Ready for college hoops season?

In the widening world of sports media, we here at Wait Til Next Century are always on the lookout for creative ways to promote teams. The White Sox, among others have had some fun ones in recent years, and anything that promotes and remembers that sports are supposed to be fun and games is almost always a good thing.

Fast forward to this year, and this creative spot for the Marquette University men's basketball team featuring junior Jamil Wilson that is designed to gear us up for the upcoming season, with practice beginning in just a couple of weeks.

Cubs vs. Sox showdown

During what has been a long, torturous season for the Cubs, there have been few bright spots.

Sure, we saw Ryan Dempster have a 33-inning scoreless streak this past month. The Cubs also had a stretch where they won 15 of 20 games around the All Star break, a brief tease of respectability that ended with a sweep at the hands of the Cardinals last weekend by a combined score of 23-1, including a 12-0 loss last Saturday that saw the Cardinals score a team record 12 runs in the seventh inning.

Beyond that, the only bright spots, besides the promises from Theo Epstein for a brighter future, have been in commercials. We featured ex-Cubs Kerry Wood and Andre Dawson shilling State Farm Insurance recently. But there also have been these great spots by New Era with actor and Cubs fan Nick Offerman of "Parks and Recreation" and fellow actor and White Sox fan Craig Robinson ("The Office") squaring off.

Round 1 appeared in April at the beginning of the season.




Round 2, which premiered in May, had Robinson quizzing Offerman on how far he would go to end the Cubs' World Series drought.



Round 3, appearing for the first time a week or so, ago, have an ultimate staredown.




Unfortunately for the Cubs, the Sox got the better of them in the overall series, taking four of the six games they played, including sweeping the three at Wrigley Field in May. So continues the long season.

The good, the bad and the ugly

A lot to cover, so it's time for the good, bad and the ugly:

The good: Landon Donovan saves the day for the U.S. National Soccer Team at the World Cup Wednesday, kicking in the game winner against Algeria in stoppage time and helping the U.S. win Group C. They will face Ghana in the round of 16 on Saturday. To celebrate, here is the Spanish-language version call of the goal from Univision:




Also, in keeping up with the debate on the vuvuzelas at this year's World Cup, we get a preview of an upcoming World Cup in a site not previously mentioned:



Also among the good are the Good Guys in Black, the White Sox, who won their ninth straight win Thursday with a two-hit, 2-0 shutout of the Braves. I don't know what woke these guys up, but all of a sudden, they're 2.5 games behind leaders Minnesota going into this weekend's series with the Cubs at U.S. Cellular Field. Things are definitely looking up for the Southsiders.

The bad: We knew it was coming, because professionals sports is a business, whether we like it or not. On Thursday, it was announced that the Blackhawks had traded wingers Dustin Byfuglien and Ben Eager and defenseman Brent Sopel and prospect Akim Aliu to Atlanta for the 24th and 54th overall picks in Friday's NHL entry draft, center Marty Reasoner, prospect Jeremy Morin and minor leaguer Joey Crabb.

The culprit: the ole salary cap. The trade shaves about $4 million off of the books for the Hawks as they try to adjust to next season's cap of $59.4 million.

As much as it hurts to lose Byfuglien, who had 11 goals during the playoffs, the Blackhawks do get a noted player like Reasoner and a look to the future with Morin.

And finally,

The ugly: The Cubs are 8-12 in June after Thursday's 3-2 win over the Mariners in 13 innings, leaving them eight games below .500 for the season (32-40) and eight games behind first-place St. Louis.

While the pitching generally has been good (save for the 12 runs given up against the Angels at Wrigley Field last Saturday), the hitting has continued to stink, especially this last series in Seattle. They were shut out 2-0 on Tuesday, only scrounged one run on nine hits Wednesday in an 8-1 Seattle win, and only six hits in 13 innings but won 3-2 thanks to strong pitching performances from guys like Ted Lilly.

The Cubs aren't completely dead, but if they don't turn things around like the White Sox (who were looking at some changes as recently as three weeks ago) have in recent weeks, Jim Hendry will have to do some serious house cleaning that could possibly mean his job, too.

