Category: Sports

Jerry Reinsdorf: Best Owner in Sports?

On By Frank the TankIn Chicago White Sox, Major League Baseball, NBA Basketball, Sports5 Comments

In the Fall of 1993, Jerry Reinsdorf was at a high point. His basketball team, the Bulls, had just won a third straight NBA championship with ESPN’s greatest athlete of the 20th century at the helm. Reinsdorf’s baseball team, the White Sox, had clinched the American League West with a roster filled with young and rapidly improving talent. Meanwhile, he had under contract four of the biggest stars in sports at the time (at least when it came to shoe endorsements) with Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Frank Thomas, and Bo Jackson. Considering the curse-worthy collective lack of success of Chicago’s sports franchises in the past, Jerry Reinsdorf should have been the most celebrated team owner in the city’s history from that point on. Instead, he became the most vilified.

Even though the Bulls would win three more championships following MJ’s first retirement, Chicagoans blamed Jerry Reinsdorf and his stubborn loyalty to Jerry Krause for prematurely sending His Airness into his second retirement along with running Pippen, Phil Jackson, and everbody else on probably the most popular team in all of sports history out of town. That led into multiple failed rebuilding plans that saw Krause trade future All-Star Elton Brand for a straight-out-of-high-school prospect in Tyson Chandler (whose time in Chicago has just ended pursuant to a great trade to the Hornets for P.J. Brown and J.R. Smith – watch out for Smith, who was a throw-in here, to become the real impact player in this deal), MJ allegedly coming out of retirement to play in something other than a Chicago uniform (once again, the sports seasons of 2001 through 2003 are completely erased from my internal hard drive, so I can’t confirm that this actually happened), Jay Williams tragically end his career along with a lot of Bulls fans’ hopes in a motorcycle accident, unsuccessful bids to bring Tracy McGrady, Grant Hill, and any other decent free agent to the team (culminating in the franchise blowing a wad of money on Ron Mercer just so that it could spend its money on something), and the horrific sight of the Bulls turning back the clock by playing five pasty white guys on the court at the same time on a regular basis in 1999 (they were awesome at the Mikan Drill, though). Simply put, the most exciting team that any us had ever seen or will see in our lives turned into the most unwatchable club of all-time literally overnight.

That would have been enough to give Chicago fans several legitimate reasons to hang Reinsdorf in effigy, but the sad thing is that the news was even worse for the White Sox during the same period. At least the Bulls had built up substantial capital with its fan base during its 1990s dynasty to weather through the lean years. The Sox, however, were still stuck with a franchise that hadn’t won since 1917 and built a sterile ballpark that was outdated within a year after Camden Yards opened up. Then came the two biggest blows to the Sox fan base on top of that already shaky ground. First, Major League Baseball players went on strike in 1994 right when the Sox had the best record in baseball. With Reinsdorf being the most visible ringleader of the owners that wanted to dig in against the players, he received an inordinate share of the blame for the cancellation of a World Series that a lot of Sox fans thought we would have won. After that traumatic event which tested the faith of Sox and baseball fans in general, the team then proceeded with the infamous “White Flag Trade”, where they traded away a number of veterans in exchange for a bunch of prospects at the trade deadline in 1997, even though they were only 3 1/2 games out of first place. It became the ultimate symbol of a baseball franchise that was willing to give up in the middle of a season even though it was in contention and, in the process, destroying its relationship with its fan base. (Note: Ultimately, this was judged to be a positive long-term trade for the Sox as it put into place the pieces for the team’s division winner in 2000. Therefore, the substance of the trade was actually fine, but the timing of the trade caused the fallout that wouldn’t be rectified for nearly a decade.)

So, as a quick recap, Reinsdorf was blamed for running the most iconic athlete of our time out of town, breaking up the greatest basketball team in history, cancelling the World Series just when a star-crossed franchise was in position to win it all for the first time since 1917, and flat-out giving up on a contending team and its fans in the middle of a season – while doing all of that in a 4-year timespan. If he wasn’t considered the worst owner in Chicago sports (with Bill Wirtz, the McCaskey family, and the Tribune Company as competitors on the scene, this exercise has always been like picking your favorite son of Sadaam Hussein), he was certainly the most hated.

Yet, look at where the Bulls and White Sox are at today. The Bulls have finally climbed out of the abyss of the post-Jordan era to field playoff teams again and were able to grab the top free agent prize of this offseason in Ben Wallace, making them a legitimate threat to get back to the NBA Finals next year. Meanwhile, on the South Side of Chicago, the attitude of the White Sox and its fans has gone from negative to a glorious passion for winning. Riding the motor mouth of Ozzie Guillen, the Sox finally won the World Series last season and then proceeded to take steps to field an even stronger team this season. A franchise that was ignored and had a completely apathetic fan base up until a couple of years ago has now become the model team for all of baseball.

