Happy 20th Anniversary to 670 The Score!

Posted: April 12, 2012 in Odds & Ends
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One of Chicago’s two prominent sports talk stations, 670 The Score, is celebrating their 20th anniversary on the air. While I didn’t discover the station until about 12 years ago, it quickly became a habit to tune in at home, in the car and at work. While FM stations are defined by their music genre, talk stations are defined by their voices. People like Mike North, Dan McNeil, Terry Boers, Brian Hanley and Tom Shaer helped launch the station. Some of them remain on the air along with other staples like Dan Bernstein, Mike Mulligan and Laurence Holmes. While there have been ups and downs in both talent and content throughout the years, the entertainment value The Score provides to Chicago sports fans is immense. It gives fans an outlet to vent and play arm-chair General Manager or coach as well as being another medium for passing information from teams to their fans.

There is a lot of history behind the 20 years The Score has been on the air. Dan Dorfman documented the history of The Score and its key contributors. If you’re a fan of the team it’s certainly worth a read. Congratulations to 670 The Score!

History Of The Score: Chapter I – New On The Scene

History Of The Score: Chapter II – The AM 820 Years

History Of The Score: Chapter III – The AM 1160 Years

History Of The Score: Chapter IV – The AM 670 Years

History Of The Score: Chapter V – The Present And Future

History Of The Score: Chapter VI – Where Are They Now?

History Of The Score: Chapter VII – The Score Legacy

Thibodeau’s Value Rises as Rose Rests

Posted: April 7, 2012 in Bulls
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As Derrick Rose’s DNP (Did Not Play) count piles up, Coach Thibodea’s value to the Bulls becomes even more apparent. The NBA Coach of the Year award has never been given to the same coach two years in a row. That streak needs to end. Thibs deserves the award this year even more than he did last year.

Mounting injuries have seen extended bench time for the likes of Rose, Rip Hamilton, C.J. Watson and Loul Deng throughout the shortened season. Coach Thibodea has elevated various bench mob contributors into the starting line up which has then weakened his second line. Ronnie Brewer, Kyle Korver and C.J. Watson are bench mob contributors who have cracked the starting lineup most often. Creative line ups, intense coaching and a deep bench has allowed the team to pile up wins even while relying on people like John Lucas III to become major contributors. A coach less confident in his team and his own coaching ability would be more likely to pressure his MVP back into the lineup. But Tom sees the big pictures of the playoffs on the horizon. He has allowed Rose to rest even with the chance that losses could have mounted quickly. The Bulls kept winning anyway and Rose should be ready for the stretch run and a major playoff push.

The frenetic pace of the 2011-2012 season has made creative coaching a necessity. Some coaches, like Vinny Del Negro, haven’t managed it well and the Clippers have hit a major wall. Despite a handful of recent losses, overall the Bulls have played well without their team leader. In the course of a normal season a coach will typically go 8 or 9 men deep through his rotation. This season twelve Bulls are averaging more than 10 minutes per game. Bench players have been forced to play key minutes and many, like John Lucas III, have stepped up big.  Seven Bulls have started 16 or more games this season. Thibodeau has put together various starting lineups allowing the Bulls to match up well and has adjusted the rotation night-by-night according to who is available.

Will Tom Thibodea win Coach of the Year again? It’ll be a close race between him and Spurs coach, Gregg Popovich. He certainly deserves it. Whether he wins the award or not, the Bulls should compete with the Heat for a trip to the NBA Finals. And his worth to the team will be proven by the contract extension which is on the horizon.

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Cutler Ready for Receiver Upgrade

Posted: March 22, 2012 in Bears
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”Told you we could get that #15 out of storage. Getting the band back together! Good to have #15 back.”

