Big game. Chicago is at home. It is snowing. The home club is bigger than the visitors and faster. The hard hitting. The crashing at the sidelines for a tackle. Short yardage. Make a run around end. Driven backwards or fall forward. The line to gain. Coaches frantic how to move the ball. Full back lead the ball carrier. Defender fill the gap and stop forward movement. As the clock countdown. No footing in the sludge and snow as the temperature drop. The passes are overthrown. Or to the wrong uniform.  

Again with the snow flurries. Dirty uniforms. He’d caught everything thrown in his direction but cannot break away from the tackle. The shouting of the crowd. The bands. The rival back and forth between the two towns. So is chatter in the media. Always snowing and cold. Between the lines and the best minds cannot crack the goal. The season culminate in Chicago. Throw the records out but the bottom line.

It get darker long as this go on. The heralded arm of their slingers. He run up and out and stretch out for the ball to end it as he dreamed it. They call it “the game.” My Jersey in a trophy case. Among the greatest that did it. It was me just past my fingertips. Slow motion, once again. Shake hands frozen at the end. Wrapped in bandages. The better one this game.  

In a room full of reporters and questions pointed at the man behind the microphone. Without a cap but the rest of the uniform. The white baseball jersey with blue writing saying “Sharks.” He is excited to talk about the game just finished against the Eagles. It is the third of the three game series. The final score: Sharks 10 and Eagles:0. The sharks scored in every inning except in the first inning. Their biggest inning four runs in the fourth inning. Twenty one hits in six innings. The eagles no runs three hits and one error.

Royce had four hits out of five at bats. Tristan 3 hits out of five at bats. Clark three out of four at bats. Hertzler four out of four. Royce, Jett and Hayes a homerun a piece. It means we’re sixteen wins and sixteen more games to go. Ranked number one of eight. If we’re in that position at the end of the season it’s straight to the championship round.

“I’m impressed with the way we’re playing going into the All-Star Break. The next sixteen games are going to be even harder as everyone will be making a push for the playoffs.”

“Last year you lost in the playoffs as manager of these very same Eagles and were fired even though you won a championship the season before. Does that weigh on your mind and did it have anything to do with the output of today’s game?”  

"Every day I go out to win every game. I don’t bide tied games or like to lose. Coming here and the way things have played out so far I’m sure I’m going to have all the time to win or lose.” The man is 47 years old. Years of baseball knowledge more managing than playing. He exude a confidence and a wisdom with a height. An intimacy with the microphone. It is the fielding and pitching that keep them in the game and a fine minor league. Expect that they will win for a very long time.  

“Man it makes me so happy just knowing my career isn’t going down the drain.” Former Montrose Club star Smith on his time with the Farragut City. More beneficial than his time in Montrose. In the National Soccer/Football League. If Montrose had given him the money he wanted to be the highest paid Striker in the league. Truly after his departure the Montrose Club fell apart with no one near his talent to match. There have been a number of notable departures from Montrose acquired by draft or trade. And the thousand yard stare as losses have piled up since then. Constant change in front office administration. And constant turnover of the roster. Since the end of ----‘s time as Manager of the Montrose Club is a mess. Up and down through the seventies. However he was the last Manager to get them to the League Championship in 1980. Even then it was a near disaster. Plenty of talent and ego. It’s hard to watch one of your star players walk or traded when it took genius to get him there out of University. And soon after the National Team. It is hard enough to keep stars in country. Watching them dominate when they go to other Caribbean clubs. The last few years the University at Yves has been the best place to find strikers. Like Floyd who won a league championship with Belle Plaine. Before moving onto Sao Paulo. His departure many say caused an early departure for Montrose City in the Caribbean Championships in ’91 and then he was gone. Smith said it was bittersweet leaving Montrose but seeing the level of talent on the Farragut Club he couldn’t help himself but be excited. He sees a league championship and a chance to go deep into the Caribbean tournament, if not win it. Montrose has been known for greats at all positions and there are a few who wouldn’t share Smiths sentiment including the recent deceased Butler who was a great in his own time. And a moment of silence before the latest unlikely victory over Providence City whose Manager got his back up over his clubs performance on the pitch in Prime time. The first win of the season after a number of lost matches.  

