Pain: The Life of a Distraught Chicago Sports Fan

 It has been brought up to me a few times since I've started the Pain blog that a certain professional baseball team in Chicago has been left out of my posts. This professional baseball team wears black and white, resides from Guaranteed Rate Field in the south side of Chicago, has a young lineup with a ton of power and swagger, stakes claim to the reigning American League MVP (and the 2005 World Series Championship!), and has the YERMINATOR...this team is none other than the Chicago White Sox. (How's that for an introduction, Sox fans?) Now, there is a decent reason I don't cover the White Sox. It's because I'm a Cubs fan. No, that doesn't mean I absolutely hate the White Sox or have anything personal against them, it's just that I don't follow them as heavily as I do with the teams that I'm a fan of. Personally, I believe that if you grow up a Chicago baseball fan, you're forced to make a choice, pretty much at birth. Cubs or Sox. There's n...

 Spring is one of those cool times of the year in sports. Football is out of season, but pretty much everything else is happening all at once. The NBA and NHL regular seasons are winding down and heading into the playoffs, and the MLB season is in full swing. Overall, it's a good time to be a sports fan. The real question though, is how good of a time is it to be a Chicago  sports fan right now? Neither the Bulls or Blackhawks are mathematically eliminated from the playoff picture yet, but how good are their chances? It may be early, but the Cubs have a losing record. How good will they be? Let's dive into it. The NHL regular season is almost over. Usually this time of year, we would already be watching the playoffs, but because of COVID, the regular season started late and is only 56 games, as opposed to the usual 82 games. After 47 games, the Blackhawks sit at sixth place in the central division with 49 points, which is three points behind the Nashville Predators for the fin...

 If you're not a pro wrestling fan or don't have any interest in pro wrestling, you can probably stop reading now. I'm changing the topic of the blog for one week only, and that's because I'm a lifelong wrestling fan who couldn't pass up the opportunity to do a WrestleMania review. (If nobody else reads this, I know that Frankie's got me since he requested it.) However, don't fret because Chicago sports pain will be back next week and BOY do the Cubs suck! So, about WrestleMania 37. What a weekend (or week if you were able to grind through WWE's countless hours of programming they schedule during Mania week.) it was for pro wrestling fans. NXT, WWE's developmental/third brand, started things hot with their two night NXT Takeover: Stand and Deliver event on Wednesday and Thursday, and the main roster was able to pick up where NXT left off (a rare occurrence) with a fantastic two day event of their own, WrestleMania 37, on Saturday and Sunday. I ge...

 We're one week into the 2021 MLB season and man, did I miss good ole baseball. The Cubs are already kind of pissing me off a little bit, but that doesn't really surprise me. I expected this to be an up-and-down season and that's exactly what it's looking like so far. After one week, the Cubs are 3-3 with a 2-1 series win against the Pirates and a 1-2 series loss to the Brewers. It's not the worst start in the world, but it could definitely be better. The NL central is going to be tight all season long and really, it's anyone's division to win. I have faith that if the Cubs keep this up, they can absolutely win the division and get swept by the Braves or Padres in the first round! (kidding...kind of) I've already had a lot of random observations/overreactions about the season so far, so I'll be sharing a few that I've had and then I'll elaborate on whether or not I actually believe what I'm saying. Let's dive in. Craig Kimbrel is back...

 Welcome back to the Pain blog, single digit number of faithful readers. I enjoyed my week off from writing (no, I didn't get over Andy Dalton yet) but it's time to jump back into things! It's been two weeks since the last blog and a lot has happened since then. Instead of covering just one specific thing, such as Rizzo not getting extended or the Bulls trade deadline splash, I decided that I'll talk about one thing I like currently with each of my teams and one thing that I dislike. I can't be negative all  the time, so we got a little dose of both positivity and negativity this week. Da Bears One thing I like: This is kind of a tough one. It's very hard to give the Bears any sort of praise right now. They've had a horrible offseason, but I got to say at least one positive thing. It's the rules. If there's one thing I like that the Bears have done recently, I'd say it's the Damien Williams signing. Williams was a beast for the Chiefs in the ...

 Let me just start off by saying what the fuck, man.... Today was one of those days in Chicago sports. It was one of those types of days that exemplifies why this blog is titled Pain . I had a bad feeling that a day like today would happen sooner or later...it's the whole reason why I choose my blog topic to be what it is. I was let off easy the first few weeks, if we're being honest. I think I had one blog complaining about a potential Carson Wentz trade to the Bears (take me back to those days), I complained about the Cubs a bit, and I looked back on some past pain. Overall though, it's been smooth sailing and not too much to be weary about. But, today changed all of it. We can now say we've lived through another classic Chicago sports front office bonehead moment. The Bears signed 33 year old Dallas Cowboys backup quarterback, Andy Dalton, to a one year, $10M contract. Let's dive in, shall we? Andy Dalton wasn't even on the radar two days ago, at least not my...