Final Thoughts on 2013-14 Chicago Blackhawks: Hold That Dynasty Talk

Blackhawks fans have been spoiled these past few years. The team had enjoyed considerable success in Games 5-7 of most any series they played in over the past four year, and it was the winning record in those games that probably led many of us (including yours truly) to assume that Chicago was on its way to a second straight Stanley Cup after the Hawks came back from a 3-1 series deficit to force a seventh game. But then reality happened.

Everything seemed to start well enough, and even when the Kings fought back to tie Game 7, the Blackhawks would retake the lead. As the series that had been so good even casual fans were raving about its quality saw the winner-take-all game go into overtime, we all wondered which Hawk would emerge as this year's hero. Toews had the game-winner on the breakaway in Game 5 in St. Louis and Kane had the series-clincher in Minnesota. This time though, the lucky bounce of the puck instead went in the other team's favor and fans all over Chicago were left speechless.

While it was certainly a heartbreaking conclusion to a hard-fought series, the end result is not cause for panic. There are questions that deserve to be asked, for sure. However, the Blackhawks were attempting to repeat after last season concluded later than usual, this season began earlier than usual, and the team was tied for the most skaters sent overseas for the Olympics. The fact that they made it as far as they did is a testament to how very good they are, and that they lost to a club that was arguably the best team in the league is nothing to be ashamed of. 

Final Thoughts on 2013-14 Chicago Bulls: Same as it ever was ... Same as it ever was ... Same as it ever was ... Same as it ever was ... Same as it ever was ... Same as it ever was ... Same as it ever was ...

***SIGH***

Stop me if you've heard this story before: A Bulls team lacking superstars overachieves in the regular season before coming up short in the playoffs. I won't need to spend too much time harping on this past year for basketball in Chicago, because I basically shared my exact same thoughts following last season. Here we are again, and maybe the only difference now is that we can look forward to Carlos Boozer finally hitting the road.

As is always the case, there's a lot of discussion about a possible big-name free agent (Carmelo Anthony) to team with Derrick Rose when he returns for what is hopefully his first full season in two years. I refuse to get my hopes up about Anthony, instead holding out hope for the far more realistic possibility that the Bulls can get Real Madrid power forward Nikola Mirotić to come across the pond and more than make up for what Boozer lacked. There has also been some concern raised about reports that the Los Angeles Lakers are attempting to woo Tom Thibodeau into coming to California, but I simply don't see what that franchise could offer Chicago that would be attractive enough for them to relinquish control of the coach.

However, there's some very real issues to be taken with Thibs' style now. The man is committed to winning every single possession of every single game, no matter how meaningless. This attitude has largely gone over well among the U.C. faithful, where a regular season victory is still treated as being some sort of indicator of future success. Of course, this is not the case. And one needs look no further than San Antonio (where aging stars are routinely given the night off) or Miami (where the "Big Three" also receive breaks to stay healthy for a playoff run) to realize that if the Bulls are truly to compete in the near future, the team is going to have to be willing to sacrifice a game or two in the regular season.

I fear this would strike Thibs as nonsense, but unless the team adds some genuinely striking offensive talent this off-season, I have little reason to get my hopes up about anything being all that different when the 2015 Playoffs tip off. The Heat are not getting any younger, but the Spurs have continued to be perennial contenders despite years and years of being dismissed as "too old." Chicago continues to be among the best defensive teams in the league year in and year out, but until they can be as strong offensively while still having gas in the tank and a healthy roster come April, it just seems that the ceiling for the Bulls will continue to be as bridesmaids of the Eastern Conference.

Final Thoughts on 2013 NFL Season: In case you hadn't been reminded half-a-million times, "Defense Wins Championships"

It only figures that after I talked about how long it had been since we had a good ol' fashioned Super Bowl blowout when making my final pick, that's exactly what the endlessly hyped big game ended up being. We had been led to believe that the game would certainly be a lot closer at the half—or hell, even at the end of the first quarter. Instead, Seattle dominated from start to finish and capped off a wildly successful year.

While I did indeed have the Broncos losing the Super Bowl when I made my original predictions this season, I only had the Seahawks going as far as the NFC Championship. For one reason or another, I believed this would finally be the year that the Detroit Lions broke through in the biggest way. So, oops. I was right about a Rodgers injury impacting the Packers negatively, but Detroit never capitalized. 

