ICB Sports Chicago

Inside Line interviews Graham Rahal

2009-02-13T17:04:00.003-06:00

Jeremy's Scott and Curtis interview Graham Rahal on Inside Line, ICB Sports premiere racing show that airs every Thursday night from 7 to 9 pm.
Listen to the Podcast HERE!

Chicago: A First Place Kind-of Town

2008-07-14T13:29:00.009-06:00

To start, i'm Greg Ratliff, co-host of the Coed Sports Show.

Right now, Chicago is enjoying some much awaited sucess from all over the Chicago area.

The Cubs are heading into the All-Star break 1st in the NL Central with a 57-38 record, including going 37-12 at home.

The White Sox are also leading the AL Central with a record of 54-40.

And, the Chicago Force women's football team has gone 10-0 this season, defeating the Detroit Demolition and the Pittsburgh Passion to advance to the IWFL Championship Game on July 26th. The Force will take on The Dallas Diamonds in the Force's first ever championship game appearance.

Overall, Chicago is enjoying some success now but the baseball season is only half over. Hopefully a subway series in October?

Till next time,

Greg Ratliff (coedsportsshow@yahoo.com)

ICB Sports Chicago blog 6/18: NBA Post Mortem

2008-06-24T16:11:00.001-06:00

After watching as much of the NBA Playoffs as I’ve watched in years, I’m left with a few questions, a few opinions and I’m as excited about the NBA as I’ve been since Jordan’s first retirement. It’s obvious the Pistons/ Spurs era is over, and not a moment too soon. I’m not saying those teams aren’t good, they’re very good, but that’s the problem, they’re too good at what they do and it’s just a visually unappealing style of basketball. First just some random thoughts, in my tribute to the old Larry King style, and then we’ll get to my observations:

. . . Tayshaun Prince is the most underrated player in the league. He’s maybe the best mid size defender I’ve seen since Scottie Pippen. Prince also has to be top 5 in most disturbing player to get a close up of in HD

. . . Speaking of Scottie Pippen and HD, I think we should all breath a collective sigh of relief that HD wasn’t around for the season Scottie shaved his head.

. . . What’s worse, Carmelo Anthony’s shot selection or Adam Sandler’s script selection? The answer, Mike Meyer’s script selection, by just a hair.

. . . When did Danny Ainge become “Super” Dave Osbourne?

. . . I would’ve loved to see what Rajon Rondo could’ve done if he was healthy in the Finals.

. . . when I watched Michael Jordan I saw a guy trying to dominate and be the best with a will to win unlike any I’ve ever seen before. When I watch Kobe Bryant I see a guy who is trying to be Michael Jordan.

The Goods- The emergence of exciting young Point Guard play. Utah and New Orleans played some of the most exciting basketball I’ve seen in a long time and I love the way Chris Paul and Darrin Williams run their teams. I especially like Utah’s passing in the paint, it almost looks like they’re making an extra one or two dumb passes for no reason, you cringe, throw your arms up and start to shout “What the hell . . .” and before you finish your thought, there’s a large, wide open white man throwing in an easy dunk or lay up.

The Eastern Conference finally developing some good young teams with exciting players to watch. Lebron is the best player in the league (I will not listen to any Kobe arguments after that Finals performance) and Dwight Howard is the scariest player in the league, assuming they stay in the East; they should have some classic playoffs battles down the road. Throw in Atlanta’s young nucleus and Chicago rebuilding again with either Rose or Beasley (please let it be Rose) and the Heat getting the other guy, that’s five teams that shouldn’t be going away soon.

The Bads- Defense in the West is non-existent. The Spurs are the only team in the West the least bit interested in stopping anyone but they’re too old and slow to actually execute. The Lakers lost the Finals in six games while giving allowing Rajon Rondo, Eddie House, Leon Powe and James Posey to take over quarters of games. I’ve never seen anything similar to Leon Powe scoring at will in game 2 with four Lakers just standing around and watching looking dejected as Powe drove to the hoop. IT’S LEON POWE?!? I’ve never seen a Championship caliber team allow a minimal role player to break their spirit before, it was really something to see.

ESPN’s coverage is just too nauseating for me to watch. From Kobe apologist blowholes like Steven A. Smith to ridiculous puff pieces (could I see Bill Russell talk to Kevin Garnett again?), they couldn’t insult the viewers’ intelligence any more . . . oh wait, they could, but Chris Berman only does Football. I accidentally watched the Sportscenter wrap up from the Garden this morning to see Stu Scott and his crew blame the Laker supporting cast, Laker coaching and praise the brilliant Doc Rivers (who was almost fired before the season) right before showing you an example of Celtic Championship merchandise you can buy at NBAstore.com. Can we go back to when they were an impartial news reporting network? Now they’re just glorified shills for whichever league is in season now.

