The 2011 season will be remembered by Chicago baseball fans as a period of seismic change on both ends of town.  For better or worse, the landscape couldn’t look more different for both the Cubs and Sox going into 2012 as it did going into 2011. Here’s a look back on our takes on the five biggest:

5. Robin Ventura? posted on October 7, 2011 by Ten years from now after Robin Ventura has lead the White Sox to three championships, and someone asks me, “do you remember where you were when the Sox announced Robin Ventura as their manager,” I will reply, YES. Not because I believe anything that I just wrote is going to happen, but because I would not have been more surprised if Charlie started walking and speaking fluently at five months. [Read more…]

4. Bye Mark posted on December 9, 2011 by  
I felt all offseason that Mark Buehrle leaving the White Sox was inevitable and it turned out I was right, but I remained hopeful since it looked like Paul Konerko was leaving last season. I’m happy Buehrle received the contract he deserved, and also love that he doesn’t have a no trade clause which could see him back in a Sox uniform before the end of his four year contract in Miami. [Read more…]

3. Cubs fans party like it’s 1978. Now what? posted on August 21, 2011 by Cubs fans came out in numbers not seen since Opening Day of 1978 to celebrate the firing of controversial GM, Jim Hendry this weekend. With a new sense of hope, 84, 717 revelers—42,343 on Friday and 42,374 (including myself) on Saturday—crammed into Wrigley Field to bask in the glow of the post-Hendry era like it was the falling of the Berlin Wall.  Oh yeah, and the Cubs beat the Cardinals in 5-4 and 3-0 respectively.  Screw the Cardinals! [Read more…]

2. BYE, BYE!!! Ozzie Greeden! posted on September 27, 2011 by I text my good friend, Smitty, last night and said I wasn’t going to write anything about Ozzie Guillen until this morning, when I had some time to let it all “soak in”. I’m glad I waited, because what I read this morning in the paper made me throw-up in my mouth. [Read more…]

1. Epstein Era: Day One of One Thousand posted on October 25, 2011 by Day One of the Theo Epstein era got off to a rousing start today with his highly-anticipated introductory press conference at Wrigley Field. As with all Day Ones—replete with inspiring rhetoric that lift the spirits of any downtrodden fan base—there is reason for optimism. But it’s going to take a lot of work for Epstein to pull the organization out of the abyss where it currently wallows. Epstein said it himself, ”that does not happen overnight.” [Read more…]