Is anyone else tired of the never ending optimism from Lovie Smith?  The Bears are in the middle of a pathetic season and this guy keeps on running his mouth about how good the team is.

“To say we’re that far away, I wouldn’t necessarily say that,” Smith said Monday. “This is a good core we have in place right now, but nothing of course ever stays the same. There’s no reason to think we can’t (make the playoffs in 2010).”

Lovie, I have news for you.  This team is very far away from being a legitimate competitor.  They are old and getting older.  They are undersized and unable to make plays.  You don’t have draft picks to improve and get younger, and this is completely your fault along with Jerry Angelo.

It boggles my mind that Lovie says the Bears only have 3 “legitimate losses.”  Where in the coach-speak dictionary did he find that one and I would be curious to hear how many legitimate wins he thinks this team has.  I can already hear him saying we take pride in every single win we get and it doesn’t matter who you beat in the league because every team can win on every Sunday.

So, I’m completely disgusted with the Bears and I sit down to watch the Bulls play (naturally this was not a good decision if I was trying to find a positive in Chicago sports.)  The Bulls actually played pretty well against the defending champion Lakers and even though they lost, they showed much more passion and ability to get back to winning basketball.

It was the postgame press conference with Phil Jackson that reminded me what winning coaches look and act like.  Jackson got up to the podium and told everyone he was unhappy with his teams play.  He said that they aren’t going to win many games playing the way they did.

I don’t know why Lovie thinks he needs to protect every single player from a little bit of public scrutiny, but his act does not demand greatness from his players.  Lovie continues to promote the idea that it doesn’t matter what the players do because he will come to their rescue and tell everyone that it’s ok and the players are much better than any of us realize. 

Lovie Smith offends me as a fan.  He talks to us through the media like we know nothing about the game of football.  He recently was talking about why Jarron Gilbert hasn’t played much this season and said:

”[Gilbert's] probably the one [young player] that hasn’t had a lot of opportunity to prove it,” Smith said. ”And it’s hard with the numbers we’ve had. Everybody we’re looking at on the defensive line has warranted playing time.

Really?  Mark Anderson and Adewale Ogunleye deserve playing time?  Tommie Harris and Marcus Harrison deserve more playing time?  These guys have produced very little to no results, but somehow playing them over young guys gives the team the best chance to win.

Something doesn’t add up and the fans are smart enough to realize that we don’t have the best coach we could running this franchise.  But we certainly have a coach that is good at pointing out that not all losses are legitimate.

Everyone in Chicago knows the history.  From Papa Bear himself to Butkus, to Sayers, to Sweetness the Chicago Bears were once a storied franchise.  Today though, they look much more like the modern day Raiders than they do the Patriots or Colts.

This year was supposed to be different.  The Bears were supposed to rise again to greatness on the shoulders of Jay Cutler.  I was just as excited as everyone else in town when the huge trade was announced.  Sure, Cutler hasn’t really played well at all, but you are crazy if you think he has been surrounded with any talent.

I guess you can point to Johnny Knox who has been a nice surprise as someone who has some talent, but it’s painfully obvious that he doesn’t completely grasp complex defenses that are in the NFL and nobody should blame him for this.  He went to a small school and honestly should have spent time more time on the bench this season learning.  Maybe if the Bears hadn’t wasted picks on Jarron Gilbert and Juaquin Iglesias, Knox would have had more time to develop a greater understanding of defensive schemes and we wouldn’t constantly see Cutler having to coach him after a miscommunication.

For the record, I don’t blame either player for problems like that.  Knox has done far more than anyone could have expected in his rookie season and it’s absurd that the best offensive coach the Bears have is a player.  Cutler is teaching guys how to be receivers, running for his life because the offensive line can’t block, and then he has to try to be an elite QB all at the same time.

Jerry Angelo has done a terrible job building a team that can be competitive.  Lovie Smith has done a terrible job putting together a coaching staff and then actually coaching the team.  How many mindless acts will this head coach be allowed before he is fired?  If the team was winning or at the very least playing good football on a weekly basis, then the burning of two timeouts for nothing could be forgiven, but this team plays with no discipline or passion and it all comes from the head coach.

The players performance has been garbage all season and they deserve plenty of blame, but the main problems are so much deeper than the current roster.  I was pleasantly surprised to see so many empty seats yesterday.  That meant a reduction in beer and food sales and ultimately, that’s the only way for the fans voice to be heard.  The McCaskey’s care about money, and yesterday was the first time the McCaskey’s took note of the product because it didn’t sell very well.

