When I was growing up and following baseball, big, round milestone numbers were a big deal. Fifty home runs in a season; winning twenty games as a pitcher; hitting .300 for a season; these were identified as special. Baseball, the ultimate numbers sport, was easy to put players into context – the infield is the same; the length from pitcher to catcher has never changed (the height of the mound did, however). So, when someone hit a milestone, it was big news.
I remember watching Ernie Banks’ 500th home run on television and have since seen it about a thousand times. Nothing particularly special about the homer, or the situation, but it was Banks entering the “500 Club.” It was big news.
Ever since July 22nd, the press has been keeping an eye on Alex Rodriguez. On the 22nd, he hit his 599th homer, then went a disappointing 9 for 46 (.196) with no homers for almost 2 weeks. But yesterday, Rodriguez drove a first inning pitch over Yankee Stadium’s center-field fence and into Monument Park becoming the youngest player ever to hit 600 home runs. His two-run, homer off Toronto’s Shaun Marcum put New York ahead to stay in a 5-1 victory over the Blue Jays. Interesting note: home run number 600 came three years to the day after he hit his 500th home run.
I was uninterested in the home run chase; in part because I’m older, and more jaded. But, of course, the biggest drawback is that it was Alex Rodriguez doing the hitting. Rodriguez of course, admitted using performance enhancing drugs after signing the biggest contract in sports history with the Texas Rangers. The “admission” came after he was outed by the media getting a copy of the MLB testing results from 2003. Just like when Barry Bonds was chasing the single season home run record and when he surpassed Hank Aaron for the most home runs in a career, the fact/belief that it was at least partially done on drugs took the excitement out of the accomplishment.
As I said here, the only way that the “Steroid era” will end is a blanket amnesty – all players, current and retired are given a six month period to “come clean” (no pun intended). Anyone who took anything, accidentally, on purpose: shots; pills, whatever, gets this period to tell everyone all. They can keep their current positions; cannot be banned from baseball; and are eligible for the Hall of Fame. However, current players who test positively thereafter can be banned for life, and players who are voted into Cooperstown must have the fact that they used steroids and other drugs on their Hall of Fame plaque.
Being one of a handful of men to hit 600 or more home runs in baseball, means that Alex Rodriguez should be a lock for the Hall of Fame. Without noting his cheating, however, it will distort his place in the game’s history.

Tomorrow, the Lallapaloosa music festival starts in Grant Park and once again, I will not be attending. I was tempted this year more than any other because Soundgarden is reuniting to headline on Sunday night. I never saw them, and I loved this band. In fact, “Superunknown” was my pick for the best album/CD of 1994. Their follow-up “Down on the Upside” wasn’t as strong, but still received multiple listens from yours truly.
For whatever reason, I never got the opportunity to see them live, and they broke up after the Upside disc.
I followed singer Chris Cornell through solo discs of varying quality, and his pairing with the guitarist and rhythm section of Rage Against The Machine in the supergroup Audioslave, but it wasn’t the same as seeing Soundgarden. And Lallapalooza has been a staple of the Chicago music scene, but I no longer want to see a band with 50,000 of my closest friends. I no longer enjoy being outside: hot, sweaty, surrounded by kids 25 to 35 years my junior listening to music. Soundgarden is even having a show tonight at the Aragon Ballroom (or “the Brawlroom” as I like to call it) but I didn’t try to win the opportunity to buy tickets. The Aragon has no seats; is hot even in the winter,, and would be especially stuffy on a hot summer night like tonight.
So, I’m going to pass on Lallapalooza. The Indignant Wife’s boss goes every year with his teenaged daughters and he gets into it. I still love live music; I go see Elvis Costello when he comes to town, and Joe Jackson, and of course, my friend Graham Parker. I’ll pay to see Springsteen, and I’ll even be at Soldier field next year when U2 comes back (if Bono’s back holds out). But even then, I’ll be in a seat, not in the mosh pit standing up under the summer sky. I am especially interested if it is a band I never saw, like when I went to see the Sex Pistols in 1995.
When I go to a concert, I need a place to sit down. I don’t want to be uncomfortable. So, I’ll sit this one out (as it were). I hope that Soundgarden films one of their shows and releases a DVD of it – then I can watch it the theater of my basement.

CNN.com is reporting that Brett Favre has informed the Minnesota Vikings he won’t return for a second season accorind to “a person with knowledge of the situation.” This source told The Associated Press on Tuesday. Of course, 40-year-old star quarterback could, and probably will change his mind. He’s waffled before and may very well waffle again.
According to the report, Favre called coach Brad Childress to say his injured left ankle is not responding as well to surgery and rehabilitation as he had hoped.
I’m sick and tired of Brett Favre. I don’t really give a damn one way or the other if he plays football, or with himself on his farm in Kiln, Mississippi. I’m tired of the annual retirement, then teasing return interviews; then coming back to play. I thought he was going to play again this year, and I still think so. I won’t believe he is retired until the Vikings take the field in the opener without him. In 2020.

