Hometown Discount (Cubs Offseason Report: Kerry Wood)

Kerry Wood, the fourth overall draft pick by the Cubs in 1995, struck out 20 in a game against the Astros in 1998 (Houston would go onto win 102 games that season).

The Cubs had just spent big money on Carlos Pena in December, and now the question was: "What's next?"

ex-Cub Kerry Wood had offers from three or four different ball clubs, yet his decision on where to play in 2011 came down to more than just money.  Kerry Wood wanted to come back to the team he played the majority of his career with, and raise his daughters in the Windy City.  The Cubs did not originally think they would be in contention to get the one time face of their team back.

Kerry Wood did not just want to return to the city of Chicago.  He wanted to become a Cub again.  Woody's willingness to return to the north side was so strong that he took a 1.5 million dollar deal for one year from the Cubs over a 3.5 million dollar deal for one year from the White Sox.

Even if Wood went to the "dark-side" he would ever be beloved by Cubs nation.  It does not take a rocket-scientist to realize that 3.5 million dollars is more money than 1.5 million dollars.  If he loves the Cubs enough to take the two million dollar discount to be on the north-side that is even more of a reason to embrace the return of our former hero.

Indian and Yankee uniforms never looked right on Kerry Wood.

After being traded from the Indians to the Yankees in July of 2010, Wood posted a 0.69 ERA the remainder of the regular season.

In 2011 Kerry Wood will be the set-up man for Cubs closer Carlos Marmol.  Wood has made over 70 million dollars during his twelve year tenure thus far in the MLB, yet it is still nice to see Kerry Wood take being a Cub over money.  Hopefully, the Cubs can take advantage of the bargain they got, and make a chase for the playoffs this season.

     

Dave's Schedule the rest of Week (schedule adjusted due to the Target Chase Down story on Sunday)

On Deck -  Song of the Week: Chris Medina's What are Words

In the Hole - Adam Wainwright's injury impact on NL Central

Chase-Down at Target

4:20 PM (forty minutes away from being done with my Saturday work shift) - I'm zoning out pushing carts waiting to get out of the hell hole some refer to as "Target."  Out of the corner of my eye I see a black male about twenty-five years old and 180 pounds staring me down.  I look back at him for a second, then I continue to push my carts past him into the store.  When I come back out he is joined by a friend with the same description.  They have a black bag with what they are claiming to be "fundraiser" candy inside of it.  Then it clicked in my head who they were.

One of the other cart attendants was telling me about how our boss had gotten into a confrontation with them last Friday about selling their "fundraiser" candy (which they had no proof for that they were helping out any organization) on Target property.  There were threats of calling the cop  After the confrontation they walked into the Babies R Us lot, and sold their candy there.  Once a couple minutes went by the two scumbags were back in the Target parking lot selling their candy.  The cart attendant on duty gave a heads-up to our boss that went back inside that the men were back.  Our boss called the cops, whom arrived in about ten minutes.  The only problem was the two ran away before the cops got a chance to talk to them.

Back to Saturday - I went inside, and gave my boss and our "Target cop" (this is in quotations because 99% of the time they are useless unless it is 4:59 AM on Black Friday and crazy people are fighting for TVs) a heads-up that the two did not learn their lesson.  This time the two were not fortunate enough to get a heads-up that cops might be headed their way.  After fifteen minutes went by a cop car pulled up, and proceded to question the men.  Then the cop went on to searching their clothes for anything suspicious.  I could not determine what was being said, but from what happened next I interpreted it was not what the two men wanted to hear.

One decided to make a dash for it.  While watching from the bottom of the Target parking lot it felt like everything was happening in slow-motion.  The black male that decided to run across the Babies R Us parking lot and the cop were running at the same speed, yet the now-criminal's head start kept them apart.  The cop proceded to pull his taser out, but whiffed on his attempt to zap the runner.  Then the "Target cop" (whom is black, ripped, and about twenty five as well) decided to join in on the chase.  

For the next couple minutes my vision of the chase was blocked, and I was left to ponder the outcome.  About three minutes later, I saw was the "Target cop" with his hand squeezing the back of criminal's shirt next to the cop walking back towards Target.

