Smile Politely. Speak Directly. A Champaign-Urbana Culture Blog

What Happened

Well, we’re here my friends. The playoffs. The prognosticators predicted that the Cubs would repeat as Division champions and for once, they didn’t disappoint. The question, up until yesterday afternoon’s flat fastball out of the hand of Bob Howry and into the bleachers off of Ryan Braun’s bat, was, “But who will we play?”

Behind the impossibly durable arm of CC Sabathia, pitching on three days rest for the third straight outing, the Brewers took two of three from a patchwork Cub team who fielded rookies most of the weekend. The series victory was enough for the Brewers to retake the Wildcard from the NY Metropolitans, when the Mets' bullpen once again collapsed and they gave up back-to-back roundtrippers in the eighth of Sunday’s rubber game with the Marlins. I’m not shedding any tears for the Mets. The playoffs without the Yankees or the Mets doesn’t bother me at all.

Curlin Ready to Nose Out Cigar

Cigar ended his career $185 dollars short of earning a cool $10 mil in 33 career starts. His record is one not only remembered through a dollar amount in earnings, but for his brilliance as an older horse. From fall 1994 through the summer of 1996, Cigar went on to accomplish an unprecedented feat for a horse racing in major stakes competition: when he was four, five, and six years old, he competed in the world’s best races and burned up a winning streak of 16 in a row. He was the kind of unmatchable, unconquerable force that horsemen dream about. His racing record stands tied with the great Citation as the only other horse to win sixteen straight races against graded stakes competition. Purses were not quite as large even in those years, though the Breeders’ Cup Classic was at that time the richest race in the world. And so it is a bittersweet thing that Cigar’s record will likely be surpassed this Saturday if Curlin wins his second Jockey Club Gold Cup in a row.

Who, really, is the NFL favorite in Champaign-Urbana? The Bears obviously have the edge, as Chicago is just a little more than two bings away and the university’s undergraduate ranks are swollen with students from Chicagoland. But this is a downstate community with plenty of downstaters who have no problem throwing their allegiance to the St. Louis Rams. It should be pointed out, too, that the closest NFL team to us resides in Indianapolis — and there’s no shortage of Peyton Manning jerseys in C-U on a Sunday in the fall. And then, of course, are the transplants from all over the country who show up here to study, teach, work, and cheer on their favorite team. Packers. Steelers. Vikings. Cowboys. Let’s hear it for your team, C-U…who you got? Which teams have the most devoted following here in C-U?

So, instead of a running diary of the complete TV broadcast full of snarky comments about Hawk and DJ, you, dear reader, instead get to enjoy a diary of the last 3-1/2 innings of the game based on listening to Ed Farmer and Steve Stone's radio broadcast.

Jamar Smith was spared jail time, for now. If he can stay straight for 18 months, he'll be finished with Champaign County Corrections. An ankle bracelet will monitor his skin for alcohol content. He has a job lined up in Evansville, with Schnucks. He plans to continue his basketball career, and education, at Southern Indiana.

Corey Shackleford was released from jail after a night in prison. He lost it during a sentencing hearing. Kenneth Kelly got 50 years for killing Corey's father-in-law.

Okay, I’ll be honest. I haven’t seen nearly as much of the Redbirds the last week or so. I’m not a fair weather fan so much as I’m simply a sore loser. In all fairness, the games I have seen lately have been excruciating. Adam Freaking Kennedy playing in the outfield two days in a row? I think La Russa may have quit on his team as much as they have quit on him.

Clinch

For the first time since 1907-08, the Cubs have won the division in back-to-back seasons. As expected, the Northsiders clinched (on Saturday), with their arch rivals on the field, in a 5-4 nail biter. Most years, this would be enough. Division champs, Cardinals eliminated and are forced to watch the Cubs celebrate. Like a dream come true.

But not this year. This is simply not enough.

As much as I’d like to tell you that this is my favorite Cub team of my lifetime (and it is), and that the fact that they have been really fun to watch would be enough. I’d be lying. We want the WS title.

Here we go…

With the most prestigious event in American racing only five weeks away, all eyes are sitting on this year’s standout horses. Every other year, those contenders who’ve been snagging the classics and adding up the graded stakes races to their records were a shoe-in for the Breeder’s Cup World Championships. With 14 purses totaling a combined worth of $25.5 million dollars, why on earth wouldn’t someone go? But with this year’s events to be run at Santa Anita on the synthetic Pro-Ride track surface, more and more horses look to be steering clear of the "Olympics of horse racing." Currently, some trainers are teetering on the cusp of decision, asking themselves: “Is it worth it?”

