Deshaies Set to Pitch In on Cubs Telecasts

December 4, 2012 @ admin → No Comments

Random thoughts while wondering whether baseball’s winter meetings in Nashville, Tenn., will produce anything other than speculation for Chicago Cubs and/or White Sox fans; and if they do, whether fans be more optimistic about the 2013 season:

Adriana Lima is set for the Victoria’s Secret TV special.

The Cubs made their most notable move of the season on Monday (Dec. 3) by signing Jim Deshaies to a four-year deal. He will team with Len Kasper as the analyst on Cubs telecasts. If that doesn’t work out, he may be able to function as a left-handed reliever. Hey, he’s only a couple of years older than Jamie Moyer.

* Speaking of Deshaies, here is Deshaies speaking in the official statement from WGN: “After spending the last 16 seasons with the Houston Astros, it will be a very tough organization and fan base to leave. However, I can’t imagine anywhere else I’d rather move than with the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. My family and I look forward to meeting the great, passionate fans of the Cubs and we’re excited at what lies ahead in Chicago.”

* Still speaking of Deshaies, there is no truth that one of the qualifications for the job is familiarity with 100-loss seasons (only the Astros, who went 55-107 in 2012, had a worse record among major league teams than the Cubs’ 61-101).

* And still speaking of Deshaies, there is no truth that one of the qualifications for the jobs was naming all the living members of the last Cubs World Series champions.

Victoria’s Secret angel Erin Heatherton is from Skokie, Ill. In case you were wondering (and even if you weren’t).

* Sports Illustrated named Miami Heat star LeBron James its Sportsman of the Year. In case you thought you were the only one having an off year.

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During halftime of Sunday night’s Philadelphia Eagles-Dallas Cowboys game on NBC, Bob Costas made mention of Kansas City Chiefs Jovan Belcher murdering his girlfriend and going to the team’s practice facility where he killed himself on Saturday. Costas quoted a column by Jason Whitlock. Costas subsequently was villified by right-wing goofs such as Herman Cain and Mike Huckabee. Apparently any mention of the violence that guns can be a part of agitates some folks. Costas did not rant about gun control. But that didn’t stop reaction against Costas.

Part of what Costas said: “You want some actual perspective on this? Well, a bit of it comes from the Kansas City-based writer Jason Whitlock, with whom I do not always agree, but today said it so well that we may as well just quote or paraphrase from the end of his article. ‘Our current gun culture’, Whitlock wrote, ‘ensures that more and more domestic disputes will end in the ultimate tragedy.’ … In the coming days, Javon Belcher’s actions and their possible connection to football will be analyzed. Who knows? ‘But here’, wrote Jason Whitlock, ‘is what I believe. If Jovan Belcher didn’t possess a gun, he and Kasandra Perkins would both be alive today.’”

Huckabee said on his radio show Monday: “Costas went on for several minutes basically trying to make the case for gun control, saying that if we’d only had handgun control, then this crime would have never happened.”

As if there ever is going to be serious discussion of gun discussion without some folks going off half-cocked.

Actually we can go to the video to see what Costas did — and did not — say. You can check out Lawrence O’Donnell’s perspective on all this by clicking here. Warning to those who believe every American has the right to own an assault weapon: This is from MSNBC and could cause seizures (of a physical nature, not anything in terms of seizing weaponry).

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NFL cheerleaders, anyone? While Chicago awaits the return of the Honey Bears (the Bears did away with their cheerleaders after the 1985 season when they won the franchise’s only Super Bowl crown), here is something from the Tennessee Titans cheerleaders. Fans of “Gangnam Style” might enjoy the video, too: