We'll get back to the politics in a moment (my, isn't that Sarah Palin a great big b-word? Golly gee, you betcha.) but first we have to get some boring sports stuff out of the way.
How about them Illini? Obviously uninspired by the Chicago Cubs (a collection of overpaid phonies who clearly, as it turns out, do not give a damn about winning or about whose feelings they hurt when they roll over and quit in front of the entire nation) the boys from Champaign ventured north to Ann Arbor and hung a 45-20 number on the once-vaunted Michigan Wolverines right there in the fixer-upper they insist on calling "The Big House". I think "The Big House" used to be what they called New York's Sing-Sing prison, but if you think naming your home field for a correctional facility helps you recruit and what not, go for it, I say.
Having attended The Michigan State University (actually, we don't use the word "The" when talking about MSU like Ohio State does in identifying their school because we figure it's superfluous; that unlike Ohioans, we aren't worried that people in our state will confuse MSU with, say, the Detroit College of Taxidermy Arts and think the latter might be "the" State University of our state) my two favorite teams are, of course, Michigan State and whomever is playing Michigan, so bless you boys!
We cracked open the Official 2008 University of Michigan Football Media Guide (and for you Palin fans out there, if you want to start burning books, I'd like to suggest that the Official 2008 University of Michigan Football Media Guide would be a good place to start) and learnt (hey! "learnt" didn't light up the spell-check thingy but "thingy" did, go figure) that the 45 points scored by Illinois Saturday was the most ever scored by the Illini in a game against Michigan, breaking the record of 39 set in 1924. Nice.
Now, keep it going. It turns out that Illinois have defeated Michigan at Memorial Stadium exactly once (in 1983) since 1957. The Wolverines go there next year and all of us newly-minted Illini fans will be pulling for you.
Now, the Cubs. Watching them get rolled by the Dodgers recalled the performance of my Detroit Tigers in the 2006 World Series against the Cardinals. Detroit hit .199 in that Series and saw their run production drop from 5.07 runs a game in the regular season to 2.0 in the Series. Chicago scored 5.2 runs per game in the regular season and 2.0 in the series against the Dodgers. Gaack. In other words, I know exactly how Cubs fans feel today, and it ain't great.
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Thanks for that, Richard … it doesn’t entirely eliminate the sting of the Cubs’ collapse, but my Illini did us proud Saturday afternoon.
By the way, I was in Champaign-Urbana the weekend of that 1983 game in which Illinois beat Michigan to clinch a Rose Bowl berth. I had graduated the year before, but came back to visit my girlfriend at the time … we didn’t have tickets; but it was Halloween weekend and her birthday to boot. We watched the game on the TV and listened to the fireworks going off whenever the Illini scored … though it was, as I recall, a low-scoring game; something like 16-10? I know the good guys got a safety late in the game to put it away. In any event, it was a helluva party that weekend.
As for the Cubs, I can offer no greater analysis than what I said last week: That’s why they play the games. We’ll see if the White Sox can pull out another win to force a game 5 in Tampa. But I have to tell you, after watching Sox fans gloat last night over their one win (and the Cubs’ having gotten swept), it will take all my restraint to hold my tongue and root for the Sox for the duration. I’m not saying I want them to lose – I don’t – but I am saying this: No true Chicagoan roots against a Chicago team, whether it’s the Cubs or the White Sox. And as for those Sox fans who were gloating over the Cubs last night … I’ve got two words for ’em: DuPage Freakin’ County, awright? I’d guess maybe nine out of ten of ’em haven’t set foot inside Cook County – let alone the City of Chicago – for any reason other than to go to a Sox game for the past 30 years.
But I digress. I’m not expecting my Illini to make the Rose Bowl this year, but Saturday’s game sure gave me a jolt of confidence going forward …
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