The Blackhawks' First Quarter: Second to none (for now)

The Hawks reached the quarter mark in the season while I was in Chicago, actually. Still, much like I've done for the other 20 games this year, I listened on the radio to every awful goal of a 9-2 shellacking from the Oilers. I suppose I was once again in that bed in the basement, just like I was oh so often during that Stanley Cup season. And damned if this team didn't get off to an otherwise pretty damn good start to this year's run.

Whereas your author said something about how he'd "be surprised if they didn't have a little stumbling out of the gate," well ... color me surprised, I guess. I wouldn't rush to say that my pre-season pick of Detroit still taking the division should be dismissed just yet, but the team is still in a better spot than I had originally anticipated. But who really knew the Jackets would be that bad?

The schedule's going to start getting tougher and this is the portion of the year where you wince and hope whomever gets hurt isn't out for too long. I suppose I've had my complaints about some of the defense thus far this year, but overall the feeling is fairly optimistic.

The Bears' Second Quarter: Can you believe we're still talking playoffs?

Just as it seemed we were surely on our way to seeing the team go into the midway point in their season at the .500 mark, like I had predicted in the last quarterly update and every single writer at the Chicago Tribune had them pegged as becoming when they certainly fell to the Philadelphia Eagles, the Bears instead went and did what seemingly every other Philly opponent has done all year and left you wondering how that team was so favored to get to the Super Bowl. Boy, am I glad I picked the Saints.

So instead of being 4-4 after eight games, the Bears have a winning record and have numerous factors going their way now in terms of possible playoff tiebreakers. Consider now some of the names on the list of opponents the Bears have victories over this season: Philadelphia, Atlanta, Tampa Bay. Other than a Dallas or New York team that doesn't win the division, the Bears would have tiebreakers over a number of teams that could finish with an identical record.

Now, as far as what happens if the Bears get into the playoffs ... well, who's to say, really? The victory over Philadelphia seemed to create a little more confidence in believers as well as win over a number of nationwide observers who had been sitting on the fence about the the Bears' chances. Once you get past the wins, you notice that the losses have come to far more capable football teams. And if the Monsters of the Midway can't start giving more of a challenge to the upper-tier teams, there's every reason to be skeptical that they'll be able to get one playoff win, let alone get back to the NFC Championship and go to a Super Bowl.

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.

Final Thoughts on 2011 Atlanta Braves: I'm over it

As I said in my World Series pick this year, the nine lives of this year's St. Louis Cardinals have now helped me get over the fact that a Braves team that had been widely assumed to be the National League Wild Card this year instead came up one game short of getting into the playoffs. A late-surging team didn't just come in and swipe the final playoff spot from the Braves and then fold. No, instead the Cards are actually about six four innings away from possibly winning the World Series.

And their run has been every sort of improbable, capped off, no less, by a Game 6 that some are calling the greatest game they've ever seen. (I'm not going that far.) People will remember that for years. St. Louis accomplished something.

Now what about that other league's wild finish? The Red Sox suddenly appear to be a still-sinking ship with both Theo and Terry fleeing town, and the Rays that took the Wild Card from them quickly fell to Texas. So, years from now, that's still going to be remembered more as a Boston disaster than a Tampa Bay accomplishment.

And this year's Braves? Oh, sure ... they blew a pretty good size lead in the division too. But like I said, St. Louis was red hot when Atlanta could barely manage to win any series. And when you compare not getting into the playoffs to the many, many painful season-ending losses that actually occurred in postseason games not so long ago, this year isn't going to hurt near as much as the 1991 finish. Or 1996. Or 1998.

No, Braves fans should be saying this ranks among those. Yeah, it's a new kind of "suck," but we've been through worse. The way this season ended was irritating, but I don't think it's going to be terribly haunting.

2011 World Series Prediction: Lowest Rated Series Ever?

We knew Fox couldn't have been pleased as soon as the first round concluded, and alas, here we are with a Fall Classic featuring the markets of Dallas and St. Louis.

Hmmm ...

They were pondering this thought on the radio today, and I have a hard time believing this year's World Series will hit a new record low. All it really has to do is go more than five games, and I'm sure it will avoid that dubious honor. It might not miss it by much, but I don't think it will set any new records. Albert Pujols will draw some casual viewers. And what will it be up against, anyhow?

Did basketball start? Do I have another preview to do? No, of course not. Whatever anyone else might say, I think this postseason's been better than usual. I can only hope the last series ends the playoffs with a bang.