Looking back on all of my picks, Detroit was one of only two division winners I was incorrect about this year (with the Cowboys blowing an opportunity to win the East in the season finale). Overall, I had 15 of the 32 teams in their actual final spots (getting the orders exactly right in the NFC South and AFC West, but having absolutely none of the teams in the NFC East) and correctly predicted nine of the dozen teams that made the playoffs (five of the six in the AFC and four of the six in the NFC).

Final Thoughts on 2013 Chicago Bears: A little bit up, a little bit down

Well, that didn't take long. After an entire season of wondering and debating whether the Bears would bring back Jay Cutler, it turns out that the best quarterback in team history will still be wearing a Chicago uniform for the foreseeable future. Make no mistake, this is great news. Under Marc Trestman and now working with weapons like Matt Forte, Brandon Marshall, Alshon Jeffery, and Martellus Bennett—not to mention doing so behind an offensive line that was significantly improved from years past—there appears to be more than enough reason to be optimistic about this Bears offense going forward.

Now, that defense on the other hand ... Well, there's a lot of work to be done this off-season on that side of the ball. And the Cutler deal, while costly, doesn't completely prevent moves from being made. Rather, there's a number of other players on this year's team that Bears management will need to evaluate and decide whether it is really in the organization's best interest to bring back. Julius Peppers is probably one of the most expensive question marks on defense, and his virtual disappearance this season in terms of impact is not likely to have many fans shedding tears if indeed Chicago decides to part ways with the defensive end. Charles "Peanut" Tillman, who didn't finish the year after sustaining a triceps injury, would not be as easy to say goodbye to. Still, if he's unwilling to accept a hometown discount. And then there's just a variety of other positions on defense that need upgrades, possibly through free agency but more likely through the draft.

Again, a lot of work to be done this off-season.

Final Thoughts on 2013 MLB Season: #BostonStrong, Pundits Weak

When a Nationals-Tigers World Series was more or less the consensus pick at the beginning of this season, I said in my predictions that it reminded me of 2011. I once again brought up a 2011 reference when the Braves concluded their third quarter. And so at year end, who should happen to win the whole thing? The team I picked to win it all in 2011, of course.

As I mentioned before, I was far from being the only person who didn't have either of these teams in the Fall Classic, seeing as none of the 63 "experts" recorded by PunditTracker had Boston or St. Louis. In fact, I was like most in relegating Boston to the basement of the American League East, so the fact that the Red Sox instead ended up winning it all is quite incredible. And while I wasn't really rooting for either one of these teams, I certainly did take some joy in knowing how miserable the loss made Cardinals fans. Thanks to the Baseball's Best Fans Twitter, we got to see every single racist, homophobic and plainly insensitive tweet from the St. Louis faithful, many of which referenced the Boston Marathon bombings (one particular lowlife actually got arrested). So I can wholeheartedly endorse the city finally getting to savor a championship, you know, considering the additional pain residents endured this past summer.

Final Thoughts on 2013 Atlanta Braves: Yet another early farewell

My skepticism about the Braves heading into this postseason appears to have been justified.  Sure, I was cheering for the thought of a possible Game 5 in Atlanta during what turned out to be the final game of the year in Los Angeles, but it was clear I had a bad feeling even when the Bravos were holding a lead going into the bottom of the eighth inning. Witness this tweet as Juan Uribe came to the plate with a man on:

Be careful. Uribe's a spoiler.
— excitable honky (@excitablehonky) October 8, 2013

Sure enough, you know how that turned out:

Juan Uribe's with a HUGE 2-run home run giving the #Dodgers the 4-3 lead over the #Braves in the bottom of the 8th #postsesason
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) October 8, 2013

And with that, the Braves suffered yet another immediate exit from the playoffs, leading to immediate criticism that Fredi Gonzalez should have brought in Craig Kimbrel for a two-inning save and that David Carpenter was somehow representative of a bullpen that couldn't be trusted. Hindsight, as the old saying goes, is always 20/20. Truth be told, there's no guarantee Kimbrel would have been able to get six outs instead of three, and Carpenter had earned his opportunity to be entrusted with the eighth inning opportunity.

