Bleachers Other Sports Chicago Sports Are Back
| 20 April 2009
I'm not sure how long it's been, but I know it's been a long time since this much good feeling has surrounded Chicago Sports. Just this past weekend the Bulls, the Blackhawks, the White Sox, and the Cubs all won on the same day. A sweep of this sort has not occurred in over 25 years. With the recent acquisition of Jay Cutler and Orlando Pace, it seems as though the Bears are also right in the mix. Let's chalk up a win in that column as well. This year it's possible for all major Chicago Sports teams to make the post season; a feat that has never occurred as far as I know. The Bulls and Blackhawks have both already made the postseason, the Cubs and White Sox are both leading their respective divisions and now that the Bears have significantly improved their offense the possibilities are endless. That's an exciting concoction brewing in the windy city. As a fan of the Bulls, Cubs, and Bears, let's start the examination.
The Bulls are young, talented and ever improving. By drafting rookie Derrick Rose the Bulls immediately became different team. At the beginning of the season it seemed as though the same old Bulls were going to disappoint again, but something strange happened. The acquisition of John Salmons and Brad Miller quickly advanced them from mediocrity into a playoff contender. The team has gelled. Virtually every analyst I saw wrote off the Bulls as the sure loser verses the reigning champion Boston Celtics. Derrick Rose, however, disagrees. In game 1 of the series Rose was exceptional, conjuring up images of Michael Jordan out of the NBA archives. Rose put in what is arguably the best single performance ever in a playoff debut by a rookie, tying Kareem Abdul-Jabar's record 36 points, and also adding 11 assists and 4 rebounds. The Bulls, now being referred to as the "baby bulls" with all but one starter 26 years of age and younger, hardly look inexperienced. As Joakim Noah and Tyrus Thomas begin to play like their expectations suggest they should, the Bulls have come around full circle. With young veteran anchors in place such as Ben Gordon, Kirk Hinrich, and John Salmons the Bulls are poised to improve and become real contenders in short order. Furthermore, seeing this occur with Luol Deng sidelined with an injury suggests that either they should be even better upon his return next season, or he'll make great trading bait to further improve their talent pool. Good things should be in the air for a long time with this franchise.
The Cubs are great. Just a quick glance at their starting lineup shows they should be able put up runs better than any other team in the league. There is no weak spot in this lineup. When you realize that currently the worst three batting averages of starting players are all All-Stars (Derrick Lee, Geovany Soto, and Milton Bradley) you can easily understand what I'm speaking of. Furthermore, with 3 southpaw bats in the lineup, (Kosuke Fukudome, Mike Fontenot, and Milton Bradley) their ability to alternate righties and lefties at the plate just complicates things even more for those poor opposing pitchers. Sure, maybe Bradley is injury prone and has a short fuse, but unless something out of the ordinary occurs, it seems as though he'll be contributing significantly in short order. With starting pitchers Carlos Zambrano, Ted Lilly, Ryan Dempster, and Rich Harden, I can't help but have that warm fuzzy feeling inside. I'll admit that I still do have some reservations with Kevin Gregg being an elite closer, however, if Aaron Heilman and Carlos Marmol continue to play as they have, this year should be a good one. There are no doubts that they should easily win their division. Now, if we can only figure out how to avoid being swept in the first round of the post season, this should be the year.
The Bears are sure to be better than they were a year ago. Considering they were only 1 game away from a playoff birth last year, any small improvement could be huge. With the addition of a pro-bowl caliber quarterback and offensive linemen, this offensive should be completely revamped to both put up some points and give the Bears defense some much needed rest. Although veterans John St. Clair and John Tait were lost in the offseason, second year man Chris Williams and the acquired Orlando Pace should fill in the gaps. Assuming second year running back Matt Forte can pick up where he left off last season and Jay Cutler can open up a new dimension in the air, defenses will no longer be able to prepare for the one dimensional rushing offense that has been for quite some time. This will no doubt make it easier on both facets of the offense. The Bears are perhaps one star wide receiver from being a potentially dominating offense and I suspect they'll pick up some talent at this area in the draft. They also have 2 great tight ends that will alleviate some of this deficiency in Greg Olson and Desmond Clark. On defense they still have the talent and the experience to be dominating. There's no need to mention any names here, we all know what we have on defense. If they could just add a little more depth in the secondary with the loss of Mike Brown... I smell a Super Bowl contender.
For a Chicago sports fan, 2009 is a good year. It's about time.
Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites
Comments (7)
Subscribe to this comment's feeda couple hrs after this article
-
- +0
-
-
hahaha
-
- +0
-
-
reverse the curse
-
- +0
-
-
Chicago
has any Chicago team won since this post?
-
- +0
-
-
thanks for keeping track
2 down, 3 to go
-
- +0
-
-