As the criminals were in the car they kept yelling slurs and threats at the "Target cop."  I was not able to hear most of it, but the highlight of what I did eavesdrop on was this quote: "This ain't the last time I'm gunna see you.  I'll be back again."  The "Target cop" shrugged and chuckled underneath his breath at them while the cops asked for his information to most likely put in the Orland Park newspaper.

I wondered why the two males were back again when I first realized who they were.  As I pushed carts past them I saw about one out of every three people give them business since they thought they were helping out a good cause.  In the end, all their scam did was entertain me during my last forty minutes of work, and give them a back-seat trip to the Orland Park Police Station.

IM BAACCK!!

I'm going to my first Cubs vs. Sox game at Wrigley (I have been to two at U.S. Cellular/Comiskey Park before)

I'm sure you're all dying to know what I've been up to since my last post on Valentine's Day.  Well here's the rundown:

• I bought tickets to Cubs vs. Sox games at both Wrigley Field and U.S. Cellular.  The total number of Cubs games I will be attending in their 2011 season is now at seven (five at Wrigley, one at U.S. Cellular, and one at Pittsburg's PNC Park).
• Lewis University (The college I attend) bombarded students with homework before their "Spring Break" (February 28-March 5th).  So I have been busy with homework.
• Target kept me prisoner five days a week by making me mop floors and clean toilets.  Nothing out of the ordinary, for a "cart-attendant" (When my boss asked me to switch jobs to cart-attendant back in January I thought the description of the job was in the job name.  I was wrong.  Cart-attendant at Target is essentially the Target janitor.)
• Listened to Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy on repeat in my Prius whenever I was driving.
• And here's some other stuff that nobody cares about that I did : got my first credit card, pre-ordered Bulletstorm, and watched It's Kind of a Funny Story (I'd give it 3.5 out of 5 stars).

Since I will be on Spring Break next week, and have been slacking on articles recently I thought writing a handful of posts next week would be necessary.  Here's the rundown for my articles next week:

• Sunday - Part 2 of 3 of the Cubs offseason report that will focus on welcoming back Kerry Wood to the friendly confines
• Monday - The Song of the Week (TBD what song(s) will be featured)
• Wednesday - The impact of Adam Wainwright's injury to the NL Central
• Friday - Part 3 of 3 of the Cubs offseason report that will focus on the trade for Matt Garza (from Tampa Bay) and the effect it has on the Cubs farm system

Thanks for your patience, and I hope you will check out my next post on Sunday!

Black and Yellow? More Like Black and Blue

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is a huge sports town when it comes to hockey and football. But where is the baseball in this town? Ever since the passing of the great Roberto Clemente the Pittsburgh Pirates have found themselves living at the bottom of N.L. Central standings. It's bad, in fact the Pirates have not had a winning season in 18 years. In those 18 years, the city has seen the Penguins win 3 Stanley Cups, and the Steelers win 2 Super Bowls. In the city of so much sports success, the Pirates just don't seem to belong.

Why have the Pirates been so bad for so long? They love to trade away their talent when they seem to be at the peak of their careers. Since 2001 the Pirates have traded away multiple stars who have found success in the MLB with other clubs. Some of these players include Jason Schmidt, Jason Kendall, Aramis Ramirez, Nate McClouth, Freddy Sanchez, Adam LaRouche, Xavier Nady, Ryan Doumit, Jose Batista, Jack Wilson, Ian Snell, and Jason Bay. Heard of any of them? If you pay any attention to baseball, you should have heard of at least five or more of these players. Getting rid of just one of these players would make any team lose a little something. But to lose all of these guys? I can see why they are close to losing 100 games a season.

Losing these players does have a positive in there too though. The Pirates have their share of prospects on the way, and in three to five years could be a major contender for the N.L. Central crown. But the major question is, will they keep their core young stars that include major talents including Andrew McCutchen, Pedro Alvarez, and Garret Jones? Or will the same cycle continue for the dreadful Pirates when the July 31 trade deadline comes along. The Pirates management needs to keep this young talent if they want to fit in, in "The Steel City."

The Grammys: What Went Wrong

Justin Bieber is already so ridiculously famous he has a movie biography about his life at the age of 16.

