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The Chicago Bears lost their final exhibition game of the 2014 season 33-13 Thursday to the host Cleveland Browns. Meaning the mostly meaningless games are over for them. Well, unless they fail to reach the postseason.
Video of Hannah Davis is below. For those who care (and even for those who don’t).
* If I had a nickel for every player who had an impressive performance in his team’s final exhibition game and then failed to make the opening-game roster, I’d have a lot of nickels. And still wouldn’t buy a ticket to an NFL exhibition game.
* The NFL came out with a policy regarding domestic abuse. It will suspend a player six games without pay for a first incident; there’s a lifetime ban for a second. Well, depending on your definition of “lifetime.” A player may appeal for reinstatement after a year. Because, you know, who doesn’t beat up someone from time to time. In the real world, a lot of people don’t. And when they do, they can suffer consequences far greater than what commissioner Roger Goodell has set forth. Maybe whoever came up with the NFL punishment plan thought one year for a first offense and a lifetime ban — a real lifetime ban with no appeal — for a second was cruel and unusual punishment. Huh?
* Speaking of the NFL domestic abuse initiative, the two-game ban for Ray Rice of the Baltimore Ravens stands. The new sanctions are from this point on. Because domestic abuse merits less punishment than smoking marijuana. Plus a longer ban would be unfair to the Ravens, right? Really? Too bad.
* The White Sox kept pace with the Cubs in the battle for the worst record by Chicago big-league teams. The Sox (60-73) need to go 13-16 to avoid a 90-loss season. The Cubs (59-74) need to go 14-15 to avoid 90-losses. OK, would you believe 9-20 to avoid 95 defeats? If it’s any consolation to Cubs fans (and the guess here is that it is not for an overwhelming majority), the Cubs have a minus-50 run differential and the Sox have a minus-74.
* Speaking of the Sox, their 3-2 loss to the visiting Cleveland Indians featured a “quality start” by Sox left-hander John Danks, who allowed two runs in six innings. He threw 101 pitches, which tends to diminish the quality of the quality start, no?
* Rookie outfielder Jorge Soler went 2-for-4 in the Cubs’ 7-2 loss to the Reds in Cincinnati. He struck out twice. He is batting .500 (4-for-8) with three strikeouts. Meaning Soler is striking out 37.5 percent of the time. And, yes, this is an extremely small sample size. On the flip side, he has three runs batted in. Meaning in a 162-game season he would drive in a record 200-plus runs — even if he played only 140 games. Yeah, small sample size.
* Rookie second baseman Javier Baez went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts for the Cubs. He is batting .189 with 43 strikeouts in 95 at-bats. Meaning he is striking out 45.2 percent of the time. Meaning in a 162-game season (and we’ll say he has 450 at-bats), he would strike out 203 times. That breeze at Wrigley Field would be coming from his bat, not from Lake Michigan.
* Speaking of strikeouts, Cubs starter Jake Arrieta struck out eight in only four innings. Impressive. Less impressive were the six hits, six runs, four walks and six stolen bases that occurred while he was on the mound. Not to mention 96 pitches in four innings. Pretty sure that’s the pitching version of a bad day at the office.
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