And the jury is still out: The Bulls are playing the waiting game, trading guard Kirk Hinrich, French prospect Kevin Seraphin and cash to the Wizards for maybe a second-round pick in next year's draft. That will have to be sorted on July 8, when the trade can become official by NBA rules.

Why do it? It's all about making room under the salary cap for luring LeBron James and another top free agent (Toronto's Chris Bosh? Miami's Dwyane Wade? Atlanta's Joe Johnson?) to the United Center. Washington will absorb Hinrich's $9 million salary for someone who likely will babysit for top draft choice John Wall until the Kentucky star is ready, while the Bulls will have loads of money to bring top talent to Chicago.

We'll see after July 1.

Another lost season on the diamond?

Lost in the euphoria that is the Blackhawks winning the Stanley Cup last week has been the apparently lost seasons of the Cubs and White Sox.

Both are languishing in third place after last night's wrap-up game of the annual Crosstown series at Wrigley Field, both the Cubs and Sox 7.5 games behind leaders Cincinnati and Minnesota, respectively. Both have had chances to improve things, but life on either side of town just kept getting stranger.

For the Cubs' Carlos Zambrano, getting rocked for six runs in 1 1/3 innings in Atlanta on Opening Day and subsequent poor performances led to the $91 million man getting demoted to the bullpen by manager Lou Pinella, where he continued to stink things up as closer Carlos Marmol's setup man, and returned to the starting rotation on June 4, allowing three runs on six hits over 4 1/3 innings against Houston.

The starting rotation for the northsiders has been good to excellent, starting with Carlos Silva. Acquired in the offseason from Seattle, he was thought to be enough value to the Cubs in that they managed in the process to get rid of outfielder and all-around good guy (in his eyes) Milton Bradley after his disastrous 2009 season. But so far, he is 8-1 with a 2.89 ERA, losing his first game of the year on Saturday to the White Sox. Ted Lilly and Ryan Dempster also have been fairly solid, with Lilly posting a relatively small 2.90 ERA after this weekend.

It's the Cubs' bats that have been the question mark. Hitting hasn't the Cubs' strength in a while, even during the division winning 2007 and 2008 seasons. But even the quality hitters Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez have stunk up the joint. Ramirez, an All-Star as recently as 2008, has been particularly disappointing, hitting only .168 with five home runs before a thumb injury put him on the 15-day disabled list last week. Only new outfielder Marlon Byrd has been worth getting excited about, hitting .333 this year since coming over from Texas in the offseason.

This has led to a lot of disappointing losses, and the pitching staff struggling to keep the Cubs in games without a lot of run support. On Sunday night, for example, the Cubs still managed to beat the White Sox 1-0 despite only getting three hits, all after the seventh inning. The main reason the Cubs held on at all was because Lilly no-hit the Sox until the ninth inning, when outfielder Juan Pierre singled to end the no-no bid. There was also the real disappointment on Thursday, when the Cubs lost to Milwaukee 5-4 on a throwing error in the 10th inning from first baseman Xavier Nady.

For the White Sox, there's not a lot to write about. They're in the middle of the pack again, their World Series victory five years seemingly light years ago in light of the Blackhawks' recent title, which they celebrated Sunday night at Wrigley Field with both the Cubs Sox. They've showed signs of life recently, knocking out a four-game winning streak before Sunday night.

The main thing of interest here has been manager Ozzie Guillen, who has been speaking out on everything from the Blackhawks (saying the White Sox victory parade in 2005 was better) to apparently almost coming to blows with general manager Ken Williams, according to the Sun-Times over the White Sox drafting Gullien's son Ozney in the 22nd round of the draft last Tuesday (Guillen denies the almost altercation happened).

Either way, something's gotta change on both sides of town or we're just stuck waiting for the Bears or Bulls to do something to excite us again.

Could it be the managers? Sweet Lou Pinella could be counting the days before he decides to hang it up, which could mean any numbers of options for the Cubs, including bringing Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg, who is now managing the AAA Iowa Cubs in his fourth season of managing in the minors. Would the Sox fire Ozzie Guillen? If they're smart, they wouldn't do that.

It should come down to the men who have run and built these teams, GMs Jim Hendry and ken Williams. They're the ones who brought in these guys, and if anyone winds up leaving, it should be them.

Long suffering teased by a championship in another sports deserve as much. There's still plenty of time for either or both teams to turn things around, but something's going to have to give.

Bulls get their man

The Bulls have their man.

No, I'm not talking about LeBron James. The Bulls and other teams can start pursuing King James and other free agents after July 1.

I'm talking about their new head coach, Tom Thibodeau, most recently an assistant with the Boston Celtics, apparently has agreed to be the Bulls' new head man.

One knock on this is that after the debacle that was Vinny Del Negro's tenure in Chicago, the Bulls would go after someone with head coaching experience. Thibodeau's only head coaching experience was in 1984 at Division III Salem (Mass.) State University, according to the Chicago Tribune. The rest of the time, after four years as an assistant at Harvard, has been as assistants in the NBA, including stops in Minnesota, San Antonio, Philadelphia, New York and Houston.

However, he does have coaching experience, like 25-plus years worth. This is unlike Del Negro, who came in with zero coaching experience, just some time in the Phoenix Suns' front office after retiring as a player. Plus, according to the Tribune, he comes highly regarded by his players.

He is expected to formally accept the job after the NBA finals are over At this point, the Celtics are down 1-0 to the Lakers, with Game 2 tomorrow night.

Other notes:

-- The Blackhawks sure stunk it up last night in Game 4 in Philadelphia, losing 5-3 to the Flyers to bring the series tied at 2-2 to the United Center tomorrow night. While Patrick Sharp finally scored, Antti Niemi got left out to dry in the first period as the Flyers put in three quick goals for the biggest lead in the series. Hopefully, they can come out out of this two-game tailspin (longest of the playoffs for the Hawks) back home in Chicago.
-- Carlos Zambrano returned to the Cubs' starting rotation in Houston last night, and had pretty much the same result as he did opening day in Atlanta. He got rocked in the first inning as the Cubs lost 3-1. While he did settle down and made it to the fifth inning, he was unable to do anything to lift the Cubs out of their doldrums. But then again, as good of a hitter he is, he can't do all of the hitting, too, leading to rumors the Northsiders could trade guys like Derrek Lee, a rumor he has denied.
-- Trades could be a-coming for the White Sox, too, if they don't start picking things up, manager Ozzie Guillen says. Catcher A.J. Pierzynski and pitchers J.J. Putz and Bobby Jenks have been mentioned as possible trade bait.

Cubs starting to show signs of life

About this time last week, we were all starting to wonder if the Cubs had any heart left in them.

Sure, one of their biggest hitters, 3B Aramis Ramirez, has been out since May 9 with a dislocated shoulder, and likely won't be back until after the All-Star break. The Cubs also have dealt with a series of nagging injuries to Milton Bradley, Carlos Zambrano and others.

Good teams battle through these obstacles, though. And after their 4-1 loss to the White Sox Wednesday at Wrigley Field despite an unexpected day off thanks to the rain on Tuesday, that listlessness continued, and many, including yours truly, were beginning to wonder if we should write off the rest of the season.

However, starting Thursday, the Cubs showed that we can be a little fickle at times.

The Cubs fell behind 5-0 to the White Sox going into the bottom of the eighth inning, and it was starting to look like more of the same. But Derrek Lee and Geovany Soto hit back-to-back home runs, and Alfonso Soriano hit in the game-winning run in the ninth inning to win, 6-5.

The next day, the Cubs welcomed the Cleveland Indians and former teammates Kerry Wood and Mark DeRosa, both of whom got warm welcomes from the Wrigley faithful. The Tribe went up 7-0 in the fourth inning, and it was starting to look like the same old Cubs we had come to expect during the last six weeks. But they chipped away, and got four in the seventh inning and another in the eighth inning to cut it to 7-6. Wood gets the call to put the game away in the ninth, but Lee comes through, hitting his second home run of the game to tie things up. In the tenth, after Soriano walks, he shows off some of the speed we had been wondering about and stole second before scoring on a bad-hop single by Ryan Theriot for the Cubs' win, 8-7.

Saturday was more of the same for Wood, who came in the bottom of the 13th inning to try to seal a 5-4 win for the Indians. But he missed again, giving up a game-tying single to Andres Blanco before throwing a wild pitch that saw Blanco score the winning run, giving the Cubs a 6-5 win. Sunday was more decisive, with the Cubs winning 6-2, leaving the Cubs at 34-31 with a four-game winning streak and only 2.5 games behind St. Louis, who took over first place from the Brewers over the weekend by feasting on Kansas City pitching, including an 12-5 win Sunday.

The point behind this weekend wrap-up. With no sense of bias and homerism, the Cubs are definitely still in contention, and never were really out of it during this slump. Granted, they have had a lot of help from the Brewers, Cardinals and Reds not keeping up their winning ways all that much, but the Cubs are still in this thing.

Copyright 2009 - Wait Til Next Century.

Can Pedro help the Cubs?

The Cubs are reportedly one of two teams, along with the Tampa Bay Rays, who are pursuing former All-Star pitcher Pedro Martinez.

The 37-year-old Martinez, who has been a free agent after his tenure with the Mets ended after last year, has been working out in his native Dominican Republic. According to ESPN, he is hoping to sign with a team that has a chance to win the pennant.

Whether the Cubs should sign him is a mixed bag, with arguments strong on both sides:

Martinez, during 17 seasons in the majors, is 214-99 in stints with the Dodgers, Expos, Red Sox and most recently, the Mets.

But he is 37 years old.

He has shown signs of life during his most recent stint in New York, winning 15 games during his first season there in 2005. He also showed he might still be able to be a productive pitcher during this spring's World Baseball Classic, throwing six scoreless inning of one-hit in two appearances for the Dominican Republic team.

But those last four years in New York were plagued with injuries. Though he won 15 games in 2005, his innings dropped significantly the next three years, including only 32 innings that saw three wins in 2007 and five wins last year in 109 innings.

He could be a sign that the Cubs are still trying to win something this season despite being 31-31 and four games out of first place after yesterday's 6-5 win over the crosstown White Sox.

But he hasn't pitched in the majors during the entire year.

He has a World Series title under his belt, having helped the Red Sox win their first one since 1918 in 2004. Out of the current Cubs players, only Derrek Lee (2003 with Florida), Ted Lilly (2000 with the Yankees), Aaron Miles (2006 with St. Louis), and Alfonso Soriano (2000 with the Yankees) have been on World Series champion teams.

But starting pitching is actually one of the strengths of this Cubs team. Hitting and the bullpen are areas that should be addressed.

However, starting pitcher Rich Harden has been plagued with a bad back for the better part of the year, and you can never have too much starting pitching.

Will the Cubs actually go forward and sign Pedro Martinez? Not the best player available, but he couldn't hurt and might actually still have some gas left in the tank. He just might be the final piece that could help the Cubs turn this season around.

Copyright 2009 - Wait Til Next Century.

Cubs vs. Sox - The real challenge

Tuesday marks the first game of the three games of the Crosstown Classic between the Cubs and White Sox at Wrigley Field.

Now there is the matter of which is the better team. We can't rely too much on the current records. The Cubs are 30-30 after avoiding a sweep in this past weekend's home series against the Twins, while the Sox have fallen on hard times taking two of three from the Brewers in Milwaukee . While the season's not quite over, both teams have a lot of catching up if they're going to still be playing in October.

That leaves the intangibles, or the other things that we have to look at to determine which is the better team.

Uniforms
With a nod to Uni Watch, we look first at the aesthetics of the teams.

Both sport the pinstripes at home, the Cubs since 1957, the Sox since the last few games of 1990 in their current form. The Cubs have largely kept the same main logo since the 1950s, while the Sox have undergone several changes in that same time period, though they have largely kept their current logo and colors since just before moving into the new Comiskey Park in 1991.

Both look sharp at the current time.

PICK: Draw

Stadiums
This is where it has the potential to get ugly in the fight between Cubs and Sox fans.

