62nd Edition - 12/07/06

• The Cubs: dropping bills

The Chicago Cubs have signed another free agent. Former Toronto Blue Jay, Ted Lilly signed with the Cubs for four years, $40 million. Last year he was 15-13 with a 4.13 ERA. His career ERA is 4.60. He is an average AL pitcher. Luck might be on the Cubs side with this. There has recently been a history of AL pitchers coming over to the NL and dominating. Though it probably won't last for four years.

Out of nowhere, the Cubs are spending. Like an uncle who just won the lottery, the Cubs are buying (and overpaying for) everything in sight.

Ryne Sandberg is putting in his dues. After being pretty bad last year as a guest host on ESPN Radio 1000, Sandberg is now managing the Peoria Chiefs (Class A). He hopes to one day be a big-league manager. At this stage, I don't care. He was never my favorite Cub. Andre Dawson and Mark Grace were more interesting during those years.

Also, Freddie Bynum is now on the Orioles.

• MLB: more moves

Jason Schmidt is a Dodger. Mike Piazza will DH for the A's. Freddy Garcia is on the Phillies. Barry Bonds is begging someone to pay him $18 million for a year's work (so far, no takers).

• Quick Bull

The Bulls won their sixth in a row 121-94 over the 76ers. When the Bulls were 3-9, I said they would be lucky to get to .500 by the All-Star Break. I enjoy being wrong.

• Stuff

I forgot to post the pic of John (my teammate for World Series of Pop Culture). I will do that Friday. In fact ... Friday there will be a long post about it.

In the mean time, if you're like John at all, you will love that "Spencer for Hire" is now available for free on the Internet. Enjoy. I never got into the show. Click here to watch

For something insanely random, and addictive... Check out "Joe Mathlete Explains Today's Marmaduke." He does what he says, explaining what the joke was in the daily Marmaduke comic. 12/2/06 is my recent favortie. Click here to read

61st Edition - 12/6/06

• The Weekly Bull (8-9) (5-1 at home)

Nicely done, Bulls. I predicted they would go 2-1, and they went 3-0 last week, beating the Knicks, Wizards and Celtics. Perhaps the Bulls aren't average to below-average after all.

Some Numbers:
Five-game win streak
Seven games in a row scoring over 100 points
The Bulls are in 4th place in the Central Division.
They would be in 1st in the Atlantic.
The Bulls lead the East with a +2.9 point differential per game.
The Spurs lead the West with a +7.5 point differential.
Four players average 15 or more points (Deng, Gordon, Hinrich, Nocioni)
Ben Wallace's rpg are 8.8 (down from 10 two weeks ago)

Predictions for the week to come: Philadelphia (W), Toronto (W), Minnesota (W), Indiana (L)

• MLB: Faces and places

J.D. Drew and Julio Lugo are on the Boston Red Sox. Greg Maddux is a Padre.

• NFL: Asthma is illegal

Just an odd story. Hollis Thomas was taking Advair twice a day, and an inhaler four times a day. The team doctor says Thomas needs a high dose of inhaled steriods to keep his asthma in check. The league has decided he's in violation of the steriod policy. He's 335 pounds of fat, not muscle.

• Random Fact

The only two days of the year in which there are no professional sports games (MLB, NBA, NHL, or NFL) are the day before and the day after the Major League All-Star Game.

• Stuff

Here is an interview of Sylvester Stallone (not by me unfortunately). He answers readers' questions as does a good job with it. Click here

When "Lost" comes back, it will be at 9 p.m. instead of 8.

VH-1 has another round of "World Series of Pop Culture" in which three team members need to send in an application and a picture. So my friend John sends me this ... (I guess you have to do this on the home computer -- look for the update around 1:30 p.m.) -- We're a shoe-in for TV, don't you think?

60th Edition - 12/5/06

Quick stuff ...

• MNF: Who knew?

It appears the Eagles do have players in addition to Donovan McNabb. In fact, they have an entire team of players that try hard every week. In addition to that, they can win games.
Eagles 27, Panthers 21
And now the Eagles can sniff the playoffs with three other 6-6 teams.

• Da Bears

Lovie Smith has declared there will be no change at QB for the Bears. His logic is more of the A=B, and B=C, so A=C. In other words, Grossman plays, Bears are 10-2, so Grossman is 10-2. What he doesn't seem to take into account, it would be VERY difficult for ANY other QB, including 3rd stringer Kyle Orton, to play worse than Grossman has these last five games.

And Fluff Stuff ...

• I heart the 80s

**Thank you Giant Magazine. They have compiled a list of 50 of the best commercials from the 80s. Personally, it seems more like 50 commercials they could simply find video for, but I'm not complaining. click here
My personal favorites ...
1. Because I still say that anytime my fiancee asks me where I learned something.
18. Because I still know all the lyrics. By the way, this was a healthy cereal, no sugar. But they sucked me in, having my mom buy it every week.
50. I wanted one, my parents never bought me one. Thank you mom and dad, thank you.

**David Letterman just signed on with CBS to continue "The Late Show" until 2010. Conan O'Brien is taking over for Jay Leno in 2009.

**Masi Oka (Hiro from "Heroes") will play himself on an upcoming episode of "Studio 60."

**The fall finale (suddenly becoming a standard for shows) of "Heroes" was the exact opposite of the fall finale of "Lost" (the originator of the fall finale). In other words, "Heroes" left me excited for future episodes.