What has Reinsdorf done differently since the debacles of the 1990s? The answer: nothing. Reinsdorf has proven to be one of those people that rewards loyalty over anything else, which was a severe detriment in his continued backing of Jerry Krause but has been in boon in terms of his current organizations. As Bob Verdi pointed out in Sunday’s Chicago Tribune, a lot of credit has to go the owner for hiring a superb pair of general managers, John Paxson and Kenny Williams. At the time of each of those hirings, Reinsdorf took a lot of flak for staying in-house as opposed to going after the marquee names such as Jerry West and Billy Beane or bringing MJ back into the fold. Meanwhile, the Cubs were thought to be bold in bringing in a battle-tested pennant-winning manager in Dusty Baker rather than engaging in “conservative” nepotism such as the Sox in hiring Ozzie Guillen as the team’s field general. Instead, Ozzie is now the one that gets to manage in the All-Star Game as the defending World Series champion next week while Dusty might be searching for a new job.

Reinsdorf has also had somewhat of a reputation of being cheap considering that his teams are in the nation’s third largest media market. I personally never thought he really could be blamed too much for being a relative penny-pincher since he didn’t enter the world of sports with billions of dollars in his pockets in the manner of Mark Cuban or Tom Hicks and the White Sox never have been and never will be a spontaneously regenerating cash cow like the Yankees or crosstown Cubs. However, during the very period when Reinsdorf was hated the most in the 1990s, he actually had the largest individual contracts in the histories of both the NBA (MJ) and Major League Baseball (Albert “Corky” Belle) on his teams’ payrolls at the same time. Thus, the way the Sox and Bulls have been spending money today shouldn’t be surprising at all. The owner can hardly be called a cheapskate when the Sox currently have a payroll that’s higher than the deeper pockets of the Cubs and the Bulls put up the mega-dollar long-term contract to lure Ben Wallace from his comfort zone in Detroit.

The fact is that I believe Jerry Reinsdorf is as commited to putting winning teams out on the field and the court as anyone else in sports. He won’t sign random players to huge contracts just to appease the fans in the offseason a la the Knicks or Mets, but if he sees a viable plan to winning from one of his general managers, he will fully make the necessary financial commitment. At the same time, while Reinsdorf isn’t the most charismatic person with the media, you can count on one hand the number of owners that have won world championships in two different sports while setting both of his franchises up for extended success. So, it’s time that Chicago sports fans to forget about what was conventional wisdom for over a decade and reassess the world we live in now. Mark Cuban might the most fun owner out there, but it’s hard to argue against Jerry Reinsdorf as being the best.

Fine Explosions in Naperville and Land-o-Links for 7/5/2006

On By Frank the TankIn Big Ten, Chicago White Sox, College Basketball, Illinois Fighting Illini, Land-o-Links, Major League Baseball, NBA Basketball, Random Thoughts, Sports3 Comments

When my wife and I decided to buy a house in Naperville and leave our apartment in Roscoe Village on the North Side of Chicago a couple of years ago, most of my friends thought it was more sane for us to move to a space station using a shuttle that had pieces of foam falling off of it. The majority of the comments were along the lines of, “You’re moving to Yuppie-ville?” and “Enjoy the beige houses.” Of course, these friends at the time were all (a) not married and (b) looking at things from the perspective of renting for the next year as opposed to emptying out a bank account to buy a place to prospectively raise a family for the next ten to twenty years.

Granted, there are plenty of things that I miss about living in the city. In particular, I loved our neighborhood of Roscoe Village, which was lined with classic Chicago brownstones and close enough to Wrigleyville to walk to Clark and Addison within twnety minutes yet far enough away that we didn’t have idiot Cubs fans pissing on our lawn after games. (As a Sox fan that lived that close to Wrigley Field during the all-consuming Cubs playoff run in 2003, I have little patience for Cubs fans claiming that South Siders have been too obnoxious since we won last year. The only thing worse than being a White Sox fan living on the North Side during that time in ’03 was being a Red Sox fan stuck in the Bronx at that same time.) There’s no place in the world that I love more than Chicago and I still get a small adrenaline rush when my commuter train pulls into view of the city’s skyline every morning.

That being said, moving to Naperville was a terrific decision. Forget about the stellar public schools or the accolades that it is the best place to live in the nation. Here’s what it all comes down to, which I learned about last night: Best. Fireworks. Ever.

They were so good that I actually felt compelled enough to dedicate an entire post to such an inane subject. Let me note that I’m not throwing these positive proclamations around very lightly. My parents to this day are certified fireworks fanatics, which means that I spent my Fourth of July weekends as a child hitting the South Suburban fireworks trifecta of shows in Hazel Crest, Chicago Heights, and our hometown of Glenwood on consecutive evenings. They seriously go out of their way to catch as many fireworks performances as they can not only during the Independence Day season, but for the rest of the year, as well (i.e. Chicago’s Venetian Night, the twice-weekly Navy Pier shows, etc.). At the same time, I’ve been fortunate enough to witness fireworks displays in Chicago’s Grant Park, the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on Lahaina Harbor in Maui, and at Walt Disney World in Florida (for a view on Philadelphia’s fireworks, check out my sister’s blog). (The Most Disappointing Fourth of July Fireworks Ever: Las Vegas. Last year when I was there, instead of the city having the fireworks shoot off of the rooftops of the hotels on the Strip as it had in the past, the show was shuffled off into a largely inaccessible area someplace north of the Hilton. I was upset for a moment until I realized that I was still in Vegas, which made me happy again.)

Honestly, when it comes down to pure pyrotechnics (obviously, the locale of, say, the nation’s capitol adds to the overall experience), the Naperville Ribfest fireworks beat them all. Considering the inordinate number of fireworks shows that I’ve watched, the fact that probably over half of the the fireworks there were shot off were types that I had never seen before, ranging from ones that dropped down looking like unbroken streamers falling from the sky and a number that exploded to form smiley faces. At the same time, I have never seen a fireworks display that was as perfectly synchronized to music as this one. The soundtrack wasn’t there for background filler; each song sample had its own separate types of fireworks and the explosions were timed right in line with the proper beats – simply phenomenal. If you’re in the Chicago area next year during the Fourth of July weekend, I’d highly recommend the Naperville Ribfest fireworks over the Third of July fireworks at the Taste of Chicago based purely on the overall quality of the show.

Anyway, I know a few of you are dying for my take on Ben Wallace signing with the Bulls (WOW!!!), which will be forthcoming, but I’ll also be spinning some baseball thoughts into that analysis for those that are weary of my NBA focus lately (you’ll see how). Until then, here are the links for the day:

1) Keith Richards to Be in ‘Pirates’ Movie (Washington Post) – Disney is going to save a ton of money on makeup costs with this move.

2) ‘Punch A.J.’ Campaign Under Way (whitesox.com) – I’m sure Minneapolis Red Sox is going to push for his man Francisco Liriano (and I’ll grant the argument that the Twins phenom is more deserving of an All-Star spot), but you’ve got to give credit to the White Sox marketing staff for having a great sense of humor. I can’t wait to see what the Maloof brothers are going to do to get out the vote for Ron Artest next year.

3) NBA Draft: The Illini Spin (Illini Board) – A look from John Brumbaugh about the next destinations for James Augustine and Dee Brown.

4) Lil’ Kim Leaves Prison in Style (AllHipHop.com) – This is really going to hurt her reality TV show career.

5) Benny the Bull Charged With Attacking a Police Officer (CBS Sportsline) – This is when we really need those mugshots from The Smoking Gun.

And finally…

6) Kobayashi Stands Triumphant Again (Deadspin.com) – The only time he has ever failed was against a bear in “Man vs. Beast” (a great reality show better known for then-unknown but eventual Olympic gold medalist Shawn Crawford seriously coming close to accusing the zebra that he lost to in a race of taking injections in the behind from Jose Canseco in an Oakland A’s lockeroom stall). Regardless, statues need to be erected for Kobayashi on Coney Island.

(Update:  This link couldn’t wait…

7) Hot Dog – Moo & Oink Jingle Gets Some Flavor (Chicago Tribune) – If you ever watched Soul Train back in the day on WGN with any regularity (I know I’m not the only half-Chinese/half-Polish guy out there that did), you understand that this is a travesty.) 

Bulls Get Freakish Athletes With Tons of Upside

On By Frank the TankIn Big Ten, Chicago Bulls, Illinois Fighting Illini, NBA Basketball, Sports1 Comment

The best answer any fan ought to give when asked how his or her team performed on draft day is, “Ask me in a couple of years.” I was excited about the drafting of Cade McNown by the Bears and thought the Bulls’ draft day trade of Elton Brand for Tyson Chandler would be great in the long run. Meanwhile, I thought Brian Urlacher was a decent yet unsexy pick and Kirk Hinrich would be a permanent NBA sixth man at best when they were drafted. It goes to show you that (1) draft day conventional wisdom turns into regular season and postseason bunk pretty quickly and (2) I’m an idiot. With that, here’s my knee-jerk reaction to last night’s NBA Draft that will be worthless by the end of this Fourth of July weekend.

A couple of days ago, I made the argument for the Bulls to take Brandon Roy (who I still believe will be the Rookie of the Year even while being stuck with the dysfunctional Trailblazers) while acknowledging that I’d be fine with either LaMarcus Aldridge or Tyrus Thomas. The Bulls ended up picking Aldridge with the #2 pick and then going through a convoluted trade with Portland where the Bulls gave him plus a future second rounder up for Thomas and Viktor Khryapa, who I had never heard of before last night. Considering that most teams had both Aldridge and Thomas rated pretty equally, John Paxson made a slick move since he was able to get the guy he obviously wanted along with another asset off of the bench. That trade made absolutely no sense from Portland’s standpoint – Aldridge would have fallen to them at #4 since Adam Morrison was practically guaranteed to go to Michael Jordan’s new regime in Charlotte, yet the Blazers ended up giving away their first round draft pick from 2004. Great fleece job here by Paxson.

Even though I pushed for Roy, the Thomas pick makes a lot more sense when coupled with the trade with the Sixers for their pick at #13, Thabo Sefolosha. Granted, the only footage I have ever seen of this guy was the reel ESPN put up last night after his name was called up and I don’t know any more about his game than what Stephen A. Smith had screamed into his microphone. Still, Sefolosha’s physical attributes certainly fit into what the Bulls need at shooting guard (assuming that this guy can play at 2), so if he’s as good as the international scouts say he is, particularly as a perimeter defender, he’s going to part of a great guard rotation with Hinrich and Ben Gordon. The only thing I’m frightened of is that he is supposedly the best basketball player ever to come out of Switzerland, which means we’re guaranteed Chris “YWML” Berman will be cracking jokes about Sefolosha’s neutrality for years. At the very least, the Bulls are now going to be an extremely deep team from the 1 through 4 spots.

That leaves Bulls to address the opening at center through either free agency or a trade. Joel Przybilla, Nene, and Nazr Mohammed are the reasonable free agent prospects with a small hope for Ben Wallace (although as great of a defensive player as he is, watching brick 3 out of every 4 free throws in the playoffs this year was disheartening). With such an important hole to fill, the offseason is nowhere near over for the Bulls front office.

The one thing that is for certain after last night’s NBA Draft is that John Paxson will no longer receive the backhanded compliment that he always makes the smart pick that’s a sure thing (translation: he didn’t have the cajones to select a “risky” player that might turn into a huge star). Thomas was unquestionably the riskiest of the consensus top six players heading into last night and Sefolosha is someone few people have seen in person, so it’s clear that Paxson made his picks based on the high ceiling as opposed to the floor. Ask me in a couple years about how the Bulls did in the 2006 draft.

Other NBA Draft Thoughts:

1) Where’s My TNT? – Add my name to the list of the multitudes of NBA fans that really want to see the NBA Draft telecast head back to TNT from ESPN. Jay Bilas and Greg Anthony are fine commentators (and I did enjoy Dan Patrick and David Stern exchanging good-natured insults with each in other in the middle of the first round, culminating with Patrick announcing to viewers and the crowd at Madison Square Garden that he always liked NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue better), but all of the dogs in my neighborhood starting barking simultaneously when ESPN went to a split-screen with Stephen A. Smith and Dick Vitale. I need my Charles Barkley analysis of the Knicks draft picks (we’ll just have to settle for the New York Post view, where Isiah Thomas’ level of ineptitude continues to amaze the masses by picking a projected second round pick at #20). I’ve said it before that the TNT NBA studio crew is the best in all of sports and with the ridiculous suits, entourages, and trades that occur on draft night, they are the perfect match for this event.

2) Illini Pride – I know I’m completely biased here, but James Augustine and Dee Brown should have both been drafted a bit higher than #41 and #46, respectively. This year certainly didn’t match the school pride Illini Nation had last summer when Deron Williams went at #3 and Luther Head jumped into the first round. The consolation here is that both James and Dee went to teams that they’ll fit in with well (what I mean is that neither of them ended up with the Knicks). Augustine will be playing along side emerging superstar Dwight Howard to provide an imposing frontline. At the same time, Brown is going to be paired up with Williams again in Utah, which means Illinois fans can party like it’s 2005 everytime the Jazz step on the floor. James and Dee are the two winningest players in the history of the University of Illinois, yet it was Patrick O’Bryant (about as Irish as Shaquille O’Neal), a Bradley center no one had heard of before the Braves’ Sweet Sixteen run, that ended up being a lottery pick. Such is life in the NBA Draft.

(UPDATE: Deadspin, which is edited by Illinois alum Will Leitch, has a nice take on the reunion of Dee and Deron.)

R-O-Y Spells Rookie of the Year for the Bulls

On By Frank the TankIn Chicago Bulls, NBA Basketball, Sports4 Comments

When the Bulls were ousted from the NBA Playoffs this year, I pointed out that this would be a pivotal summer for the franchise, starting off with who they chose with the #2 pick of the NBA Draft tomorrow night. My general thoughts haven’t changed much since then, although what I’d like to see the Bulls do has become more clear in my mind. Here’s how I would react regarding the most likely picks for the Bulls:

1) Good: Tyrus Thomas – Best athlete in the draft and should be a terrific shot blocker. Of course, he isn’t very polished on the offensive side, which makes me wonder if he’s just another version of Tyson Chandler (which we don’t need). Thomas is the very definition of “upside”, so he wouldn’t be a bad pick for the Bulls, but he’s not going to contribute very much next season for a team that needs someone to step in right away to help them in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

2) Better: LaMarcus Aldridge – He has got both offensive and defensive skills in the post and is a true big man, which the Bulls have a dire need for. The question is whether he’s going to be able to bulk up where he can withstand an 82-game regular season plus the postseason. As with Thomas, Aldridge is more of a project as opposed to providing immediate help.

3) Best: Brandon Roy – The conventional wisdom is that the Bulls need to draft for size first and foremost because that’s their biggest need. That’s also the same logic the Portland Trailblazers used for their own #2 pick in 1984 in choosing Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan. Look, I’m not saying that Roy will become anything close to MJ, but in my opinion, he’s the best basketball player in this draft. When you’ve got the #2 draft pick, you need to take the best player available regardless of position. If you don’t and fall into the trap of being obsessed with filling a need at a particular position, you can get burned and, in basketball more than any other sport, the franchise will be set back for years.

The Bulls also have more of a need at shooting guard than most people think. Ben Gordon has great offensive skills but is a few inches too short for the 2-guard position and is weak on defense. A number of people have suggested that Luol Deng can move over from small forward to shooting guard, yet it’s not the best course of action to have him switch to an unnatural position. Since the Bulls first won the NBA Championship in 1991, having a gamebreaker at shooting guard is essential to winning it all (look at Dwyane Wade this season). Brandon Roy is the complete package on offense and defense while having the potential to be that 2-guard star. I’d rather take him at #2 and then look for a big man with the #16 pick or through free agency.

4) Even Better Than the Best: Trade for Kevin Garnett – I know that this is highly unlikely, but if the Bulls can parlay the #2 pick plus their pick at #16 and, say, Deng or Gordon to Minnesota for Kevin Garnett, they need to pull the trigger. As much as the average fan might harbor fantasies of the upside of this youthful Bulls team, the fact remains that old teams with veteran stars win championships. While champions might have a couple of key players or even leaders that are relatively young (i.e. Wade’s Heat and the Lakers three-peat under Kobe Bryant), it’s impossible to win it all without veteran stars. Look at every NBA champ going back to the Celtics, Lakers, and Pistons in the ’80s, the Bulls and Rockets in the ’90s, and everyone who has won in this decade – they were all veteran-laden teams with at least two bona fide superstars.

At the same time, as much as I enjoyed the Bulls run this season, I still believe that they are farther away than a lot of people believe around here. Remember, they went from being a #4 seed with homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs in 2005 to barely making it into the playoffs as a #7 seed in 2006. Yet, for some reason, a lot of Chicagoans seem to be under the mistaken impression that the Bulls somehow improved last season. Garnett would give the Bulls the ability to make a huge leap to the upper echelon of the Eastern Conference.

5) Very, Very Bad and Radioactive: Adam Morrison – The popular favorite of those that fail to realize that college basketball is an entirely different animal than pro basketball. I have no doubt that he can be a fine jumpshooter at the pro level, but he’s an atrocious defensive player, which does not fit into the Bulls system at all. Plus, just because Morrison is white doesn’t mean that he’s Larry Bird.

All in all, if the Bulls end up with Thomas or Aldridge, I will completely understand and just thank Isiah Thomas again for his assistance. John Paxson picking Brandon Roy or a trading for Kevin Garnett, however, would make me an extremely happy man. If the Bulls end up with someone outside of those listed above, such as Andrea Bargnani (the supposed Italian Dirk Nowitzki) or Rudy Gay, I’m not exactly sure what I’ll do. Paxson has proven to be a solid drafter in the past with Kirk Hinrich (I hated that pick when it was made with my anti-Kansas bias, but it goes to show you that what you thought of a guy as a college player should have no bearing on who you want for your pro team… as long as it’s not J.J. Redick), Ben Gordon, and Luol Deng, so I’ve got a pretty positive feeling that the Bulls will be better off no matter which direction the franchise takes. In any case, I should be back after draft night with a recap.

Other NBA Draft articles of note:

Paxson Sweet on No. 16 Pick (Chicago Tribune) – With a weak draft, the Bulls could end up with as much value at #16 as they can get at #2 (although the Chronicles of Redick are lurking dangerously in this territory).

This Draft Has Officially Driven Me Insane (Blog-a-Bull) – The confusion of this dedicated Bulls blogger is a pretty good reflection of fans in the know.

The Death of That Nasty Word, ‘Potential’ (Sporting News) – With the NBA instituting a new minimum age requirement for entering into draft, Tyrus Thomas might be the last of the “upside” guys.

(Update: Every “expert” I’ve seen out there seems to think that it would be crazy for the Bulls to take Roy over a big man with the exception of the one guy – Bill Simmons.  Once again, the Sports Guy is the voice of reason.)

Land-o-Links – 6/23/2006

On By Frank the TankIn Chicago White Sox, Land-o-Links, Major League Baseball, NBA Basketball, Random Thoughts, SportsLeave a comment

It's been an amazing week all around.  Here are some links for the weekend:

1) Ozzie Apologizes to Every Homosexual (Jay the Joke) – Ozzie Guillen correctly apologizes for using the f-bomb and then proceeds with a 4-minute long diatribe on how Jay Mariotti is still a "piece of shit."  This is absolutely well worth listening to in its entirety.

2) Guillen, Duncan Feud Over Plunking (Chicago Tribune) – During any other week with any other manager, an order to bean the son of the pitching coach of the opposing team would be the topic #1 around here.

3) A League of Their Own (Boston Globe) – Indy Transplant and I went to the White Sox-Cardinals game last night (Sox won 1-0 with their only hit being a Jim Thome homer, which was simply magnificent) and had a discussion on how much better the American League has been compared to the National League.  Sure enough, the Red Sox came out today with simulated stats showing that the record of an American League team playing a National League schedule would improve by 10 games over the entire regular season.