And beyond the inevitable letdown of another first-round ouster, there appears to be the additional fact that just like we said goodbye to Chipper last year and Bobby two years before that, it seems likely that we may have seen Brian McCann in an Atlanta uniform for the last time too. While the Braves catcher made innumerable contributions to the team over the year and I suspected he would step up to become the new team leader, McCann instead this year became more responsible for helping Atlanta earn the reputation of the "baseball police" in MLB. Hopefully next year will provide more reasons for the team to be more like those clubs accused of celebrating too much, you know, the ones that actually advance in the playoffs.

Final Thoughts on 2013 Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks: A shortened season that produced even more memories

Oh, right. So this is what it was supposed to feel like. I guess I kinda forgot after two straight years of first round exits in the playoffs. None of that bullshit this year though, no sir.

I entered this year with my expectations for the Blackhawks somewhat tempered by the fact that the defending champion would be bringing back essentially the entire roster it won the Cup with in 2012—not to mention the fact that some of their players were getting about three more months of rest than Cup winners normally do. However, when Chicago came storming out of the gate and made through each of the first two quarters of this 48-game season without losing a single game in regulation, those expectations were raised about as high as they could be set by the time we got to the third and fourth quarters of the year.

Entering the playoffs as the top seed, anything less than winning the whole damn things seemed unacceptable. That said, this year's run did not seem to be quite the formality it felt like in 2010. I might be downplaying some of the more stressful moments from that postseason, but you could see supposed fans of the team this year leaping off the bandwagon at numerous times when Blackhawks trailed in games or series. Judging by the parade turnout yesterday, I think most of them came back. Maybe they now realize what fans in other cities learned this season the hard way: you can never count this team out.

Final Thoughts on 2013 NHL Season: All's (Really) Well That Ends (Really, Really) Well

It's still rather hard to believe that less than six months ago, many of us we're sitting here thinking that we were on the brink of seeing an entire NHL season wiped out for the second time in less than a decade. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed, the puck dropped, and things could not have worked out more perfectly.

I will clearly get to my fawning Final Thoughts wrap-up of the beloved Blackhawks' season in the next post (hopefully tomorrow), but it's important to step back and look at the Playoffs and the entire season as a whole. It apparently wasn't just me who was enjoying the hockey this year. Following the conference finals, the playoffs were the second most-watched in 16 years. This year's Stanley Cup Final was the most watched on record (which, admittedly, only goes back to 1994), and the deciding Game 6 was the ninth-most watched game ever in the United States.

But let me not read too much into those numbers. It is customary for most hockey fans to complain about the lack of attention the sport is receiving, but if we can acknowledge that this cult sport remains fourth in popularity among the four major sports, those of us who did watch were royally treated these past two months. There were overtime games galore, a good number of competitive series and a Stanley Cup Final that at time seemed to be about as evenly matched as any I've ever seen. Much like last year's shortened NBA season, it felt as though this 48-game NHL campaign not only compelled viewers to pay closer attention during the regular season, but brought out another level of competitive spirit from the players as well. The end result is a conclusion so glorious, I suspect many might even forget there was a work stoppage in the first place.

Final Thoughts on 2012-13 NBA Season: Your Anti-LeBron Argument is Hereby Invalid

My pick for the NBA Finals last round made no secret about my borderline boredom with a majority of this year's playoffs, but I thought I made clear that I had pretty high expectations for the final series of this basketball season. Consider those expectations completely shattered. Decimated. What I just saw is certainly among the greatest NBA Finals of my lifetime, and I would not be surprised if in future posts I refer to it as the greatest of all time.

As the fact that I picked against Miami each of the past three years when predictions are made for the final round indicates, I have enjoyed rooting against the Heat as much as the next non-Floridian or Cleveland resident. You know that I was sharing some of the giddy joy in that bar on Tuesday night when the Spurs were less than a minute away from a fifth title. Alas, that legendary game bears so much resemblance to another Lone Star State Game 6 meltdown, the Texas Rangers twice being within one strike of winning the 2011 World Series. I'm relatively certain that at this rate, it's either going to be the Cowboys, the Texans or maybe even the Stars choking away a title in 2015.

