Here it is, Thursday already. First TH in March. Dang, this year's flying by.

Haven't a clue what to post in my journal, so...fallback. Sports.

Cubs. Seven starters for 5 rotation spots. Three candidates for closers. Rookies or second year players at 4 rather key positions (CF, SS, C, and RF) Plenty of arms for the bottom of said rotation. Maybe not enough for the top of the rotation. 100 years this year. George Castle published a book called THE MILLION TO ONE TEAM where some Las Vegas oddsmaker tried to figure out the odds that a team wouldn't win a World Series in (then) about 95 years, and hadn't BEEN THERE in (then) about 50 years. (As Steve Goodman said, the last time the Cubs were in the World Series was "the year we dropped the bomb on Japan.") He figured out that said odds were astronomical. Gonna break the cycle this year? As a Cubs fan I sure hope so...but I can't say I'm really confident of it. They should win the NL Central, but since that's the weakest division in baseball, I don't know how far that gets them...

Bulls. A huge disappointment from a team that won their first round playoff matchup last year and did respectable against their second round foe. Too many players looking for individual statistics, I think. Not enough team play. Not enough attention to defense. No low post scorer (though maybe that's a little better with the trade that brought Drew Gooden from Cleveland). Poorly thought out rotations (in my opinion). Overall a strangely constructed team who overachieved last year and whose weaknesses have been totally exposed this year...

Black Hawks. They look to be a pretty good young team this year. Kane and Toews look like talented kids. I wish I cared more. Years of no TV exposure due to their owner's (Arthur Wirtz? I know it was a Wirtz but I'm not sure of the first name) philosophy of not "giving away" the product on free TV. The only problem was that he lost the old fans and didn't create any new fans.

Loyola Ramblers. Won their first round Horizon League playoff game. They match up against University of Illinois Chicago on Friday. I don't expect much. They haven't been good this year. I haven't caught any games on TV (if any have even been ON), so I don't know what to think about their play. But in the playoffs, anything can happen. An NCAA berth would be tremendous!!!

White Sox. I'm not a big fan, but I follow them casually. They look to have a good starting lineup with few questions, and the makings of a good bullpen, but there are question marks in their rotation. Buehrle and Vasquez are good. Contreras - who knows what to expect? Danks and Floyd? Effectively rookies still, even though Danks pitched most of last year in the big league rotation. And not a whole lot of veteran presence waiting in the wings. Still, I hope for the best for them. My dream would be a Cubs/White Sox World Series, with the Cubs coming out on top of course.

Oh, well...there is plenty of time left to complain about the state of sports in Chicago...