Bears, Sky, Cubs, White Sox Go 0-for-Sunday

September 8, 2014 @ admin → No Comments

What a great day to be a Chicago sports fan. The Bears open the regular season. The Sky plays the opener of the WNBA Finals. The Cubs and White Sox have the chance to play spoilers against a couple of wild-card hopefuls. By now, you know how this all ends (as if you didn’t before any of the aforementioned contests even began). Bears lose. Sky loses. Cubs and Sox lose. Surprise! Or not.

Video below of Victoria Silvstedt. Not a bad way to start the week.

* The Bears’ 23-20 overtime loss to the Buffalo Bills at Soldier Field is an example of a team losing a game it is supposed to win. On the bright side, isn’t it wonderful the Bears got that out of the way so early in the season? And now they can go on to win a game they are expected to lose. And isn’t it also wonderful the Bears have that very opportunity next Sunday night at San Francisco? Yeah, maybe not.

* The 2014 Bears resembled the 2013 Bears. No doubt there will be some fans calling for coach Marc Trestman to be more like Mike Dita. It’s unlikely, however, that Trestman will make any political endorsement in the Illinois gubernatorial race.

* Bears quarterback Jay Cutler looked pretty much the way he has throughout his career. Some incredible completions. Some incredibly bad interceptions. You were expecting something else? Because why? Because he might have said so, and the media quoted him? Seems like sound reasoning. No? No.

* Oh, look. Bears safety Chris Conte had an interception. He also was on the receiving end of a stiff-arm on the 38-yard Fred Jackson run to the 1 that set up the Bills’ winning field goal. Something says most folks will remember that run more than that interception.

* Speaking of memorable, the Sky’s 83-62 loss was far from it. Well, except perhaps for Phoenix fans. Certainly not for the Sky or the WNBA, if the league was trying to showcase two top teams on ABC. Of if it was trying to showcase Sky star Elena Delle Donne, who played only 10 minutes (none in the second half) because of a bad back. Mercury center Brittney Griner did have eight blocks (five in the first quarter) and Candice Dupreee hit her first 10 field-goal attempts in scoring 26 points. Sylvia Fowles led the Sky with 19 points and 11 rebounds. Game 2 is Tuesday in Phoenix. The way Phoenix performed Sunday, it could win the best-of-five series in two games (yes, that’s a mathematical impossibility — even if some of us mathematically challenged types do think the Fever was that dominating).

Speaking of numbers, for what it’s worth (and realizing around here it’s probably not much), former Bears return specialist Devin Hester had five receptions for 99 yards with a long of 35 in his Atlanta Falcons debut. He returned a kickoff 21 yards and a punt one yard.

* Still speaking of sports stats, Cubs shortstop Javier Baez made some impressive plays in the field in the team’s 10-4 loss at Wrigley Field. At the plate, he looked pretty much the way he has in his brief big-league career. He went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. He has 61 strikeouts in 136 at-bats (we’re using numbers from ESPN.com that change curiously from day-to-day). Meaning he is striking out 44 percent of the time. He is batting .169. On the bright side, he did draw a walk. And when he doesn’t strike out, he is 23-for-75 (.307 batting average). So there’s that. OK, not really.

* The White Sox lost 2-0 at Cleveland. Zero is also the number of games the Sox won in the three-game series. Cleveland hitters struck out once. Sox outfielder Jordan Danks struck out twice. He has whiffed 34 times in 85 at-bats. Meaning he has struck out 40 percent of the time. He is batting .188. Maybe it’s a small sample size. But he is 28 with a career average of .200 in 165 games (309 at-bats) and strikes out more than 33 percent of the time. This guy merits playing time because … why exactly? Other than his brother John Danks is a starter in the Sox rotation?

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