Chicago Sports: Taking the Country By Storm, One City at a Time

On the heels of a weekend that saw the Blackhawks beat the Red Wings twice, the White Sox and Bulls look to continue the trend and go to Detroit to finish the job.

The Blackhawks rolled into Detroit on Saturday having gone 0-2-2 in their previous four meetings. This time would be different. This time the ‘Hawks where on a roll, and it showed. The Hawks put Detroit away 4-2, before coming home to Chicago to face them again on Sunday.

On Sunday Detroit would get more of the same losing to the ‘Hawks 3-0. This would be bigger than just one win however. Nikolai Khabibulin recorded 37 saves and his 41st career shutout. The ‘Hawks, and Khabibulin, are red hot as they head toward the playoffs for the first time since 2002.  

The White Sox

Fast forward to Monday as the Sox headed to Detroit to face the Tigers. Both starting pitchers struggled, however, the Sox offense and a few key defensive plays brought a 10-6 victory to the Southsiders.

As I stated, both starting pitchers struggled, but this does happen to curveball/slider pitchers when the air turns cold and there is still a lot of moisture in the air.

A couple of key defensive notes: Dewayne Wise chased down a beautiful fly ball from shallow center field as it faded toward deep right center. Wise had a great jump and showed great speed making the diving catch and hanging on. Unfortunately Wise separated his shoulder in the process and will be out four to six weeks.

Carrasco got into a bit of trouble later in the game, loading up the bases, but Josh Fields made a beautiful stop to his right on a smoked ground ball giving Carrascoa reprieve and eventually letting him pitch out of the jam.  

Fields has looked great so far this year. He has showed versatility at the plate in addition to the power we already knew he had. More importantly he has showed the range and arm on defense that everyone (myself included) said he lacked. Fields has made it much easier to deal with the fact that Crede and his bad back followed Scott Boras’ carrot up north to go play on that rug covered concrete.

On offense: Leading off the second inning Dye hit a solo shot to get his 300th home run, followed up by Paul Konerko immediately hitting a solo shot for his 300th home run. This was the first time in MLB history two teammates have hit any home run century mark in the same game, let alone back-to-back. 

Paulie would finish 4-for-5 with a home run, two doubles, a single, and four RBI. Quentin finished 3-for-5 with two homers, a single, one walk, and four RBI.

Anderson saw two plate appearances after coming in for Wise. He took a walk and stole second both times. Anderson’s superior glove is well known, but more patience at the plate and solid base running should get him a few more starts. 

I am one who thinks Anderson gets a raw deal. We dealt with Uribe’s poor hitting for years, but Anderson’s average slumps after he gets 10 plate appearances in 20 days and Ozzie benches him. 

The Sox recalled Owens today, but Owens is clearly a guy the Sox don’t want so it will speak volumes if he gets a significant amount of starts over Anderson.

After a week of baseball the Sox are 4-3 and in first place.

The Bulls

The Bulls also saw action in Detroit on Monday. I know some people don’t like to hear it, but this was a horribly officiated game. 

The Bulls hung on, however, with Gordon making a gutsy move to the basket in the final minute of the game.  

Future rookie of the year Derrick Rose finished with 24 points, five rebounds, and eight assists. 

The Bulls also guaranteed themselves at worst the seventh seed going into the playoffs. More impressive is that they moved into the sixth seed, taking it from a struggling Philadelphia team who has lost five in a row and must beat the Cavs' and Celtics if they want the sixth seed back.  

All of this means more than just the contrast between Chicago sports and Detroit sports. It does have a lot to do with the current state of sports in Chicago.

The Bulls and ‘Hawks are playoff bound, and they didn’t limp in. The Sox are once again much better than anyone is willing to give them credit for, just like they were when they won the division last year and the World Series in 2005. The Cubs are fully expected to win their division and be at the top of the NL. 

The Bears are going into this season with absolutely no questions at QB and RB and the overachieving offensive line from last year has been reinforced. 

Although we didn’t get to take in any Rush games this year, the Bandits are entering this season once again the returning NPF Champions and have the NPF player of the year. Even the Slaughter are 5-0 and likely on their way to a championship.

To top all of this off, there is a tremendous amount of young talent across the board in players who haven’t begun to peak. So I ask all of you, how does the future look? As a whole could this end up being the beginning of the best period in Chicago sports history?