Posts Tagged ‘chicago bears’

The Great Chicago Train Robbery offers more proof of the city’s decline and fall

Posted: October 13, 2024 by John Ruberry in crime, culture, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

The evidence of Chicago’s decline and fall keeps piling up.

On Friday evening, at least 30 thugs looted Union Pacific rail cars in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood on the West Side.

The city’s leftist mayor, Brandon Johnson, who lives in Austin, was in London in advance of Sunday’s Chicago Bears game against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Although he later backed away, slightly, from his statement, in 2020 “Branjo” called defunding the police “a political goal.”

As you’ll see, the looters are so casual in these videos as they unload the U.P. freight cars, it’s as if they calmly enjoying a visit to a suburban pick-your-own pumpkin patch. They’re not hiding their faces; they’re not covering up their licence plates. One enterprising criminal even brought a cargo truck to speed their 100-percent discounts along.

The mass thievery was so vast that commuter rail traffic on those rail lines was suspended for hours.

Society is rotting in Chicago–as well as suburban Cook County, because we have had a pro-criminal George Soros-funded so-called prosecutor, Democrat Kim Foxx, lackadaisically enforcing the law for that last eight years. Thankfully, she’ll be out of office in two months.

Criminals don’t fear getting caught in Chicago–and if they are–only those accused of the most heinous crimes are locked up to await trial. Since last year, courtesy of JB Pritzker’s SAFE-T Act, cash bail is banned in Illinois.

The Chicago establishment media, TV stations are an exception, are shameful. They minimize rampant criminality, calling it “a perception problem.”

On Facebook, an hour after the brazen looting, a Chicagoan on Facebook, a self-described “entrepreneur,” was advertising a back yard full of widescreen televisions for sale. As of this writing, 5:00pm EDT, those TVs are still for sale on the social network. Facebook doesn’t seem concerned. It’s a good thing this “entrepreneur” isn’t claiming that masks don’t work against COVID.

Then again, maybe it’s a coincidence that the “entrepreneur” is selling those televisions. But there are a lot of “coincidences” in America’s third-largest city.

So far only six people have been arrested for allegedly participating in the Great Chicago Train Robbery. Where were the Chicago Police on Friday? It took the cops over an hour to arrive to the West Side rail yard. ABC 7 News’ traffic chopper showed up much more quickly. Where was Union Pacific’s security detail? Just a thought, but U.P. may want to investigate their West Side employees. I suspect that this heist may have been aided by a tip from someone working in that freight yard.

There have been other thefts of U.P. trains in Chicago recently.

Finally, where are the decent Chicagoans?

There are some, right?

John Ruberry regularly blogs just north of Chicago at Marathon Pundit.

History awaits as Chicago White Sox might finish with worst MLB season ever

Posted: April 21, 2024 by John Ruberry in baseball, Sports
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Blogger at a White Sox game

By John Ruberry

History is unfolding on Chicago’s South Side.

Three weeks into the 2024 Major League Baseball season, the Chicago White Sox are 3-18, a .143 winning percentage. If they continue at this pace, at the end of the 162-game season, they will finish far worse than the benchmark of modern baseball futility, the 1962 New York Mets season.

In their first National League campaign, those Mets ended up at 40-120, a .250 winning percentage. Or if you prefer, a .750 losing percentage. In 2003, the Detroit Tigers set the American League record for the most losses at 119. They started off that dreadful season at 3-22. 

More recently, the 2022 Cincinnati Reds matched the Tigers’ 25-game start, but sort-of rallied to conclude the season at 62-100.

But the Sox are probably in ’62 Mets and ’03 Tigers territory. Because this year’s South Siders aren’t just losing often, they are bottom feeders in most MLB team statistics. According to Yahoo Sports, the White Sox are 26th in WHIP (walks plus hits per inning pitched), 26th in earned run average, 30th in runs scored, 30th in batting average, 30th in home runs, and 30th in slugging percentage. For those who don’t follow baseball, there are 30 MLB teams.

The White Sox have nine batters hitting under .200. The South Siders’ pitchers have been equally ineffective. Last week, CBS Sports last week called the Sox “depressingly bad,” but singled out starting pitcher Garret Crochet as a bright spot with his 3.57 ERA. But on Friday night, Crochet was yanked in the 4th inning after surrendering seven runs. His ERA is now 5.61.

The best hitter for the White Sox has been third baseman Yoan Moncada, who leads the Sox batters with a .282 average. But after 11 games, Moncada was placed on the 60-day disabled list with a left adductor strain. He may not return this season.

Last week on X, user Jim Passon summed up the South Siders’ start. “White Sox this season: Lose 4 in-a-row win 1. Lose 5 in-a-row, win 1, Lose 6 in-a-row, win 1.”

Since that X post, the White Sox traveled to Philadelphia to lose three more, including Friday night’s Crochet loss. In the first two games of that series, the Phillies carried no-hitters into the seventh and the eighth innings. So far, the White Sox–and remember, they have played only 21 games–have been shut out seven times.

During the postgame show after Sunday’s loss, former White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen summed up the team’s season: “Overall, a lotta, lotta bad stuff.” 

Indeed.   

In 2023, under first year manager Pedro Grifol, the White Sox lost 101 games. While in 2021, under Hall of Fame skipper Tony LaRussa, the Sox won 93 games and topped the AL Central Division. Most analysts figured another 101 loss-or-so season was in order for the South Siders this season. Since the 2023 trade deadline–and into this year–the Sox have traded pitchers Lance Lynn, Joe Kelly, Aaron Bummer, and Dylan Cease for prospects.

