Fresh Season Awaits NFL’s Bears, WNBA’s Sky

September 7, 2014 @ admin → No Comments

Sunday smorgasbord: This is the day everyone with a keen sense of Chicago sports — as well as elsewhere — has been waiting for. Yes, it’s the opening game. Of the WNBA Finals. Oh, and the opening game of the Bears season, too.

Video below of Heather Widle. Enjoy your Sunday.

* Thanks to the wonder of trans-global communication (OK, otherwise known as the Internet), we have practice quotes from Saturday’s preparation for Sunday’s Chicago Sky-Phoenix Mercury Game 1 in Arizona. Well, they’re not practice quotes; they’re for real quotes, but you get the picture — or the words, as the case may be.

* Practice quote sample No. 1: Sky star Elena Delle Donne – “I definitely have a lot of pride in where we’ve come as a team and more than anything, seeing players like Syl [center Sylvia Fowles] get to the Finals. She belongs here on this stage. It really makes me happy to see that. Everything she’s worked through the past few years with the Sky and finally making the playoffs and being in the Finals is really special.”

* Practice quote sample No. 2: Sky forward Tamera Young — “People didn’t think we would beat Atlanta. People didn’t think we would beat Indiana, and here we are in a championship series; and people don’t think we can beat Phoenix. It’s just about proving those people wrong and sticking to what we have been doing. I think we have the experience now throughout the struggles that we went through during the season to win this championship.”

* Practice quote sample No. 3: OK, there is none. Quotes tended to be quite bland (surprise). So maybe there is a need for practicing quotes as well as basketball. Oh, well.

* Speaking of speaking, the Bears will let their actions speak for themselves against the visiting Buffalo Bills in the NFL opener. To be followed by countless interviews and postgame commentary and analysis. So much so that an alien observing it all would think something more than a football game actually had happened.

* Oh, and does anyone know if there’s a prop bet on Devin Hester’s return yards for Atlanta vs. what the Bears’ return yards are?

* Speaking of numbers, try this: 31-0. As in Notre Dame vs. visiting Michigan in the finale of their longstanding series. Not to worry, Irish fans. Replacing the Wolverines as a “quality” Big Ten opponent is Ohio State. Yes, the Buckeyes who lost 35-21 at home to Virginia Tech.

* Speaking of Big Ten teams, with its 23-15 victory at Northwestern, does Northern Illinois get to use “Chicago’s Big Ten team” or does it merely go with “Chicago’s Best College Football Team” on billboards in and around the Midwestern metropolis? Remember when NU’s Pat Fitzgerald was a hip, young coach on the rise? Losses such as Saturday’s have a way of aging coaches quickly. And end concerns about other schools going after your coach.

* Speaking of losses, the Cubs endured two — one from Saturday’s regularly scheduled game and the other the conclusion of Friday’s suspended contest. In the suspended game, Cubs second baseman Javier Baez went 1-for-5 with four strikeouts in a 5-3, 11-inning defeat; in the second game (a 5-0 Pittsburgh Pirates victory, Baez was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. Meaning in 135 at-bats, he has struck out 60 times in batting .178. Meaning he strikes out 44 percent of the time. Further meaning he and recently recalled Mike Olt are battling for the team lead in strikeout frquency. Olt has whiffed 86 times in 192 at-bats (45 percent).

* Before beating the White Sox 3-1, the Cleveland Indians presented retiring Sox slugger Paul Konerko (sidelined with a broken bone in his left hand) with a guitar as a farewell gift. Konerko said he hopes to play before the season ends. Pretty sure he was talking about baseball and not the guitar.

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