For the past half dozen years or so, the sports media has been diminishing the value of running backs, despite some impressive statistical years. Locally, the media has spun the narrative that the Bears can find a guy in the later rounds and be effective.
Even though I’m no longer a beat my chest football fan, I’m enough of a meathead fan to prefer to rely heavily on a strong running game with a better than average back. It’s not merely having grown up watching the best, Walter Payton but rather I’ve seen more passing games benefit from a strong running game.
Late yesterday afternoon I learned the Bears signed D’Andre Swift to a multi-year extension. I’m happy and not just because the alternative was hiring a guy named, Rufus Kindaslow.
Onto baseball and contradictions. One of our local baseball scribes wrote about the long season, the highs and lows and Craig Counsell shared his thoughts on the ups and downs of a long baseball season. While everybody always talks about wins being the same in April and September, the emotional component is far different and according to the Cubs manager, it’s both expected and good.
As an emotionally involved fan (who is aware of what other teams are doing), I spend a lot of time trying to figure out what is going wrong (when things are bad) and how to extend those moments of success. What I think doesn’t matter, nor does it have any impact. It’s just trying to make sense of what is going on.
Most fans worry only about their team’s fate, but if one looks at the daily scoreboard in the paper, one realizes that more teams that do not go through periods of extreme highs and lows and for no apparent reason.
There is no proven formula for ending losing streaks and yet we like to think that a big victory will necessarily lead to more wins and possibly a winning streak (to offset the funk). Within individual games, coaches/managers often make asses of themselves and get tossed, hoping it creates a spark. That isn’t a guarantee either.
Because I’m a Cubs fan, I’m going to focus on the team over the past month when they should be more concerned with wins and I’m not going to dig too deeply but I am will to accept their situation isn’t unique.
Since August 21st, the Cubs have scored 17+ runs in a game three times. Thankfully, they won all three games, 19-2 (Seattle), 17-5 (Cincinnati), and 17-3 (Milwaukee). Amazingly, it didn’t lead to great things. In fact, the win against the Mariners was the last in a three-game series and prevented the sweep. In Cincy, the rout was their lone win in another series loss. In between those series, they lost another series to Arizona without any high scoring games. However, the one game they won was a 7-0 opener, but closed out the trip with a 2-0 disappointment.
After losing the series to the Reds, they responded by pounding the Brewers at Wrigley 17-3. but couldn’t carry that over to the next day as they lost games 2 and 3. After the rout, they went 1-5 against the Brewers to close out their season series.
What does yesterday’s 12-2 win over the Pirates mean? The loss to the Cubs came after the Pirates swept the White Sox at the Rate. How will this rollercoaster ride end?
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