This past week I had the chance to take a nostalgic stroll through last year’s Polite Power Rankings. One of my most intriguing discoveries came in my end-of-the-regular-season rankings, where I slotted the New York Giants at 14. Middle-of-the-packers. Yep, the team that went on to win the Super Bowl a few weeks later.

What does this prove? It proves that great soothsaying minds like Nostradamus and Weather Channel meteorologists and even NFL power rankers sometimes fall prey to the fact that the world is a complex place full of evolutions and uncertainties. Fortunately, we’re only entering week 3 of the NFL season, so we can set our sights on the here and now. But I will make one season-long predication: While some of the perennial heavyweights (see: New England; see: Indianapolis) are struggling to stay afloat, we’re going to see franchises that have been hobbling of late (see: Philadelphia; see: Denver) find fresh legs that'll carry them far into the playoffs.

Well my friends, records and landmarks continue to fall for the 2008 Cubbies. Carlos Zambrano tossed a no-hitter last night and 1972 has been erased. For years, opposing batters, pitching coaches and teammates have speculated that Big Z had the stuff to throw a no-hitter. Maybe it was only a matter of time. But after a twelve day layoff because of shoulder issues? On a neutral site against a team who had just won 14 out of their last 15 games?

That’s impressive.

Is Big Brown Ducking Stiffer Competition?

This Saturday will mark both the second and last time Big Brown will race on the turf. In the newly created, ungraded Monmouth Stakes, Big Brown is slated to make his final prep for the Breeder’s Cup Classic against a field of sub par competition... again. Unlike his classmates and would-be rival, Curlin, Big Brown hasn’t been pointed toward races against tough competition since the Black Belmont. Yes, he won the Haskell, and he did so by flattening out to win against a horse who’d never won a graded stakes race. This year’s crop of three-year-olds has been accused of being much less impressive than last year’s, but let’s give credit where it’s due.

All those NFL fans in the Smile Politely ranks were left with one collective question when the first week of the season came to an end: Really? All sorts of guys were knocked out for the season, some expected (Shawne Merriman) and some not so expected (Nate Burleson), but none as significant as Tom Brady. Love him or hate him, you have to give him credit for possessing that magical little blend of talent and leadership, that sense of purpose and capability and destiny that he instills in the guys around him.

Well, Brady’s out and the football picture suddenly looks much different, especially in the AFC, where Brady’s Pats have been perennial favorites. This inaugural edition of the Smile Politely Power Rankings sees where the cards have fallen, post-Brady.

The Redbirds season is becoming a lot like Debra Winger at the end of Terms of Endearment. You’re 99% sure they aren’t gong to make it, but you also can’t imagine a story ending so terribly and yet, there’s a part of you that really just wants the damned thing over with already.

It’s still hard to complain all that much, but it hurts even more because we’ve had our chances to make a dent and didn’t. The Brewers and Cubs appear to be falling apart faster than a Paris Hilton relationship and the Cards have had ample opportunity to take something away from either team’s lead and they just didn’t come through.

What do I expect as a Cub fan? It’s a question I ask myself from time to time. The answer is usually pretty bleak. I expect losing. I expect little support from upper management. A terrible and over-hyped farm system. I expect many people to attend games because they like “hanging out” at Wrigley Field.

And finally, I expect winning enough to get your hopes up and then destroyed.

But, the thing of it is, these expectations have started to change over the last few years.

You’ve never truly seen a horse race until you’ve seen one from the rail, where the horses are close enough to touch, and the sheer power of the stampede quakes the ground and sends a tremor through your heart. I’ve been to several live horse races, and one of the most memorable stretch runs comes from Proud Spell’s bid for the lead in the 2008 Kentucky Oaks. It had rained all day long, and several races before, the storm had opened up and unleashed a downpour that made the horses hard to see. By Oaks time, the track at Churchill was a slop book-ended in rivers.

This is for Deron Williams: the best Illini in the NBA to come down the pike in quite a long while. This goes out to the man who represented the country this summer on Team USA and is coming off a season which garnered him a second team All-NBA spot.

Keep it up Deron.

Keep it up, because you are the immediate hope of all Illini/NBA fans who have been waiting years and years (decades and decades) to see a former Illini in the All-Star game. It's been far too long and far too overdue, and it seems as though former Illini have to overcome some type of curse to play in the NBAs All-Star game.

I’m finding it difficult to write about anything other than the post-season. Call me crazy, start writing in about the Cubs inevitable collapse if you’d like — but I still think there’s no way they won’t be in the playoffs. Wildcard maybe, but in the playoffs nonetheless.