One of the main strikes against the Sox is they have a corporate-sponsored name for their ballpark, U.S. Cellular Field. Granted, the name was taken in part to help fund $68 million in improvements to the ballpark.

However, they wouldn't have had to fund those improvements if they had built the place the right way the first time. When it opened in 1991, the then-new Comiskey Park was a concrete, soulless place with an upper deck that stretched 29 rows up and was so steep that it winded my very healthy Marine father as he climbed to the 25th row. Yes, it brought the pinwheel, exploding scoreboard from the old park, but it lacked any character or comfort until the renovations, which chopped nine rows from the upper deck and put in black arches over the top to make it more cozy.

Wrigley Field, on the other hand, is considered a cathedral of everything that is good in baseball. Yes, it has had some structure problems that have caught up with a park open since 1914, and men's urinals are troughs. But it still retains the old charm with more day games than most teams, the manual scoreboard and the marquee in a place that with few exceptions (like lights installed in 1988, the last team to do so), is much like it was in the 1940s.

Plus, I've never heard the Cell mentioned as a destination like Wrigley Field, which is kept in a neighborhood rather than fenced off from the outside world like Sox Park is.

PICK: Cubs

Managers
Here the teams are similar in that they both have fiery men as their leaders.

Cubs managers Lou Pinella is one of the bigger managerial names in baseball, having managed and won in just about every place he has gone. He spent time with the Yankees, Reds (winning the World Series in 1990), Mariners (first division title in team history in 1995), Devil Rays (nobody could help them at the time) and now the Cubs, whom he has led to division crowns in 2007 and 2008. He also has retained the same passion, taking on umpires and players in the same fashion as ever.

Sox skipper Ozzie Guillen is one of the more popular players to ever play for the Southsiders, and he was an interesting pick when he took over after the 2003 season. He has kept himself in the limelight, constantly baiting opposing players and his own players to keep them on their toes. In his first managerial job, he has kept up a winner, leading the Sox to a World Series title in 2005, his second year on the job.

Experience vs. a world title? Tough call.

PICK: Draw

History
Both teams have been around for what seems to be forever, the Cubs born in 1876 with the start of the National League, and the Sox in 1901 with the American League. Both have had fairly sad histories, going decades between championships and only winning five titles between them in their histories.

The Sox, while colorful, have been fairly quiet in their history in the World Series, making it to only five title matches in their history (1906, 1917, 1919, 1959 and 2005). The Cubs have been to 10 in their time (1906, 1907, 1908, 1910, 1918, 1929, 1932, 1935, 1938, and 1945), with both teams being dominant early in the 1900s.

That's where the similarities end. The Sox likely would have four titles to their credit if not for the Black Sox scandal of 1919, but they have been to two World Series since World War II and won one in the last 30 years (2005). The Cubs, on the other hand, have not been to a World Series since 1945 (the year World War II ended) and not won one since 1908 (when Theodore Roosevelt was President of the United States).

PICK: White Sox

Who wins this year? That is why they play the game on the field. However, if the Cubs' bats can finally wake up and the bullpen can finally get somebody, we'll have to give this round to the Northsiders.

Copyright 2009 - Wait Til Next Century

Da Notebook - June 11, 2009

Cubs
-- The good news from Houston Wednesday night: Carlos Zambrano was his strong self, pitching eight innings and giving up only three hits and one run. The bad news: Outside of Geovany Soto's one-run home run in the second inning, the Cubs' bats go silent again as they lose to the Astros 2-1.
-- I've always said the Cubs sending Mark DeRosa to Cleveland during the off-season was a mistake. Considering the Cubs' lack of consistent hitting this year, it's proving to hang over the Northsiders in a bad way.
-- Current standings: 29-27, fourth place in NL Central, 2.5 games behind Milwaukee; fifth place in NL wild card, 1.5 games behind New York Mets.

White Sox
-- Pitcher John Danks had his best outing of the season Wednesday at U.S. Cellular Field, allowing only two runs on five hits in 7 1/3 innings, but Detroit pitcher Justin Verlander keeps the Sox batters under control as the Tigers win, 2-1.
-- In the same game, Paul Konerko hurt his thumb again, meaning he likely will miss some games.
-- Current standings: 27-33, third place in AL Central, 6.5 games behind Detroit; seventh place in AL wild card, 7.5 games behind New York Yankees.

Bears
-- Thanks to trading for QB Jay Cutler, Athlon Sports is picking the Bears to win the NFC North. Considering the Packers and Vikings are not all that competitive, and we won't bother with the Lions, this isn't all that awe-inspiring.
-- Do the Bears have adequate backup QBs for Cutler?

Copyright 2009 - Wait Til Next Century

Picking major leaguers of the future?

Yesterday was the first round of the 2009 edition of the Major League Baseball draft, and both the Cubs and White Sox went after long-term needs.

How effective the picks will be in the future is a little hard to predict since unlike football and basketball and to a lesser extent, hockey, baseball drafts tend to be more of the long-term investment variety.

First, the Cubs went with California outfielder Brett Jackson with the 31st pick of the draft. Only 20 years and a junior, he is the third position player taken by the Northsiders in the last four drafts. He also is a left-handed lead-off man who hit .326 with a .416 on-base percentage, .568 slugging percentage and 11 stolen bases in 14 attempts over 46 games during the last season. He also was ranked as the second-best overall athlete among college players by Baseball America.

The Sox also went with an outfield, selecting LSU OF Jared Mitchell with the 23rd pick in the first round. With Mitchell, who is only 20 years old, the Southsiders add speed and quickness, a hallmark of Ozzie Guillen's term as manager and something they will need as players like Paul Konerko and Jermaine Dye get on in years and look to retirement.

Will either player help their new teams in the future? Only time will tell. As has been said before, the baseball draft does not often promise immediate results that football and basketball can.

Last year's number one for the Cubs, pitcher Andrew Cashner of Texas Christian University, is now pitching with the High-A Daytona Cubs in the Florida State League, though the Sox's top pick, Georgia OF Gordon Beckham, recently was called up to the big club as part of the team's "youth movement." The jury is still out on whether Beckham can handle big league pitching after only 59 games in the minors.

The status of the last few years' picks also prove hit or miss:

Cubs 2007: Cypress (Calif.) High 3B Josh Vitters, picked number three overall, is at Class A Peoria, but looking to possibly make a move up soon, says the Chicago Tribune.

White Sox 2007: P Aaron Poreda also was recently called up to the big club.

The previous years have been hit or miss. Cubs 2006 pick, OF Tyler Colvin, is at AA Tennessee, though likely to move up thanks to the Cubs' outfield troubles, while the Sox's 2004 pick, 3B Josh Fields, is sweating it out under Guillen's regime. Other Cubs top picks like P Kerry Woods (1995), P Mark Prior (2001) and OF Corey Patterson (1998), made some noise for a couple of years, but were ineffective after a short time and have since moved on.

With this year's class, we'll wait and see what happens.

Copyright 2009 - Wait Til Next Century

Da Notebook - June 10, 2009

We're back and it's time to get started again.

Cubs
-- Ted Lilly provides the pitching and the big bat in leading the Cubs to a 7-1 win over the Astros in Houston Tuesday night. Coupled with losses by the Cardinals and Brewers, the Cubs are now in second place behind the Brewers and by a percentage point over the Cardinals and Reds.

-- Could the Cubs have their third baseman of the future in Josh Vitters? The Chicago Tribune thinks so, though the writer cautions against bringing somebody up so young too quick (he's 19 and playing at Class A Peoria right now).

White Sox
-- Paul Konerko hit a two-run double in the bottom of the ninth inning to force extra innings, but the White Sox ultimately fall to the Tigers, 7-6, Tuesday night at U.S. Cellular Field after a controversial call that said pinch runner Dewayne Wise was out at home plate trying to score the game-winning run.

Bears
-- The Jay Cutler saga continues for the Bears, as both coaching legend Mike Ditka and Super Bowl winning coach Tony Dungy question whether the Bears got what they bargained for in acquiring the Pro Bowl quarterback in February for Kyle Orton and draft picks. Ditka says Cutler still has to prove himself before being considered among the Bears' all-time greats, while Dungy said the Bears gave up a lot for a QB who has yet to prove himself great.

