With 3 games left, the Cubs stand at 65-94, which is awful. Brutal. For a team that had the talent to win their division, to fall to one of the worst teams in MLB is inexcusable. The Chicago Cubs have the same record as the Pittsburgh Pirates. Is that a joke? Are you kidding me? I know that I could fill this post with why the Cubs performed so poorly this year. But the fact of the matter remains that they shouldn’t have. The Chicago Cubs should never be a below .500 team. NEVER. They currently have one of the highest payrolls in the Major Leagues. And they can’t win 80 games. They can’t field a competitive team in the worst division in baseball. A .500 record in this division puts you in the hunt for the playoffs (sad though that is).

I’m sure that spring of 2007 will bring a new optimism and new promises from Cubs brass about committed to winning and all of that crap. But I haven’t seen it. I know that Jim Hendry has made some good moves for the Cubs. He’s also made some pretty bad moves. I’m not convinced that Kerry Wood or Mark Prior will ever make a contribution to this team. That’s a lot of resources tied up in those guys that are giving the Cubs no return. The Cubs need to go young, build from within, and continue to develop the young pitching that has emerged this year. They haven’t been great this year, but I have seen some outings from guys like Sean Marshall, Rich Hill, and Angel Guzman that lead me to believe that they could be solid starters in this league. And with Zambrano leading the charge I think the Cubs could be on to something. I think a huge question mark is who will be the manager next year? I would love to see Joe Girardi in Cubby blue again. I think his managerial style (if you can call it that after only one year) would ssuit this team well. We’ll see what happens there, but if Hendry brings in some old guard chump, sadly, I think we’ll see more of the same.

Because we just moved to Seattle and hadn’t gotten our cable installed, I resorted to listening to the Seahawks v. Giants game on the radio. What a mistake. I didn’t expect too much from Warren Moon. Former great football players rarely become great broadcasters. Steve Raible was consistently awful. His use of only player’s first names during the play by play was so incredibly annoying. Especially for a listener who isn’t totally up to speed on every player on the Seahawks. While I would love to get to know all of the players personally, I don’t yet, and would like to have a professional broadcaster to tell me about the game and the players involved in the game. Katie Couric doesn’t talk about what’s going on in the White House by referencing what “George” is up to. And I’m pretty sure everyone knows who he is. Football announcers, even hometown ones, should call the game professionally. Sure, be a fan of your team, but don’t be their buddy, at least not in the booth. Needless to say, I’ll be watching the Seahawks on TV from here on out. It makes me long for Jeff Joniak (Chicago Bears play by play gy). He is passionate, accurate, professional, and definately a Bears fan. Does anyone else have horror stories about announcers (of any type)?

Recently my wife and I moved from Chicago to Seattle. For a lot of reasons this was a big move, and one of the big ones is sports fandom. I’ve lived in Chicago since 1984, so I was there for the Cubs ‘84 playoff collapse, of course the ‘85 Bears, early Greg Maddux, all of the failed Cubs’ prospects (Jerome Walton, Brooks Kieschnick, Kerry Wood etc.), even seen a World Series championship (even tough it was on the wrong side of town for my liking). I have also always been a Michigan football fan. And by association, a Big Ten fan. Now we live in the northwest, and we have the Mariners, Seahawks, and Pac 10 football.

I’ve gotta give the Seahawks their due, they did make it to a Super Bowl. And the Mariners have had some success, though not too much recently. But Pac 10 football, yuck! There is USC and then everyone else. Of course USC is good, and fun to watch, and all of that… but as a whole the Pac 10 sucks, and is boring. The Washington Huskies are the local college football team. Ty Willingham is their coach. Nothing could be more unlikable than a Pac 10 team with Ty Willingham as it’s coach. It was bad enough when he was at Notre Dame. At least there’s some interest in Notre Dame.

All that being said, I’m struggling to make my self at home as a sports fan, here in Seattle. I’m sure it won’t be easier when the Bears play the Seahawks next week. One good thing is that this weekend when the Mariners visit the White Sox, I won’t have any confusion about who I’m rooting for. Go Mariners.

