Sports: The Zellionaire and other things

-So Sam Zell might sell the naming rights to Wrigley Field. I like to think of myself as a traditionalist so you would think Wrigley Field by any other name would bother me. For some reason, it doesn't. Well, perhaps a little, but only from an aesthetic standpoint. When Comiskey Park became Cellular Field, I didn't like the change. Cellular Field doesn't exactly roll off the tongue and the name Comiskey hearkens back to the early days of 20th-century baseball. Unfortunately, early 20-century baseball included the Black Sox scandal, caused partially by the Old Romans cheapness. Comiskey didn't like to pay his players what they were worth. He didn't even like to pay to have their uniforms cleaned on a regular basis. Thus, Shoeless Joe and the others were open minded toward alternate revenue streams for themselves. So, a name with tradition isn't always what it's cracked up to be.

The Wrigley family, owners for many, many years of the Cubs, named the ball park to advertise their chewy product. Nothing wrong with that. The company makes great gum but they fashioned a lousy tradition of World Series win free baseball on the North Side. A century of failure, most of it while the Field was Wrigley, is nothing to be sentimental about. Changing the names of Yankee Stadium or Fenway Park would seem to be more sacrilegious to me. Perhaps it might do the Cubs good to get a new name for their ballpark for a new era. Doesn't matter what it's called really, people from far and wide will flock there. Heck, you could even name it truthfully and call it The Hole of False Hope and people would still show up to drink cold beer on a hot day or occasional night. Fans could then say,"Hey, let's go to the Hole and see a game." Probably won't happen though and if the name does change it will be in glorification of some corporate entity, but I say we call it the Hole anyway.

-Rex Grossman is back with the Bears, at least for one year. Now you might think general manager Jerry Angelo should perhaps pursue a quarterback who could, say, actually quarterback well. It wouldn't matter if the Bears had drafted Peyton Manning or Tom Brady, they traditionally do not know how to nurture a quarterback to greatness. Jim McMahon was a Bears Super Bowl winner but McMahon was fully formed as a quarterback when he signed on as a Bear. He was what he was and what he was ever going to be from the first day of his first Bears training camp. McMahon needed no nurturing, molding, or forming.

Beyond a quarterback, an offensive line and a few other things what the Bears really need to become winners is to be sold. The Bears are nothing more than a cash cow for the McCaskey family. Winning is secondary to profits, and lots of them. Until they sell, which I really thought they would have done already since the remodeling of Soldier Field made the teams worth skyrocket, the Bears will never have a win at all costs mentality. So you will always see mediocrities like Rex Grossman and Cedric Benson, with the occasional stars like Brian Urlacher and Devin Hester thrown in to keep fans hopes and interest up and their money flowing.

Early prediction for next season is they go 8-8 and get blown out in the wild card round of the playoffs.

-Speaking of Brian Urlacher, please allow me to be a heretic and state that rather than restructuring his contract to be more favorable to him to keep him here and happy, let's find out his worth on the market. Can he fetch the Bears some valuable young players? Or would other teams be too smart to bite at an unfortunately fading star with an arthritic back who just had neck surgery?

-I read in the Sunday Daily Herald that Jason Marquis is demanding the Cubs assure that he'll be a starter rather than a reliever. Marquis was 12-9 last year with a 4.60 ERA, over 6.00 in the month of September. When Sweet Lou heard this, he said Marquis "could go somewhere else right now if he wants." I think Marquis would look good in a Reds uniform. He and Dusty Baker, always a players friend, deserve each other.