I usually take a brief look at CNN online in the morning, and occasionally, I look at a crime story, usually to see where it is, what happened, etc. I did this again this morning, and read that a masked gunman in Indianapolis killed two people and wounded six more at a party Monday night.
CNN.com reported that the incident happened in the “near northwest” part of the city, in a neighborhood rife with gun violence, drugs and prostitution. “It makes you sick. And it makes you wonder, ‘Why are people so bent on killing each other, shooting each other? For what?'” an unidentified neighbor told CNN affiliate WISH. “I don’t know what’s going on, what’s happening in our neighborhood. Hopefully, we can get some help over here. And the young people have taken over. They’re doing whatever they want to do,” she added.
Witnesses said around midnight, at least one person got out of a car, put on a mask and fired what appeared to be an assault rifle at a crowd gathered at a party. WISH said the slain victims were a man and a woman; the six other victims were rushed to hospitals and were in stable condition,
That’s the story; sad, right? But then, I happened to look down at the comments section, where some low-life scumbag named “biostockman “ posted the following comment: “Tax leaches living it up on a Monday night when the rest of America is paying for their monthly checks on food stamps. “ I got angry, but I didn’t respond because this would only inflame this moron and others of his ilk. As you may have read here, I got into a Facebook argument with a former coworker and a bunch of his Tea Party buddies, and while I was arguing facts, they bent my comments and continued in their own deluded worldview. I promised never to do it again, and have even removed this person from my list of “friends.” I know he probably thinks this a victory, or that I’m some kind of coward, but the simple truth is that I always thought he was an idiot, and now that it was proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, I got tired of dealing with him.
Like Bill Cosby, the responsibility for crime violence and poverty ultimately lies with the people in it doing something about their circumstances, but here was this (I suppose another tea party) bigot who knows nothing about what happened and is making his ignorance and racism apparent to the Internet world.
Over the weekend, a dad to one of the Indignant Oldest Daughter’s schoolmates told me about an incident at our local pool. A middle aged African-American woman had been boasting about getting on welfare and getting Section 8 (public assisted) housing. She supposedly said that she has it made. The dad, who is white, and I commiserated about this woman’s attitude, but the dad wasn’t doing it in a racist way, just asking how people’s minds work. I concurred with that – when I see small children shot in the poverty stricken areas of Chicago, I admit that I look to see what time of day the incident occurred, and if the kid was shot after 9:00 PM, especially on a weeknight when school in is session, I definitely place blame on the parents. When I was a kid, even in the summertime, I had to be in the house; or at least on the porch when the streetlights came on.
I don’t know if there was a true “party” going on, or if people were getting together, but if its on a Monday night, that’s their business, but for this sad example of human waste to make this type of comment, is truly sickening.

I attended the Chicago Blackhawks convention over the weekend (see next article for more), but the cloud over the Chicago Hilton was what would happen with the NHL arbitration hearing involving Stanley Cup winning goalie Annti Niemi. Lots of people were walking around with “Niemi Said No!” t-shirts on over the weekend, but I guess I’m glad I didn’t buy one, since the Blackhawks declined the award of $2.75 million and signed former Dallas netminder Marty Turco to a one-year, $1.3 million.
I was surprised, yet again. I knew that the team had salary cap problems, and I didn’t mind much when Byfuglien left (he doesn’t play hard every night), but I thought that might be the end, but then Kris Versteeg, and Andrew Ladd were let go. Adam Burish and John Madden left as free agents. The team offered Niemi $2 million and he was asking more than $3 million per year. The arbitrator cut the Gordian Knot at $2.75 million and a lot of us thought that even though more moves would be necessary, Niemi would stay. Wrong!
I know that the popular wisdom is not to overpay for a goaltender unless he is truly all-world, like a Marty Brodeur, or Ryan Miller in Buffalo. In football, the running back position has suffered a similar regression – some teams believe that they can place any competent runner in the backfield behind a good to great line and he will produce. Look at the Denver Broncos in the 1990s and early 2000s.
I do understand management’s thinking. Coming into the playoffs, Niemi was suspect despite a great goals-against-average. After his great streak in the playoffs, could he be considered a top goaltender, or a guy who played well over a short stretch? He’s young, and the answer is: we don’t know. But I would have thought that if Stan Bowman would get someone to pay $2 million of overpaid, left out Christobal Huet’s $5 million contract for next year, you could make the room for Niemi.
So, we now have Turco, who has yet to dispel the critics who say he is not a great playoff goalie. Some say that Turco had similar stats as Niemi without as good a defense in front of him. Perhaps. I know that the salary cap is the real enemy in this, but I think that this deal may come back to bite Bowman in the end (no pun intended).

