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How was your Week? (6/8/13)

Posted: June 8, 2013 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
Tags: boston bruins, nhl, sports, stanley cup finals, toronto maple leafs, tuukka rask

It’s baseball season, so we obviously spend a lot of time talking about that on the show. Earlier in the week Mr. Fantasy and I made a trade in a money league we’re in together. We traded Washington Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper for Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Patrick Corbin. My warning to any fantasy owner out there who has Corbin is trade him now. Mr. Fantasy and I have such bad, bad luck with pitchers that there is a chance Corbin won’t win another game this season. The really sad part about that is I’m not kidding. For whatever reason we just kill pitchers; hopefully Corbin will be our exception. Corbin is 9 – 0 in 12 starts this season. Harper has 12 home runs this season and is hitting .287, but is injured and is scheduled to see Dr. James Andrews next week to have his knee looked at. Hopefully this deal works out for us as we can use some good pitching.
Friday nights broadcast: It’s Time. It’s Time.

Can you believe the Boston Bruins swept the Pittsburgh Penguins out of the Eastern Conference finals. Pittsburgh had been the best team in the NHL through the first few rounds of the playoff and Boston barely got by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round, but here they are in the Stanley Cup finals waiting for the winner of the Chicago Blackhawks/Los Angles Kings series. The Blackhawks have a 3 games to 1 lead in the series and can close it out tonight at home. Tuukka Rask is the hot goaltender right now; so will see if he can win the Stanley Cup for the Bruins. Rask stopped all but two shots in the series against the Penguins; so will see if he can continue that impressive feat in the Cup finals. The Bruins might find out who their facing tonight.
Wednesday nights broadcast: Weird & Wild

Oh my! The Miami Heat lost game 1 of the NBA finals. And the world didn’t end. Well, it did if you’re a frequent viewer of ESPN like I am. Sadly it was all they talked about yesterday and it’s weird how they never want to admit that they got beat. There’s always an excuse for a Heat loss and this one was fatigue from the Indiana series. I thought maybe they lost because Chris Bosh was terrible shooting the basketball but I guess that was just me. Do you remember before Bosh signed with Miami and he was considered one of the top players in the NBA. I know he got his championship last season but I wonder if he regrets his decision to sign there. He has a chance to opt out of his contract if not after these playoffs then after next season and I think it would be smart if he took his talents out of South Beach. Miami has the extra day off before game two so they can get over their fatigue and I expect they’ll get a win in game two at home over the San Antonio Spurs. The Spurs are a veteran team and with the way Tony Parker has been playing he’ll have a lot to say about how this series plays out. I wonder how ESPN would react if the Spurs actually win this series.
Sunday nights broadcast: Sunday Fun Day

Here’s a special Sports Time Radio happy birthday to Mr. Fantasy.

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

How was your week? (6/1/13)

Posted: June 1, 2013 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
Tags: Chicago Blackhawks, detroit red wings, nhl, san antonio spurs, sports, stanley cup champions

As always there’s a lot of stuff to get into this week, but at Sports Time Radio we had a big announcement on Sunday. Dan the Man wasn’t sure if he would be available to make the show; so Mr. Fantasy stepped in. As it turned out, Dan the Man showed and we did a three person show. We got into some football talk and between 8:40 p.m. and 8:45 p.m. Mr. Fantasy finally said he’d write the running quarterback blog. This has been a topic on the show since the end of the football season when Mr. Fantasy started talking about how much he dislikes this style of offense. You can go into the Sports Time Radio archives and listen to it; so now we have it and will see how long it takes us to get this blog.

While the San Antonio Spurs are at home waiting. The Miami Heat need one more win to close out the Indiana Pacers. Chris “Birdman” Andersen got himself suspended for game 6 because of the cheap shot he took in-game 5. Oddly if you look at the stats the Heat are a better offensive team without Andersen. Of course he’s not there to score and he brings those extra things a championship team needs. Miami has a chance to close out the series in Indiana tonight (Saturday). You have to wonder if the long lay off for the Spurs will hurt them. They are a veteran team and the rest might actually help them. Tony Parker has had a calf issue and the time off will do him good. Game 1 of the finals is June 6th; so we’re getting close to crowning a NBA champion.

