No Rose for Bulls; No Runs for Red Sox, Dodgers

October 13, 2013 @ admin → No Comments

Sunday smorgasbord: The Chicago Bulls traveled to Rio de Janeiro for an exhibition game Saturday (Oct. 12) against the Washington Wizards. The Bulls sat out guard Derrick Rose because of soreness in the knee on which he had surgery in 2012 (and did not play last season). Rose said the team’s front office made the decision. Which might have been a good one from a team standpoint but probably didn’t win any points with folks who had purchased tickets to the contest.

There’s always room around here for Loop Rock Girl Shannon.

* Speaking of shortchanging the fans at the Bulls game, wondering how long before someone prints T-shirts proclaiming: “I went to Brazil to see Derrick Rose play and all I got was this lousy T-shirt.” Probably not NBA-licensed.

* Still speaking of the Bulls, sitting out their 83-81 victory was center Joakim Noah. If nothing else, Noah leads the league in games-missed percentage (tough to do much better than 100 percent).

* And, yes, even more still speaking of the Bulls, the distress that Rose and the front office feel regarding his knee soreness no doubt pales in comparison to that of fans who had hoped he would return late last season to go through this part of the rehabilitiation process.

* What was even more surprising about the Bulls game was the Comcast SportsNet Chicago television tandem of Stacey King and Neil Funk telecasting the game from Comcast SportsNet Chicago studios. Betcha Bulls fans would have been willing to chip in for their travel expenses to Rio. Another disappointment regarding the telecast (and I’m not 100 percent certain because your humble correspondent did not watch the entire game) was the failure of Stacey and Neil to give the aduience a lesson in Portuguese. Or at least go to one of Rio’s beaches to check out the swimsuit styles.

Kelly Crull is a recent addition to Comcast SportsNet Chicago’s on-air lineup.

* Speaking of CSN, Kelly Crull is a relative newcomer to the on-air staff. A freelance anchor/reporter, Kelly restores faith with that part of the viewing audience that was concerned CSN had decided not to hire any blond females. Not that yours truly is an expert on anything about television, but someone might want to tell her she has a habit of flapping her left arm when she does studio standups. It’s like a nervous twitch or something. It’s not really a problem as much as it is an excuse for a fellow Missouri grad to have an excuse to run her photo. As if anyone around here needs an excuse to do so (oh, the joy of being your own boss and its inherent benefits).

* Still speaking of CSN, it will televise a show of interest to Cubs fans who aren’t sufficiently depressed heading into the offseason. “5 Outs” — a CSN-produced documentary on the 2003 Cubs — will premiere on Oct. 15 at 9 p.m. The 90-minute effort also be be shown on Oct. 23 at 7 p.m. and Oct. 30 at 7 p.m. If things go according to plan around here (and they occasionally do, there will be a more comprehensive look at “5 Outs” (the title comes from the Cubs being five outs from winning the National League Championship Series — and reaching the World Series for the first time since 1945 — before losing Games 6 and 7 to the Florida Marlins) in this space in Monday’s edition.

* Speaking of baseball, Cubs and White Sox fans might be wondering why their teams aren’t in their league’s championship series. After all, if you want a team that couldn’t hit much or score runs, the Sox could have done as well as Boston being one-hit by Detroit in a Game 1 loss at Fenway Park. And the Cubs surely could have done as well as the Los Angeles Dodgers, who have scored three runs in 23 innings in losing the first two games of the NLCS in St. Louis.

* Anyone who was bemoaning the play-calling in Northwestern’s loss to Ohio State on Oct. 5 — and you know who you are — probably wasn’t doing so after the Wildcats’ 35-6. OK, maybe they were. But it surely had to be after grousing about a few other areas of concern.

* The only downside to the Chicago Bears beating the New York Giants on Thursday night is that means they aren’t playing on Sunday. And some of us (the folks with wives and/or girlfriends and/or boyfriends) will have to be creative about an excuse for not doing household chores, running errands, etc.

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From our department of shameless self-promotion (not to be confused with our department of regular self-promotion or our department of shameful self-promotion), may we offer this: “Sports & Torts” is urging you and everyone else to vote at podcast.com for the Peoples Choice, Best Produced, Best Video Podcast and Best Sports Podcast. Go to podcastawards.com and type in our show name and URL. Here is the URL: http://www.talkzone.com/shows/155/1660.html. And, yes, we will continue to run this mention until the nomination process closes on Oct. 15.

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Here is where to go for a daily dose of non-gratuitous video (thanks to the extended efforts of the editorial and video departments at elliottharris.com and their willingness to work weekends). In honor of the Bulls’ trip to Rio de Janeiro, we felt compelled to provide something of a Brazilian theme for today’s effort: