Bears Preseason Review, by Bear Down Bacon

Because every preseason review should involve a guy wearing a helmet…

 

Cubs win, then some of the fans fight each other

Ah, the bleachers.  Home to those who sometimes have a little too much to drink.

The Cubs just won as evidenced by the “Go Cubs Go” music in the background.  So why are two Cubs fans fighting each other?  Maybe one guy didn’t like the way the other guy was singing, you know, off key or something.

 

The most (in)famous White Sox fan back in the news

No, not Barack Obama.

The Ligue family just can’t stay out of the news.

A Blue Island man who rose to national notoriety after he and his father beat up a Kansas City Royals coach in U.S. Cellular Field was held without bail Wednesday after he was alleged to have violated his probation for a felony aggravated battery conviction in March.

William Ligue III, 21, of the 12600 block of Elm Street in Blue Island appeared in Cook County Bond Curt Thursday on charges that he violated the curfew requirement of his probation.

Ligue was sentenced to 30 months of gang-intervention probation earlier this year after he was arrested on March 14 for beating up another man with a fellow gang member.

For White Sox fans, this is a family that you’d like to just see go away. Any discussion about ballpark safety almost always begins with the Ligues & the White Sox, something White Sox fans absolutely hate. The other fans don’t deserve to be associated with these mouthbreathers, but unfortunately do and will continue as long as the name “Ligue” continues to find it’s way into the news.

 

Who didn’t have a camera for Aramis Ramirez’s homer last night?

From the first base line, under the upperdeck:

From leftfield, directly behind Pat Burrell:

From leftcenter, closest video to the home run:

As you can see from every video, the place went freaking bonkers last night. What a comeback, what a win, what a team.

 

MLB: Turns out, A.J. Pierzynski WAS a big fat cheater

Major League Baseball has finally commented on the “Interference” from last sunday’s game, & MLB told us all what we already knew:

Mike Port, Major League Baseball’s vice president of umpiring, Thursday told the St. Petersburg Times that it was “a missed call” that led to the Sox’s A.J. Pierzynski reaching third base and eventually scoring the winning run.

Port said umpire Doug Eddings believed he saw Pierzynski “impeded more than he was” by Aybar, who was chasing Pierzynski in a rundown.

“Looking back at that occurrence, for the first and last time, it was a missed call,” Port said told the Times. “And it was not because Doug Eddings, an umpire with 10 years experience, and 10 before that in the minor leagues, didn’t know the application of the rule, but just that in the moment in applying the rule, he saw something he thought was more than it turned out to be.”

While we will never know how the game would have ended last sunday had the call gotten right, we do know that the Sox caught a major, MAJOR break in this botched call. In a battle with Minnesota & Boston for playoff spots that will mostly come down to the last week or last game of the season, stealing that one on sunday was huge.

 

Ryan Theriot gets punked out by…. Bonnie Hunt

 

Mitch Williams will ring the opening bell tomorrow at NASDAQ

Former Cubs closer Mitch “Wild Thing” Williams will be ringing the opening bell at NASDAQ tomorrow morning. There really is no explanation why he’s ringing, but he’ll be there tomorrow morning.

What’s Mitch been up to since he retired? He’s been slinging salsa.

 

Ozzie Guillen says goodbye to Jay Mariotti

Don’t let the above picture fool you. Ozzie Guillen is not sad to see Jay Mariotti gone from the Chicago Sun-Times. In fact, according to Ozzie, it’s a great day for Ozzie. While Ozzie never had the best relationship with Jay Mariotti, it still provided moments like this for the rest of Chicago, moments Ozzie obviously regrets. Sort of. In that Ozzie way.

Here’s Ozzie’s reaction to Mariotti leaving:

”When people wish the worst on people, you have to be careful because the baseball gods are going to get you,” Guillen said. ”He was not asking just for my job, he was asking for thousands and thousands of people’s jobs over the years. I’m not going to say I will get the last laugh because I will get fired from this job. But the day I get fired is the day I lose interest in this game.

”Am I enjoying this? Yes, because he tried to make my life miserable. He did everything in his power to make my life go the wrong way, but he didn’t make me miserable because I don’t believe him. Maybe if somebody else wrote that stuff about me, then I would put attention on it. And that’s what he wanted. He wanted attention. He has to thank me because I gave him a lot of [stuff] to work with. I know I helped him the last four years to make his money, and, obviously, he did not help me at all to make my money.”

I think deep down, Ozzie will miss Jay Mariotti. Deep down. Deep, deep down.

Ok, maybe not.

 

A-Rod should take notes: Madonna behind Dennis Rodman’s success

While receiving an honorary from the University of North Dakota, Phil Jackson talked about the greatest athlete he ever coached: Dennis Rodman.

“Madonna saw what was in there and wanted him . . . to do what she does: be outrageous, and kind of talked him into opening up his character,” Jackson said. “And Dennis didn’t know how many ways he could open up his character.”

Those comments produced laughter at a well-attended event that included Jackson fans and friends and UND students, players and coaches.

So far, the same can’t be said for Alex Rodriguez. The man gets abused no matter what he does for the Yankees. So maybe Dennis Rodman set the blueprint. Now A-Rod needs to dye his hair a different way for every game, get a couple hundred tattoos, take off his jersey and throw it into the crowd after every game, and start banging Carmen Electra. Get to work A-Rod, or you may not survive New York if the Yankees don’t make the playoffs in ’08.

 

Irritated Pujols

Uh-oh. The Milwaukee Brewers learned a valuable lesson last night: do NOT piss off Albert Pujols.

Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Carlos Villanueva learned this the hard way. After retiring the Cardinals’ Joe Mather with the bases loaded to end the inning, Villanueva celebrated on the mound. Apparently he celebrated too much by pointing at the Cardinals dugout and yelling things at Albert Pujols, who was on deck. Pujols then snapped.

Q: What did Pujols say to Villanueva?

Pujols: “I told him to shut up and go to the dugout, he doesn’t have to do that. That’s when he said something in Spanish that I don’t want to say to you guys. But that’s when I got fired up. I told him to stop and come and say that to my face, but he was running away. That’s allright. I’m going to see him later.”

Q: Did Villanueva curse Pujols?
Pujols: “Yeah, very much. But I didn’t care about the things he said to me. It was more that he disrespected my team by pointing into the dugout. He can curse me out and say whatever he wants. I don’t care. But when he disrespects my teammates I need to stand up for my teammates. I don’t appreciate that.”

This may have no effect on the Brewers in the long-run this season. There are still 4.5 weeks left in the regular season. They have a 3.5 game advantage on the St. Louis Cardinals. However, if the Brewers choke a playoff spot like they did last year to the Chicago Cubs, this will be the turning point game. This will be where it changed. The Brewers had a commanding lead & Villanueva went out of his way to piss of the game’s best hitters and the Cardinals’ team leader.

It’s just a shame that these teams are done playing each other this season. Things could get ugly next season. Looks like another Central division rivalry is born.