... And a Cy Young in a pear tree
Holiday wish list includes Sox landing Verlander and teams having functioning scoreboards
It’s never too early to post your holiday wish list, especially if you’re a Chicago sports fan grinding through the winter months with the Bears, Bulls and Blackhawks in season and the Cubs and White Sox preparing for the winter meetings.
With Black Friday on the horizon, here are 10 things we’re wishing for but unlikely to get.
It makes no sense that the San Francisco Giants can afford to sign the free-agent slugger but the Cubs can only window shop. While the Cubs are considered among the top eight or so teams interested in Judge, no one gives them a realistic chance of reeling him in because of President Jed Hoyer’s reluctance to get tied up with a long-term deal.
The last time the Cubs signed a top-of-the-line slugger was back in 1987, when Andre Dawson was so eager to play at Wrigley Field, he offered to play at whatever price Cubs management felt he was worth. Get that blank check ready, Jed.
The current and future Cy Young winners at Sox Park:
Justin Verlander and Dylan Cease finished first and second in American League Cy Young Award voting. Verlander has a couple of years left in his Hall of Fame career and would look nice atop the Sox rotation, followed by Cease and Lance Lynn.
All it would take is a short-term deal at about $40 million per year, which the Sox could afford if Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf approved a slight budget increase for 2023 while the window for winning it all is still open.
All those bad vibes from the wasted 2022 season would vanish without a trace. has been so long sinceIt we’ve seen Ball play, it’s easy to forget how much he brought to the table for the Bulls early last season.
Seeing him in street clothes on the bench at the United Center is getting as old as seeing Benny the Bull dump a jumbo-sized bag of popcorn on the head of unsuspecting fans. The less we hear about Ball’s return, the more we wonder if he will return at all.
Lonzo Ball in uniform: Functioning scoreboards:
During the fourth quarter of the Bears-Miami Dolphins game last month, the video board in the south end zone of Soldier Field informed fans it was third down for the Dolphins. It
was actually fourth, as indicated by the down markers. The scoreboard error wasn’t corrected until the end of a long timeout.
The next day at the Bulls-Toronto Raptors game at the United Center,
the scoreboard froze five minutes into the game and wasn’t fixed for several minutes. Getting the scoreboard to function properly should be a priority for