As I stated earlier, I attended the Chicago Blackhawks convention last weekend, and in general, it was a bore (at least if you have even been to the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto as I have numerous times).
The first thing was that it started on Friday evening. I thought it would be all day on Friday, so, after they won the Cup, I decided to take a day off. However, the Indignant Family had something planned for that night (an ABBA tribute band at Ravinia – so I had to sit through that musical purgatory, but that’s what you do as a parent), so I couldn’t have gone if I wanted to.
I admit that I had an unusual agenda for the convention: I have hockey sticks from some great old Blackhawks from when I worked at the old Chicago Stadium and I wanted to get them signed. I have sticks from players like Murray Bannerman, Tony Esposito, Denis Savard, and Al Secord, and so, first, I contacted the Blackhawks office numerous times to find out which of the Blackhawks Alumni would be attending. I was told that the list was being finalized, but that it would be online before the convention along with a schedule. It never happened. I lugged sticks from the four players around the Chicago Hilton and Towers on Saturday to no avail. Secord wasn’t there; Bannerman was signing on Sunday (I only went one day) the line for Savard was too long for me to even attempt to get in, and Esposito was listed on the program as being there, but where?
And that was the biggest drawback to the convention for me – the program listed numerous players and media people who would be appearing, but unless they had an autograoh session or were specifically mentioned as being in a panel, you didn’t know where they were; when they would be appearing, etc. I used to help out future Hall of Fame announcer Pat Foley and the program said he would be there, but where? No panel listed him appearing, It was only through a chance meeting with old Back Table host Chet Coppock that got me a line to talking with Foley.
The entrance hall on the lower level had places for people to try and stop soft pucks in goalie gear; or shoot pucks. My friend and I spent lots of time and money in the concession area where there was more Blackhawks stuff than you could count, including Blackhawk women’s panties and a Blackhawk dog leash. I bought a jacket there and numerous autographed pictures from the players who I wouldn’t get to see at the convention.
.There was a nice display of the hockey trophies, but of course, the Stanley Cup had its own room and a line of over 2 hours to see it. Again, since I’ve seen the Cup, first in 1991, and then several times since, I wasn’t that interested. I stood in line with my friend who met me at the Hilton, but I wanted to see the panel of the 1961 Stanley Cup Champions with Bobby Hull, Glenn Hall, Eric Nesterenko and others, so I left the line with 35 minutes remaining before I would get to the Cup, and I went to the panel (also hosted by Coppock). Near the end of the panel, I got a message from The Indignant Wife – she and The Indignant Children who had come downtown with me, but went to the Shedd Aquarium and the Field Museum instead. The girls were tired and going to sleep and they were heading home in the car. I took my leave of the convention at that point.
I did join the Blackhawks official fan club, and perhaps through them I may get my memorabilia signed one day. But I won’t be coming back to another Blackhawks Convention, Stanley Cup Championship or not.

I bought a t-shirt a few years ago that covers the AFC North Division. It says: Pittsburgh – The Good; Baltimore – The Bad; Cleveland – the Ugly; and Cincinnati – The Convicted (of course, with Ben Rothlesburger’s woes, Pittsburgh is becoming known for its run-ins with the law more than football), but this week, maybe the shirt should read: Cincinnati – The Wacky?
The Bengals have been in search of a complimentary wide receiver for Chad Ochocinco since T.J. Houshmandzadeh left for Seattle. This week, they signed Terrell Owens, the talented but self-centered loud-mouth who got himself run out of San Francisco, Dallas, and Philadelphia. Last season however, T.O. spent a rather uneventful year in Buffalo, where he production went into the toilet and made many people believe that his career was in decline. Of course, the Bills had poor quarterbacks as well, so he should be pumped up to receive passes from Carson Palmer. But one has to ask – can a team deal with not one, but two potential power-kegs in the locker room like TO and Ochocinco?
How long will it be before one or the other feels slighted by the number of footballs headed their way? Can these sudden “buddies” put away the selfish ways of the past? Can Marvin Lewis, whose job is on the line, handle the two receivers and keep the team focused?
That’s the multi-million dollar question in Cincinnati. Will this team be a contender or a circus act worth of its own reality television show(all it needs is one of the Kardasian sisters and we have DRAMA)? We will see; but it should be entertaining to watch…