While I think a good majority of this NBA season unfolded pretty much as expected, the way it finished was spectacular. And at this point, you are either ignorant or bitter to deny giving credit to the Miami team that ultimately delivered the championship it was favored to win all season long. This team has been a deserving favorite for the past three years, and—barring an unprecedented trade or dramatic overnight rebuilding of some other entire roster—will almost certainly be favorites next year and maybe three more after that. As I remarked to a co-worker today, now I guess I know how other fans in other cities felt during the Jordan years.

Final Thoughts on 2012-13 Chicago Bulls: Everybody Hurts

At long, long last, a very trying Bulls season concluded Wednesday night in Miami. While this campaign is destined to be remembered as "the year Derrick Rose didn't play a single game," the fact that this team not only made the playoffs but actually won a first-round series is a testament to the coaching abilities of Tom Thibodeau. Amazingly, Thibs finished eighth in the Coach of the Year voting, but he got maximum results from a minimal roster. And a banged up roster, at that. Nearly every member of this team battled through injuries while the league MVP from two seasons ago watched from the bench. 

There's certainly going to be people who have a hard time forgiving Rose for sitting out all year. How could he just sit and watch while teammates fought through their own pain and ailments? Couldn't he have played, even just for a few minutes, to energize his team and the hometown fans? Would it have made a difference? Much like the conclusion to the 2009-10 season, it felt like those holding out hope that Rose would return or that the remaining Bulls would overcome the odds were like poor ol' Candy.

Final Thoughts on 2012 NFL Season: Lights Out

What looked for a while like a game that could turn into a blowout reminiscent of the Super Bowls I had become accustomed to throughout my youth instead turned into one of the more memorable big games of all time. According to Deadspin, the seventh-best Super Bowl of all time.

Not only did San Francisco mount an amazing comeback, but the game was delayed for a little longer than a half-hour because of power failure. Many people loved Beyonce's halftime show, although I'm still inclined to believe the Prince performance at Super Bowl XLI ("Purple Rain" in the rain!!!) was the greatest. MVP Joe Flacco completed a legendary run of playoff performances that now elevates him from being viewed as a liability to now being among the elite QBs in the game.

And because all great games have an element of controversy, this year's Super Bowl was no exception. There were many 49ers players, coaches and fans who expressed their displeasure with the lack of a flag on a 4th and goal play that could've given San Fran the lead. However, the Niners did themselves no favors with some of the playcalling on that final drive. And had San Francisco completed the miracle comeback, how would the reaction have been in Baltimore, where the Ravens had complete control of the game until the inexplicable delay?

For this observer, the result was grand because the 49ers that had never lost a Super Bowl finally got to feel what it's like to lose a big game. It's not as though I know an overwhelming amount of San Fran fans, but their past success always seemed to make me loath them that much more. So I took a little extra joy in seeing them lose this year, and the anger about how the game ended is just a bonus.

All in all, it was certainly a memorable playoffs for Baltimore fans, with the miracle win over Denver probably being the most compelling game of the playoffs. That victory sold me on the Ravens this year, but we should make no mistake: this San Francisco team is very likely to be back in the final round of the playoffs very soon. Maybe as soon as next season, although I've always been a believer in the hangover for losing teams. We will see how the remainder of this off-season plays out for the rest of the NFL.

Final Thoughts on 2012 Chicago Bears: All Out of Love for Lovie

I have been a supporter of Lovie Smith more often than not during his tenure as head coach of the Chicago Bears. It is an times thankless job, with many fans of the most popular sports team in Illinois calling for your job following any loss. There were the repeated cries that Lovie never showed emotion on the sideline, as though that meant something. Still, it seemed to me that he essentially got whatever players he was given to perform way beyond their abilities. I would be remiss not to recall how ecstatic I was when he led the team to a Super Bowl six years ago, albeit one the team ended up losing in.

However, I also cannot deny how in the years since, I have routinely noted Lovie's condescending attitude toward the media. Perhaps he might be more comfortable with the press in, say, Jacksonville. Beyond how he dealt with reporters, there was simply the fact that Lovie could not close the deal. Last year, it was his offensive coordinator and the general manager who lost their jobs instead, but this season's fall from sitting atop the division with a 7-1 record to a third place 10-6 finish that saw the team missing the playoffs was the last straw.

For as long I have been alive, the Chicago Bears have been built around being a defensive team. The trade for Jay Cutler was supposed to finally inject some much-needed hope on the offensive side of the ball, but Lovie struggled to run a system that manufactured the points the league now requires. And so one year into his new gig, Phil Emery appointed a fellow named Marc Trestman as the 14th head coach of the beloved Bears.

