Posts from the Chicago Category at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups.

Chicago Cubs (52-35) at St. Louis Cardinals (49-39) - 3:55 PM ET

It's sad to see a friendship go south as apparently the one between Tony La Russa and Jim Edmonds has now that Edmonds is with the Cubs and La Russa is playing ultra-sensitive. But in reality, La Russa and Edmonds are mere players in the larger war that is Cubs vs. Cardinals, with first place on the line and growing ever so further away from the Cardinals. Today, Kyle Lohse is going to have to continue his 2008 magic (remember when nobody wanted Lohse? Yeah, well now he's 10-2) against Ted Lilly.

You might have noticed that tonight marked the first time since Jim Edmonds became a Cub that he played in St. Louis wearing blue and red. So Edmonds received the inevitable questions about coming back to St. Louis. What followed? War!

Miffed by Jim Edmonds' comments that he was happy to be with the Cubs and tired of talking about his past, La Russa said Friday he'd ignore the four-time All-Star in his first visit as a member of the team's biggest rival.

"I wouldn't clap or boo or anything," La Russa said before a three-game series matching the NL Central's top two teams. "He wants to put his Cardinal days behind him, so I think you've got to respect that, and just ignore him."

You're kidding me, right? Tony La Russa is getting huffy?

Edmonds said La Russa, his manager for the best eight seasons of his career, would do so at his peril. The two have always had a good relationship.

"If he ignores me, I'm going to punch him in the mouth," Edmonds joked. "I think he's trying to stir it up. He gets a little excited about this rivalry."

I think we have enough to promote "FanHouse Baseball Wrestlemania" here. Edmonds vs. La Russa can be the undercard to Chacon vs. Wade and Reyes vs. Hernandez. We need a women's match though ... ooh! Cynthia Rodriguez vs. Madonna! Quick, get Eric Bischoff on the phone.

For a good part of this season, hearing people talk about the Cubs winning the National League Central is like hearing them talk about whether the sun will come up in the east. It's strange because there are two teams (Cardinals and Brewers) within five games of the Cubbies on the Fourth of July. The Cubs are good, but this thing isn't over by a long shot.

Right now, the Cubs are in a bit of a slide with seven losses in the ten games since their sweep of the White Sox. That makes tonight's return of Carlos Zambrano particularly timely. The Big Z hasn't pitched since June 18th due to shoulder problems. The Cubs have held their ground without him, but the Brewers are charging hard and the Cardinals don't seem to be going away.

If Zambrano's healthy, this is the perfect series for him to be back in because the Cubs are playing the Cards and have a chance to create some space in the division. Now that we're in the second half of the season, series like these start to matter just a little bit more.

Barack Obama made a campaign stop in Fargo on Thursday, and the focus of his speech was military veterans benefits. But on Sundays in the fall, Fargo becomes Minnesota Vikings country, so Obama also took a brief moment to talk a little smack to the many Vikings fans in attendance.

"You guys need to be re-educated," the Minneapolis Star Tribune quotes the Illinois senator and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee saying. "Go Bears!"

Obama did find one Chicago fan in the audience, an 11-year-old boy wearing a Bears hat. Obama asked him what he'll be doing this summer, and the boy said he'll play golf and football. Obama responded, "I wish I was doing that for the summer."

That's what Hillary Clinton wishes Obama was doing this summer, too.

Via Sports by Brooks.

As the first overall draft pick, Derrick Rose has some big shoes to fill. Somewhat amazingly, he's already topped LeBron James in at least one category ... albeit an embarrassing one. In December, James was ticketed for driving 101 mph in a 65 mph zone, but Rose beat that indiscretion easily, getting caught going 106 in a 65 back in late April.

Wait, this happened back in April? Why are we just now finding out about this? That's a great question -- in the hype machine that is pre-draft coverage, it's actually quite amazing that Rose's camp was able to keep this under wraps. The only reason we found out about it is because Rose's attorney spoke with the media on Tuesday, admitting that his client will have a court appearance later this month.

At least Rose isn't following completely in LeBron's footsteps. In his first comments after the news broke about his ticket, LeBron admitted that it probably wouldn't stop him from speeding in the future, saying it's "not a big deal to me." Rose, on the other hand, showed far more poise by saying, "I know I did something dumb. I made a big mistake. I'm very sorry, and I can only promise that it will never happen again."

While the Twins and Tigers are busy throwing fastballs at each other's heads this week, the White Sox are taking advantage of it by beating up on the lowly Cleveland Indians, and adding some cushion to their division lead in the AL Central. Still, even though the Sox have won six in a row, have the best ERA in baseball, and have crushed an American League-best 113 home runs, the team still has holes.

Considering that they're relying on two young pitchers without proven track records over an entire season in Gavin Floyd and John Danks, there's some speculation that Kenny Williams could be in the market for another starting pitcher. There's also the fact that the offense is too reliant on those home runs they hit, and could use some more speed on the basepaths.

