Oprah-geddon: Winfrey To Quit Show In 2011
Daley Blames - Who Else? - The Media For Oprah-geddon
Chicago Gets Googled
Friday Flashback - Old School Oprah
Today's Transgender Day of Remembrance Honors the Dead
When it comes to celebrating holidays inspired by sitcoms, we're of the mind that we can air grievances whenever we damn well please. There have been a lot of you around these parts who have been causing us to run for the Maalox more than usual this year. Now it's our turn to get some things off our chest. So sit back and take it, and don't let us see you cry; it'll only make things worse.
White Sox General Manager Kenny Williams: After a 90 loss season, we expect big moves to help improve the White Sox. Instead, you whiff on signing Torii Hunter, Miguel Cabrera, Kosuke Fukudome (to the Cubs), and World Series cult hero Aaron Rowand. Even with Orlando Cabrera at shortstop, you're team is weak up the middle, you lack a leadoff hitter, and the middle of your lineup isn't getting younger. The World Series window of opportunity? Closed.
New Tribune Owner Sam Zell: Now that the "Deal from Hell" has been signed, you're looking at the possibility of selling corporate naming rights to Wrigley Field? Even White Sox fans think that idea is blasphemy.
Cicadas: You came back with a creepy vengeance after a seventeen-year slumber, with all the attendant hype attributed to a plague. and, except for a handful of far south and northwest side neighborhoods, you left Chicago alone. See you when Chicagoist turns twenty.
The Chicago Transit Authority: We're just beating a dead horse at this point, but we have to include our most complained-about institution.
Da Bears: After appearing in the Super Bowl XLI, we thought you had a chance to win Super Bowl XLII. Currently at 6-9 and out of the playoff hunt, we are utterly disappointed with this season that started with such high hopes.
Bears linebackers/baby daddies Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs: If you don't want your private lives dragged through the papers, don't ride bareback.
His Elective Majesty, Mayor Richard M. Daley: It's good to be the king, except when your subjects keep asking for better transportation, accountability for the actions of police, and affordable living in the city and you give us pipe dreams of Olympics, more trees, and a "see no evil" demeanor. By the way, where's the TIF money going, your Honor?
Drew Peterson: For making Craig Stebic look well-adjusted, by comparison.
Governor Blagojevich: Your petulance and absenteeism in Springfield makes us long for the days of George Ryan.
Pizzerias with wood and/or coal-fired ovens: For proving that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. You're the new sushi bars of 2007.
"Guest": What can we say about you that adds absolutely nothing to the conversation?
Creative Loafing: We understand as the Reader's new owners you're in a peculiar position. But allowing John Conroy and Harold Henderson to be laid off still sucked.
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I don't think Sox fans care one way or the other if naming rights to Wrigley Field are sold. I know I certainly don't. And intelligent Cubs fans (I like to think that's not an oxymoron) won't care either because they know the money will help improve the baseball experience at Wrigley.
What's blasphemous about it? Really, Wrigley Field is and always was a giant ad for Wrigley's chewing gum. Nothing really sacred about that, is there? The idea that old ballparks shouldn't have ads because they're some sort of sacred space is crap. There have always been ads in ballparks in some form or other.
Frankly, I think the naming rights to Wrigley Field should be sold. The Sox sold the naming rights of their ballpark to U.S. Cellular and the money was used quite well to make the park look and feel better. If Wrigley's naming rights were sold, the same could happen there ... maybe the money could be used to buy some real toilets for the men's bathrooms, instead of the current troughs.
Troughs are a more efficient use of space. Twice as many can use them in the same space as urinals. They removed the trough from Soldier Field and look what a cluster f*ck using the bathroom there is now.
This Sox fan could also care less but it's an interesting topic. I don't suspect Cubs fans would refer to by anything other than "Wrigley" much as many Sox fans still call US Cellular "Sox park" or "Comiskey." The bleachers are still "the bleachers" despite the fact that Budweiser purchased sponsorship of them a couple of years ago.
I would hate to see the troughs go, though. They're quick and often funny in an awkward way.
This Sox fan could also care less but it's an interesting topic. I don't suspect Cubs fans would refer to by anything other than "Wrigley" much as many Sox fans still call US Cellular "Sox park" or "Comiskey." The bleachers are still "the bleachers" despite the fact that Budweiser purchased sponsorship of them a couple of years ago.
I would hate to see the troughs go, though. They're quick and often funny in an awkward way.
Yeah, but there are a LOT of other reasons to avoid Soldier Field besides the bathroom awkwardness.
Also, old Comiskey Park had some troughs and the Cell has normal urinals, but using the bathroom at the new ballpark is no big deal.
And Hugh is right about the name thing. Call the ballpark what you want - I don't really care, despite the fact that the Comiskey name should have died with the old ballpark because Chuck Comiskey was a cheap scumbag. But no matter what you call the ballpark, the $68 million that came from selling the naming rights has done a LOT of good, and no Sox fan can deny that.
The naming rights for the Cell improved the park because they had to improve it. Wrigley, beyond routine maintenance, needs no such improvements. No one is clamoring for them to shave off 8 rows of seats or paint the seats or anything else. They have the revenues already in place to keep up the park whereas the Sox didn't. That is a significant difference between the 2 situations. Besides, there is no guarantee that any additional revenue will be spent on payroll. It is more likely to go into whatever new owners' pockets. But in terms of baseball operations the Cubs already have the revenue streams in place to build a winning team year in and year out but the GM doesn't know how to do that. From a baseball standpoint the Cubs don;t need any more money and any new source of income will more than likely not show up on the field.
Even though I'm a Cubs fan, I have to say you never know what will happen with any team, ever. Before 2005 did anyone think the Sox would go all the way?
What's so bad about brick-fired pizzas?
Now that's a stupid gripe.
Also, this WSox fan would be sad to see Wrigley's naming rights go somewhere else. I remember how mad i was when they renamed Comiskey, then again after they knocked the first one down it would never be the same.
@quint:
Place Wrigley in some neighborhood or suburb without all he bars and gameday atmosphere and you'd hear A LOT of griping about the state of the ballpark.
People put up with the quirks for the baseball-theme park feel (and I say that as a good thing. As a White Sox fan I'll admit, it's a great place to see a game and every fan of baseball has to see it once before they die), but the concessions suck, the sight lines are rotten and often obscured, and the seats and aisles are designed for 1914 (re: The Era Before Fried Cheese) asses.
Luckily they have that fat cable contract (but with Zell, who knows?) because any other owner would be whining for the skybox revenue.
That said, I hope they don't rename it and sort of try to deal with what they have. It's pretty much the only good and decent thing about the Cubs. Now about those drunk, shirtless trust fund kids in the bleachers...