And Chicagoans were quick to note: this dude's got a couple of hot daughters.

Final Thoughts on 2012 MLB Season: Picking the right year to get married

Following a Division Series round that saw all four series go the maximum five games for the first time in history, the remainder of this year's MLB playoffs were rarely any sort of must-see television. The Yankees never really showed up for the ALCS, the Cardinals appeared to stop showing up for the NLCS some time after Game 4 and then the World Series was over almost as soon as it started. Along the way, there were only two exceptions to my predicting just about every series (or Wild Card game) incorrectly.

In the end, it is Bruce Bochy and the damned San Francisco Giants walking away as World Champions for the second time in three years. The team's story this season is a relatively remarkable achievement, considering that it lost All-Star hero, Melky Cabrera, in the middle of the season. Still, when the Dodgers went out and took a handful of big contracts off the books of the Boston Red Sox, San Fran stayed the course, walked away with the division, and twice came back from the brinks of elimination in the playoffs before sweeping away Detroit in the World Series. To their fans, it might not be as joyous as finally ending their long suffering just two years ago, but coming back from a 2-0 deficit in the NLDS before coming back from 3-1 in the NLCS could make this year's achievement just as memorable.

For this Braves fan, however, it's another year that ends in bitter disappointment. And just as Bobby Cox's final year ended sooner than we'd hoped two years ago, this season saw Chipper Jones' career come to a close just when there was hope that the team might play for at least a few more weeks. Considering the concern I had about what I might miss during the evening of my wedding, that game and the entire World Series in general this year seemed to be a bit of a snore. I suppose not every year can involve a seventh and deciding game, and if a quick finish has to happen, it might as well be the year when other things were garnering my attention.

This year will be remembered as the one in which the playoffs expanded once again, and while next year the teams with the better records will go back to hosting the opening games, I now get to bitch about Wild Card teams having but a single play-in game after 162 regular season contests. It strikes me as patently ridiculous, but the new format's supporters seem content to argue that my concerns can be avoided simply be winning a division. That may be true, but it still misses the point that baseball is not supposed to be a one-and-done type deal.

That debate will likely continue as long as baseball retains this playoff format, and I fear that eventually I will grow to accept the one-game playoff—probably just as soon as Atlanta is the beneficiary.

NOTE: PHOTOS TAKEN FROM HERE AND HERE

Final Thoughts on 2012 Atlanta Braves: Getting harder to build hopes up

This is an all-too-familiar sight, with an Atlanta legend heading for the showers one last time. Like Bobby two years ago, we're left feeling like another longtime Brave deserved so much better. And this year, that statement holds even more meaning because Chipper's final season ends in what I obviously felt—and probably feel even more strongly now—was a ridiculously cheap single elimination "playoff" game.

Furthermore, Jones should not be leaving after a game in which the fans that cheered him on for 19 seasons delayed the game for 19 minutes by littering the field with trash. Yes, the infield fly rule being ludicrously invoked in a key eighth inning play was utterly preposterous, and it unfortunately proved exactly what Chipper himself feared about the one-game Wild Card idea:

Now if you were to say the two wild-card teams will play a best two-out-of-three [series], I'd be OK with that. I think it's more fair from a standpoint that anything can happen in one game -- a blown call by an umpire, a bad day at the office … at least in a two-of-three game series you have some sort of leeway.

Still, it is important to remember that even had that call not been made, no runs would have been added for Atlanta. Rather, the Braves would have admittedly had another golden opportunity with the bases loaded and only one out. Considering that the team ended the night by leaving 10 men on base, scoring that inning was still no guarantee. Oh, and then there were the three errors. And when Jones made the first one, I had the feeling it was the start of something bad.

It appears that as a Braves fan, I'm developing a stronger sense for imminent disappointment.

Final Thoughts on 2011-12 NBA Season: Obligatory Post No. 2

Alas, the long national nightmare is over and a member of Michigan University's famed "Fab Five" has finally won an NBA Championship. So congratulations are in order to you, Mr. Juwan Howard. You finally did it and this is truly your moment. Good show.

Oh, and maybe some other guys. Total team effort, of course.