 Bring back David Ross. It's never good to do something just to do something. With Ross we might struggle but wouldn't look so bad doing it. The grim reaper come to the Cubs and have sucked the life out of them. Close to making the playoffs in '23 we could only improve with Bellinger back in the fold. Counsell accomplished nothing in Milwaukee and he's brought the failures to to Chicago. There is no hope or life around this team. Injuries have played a role but that's everyone's problem in sports. The nature of sports but when the team you leave gets better without you there's always the Cubs to save your ass. 

 So what were we supposed to expect from Craig Counsell? David Ross a world series winner with the Cubs in 2016 and manager after Joe Maddon I say we would be in a better position right now. Counsell signing the highest contract for a manager gives me the vibes of what he was in Milwaukee, he's alright. There is no way Ross would have let then bullpen no matter how bad it is give up nine runs to lose a game 9-8 when you're up 8-0. While I was surprised how well we did against the Dodgers there's always trouble waiting when we go out west to face them. They're even having trouble with the Padres the team the Cubs gave up the runs to, in a series we should have won. And of course Milwaukee is still ahead of us. I was never really overwhelmed about the signing. Truly Counsell looks weird in a Cub uniform. But mark my words and I don't like to be the wet blanket if the Cubs fall short of the playoffs or get knocked out early like the Ross years we're going to be wondering what was the point. 

 It was going to happen and it happened. I am furious. The Bears giving the reins at QB to a kid with a bunch of ballers and vets around him he better have his shit together otherwise we'll be moving on from him. A kid who it has been said isn't even the best athlete in the draft somehow ends up at #1. The Bears have to draft him. And Just Fields handled it like he should thanking Chicago for the opportunity. If I was him with a Wikipedia page I would leave that period of my life blank. Chicago gave him nothing but a check. They didn't know how to handle him and he will go on to have a great career because he is the ultimate professional with all the talent in the world. Stupid me I figured there would be some way to hold onto both players but as they say it is a business. When this team starts to struggle and all the fantastic moves made in free agency and the draft is going to be worthless if this kid cannot beat Green Bay.  

Word in Chicago: Cody Bellinger is coming back on a 3 year deal with incentives in the contract that if he wants to leave he can walk away at anytime in the three years. I'm sorry anything good he has to say about the City of Chicago and wanting to be here to me is hollow otherwise you would have signed a long time ago before spring training games had started. You're going to have to prove you want to be here in Chicago besides any sort of payday. Most people want to win and show what they can do over a period of time. At their peak. I don't understand how after one good year and two bad ones before that you could say you deserve a max contract. And if the Cubs had made the playoffs and lost in the first game for us in Chicago we can say he got us further than the year or years before and deserve a large contract but not the amount of years or money he was looking for. But Cody is back and let's see if he's even worth the contract the Cubs just gave him.

The Bears: Go ahead and do what you're going to do anyways: draft a quarterback namely Caleb Williams and get rid of Justin Fields. Let's see if this is going to go down the path that other regimes have gone. How many quarterbacks we can ruin. We ruined Justin Fields and are looking to get rid of him after firing nearly your entire offensive staff. To do what exactly? Have Justin or whoever swallow a new play book and see where that gets us with the bare minimum of talent around him. No quality running back. One top notch receiver and and a pretty good tight end. The offensive line is trash. The defense is coming along but we don't know if the head coach is going to be around next year so if the Bears do draft  Caleb Williams he's going to be in the same position as Justin Fields. I honestly believe Caleb Williams is not the best quarterback in the draft and I don't want to be here again looking for another quarterback like the Carolina Panthers. 

Another thing that bothers me is the front office not just being straight up with Fields the last two years whether or he was going to be replaced. I say let the man know right away what the reality is which is he could be traded no matter how much he wants to be in Chicago. I do not believe Caleb Williams is the best qb in the draft which is why I say keep Fields. Last year I said no matter what they do with the qb position they're going to have to put people around him in order to succeed. And they did not do that last year and here we are again with the same conundrum. Bears gm's and coaches should never unpack their suitcases because the Bears will not hesitate to ride you out on the rails. I say Ran Poles and Eberflus is tied to each other at this point because of the situation being the same as last year and it was not Poles who put the Bears in a position to win. It was Eberflus who took over the defense after his coordinator suddenly resigned. Though Poles didn't hire Eberflus he's tied with him as far as success. If you ask me if anyone should go it would be Poles because he flat out doesn't know what he's doing. I've said every regime wants their own players so I say go ahead and draft Caleb Williams. Do what you think is best but the clock is ticking.