You can put it on the board... NOOO!!!

Before I begin, I should mention that today was the summer solstice, also known as the longest day of the year. Starting tomorrow (Thursday), the sunlight will be getting progressively shorter each day. This means we're on our way to another cold, dark winter. How depressing is that?

While we're on the subject of depressing topics, I should mention that the Miami Heat won the NBA Championship yesterday. Okay, that's not really depressing, although I was rooting against them. Not only that, I really wanted the Mavericks to win the whole thing. I like the team and their players, and I love Mark Cuban as an owner. There's a reason why Cubs fans have deluged the poor guy with hundreds (thousands?) of e-mails begging him to buy our team: because he's not a traditional owner, but more of a die-hard fan who happens to own the team. Love him or hate him, you have to admire and respect his enthusiasm.

Anyway, congratulations to the Heat, but I hope your reign ends with just this one title. I can't stand many of players on the team. I mean, Shaq is okay, and Wade's hugely talented and fun to watch—although the media's collective orgasm over him these last few weeks is not. (I'm not too fond of the officials rolling out a red carpet for Wade to walk to the free throw line, either, but that's not his fault.) A lot of the other players—including, but not limited to, Gary Payton, Alonzo Mourning, Antoine Walker, and James Posey—are annoying and are the exact opposite kind of players I would want on my team personality-wise (and, in many cases, talent-wise). I would love to see an improved Bulls team face them again in the playoffs next year. I think it would represent a good measuring stick for them, plus I would love for the Bulls to be the team that dethrones them.


While we're on the subject of sports, let me move on to the White Sox. First, we have the continuing soap opera As the Ozzie Turns. This time, he called Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti a "fag" after Mariotti criticized him for not only asking a rookie pitcher to bean an opposing batter but also his ensuing decision to call the pitcher out in the media and verbally rip him a new asshole for failing to hit the batter. While reading about this current controversy, I thought back to previous incidents with Ozzie, including his unwarranted criticism of Alex Rodriguez before the World Baseball Classic and his decision not to accompany his team on its White House visit. All this got me thinking about how he's managed to get away with as much as he has. It's obvious that he's gotten more brazen after leading the White Sox to the World Series, which has given him an unbelieveable amount of cache with the South Side faithful and Jerry Reinsdorf. Eventually, however, you reach a point where it gets to be too much.

I applaud Ozzie's passion and intensity—Lord knows the Cubs could use an infusion of that in their manager—but Ozzie is over-the-top and his act is starting to get old—eventually, it will catch up with him. I'm not the only one saying this, either—columnists from both the Chicago Tribune and ESPN.com agree with me. I know many (most?) Sox fans love him and his outspoken nature, and I know Jerry Reinsdorf will stick up for him through quite a bit more serious stuff than this, so I don't think any serious repercussions will come about in the near future. A couple of years down the road, however, the tide may begin to change—especially if the White Sox can't continue their winning ways. I will say this: when Ozzie Guillen leaves the White Sox at some point in the future, be it a year from now or ten years from now, it will be because he quits, not because he got fired. He'd have to really screw up to get fired.


Speaking of the White Sox, I was reading an article in the Tribune about Tony LaRussa coming to town this week to face the team he once managed. In the article, Jerry Reinsdorf was quoted as saying that the two biggest mistakes he ever made were (1) hiring "Hawk" Harrelson as the GM, and (2) letting him fire LaRussa. Let me add another entry to that list: (3) firing Harrelson, thereby letting him transition over to the broadcast booth and annoy the hell out of us for over twenty years.


Breaking off of sports for a moment, I listened to a recording of a phone call where a man tries to cancel his AOL account but the AOL phone rep practically refuses to do so (see this article for more). I'm not surprised by this at all, as AOL is desperate to keep customers from leaving for better online services, be they dial-up or broadband. In fact, I hear that these reps can be fired if so many customers cancel their accounts in any given hour. In any event, the rep in this case goes way too far, whether or not AOL was pushing him to do so. Seriously, is good customer service a thing of the past?

Apparently Saddam Hussein and the co-defendants in his trial have decided to go on a hunger strike as some sort of protest. Here's my question: would anybody be upset if he succeeds and starves himself to death?

Well I've been typing this post for a long time, and I need to go get ready for bed. See you again soon.

-Mark

P.S. Look below for my weekly fantasy baseball update—I posted it just before I wrote this blog.