With that @JayCutler6 tweet, the Bears can finally enter the modern era of professional football. In trading for Brandon Marshall, Phil Emery accomplished in one day what Jerry Angelo couldn’t do in 10 years. Land a number one receiver and heed the advice of his franchise quarterback. “I petitioned for him and told everyone that would listen to me that I’d love to have ‘B’ Marshall back, but it takes two sides. The Dolphins had to give him up and I never thought that would happen.” Emery found a way to pry Marshall from the Dolphins for a reasonable price, two 3rd round draft picks. And Cutler finally has the ear of a management team that knows building a team with talented pass catchers is almost as important as building around a franchise passer.

Though publicly Jay has been respectful over the years about the team assembled around him, not having top flight receivers must have bothered him since arriving in Chicago. In Denver he threw to receivers like Marshall, Eddie Royal and Brandon Stokley. In Chicago the names have been less desirable; Devin Hester, Earl Bennett, Greg Olsen, Johnny Knox and Roy Williams. Angelo believed that a talented quarterback could make his receivers extraordinary. Emery gets that the receiver himself needs to be talented to make it to the Pro Bowl. He wasted no time in trading for one that has been voted to 3 of them. Of the top 10 rated passers in 2011 half of them had a teammate as a top 10 ranked receiver. The other half of those quarterbacks had talented pass catchers like Andre Johnson, Miles Austin, Dez Bryant, Vernon Davis and Mike Wallace to throw to. This fact has not escaped Cutler who is speaking up about the need for more talent at the receiver position.

“I don’t think we’re done at that position,” Cutler said. “I think we definitely want to get another (receiver).” Jay recognizes that even with Brandon Marshall on the team, an upgrade over the likes of Hester, Bennett and Knox is desirous. Knox let the team with 727 receiving yards in 2011 and, after a devastating back injury, his status for the upcoming season is questionable. With only 26 receptions and 369 yards, Hester had his worst year at receiver in four years. And though analysts believed Bennett showed real improvement in 2011, he still only averaged 35 yards per game. Cutler openly spoke about reuniting with former teammate Eddie Royal who recently signed with the San Diego Chargers. ”I would love to see Eddie here,” Cutler said on “The Waddle & Silvy Show” on ESPN 1000… If we get him, that would be great. I know he would fit in…” Even though Royal isn’t on his way to Chicago,  statements like this made over the off-season prove he is not satisfied with mediocrity at the receiver position. Why settle for upgrading just one receiver spot? Though the top free agents are off the market, there are some intriguing names the Bears should consider. Bryant Johnson, Braylon Edwards and Legedu Naanee all have talent and would be upgrades over the incumbents. And there will be some talented wide outs available in the April draft.

With the addition of Brandon Marshall, Phil Emery has appeased Cutler for now. To compete for a Super Bowl though he should strive to add more weapons around Cutler, his greatest asset.

Chicago Media Prepares for Life After Ozzie

Posted: February 18, 2012 in White Sox
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In 2004 Ozzie Guillen was hired as the new White Sox manager and quickly brought the south side franchise out of the Cubs shadow. Yes he led the Sox to 99 victories and a World Series championship in 2005 but that was only part of the reason the team grabbed headlines. Ozzie replaced an older, much more reserved manager in Jerry Manuel. His short fuse, willingness to say anything about anyone and humorous nature pulled headlines away from a Cubs-dominant baseball media. For a newspaper writer or beat reporter, Guillen was a dream to cover and will surely be missed as he moves on to lead the Miami Marlins.
Scroll through the Tribune White Sox section and you’ll find 4 current headlines containing “Ozzie” or “Guillen”. You’ll find only 1 headline containing the name of current Sox manager, Robin Ventura. Why does Guillen make an interesting Chicago story even while preparing to manage a team 1400 miles away? His tirades, quips and insults kept writers writing and reporters showing up to his office in droves. Ventura gets that his personality won’t garner headlines the way Guillen’s did:

“I played with Ozzie for a long time, and we were good friends. I have a different personality, but we both go out on the field with the common goal of playing every day, winning and having fun…”

White Sox beat writers like Joe Cowley and Mark Gonzales, reporters like Doug Padilla as well as columnists across the city relied on Guillen quotes to fill newspaper pages and website blogs alike. Guillen could throw one of his players under the bus and bash a former Sox ‘s player in the same post-game news conference. He could blame Kenny Williams for an inadequate roster in one breath while demanding a contract extension in the next. And he could crack a joke forcing laughter out of the group of reports gathered around him. All of which made for great headlines and interesting copy. But a new spring brings a new manager and it’s time for the media to feed fans baseball stories, not baseball drama.

