MLB

[Jeff]

Pedro, Big Unit, Smoltz, Biggio make Hall of Fame

Can't argue with any of those picks. 

[Nicklab]

That's a pretty respectable class.  All of those pitchers had amazing careers.

Glad to see Biggio get in at last, too.  Can't believe the dumb baseball writers made a 3,000 hit guy wait through 3 years of HoF eligibility like that.

[I Am Sith]

So it would appear as though the White Sox have sealed the deal with Sam!#$%#$!%ja...

Now it's just a matter of whether or not it will equate to regular season success.

Not so much...  10-1 against the Royals to open the season.  Seems like another long year ahead of us in Chicago on both sides of town...

[dave in the basement]

I'm a Notre Dame fan, and a fan of the Cubs and the Sox (due to my dad), and I'd love to see Samardzija succeed, but he really needs to be more consistent. I was hoping he'd stay with the Cubs, but I'm glad we didn't drop a ton of cash on him.

I'm hoping the Cubs will be improved this year, and at least be fun/interesting to watch. At this point I think playing .500 ball would be considered a success, despite what the talking heads say.

[Dressel Rebel]

I'm a Notre Dame fan, and a fan of the Cubs and the Sox (due to my dad), and I'd love to see Samardzija succeed, but he really needs to be more consistent. I was hoping he'd stay with the Cubs, but I'm glad we didn't drop a ton of cash on him.

I'm hoping the Cubs will be improved this year, and at least be fun/interesting to watch. At this point I think playing .500 ball would be considered a success, despite what the talking heads say.

Disagree on Samardzija, Cubs should have kept him or at least signed another starting pitcher as good, in addition to Lester. They will have great offense with Starlin Castro, Bryant, Rizzo and Soler, Soler in particular should not be underestimated, he's a beast. And this is before Adisson Russell and/or Javier Baez come up.

[Rob]

Disagree on Samardzija, Cubs should have kept him or at least signed another starting pitcher as good, in addition to Lester. They will have great offense with Starlin Castro, Bryant, Rizzo and Soler, Soler in particular should not be underestimated, he's a beast. And this is before Adisson Russell and/or Javier Baez come up.

Seems to be working out pretty well so far!

[Jeff]

Congrats to the Cubs and all the long suffering fans. 

Not sure exactly where that epic game 7 will rank, but surely it's gotta be top 3 at least.

Kind of amazing to see both the Red Sox and the Cubs end their curses; have to imagine Theo Epstein is a HOF lock just for that...

[GrandMoffNick]

Congrats to the Cubs and all the long suffering fans. 

Not sure exactly where that epic game 7 will rank, but surely it's gotta be top 3 at least.

Kind of amazing to see both the Red Sox and the Cubs end their curses; have to imagine Theo Epstein is a HOF lock just for that...

They should enshrine Theo tomorrow.

[Rob]

I live a block north of the stadium, this whole week has been insane.  DHS and the FBI set all these rules in place... my street has been a tow zone since the 28th.  You have to have ID to get back to your house... they're threatening to fine people $1500 for selling their parking spaces... all the trash cans were removed from the area... they've had roughly 1000 police in the immediate neighborhood during and after each home game, and then again for game 7.  The Alderman's office is overwhelmed, and they're blaming everything on the feds...

But hey, this is what everyone's been waiting for, and it's exciting and security is important and all... so after the game I tried to wander over and join the crowds... there were so many police and barricades and swat teams and road closures that I literally couldn't walk two blocks south to get to where everyone was.  I could just wander around the north side of the stadium and join up with the much smaller crowd over by Murphy's Bleachers.  Instead of bag checks, it was just road blocks... they shut down the Red Line stop near the stadium... anything to prevent people from gathering and getting out of hand.  I asked a cop how I get over to the marquee and he just laughed and said that I can do that tomorrow...

It was a total let down after having lived here for 7 years and imagining what this day would be like.  The whole thing was like one big militarized zone designed to prevent a non-existent problem rather than observe and maintain a celebration.







I was trying to get to here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2Yb3qCa7TQ&feature=youtu.be

Literally two blocks from my house...

[Darby]

Sorry to hear that Rob. I was there for games 3 4 and 5 and the police situation seemed much more relaxed in terms of posture (not numbers), at least to me, in terms of the crowd management. That being said it wasn't Game 7 or the Cubs clinching, so I can only imagine how much more intense it was. And how cool is it to live so close to the stadium?

GO CUBS GO!!!!

[Rob]

Yeah the cops were everywhere for the home stand, but they weren't really interfering.  Ultimately it's all fine, it just seemed like total overkill to me last night.  At least they managed to hang on and win.

The parade tomorrow should be equally insane.

[Darby]

Wish I was going to be there for the parade. And kind of not at the same time.

[Rob]

Wish I was going to be there for the parade. And kind of not at the same time.

The middle portion of the three locations that they announced the route for is 3 blocks from my office... so we're going to walk down there now and see if we can catch glimpse.

So many people... this has been fun but I'm looking forward to things calming down, it's been a lot of juggling trying to make sure my car doesn't get towed or I don't end up without a parking space...

[Darby]

ENJOY IT!

Pics of downtown right now look NUTS.

[GrandMoffNick]

Pretty amazing game in Anaheim yesterday