In an odd NHL fact the four teams remaining in the playoffs the Chicago Blackhawks, the Boston Bruins, the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Los Angels Kings are the last four Stanley Cup champions. Dan the Man and I both picked the Blackhawks to win the cup at the start of the year; so he and I still have a shot at being right. On a side note Mr. Fantasy picked the St. Louis Blues. The Blackhawks are coming off an exciting game 7 win over the Detroit Red Wings. The Kings are the defending Stanley Cup champions; so will see if they can get back to the finals. The Penguins have looked like the best team in the NHL through the playoffs. We’ll see if they can continue that against the Bruins. I think the NHL playoffs may be the most exciting of all the sports. What’s better than sudden death overtime?

I’ve actually mentioned this on the show a couple of times through the week, whether it was Wednesday or Friday; I think it’s worth mentioning again. If you had Dioner Navarro in your line up on May 29th you are the greatest fantasy baseball alive. Navarro went 3 for 3 with 6 RBI’s, he also scored 4 runs as well. I would be interested to know how many players in a daily fantasy league took a chance on Navarro; it would’ve paid off in a big, big way. I know later in that same baseball day Washington Nationals 3rd baseman Ryan Zimmerman also hit 3 homers in a game. I gave a special mention to Dioner Navarro because he’s a back up catcher on an under .500 team and he’s not an everyday player.

You can follow me on Twitter @burketime

How was your week?

Posted: May 25, 2013 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, basketball, football, hockey, sports, Uncategorized
Tags: Chicago Blackhawks, jerry hoover, nba, new york rangers, nhl, sports

It’s one of those times in the year where playoff series run over the top of each other. It seems like the NBA playoffs get all the attention, but for me the NHL playoffs are far more exciting. Sadly for Dan the Man and I, our pick for the Stanley Cup (The Chicago Blackhawks) are one game away from being knocked out of the playoffs. In most series the better team will win, but with the NHL I believe there are more upsets by the lower seeded teams. Remember the Los Angels Kings won it all last season as an 8th seed. The Kings still have a chance to repeat this year as they’re ahead in their series 3 – 2 against San Jose. With the strike shortened season, we didn’t get to see a lot of the Eastern Conference teams. Catching up through the playoffs; the Pittsburgh Penguins really look like the best team in the NHL. Pittsburgh closed out the Ottawa Senators last night to move into the conference finals. They’ll take on the Boston Bruins or the New York Rangers. Boston, Detroit and Los Angels have a chance to close out their series and move on to the conference finals.

Oddly I talked last night on the show that if the Indiana Pacers won last night it would be a close game. Well the Pacers won 97 – 94 and LeBron James committed two turnovers in the final five seconds to help Indian win. Looking at this series so far Indiana could really be up 2 – 0 going to Indiana. The Pacers have the pieces that the Miami heat don’t do well against. Of course when you have LeBron James on your team you are the favorite in every game. James is far and away the best player in the NBA and that can be tough for me to write; since I’m a big Kevin Durant fan. The series is headed to Indiana 1 – 1 and they say the series hasn’t started until the home team loses a game. In the Western conference San Antonio is up 2 – 0 on Memphis, but a lot of people are still picking Memphis. Jerry Hoover was on with us Wednesday night and has Memphis in this series. The series is in Memphis for the next two games; San Antonio is a veteran team and they’ve been here before; so we’ll see how the Grizzlies do at home.

The baseball season is rolling along and of course the talk of the show is The Bet. At the start of the year Dan the man and Mr. Fantasy put a fitted hat on the line. Dan the Man had the Dodgers to win it all, but Mr. Fantasy said they’d be the third best team in California. Right now Mr. Fantasy is looking good, but remember #ItsJustMay. The Dodgers are sitting at 19 wins while San Diego and the Angels have 21. The Giants and the A’s each have 26 wins. So the Dodgers have about 7 plus games to make up; so will see how things work out for Dan the Man. It seems to be a Friday night special on the show that we get an update on The Bet.

So Brian Urlacher decided to retire as a Chicago Bear. As much as it seemed like he wanted to try to play this upcoming season there was no team out their willing to sign him. I still believe that if former Bears head coach Lovie Smith would’ve gotten one of the opening coaching positions this off-season Urlacher would be playing for that team. As we know Smith is going to be an analyst; so no one signed Urlachler. There’s no doubt the Urlacher will go into the Hall of Fame, but is he a first ballot hall of famer. On Friday nights show there was a good point brought up. Will they put two middle linebackers in the Hall of Fame in the same year? As good of a player as Urlacher was Ray Lewis was better and he retired at the end of last season as well. I think everyone expects that they’ll both be in the Hall of Fame, but will they go in together is the question?

Don’t forget you can follow me on Twitter @burketime

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California
Bears

2008 NFL Draft looking back.

Posted: May 5, 2013 by Sports Time Radio in football, sports, Uncategorized
Tags: kansas city chiefs, new orleans saints, NFL, san francisco 49ers, sports, st louis rams

I’m sure you’ve heard your favorite teams coach or general manager say it takes five years to actually evaluate the draft they just had. Since the 2013 NFL draft just ended I thought let’s go back, check and see how the players turned out. You’ll be the one to decide how your teams 1st round pick turned out.

#1 Miami Dolphins took Jake Long. Long signed with the St. Louis Rams as a free agent this off-season. While with the Dolphins he started 74 out of the 74 games he played their. He was limited to 12 games last season because of injuries. Long made 4 pro bowls in his five seasons in Miami.

#2 St. Louis Rams took Chris Long.Long has 42 career sacks for the Rams, but has come on in the last two seasons going over double digits in sack totals. Long has played in all 80 games since being drafted starting 68 of them. Also Jake and Chris went #1 and #2, but they’re nor related.

#3 Atlanta Falcons took Matt Ryan. Atlanta was looking for a franchise quarterback in this draft and they seemed to have found one. Ryan has started 78 out of a possible 80 games since being drafted. He missed two games to injury in his second season. Ryan has thrown for 18,957 yards and 127 touchdowns.

#4 Oakland Raiders took Darren McFadden. McFadden has been injury a lot playing in a total of 57 games. McFadden started 44 of those games. He’s rushed for 3,334 yards and 18 touchdowns in his career. He’s has also added 158 catches and 5 touchdowns in his career.

#5 Kansas City Chiefs took Glen Dorsey. Dorsey signed with the San Francisco 49ers this off-season as a free agent. Dorsey played in 66 games for the Chiefs starting all but 1 of them in five years. He only played in 4 games last season due to injuries. He has career totals of 159 tackles and 4 sacks.

#6 New York Jets took Vernon Gholston. Gholston was with the Jets for three season. He played in 45 games for them; starting 5 games, but never recording a sack.

#7 New Orleans Saints took Sedrick Ellis. Ellis has played in 70 games for the Saints starting all of the games he’s played in. He has 100 career tackles and 12.5 sacks.

#8 Jacksonville Jaguars took Derrick Harvey. Harvey player 3 seasons in Jacksonville and 1 in Denver. 8 career sacks, 72 career tackles and 1 interception are the numbers he put up..

#9 Cincinnati took Keith Rivers. Rivers was in Cincinnati for 4 seasons and was with the New York Giants in 2012. Rivers has been in 46 games registering 149 tackles, 2 sacks and 2 interceptions in his career.

#10 New England Patriots took Jerrod Mayo. Mayo was the AP defensive Rookie of the Year for 2008 and has made 2 Pro Bowls (2010, 2012). He’s played in 75 games starting 73 of them. He has 225 tackles, 7.5 sacks and 3 interceptions in his career.

#11 Buffalo Bills took Leodis McKelvin. McKelvin has played in 64 games starting 32 of them. He has 6 career interceptions and has 1 returned for a touchdown. He also has been used as a kick and punt returner. He has returned 3 punts for touchdowns and has 1 kickoff return for a touchdown in his career.

#12 Denver Broncos took Ryan Clady. Clady is a three-time pro bowler, 2009, 2011 and 2012. He has played in and started all 80 games since being drafted by Denver. He has also been named to an All Pro team every year he has played.

#13 Carolina Panthers took Jonathan Stewart. Stewart has shared carries in the Panthers backfield since being drafted, but did break the 1000 yard barrier in 2009 with 1133 yards. He has 3836 career rushing yards and 27 touchdowns. He has also caught 98 passes in his career with 4 of them going for touchdowns.

#14 Chicago Bears took Chris Williams. Williams started 38 games for the Bears in the time he was with them. He was released last season and finished the year with the Rams, but was just a back up for them.

#15 Kansas City Chiefs took Branden Albert. Albert played in 73 games for the Chiefs in his career and started 71 of them. He was their franchise player this off-season and the Chiefs have been trying to trade him.

#16 Arizona Cardinals took Dominique Rodgers – Cromartie. Rodgers – Cromartie played 3 seasons in Arizona before going to Philadelphia for the last two. He had 13 interceptions while in Arizona and 4 of them were returned for touchdowns. He’s added 3 more interceptions with Philadelphia and 1 sack as well.

#17 Detroit Lions took Gosder Cherilus. Cherilus has played in 75 games for the Lions starting 70 of those games.

#18 Baltimore Ravens took Joe Flacco. The Ravens where looking for their quarterback of the future in this draft and they picked Flacco. Seems to have worked out well for them. Flacco has started all 80 games since being drafted. He’s put up 17,633 yards and 102 touchdowns in his career. The Ravens won the Super Bowl last season and Flacco was the M.V.P.

#19 Carolina Panthers took Jeff Otah. Otah started 25 games combined for the Panthers in 2008 and 2009 before missing the 2010 season. He came back to start 4 games in the 2011 season, but that was it.

#20 Tampa bay Buccaneers took Aqib Talib. Talib played 4 plus seasons with the Buccaneers before being traded to the Patriots last year. He had 18 interceptions for Tampa Bay while playing for them and took 3 of them back for touchdowns. Talib had some off field issues and has been suspended for them.

#21 Atlanta Falcons took Sam Baker. After picking Matt Ryan earlier in the draft the Falcons wanted someone to help protect him. Baker played in 65 games for the Falcons starting 56 of them. He started 15 games for them last season.

#22 Dallas Cowboys took Felix Jones. Jones has had some injury issues in his pro career, but he broke out as a kick returner his rookie season. He’s played in 64 out of a possible 80 games; starting 23 of them. He has a total of 2728 yards rushing for his career with 11 touchdowns. He has returned 1 kickoff for a touchdown; in his rookie season.

#23 Pittsburgh Steelers took Rashard Mendenhall. Mendenhall was the second of three running backs to go in a row and he’s another one that has had some injury problems. He’s played in 57 games starting 48 of them. He has also broken the 1000 marker twice in his career. He has totaled 3549 rushing yards and 29 touchdowns for his career. Due to injuries Mendenhall was only able to play in 6 games last season.

#24 Tennessee Titans took Chris Johnson. Johnson has topped a 1000 yards every year since being drafted and in 2009 went over the 2000 yard mark by 6 yards. He’s only missed 1 game in his career and has made 77 starts for the Titans. He has rushed for 6888 yards and 44 touchdowns in his career. He has carried the ball 1463 times and averages 4.7 yards a carry for his career.

#25 Dallas Cowboys took Mike Jenkins. Jenkins has played in 71 games since being drafted and has started 48 of them. He has 8 career interceptions and has 1 interception return for a touchdown. Jenkins was also made the Pro Bowl in 2009.

#26 Houston Texans took Duane Brown. Brown has played in 75 games in his career and has started every one of them. He missed 4 games in 2010 with an injury and 1 game last season. Brown was a pro bowler for the 2012 season and a 1st team all pro.

#27 San Diego Chargers took Antoine Cason. Cason has played in all 80 games since being drafted and has started 49 of those games. He has 12 career interceptions and 1 interception return for a touchdown. Cason has also returned punts for the Chargers; mostly in the 2010 season.

#28 Seattle Seahawks took Lawrence Jackson. Jackson only played two seasons with the Seahawks. He played in 32 games and started 24 of them. He also totaled 6.5 sacks while in a Seahawks uniform. Jackson has played the last three seasons with the Detroit Lions.

#29 San Francisco 49ers took Kentwan Balmer. Balmer played in 27 games for the 49ers. He didn’t start any of them. He recorded 11 tackles in 2 seasons, but no sacks. In 2010 he played for Seattle and the last two seasons he has been with the Washington Redskins.

#30 New York Jets took Dustin Keller. Keller has played in 72 games for the Jets starting 49 of them. He has 241 career receptions for 2876 yards and 17 touchdowns. Keller was injured for a lot of the 2012 season playing in 8 games and starting 5. Signed with the Miami Dolphins this off-season.

#31 New York Giants took Kenny Phillips. This was the last pick of the 1st round. New England had their pick taken away as a penalty for the Spygate mess. Phillips has had some injury issues in his career. He has played in 56 games for the Giants starting 41 of them. He only played in 2 games in 2009 because of injuries and last season he appeared in 7 games. He has 8 career interceptions with 4 of them being picked off in 2011.

There’s the 2008 1st round. How did your team do? Good, bad or just middle of the road with their guys. Feel free to let me know; you can comment right here or e-mail our show Sportstimeradio@hotmail.com or just find me on Twitter @burketime.

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Baseball (Extra Innings preview)

Posted: April 19, 2013 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, sports, Uncategorized
Tags: Comcast, DirecTV, MLB, MLB at Bat, MLB Extra Innings

So the baseball season is about three weeks old and I want to talk about week one. Yeah, yeah I know a little late, but better late than never.

The season opened on a Sunday night with the Houston Astros getting their 1st win as an American League team. After that my week got interesting. I was off of work the 1st week of the season and on my cable system I get a free preview of the Extra Innings baseball package. On that first Monday of the season I watched baseball for about 12 hours and I have to tell you it was fantastic. My co-host Dan the Man was so jealous of my situation. During the week I saw every team play at least a few innings. One of my favorite things is listening to the announcers from the other teams do the games. My favorite like a lot of people out their was listening to Vin Scully do the Dodgers games. The opening series with the Reds against the Angels was fun to watch. One night Arizona and St. Louis played 16 innings. I was able to see Yu Darvish throw 8 2/3 innings of a perfect game and much, much more. Sadly I could never afford to buy this package and if I had it I’d lose my job because I’d be watching baseball all the time. Also on the plus side of the free preview is if you’re a hockey fan as well the NHL games air on the same channels; so you got a bonus of free NHL games. The only negative on the entire experience was when they had games scheduled back to back on a station. A lot of times the first game would run late and you would get the second game until they had already played a few innings. Now they have enough channels to fix the issue and I don’t know if it’s different if you actually order the Extra Innings package. I know that the NBA & NHL playoffs are getting ready to start, but it’s baseball season. Even as I’m writing this I have the Mariners/Tigers game playing on my computer. Maybe I have a problem?

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Photo Credits:
Asros
Yu Darvish
MLB Extra Innings
Opening Day
Vin Scully

Baseball (Extra Innings preview)

Posted: April 19, 2013 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, sports, Uncategorized
Tags: Comcast, DirecTV, MLB, MLB at Bat, MLB Extra Innings

So the baseball season is about three weeks old and I want to talk about week one. Yeah, yeah I know a little late, but better late than never.

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Photo Credits:
Asros
Yu Darvish
MLB Extra Innings
Opening Day
Vin Scully

Baseball (Extra Innings preview)

Posted: April 18, 2013 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, sports, Uncategorized
Tags: Comcast, DirecTV, MLB, MLB at Bat, MLB Extra Innings

So the baseball season is about three weeks old and I want to talk about week one. Yeah, yeah I know a little late, but better late than never.

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Photo Credits:
Asros
Yu Darvish
MLB Extra Innings
Opening Day
Vin Scully

Baseball picks 2013

Posted: April 1, 2013 by Sports Time Radio in baseball, sports, Uncategorized
Tags: baseball, joey votto, justin verlander, sports, world series winner, world series winners

We made our picks on Friday’s show for the 2013 baseball season and here they are.

American League playoff teams and World Series representative.

Dan the Man has the Angels to win the West, the Tigers to win the Central and the Blue Jays to win the East. His wild card picks are Rangers and the Yankees. Dan has the Toronto Blue Jays going to the World Series.

Mr. Fantasy has the Angels winning the West, the Tigers winning the Central and the Blue jays winning the East. His wild card teams are the Rays and the A’s. Mr. Fantasy has the Los Angles Angels of Anaheim going to the World Series.

I have the Angels winning the West, the tigers winning the Central and the Rays winning the East. Mu wild card teams are the Rangers and the Orioles. I have the Detroit Tigers going to the World Series.

National League playoff teams and World series representative.

Dan the Man has the Dodgers to win the West, the Reds to win the Central and Washington to win the East. Dan’s wild card teams are the Giants and the Braves. With the Los Angles Dodgers going to the World Series.

Mr. Fantasy has the Giants to win the West, the Reds to win the Central and Washington to win the East. Mr. Fantasy’s wild card teams are the Braves and the Cardinals. With the Atlanta Braves going to the World Series.

I have the Dodgers winning the West, the Reds winning the Central and Atlanta winning the East. My wild card teams are the Cardinals and the Giants. With the Atlanta Braves going to the World Series.

Dan’s World Series winners are the Dodgers.

Mr. Fantasy’s World Series winners are the Angels.

My World Series winner is the Braves.

Award Picks

MVP
Dan the Man has Jose Bautista in the AL and Joey Votto in the NL.

Mr. Fantasy has Miguel Cabrera in the AL and Joey Votto in the NL.

I have Albert Pujols in the AL and Jason Heyward in the NL>

CY Young

Dan has Felix Hernandez in the AL and Matt Cain in the NL.

Mr. Fantasy has Justin Verlander in the AL and Steven Strasburg in the NL.

I have Felix Hernandez in the AL and Johnny Cueto in the NL.

Rookie of the Year

Dan has Will Myers (Tampa Bay) in the AL and Adam Eaton (Arizona) in the NL>

Mr. Fantasy has Aaron Hicks (Minnesota) in the AL and Jedd Gyorko (San Diego) in the NL.

I have Aaron Hicks (Minnesota in the AL and Rob Brantly (Miami) in the NL.

Manager of the Year

Dan took John Gibbons (Toronto) in the AL and Don Mattingly (Los Angles) in the NL.

Mr. Fantasy took John Gibbons (Toronto) in the AL and Mike Matheny (St. Louis) in the NL.

I took Ned Yost (Kansas City) in the AL and Fredi Gonzalez (Atlanta) in the NL.

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

Should I play or should I go?

Posted: March 13, 2013 by Sports Time Radio in basketball, sports, Uncategorized
Tags: Chicago, Chicago Blackhawks, Chicago Bulls, Derrick Rose, DRose, knee surgeries, knee surgery, left knee, mental aspect, national basketball association, nba, sports

If you’ve listened to the show Sportstime Radio. Sunday, Wednesday and Friday from 8:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. on BlogTalkRadio you know my co-host Dan the man and I live in the Chicago area. Now that the Blackhawks winning streak or as some experts pointed out a points scoring streak has ended the talk has turned to Derrick Rose.

Now I’ve never played a minute in the National Basketball Association (NBA); so I don’t know what that’s like. What I have in common with D. Rose is I have had reconstructive knee surgery three times. Twice on my left knee and once on my right knee. I’ve actually had a total of five knee surgeries, but two where considered minor knee surgeries. What I can tell you about this is sometimes the mental aspect of the recovery is the toughest part and I think that’s where D. Rose may be right now. He’s been cleared by the doctors to return to action, but he hasn’t yet. I don’t have D. Rose’ quote right off-hand, but he more or less said he doesn’t think he’s ready to come back. He also mentioned that he wants to be able to dunk off his left leg with no issues before he returns. Now I have to tell you he may never be able to dunk off that leg the same as he used to, but the only way he’s going to know is to try. I’m sure he’s done this in practice, but has to have the confidence to play in a game and get the chance to try it. D. Rose don’t wait until next pre-season to do this; get out and try it in a game before your season ends. The Bulls aren’t going to do anything negative to D. Rose; he’s their best player and their future. I’m sure they’ll limit his minutes at first and they can even rest him if he can’t play in back to back games. Believe it or not the best thing is to give that knee a try to see how it holds up, but you have to get past that mental block. There is a chance that D. Rose won’t be the same player he was before he got injured, but I think he’ll be just fine as long as he can get started. It’s always in the back of your mind, but once you get into the flow of the game it will become easier and easier to play. D. Rose has been killed in the local media here by a lot of guys and I didn’t want to do that to him. I do believe he needs to find his way back onto the court this season. Not only would it help him mentally and make the off-season less stressful, but it will help his team. It will also make him a good teammate and right now he needs to be a good teammate.

You can follow me on Twitter @Burketime

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This Old Stub: Chicago Bears training camp

Posted: March 4, 2013 by Sports Time Radio in football, sports, Uncategorized
Tags: 2013 romeoville mayoral campaign, 2014, Brookfield Zoo, Chevy, Chicago Bears, Chicago Loop, Doug Floutie, Downtown Chicago, il, Iroc-Z, Jim Harbaugh, Jim Rose, John Noak, Joliet, Lewis University, mike Singletary, MLB network, Neal Anderson, Plattville, Richard Dent, Romeoville, Steve McMicheal. Mongo, Sweetness, the next knucker, Walter Payton, WI, William Perry

Now I don’t have any official ticket stubs from the training camps but this still falls under the topic, kind of, of this blog series. Either way I hope you enjoy it and don’t forget to listen to us on BlogTalkRadio.

A few years ago, when the Chicago Bears moved camp down to Burbanais, IL, my dad and I decided to take the hour or so drive down there. I was excited to get up on a hot,hot day to go watch the Bears practice and maybe stand in line and get some autographs. They had stuff for kids to do but of course the main draw was the gift shop. That year all I wanted was the fitted hat made by Reebok with the George Hallis patch on it. I thought I should just wait till our way out because just like Brookfield Zoo the only way out was through the gift shop…of course…but on our way out the entire wall of fitted hats was gone and I was s.o.l. As for getting autographs, ehh, I felt I was too old to do that being that only kids were in line for that. And for my age getting autographs isn’t the same as when I was a kid. One of the biggest reasons I wanted to go was to get these stupid cardboard cut outs of (Marty Booker’s) face on a Popsicle stick. I saw them on the news and just had to go get one. Everyone loves a gimmick. When we got there my dad and I sat in the bleachers, we’re so used to seeing them on TV up close, but sitting in those stands you can barely tell who’s who. I did see Urlacher sneak onto the field, he laid down in the back of a golf cart through the player entrance and exit, so that none of the kids would bother him for an autograph. What you don’t see in my pic is the pic of him on the cover of the program signing autographs but he’s looking in the direction of the camera. Make me wonder if he only did it for the shot and then walked away. Chicago’s ABC sports guy Jim Rose was there. Yup. So as my dad and I are watching, he turns to me and says that this is not as fun as when he took us up to Plattville, WI in 1987 to see the training camp. Which was essentially the 85 Superbowl Bears.

Even though, I was only 7 years old, I never forgot this experience. We spent two days in Wisconsin and there was literally nothing else to do up there besides go to the training camp. I couldn’t tell you where we stayed, we could have camped on the grounds for all I know. We must have gone later in the camp season because they were scrimmage games going on. And at that time everyone on that team was a super star to me. My favorite part of the whole experience of course was standing in line and getting autographs and we couldn’t leave until I got Walter Payton’s autograph. So, after camp was over, we stood along the roped off player entrance & exit to get as many as we could. Doug Floutie was on the squad then, I’ll never forget that he not only signed autographs but if you were a young beautiful woman, he would step beyond the rope and pose for pics. Class act and great guy, it seemed. I recently watched him on MLB Networks The Next Great Knuckler. 25 years later same great guy I saw on TV. Mike Singletary seriously worked the entire crowd and gave everyone an autograph. He was still doing this two hours after the entire team was off the field. Nobody like him, he was there so long I got two autographs. At the time, I didn’t really know he Jim Harbaugh was but I got his and Neal Anderson’s autographs. But oddly enough, we never saw Sweetness, neither at the open of camp or the end. So after all the players went to the locker room, we moved to the players parking lot exit/entrance. We were there for hours! We saw everyone leave. My absolute favorite had to be seeing The Refrigerator William Perry leave on a red scooter type vehicle. Classic. I wish we had pics of that one. But still no Payton. We literally spent the entire day at the camp waiting for him. The next thing I know, I look around us and its my parents myself and my sister and one other family of 4. I just watched the gate and this Iroc-Z pulls up to gates, they open up, Richard Dent is driving someone’s in the back seat and in the passenger seat is WALTER PAYTON! Does he stop? NO!!! I don’t know what took over my mother and me but we took off running. I was a fast, my mom was faster. We were in such a zone, that we ignored the fact that my little sister was somewhere behind us laying on the ground crying because she tripped and fell. At least my dad stayed behind to help her I guess. The other family just didn’t keep up. We lost them somewhere. Dent would slow down enough for us to get close and then take off. This went on for several blocks, I couldn’t tell you how many but it was more than a few. After this stop and go game, finally, Dent makes a complete stop. Payton looks at my mom and me and says, “Ok, one autograph.” I hand him my paper he signs it, my mom thanks him, I thank him he looks at my mom and asks, “Is she going to be all right?” My mom shrugs it off, “yea, yea, yea, she’s fine.” As far as my autograph days go, that was the best day as kid to meet Walter Payton. Now when I look back though, I think what a jerk to do that to us over one autograph but the kid in me never let’s me dwell on it too long without saying, “Yea, but you got Payton’s autograph.” Years later, we’re telling that story and my mom is blue in the face with laughter and admits that when Walter asked if she’s going to be alright, my mom and I had no clue that my sister was down the street crying, screaming bloody murder because she tripped and fell. It can be a sensitive topic sometimes but i still got Sweetnesses autograph. All in all it just seemed more exciting as a kid going to the training camp.

But we’ll see, I live in the west suburbs of Chicago in Romeoville, IL. Our mayor John Noak has been trying to bring the training camp to Lewis University. Of course Lewis will not speak about the topic. I believe the goal is to get them here for 2014 summer training camp. Some believe that if former Chicago Bear and pro wrestler beats Noak in this Aprils election it will lock in the deal bringing the Bears to Lewis. It’s quite the little controversy here. The Bears contract with the current training facility at Olivet University is up in 2013. The rumor is the Bears would like the training camp to be closer to season ticket holders. Whether its true or not, I don’t know but if they choose to move it to Romeoville it would allow all of Chicago to access the training camp by almost any means. In 2014, construction on a train station is to begin in 2014. The train that runs through starts in the loop and ends in Joliet. The train station would be about a 5-10 minute bus ride and the hub in Joliet it stops at is about a 10-15 minute bus ride from that train station which has other connecting lines taking you to the south suburbs and back to the loop. It would boost tourism to my village, generate increased tax revenue. Plus help generate more traffic into local business that should hopefully help create more money for the villages beautification plans. In the end I’m just hoping all that happens to increase my property value so I can make some money on my house. Plus, I would like to get us a Sports Time Radio one of the Bears on the show.

Dan the Man

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