Shortstop Tim Anderson, the 2019 American League batting champion, was not offered a contract after the ’23 season. Ironically, the Florida Marlins, who have MLB’s second worst record so far this season, signed him.

The worst American League start ever was 0-21, the 1988 Baltimore Orioles earned that dishonor. Larry Sheets was an outfielder for those O’s. His son, Gavin Sheets, also an outfielder, plays for this year’s White Sox team. Father and son have a lot to talk about.

The White Sox, although the 2024 season is still young, have a very good chance to surpass the Mets’ 1962 record for the worst modern era MLB season of the modern era.

It might be a bit late for the White Sox to add a marketing slogan for the ’24 campaign, but seriously, my idea might sell some tickets and gain some television viewers.

“History awaits, see your 2024 Chicago White Sox.”

The legendary Casey Stengel was the manager of the ’62 Mets, he called his team “the Amazin’ Mets.” Yes, they were. And that team’s first baseman, Marvelous Marv Throneberry, made a living off of that team’s notoriety.

Let’s not overlook the 1899 Cleveland Spiders, who suffered thru a 20-134 .130 percentage National League season. 

History awaits the White Sox.

Finally, in a case of wretched timing, White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf is asking for state and municipal funding to build a new stadium for his team. The Bears have their hand out for a new stadium too. The toothless Monsters of the Midway have finished with the worst record in the NFL the past two seasons. Both teams play in taxpayer funded stadiums that are relatively new; in fact, the bonds for both facilities are not been paid off yet.

It’s a bit like a kid who smashes the car his parents bought for him asking for a new automobile as the vehicle he wrecked is being towed away.

UPDATE April 22:

There was another shutout loss for the White Sox tonight, their eighth. The Minnesota Twins topped the South Siders 7-0.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

I’ll never forget the death of Chuck Hughes, he was the only player to die during an NFL game

Posted: January 8, 2023 by John Ruberry in culture, media, News/opinion, nfl, Sports
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By John Ruberry

Until last Monday, when Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest in the first quarter of game with the Cincinnati Bengals, the tragic death of 28-year-old Detroit Lions wide receiver Chuck Hughes in 1971 during a game was nearly forgotten. 

But not by me–I’ll always remember. When I learned that Hamlin collapsed during a play at Paul Brown Stadium, my first thought was of Hughes–and I switched on ESPN, which was airing the Bills-Bengals game. I was stupefied when members of an ESPN studio panel repeatedly, and of course incorrectly, said that Hamlin’s collapse on the field was unprecedented.

I believe it was James Joyce who said something along the lines that the first death a person experiences is the most tragic. For me, at the age of nine, the passing of Hughes was my first death.

I was at home in the Chicago area that afternoon watching the CBS broadcast of the Chicago Bears game against the Lions. The Bears were several years into a long stretch of mediocrity, while the Lions were just entering their time in the wilderness. The prior year the Lions made the playoffs. Since then, the Lions have been victorious in just one playoff game. 

Unlike the Bills-Bengals matchup, which was nationally broadcast on ESPN, the Bears-Lions game probably aired only in Chicago and other parts of the Midwest.

Late in that ’71 game with, the Bears leading by four points, the Lions, led by quarterback Greg Landry, were on a drive–which was aided by a reception by Hughes–and they were deep in Bears territory with a little more than a minute left in the game when Hughes collapsed at the end of a play. 

Not only were there no smartphones or even camcorders in 1971, but NFL broadcasts five decades ago used fewer cameras than what is used now. There is no videotape of Hughes’ collapse. And there is no videotape of Chicago Bears’ middle linebacker Dick Butkus frantically waving his arms to draw attention to Hughes. Last week, Butkus recalled what happened on that afternoon in Detroit. “He was coming back after an incomplete pass, and I couldn’t believe it, the color that he had. He just dropped,” the NFL Hall of Famer said.

Trainers and doctors from both teams, as well as a physician attending the game, tended to Hughes as he lay on the grass. My recollection is that Hughes was on the turf for about twenty minutes. Although Gary Dymski, who later became a journalist and who attended the game, said it was “ten or fifteen minutes” before an ambulance arrived.

In this ABC Detroit clip, Hughes’ nephew discusses Hamlin and the death of his uncle.

Unlike last week’s Bills-Bengals game, the Bears-Lions game continued, ending with a Chicago victory. Butkus recalled that there was no talk of cancelling the game. About ninety minutes later, Hughes was declared dead at Henry Ford Hospital. I was stunned when Hughes’ passing was announced as I watched a local news program.

The cause of Hughes’ death was a heart attack. After his autopsy it was discovered that his arteries were 75 percent blocked. Hughes had been treated at Henry Ford that summer, apparently, he had suffered a minor heart attack, but medical personnel attributed his chest pains to a spleen injury.

The next day at my elementary school, the Hughes death was what everyone was discussing. As well as a rumor that Butkus “killed” Hughes after a powerful hit. Not true. That night on the Chicago ABC Monday Night Football pregame show, one of the hosts, Detroit Lions legend Alex Karras, was nearly in tears as he reminisced about his former teammate. I was close to tears too.

Immediately after Hughes’ death, the NFL made it a league rule that there must be an ambulance at all games. Life-saving protocols have since been added by the NFL–each team is required to have an Emergency Action Plan, which was activated after Hamlin’s collapse. Generally, there are over two dozen doctors of various specialties at each NFL game. 

The EAP probably saved Hamlin’s life.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.