None of this bothers Ozzie Guillen though, as he's perfectly content with taking his chances with his current roster.

"You have to crawl before you start running," Guillen said Tuesday while being careful not to declare the Sox a playoff-bound team. "This ballclub [can] compete and be in the playoffs, be alive in the pennant race. And if we get to the playoffs, I don't mind taking this ballclub to the World Series."

Crystal Palace supporters still suffering from the loss of that Premier League promotion playoff last May might be taking a little solace in their American counterparts today.

USL Second Division side Crystal Palace Baltimore upset an uninspired New York Red Bulls side, 2-0, last night in the third round of the U.S. Open Cup. The win prompted many sports fans in Baltimore to say, "Wait, we have a soccer team here?"

Indeed, the club was founded in 2006, 101 years after Crystal Palace FC was founded in London, and it serves as a player development wing for the Coca-Cola Championship club. Clearly, player development is going pretty well there, though as Ives Galarcep notes, too many Red Bulls just didn't come to play last night.

Two other USL clubs pulled off upsets, as USL-1 leaders the Charleston Battery defeated MLS Cup holders the Houston Dynamo on penalty kicks, while the Seattle Sounders topped Chivas USA, 2-0. Other USL clubs didn't get away so easily. The Kansas City Wizards came back from a 2-0 deficit to topple the Carolina Railhawks, 4-2, in extra time, and FC Dallas scored a 2-1 comeback win against Miami FC. D.C. United, the Chicago Fire and the New England Revolution also cruised to victory over USL clubs.

The U.S. Open Cup quarterfinals are scheduled for next Tuesday.

Apparently, Blackhawks' GM Dale Tallon woke up this morning and swore to himself that he wouldn't go to bed tonight without a salary cap situation on his hands. After inking Cristobal Huet to a $5 million cap hit earlier today, he went ahead and picked up the most sought after defenseman on the market today by inking Brian Campbell. Campbell didn't come cheaply though, as it's going to take an eight-year deal worth a whopping $7.1 million per season to get him into black and red next year.

Campbell's a great pickup for the 'Hawks and he's a great offensive player and point man, but $7.1 million a year for a guy that's a bit of a defensive liability is a real indication of just how wild the market is running today. Plus, Campbell's already 29, so he'll be 37 at the end of this deal. The Blackhawks are getting a great player, but they're getting him at a high cost.

The other thing worth noting is that Chicago is now over the cap after the additions of Huet and Campbell. They're going to have to dump someone soon, and best bets are probably Nikolai Khabibulin. I don't know who's going to want a goalie with Khabibulin's price tag that plays like he has recently, but if Tallon can convince people that Havlat is healthy, he might make a nice consolation prize to whoever loses the Marian Hossa derby.

Back in May, it looked like plans to bring the NHL Winter Classic to New York's Yankee Stadium were in jeopardy thanks to some infrastructure problems.

Then, last month, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that the league was all but ready to announce that the game would be coming to Wrigley Field in 2009.

Now the story has taken yet another turn. As reported by Rob Yunich at Random Reality Thoughts, NHL Vice President Bill Daly, appearing on XM Radio's Hockey This Morning, said that it was "safe to assume" that the league would be making an announcement about the Winter Classic being held at either Yankee Stadium or Wrigley Field.

Huh?

Looks like somebody threw a wrench in the works, eh?

At this point, I guess it's "safe to assume" that the two cities are now in the midst of a competition between one another for a chance to host the game. When you think about it, it's a heck of a turnaround for the NHL -- just three years ago the league was heading out of a devestating lockout, and now two of America's biggest cities are competing for the right to host an outdoor hockey game being held on New Year's Day?

Whatever else you want to complain about these days when it comes to the NHL, the Winter Classic isn't one of the things you'd want to carp about.

While Cubs manager Lou Piniella isn't as fiery as he used to be (he's been ejected from a game 61 times), he still will get tossed from a ball game from time to time. Of course, ever since Lou came to Chicago, he's lived up to his nickname as he's only been ejected from a game twice. The first time came back on June 2nd, 2007 when Sweet Lou gave us a classic performance that resulted in getting himself suspended for four games.

It also happened to coincide with the Cubs turning their season around, as they went 35-18 over their next 53 games to dig out of an early season rut (they were 22-31 before the ejection) and went on to win the division. Lou's second ejection came this past Sunday, and it also comes at a time when the Cubs are struggling, as they've lost four in a row for the first time all season.

Though if the Cubs win 10 of their next 11, Lou's performance probably shouldn't get the credit, as he never intended to put one on. No, according to Lou, he was ambushed as he went out to argue a checked swing by Joe Crede.

"I was talking to the first-base umpire about the checked swing, and I got ambushed from behind," Piniella said. "Well, then I got my money's worth ... I think. Probably not."