59th Edition - 12/4/06

• NFL: The Checklist

Bears 2006 Checklist --
Make the playoffs: check
Clinch the division: check
Secure homefield advantage:
Win first round playoff game:
Go to Super Bowl:
Be the last team standing:

The checklist is coming along nicely, even if Grossman is trying to screw it up as much as possible. "Win Ugly" needs to be the adopted mantra for the Bears this season. And instead of the word "ugly" there could be a picture of Grossman's face, or just his stat line. By the way, the Bears won 23-13 thanks to the defense, Cedric Benson, and Devon Hester.

Vince Young did it again, leading the Titans over the Colts (with help from Rob Bironas and a 60-yard FG to end it).

The Cowboys now have a two-game lead over the Giants thanks to Martin Gramatica and his late 46-yard FG.

For the complete playoff picture -- click here

The Best
QB
Peyton Manning: 351 yards, 1TD, 2INT - L
Jon Kitna: 314 yards, 1TD, 3INT - L
Mark Bulger: 314, 2TD, 3INT - L
RB
LaDainian Tomlinson: 178 yards, 2TD - W
Ladell Betts: 155 yards, 1TD - L
Deuce McAllister: 136 yards - W
WR
Marvin Harrison: 172 yards, 1TD - L
Reggie Bush: 131 yards, 1TD (3 rushing TD) - W
Matt Jones: 128 yards, 1TD - W

• NCAA Football: No rematch

The humans, not the computers decided that THE Ohio State would not have a rematch with Michigan.
It's Ohio State vs. Florida.

For the complete Bowl schedule -- click here

For the record, I think Iowa will lose about 45-17 to Texas in the Alamo Bowl. So sad.

• The Picks (revisited)

j NCAA: 2-1 (23-16-1)
billy z NCAA: 2-1 (27-12-2)
j NFL: 1-2 (18-23-3)
mike d NFL: 3-0 (20-22-2)

Now they are both starting to pull away from me.

• Stuff

"Saturday Night Live" had its moments, including Amy Poehler's rant on women and their undercarriage, but overall it just wasn't funny enough. Hosted by Matthew Fox the "Lost" jokes were too easy.

For the season: 4-3
Funny: John C. Reily, Hugh Laurie, Alec Baldwin, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges
Not Funny: Dane Cook, Jaime Pressly, Matthew Fox

58th Edition - 12/01/06

• The Self-Promotion

This month's monthly movie preview (with a local twist) combines the December films with holiday things to do around the Chicago area. It might be my biggest strectch yet, but in this noggin' ....mmmmm egg nog.... it all makes sense.
Click here to read

• NFL

A quick recap from last night's game. Bengals 13, Ravens 7.

Game of the Week: Giants vs. Cowboys (Fox, 3:15). The Giants have been in the paper all week with Strahan complaining about the media, and Coughlin complaining about Manning. The crazy thing is, everyone has decided that the Cowboys are THE team to beat and the Giants are in disarray. If the Giants beat the Cowboys, they'll both be 7-5, with the Giants owning the tiebreaker and a huge division lead.

Bears. Everyone is complaining about the 9-2 Bears. Grossman, the defensive line not getting a sack, Benson saying he is better than Jones ... I really wish I could enjoy this run the Bears are on a little more.

• Chicago Weather

Right now it is about 31 degrees in Chicago. Not bad.
It rained most of yesterday afternoon. Bad.
There was a slight layer of ice on things. Bad.
It started snowing last night. Bad.
It's pretty windy. Bad.
There is a huge about of slush in the city. Bad.
Every street corner is like a lake and your shoes will get soaked. Bad.
I couldn't risk biking to work today. Bad.
While taking the Blue Line, I read an article saying the city was ready for the storm. SO bad.

So, if you are keeping score, Chicago is losing 1-8 right now.

• NBA: Kobe being Kobe

I was going to try and make some create link to Bruce Springsteen's "52 Channels and Nothing's On" with Kobe Bryant going for 52 points last night, 30 in the 3rd quarter. But then I remembered that Bruce's song was 57 channels. So that's that.

• The Picks

Curious how anal I am? Here's an example ... I can't give college picks this week, because mike d will read them and then have a helping hand in trying to take me down for the season long competition that he, myself and nine other guys are doing (College Football Pick'em). Right now I have a two game lead with only eight games to choose this weekend. I need all the help I can get. So I will post my picks later this weekend, and you'll just have to trust me. Come on ... who wouldn't trust a guy to be honest about gambling?

Previous Standings
j NCAA: (21-15-1)
billy z NCAA: (25-11-2)
j NFL: (17-21-3)
mike d: (17-22-2)

j NFL picks
Colts -7.5 over Titans
Dolphins straight up over Jaquars
Lions +13.5 over Patriots

As always, look for mike d and billy z's picks later today.

• Stuff

Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant (the originators of the British "Office") wrote "The Office" episode from last night, and it wasn't that good.

"My Boys" -- a new sitcom on TBS is funny. Totally worth watching, especially compared to CBS sitcoms. Here is a link, there have been two episodes, but you can watch both online. It's like "Sex and the City" except the total opposite, while still being about a woman. Plus, it's based in Chicago and they actually know the city well.
Click here to watch

Don't go to the movies this weekend. Or at least don't bother seeing anything that opens up today. Go see --
"The Departed"
"Borat"
"The Prestige"
"Stranger Than Fiction"
"The Fountain"
"Casino Royale"
(in that order)