Resurfacing allegations about widespread corruption regarding referees fixing games on orders from high ranking NBA officials in an effort to extend series for revenue or rig a more favorable matchup for promotional purposes. Believe disgraced ref Tim Donaughy or not, that is just not good press. Then right on the heels of that story, the NBA assigns Dick Bavetta, a central figure in the newest allegations, to officiate a crucial game 5 for the Lakers to send it back to Boston on Sunday. I can’t decide whether that decision was made of arrogance or just plain stupidity. Nothing fishy seemed to happen in game 5, but no one can deny some of the past shadiness, Lakers/ Suns, Lakers/ Kings, and I’ve always wondered about the Bulls/ Knicks foul at the end of the game to give the Knicks the series the year Jordan was retired/ unofficially suspended.

Uglies- Kobe Bryant’s reputation didn’t take as much of a beating after the Colorado hotel incident. Kobe went from MVP and proving he didn’t need Shaq to being the poster child for selfish, spoiled athletes. Much of the talk was fueled by a blog from Curt Schilling where he waxed poetic about his experience sitting courtside and trashed the way Kobe interacted with his teammates. Curt stated that from the first tip until 4 minute left Kobe spent every TO, every trip up the floor glaring at his teammates, yelling at them for mistakes, basically showing them up. Then at the four minute mark when they almost came back, Kobe then gave the, it’s time to get going message. I think Kobe is a major turd and deserves every bit of criticism for his behavior. From everything he does on the court to the way he tried to whine he way out of town before the season started, especially for leaking that video at the coffee shop where he trashed the team. It goes to my above statement where I feel his goal is to be Jordan. Take a look at an old interview from when he first came into the league; take a look at an interview now, his facial expressions, his speech patterns, he looks like he’s doing a Jordan impression. He even changed his number from 8 to 24, 24, the next number up from 23, it is so transparent and sad. Is Kobe trying to emulate the way Jordan was hard on his teammates? Is that why Kobe tried to get in a fight with Shaq, because a million years ago Jordan fought with Cartwright in a practice? Jordan also punched Paxson in practice, watch out Sasha. Was that all Kobe was doing in Colorado, following in Jordan’s philandering footsteps? However, to get back to my point, is Curt Schilling really the man to point this out? Schilling has often been accused of being as phony as a 3 dollar bill and his entire blog could be interpreted as a giant suck up to Boston fans and a giant PR ploy. Should Curt Schilling chastise an athlete for showing up his teammates? Let’s ask Mitch Williams, “I've always said, if there was a big game I had to win, I'd want him to pitch it. Then I'd want to punch him in the face when it was over.'' Apparently Mitch still feels a little shown up for the way Schilling spent the ’93 playoffs sitting in the dugout with his head down with a towel covering his eyes every time Mitch was on the mound. Sounds a lot like Curt was beloved by all his teammates and at least Mitch felt very encouraged and supported by Schilling’s sterling leadership.

So to sum up; Kobe is a turd, Schilling is a turd, ESPN is unwatchable and the NBA is as exciting as it has been in a long time. I’m actually looking forward to next season

Eric Kulaga (telleranderikshow@hotmail.com)

ICB Sports Chicago blog 6/3: Note to Cub Fans

2008-06-14T14:04:00.000-06:00

First let me introduce myself, I’m Eric, co-host of the Teller and Eric show on the ICB Sports Chicago web station, and we can be heard most Saturdays from 3-5 depending on live events. In case you have any obvious questions before I get to my first of what I hope is many thoughts on this page; The Bulls have to take Derek Rose, he instantly makes Deng, Gordon, Gooden and Noah dangerous, Beasley only makes himself dangerous, and if we’ve learned anything from the NBA playoffs this year it’s that a superstar point guard is a huge advantage in a point guard starved league. There are only a handful of true point guards in the league that see the floor and can set up teammates every time down the floor, Rose will be another one. Jim Edmonds is washed up, but it’s the type of signing that, if it works, is made by a World Series team, stop complaining about the fact he was a Cardinal or that he taunted “Mr. Sportsmanship” Carlos Zambrano one time 4 years ago, it means nothing to anyone, grow up. If he has a half dozen big plays, either offensively or defensively, it was worth it. And the reason Kenny Lofton is still a free agent is because he’s old and bad, yes, worse than Edmonds.

Anyway, I have something I need to get off my chest and on to my main topic. Consider this my note to Cub fans, or more accurately the people that go to Wrigley Field, as I have yet to see evidence that more than half the people in the stands even know there’s a game going on. A Chicago Tribune article on May 16^th made mention of the reappearance of the offensive Fukudome shirts that feature a slanty-eyed bear wearing coke bottle glasses with phrases poking fun at Asians’ command of the English language, at vendor stands outside Wrigley. The quote that stood out to me was from street vendor/ scumbag John Weier:

"My personal viewpoint is they're not blatantly racist," said John Weier, a vendor selling the "Horry Kow" T-shirts outside of the Cubby Bear Lounge at the corner of Addison and Clark Streets. "It's a novelty T-shirt. We're not trying to hurt or offend anyone."

