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Midweek musings: To be a Chicago Cubs fan can be painful. That has been well-documented — for decades. White Sox fans can point to winning the 2005 World Series. Maybe that eases the pain of being last in the American League Central this season. Thanks to a 4-2 victory in 10 inningsTuesday at Cincinnati, the Cubs have a one-game winning streak (superior to the Sox’s current status) — and last in the National League Central. At this pace, crosstown gloating will be at a minimum this season.
OK, the choice was a photo of an NFL draft prospect or of model Irina Shayk, who appears in a video below. Gee, that was a difficult decision.
* For the record, with a 6-13 record the Cubs’ .316 winning percentage projects to a 51-111 season. With a 7-12 record, the White Sox’s .368 winning percentage projects to a 60-102 season. But, hey, it’s early. Meaning Cubs general manager Jed Hoyer’s vote of support for manager Dale Sveum probably is not prelude to a firing. Not with the roster Hoyer has provided him.
* Things have been going so rough lately for the White Sox — who have lost four in a row and 10 of their last 13 — that the team ought to be able to count Tuesday’s rainout as half a victory.
* For those of us who do not live and die with NFL teams, the best thing about all the coverage previewing the annual draft is being able to ignore it. While some folks can make a living out of all the selection speculation (and more power to them for being able to do so), the mock drafts and all the player and position profiles are in reality little more than marketing for the league.
* Speaking of the NFL draft, is it that complicated to figure out what a team’s needs are? What is complicated is figuring out what players actually will perform on the pro level. It’s an inexact science (OK, more like an exercise than science). With the results frequently not known for a few seasons, except in the case of an instant success or failure.
* Speaking of football, Derrick Rose is the basketball equivalent of a quarterback battle. No matter how many times the media provide a story on which of two QBs will start, there always will be interest. Similarly, no matter how many times the media provide a story on whether the Chicago Bulls guard will return for the postseason, there will be interest. Which is not justification for continued coverage of the topic — unless there is something new to advance the story.
* The TNT studio portion of the NBA playoff games — featuring Shaquille O’Neal, Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley — tends to be more entertaining than a lot of the games.
Martha Jo Black will be on the April 25 “Sports & Torts” show on talkzone.com.
If it’s Wednesday (and the chances of that seem reasonably good because yesterday was Tuesday — provided that you are reading this on April 24, 2013, or a subsequent Wednesday), then it’s almost time for another edition of “Sports & Torts” with co-hosts David Spada and Elliott Harris on Thursday at noon Chicago time on Talkzone.com.
The guests for the April 25 program are former White Sox pitcher Wilbur Wood — considered widely as the best left-handed knuckleball pitcher in big-league history — and Martha Jo Black. Martha Jo works for the White Sox and deals with fan experience. More than that, she is the daughter of Joe Black, the 1952 National League Rookie of the Year as a right-handed pitcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Joe Black, whose pro career began in the Negro Leagues was 28 when he won the award. With the Dodgers, he roomed with Jackie Robinson, the many who broke baseball’s color line in 1947. After his baseball career, Joe Black became a teacher in his native New Jersey and subsequently an executive with Greyhound. To find out more, you can tune in to the show. Or catch it on podcast later in the day Thursday or after.
Here we go with our daily dose of non-gratuitous video (and a reminder that the editorial and video staffs at elliottharris.com have a rather broad definition of “gratuitous”):
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