The new manager won’t squabble with his General Manager, wear out a radio bleep censor or attract nearly as much attention as Ozzie did. Without the sideshow, the focus will turn to analyzing Kenny Williams rebuilding project and how well the players actually perform on the field. John Danks takes over as the team ace now that Mark Buehrle has left for the Marlins. Chris Sale will move into the starting rotation leaving the bullpen even weaker than it was last year while Adam Dunn looks to bounce back from a tragically poor season. And Dayan Viciedo will attempt to take a major step forward as he becomes an everyday outfielder. These headlines and more should give the Chicago media plenty to focus on but the sensational headlines of yore won’t be seen around town in 2012.

How Lovie Survives in a Sea of Change

Posted: January 30, 2012 in Bears
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Lovie Smith recently promoted Mike Tice  from Offensive Line coach to be the team’s next scapegoat… I mean Offensive Coordinator. Smith also expressed the desire for his coaching staff to better themselves this off-season hoping that some of them get an “opportunity to move up, whether that’s assistant coaches into coordinator roles” or “the opportunity to be head coaches in the NFL.” This was clearly lip-service as the Bears promptly declined a request by the Vikings to interview Jon Hoke, current Bears Defensive Backs coach, for the their open Defensive Coordinator position. In his 8 years in Chicago, Lovie Smith has proven to be a winning, if not stubborn, football coach with terrible media skills and a master at office politics. He talks a good game about bettering those around him but his primary interest is in advancing his own career even at the cost of others.

Typically when a team loses too much, a head coach and his staff are fired and an entirely new staff is brought in to start from scratch. Firing coordinators every few years has allowed Smith to retain his job this long. It shows management he recognizes the team’s deficiencies and is constantly seeking to correct them. And it, along with a couple playoff runs, has gotten him 2 contract extensions along the way and kept him employed while his boss, Jerry Angelo, was fired. The list of coordinators he has presided over is extensive for his brief time in Chicago.

Defensive Coordinators
Ron Rivera
Bob Babich
Rod Marinelli (current)

Offensive Coordinators
Terry Shea
Ron Turner
Mike Martz
Mike Tice (current)

If most of these former Bear coordinators left to become head coaches or take higher paying positions with other teams, Lovie would get a pass. But all except Ron Rivera have taken a step backwards in their careers since working for Smith. And those that have had an opportunity to advance their careers aren’t being permitted to do so despite Lovie’s comments. If he knew how to hire talented coaches, they’d thrive in their post-Bears career. If he doesn’t have the talent to find successful coaches he doesn’t deserve to select them. A General Manager is paid to build a roster and typically hire a head coach. If the GM is the one charged with hiring the head coach it means he is studying coaches around the league and should have ownership for key positions like the offensive and defensive coordinators. But Bears President Ted Phillips already confirmed Smith will have final say on his coaching staff. Since Smith is a defensive-minded coach I can accept that he should have stronger input on the defensive side of the ball but even those choices haven’t been great. The only one with success since leaving the Bears is Ron Rivera who is now the head coach of the Carolina Panthers and Rivera was more certainly a Jerry Angelo selection. Lovie didn’t want him coaching the defense and ran him out-of-town after they played in Super Bowl XLI. Rivera wouldn’t run the defensive scheme the way Smith wanted so he promoted good friend Bob Babich into the position. Babich was in over his head and was quickly demoted back to his original position of Linebackers coach. Even the year Smith called plays himself didn’t go so well and so he hired another good friend in Rod Marinelli to be the play caller. The former Lions head coach, Marinelli, has had some success but mostly follows Smith’s lead in how plays are called on the defense.