Weier knows Fukudome does not like the T-shirts but said he has no qualms about selling them to fans, saying he was "trying to make a living."

Well, John, my personal viewpoint is that I haven’t seen such an offensively cartoonish Asian stereotype since Mickey Rooney played the upstairs neighbor in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (go to 2:15 of this clip for an example- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urQVzgEO_w8, and for the record, my wife made me watch it after the Dancing with the Stars and the American Idol finales). The movie was shot in 1961, three years before African Americans were given the right to vote, to give you an idea of how racially sensitive a time we are talking about.

My beef isn’t with John Weier, we know what he is, he’d sell a shirt with a cartoon big-lipped Derek Lee eating watermelons if he could make a buck . . . oops, I probably just gave him another idea. My beef is with anybody who would buy that shirt and wear it anywhere, let alone a Cub game. I’m all for goofy T-shirts, I have a squirrel holding a baseball bat shirt with the slogan “protect the nuts.” I have an “I’m F*cking Matt Damon” T-shirt after the hilarious Sarah Silverman music video birthday gift to boyfriend Jimmy Kimmel. I like whacky T-Shirts, but I’ve thought about it long and hard, and I have no idea why a fan of any team would wear a shirt that openly mocked arguably the team’s best all around player. Only two things can happen as a result of Cub fans popularizing such merchandise; 1- Fukudome doesn’t re-sign with the Cubs when his deal is up. Japanese players are not complainers, they don’t offer up their feelings on a daily basis about fans and the organization, that’s not the culture of the game they were brought up in. However, he’s already said the shirts bother him, you think he’s going to stay in a city that treats him with such disrespect? I wouldn’t. 2- Next time the Cubs go shopping on the Japanese free agent market, do you think a player would sign with a team whose fans treat another Japanese player with such disrespect? I wouldn’t. This of course comes on the heals of Marty Brenneman dubbing Cub fans “the most obnoxious in the National League,” after 20 balls came back on the field after a Red homer, while the Cubs had a good size lead.

The summer months are upon us, and garbage throwing frat boy D-Bags will be back at the first sign of a bad call by an ump. Maybe that’s why MLB scheduled 1/3 of the Cubs’ home games in the first couple months of the season, nothing is worse than going to a night game at Wrigley in July, drunken idiots everywhere, they hit the bars in the afternoon and don’t stop drinking until they pass out in a puddle of their own urine in somebody’s front yard. Wrigley Field in the summer is less a ballpark and more an open casting call for “A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila 3.” At some point in the 90s Wrigley became about the atmosphere and Sammy hitting HRs, instead of the baseball, probably because the baseball was bad, but that has led to this. It’s become an interactive show, like “Tony and Tina’s wedding,” the fans think they are part of the show, taunting the opposing players, painting their bare chests, throwing garbage to help the manager argue a bad call, and now honoring the Japanese by wearing head bands and insensitive shirts. Wrigley attendees, Marty Brenneman was right, you are annoying, you are obnoxious, and everyone around the league thinks you’re giant ass-clowns. The ball is in your hands, but whatever you do, please, don’t everyone throw them back at the same time.

Eric Kulaga

telleranderikshow@hotmail.com

Agree to Disagree: The Essence of Sportstalk

2008-05-13T10:56:00.002-06:00

Listen to a lovely edit of one of our typical sports programs featuring the Teller and Eric Show 3 to 5 pm on Saturdays at ICBSPORTSCHICAGO! LISTEN HERE!

Is the National League Central Rising?

2008-04-26T12:05:00.011-06:00

Questions could be raised that the National League Central is starting to pick up the pace in being a strong division in baseball while other questions say otherwise. Sure you could say that the Cubs are one of the better teams in baseball and are off to a hot start. The Brewers have emerged onto the scene as a contender in the National League as well. Houston made some off season moves and are starting to glue the pieces together with the additions of Tejada, Matsui, Bourn, and Valverde. Then you have St. Louis who has gotten of to a great start and have some good young players and they are lead by "El Hombre" Albert Pujols. The Reds and the Pirates look to be at the bottom of the division again, but both teams have improved this year as well. The Reds made some off season moves, one of which was signing former Cubs Skipper Dusty Baker. Baker has some good talent on that team lead by future Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. They picked up Cordero to be the closer and shortstop Jeff Kepinger has started the year off hot and has been a good starter in place of the injured Alex Gonzalaz. The Pirates have some guys that have had monster starts. Nady, McLouth, and Doumit are all batting well over .300 but their pitching is mediocre at best and their bullpen gets ruffed up as well.
Look for the Cubs to take this division. The Cubs have it all. They have depth, they are fast, they can hit, they can pitch, and they can just play some great baseball when all cylinders are running. The Brewers could make a run like last year and they have a lot of great talent on that team, but I think the Cubs have the edge on them when it comes to overall talent.
This blog is not about me praising the National Central and saying its the best division in baseball, because its not! But I think that in the next few years the N.L. Central will be among the top tier divisions in baseball.

By John Popovich: