Bull Market, Bear Down

The Bulls’ hopes of a championship run snapped along with Derrick Rose’s meniscus earlier this week. For the second straight season, the team is forced to look to the rest of their year knowing that their superstar, the face of the franchise, isn’t going to be returning any time soon.

Now the Bulls are faced with a decision. It has become clear that Rose is facing much more than simply physical deterioration. A meniscus tear does not require a player to miss the entire season, especially only eight or nine games in. To rule out the whole year means that Rose is dealing with an emotional, mental block that puts his career in far more jeopardy.

With Rose as no longer a viable option, the speculation has been that the Bulls tank their season in favor of drafting higher and getting more in return for the future. While this may put the future into perspective, it is not the kind of answer that Chicago fans are looking for. Bulls fans are accustomed to the big names, the Michael Jordans of the world, not the Anthony Davis model.

That leaves it to the Bulls front office to go out and get themselves a free agent or two. Luol Deng, the Bulls’ last real star left standing with Rose hurt and Carlos Boozer struggling to produce, is going to be on the market, but so will a few other big name options, including Carmelo Anthony, Dirk Nowitzki, and even LeBron James. If the Bulls want to return to form, they will find a way to bring in the big name that will immediately launch them into the upper class of teams in the league. Rose, it seems, will no longer be sufficient to lead the charge.

In a similar predicament, the Bulls’ football counterparts are having a similar challenge. Jay Cutler has played five seasons with the Bears, and only played a full season in one. While playing “often,” he has also experienced injuries each year, including concussions, sprained ankles, and a general beating. In the 2013 season, the pressure was on, as Cutler was in a contract year and was being evaluated both by the team and others as to the extent to which he deserved to be resigned. Yet again, the injury bug caught hold, and Cutler has missed parts of four games.  The Bears are 6-5 this season, yet another season that started strong and head into mediocrity after Cutler gets beat around.

Aside from Cutler, the Bears have a running back that is capable of being a stud, two of the best receivers in the game, and a defense that, while struggling this year, is known for being monstrous.

With Cutler’s contract coming to an end, the Bears have a similar identity crisis on their hands. Rather than resigning Cutler, though, it would do the team best to let the guy go and move on to the next play-caller.

While free agency may be the route for the Bulls, it is not for the Bears. In a draft class that has plenty of quarterbacks that run the gamut on playing styles, the Bears have several options. The trend right now is running quarterbacks, like RGIII or Russell Wilson, guys who can get out of the pocket and extend drives with their legs. This doesn’t really fit in with what the Bears have done in the past, or the way their team is built. Instead, there is one option that appears to be a QB-Team match made in heaven.

AJ McCarron is the most undervalued pick in the draft. To get him, it will probably take a mid-to-late second or early third round pick. A pocket passer, McCarron would fit into the Bears’ system, and wouldn’t require a top draft pick to do it. It would also greatly help his development as a player to be able to spend at least his first year throwing to receivers like Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery, who have a way of making even the Josh McCowns of the world look good.

Both Chicago teams are looking to heal, but must go in very different directions. Retailers should celebrate, though, because either way, there will be some new jerseys hitting the Chicago market.

Twin Billing?

As the Hot Stove starts to heat up, MLB teams are attempting to decide the direction to take their organizations. Whether to pursue the hottest free agents or seek a trade, to look outside for help or to focus on internal matters to strengthen the team, teams have a big few months ahead of them.

For the Minnesota Twins, this is a question that requires some fan input. Last week, the Twins posted on their Twitter account “Give us your list of the top 3 free agents you think the Twins should pursue using #TwinsHotStove. We’ll talk about fan answers on the show.”

While representing a small social media gimmick, the Twins get to the heart of a very important question in putting together a team from year to year. What is the role of the fan? Do the ticket holders have a part in constructing the team that will take the field 162 times?

The reality is that the Twins will most likely do very little, if anything, with the information they receive from their twitter account. Fans aren’t really qualified to make organizational decisions, especially when they are playing with hundreds of millions of dollars. At the same time, though, those dollars originated, at least partially, in the pockets of the fans, and thus, they have an argument for contributing.

While baseball has blossomed into a trillion dollar industry, it’s true intent is to entertain. The fans are, or at least should be, the focus of the organization. This doesn’t appear to be the case when you view negotiations with players that include no-trade clauses and contract incentives and stipulations. The game has shifted to focus instead on the players and the front office.

While asking fans which players in particular they would want to see in their teams uniform may not be realistic, it is not unreasonable to ask what kind of team they would like to see. Take a look at the Houston Astros. Who in their right minds is excited about the Astros? Their fan-base is the pity of everybody, except maybe the loveable losers of Chicago, and the future doesn’t look particularly bright. The front office is promising that things will get better, but that doesn’t appear to be happening any time soon. The money that is being spent is being done in a way that will replenish the farm system and get the team ready for the future. At the same time, though, that means that being an Astros fan, at least for the next, oh, half decade is going to be an abysmal thing.

For fans to be able to select the overall direction of the team, whether it be rebuilding for the future as the Cubs appear to be doing or a win-now mentality the likes of which the Yankees almost always embody, is not an unrealistic request. If teams really expect to see fans pay their dollars to see their organization, it is not unrealistic to expect that they would have some kind of input.

This is unlikely to become a reality any time soon in any of the major sports fields, but that twitter is as good a place as any to start.

Opening Drive

Sports are about so much more than what goes on between the foul poles or the sidelines. Sports are about the way we feel. For something as trivial as athletic performance, sports are deeply ingrained into every fiber of our national culture, and our global community.

Sports are about going into a foreign city and finding the only other person wearing a Cubs t-shirt. Sports are about hating the opposing team for no other reason than rivalry. Sports are about the friendships developed over a well-timed football kickoff.

Sports are about those moments when we jump out of our seats, throwing our hands into the air with the joy of a win. Sports are about those moments when we feel the pain of another season ending without a championship.

Everywhere we go, sports have embedded themselves into the way we think and the way we talk. We talk about political “races.” We talk about “the long shot.” We talk about “slam dunks.” Sports have so deeply infiltrated the way we think that we begin to transform all areas of our lives into sporting events.

Sports bring us together. After September 11^th, the Yankees helped the city of New York heal. After the Boston Marathon bombings, the Bruins’ Stanley Cup run kept “Boston Strong.” Sports are our opportunity to forget about the crazy things happening in the world around us, and instead focus on the world that we create.

Sports are about heroes; those men and women who use athleticism to stand for so much more than just a game. Sports are about villains; the athletes who put themselves before the integrity of the game and choose to blemish it. Sports are about everyday people, attempting to take the ordinary and to make it extraordinary.

Every day of the year, sports take place and bring us something to talk about. Without sports, we would have emptier closets, fewer TV channels, less to talk about. We wouldn’t have an outlet for our emotions. With sports, we have an opportunity to think, to feel in ways otherwise impossible.

“The Left Fielder” is a new blog dedicated to exploring all of those thoughts and emotions that make sports so important to who we are. The title comes from the notion that those things in the world that surprise us most are from “out of left field.” This blog will attempt to find the elements of the sports world that exemplify the complexity of life, and embody the world in athletic form.

From baseball to basketball, football to hockey, and so much more, this media outlet will explore the diversity of ideas that we express through our appreciation of sports, and the ways we choose to interact with them.

Follow us on twitter, @ZPLeftFielder.