Honestly, I have no idea how this mess is going to get fixed, but I do know that the men currently in charge won’t fix it because they are the ones who broke it.  Jerry Angelo doesn’t deserve a chance to fix it.  The coach that doesn’t know what players on the team can actually play was hand picked by the general manager.  Angelo doesn’t deserve a chance to hire another coach and give him crappy players to work with. 

I’m admitting that Lovie Smith doesn’t have much to work with, but when Jamar Williams is on the sideline watching Ryan Grant run for a long touchdown it shows that Lovie doesn’t understand how to coach anyway.  I’ve been sending text messages to a buddy for weeks that Devin Aromashodu needed to be on the field.  He finally gets a chance (only because of an injury) and he shows that he might have some value as a bigger receiver.  It’s sad that I had to root for Hester to not be able to play so the coaching staff would be forced to make a good decision.  How the hell does a fan have a better grasp of the problems with the team than the coach?  Why in the world is Lovie Smith getting 5 million dollars this year? 

It’s time to start over and money shouldn’t matter.  The Bears are going to make extra money next season now that the NFL’s revenue sharing plan is being cut out.  That extra money will be more than enough to pay for Jerry Angelo and Lovie Smith to leave Halas Hall forever.  If they can somehow talk Bill Cowher or Mike Shanahan into taking over this mess they need to do it immediately.

Bears fans deserve better and this once proud franchise needs to be revived.  The only way that is going to happen is to get people involved that know what winning football teams look like.

My fellow Bears fans, the team we put so much into just doesn’t care about the future.  The head coach just won’t come to grips with the idea that Sunday’s game has no significance in 2009.

“We will play the guys who will give us the best chance to win this weekend,” Smith said. “We play the guys that give us the best chance to win, that week. That’s what we’ll do this weekend.”

Really Lovie?  Does beating the Rams really mean anything in the grand scheme of things?  Honestly I’m offended as a fan.  I think most of us would accept some of these losses if the Bears came out and said, things got a little out of control on us early in the season and we didn’t get where we wanted to go, so we’ve decided that the best thing to do is move forward with an eye on the future. 

What’s hilarious about all of this is that I think Lovie would feel less pressure from the media and fans if he took that approach.  Sure the expectations were high going into this season, but it didn’t go well and the Bears need to be looking ahead to 2010 instead of trying to win one more for pride.

Screw that.  You have no draft picks in the first two rounds to improve your team.  You absolutely need to figure out what you have in guys that haven’t gotten much playing time.  You have to have an understanding of your roster to make better decisions in the offseason.

Chris Williams should have been playing at left tackle 3 weeks ago.  Pace is not good anymore.  He’s below average at best, but the Bears are too afraid to make a move that would offend a veteran.  You drafted Williams to be a LT so that is where he needs to be playing.  Another move on the offensive line that needs to be made is putting Beekman in at center so you can see if you have a replacement for Kruetz who is also not good anymore.

Stop playing 3 identical speedy midgets at WR.  How about letting the bigger bodied Devin Aromashodu get some time to see if he can develop a rapport with Cutler.  It’s not that I have a problem with Hester, Knox, or Bennett, but they all do the exact same thing. 

Give Khalil Bell more carries to see if he should be considered for a roster spot next season.  Something isn’t right with Forte and it has been that way all season.  The o-line hasn’t been good, but neither has Forte so why not give some of those carries to someone else.

Jarron Gilbert anyone?  We passed on Masaquoi (doing pretty damn good for the Browns) for a chance to watch a cool video.  I thought this guy was supposed to be an amazing athlete.  Surely he would be able to make at least one play that shows it even if his talent is extremely raw.  We also got rid of another 2ndround pick for Gaines Adams.  What exactly are Brown and Ogunleye doing that he can’t?  If he can’t do more than they are doing it will go down as another complete waste of a draft pick by Jerry Angelo.

I’m so tired of the coach speak that Lovie gives.  A real winner understands that sometimes you have to concede the battle in order to win the war.  The battle that is the 2009 season isn’t going to end positively no matter how badly the Bears want it to.  After the trip to the Super Bowl, Lovie Smith asked us to all trust him when he let Ron Rivera go.  I would love to hear Lovie explain to me what he has done that has proven we should trust him to run this team for one minute longer.

On the eve of Ben Gordon’s return to the United Center, I found it an appropriate time to think about the Bulls decision to let him go.  The Bulls decided that Gordon’s game just wasn’t worth 5 years and 58 million dollars.  He was certainly a great offensive player at times, but the Bulls essentially admitted that they felt he didn’t have a complete game.

So far this season, Gordon is averaging just under 20 points per game and the John Salmons is just over 14 points per game.  However, Luol Deng has averaged just over 18 points per game which is 3 points above his career average.  As has been the case with Gordon’s career, he doesn’t bring much to the table other than scoring.  Deng is nearly averaging a double-double and Salmons has played pretty good defense against some of the leagues better guards.

Coach Vinny Del Negro made the decision that the Bulls needed to focus on defense this season and they are in the top half of the league in points allowed per game and also opponents field goal percentage.  They started the season playing extremely good defense, but the numbers fell somewhat during the circus trip.  The injuries to Tyrus Thomas and Kirk Hinrich certainly didn’t help in stopping opposing offenses.

While the Bulls have shown that they can be a competitive team in the East this season, they are not going to get to the next level without adding another player.  Letting Ben Gordon go was more about next offseason than it was about this season.  If the Bulls can land a marquee free agent next summer letting Ben Gordon go will prove to be a great decision.  If they can’t land anyone letting him go might not really play a significant role because I don’t think they would have contended for a championship either way.

Ben was always a hard worker and by all accounts he was a good guy, but he left for the money.  It would have been one thing to go to then Western Conference, but going to the Pistons isn’t something most Bulls fans will like.  Ben is going to hear plenty of boos tomorrow night and he probably deserves them.

It is time for the McCaskey family to show the Bears fans that they care about winning.  I personally am not buying anything that gives them money until I see that they care.  No t-shirts, hats, sweatshirts, or jerseys.  No tickets, beer, brats, or parking.  This family has taken advantage of Chicago fans for too damn long and it is time for a change. 

Bears fans are too loyal for their own good.  Too many people are paying the crazy fees for PSL’s and season tickets.  Parking prices at Soldier Field are outrageous yet the tailgating scene is always packed.  Bears fans are among the best in all of sports because they love the team no matter what, but at some point the owners must put a decent product on the field for the price they are charging.

A soccer team in the English Premier League gave money back to it’s fans because of an embarrassing loss.  Could you ever imagine hearing that the McCaskey family or the Bears players decided the fans gave up too much money to watch the team get destroyed by Cardinals at Soldier Field?  Not a chance in hell.  The McCaskeys didn’t even address how awful the performance was.

Come to think of it the McCaskey family never says anything.  They sit in their box and count the money that’s coming in.  If they really cared about winning they would say something.  They would do something, anything.  I’m not saying they need to fire someone if they don’t think it’s the right thing to do, but if they think Angelo and Smith are the right guys to get things turned around they should tell the public that.  Tell the fans that pay a lot of money to watch garbage that you have faith in the men you hired.

Honestly, I can go on forever about how bad Lovie Smith and Jerry Angelo have done.  Smith is supposed to be a defensive coach and the Bears just had their worst defensive effort since 1982.  This comes after he took over defensive play calling because his best friend that he gave a job to sucked.  Angelo wouldn’t know how to utilize the first and second round draft picks if he had them in April.  

• Michael Haynes
• Cedric Benson
• Dusty Dvoracek
• Dan Bazuin
• Garrett Wolfe
• Michael Okwo
• Craig Steltz
• Jarron Gilbert
• Juaquin Iglesias

At this point I have no idea if Rex Grossman was actually a bad draft pick.  That should speak volumes about how bad this coaching staff is.  A 25 year-old pro-bowl quarterback just came to town and looks completely lost and doesn’t look anything like a player that was worth two first round picks and a starting caliber QB.  The thing is you can’t just say the QB is like Jeff George because he has already played great in this league. 

What the hell is this coaching staff doing that has made so many players completely fail?  What the hell is the general manager doing just wasting high draft picks on players that have done nothing in their careers?  It’s not like the Bears have missed on only a few draft picks so I don’t wanna hear about Lance Briggs and Peanut Tillman as Jerry Angelo gems.  What the hell are the McCaskeys doing raising ticket prices? 

Other Bear fans need to take a stand.  This garbage on the field just isn’t gonna cut it.  How about firing Jerry Angelo now to tell Bears fans you care about winning?  I can understand not wanting to remove the head coach/defensive coordinator mid season, but Angelo can be let go now in order to bring in a new GM now to evaluate the current roster. 

