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Thursday thoughts: With Chris Sale pitching them to a 6-1 victory against the visiting Houston Astros on Wednesday (Aug. 28), the Chicago White Sox improved to 10-2 in their last 12 games. Which prompted the statistical analysis department around here to thinking (no easy task to do that either, let me tell you). And here is what the mathematical mavens came up with: Based on their recent performance (8-2 in their last 10 contests), the White Sox (56-76) will go 24-6 the rest of the season and finish 80-82. Sure they will. And Robin Ventura will win American League manager of the year. Sure he will.
Bryiana Noelle will be on Thursday’s “Sports & Torts.” Credit: Josh Ryan
* Speaking of won-lost records, the Chicago Cubs passed the Sox — in terms of moving up on the draft list by losing 4-0 to the Dodgers at Los Angeles. The Cubs (56-77) are 3-7 in their last 10. Meaning — applying the same mathematical approach that we just did with the Sox — the Cubs will go 9-20 (give or take a game) and finish 65-97. Meaning the Cubs can claim improvement over last season’s triple-digit loss performance.
* On the bright side for the Cubs, they do have Thursday off. They are at home Friday. Which would be good news if it weren’t for the fact that they are 3-16 in their last 19 at Wrigley Field. The Friendly Confines would appear to be more confining than friendly for Anthony Rizzo, Starlin Castro & Co.
* Speaking of the team’s supposed stars of the future, Rizzo did have one of the team’s three hits and went 1-for-4 to raise his batting average to .231. Every Cub who batted Wednesday struck out at least once. Junior Lake struck out twice (he has 42 in 165 at-bats) in going 0-for-4 to drop his average to .297. Leaving the Cubs without any player batting .300 or better.
* The Bears play their final exhibition game Thursday against the Cleveland Browns, a team they actually will face during the regular season. On the bright (?) side, the players participating in the exhibition contest generally will not be the same as those participating in the regular-season encounter.
* The NCAA has spoken. Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel (aka Johnny Football) will be punished for his alleged transgression of signing autographs for money. He will have to sit out the first half of the season opener against Rice. Maybe he should send autographed thank-you notes to those involved in slapping him on the wrist (or his autographing hand, to be more precise). If the NCAA wanted to be creative, it should have punished Manziel by making him sit out every other offensive play for the entire game. Yes, that would be stupid. Meaning it would fit right in with the NCAA’s action.
* Former Boston Celtics center Bill Russell, who passed on the opportunity to speak at the March on Washington (Aug. 29, 1963) did speak at the 50th anniversary at the Lincoln Memorial. “Now, lately, I’ve heard a lot about how far we’ve come in 50 years,” Russell, 79, told the crowd. “But from my point of view, you only register progress by how far you have to go.”
Maybe next time Bryiana Noelle will be an in-studio guest.
If this is Thursday (and the likelihood seems fairly good because yesterday was Wednesday — provided that today is Aug. 29, 2013, or a subsequent Thursday), then it is time once again for “Sports & Torts” at noon Central time with co-hosts David Spada and Elliott Harris on Talkzone.com.
The guests on the Aug. 29 show are Playboy Playmate Bryiana Noelle, Miss September 2013: and Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Hugh McElhenny.
For those who are unable to tune in for the program (and/or those who would like an encore of the interviews), the program will be available Thursday afternoon via podcast at the Talkzone web site.
Here is where to go for a daily dose of non-gratuitous video (thanks to the efforts of the editorial and video departments at elliottharris.com and their definition of “gratuitous”). In keeping with a theme this week, we present more musical efforts, as well as others:
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