The winner of Best New Artist did not go to Justin Bieber, the 2nd most popular artist on Facebook with over 21 million fans (only behind Lady Gaga).  The award went to Jazz performer, Esperanza Spaldling, who has under 70 thousand Facebook fans.


Sure, there are people everywhere that find Justin Bieber's voice obnoxious or even too feminine (including myself).  However, it is impossible to argue with album sales.  Justin's first album "My World" went platinum within the first two months of its release in the United States.  His second album "My World 2.0" has gone double platinum in the United States.  Spalding has released three studio albums thats combined sales have not reached platinum.

Watch Justin Bieber, Usher, & Jaden Smith perform at the 2011 Grammys


After the award was given out Kanye West tweeted, "Damn... I can't find the words to explain how I feel about the best new artist award... Don't wanna say the wrong thing."  Bieber fans backlashed against Spalding as well through Wikipedia.  Earlier today the page read that Esperanza Spalding is a "F***ING REATARD."


You cannot dispute the amount of young girls Justin Bieber has following him wherever he goes.  You cannot dispute the Facebook fans or album sales.  Hate him or love him, he deserved to win Best New Artist at the Grammys last night.

Best Luv Song, T-Pain ft. Chris Brown (Song of the Week: Valentine Edition)

With Valentine's Day being this week, I figured it only right to pick a love song for this edition of Song of the Week.

T-Pain recently was so infuriated with the music industry he started to leak his new album "RevolveR".  What was his reasoning?  "Since nobody wants to respect this form of art that you all say we 'love' so much, I'm just gonna go ahead and start leakin the album myself tonight," explained T-Pain.

One of the first two songs leaked was "Best Luv Song" that featured Chris Brown.  The two pick up after their last single "Kiss, Kiss" and continue to make incredible music.  Auto-tune might be a fad itself, but T-Pain perfects the use of it.

The whole song just clicks the first time you hear it, and was made for the radio.  Chris Brown and T-Pain's sound terrific together, and really made a song that is easy to sing and fun to dance.  Overall I'd give this song 4 out of 5 stars.  Hopefully, T-Pain continues to feel generous and leak even more of an album that looks strong thus far.

Honorable Mention: Roll Up, Wiz Khalifa

Staying with the Valentine's Day theme, Wiz raps over an R&B beat how "whenever you call baby, I roll up."

From Rebuilding Year to Playoff Hopeful (Cubs Offseason Report: Carlos Pena)

Carlos Pena gives the Cubs a left-handed power bat that has been much needed in recent years.

The Cubs finished 2010 with an embarrassing 75-87 record that was good enough for fifth place in the NL Central.  Plain and simple: Changes needed to be made.

Where to start?  Obviously, sign a player that will be 33 in May, on the downhill part of his career, and also bat .196 last season.  The ten million dollar service for only one year was quite pricey as well.  So, where are the positives to signing ex-Ray Carlos Pena?

Not all of last season's stats were embarrassing.  Despite the dismal batting average Pena was still able to pull off a 28 home run and 84 RBI season.

Watch Carlos Pena's official introduction as a Cubs at his news conference with Jim Hendry

Playing anywhere besides the AL East your stats are going to be elevated.  The NL Central pitching staffs are not a joke by any means in 2011, but at least Carlos will not have to go against the Yankees and Red Sox a combined 36 times like he did last season.

Finally, Carlos Pena is also a great influence for any team locker room and city.  When Pena left the Rays to join the Cubs he bought an ad in a local Tampa Bay newspaper thanking the community for his experience there.  He is a class act, and former teammates only have positive statements to attribute to him.

Tom Hank's Son Raps?! (Song of the Week)

Yes, you read that correctly, Tom Hanks' son, Chester Marlon Hanks aka "Chet Haze," raps.  Chester currently is a 21 year old student at North Western and also created a freestyle about college life there called "White and Purple."

I know what went through your hed when your first saw this.  "It is hard enough to succeed as a white rapper, but to top it off, this is Forrest Gump's son?!"  But before you make anymore "rash" decisions give it a listen.

Chet shows potential as an aspiring rapper, and shows some impressive flow that cannot be taught.  The paramount line in the song is "my balls served more than Serena playing tennis."  The downfall to the freestyle are his periodic absurd lyrics.  One example is "stab you in the pee-hole".  Overall I'd rate the song 2.5 out of 5 stars.  Hopefully, Chet will learn from his questionable lyrics, and build on his hot ones.