What's interesting to me is that the reputations of leagues and conferences in all of the major sports have completely switched around from when I was growing up.  The National League seemed to have all of the best players in the game back in the 1980s but it now seems to be the place where, as Bill Simmons claims, old pitchers from the AL such as Pedro Martinez and Roger Clemens go to spend their twilight years since the competition is so much easier.  Meanwhile, the days where the NBA Championship was really won during the grudge matches between the Bulls, Pistons, Knicks, Cavs, and Pacers in the Eastern Conference are now gone with the Western Conference now boasting teams which don't make the playoffs that could probably be top seeds if they were in the East (notwithstanding Miami's victory this past week).  Finally, in the NFL, I grew up wondering if I would ever see the AFC win a Super Bowl (the NFC was victorious in 13 straight Super Bowls, a streak that was broken by the Broncos beating the Packers in glorious fashion in Super Bowl XXXII), which seems laughable now.  To this day, I have a knee-jerk negative reaction whenever I hear someone say how bad the NFC is, but I then pull back and have to remind myself how that person is right.

4) Knicks End Year of Disharmony (New York Times) – If he hasn't already, Greg Oden needs to hire a real estate agent in Chicago pronto.  I love you, Isiah.

And finally… 

5) Limited Action Figures of B.I.G., Public Enemy Coming This Fall (AllHipHop.com) – I can fulfill my dreams of Biggie Smalls putting the smack down on C-3PO.

Beaming Up the Big Ten Channel

On By Frank the TankIn Big Ten, College Basketball, College Football, Sports, Television5 Comments

As I noted yesterday, the Big Ten has entered into a deal with Fox and DirecTV to launch the Big Ten Channel in August 2007. After reviewing the details of this network coupled with the conference's new agreement with ABC/ESPN (which in and of itself also improved the conference's exposure), I believe the Big Ten has made a great deal both financially for its member institutions and in terms of exposure for its fans across the nation.The key element of this deal, from my perspective, is that DirecTV is going to be carrying the channel nationally on its Total Choice tier (the equivalent of basic cable) as opposed to the premium sports tier (which subscribers need to pay extra for a la HBO or Showtime). That means every DirecTV subscriber in the country will receive the network. Considering that NBA TV, ESPNU, and CSTV are all on the premium sports tier, this new deal is indicative of how powerful the Big Ten Conference is on its own.

How does this change things for the average Big Ten fan? The largest item is that there will no longer be the syndicated ESPN Plus package for football and basketball games on local television stations – all of those games will be moved to the new Big Ten Channel. There are some pluses and minuses to this. On the positive end, all of those previously locally televised games will become national telecasts with, at the very least, respect to DirecTV.

The potential problems stem from the prospect of the Big Ten Channel first, not having those games available to those that do not have cable and second, for those without DirecTV, not being able to get onto basic cable in, at minimum, its home team markets in the Midwest and Northeast. For instance, if the Big Ten Channel isn't able to get onto the basic tier of service on Comcast Cable in Chicago, Illinois fans and other Big Ten alums in the Windy City will be shut out from a significant portion of their teams' telecasts. I'm a DirecTV subscriber (and I absolutely recommend it 110% over Comcast – if at all possible, get the dish) so it won't affect me personally, but it will not be a positive change if the average Big Ten fan either has no access or has to pay extra for access to games that were previously provided for free over-the-air. Getting onto the basic cable systems in the Big Ten home media markets is essential (any carriage outside of that would be gravy).

The network is a significantly positive development for the fans living outside of their favorite team's home market since those that are DirecTV subscribers will get access to games that they previously had to pay extra for on ESPN Full Court. Thus, this won't only benefit the Illini fan living in Florida, but also the Ohio State fan living in the heart of Big Ten Country in Chicago or Indianapolis. This also means that I'll be able to watch every single Big Ten football and basketball game from the comforts of my leather sofa, which means that I'm probably not going to be moving away from my television much from September through March. (Note: my appetite for Big Ten sports is so insatiable that I end up watching most Northwestern games, who play something that vaguely resembles basketball, just to tide me over between Illini games and other big conference matchups).

With all of the hub-bub regarding the new network, it's easy to forget that the Big Ten also significantly improved their deal with ABC/ESPN, with every ABC regional football game being broadcast nationally on one of the ESPN networks in the markets where the ABC affiliate isn't showing the Big Ten game along with more basketball telecasts on ESPN with a new nationally televised Thursday night game that's in addition to Super Tuesday (hooray for more games not involving Duke or UNC). That means that the Big Ten has increased the number of nationally televised football and basketball games on both ABC and, most importantly, the worldwide leader of ESPN.

On top of all that, there's the monetary aspect of the deal. Sources from Iowa and Michigan State report that each school is expected to receive an additional $7.5 million in revenue in the first year for the Big Ten Channel alone. Keep in mind that this figure doesn't even include the Big Ten's separate contracts with ABC/ESPN and CBS for men's basketball games (the old television contracts are expected to give the Big Ten $6.4 million in 2006, which is a number that should go up with the new ABC/ESPN contract). That means the Big Ten is looking at upwards of $14 million per year in television revenue for each school. To put this in perspective, Notre Dame, which is the standard-bearer when it comes to money and college sports, made $6.43 million per year in its deal that ended in 2004 with NBC (figures for the current Notre Dame/NBC deal are unavailable, but the annual rights fees in the contract ending in 2004 were actually lower than the first deal signed between the two entities in the 1990s). (Update: Other reports pegged the amount of the Notre Dame/NBC deal at $9 million per year).

