as a chicago 'burbs ex-pat in iowa the past few years, i've been blessed with the opportunity to follow 'my' teams - the 'cats, the cubs, the bulls, and, to an extent, the white sox - through the magic of television. i'm in a pretty strong big ten area, which means that the full college football package is carried locally. the big ten hoops package picks up every iowa and illinois game, and sporadic 'other' games during the weekend. this coverage has forced me to sometimes resort to the radio (wgn gets here pretty darn strong) or to watching the big'uns at the only local bar with legit satellite television (i.e. they brought in fox sports west last year to pick up 'cats-arizona state...'the hand of otto graham!')

i was able to get about 140 cubs games (when i was around) a season, 130 white sox games, and about 70 bulls games, through the magic of both wgn superstation and fox sports chicago. of these, the most important are the bulls, who carry me through the long winter (at least during november and december, before i've given up). thanks to some corporate consolidation or whatever, the dream is over. the cubs, sox and bulls have been moved to something called comcast sports net, which isn't carried on my mediacom television package (duh). this means that the bulls are playing game three of the season right now, and i've not seen a single play yet. that hurts, in a way.

of course, that'll hurt even more come the spring, when even a satellite and mlb extra innings package won't do the trick. dig this: in the state of iowa, the cubs, white sox, cardinals, twins, brewers and royals are all completely blacked out. of those, only the first three (and the cardinals only on weekends) are ever on tv locally.

i also feel for the boy, who no doubt is going through withdrawal in south bend as well.

weekend plans: friday morning from the 'port to glenview. friday early afternoon from the 'port to the gurs pad. kill time. friday early-evening, through the traffic, to ann arbor. saturday at the nemo pad/the big house/sake bomb depot/the nemo pad. sunday back to chi-town area. i'm taking the entire week off of work, although there's nothing actually planned. i'll probably try to hook up with high school buds on monday or tuesday night. wednesday will involve the pixies (and urge overkill!). thursday could mark my return to the qca. i'm hoping that trips to mississippi or missouri or new york could spontaneously be planned, but i'll need to get my hair cut for those.

regarding hair, i don't think i've gotten it cut since mid-august. the back is long to the point of being trashy when i've got a hat on, but the top is hanging in there when i'm at work. most importantly, when wearing a hat, my sides are developing 'wings' unseen on this head in at least four years. we'll see if i can ride this out through christmas. it's holding pretty strong.

breaking news: the november 20th cats-illini game has been deemed more interesting that the indiana-purdue battle. the cats'll be on espn-plus. you'd've gotten pretty good odds betting on the cats at the start of the big ten season (when indiana had beaten oregon and orton was on the verge of the heisman, while the cats were 1-2 and the illini still hadn't beaten a i-a team in years), if somebody gave odds on such stupid things.

although they're about to lose, northern illinois just did something i wish more teams would do. rather than set up a punt rush, they rushed two, dropped eight, and tried to spring a return. it didn't lead to a touchdown, but i think it's a strong strategy.

why the nba sort of sucks: tonight featured a 64-60 final. last night featured a double-ot game in which neither team hit triple figures.

i really really think the nba should either a) institute a 20-on-opening-night age minimum to guarantee that players have had some college and have some semblance of fundamentals (i.e. shooting) or b) institute their own legit developmental system, based on major league baseball's, where each team has one minor league affiliate and where all high school seniors are draft-eligible.

don't nba execs see that the lack of skill is the reason people have stopped watching the league?