Dave and Nancy Bergen on the slopes of their new home mountain, Keystone Colorado 2/18/07
Had a fabulous President’s weekend with my parents and Missy in Keystone and Dillon. We came up Friday night after several travel delays, and hit the slopes on Sunday. We looked at a lot of condos, had some great food and beer, and good times all around. My dad and I ended up having some beer at 3 of the 5 breweries in Summit County (in case you are wondering, Backcountry Brewery in Frisco, Pug Ryans in Dillon and Wolf Rock Brewery in Keystone). At some point in this blog, I think I will try my hand at rating beers and breweries. Now will not be the time, and they were all good.
The highlight of the weekend probably came on the drive to the airport, when my dad got the call from his realtor that his offer on a townhouse in Keystone had been accepted. We decided to celebrate, so Missy and I joined my parents for drinks in the Sam Adams bar at DIA before they went through security.
The new part time Summit County residents have a lot to look forward in their mountain setting and I’m excited for them. Of course, to be honest, I’m pretty excited myself. I’m looking forward to exploring more of Keystone’s three mountains, the nightlife at The Snake River Saloon and The Goat, as well as notching more night riding runs. Most of all, I’m looking forward to being able to see my parents more frequently.
Congrats Mom and Dad, you’re going to love it up here.
After being on the air for almost 20 years, the Simpsons have finally decided to take a stab at the big screen. I originally saw the trailer on this past Sunday’s new episode of the Simpsons, and man does it look epic. Check it out yourself, here is the link to the sneak preview on Yahoo.
http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/thesimpsonsmovie.html
Enjoy.
The Cubs continued their streak of 14 years without going to arbitration by agreeing to terms with ace Carlos Zambrano shortly before the two sides would’ve had to appear before an arbitrator. According to Cubs.com:
The Cubs and Carlos Zambrano reached agreement Tuesday on a one-year, $12 million contract and avoided arbitration.
This is a great move on a number of different levels. For one, the Cubs only had to pay around a million dollars more than their original offer. Secondly, the two sides didn’t have to get nasty inside an arbitration meeting, possibly souring relations beyond repair. Lastly, now the Cubs can concentrate on what’s really important, signing Big Z long term. If I were Jim Hendry, I would offer a 5 year, $90 million extension.
The Cubs opening day starter is now paid and happy. Congratulations Carlos, you earned this pay raise. Now just stop referring to yourself in the third person. It’s a little too “Keith Hernandez”ish for me.
My friend Steve Lippo once told me a story. A few years back he was substitute teaching in the Chicagoland area. One February morning, one of the bright-eyed youngsters asked him, “Mr. Lippo, do you know what tomorrow is?”
Confused yet intrigued, Steve searched the archives of his brain to find the significance of this random February day. Then it hit him. “Yes, pitchers and catchers report for spring training.”
Equally as confused, the youngster replied, “No, it’s Valentine’s Day!”
Steve’s response shouldn’t surprise anybody who knows him (he’s a producer for WGN Sports now). The funny thing is, that ever since I heard this story, Valentine’s Day has taken on a completely different meaning for me. I don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day. It’s not a real holiday. It was created by the corporations (namely Hallmark) as a way to sell more cards, candy, stuffed animals, flowers, and otherwise useless crap. I don’t need a corporation to tell me when and how to be nice to my wife, I’ll decide on my own. That way, it’s actually special and not forced. Anyway, time to get off my soapbox.
Valentine’s Day, for me, marks the unofficial start to the baseball season. It a time for boundless optimism, position battle debates, amateur prognosticating, and endless hope. Cubs fans know all about optimism. Every year when spring rolls around, we get excited about our new free agent signing, or the new rookie with great potential, or simply just the hope of another season. Traditionally, we’ve been tragically disappointed (2003) at the seasons end. Then when spring comes again, we try to protect ourselves from becoming too involved and attached, as to prevent repeated heartbreak. But we don’t allow ourselves to become too disconnected. We can’t. As the Cubs faithful, we can only suppress our pessimism for so long before it erupts and the excitement overtakes us. We’re tired of “waiting ’til next year.” Next year is here, and we’ve spend a TON of money (over $300 million if I’m not mistaken). Money doesn’t always translate directly into the white “W” flag flying more frequently, but after a 96 loss season, you figure the only way to go is up. Warranted or not, optimism is in the air.
I should have put this link up on Valentine’s Day, but I didn’t get around to it. My good friend Dave Ide sent me this article writen by ESPN’s Jim Caple about spring training and his love for baseball. It’s a good read.
I’ll be putting in my two cents regarding the Cubs and spring training periodically, so check in from time to time. How do you think the Cubbies are going to fare this year? What do you think of new Skipper Lou Piniella? Will Prior and Wood be healthy this year? Leave me some feedback, and maybe we can get some type of interactive discussion going here.
Cubs in ‘07!
Yeah, I know it took me a few weeks to write this. What did you expect me to do? Hop online as soon as the game was over? I had to wait until I was prepared to write this. I didn’t want this post to be hallow. So here are my thoughts:
Rex didn’t lose the game for us. At the time of the INT for TD, we were running the ball effectivley. There was no reason to start passing. I blame the coaching on this one.
