Onto the Cup (Stanley, that is...)

I watched almost all of game 3, and the third period of game 4. Very good games, very good Hawks team. I'm totally impressed with Dave Bolland; that boy can play some hockey! I won't ever claim to be a knowledgeable hockey fan, but I can recognize that the Hawks might be something special when they're on...and even when they're not, they seem to be good enough to keep the other team down.

Crisp passing, awesome puck handling, physical play when appropriate, solid teamwork, and great goaltending have all been evident in this series with San Jose. Hopefully it continues into the next series with the winner of the Philadephia/Montreal series, and hopefully, if that happens, the Stanley Cup will be residing in Chicago for the next year...

*****

Go Hawks!

The Black Hawks have been going through the Western Conference in the NHL playoffs, sometimes like a dull knife, but recently more like a warmed butter knife. They've tied a record for most consecutive road winds in the playoffs with 7, and they're up 2-zip on San Jose, who had the top seed. They've looked far better, far less tentative and mistake-prone, than they have in the other series.

They're winning as a team, and right now look to be favored to come out of the West and face the winner of the Philadelphia-Montreal series.

Go Hawks!

Doug Glanville's book

I'm cross posting this from my Journalscape blog.

My friend Mills gave me a copy of Doug Glanville's book THE GAME FROM WHERE I STAND: A BALLPLAYER'S INSIDE VIEW, and I'm currently about halfway through it. It's exactly what it purports to be - an insider's look at the things that baseball players go through from the time they are drafted till they retire, with emphasis on the time spent in the majors.

Glanville was a first round pick of my Chicago Cubs, out of Ivy League Penn, so I was quite familiar with him. He ended up playing left field for the Cubs though he was a natural centerfielder, and was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies where he had his best years in CF, replacing favorite Lenny Dykstra, and eventually being replaced by (current Cubs center fielder) Marlon Byrd. He spent time in Texas with the Rangers, and then returned to the Cubs.

He discusses a lot of things in the book, including preparations for games, unwritten etiquette rules during games, and relationships with friends and family, other players, and that special relationship that one hopes to find with their significant other. I've got a lot to go, but so far I've found this an engrossing read, well written and with a gentle touch to the prose that makes it an easy read also. Glanville was a systems engineering major at Penn, so he has a lot of brains and it shows in the way he treats all of these issue.

Good book for a summer read for a baseball fan.

Re: Pittsburgh - It didn't get any better...

Inexplicably, the bats for the Cubs quieted WAY down, as the Cubs got swept in Pittsburgh. The first two were competitive games and could have gone either way, though with players making 140 million a year (all together) you'd think one of them might go the Cubs' way. The last game was an 11-1 blowout, where Randy Wells, who has been perhaps their most dependable starter this year, got shelled!

The Starlin Castro era has begun - the Cubs' shortstop prospect has come up to the big club, and he promptly got a couple of big hits, including a three run bomb. Now what do the Cubs do with Ryan Theriot? Move him to second? Platoon him? Hand him the job on a silver platter? Trade him?

I suppose that it would be nice to have a problem where you're dealing from a position of strength rather than one of weakness (having too much of something rather than being in desperate need of something). But the stat-heads say that Theriot's value is as a shortstop, where his solid defense and range go along with his ability to hit to make him an above-average player at that position, at least in terms of sabermetric calculations. His value is less as a second baseman.

I guess that means Boston and Oakland won't be trying to land the kid.

Bye Vinnie...

Everyone knew it was coming, and now it's official: The Bulls have fired Vinnie Del Negro as their head coach, and will begin a search to find their next head coach who will be charged with continuing to develop Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah, and with integrating whatever free agent (they have enough for one maximum contract, or might be able to get two "lesser" free agents) they sign this summer.

So who are the candidates? The list is almost endless. Names I've heard include Mo Cheeks, Avery Johnson, Jeff Van Gundy, Mike Fratello, Doug Collins, Eric Musselman, Lawrence Frank, Sam Mitchell, Eddie Jordan, Byron Scott, Mark Jackson, and many others. I'm sure I'm forgetting some, and as names come to me, I'll probably do a short article on the new candidates.

The most intriguing names are Phil Jackson and Kentucky coach John Calipari. Jackson needs no introduction in Chicago. His contract with the Lakers is up, and there is speculation that perhaps he'd be interested in coaching Derrick Rose. Jackson has all but ruled it out, but then again, Michael Jordan "all but ruled out" a return from retirement the second time he retired. He was next seen with a Washington Wizards uniform on.

Calipari has a lot of connections for those who like to connect the dots. He was Rose's college coach. He has the same agent as free agent targets Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, and is very close to Lebron James apparently. But the article on Yahoo Sports that mentioned this speculation is gone off the site, apparently, and now the reports are that he's in negotiations with Kentucky to remain their coach for a long long time!

I think that I'd be looking for a guy who stresses defense and who doesn't like to take the air out of the ball. An up tempo type coach. That would seem to rule out Fratello and maybe Avery Johnson. But then again, I don't know if it matters who the coach of the Bulls is if they do not get one of those top free agent targets.

National sports talkers name the Bulls job as the most attractive opening in the league. A budding superstar in Rose, a very good role player/energy guy in Noah, some solid building blocks in place with Gibson, Hinrich and Deng, and about 20 million in cap space might be enough to make it a plum job in itself, but then there's the history of the franchise in the 1990's and the city of Chicago, which should be a huge plus to any coach (or free agent, in my opinion).

So...on to the search!

3 of 4 from the D'backs...

I dunno...is this good?

The Cubs got blown out on Thursday, then proceeded to repay the D'Backs with a ton of run production in the next three games. Dan Haren was the pitcher in one of the games, and he isn't too terrible (though he didn't look great in THAT game). But is this just a case of feasting upon poor pitching?

Or are the Cubs' bats waking up a bit? Soriano has been raking it lately, and has his average up over .300, I believe. He was responsible for tying the game on Saturday, and hit two more homers on Sunday. That's what this team needs from him - offensive output worthy a guy getting 18 million a year.

But Byrd and Fukudome are both hitting well, also. Makes it hard to find at bats for Colvin or Nady.

Now if those corner infielders start hitting, we'll have something going on here. Going into Pittsburgh, it should stay pretty good...

*****