***DEEP BREATH***

Look, this year could be a difficult one for a lot of Bulls fans to accept because for so long throughout this season, there were moments when many fans wanted to believe Chicago could win a seven-game series against Miami in this year's playoffs. And we waited and we waited all year long before every hope was disintegrated in the closing moments of the very first game of the playoffs. Brutal. Championship window closed significantly, if not entirely.

The playoffs continued nonetheless, and while many of us once again were seduced by the seeming superiority of the basketball being played in the Western Conference, the Oklahoma City followed up their Game 1 Finals win with absolutely no answer for LeBron or any other Heat role player for the next four games. Oh, Miami-OKC sure could be a marvelously entertaining conclusion to future postseasons too in the tradition of Lakers-Celtics, but this year ended up being a little too one-sided. Despite the laughable-in-retrospect scares from Indiana and Boston, Miami took charge in this year's NBA Finals and let the Thunder play the part of the heartbroken.

Again, this was the Finals most people had at the beginning of this year, and I resisted ... probably in part to hold out hope for the beloved Bulls. Going forward, however, I assume Heat-Thunder now becomes not just the Finals I will more than likely join in predicting, but maybe also wanting to see in the sense that there's two legitimate superstars now competing on the highest level in LeBron and Kevin Durant. Derrick Rose, bless his knee, will need some help to enter that conversation.

Ultimately, when you consider that we weren't entirely certain that the season was ever going to even tip off, the Heat-Thunder Finals provided all the more reason to believe that the future for the league is probably going to continue to get brighter and brighter.

Final Thoughts on 2011-12 NHL Season: Obligatory Post No. 1

Seeing as it's July, I should probably go ahead and bang out these two usual footnotes to the conclusions of the winter sports seasons. I'll start off with the Los Angeles Kings, since they wrapped up their title first.

The picture to the right there is probably one of the most wonderful little reasons to feel genuinely happy for this team. The other, however, is simply the fact that they went out there and flat-out fucking earned it. Seriously. New Jersey deserves some credit for winning as many games as the entire Western Conference did against L.A. in the previous three rounds, but the Kings seriously just went out there and took the damn thing.

Ordinarily, yes, I generally loathe pretty much any sports championship team that comes out of Hell-A. The Kings, however, are not the Dodgers nor the Lakers. As demonstrated by the local media's screwing up such basic concepts as the team's logo to how to pronounce a star's name to forgetting the last time the team made it this far, there is some temptation to think "they don't really deserve it." The "they" being the residents that were just now getting word of the bandwagon. No, Chicago never had any of those.

In the end, however, how can a Hawks fan not be happy for Daryl Sutter? And how can you not appreciate the way the entire club played right from the beginning of every game. The Kings took the first three games of each best-of-seven series in all four rounds. There was rarely a moment they didn't seem to be completely controlling the puck. And during those moments that they were on the defense, then how can you not look at Jonathan Quick's play and want a goalie like that playing for your favorite team?

There is no denying that for the longest time, I've wanted an eight-seed to win it all. It reinforces that belief that anything's possible in the NHL playoffs, but I never would have expected an eight-seed to do it quite like the Kings just did. That was a level of dominance that you would normally expect from the top teams.

Moreover, the Kings winning the Cup might also send a message to certain general managers about taking gambles during the season. Kings GM Dean Lombardi called his trade deadline acquisition of Jeff Carter a "Hail Mary," and it won him the Cup. 

As for the prediction records, James Murphy and John Buccigross, both from ESPN, finished with records of 10-5, although Murphy had four series this postseason predicted in the exact number of games while Buccigross only did that once. I, meanwhile, had pretty much the opposite score, going 5-10 with only one "exacta" for another year of really awful predicting on my part.

Final Thoughts on 2011-12 Chicago Blackhawks and 2011-12 Chicago Bulls: Where it all fell apart

The hopes were oh-so-high, and they came crashing down oh-so-quickly. All too quickly. As this little graphic demonstrates, it's an eerily similar pattern to the fates of three Chicago teams this past year, and for this fan, it hurts a little more when you recall that the Atlanta Braves imploded and lost a postseason berth on the final day of the regular season.