These numbers mean two things: (1) the Big Ten has put itself into position to be the most financially dominant conference in the country, if it wasn't already and (2) expansion of the conference will almost certainly not happen unless that new member is named Notre Dame. I suggested a few months ago that if the Irish continued to balk at the prospect of joining the Big Ten, the conference ought to look at Syracuse as a potential 12th member. With this new deal, however, it will take a new member to provide upwards of $14 million per year in additional revenue just for the current schools to make the same amount of money with 12 teams as they had with 11 teams. Even with additional money from the creation of a Big Ten football championship game, I doubt that anyone other than Notre Dame could possibly provide the additional revenue that would make expansion worth it for the conference.

There are certainly risks from taking content that networks would surely pay a lot of money for in-house, but the Big Ten is the one conference that overcome such negative prospects. The Big Ten's home base of markets that includes Chicago, Detroit, and Philadelphia is the largest and strongest out of any other conference while its alums are spread widely from the Michigan and Penn State grads on the East Coast to the Illinois and Wisconsin expats in the Sun Belt and West Coast. All in all, this looks to be a great deal for the Big Ten and reaffirms it as the preeminent conference in college sports.

Other thoughts from across the nation on the Big Ten Channel:

1) A Look at the Big Ten Channel (IlliniBoard)

2) Big Ten Network is Set Up with Fox (New York Times)

3) Big Ten Gambles on TV Channel (Chicago Tribune)

4) A Big Ten Channel Would Be A Big Boon (Sporting News)

5) Will Cable Outlets View Big Ten Channel as Must-Carry TV? (Capital Times)

6) Big Ten Creates its Own Network (SportsBiz)

And finally…

7) Big Ten Network Unfortunately to Include Northwestern, Purdue and Minnesota Games (Sports Pickle)

Land-o-Links – 6/21/2006

On By Frank the TankIn Big Ten, Chicago White Sox, College Basketball, College Football, Land-o-Links, Major League Baseball, NBA Basketball, Random Thoughts, Sports2 Comments

What an evening! Mark Cuban got fined $250,000, Dwyane Wade lived up to the Michael Corleone analogy Shaq dropped a few months ago (where Kobe Bryant is Sonny and Penny Hardaway is Fredo), the White Sox hammered in 20 runs on the Cardinals, and Ozzie Guillen turned a new rookie into a sacrificial lamb in yet another beanball war. On top of that, there was such a plethora of fantastic news that I just had to post some more links for today:

1) Guillen Has Choice Words for Mariotti (Chicago Tribune) – How those in professional sports feel about Jay Mariotti.

2) Jay the Joke – How all of the rest of us feel about Jay Mariotti (actually, Ozzie summed it up pretty well above, but the detail on this blog is a public service to society as a whole).

3) YWML Suddenly Huge With 13-Year-Olds (Deadspin) – Frequent Deadspin readers will understand why this is such a ridiculously hilarious development. For those that need a refresher course, just consult your friendly Wikipedia.

4) Nine Lives, Still Intact (Hartford Courant) – The life of Lewis the Cat was spared by a Connecticut judge yesterday, although he'll be on house arrest for the rest of eternity. We in the legal field call this "The Martha Stewart Treatment" (celebrities get all of the breaks).

5) Big Ten Creates Another Revenue Channel (The Wizard of Odds) – All Big Ten, all the time. You had me at hello.

And finally…

6) Career Suicide (Siberia, Minnesota) – There are some things that you see and you can't unsee them.

Land-o-Links – 6/20/2006

On By Frank the TankIn Chicago Cubs, Land-o-Links, Major League Baseball, NBA Basketball, Random Thoughts, SportsLeave a comment

Huge sports night is on tap with Game 6 of the NBA Finals and White Sox vs. Cardinals. Until then, here are today's links:

1) Cursing (Blog Maverick) – I vacillate between sincerely respecting Mark Cuban's passion for life on the one hand and wondering how someone who still can't properly use "your" versus "you're" can become one of the richest people in the world on the other hand.

By the way, Chicago quite possibly has the most boring set of sports team owners anywhere. Jerry Reinsdorf is a noted recluse, the Tribune Company is a faceless corporation, the McCaskey family hasn't appeared anywhere since hiring Jerry Angelo to run the Bears, and Bill Wirtz is too busy peddling bottles of booze to realize that he also owns a hockey team. In contrast, take a look at Dallas. If Tom Hicks, who as owner of the Texas Rangers signed A-Rod to a contract worth a quarter of a billion dollars, lived in any other city, he would be considered that nutty, crazy, and wacky guy that is always trying to get his name into the paper. However, he's only a distant third on the insanity scale in Dallas behind Cuban and Jerry Jones. Just a random observation.

(Update: Cuban actually sounds somewhat rational in his latest post regarding whether the NBA is rigged. The lack of proper punctuation, however, is still there.)

(2nd Update: Bill Simmons reiterates his theory on NBA referee assignments.)

2) Let Us Now Read From the Book of Dwyane (Deadspin) – I'm really just linking to this because of the picture. Although I picked the Mavericks to win the NBA Finals and I still believe that they will pull out the last two games in Dallas, I have to admit that I have a man crush on Dwyane Wade. He's real and he's spectacular.