Howard Stern did not like "Chet Haze" as much as I did, but you can listen to his funny commentary on the freestyle below:

While Stern's take on Haze is pretty funny, I disagree with his overall look at the song.  Sure, Haze sounds a little strange when he starts the video off by saying "my homie showed me this beat," but if you can get past that, the freestyle does not sound half-bad.  Stern also rips on Hanks for growing up in Beverly Hills, and says he has nothing to be angry about.  Why does it matter where you come from rich or poor?  All that matters is whether or not for the three minutes of a song that it sounds good or not.  I'm not defending Haze's "wannabe-gangster" lifestyle beyond his music.  My point is that an artist's work should be judged on just that, and not the artist's background.

Chet Haze's mixtape "Get Hazed" will be released on Valentine's Day and can be downloaded here.

2011 NFL Playoff Wrap-Up/What's Ahead

Congrats to Aaron Rodgers on winning the Super Bowl and the MVP award for it despite 15 Packer players on IR

What a playoff season we had in 2011.  Out of all the games played there were only TWO final scores where the teams playing were separated by double digit numbers.  Even with all the down to the wire games I was still knowledgeable (lucky) enough to finish with an 8-3 record of predicting games this postseason.  I enjoyed writing prediction articles for games, and thanks to everyone who followed them.

Baseball season is almost here!

Whats up next for Fantasy Football is Better than Real Life?  The Spring is right around the corner and on that note, so is MLB Spring Training.  I will be following the Cubs weekly starting in March, but I already posted my first article about new Cardinal, Ryan Theriot, on Monday.  Marty will be giving an overview of the MLB in general, and here is a link to his look on the MLB Offseason's winners and losers.  Newcomer, Kevin Ryan will be joining the staff in a couple of weeks to start covering the White Sox as well.  Last Saturday, I started my "Song of the Week" segment with Lil Wayne's "Green and Yellow."  Look for my new song reviews each week (hence the segment title), and whatever news I have an opinion on.

Thanks again for reading, and we hope to keep making the blog even better.

Lewis Flyer's Behind the Athlete

This is my first segment of "Behind the Athlete" for the Lewis Flyer.  It is obviously not that great being my first time conducting a live video interview, so it is a little rough around the edges.  Hopefully, it will only get better with each entry though.  I got lucky enough to interview the 2010 MIVA Freshman volleyball player of the year, Ian Karbenier, who just came off a big performance in the #4 Stanford vs. Lewis match-up.

Big recruiting classes don't always mean National Championship

Every first Wednesday of February recruits all over the nation make their picks on where they are going to play football in the future. Along with the recruits comes the rankings 1-25 in top classes for the year. This year Florida State grabbed the number one spot as the top class signing 29 recruits and 12 of them were in the ESPNU top 150 prospects list. So does this mean that in 2-4 years Florida State is the team to look out for?

The answer: Not necessarily.

Evidence: The National Championship this season between Auburn 22 vs Oregon 19, had stars in the game including Cam Newton, Nick Fairley, Michael Dyer for Auburn, and LaMichael James, and Darron Thomas offensively for the Ducks. These are all solid players, but Auburn, and especially Oregon's recruiting classes went under the radar. From 2006-2010 according to ESPN ranking systems of top classes 1-25 Auburn was in the top 25 in recruiting four out of the five times (not making the top 25 in 2007) and just pulling out the 25th spot in 2009. The Oregon Ducks on the other hand, only hand two top 25's (23rd in '07 and 22nd in '10).

Sum it up:

It is shocking to see that Oregon was four points away from winning the National Championship not even breaking the top 20 in recruiting, and Auburn only breaking the top five once. This proves that when it comes to recruiting, it might not always be quality of players, but the quantity of players at a given position. So in three years will Florida State be the National Championship? Only time can answer that question, but this year Auburn and Oregon proved to us all that teams with lower ranked recruiting classes can be major contenders in College Football.