Oh, sure. Maybe I should have broken these two teams in separate posts, but really, the endings for both teams arrived much sooner than expected, separated only by a couple weeks. One set of hopes ended in April while the other's were extinguished in May when there were once again notions both could be playing in June. Two first round exits for both Chicago clubs, and now the question that needs to be asked is, "Will either one is going to be any closer to a championship next season?"

Sure, we could sit here and harp about the injustice of having to watch some thug knock the Blackhawks' top scorer out for the remainder of the playoffs on yet another unquestionable cheap shot. Or we could bemoan what might have been had the Bulls not lost both Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah, but again, what might have been or what was supposed to be is rather pointless now. You have to wonder whether these teams are going to be considered contenders when next year begins.

Final Thoughts on 2011 NFL Season: My Quietest Year Yet

Yep. The number of posts during NFL seasons used to make this annual conclusion involve a number of loose ends to tie up. And the total number of posts had been going up every year for the past three (52 last year, 45 the year before that and 34 in apparently the first year), but this year? This will be only the 12th post about the NFL season.

And that's not to say it was a bad season, by any means. Another good Super Bowl, a pair of good Championship games and a few other memorable playoff games thrown in there. The regular season certainly had its usual share of moments and now there's the long six months until there's more football played.

I'd normally be showing grand totals amassed during confidence pool picks throughout the year, but I didn't participate in any of those this year. Yes, I hope to be back in them again next year, although I wouldn't count on myself to organize one.

I already talked about that fantasy stuff, and obviously with no confidence pools, there aren't any Power Rankings to post either. You may recall that this Bears season is not one I'm going to be recalling very warmly, and certainly not itching to revisit right now.

But, hey, at least we had a season. Oh, unless you were Peyton Manning. Sorry. And therein lies one of the most compelling stories to follow this off-season. A legendary quarterback now seeming bound to be wearing a different uniform at the start of next season after the Colts presumably draft Andrew Luck. I'm going to go ahead and guess there's no way the rookie can have the immediate impact that Cam Newton did this year.

Alas, there's a little bit of green this year in those playoff predictions made way back at the beginning of the season, but ultimately the success was minimal. The same sort of goes for the predictions I made during the playoffs, final standings which are below the fold.

Final Thoughts on 2011 Chicago Bears: Not the 8-8 I imagined

While I indicated early on this season that I felt the Bears were going to be fighting to be a .500 team this year, the fact that the team ended up with same number of wins as losses does not represent the oh-so-brief span of potential there seemed to be midway through the year. Indeed, there was once a point this year where some of us Bears fans might have been feeling a bit more confident that things were going to be different that next time we ran into the Packers. And in this NFC, why couldn't Chicago compete again?

And the answer, of course, was first an injury to your star quarterback and then your star running back. Follow that with an abysmal losing streak that varied in levels of pain to witness, and you get a Bears team that naturally missed the playoffs.

Unlike a few years ago when the team held a press conference to commit sweeping changes while simultaneously retaining the exact same staff, general manager Jerry Angelo was gone and Mike Martz was out as offensive coordinator. So at least this off-season, there will be some new faces that can hopefully begin getting to work trying to figure out how this third place team is going to get back to the top of a pretty competitive division.

There was continued speculation for what seemed like more months than it actually was before the Bears introduced their agent of change as ...

Final Thoughts on 2011 MLB Season: That One's Gonna Hurt

I debated just putting this image, but felt the need to try and create sort of a collage here of a couple of those unmistakably ugly moments of this year's World Series. When I consider that I was bitching last year about the number of early ends to series in the postseason, I can issue no such complaints this year. Of the 41 possible games in baseball's playoffs, 38 got played. And no, not all of them were pretty. But we still got more than our fair share of genuinely tension-filled moments that are only possible in this game.

Thanks in large part, I assume, to an instant epic Game 6 that sort of embodied everything awesome and awful about the entire postseason, the title to my post for the incorrect pick went from looking like a possibility to being a pretty good-size hit. Good for baseball.

Of course, that sixth game pretty much made an immediate claim to legendary status just for the dramatic moment after moment after moment that unfolded at the end. And the pain that any Rangers fan is feeling today is one that puts the rest of the 29 teams to pretty sever shame. I've harped enough about the Atlanta and Boston failures this season, but right now it's pretty clear that as long as we're talking about who should be hurting the most, I don't know that I've ever seen a team come within one strike twice.

And I'm wondering when they're going to start getting really bitter.