This weekend’s Wisch List newspaper column from The Daily Journal (Kankakee, Ill.) and The Times (Ottawa, Ill.) …
The WISCH LIST
By Dave Wischnowsky
Having combined for a record-setting 195 losses, the Cubs and White Sox didn’t exactly make 2013 the best year ever for their fans.
Thankfully, 2014 is off to a better start.
Off the field, at least.
On Wednesday, bitterly cold Chicago received the warm news that both ex-Cubs great Greg Maddux and ex-Sox great Frank Thomas had been voted into Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame on their first ballots.
While Maddux should have been a unanimous selection – or, at the very least, broken Tom Seaver’s record of 98.84 percent of the votes (he got 97.2) – it’s still a boon to see two of Chicago’s favored baseball sons enter the Hall in the same year. And it’s also refreshing that it can unfold this summer without any concerns about PED suspicion and controversy.
Thanks, Frank and Greg for keeping things clean. Baseball is better off for having had the two of you around. Chicago is too.
And with that, here are a few more thoughts about our local sports teams and figures that I thawed out just for you.
Cooperstown-bound
I had been planning the trip ever since attending Andre Dawson’s Hall of Fame induction in 2010. I had already reserved hotel rooms in Albany weeks ago. And on Wednesday afternoon, when Greg Maddux was officially voted into Cooperstown, this lifelong Cubs fan booked flights to upstate New York.
Even though Maddux will surely enter the HOF with an Atlanta Braves cap (and should), there will still be hundreds – if not thousands – of Cubs fans on the lawn in Cooperstown on July 27 to cheer him on. Just like there was in 2010 when Dawson was inducted as Montreal Expo.
With White Sox fans also in attendance to support Thomas, as well fans from the Braves (for Maddux, Tom Glavine and Bobby Cox), Yankees (Joe Torre) and Cardinals (Tony LaRussa), the crowd this summer in Cooperstown should be huge – and interesting. Can’t wait to experience it.
Deng it, Chicago
For the past several years, I’ve often said that if Derrick Rose was to finally win an NBA Championship with the Chicago Bulls, he was going to need his own “Scottie Pippen” to do it.
And that Luol Deng wasn’t it.
While Deng was a fine player for the Bulls, I never saw him as the key to a title. As a result, I think Chicago made a smart and savvy move this week by trading the 28-year-old forward to Cleveland to free up money and acquire draft picks. To win a championship in today’s NBA, a team really needs at least two superstars – a level that Deng never attained.
Problem now is that Rose might never again attain that level himself.
Lucky No. 6
Some in Chicago said that it was like a breaking a mirror last week when the Bears stuck the city with seven more years of Jay Cutler. Perhaps it was, although I don’t think that the team really had any better option than re-signing their polarizing quarterback.
Without Cutler, the Bears would struggle to remain competitive. Although, with him, I still think they’ll struggle to win a Super Bowl. It’s the old rock and a hard place with Jay, and while I’m fine with him staying on I do hope that the Bears also draft a QB in the later rounds this spring.
Painting the corners
The best sports quip I heard all week came from Tim Yonke, Weekend Editor of the Daily Journal in Kankakee, who wrote on my Facebook page, “While certainly deserving of the honor, I wonder if the plaques for Maddux and Glavine will be four inches wider than the others in the Hall of Fame.”
I’ll be sure to check.