Ryan Theriot: Cub Nation Enemy #1

ex-Cub Ryan Theriot was beloved by Cubs fans in his six year tenure in Chicago

Last November, in an interview with St. Louis radio station KFNS, Ryan Theriot broke my and Cubs fans every where's heart.  The ex-Cub told KFNS he was "finally on the right side" of the classic Cubs vs. Cards rivalry. I know this is semi-old news, but it still infuriates me.

Being traded to the Dodgers last July obviously was not Ryan's fault.  Even when he decided to sign with the Cardinals from free agency this off-season, I was not that upset.  The MLB is a business, and does not revolve around only emotion.  "The Riot" himself chose to place that dig on his former team, and betray a city that passionately loved him.

How do Cubs players feel about Theriot's comment?  "There's probably a decent chance he's going to feel how hard the dirt is around the home-plate batters' box," catcher Koyie Hill explained. "At least once, maybe once an at-bat. I don't know how long it's going to take. I want to get an apology out of him, and until the whole team, the whole organization kind of feels satisfied …"  Geovany Soto felt similar emotions, "I'm not going to lie.  I was a little pissed."


What he said was flat out disrespectful to the Cubs and their fans.  My opinion about the disrespect would be no different had the situation been flipped either.  If Albert Pujols signed with the Cubs from free-agency (which would also be the best day of my life) I would still lose respect for him, and feel bad for Cardinal fans.


Carlos Zambrano summed up Cubs nation's opinion the best about Theriot, "There is only one thing to say, he's the enemy now."


Source

Green and Yellow, Lil Wayne (Song of the Week)

The Steelers have the "Terrible Towel"; the Packers are getting their own "Packer Towel" for the Super Bowl game.  Wiz Khalifa made a Steelers theme song "Black and Yellow;" Lil Wayne responded with a freestyle of Wiz's beat titled "Green and Yellow."

The freestyle is a pre-game song for the Super Bowl Sunday. If the Packers do not bring home a Lombardi trophy, their season and this song will lose all meaning.  Most lyrics have to do with Green Bay, so if you are not a "cheesehead" the freestyle will have little relating to you.  The paramount line was a prediction by Wayne of what the Packers were going to do the Steelers Sunday afternoon, "We gon' toast these n*ggas, Pop Tarts."  If you are a Packer fan this song is a solid 3.5 out of 5 stars, but for the rest of us it is a mundane 2 out of 5.

Watch Lil Wayne's interview on why he made Green and Yellow, why he is not a Saints fan, and his input on the NBA Western All-Star snubs below:

A Green-Bay-Kinda-Day.

Greg Jennings has 17 receptions for 239 yards in his three 2011 postseason games.

"Hell, no I'm not rooting for the Packers in the Super Bowl," Brian Urlacher told ESPN 1000 last Friday.  While I'm in the same boat as Brian, that has no impact on who I believe will win the big game.


The Packers have played superb on both sides of the ball this postseason and deserve their trip to Dallas.  Whenever you watch Aaron Rodgers in a postseason game, you just know he is going to put on a hell of a performance.  His 71% completion percentage this 2011 postseason has been video game scary.  How do you beat a quarterback that can beat you with the deep ball if your playing up too close, but also take a two step drop and dump it off to one of his stellar wide receivers with ease?  You can't.  If Aaron Rodgers plays as well as he has in January, and the Packers can run the ball around fifteen times to keep the Steelers defense honest, the Packers should have no problem winning the big game.

As fans watching the game at home, the screen never follows what the offensive line is doing, and only shows wherever the pigskin is on the field.  2010 first round draft pick, Maurkice Pouncey's injury will play an integral part each time Roethlisberger takes a snap.  Big Ben was seen out partying earlier this week, and it is clear to me that the specialness of this game has worn off on him after winning it twice prior.  The Steelers might have the Terrible towel and Black and Yellow, but the Packers have too much offensive and defensive talent for them not to come home with the Lombardi trophy.  Steelers 20, Packers 24.

Here are the other two staff member predictions:


When Troy Polamalu is playing, over the last three years, the Steelers are 26-5; without him they are 6-7.  Steelers 24, Packers 21. Marty Joyce


Roethlisberger is relaxed when he takes the snap and the game is not getting to his head.  On the other side, Rodgers will not play dismal, but he also will not live up to his recent phenomenal playoff play.  Steelers 23, Packers 10.  Kevin Ryan