While the defense has been his focus, Smith has almost whole-heartedly turned over control of the offense to his O-coordinator. Terry Shea was a bust as a play caller, is now out of the league and working as a quarterback consultant for NFL QB prospects. Ron Turner lasted from 2005-2009 overseeing mostly poorly ranked offenses, was fired and spent the next couple years in various position coach roles with the Colts. And Martz announced his “retirement” after being let go by the Bears this past off-season. The Bears offense has had sub-par talent but the rate at which Smith churns through offensive coordinators is unacceptable and his lack of knowledge about offensive systems proves he should not be permitted to choose the OC. Yet we now have Mike Tice who has no professional play calling experience to speak of and has no superior to go to for advice. And it’s telling that the next Quarterbacks Coach will also hold the title of Passing Game Coordinator and that Tice will use him for guidance on passing plays. Fans thought the Bears talentless passing offense looked ineffective under Martz, an experienced play caller. How disjointed will it look under a new OC that is known for blocking schemes and running the ball and will rely on a subordinate to help institute passing plays?

Lovie Smith has a winning record as a head coach (71-57). There is no denying his ability to coach. Angelo was fired for poor talent evaluation so Lovie’s winning record proves he can do well with a less-than-adequate roster. But he doesn’t find and hire the best coaching talent to surround himself with. While coaches like Belichick, Parcells, Holmgren and Dungy developed expansive coaching trees, Smith’s former underlings have mostly floundered outside of Chicago. Yet, he remains the head coach because he has developed the knack to put others between himself and the firing squad year after year. If the aging defense struggles in 2012, Smith’s former roommate and current DC, Rod Marinelli, better dust off the resume and get his best suit pressed. He might be next out the door.

Ronnie Brewer is the Mob Boss

Posted: January 2, 2012 in Bulls
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Wizards v/s Bulls 02/28/11

Early this season the Bulls “bench mob” has looked impressive. This Bulls team is built around superstar Derrick Rose, lock-down defense and the ability to tap into one of the deepest benches in the league. While back ups like Taj Gibson and C.J. Watson have been solid, Ronnie Brewer has stood out from the rest of the second unit. Though his statistics through 5 games (9.2 point per game, 3.4 rebounds per game, 0.8 steals per game) look comparable to his career averages of 9.4 PPG, 3.0 RPG, 1.4 SPG, his play has improved well beyond the numbers. He is taking the lead as the boss of the “bench mob” in his second year with the team and, in a season with an increased number of back-to-back games, will be a key to the team’s success. With early season injuries to Rip Hamilton and C.J. Watson, expect his minutes to increase and his play to become even more noticeable around the league.

When Ronnie Brewer was drafted by the Utah Jazz in 2006, his scouting report claimed he was a solid off-the-dribble creator with excellent court vision and a long-armed defensive asset. But scouts believed his spot up shooting was average partially due to an awkward shooting form. His time in the NBA has proven him to be someone that uses his athleticism to get points near the hoop but he has indeed struggled to become a dependable shooter. More importantly, Brewer has been a rock-solid defender who can create turnovers and help guard the best wing player on the opposing team. The Bulls signed him before last season knowing they probably hadn’t found their starting two-guard for the foreseeable future. Management believed he would become an important roll player to a team built around depth and defensive dominance. Ignoring his rookie season, Ronnie Brewer averaged a career low 22 minutes per game last season. Judging by his comments before this season began, he wants to have a bigger impact on the team. “I just want to play. It’s doesn’t matter what role I’m playing in. I feel like I’ve been working hard to try and get better, help my teammates out and try to have an increased role.”

