Let me start off by saying this is the last sports-related column yours truly will write for a long time (unless if it's providing NFL coverage maps or something ratings-related.) In fact, this is a media blog, and not a sports one, and I can tell you readers are already starting to fall asleep, giving the pathetic state Chicago sports is in right now.
The Cubs were swept by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NLDS as everyone knows and there has been some rumblings from people about being unable to watch the games on broadcast TV (or as the mainstream media would call it, "free TV" - yes, those guys are still living in 1988, and they are fine with that...)
Oh, boo hoo. I don't have cable TV for the games. The games should only be on WGN. Oh, shut the hell up. Some people don't even have food to eat, and you all complain about not having cable TV to watch a baseball game? Leave it to Cubs fans to display such arrogance.
So after the game ended Saturday night, instead of Cubs fans applauding the team after a great season, they booed them off the field.
The fans boo the Cubs. They boo Rex Grossman. They booed the White Sox. They've booed the Blackhawks - wait, there are still Blackhawks fans?
When did Chicago become so vicious you ask? Maybe around the time we recorded our 10,000th murder or something. (That's a play on the Philadelphia Phillies' 10,00th loss they recorded this past season, but on the bright side, Philly suffers worse than Chicago sports fans do.)
Look, there is a lot to despise in this town. Politicians. Government. The media. Traffic. Community leaders who don't know when to shut up. Sports stars were supposed to be our heroes. But when they are taking steroids, drowning dogs, shooting off guns in the parking lots, or getting arrested (and that last part is the Cincinnati Bengals alone), they are not our heroes anymore, aren't they? Like everything else in this town, they let us down.
The Cubs are just a small problem of what's wrong with sports and society at large. They get paid millions of dollars, while we can't get money for public transit, or for a bridge to be replaced, or for gang-prevention programs. And when they suck at it, no wonder we're pissed off. The Cubs obviously haven't been following what's been going on in Illinois as of late.
Sports teams are run by the same type of dolts who have successfully run television and radio stations into the ground - money first, the public later. And yes, the Tribune Co. is so unique that it has managed to pull off two of those three feats.
And of course, the Chicago media is shameful as usual with their excess coverage of a Cubs playoff run, as well as a Bears quarterback switch. You have nobodies writing columns about the Cubs (besides Mariotti, that is), while coverage of the death of a previously missing woman - an African-American woman mind you - gets shuttled off to the back page or to the bottom half-hour of a newscast. Typical.
With the Cubs and White Sox gone, and the Bears struggling (they did win last night though), the state of Chicago sports is not in good shape. Then again, neither is the fall prime-time lineup, where there hasn't been a hit breakout show. Something's wrong when your best buzzed about show is a sitcom based on an insurance ad. What does it tell you when the Cubs get canceled and Cavemen is still on the air? Only in Chicago.
So on Monday morning, we head off to work, resuming our lives. But at least there's that new episode of Heroes to look forward to later that night. A program struggling to get on track after a successful season. Much like the Bears. Hey, Heroes might even nab Rex Grossman as a guest star. If that happens, I'm flipping over to The Game.
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