Adding to the many sporting events we’ve been to this year, we made the trek to the Big House on Saturday to see the Michigan Wolverines take on the Commodores of Vanderbilt

Now Vandy has never been, and probably never will be a football powerhouse. This is precisely what scared me. I knew that Michigan wasn’t bringing their best squad into the season this year and I was worried that they might come out flat against Vandy. They didn’t. Now of course they didn’t look great, but they got the win. There are a couple of areas that I want to talk a little further about, the quarterback (Chad Henne), the new coordinators (Mike DeBord - offense, and Ron English - defense), and the head coach (Llyod Carr).

First, Chad Henne. He has got to get better. In the past he would force throws that he didn’t have to make. Saturday he didn’t do that. He pulled the ball down and ran with it mulitple times. He needs to take it one step further and escape the rush and then find the open receiver. Against Vanderbilt he was able to avoid the rush, but then he just tucked the ball and tried to run for the first down, when most of those times there were receivers who were open that he could have hit for a first down. I was glad to see that he wasn’t forcing throws or taking sacks, but I would have like to have seen him complete a few more passes after the initial rush. He also needs to make better throws. On multiple occasions he underthrew his receivers and left them exposed to take big hits. Guys are not going to take those hits for long Chad. He definitely had his moments, but if he wants to become a dependable weapon he needs to take it upon himself to be crisp, and throw a solid ball for his guys to catch.

Secondly, Saturday’s game with Vanderbilt was the first game with 2 new coordinators. On offensive, Mike DeBord tooks the reigns of the offense again after 2 seasons handling the special teams and recruiting. DeBord was also previously the head coach for Central Michigan for 4 years. Prior to that he was the Wolverines offensive coordinator from 1997 to 1999. I was a little suprised at some of the play calls early on. He seemed to be calling a lot of little WR screen passes. Of course there was a lot of running the football. Mike Hart and Michigan’s running game will again be their bread and butter. So no suprise there. I was wanting to see more of the mid-level passing game, but either that was something that Vanderbilt was able to take away or Michigan just didn’t have that in their game plan. I think that crossing patterns, and 8-12 yard outs would seem to fit Michigan’s personnel. So I hope that they will build more of that into their game plan.

On defense, Ron English, made his debut as the defensive coordinator. Prior to that he was their secondary coach. Overall, I liked the defense. The thing I liked most about Jim Hermann’s defenses at Michigan was the fact that they attacked the offense. Apparently Coach English shares that attribute. The linebackers, especially LaMarr Woodley, seemed to attack all afternoon. Woodley had 3 sacks on three consecutive plays. I was impressed with Michigan’s front 7, but their pass defense looked a little unorganized. Michigan is returning most of their defensive backs, but they were playing a soft zone pretty much all day that allowed Vanderbilt to keep some drives alive that could have been stopped if there was a little tighter coverage from the DBs. But, like I said, I thought the effort of the defense was solid. I think that this unit will come together nicely under the guidance of Ron English.

Then theres Lloyd. Coming off a 7-5 season last year, there was a lot of talk in the off-season about whether it was time for Llyod to be replaced. That perhaps he had “lost it”. I think that this line of thinking is ridiculous. He has kept the Michigan program at a very high level for a very long time. Yes, Michigan has fallen out of the top 10 status that Michigan fans are used to, but his record is solid. He hasn’t had a losing season at Michigan. They have gone to 31 straight bowl games (the longest streak in the country). I would like him to recruit a little better though. Whenever I hear about studs in high school, and where they’re looking to go, rarely do I hear Michigan. Lloyd needs to remember that he sits at the helm of the winningest football program in the country, and that the University of Michigan can offer these student athletes an experience unlike any other.

Overall, I’m pleased that Michigan won on Saturday, and I look forward to the progress that we’ll see between week one and week two. I have to say that there will need to be a lot more improvement if Lloyd and his boys want to knock off a highly ranked Notre Dame squad. I think that they can do it, they’ll just need to play a tight game on offensive and defense.