MONDAY MEANDERINGS: BEARS + CHORES = GUTTER BALL
Nothing quite like the wonderful warm weather Sunday to have a baseball fan yearning for the start of a new season. Come to think of it, nothing quite like Sunday's showing -- especially the first half against the Arizona Cardinals -- to have Bears fans yearning for the start of a new season, too.
Speaking of baseball, with the season over, the Cubs are way ahead of schedule for 2010 -- in terms of being concerned about player health. The team says left-hander Ted Lilly will be back from shoulder surgery sometime in April, although it's unclear what year.
Speaking of weather, the autumn afternoon was so beautiful Saturday that Quick Hits almost felt bad about staying indoors to watch college football rather than going outside and cleaning the leaves out of the gutters. Of course, not as bad as Iowa felt about losing to Northwestern.
Speaking of gutters, Quick Hits did manage to clean them without leaving my mind in it (contrary to what some readers might think).
Given their financial resources, shouldn't the New York Yankees win the World Series every year -- if not more frequently?
Quick Hits would have bet that the trade by the White Sox of Chris Getz and Josh Fields to the Royals for Mark Teahen would have prompted the headline ''Teahen for two.'' Which might explain why Quick Hits no longer generally writes headlines.
Department of corrections: For Pete's sake, in the print edition of Thursday's Sun-Times (not in the online version, which affords the luxury of fixing mistakes that do reach the paper), Quick Hits misidentified one of the Ricketts brothers. The name should have been Pete, not Joe (who is the dad of the clan that has purchased the Cubs). If only the Pep Boys (the unforgettable Manny, Moe and Jack) had purchased the team, there would have been no such confusion. Quick Hits regrets the error (also regretting not running another photo of a ballgirl -- a situation that should be rectified later this week).
Blackhawks winger Marian Hossa shouldered the responsibility of serving as honorary flag-raiser at the Fire's Eastern Conference semifinal Saturday night at Toyota Park.
Recovering from shoulder surgery that has prevented him from making his Hawks debut, Hossa emerged unscathed.
As did the Fire, which reached the conference final, set for 7 p.m. Saturday in Bridgeview against Real Salt Lake.
So what's a hockey player doing at a soccer game?
''It's an honor to raise the flag,'' he told Quick Hits after the Fire's 2-0 victory against the New England Revolution. ''They asked me to do it. I said this would be a great time. Playoff game. I've never been to a Major League Soccer game in America. Right now, I'm injured. I've got a lot of time, so why not?''
Hossa is familiar with soccer.
''When I was real young [in Czechoslovakia], I was deciding between hockey and soccer, but my father is a hockey player, so it was an easy decision for me. I follow soccer. I went like two years ago with my buddy to Germany to see the World Cup.''
His favorite team (other than the Fire, of course)?
''Barcelona and Juventus,'' he said. ''Ever since I was a little kid.''
When a hockey player watches soccer, does he think it's like hockey without the ice?
''No, it's a very different game,'' Hossa said. ''There's not many goals scored, but it's interesting. The crowd was great. It was awesome. It was like in Europe. You don't see it often.''
Speaking of seeing things, when will Hawks fans see Hossa play?
''End of the month, I believe,'' he said. ''The shoulder is coming good, and I can't wait to step onto the ice and help the guys to win a hockey game. Right now, it's not there yet.''