-- Former Bear Roland Harper gets probation and a year of house arrest in a case that he allegedly acted as a front man in a $1.5 million fraud involving a landscaping contract for Chicago public schools.

- Jarrett Payton, the son of the late, great Walter Payton, has signed with the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League.

Bulls
-- Former Bulls and Iowa State coach Tim Floyd resigned from his post as head basketball coach at USC Tuesday in the midst of a scandal that he allegedly provided money to associates of former player O.J. Mayo to get the phenom to sign with the Trojans.

-- Bulls guard Ben Gordon is not acting like a man planning to leave.

Copyright 2009 - Wait Til Next Century

It's all about the marketing...

I was watching SportsNite on Comcast SportsNet Chicago tonight when they ran another commercial touting tickets to the White Sox. That got me thinking about how different teams try to market themselves.

First, I wondered if the Cubs ever do any marketing. After asking my wife if she's ever seen more, I came to the conclusion that this is their entire marketing budget:

Chicago Cubs baseball: Wrigley Field.

Nothing more, nothing less. Of course, it doesn't hurt that the Cubs are winning, or that they became obscenely popular during the 1980s and 1990s during the Harry Caray years even while fielding some pretty pathetic teams.

But for those who do advertising, here are some of the best out there, starting with the White Sox, who have had some pretty creative pieces, including this one from this year:




The Minnesota Twins had a fun one (a nice poke at the rival Cleveland Indians) with this spot. However, you can't beat singing at the ole ballpark as part of their "This is Twins Territory" campaign:



The Mariners had a bunch of good ones a couple of years ago, including this piece of work featuring the glove of Adrian Beltre:



Others of note include the Kansas City Royals, including a spot touting the new Jumobtron Scoreboard as part of the renovations at Kauffman Stadium (and particularly funny now that it features Billy Butler who was sent down to AAA Thursday) hitting batting practice balls that destroy the old scoreboard).

You can't beat fun at the old ballpark, I guess...

Da notebook - March 24, 2008

Blackhawks
-- The business section in Sunday's Chicago Tribune has an interesting look at new Blackhawks chairman Rocky Wirtz, who took over the team when his father, Bill Wirtz, died in October. In the last five months, he had revitalized the team, hiring president John McDonough away from the Cubs and beginning to restoke interest in hockey in a place where many thought it was dead.

-- The team also is near a deal to televise all 82 of its games next season, reports the Tribune's Teddy Greenstein. WGN and WPWR-50 are two possible stations to pick up the 30-odd games not currently covered by Comcast SportsNet and Versus

-- It was a good day as the Hawks beat St. Louis 5-4 on an overtime goal by Patrick Kane. The win puts Chicago within four points of the eighth and final Western Conference playoff with only six games to play

Cubs
-- In Mesa, Ariz., it looks like Kerry Wood has won the Cubs' closer job. At least until he gets hurt again.

-- At the same time, manager Lou Pinella is scheduled to announce on Monday whether Jason Marquis won a job in the starting rotation over former Ryan Dempster or new/old pickup Jon Lieber.

-- An injury to lefthander Scott Eyre and some suddenly free agent outfielders could lead to the Cubs picking up some centerfield depth, says the Sun-Times.

White Sox
-- The Sox will honor former great Harold Baines with a statue outside of U.S. Cellular Field on July 20, according to the Tribune.

Bulls
-- The Sun-Times' Jay Mariotti comments on the Bulls' plans to raise ticket prices even as the team continues to tank its season away in true Reinsdorf fashion and implodes in every unimagible way outside of the Knicks.

Iowa State & Iowa
-- The Cyclones' women's basketball team advanced past the first round Saturday, beating Georgia Tech in Des Moines. They play C. Vivian Stringer's Rutgers squad today.

-- Meanwhile, the Iowa women are out of the NCAA tournament after losing to Georgia in Norfolk, Va., while the Iowa wrestling team claims its first national title since 2000.