Early this season his play has shown improvement, especially on the offensive end. Last season he made 6 three pointers in 27 attempts. He wasn’t confident behind the three-point arch and his lack of attempts showed it. In contrast he has already taken, and made, 4 attempts this season. Loul Deng took a similar leap between the 09-10 and 10-11 seasons where his 3 point accuracy remained virtually the same but his attempts rose from 83 to 333. A similar addition to Brewer’s game will help round out his offensive skill set and force Thibodeau to increase his minutes. We won’t hear “show me the hot sauce” from Stacey King after a streak of Brewer three-pointers anytime soon but Ronnie took the off season to improve his outside game and it shows. In addition, his ball handling skills have improved. He drove to the hoop awkwardly at times last year while mostly relying on a pass from someone else to setup his shot. He looks much more comfortable creating his own shot now which will prove necessary, especially if Watson or Hamilton miss significant time. Scouts believed his court vision was a plus coming out of college. His enhanced ability to control the ball at the pro level will increase his assists as well. In general, Brewer looks much more comfortable in season two of Thibodeau’s system. His cuts to the basket are crisper, his shots don’t look forced and he knows exactly where to be on the floor. The increased minutes he’ll see this year will ensure his play only improves as the season continues. Ronnie Brewer might not contend for 6th Man of the Year in the 2011-2012 season but will be a standout amongst the “bench mob” and vital part of a championship contender.

White Sox Familial Approach to Hiring

Posted: December 29, 2011 in White Sox
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In an era where baseball teams select managers based on their past successes, future potential or some combination of the two, Jerry Reinsdorf has taken an antiquated approach to the hiring process. The White Sox last skipper, Ozzie Guillen, and the newly appointed manager, Robin Ventura, both had close ties to the team before being hired. Neither were bench coaches, pitching coaches or minor league managers in the organization though. Both, however, were successful players for the team. In fact, Ventura is the 17th former White Sox player to manage the club. Ozzie Guillen played shortstop with the Sox from ’85 to ’97, won the Rookie of the Year, had 3 All Star appearances and a Gold Glove award. Ventura played on the south side from ’89 to ’98, took home 5 Gold Gloves and participated in the ’92 All Star game. Ozzie Guillen had coaching experience with the Expos and Marlins before being hired by Reinsdorf while Ventura’s post-playing resume only includes being a White Sox special advisor in 2011. Even in that position he wasn’t very active with the team. Guillen’s managerial stint with the team lasted from 2004 to 2011 which is a considerably long tenure for someone who regularly criticized management, ownership, his players and everyone in between. There is no telling how long Ventura’s tenure will last but Jerry is known for his patience so expect it to be a long-term appointment. Though general manager Kenny Williams should be the man making these hiring, the last two selections have Reinsdorf’s name all over them. In previous generations of baseball, management often hired their former players to coach because they were known commodities and already were identifiable with the fan base. Hiring a team’s former players to manage is no longer necessary in our era of readily available information and expansive media coverage. But Reinsdorf must believe this approach will help his team succeed and bring more fans into U.S. Cellular Field.

English: This was weeks before Ventura was eve...

In his tenure on the south side Ozzie Gullien helped bring the White Sox out of the shadow of the Cubs. But, despite what the owner might believe, it has nothing to do with his ability to identify himself as a former player of the team. Reinsdorf and Kenny Williams might get a kick out of bringing former players back to lead the club. But fans appreciated Guillen because of his ’05 World Series victory, explicit f-bombs and other wise-cracking quotable quotes. After years of boring, cliche-spitting managers, it was refreshing to hear an honest assessment of a game with some added humor. Ozzie brought other former players like Harold Baines, Joey Cora and Tim Raines back to coach. He did it because he knew their talent would translate well in the dugout. Not because he wanted to organize a family reunion. Robin Ventura’s coaching staff is filled with former major league players (including hold overs Cooper and Baines) but none are former White Sox players. But it doesn’t really matter as long as they can coach a rebuilding team. Eventually Reinsdorf will accept that finding the best manager available and not just choosing a former Sox player with managerial potential is the way to build a winning team. He got lucky with Guillen but won’t fare as well with Ventura who wasn’t on any team’s potential candidate list before being hired in October.

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