I love the Bears, but I just cannot give any more money to a group of penny pinchers that don’t care about the fans.  I hope other Bears fans are willing to make a stand because with these owners, the only way a better product will be put on the field is if they feel they will lose money if they give the fans a loser.

After an embarrassing finish to the season, most everyone is confident that Charlie Weis is done.  I don’t need to talk about how poor he was as a coach or try to justify why he should be let go.  Anyone that thinks he should still be the coach isn’t paying attention to what is going on.

The real question that needs to be answered is, who does AD Jack Swarbrick have on his short list?  We’ve all heard some of the names.  Urban Meyer, Bob Stoops, Brian Kelly, and Kirk Ferentz to name a few.  They all have some positives and negatives about them, but the idea of a new regime certainly raises optimism, but Swarbrick could easily make a mistake that will once again set the Fighting Irish back. 

First, Urban Meyer isn’t coming to South Bend, so please stop talking about it.  Honestly, I don’t even know if I want a coach who suspends a player for half a game for trying to blind an opponent.  Meyer is a quality coach and seems to understand that college football is as much or more about the players you have than the schemes you run.    He has already admitted that he plans on staying with the Gators as long as they will have him, so Notre Dame should focus on getting a head coach that wants to be only in South Bend.

The Tribune had an article about going after Bob Stoops and I think it would be a nice match.  I think the Irish need to bring in a coach who has shown he knows how to win at the college level and it seems as if Stoops might be looking for a new challenge.  I would like a coach who has shown an ability to recruit blue chip prospects already.  Another thing that I really like about Stoops is that he has shown a tendency to alter his schemes based on his current talent.  Last season, they were a pass happy spread offense.  Sam Bradford lit up the Big 12 every week.  When they had Peterson, they ran a pro style offense.  Stoops has sent many players on to have successful NFL careers.  Based on his success running a major college program and the fact that Meyer isn’t interested, Stoops should definitely be very high on the list of potential new coaches.

After Meyer and Stoops come some hot coaches that are expected to be big things elsewhere.  Brian Kelly is a perfect example of this.  He has seen great success everywhere he has coached, but he hasn’t really ever been anywhere near a big-time program.  What he has done at Cincinnati has been impressive, but it would be a monumental leap to go from a small program in the Big East to a nationally renown program like Notre Dame.  Another concern I would have is that the success of the spread offense is sure to be challenged in the future and I would like to see a coach that has proven he can win at a big level in different ways.  Don’t get me wrong I think Kelly could make a great coach, but Notre Dame cannot risk getting another person that doesn’t pan out.

Another intriguing name is  Kirk Ferentz.  He has been at Iowa now for 10 seasons and has done rather well in his time there.  Iowa does not usually draw the big name recruits, but Ferentz has managed to consistently produce a team that can win every single week against any opponent.  I like that he runs pro style schemes and he has experience in the NFL working with Bill Belichick.  Yes Charlie Weiss also worked with Belichick but he had no experience coaching a major college program and that is what really separates Ferentz from Weiss.  This would not be my favorite hire that Swarbrick could make, but I would have a difficult time getting upset over it.

The name that I wish I was hearing more of is Jim Harbaugh.  Yes, I know he is a Michigan man as so many people would like to say, but he is a very good head coach and has already shown he can get the most out of his talent.  Another thing to take note of with his Michigan history is that he called out his former school for lowering academic standards to get better football players.  This attitude is something that Notre Dame leaders would love.  It is possible to win with smart players, it just isn’t as easy.  If the Irish aren’t able to get Stoops to leave Oklahoma I would like to see them bring in Harbaugh over any of the other options. 

Notre Dame is once again at a crossroads.  Will they bring in a guy that will leave like Holtz or is another Charlie Weis in order?  Hopefully for all Irish fans, the athletic director makes the right choice this time around.

So I was watching the Bears terrible effort on Sunday afternoon and I finally joined the crowd that wants to see a new coaching staff.  I’ve always had problems with Ron Turner, but I have always given Lovie Smith the benifit of the doubt because in all his win-loss record here is pretty damn good.

Ron Turner sucks.  I don’t care if he hasn’t had much talent to work with in the past or not.  The guy doesn’t know how to utilize the talent he has around him and he fails to put his players in a position to succeed.  All you have to do is take a quick look at Kyle Orton and Cedric Benson to see that other coaches are getting more out of them than Turner did here.

