over. My White Sox choked in the stretch, allowing the highly touted Tigers to catch up and then run away from the Pale Hose. On the North Side, the Cubs posted their first 100+ loss season since 1966.
• It’s funny – I told my co-workers in the Boston area that the Red Sox wouldn’t win with Bobby Valentine as manager, and after a horrendous season, the front office agreed with me, firing Valentine. Valentine was an OK manager, but a complete head case, which was why no one gave him a managerial job in the majors after the Mets fired him in 2002. HE alienated the team very quickly, and this year was the worst for the Red Sox since 1965 going 69-93. I don’t know why the Red Sox felt Valentine was the right man for the job, but they corrected their mistake quickly.
• Speaking of managers on the hottest seats possible, once again, we turn to our old friend Ozzie Guillen in Miami. High hopes were placed on the Marlins – new stadium; big money free agents were signed; and World Series winning skipper Guillen to take over and appeal to the large Latin population. What could go wrong? Well, Guillen first pissed off the Cuban community with insensitive comments before the season even started; then the Marlins went 69-93, and players were speaking to the media about wishing Guillen wouldn’t be back next year. Worst of all, Guillen couldn’t keep him mouth shut, angering the one person you absolutely cannot anger, the owner. So, the vultures are hovering over South Florida, and this time, Guillen’s “goose may be cooked” in baseball. Guillen may be too controversial; too megalomaniacal since the World Series victory for any team to handle. But there are always the Red Sox, or he will be on ESPN Desportes.
• The NHL has cancelled the first two weeks of the regular season as the lockout grinds on. All I know is – with the NBA camps opening, the casual fan will be happy to get their winter sports fix somewhere else, and for us long-suffering fans held hostage by the fourth lockout in Gary Bettman’s tenure as commissioner, if this thing goes much longer, Bettman had better not show up at any games for a very long time.