The Bears D did not blitz Peyton Manning nearly enough. Just like Cincinnati did, they dropped back and let Manning pick them apart. I blame the coaching.
Devon Hester is amazing.
As talented as Cedric Benson is, I’m going to miss Thomas Jones next year, if, as expected, the Bears trade him.
The Bears better franchise Lance Briggs.
In the playoffs, I went 5-2 with my picks and 4-3 against the spread. It may not be spectacular, but it’s a winning record.
Peyton Manning, you’re a great QB, congrats, you earned it, yada yada yada. I dare you to make it to the Super Bowl again next year so we can beat you down.
That’s it. I don’t want to spend any more time dwelling in the past. We had a terrific year. Thirty teams don’t make it to the Super Bowl. We did, and came up a little short.
My attention will now shift back to baseball, where the Cubs are undefeated. Cubs in ‘07!
I can’t believe the day is almost here. For 21 long years, the city of Chicago has waited for another team to call it’s own, another team that could capture it’s imagination, another team that could win it all. In 1985, a rag tag group of individuals came together to form (in my opinion) the greatest team of all time. If it weren’t for their lone blemish against Dan Marino and the Dolphins, no one would ever debate that fact. We had the funky QB we called McMahon, Sweetness, Refrigerator, Singletary, Dent, Wilson, Hampton, Gault…..the list goes on and on. They were good and they knew it. They even made the infamous rap video during the regular season titled “Super Bowl Shuffle.” That’s right. They didn’t even wait to make the Super Bowl, let alone the playoffs, before they were pronouncing their superiority. And after the dust settled on the annihilation that was the Bears 46-10 victory over the Patriots in Super Bowl XX, we knew we had just witnessed something special.
Twenty-one years later, we have a funky QB named Rex, a split backfield, an injured Tommie Harris, Urlacher, Alex and Wally, Briggs, Tank and Berrian. Now, these names aren’t going to strike the fear of God into the opponent’s hearts like the Bears of the mid-80’s. But they do have what it takes to bring down the “mighty” Indianapolis Colts. I’m not even going to mention what all these so called “experts” are predicting because they are all biased towards the better story: Peyton winning it all. How quickly everyone forgets that the Colts had to squeak by New England (who was not that great of a team this year), while the Bears brought the fury down on everyone’s darling and trendy Super Bowl pick, the Saints.
Just like against the Saints when I said the Bears running game would dictate the final score (which I was right about), the same will be true in Miami on Sunday night. I am a big Rex supporter, have been all season, have been since they drafted him. However, I do not want Rex to try to outsling Peyton Manning. As highly as I think of Rex, he is not yet at the same caliber as Manning. This is not to say Rex won’t have a great game. Quite the opposite I say. In fact, Rex might have better numbers than Peyton at the end of the game. For this to be done, the Bears need to control the clock and take as much time away from the Colts as physically possible. With their two headed monster of Jones and Benson, the Bears need to wear the Colts down early. Even if it’s not putting points on the board right away, they need to grind down the Colts defenders to open up the passing game. Yes, the Colts D has significantly improved since the return of Bob Sanders, but they are still a pale comparison to the Bears’ magnificent defense. True, we are missing Tommie Harris and Mike Brown. We lost Brown for the last 2/3 of the season and Harris for the last 1/3, and we still led the league in takeaways. The Colts were positively awful on the defensive side during the season. After three straight solid performances, they are due to revert back to form. Once the big play is opened up by the running game, I see Rex the sharpshooter hitting his targets all over the field. That’s what I see coming on Sunday.
Peyton is going to do his best to win the game for the Colts, but in the end, it’s not going to be good enough. Be it interceptions or fumbles, I see the Bears defense coming up huge. Urlacher is going to have a great game, but mostly by covering Peyton’s backup plan (Dallas Clark), and by initiating almost every tackle on the field. I think Brian is going to leave the big, game-changing plays for Alex Brown, Daniel Manning and Lance Briggs. And while Peyton is busy putting on the Manning face on the sidelines, his defense will be getting run over by T.J. and Ced. Then, when the timing is just right and we have the Indy safeties biting on the run, Rex is going to run a play-action bomb to Bernard Berrian for an easy six.
I do believe this is going to be a highly enjoyable, close Super Bowl. Peyton Manning is going to go down as the best statistical QB to ever play the game and will probably win two Super Bowls. This isn’t going to be one of them. For 21 years we’ve waited for another team to embody the spirit of Chicago like our heroes of ‘85. These Bears may not be as brash, cocky, and dominant as their predecessors, but they do embody the city. They win with a stingy defense, relentless running game, strong special teams, and make the most of opportunities. That’s Bears football. And while the names aren’t yet as famous as those who rapped and shuffled, history will fondly remember Rex, Urlacher and the rest of these ’06 Bears. It’s the Bears’ time, and we’re gonna shuffle onto victory.
After not getting my first round picks online in time, I’ve gone 5-1 in the playoffs, 4-2 against the spread. On top of that, no domed team has ever won an outdoor Super Bowl. I like those odds. Score: Bears 27 Colts 24 MVP:Thomas Jones (128 yards, 2 TD)