3) Capitalist Rap (Forbes) – 50 Cent is obviously selling a whole lot of that purple stuff. He also performed a Don King-style fleecing of Mike Tyson.

4) No Hugs for Piven at Wrigley (Chicago Tribune) – A nice treat for all of those fathers that spent the day with their kids at the Cubs game on Sunday.

And finally…

5) Business Dreams Turn Sour (Chicagoist) – Forget about the increase in gang activity. There's now been an uptick in illicit lemonade stand trafficking. It looks like the South Side has followed me to Naperville.

Land-o-Links – 6/16/2006

On By Frank the TankIn Chicago Bulls, Land-o-Links, NBA Basketball, Random ThoughtsLeave a comment

My extra time to kill this afternoon means that all of you get an extra Land-o-Links before the weekend. In anticipation of the cornucopia of sports riches with the U.S. Open (although it looks like Tiger Woods won't make cut), NBA Finals (this series has gone from appearing to be dead at 10 pm on Tuesday to becoming something closer to the classic matchup that I had originally predicted), and interleague baseball (I actually have to cheer for the Cubs this weekend since they are playing the Tigers) over the next couple of days, here is some reading material to give your Friday a boost:

1) The FKS Guide to Dating Other Heterosexual Men (F.K.S.) – Brilliantly funny stuff from a highly recommended blog written by a frequent Deadspin commenter.

2) Missy Elliot Bio-Pic Being Produced by Actor Robert De Niro (AllHipHop.com) – Young Don Corleone, Jake LaMotta, Jack Byrnes… and Missy Elliot.

3) Dan Rather Considering Offer From Mark Cuban (New York Times) – Looks like the Mavericks are getting desperate for some more help to contain Dwyane Wade.

4) Fans to Manage Minor League Team for Second Half (ESPN.com) – Somehow, this seems completely appropriate for the land of Woodfield.

And finally but unfortunately…

5) Jordan an NBA Owner – Again (Chicago Tribune) – Nooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On that note, I'm off to recall better times by watching my Michael Jordan DVD collection, which includes Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals that ended with his last and most famous shot ever. That's right, that was the final shot of his career. MJ did not play another game in anything other than a Bulls uniform after that moment. I'm serious, folks.

Land-o-Links – 6/15/2006

On By Frank the TankIn Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Land-o-Links, Major League Baseball, Random Thoughts, Sports3 Comments

I almost crashed my car earlier this week when I heard the new Jay-Z/Beyonce song, where Jigga's opening line is, "I used to run the bases like Juan Pierre." Well, judging by how well he has played this season, we can note that Juan Pierre also used to run the bases like Juan Pierre but doesn't do so anymore. As your resident White Sox fan, I'm pleading mea culpa to my misguided remarks before the season that I would rather take Pierre over Scott Podsednik as a leadoff man. Alas, this brings up an important question – is it more impressive that Jay-Z name-drops Pierre in a song or that Scotty Pods is married to a Playboy Playmate? Feel free to leave your comments on this issue as well as today's links:

1) Celebrity Sports Fan Rankings (ESPN.com) – Speaking of Jay-Z, Hova as partial-owner of the Nets comes in at #6 on this list. Our Chicago reps are Bill Murray (the one guy I really wish was a fellow Sox fan is #9 for the Cubs), Eddie Vedder (interesting choice for the Bulls at #11), Jim Belushi (really stretching the definition of celebrity at #29 for the Blackhawks), George Wendt (a shame that he is ranked lower than the less talented Belushi brother at #35 for the Bears) and Da Mayor himself, Richard Daley (appropriate comment by ESPN at #43 for the White Sox). Overall, it's a pretty legit list, although the stunning choice for the Yankees (whom after the Lakers, should have had the pick of the litter in star power) gave me that vomit-in-the-back-of-the-throat taste in my mouth while Jon Bon Jovi and Usher were not given their proper due whatsoever here.

(Update: Also, where is Lil' Jon?)

liljon_041106_7.jpg
2) Jay-Z Shelves Cristal at 40/40 Club, Urges Boycott (AllHipHop.com) – Once again speaking of Jay-Z and following up on a report from last week, our Roc-A-Fella Records founder doesn't care for the French, either.

3) Bush Received Weapons Cache From King of Jordan (The Smoking Gun) – Complete list of gifts from foreign leaders to President Bush during 2004. I didn't realize Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia was such a huge Cowboys fan.

4) At Tribune, a Call for a Split (New York Times) – Maybe the Cubs will be sold after all.

5) Sox Pitcher Dismissed After Miss (Chicago Sun-Times) – After Suge Knight, Ozzie Guillen is the last person in the world that you want to cross.

And finally…

6) How Much is Your Blog Worth? (Business Opportunities Weblog) (submitted by Minneapolis Red Sox) – For all of my fellow bloggers out there, be sure to check out how much your blog is worth based on your Technorati link count and the AOL-Weblogs deal. If you would like to pay the current market value of $5,645.40 for Frank the Tank's Slant, please contact me ASAP. I'm nothing if not a capitalist.

(Photo from Atlanta Thrashers.com)