I don’t think Benson or Orton are stars by any means, but it’s pretty clear that other coaching staffs are able to pinpoint player strengths and gameplan around those strengths much better than Ron Turner.  If the Bears really want to become a quality offense they need a coaching staff that will give them an advantage.

Lovie Smith has consistently made poor decision since leading the Bears to a NFC Championship.  His downfall started the day he let Ron Rivera go so he could promote his BFF Bob Babich.  The defense got significantly worse because of that decision. 

Now, Lovie is the man in charge of the defense and people will say that he has too much responsibility as an excuse for the poor defensive gameplanning.  Guess what people….Lovie got himself into that mess.  He could have fired his buddy Bob and brought in another coordinator, but he didn’t want to do that.  I was fine with that decision, but in making that choice, the poor defensive effort is a direct result of the work Lovie is doing.

The continued use of the Tampa-2 defense is a joke.  The Bears do not have the personel to be running this defense.  It’s a coaches job to utilize the players he is given.  If the players don’t fit the system then you adapt the system.  Lovie’s refusal to change strategy tells me he either doesn’t know how to coach any other defense or he doesn’t care about winning as much as he would like us to believe.

The most agonizing part of all this is that there is no chance there will be a coaching change this offseason.  Bears fans a drooling over names like Mike Shanahan and John Gruden, but there is no way we will a coach of that caliber on the sideline next season.  The McCaskey’s are CHEAP.  They would never give Lovie the 11 million dollars remaining on his contract to walk away.  They would never give Lovie his money and then pay top dollar to another coach to come in.  The McCaskey’s have no problem charging high ticket prices and insane parking fees.  They do not care about you and I.  They don’t care about winning.  At least not enough to put their money on the line to give the Bears and advantage over the competition.

The dissapointment that was the 2009 season has finally ended for the Chicago Cubs.  It’s time for change at Wrigley Field and hopefully Tom Ricketts will bring a new attitude that doesn’t accept failure.

It’s rather pathetic that people are applauding the current management regime because they have put together three above .500 seasons in a row.  When your average ticket price is the third highest in baseball and your budget matches that, playing barely above .500 baseball doesn’t qualify as a winning season.  The bottom line is that Jim Hendry has failed to put together a team that has done much of anything when it comes to winning.

When you are charging the fans a premium price for admission, it is only fair for them to expect a premium product to be delivered and clearly the fans have not gotten what they have paid for.  Instead, we hear more excuses and see other people take the fall.  Two batting coaches get fired in a matter of months?  Sorry, but that doesn’t cut it for me.  I would say that maybe a change at the manager position makes sense, except Jim Hendry has already been down that road only to see similar results.

The offseason has barely started and once again Jim Hendry is talking about making moves that are not in the best interest of the long term success for the organization.

Grabow top target: Of the Cubs’ main free agents, lefty reliever John Grabow is their No. 1 target to re-sign. If they’re able to keep Grabow, it’s unlikely Hendry will spend a whole lot more money on the bullpen, where youngsters such as Esmailin Caridad and Justin Berg will be given good chances to make the team out of spring training.

Free-agent starter Rich Harden will have to look elsewhere if he’s looking for a multiyear deal. The Cubs got 26 starts out of Harden, who has had a history of shoulder problems. It has not been decided whether the Cubs will offer Harden arbitration.

Reliever Kevin Gregg does not fit into the Cubs’ plans, and the Cubs will look at cost when determining whether they want outfielder Reed Johnson to return, given Johnson’s injury history and the presence of a fourth-outfielder type such as Sam Fuld on the roster.

Really, the number 1 priority is to resign a career mediocre relief pitcher?  How the hell has this guy kept a job so long and how do I get on that career ladder.  It’s not the fact that the Cubs want to resign Grabow.  Honestly I don’t really mind the guy, but it’s knowing that Hendry will give him a 2-3 year deal worth somewhere between 3.5-5 mil per year.

How about a simple plan.  Offer him arbitration and if he accepts he is on the team next year but you are only on the hook salary wise for one season.  If he declines and signs somewhere else you get two draft picks.  Of course Jim Hendry doesn’t understand how to make the system work for him and will instead get in a bidding war with himself and will overpay.

The fact that they don’t know if they are going to offer Rich Harden arbitration or not proves that this management group is completely lost.  Getting the two draft picks when someone else signs him after he would reject arbitration is how you rebuild the system.