2011 League Championship Series Predictions: Off to a good start

The one series I picked last round to go the maximum five games instead ended up being the only one that didn't go five games. Don't get me wrong; so far, the baseball postseason is shaping up to be some pretty gut-wrenching October fare. The good kind of gut-wrenching, of course. Not every game has been of the must-watch variety, but certainly more than usual. Consequentially, I'm fairly optimistic about what's to come.

No matter what I'm about to pick for a World Series, Fox cannot be terribly pleased with any of the remaining markets. Three Central teams and a Dallas market that might as well be the Central, but that would only leave the American League West with three teams. No New York, no Boston, no Philly this year.

Again, considering the nature of what we've seen so far, it's not necessarily a bad thing. At this point with four teams left, I can't entirely dismiss the plausibility of any of the four World Series scenarios.

The Bears' First Quarter: Better than expected ... again (record-wise, at least)

If that title's subhead sounds familiar, it's probably because I was saying the exact same thing at this point last year. Now, whereas a year ago the Bears had already beaten the team that would end up going on to win the Super Bowl, this season the team's current .500 record is still a game better than where I had anticipated their record being at. Perhaps the Falcons are not as good as some of us had thought they would be, but ultimately this still seems like the story Bears fans should be getting used to this season: A fight to get above .500.
 
On Monday night, the Bears will go up to currently undefeated Detroit. Jay Cutler has been sacked the second-most number of times in the league through four weeks and the defense has allowed the second-most number of total yards. Perhaps part of that is attributable to having played the past two Super Bowl Champions and an offense led by a rookie sensation in addition to Atlanta to start of the season, but at the end of the day, this year's Bears squad does not have the feel of a playoff team.
 
As the season progresses, I cannot rule out that Chicago's coaching staff does have a track record for turning around problem areas. But in a division that has the only two undefeated teams remaining in the league, that would mean that the Bears have to finish with a better record than every other second-place club in the NFC. Of course, the Broncos got off to a 6-0 start a few years back before missing the playoffs altogether, so maybe I shouldn't be counting the Lions in just yet. Still, it's hard for me not to count the Bears out. 

2011-12 NHL Predictions: I ♥ WGN

I missed getting this done before what was technically opening night, but forget all that for now. I had been fearing that with the beloved Blackhawks dropping the puck tonight, I might have to deal with no longer having the team's stellar radio broadcasts to listen to. We get WGN's TV station down here in Austin, so that assured me a few mmore televised games in addition to the national broadcasts. And I suppose tonight and tomorrow, with the Stars on the schedule, I can catch some more Chicago hockey on television thanks to the Dallas Fox Sports affiliate.

But I've got the sound off because as it turns out, WGN's Hawks broadcasts are not blacked out. Thankfully. Times a million. Seriously, everything's coming up roses these days. Work's going well. I'm engaged now. And I'll be able to listen to John and Troy this season. What else could I possibly want?

Oh, yeah: Another parade with the Stanley Cup in Chicago.

The Braves' Fourth Quarter: "A tremendous disappointment"

Such were the words of Chipper Jones, and really, how else are you supposed to describe what just happened? Incredibly, just a few months after what I titled one post, I'm actually thinking that right now somebody from Boston can probably relate pretty well. Actually, this Braves fan is particularly grateful that the Red Sox have received far more national attention for their failure. That's a small comfort, though.

In the end, the disbelief is still settling in. I typically do a post I refer to as "My Final Thoughts" when one of the Four B's seasons ends, and ever since I started regularly doing these posts, they always made the playoffs.

But seeing as there won't be any more games played after I post this, what would the Final Thoughts offer any additional dwelling on? Maybe somebody will get fired?

In case you couldn't tell, this particular quarterly update is easily the worst I've ever had to reflect on.

2011 Division Series Predictions: Minus my pick and my fave

I suppose I'll be elaborating more on what transpired last night, an admittedly exciting finish to the regular season, when I write up the sad conclusion to a certain team's certain fourth quarter. Of course, seeing as this is also when I typically reflect on how I did at predicting back before the first pitch was thrown, I suppose the good news would be this: I improved to a dozen teams correctly placed this year. I ended up with only four of the playoff teams correct (it would have been six had two certain teams not, you know ... oh, God), two in each league, and had three of the division winners correct. So once again, nothing terribly admirable.

But now we shift into the baseball playoffs, and I'll obviously be a little less giddy this year, seeing as the Bravos will not be playing. I have no real vested interest in the "toldja' so" sense because the Red Sox collapse also eliminated my supposed World Series winner this year. Nice.

I don't know who I'll be rooting for, in all honesty. Right now, I suppose I'm leaning heavily toward a Milwaukee-anybody but the Yankees Series.