I had a late lunch yesterday afternoon with my friend Stuart at the Old Chicago in Lakewood, Colorado. Lakewood's main street is Colfax Avenue, an ugly stretch filled with old motels, pawn shops, fast food outlets, and other such attractions, although on the plus side, you can't see any of that from the bar area at Old Chicago, where I took the photograph above of Stuart. Baseball season is long over, but spring training begins in less than five weeks, and so we did talk a little bit about our teams' prospects this coming season. Stuart, who is originally from the North Side of Chicago and a Cubs fan, believes the Cubs will once again make the playoffs and then quickly be eliminated, since they are, after all, the Cubs. Coming from the South Side of Chicago, I am, of course, a White Sox fan, and am sure they will be back in contention after completing the rebuilding program that started last season, although God knows how long that will take. The best news for the team is that the Pope is a White Sox fan. That can only help. As for our adopted hometown team, the Colorado Rockies, the big news is that they have hired Paul DePodesta, the sabermetrics guy featured in the film Moneyball, as President of Baseball Operations, and he in turn has hired General Manager Josh Byrnes and many other staffers who actually know something about baseball. This as opposed to the Rockies' previous philosophy of hiring only relatives and pals, which resulted in the Rockies becoming one of the worst teams in the history of baseball last year. DePodesta and his team definitely have their work cut out for them. The big question is whether team owner Dick Monfort will let them do what needs to be done. All bets are off on that one.
No comments:
Post a Comment