Please Tom Ricketts, I am begging you on behalf of all Cubs fans.  Do not let Jim Hendry continue in the General Manager role.  He is not fit for the position and his near decade long run of the Cubs with a competitive advantage over the division hasn’t produced much to be proud of.

If the Cubs are going to start winning it must begin at the top which means a change is needed.

It’s finally going to happen.  After two and a half years Tom Ricketts is going to become the primary owner of the Chicago Cubs.  His first order of business was making a decision to retain Crane Kenney.  I don’t know that I like this move or not, but I don’t have a problem with it.

Sure people have some problems with Kenney being too visible when it comes to the clubhouse and his seating during games, but I personally don’t care about any of that as long as the players don’t make any complaints.  After reading an interview that Bleed Cubbie Blue had with Kenney, I am impressed with his willingness to part with some tradition if it means bringing a championship to the Cubs.  I think he is willing to consider out of the box ideas while trying to maintain the most important traditions, but he wants to win more than anything else.

It’s my hope that Tom Ricketts intends to create an organizational flow chart that will go in two distinct directions.  On one side of the organization, you will have an executive of business operations.  This would be Crane Kenney’s role.  He would be in charge of running the business side of everything Cubs.  The other side of the organization would be strictly baseball operations.  This is the side of the organization that would include scouting, player development, personnel decisions, etc. 

There has been speculation that Ricketts has already been in talks with Sandy Alderson about an executive level position with the Cubs.  I personally think he would be a fantastic choice to run the baseball operations side of the team because he has had experience winning with sabermetric and scouting principles. 

Steve Rosenbloom suggested that the Cubs should consider hiring Steve Stone as the team president.  This is one of the single dumbest moves that the Cubs could make.  Stone is a very good announcer who is respected for that, however, he is an arrogant man that is convinced he is right even when the numbers prove he is wrong.  Stone also suggested the Cubs should have traded Aramis Ramirez for Ceasar Izturis, which would have gone down as one of the worst trades in baseball history.  Rosenbloom jokes that maybe the Cubs will just hire Jim Belushi as team president, but the irony is I would rather have Belushi than Stone.

If Ricketts were to bring in Alderson, there is speculation that Alderson will want to bring in a Theo Epstein disciple to be the GM.  This is the exact route that the Cubs need to take.  The Boston Red Sox are the exact organization that the Cubs should emulate.  They are a big market team with a high payroll, but they spend wisely, draft well, and are great in player development.  I’ve written before that Ben Cherington needs to be the next GM of the Cubs and I still believe that he is the perfect man for the job.

Even if Ricketts makes the right decisions in every hire he makes, the 2010 Cubs will likely be just as poor as the 2009 Cubs.  Barring a few great trades or Ricketts signing off on an increase of salary that would allow the Cubs to eat some money and trade away contracts, this team will be the exact same for the most part.

The reason it is so important to make the moves now is so that the Cubs can begin the transformation process as quickly as possible.  It’s essential that the Cubs change how players are developed.  For the Cubs to become a team that can contend for a title year in and year out, they must become a more complete team from the top down.  Hopefully Tom Ricketts understands how important these changes can be and doesn’t wait to make them.

The Cubs are brutal.  They have been absolutely mediocre all season long.  This high salary team has not at any point this season looked like a team bound to a championship year.

This most recent West Coast trip was the final shot at redemption for the Cubs and they officially played like trash.  The team can’t hit, can’t field consistently, and cannot pitch when it matters.  The evaluations for next season should already be taking place and Tom Ricketts should be planning his new management group.

This is Hendry’s mess and the payroll already has over 120 million next year and nearly 100 million in 2011.  What kinda changes can be made to a team that is getting worse but already committed that much money to the players getting worse?  First move for Ricketts is to get a new man to run the show.  It doesn’t really matter much who it is because for the next two seasons it is just going to be about cleaning the mess Hendry made.

The 2009 season is over for all intents and purposes.  The 2009 Cubs was a team that was greatly overrated to start the season and did nothing all season long to prove that they can be better next season.  It’s time to start looking toward the future and with a new owner coming to town, one can only hope that means starting fresh in many other places as well.

If no changes are made, I feel pretty confident saying that the next couple of seasons don’t have a bright outlook either.  For all Cubs fans, I hope Tom Rickett’s isn’t ok with wasted spending and mediocrity.  If he demands winning and smart winning, the Cubs are due for some great changes.  In the meantime, it’s time to get out your signs.  Maybe Next Year.