FanHouse RickTelander

Is it just me, or are we spending way too much time talking about the Cubs on this blog lately? We're one day away from the start of the NLCS, and instead of talking about the Phililes and Dodgers, we're reporting on every little thing the Cubs do. This needs to change, and I promise you FanHouse readers I'm going to stop writing about the Cubs for the rest of the week. Right after this post.

You see, apparently after the Cubs were finished getting swept by the Dodgers on Saturday night, somebody on the team did some damage in the visitor's dugout. Now the Chicago Sun-Times' Rick Telander is on a one man mission to find the perpetrator(s).

Moments after the final out (Alfonso Soriano fanning on three pitches), one of the Cubs -- maybe two, maybe all 25 -- took something large and hard, like a shoe or bat or sledgehammer, and busted a fair-sized water pipe at the back of the visitors' dugout.

Water gushed out, and very quickly the floor of the area leading into the locker room was flooded.

Blah, blah, blah, poor sportsmanship, blah blah blah. Listen, is this really that hard to figure out? It was Carlos Zambrano, okay? I don't know if you've noticed, but he's a somewhat angry individual. We know it's Z because it obviously can't be a member of the Cubs offense.

As they showed us throughout the Dodgers series, they're fine when it comes to swinging the bat, but making contact is another story.

There are lots of reasons for Cubs fans to feel -- even more than normal -- that this is The Year. The Cubs are in first place in a relatively weak NL Central; the team's offense is a finely-tuned OBP machine; and the first half's solid pitching is set to spike with the addition of Rich Harden. Things are good. Fingers are crossed.

Add another reason to the list: Chicago Sun-Times columnist Rick Telander sees an omen in the least likely places:

But until Friday, never had a pigeon from the Friendly Confines dropped a load on my shoulder. [...] Chase indicated where a fresh, warm mess lay on the left shoulder of my blue shirt. He then ushered me to the Cubs' bathroom and offered me a towel. So I ask you long-suffering Cubs fans: Is this not a sign? Is this not the year?

Brilliant, and I mean that sincerely. There's far too much talk about omens and signs and curses in Chicago; columnists like Jay Mariotti (Telander's sworn enemy) write them into the public record, and non-thinking fans buy in. Kudos to Telander for taking a shot at the idiots.

Chicago Bears center Olin Kreutz seems like one of the NFL's hardest players to figure out.

On the one hand, he's obviously smart, a hard-working team player, and a charitable man who has contributed money to retired players who have had health and financial problems. On the other hand, he has broken teammates' jaws in fights on two different occasions.

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Rick Telander has a wide-ranging interview with The Big Lead today in which he addresses his own history with Kreutz, and how he thinks a columnist gains credibility in criticizing an athlete if he'll meet that athlete face to face.

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti is not popular. He's hated among readers, who often (I assume) read his columns out of masochistic self-spite. He's hated by teams and players. He's hated by the crosstown paper. And he's hated by the internet, perhaps most of all. Now, you can officially add his co-workers to that list.

Mariotti's feud with fellow Sun-Times columnist Rick Telander is well documented, but his latest swipe came at the expense of the Sun-Times' entire baseball staff, whom he called soft for not criticizing Ozzie Guillen with fervor. Because it's totally normal, and not at all obsessive, to call for the firing of a World Series-winning manager when his team is in first place. Right.

Mariotti's comments sparked a total newspaper catfight. Who wins when everyone buys the ink by the barrel? Find out after the jump. (Hint: we do!)

The criticisms against Chicago Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti are as numerous as they are old, but they typically go something like this: He postures, he's consistently worked up for no good reason, and his positions wave from day to day as if he's unable to read something once he's written it. Add to that rep his usually smarmy appearances on ESPN's "Around the Horn", and you've got yourself a columnist whose sheer joylessness turns many readers away from his usually engaging prose. And really, he's just a ridiculous guy, never to be taken seriously by people who value, you know, reason and logic.

All that aside, Mariotti might have written one of the more agreeable little pieces -- on his "blog," no less -- about reporters and Hall of Fame voting I've yet seen. It's in response to last week's Rick Telander imbroglio, in which Telander forfeited his vote and claimed everyone in baseball suddenly under suspicion. (That included local favorite Andre Dawson, who was none too pleased.) Don't look now, but Mariotti's right:

Sportswriters should cover the news, analyze the news, break the news. Sportswriters never should be involved in making the news. I've always wondered if we should stop participating in elections that traditionally have required our services -- balloting for the Baseball and Pro Football Halls of Fame, individual awards in both sports, the Heisman Trophy and college football polls.

There's just too much opportunity for irresponsibility, conflict of interest, foolishness or, as we saw last week in Chicago, misplaced logic.

Mariotti's suggestion leads to the next question: Who, then, should decide on the Hall of Fame? I know what I'd prefer: A representative group of Hall members, writers, and sabermetricians -- and hey, maybe a few bloggers! -- but that sounds so farfetched it's not even worth dreaming about. Sportswriters have something of an embargo on Hall of Fame voting, and to the extent that the Hall of Fame matters (Roger Clemens will tell you differently) that might not be the best, or more progressive, way to handle things.

Yes, I just kind of agreed with Jay Mariotti. I need to go read this, and then take a cold bath.