The Fighting Illini and Northwestern Wildcats have scheduled a football game to be played at Wrigley Field this year on November 20 at 11am.  How will it look you ask?  Well MPS has created a photoshop of the most likely scenario.

It seems like a very cool idea.  The Winter Classic was amazing and although there’s no way this could be as exciting as that, it still looks to be very interesting.  My pop always talks about how he used to see the Bears play at Wrigley back in the 1960s and how great it was (or wait, did he complain about it?  I can’t remember…).  Either way I’m getting tickets soon and you should too.

As a member of Generation “I Don’t Have Time to Follow Real News”, its hard to find time in my day between work, following sports, and doing nothing to actually figure out what’s really going on in the world. That’s where Comedy Central’s Daily Show and Colbert Report come in. I love Colbert’s schtick, and fortunately for us his ongoing segment “Better Know a District” came to Chicago’s 5th this week. Here’s his summary of the 5th, better known as the North Side.  Of course it includes getting sworn at ordering hot dogs at Wiener’s Circle and some nice Wrigleyville/Boystown gay jokes.  Enjoy:

If you want to watch the actual interview with Quigley, you can go here.  It’s hilarious as well.

I saw this on Chicagoist and had to share it with everyone.  I know its not sports-related, but it is too funny not to post.  Apparently this is the sign out front of  Marie’s Golden Cue on Montrose in Albany Park.  I wonder if it’s helped business or not:

Sounds like my kind of place.

The Cubs played the Dodgers on Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN the other night.  As ESPN always does on those national telecasts, it broadcast many live views of Chicago landmarks.  Notice anything wrong with this one?

I’ll give you a hint, take a look at the building on the left.  It’s the Sun-Times building, right?  Well one minor problem, that building came down about 5 years ago and was replaced by Trump’s wonderful new masterpiece.  Can ESPN really not afford to get a live shot of the City?  And if not, wouldn’t it be better not to LIE and make us think that’s a live shot?  ESPN is so awesome.

h/t: Deadspin

Just to clear up any confusion, yes, we were the UIC Flames.

I have been a huge Curtis Granderson fan since his days playing baseball at University of Illinois at Chicago (of which I am an alum).  I didn’t know him personally, but he was always smiling and friendly with everyone around campus and just generally had a great reputation.  When he came up with the Tigers, he swung a sweet bat basically from day 1 and I cheered him on, praying that he might someday wear a Chicago uniform.  In fact, ask StevieY19, but I have been contemplating buying a Granderson Tigers jersey (or jersey tee) for some time now.  Anyways, Granderson isn’t just from Chicago, he loves Chicago.  He had this to say in his blog this morning (I am an avid reader by the way, you should check it out):

Even though Chicago is one of my favorite cities to come back and play in, there are a lot of things that I do miss out on throughout the course of the season in Chicago. This year for example I’m going to miss my high school’s 10-year reunion. I’ll also miss the “Taste of Chicago,” the music festivals, the Air and Water Show, the summer in the city, and being in my house for more than four months out of the year, especially during the warmer months.

By the way, did you see that ridiculous catch he made the other day to save the game against the Indians?

How can you not love this kid?

So I finally checked out ESPN’s new Chicago centered site (site? blog? page?  whatever it’s called) expecting to be shocked, appalled and generally saddened about life the way I am with anything new ESPN does outside of their Sportscenter commercials.  Really though, I’m not sure how much this affects us Chicago folk and if anything, it could be a good thing.

The new site seems to be just like their main site (ESPN East Coast) with all Chicago stories.  I haven’t been doing this blogging thing for very long, but from what I’ve seen it’s natural for bloggers to react with some fear anytime mainstream media do something that seems to tread on our territory.  Especially with a company with the power of ESPN, the idea that it can provide the same thing we do for readers with the advantage of all their financial backing and unparalleled access is scary.

I can’t say for sure what ESPN Chicago will be all about, but from spending just a short time on it today, I get the feeling it provides the same thing as ESPN.com does.  It’s your straight up sports news with some commentary from people that not everyone cares to hear from.  All due respect to the writers over there, but if something is going on with Lou and Ozzie, I’m going to Bleacher Nation and South Side Sox before I even think about heading to ESPN Chicago.

Blogs provide something deeper than the general interest that ESPN is based on.  When they try to get in depth or personal on a story all you get is another manufactured story from their hype machine.  When I say deeper, I don’t mean in an intellectual sense (blogs still have the market on poop jokes and pictures of drunken athletes), but in a personal and passionate sense.

ESPN Chicago will likely be nothing more than a great resource for some Chicago sports news.  It will be a good place to stop by once in a while to skim the headlines and look for an interesting story we can go check on elsewhere.  But when Orton and Cutler square off in a game of flip-cup, we still know where to go.  So I guess I missed an opportunity to hate on something ESPN has done, but I don’t think it’s that big of a deal, and will hopefully produce more good than bad.

Chicago’s Olympic bid  has gone from sure thing to no chance to possibility and back again.  Would it be good for the city?  That’s a topic for another day.  In the meantime, here is a video promo the Chicago Olympic Committee prepared for the IOC Evaluation Commission, which is in town this week to judge the city.  Michael Jordan appears at the end and sends chills up my spine.  Enjoy:

Funny note: Christian Laettner was a member of the original Dream Team in 1992 that won the gold medal.

h/t: Docksquad

As a Chicagoan, I take pride in a lot of things in our city: architecture, sports teams, work ethic, attitude of the people, culture, and a number of other things.  One thing I take special pride in is our food.  Whether it is the amazing deep dish pizza or the delicious Italian beef, the food in Chicago is hearty and delicious (yeah we are a fat city, so what?).

One of my favorite foods is a good Chicago hot dog, nothing beats it.  Some people say it is strange to put mustard, relish, pickles, tomatoes, raw onions, peppers and celery salt on a hot dog.  While it does sound odd now that I am looking at the ingredients, I know one thing:  It’s delicious.

Well San Francisco apparently has their own special hot dog, and it looks terrible.  I mean terrible.  Take a look at this menu from AT&T Park via Home Run Derby:

Besides having no idea what swish cheese is, that San Francisco dog looks absolutely disgusting.  Thousand Island sauce?  How exactly is this an SF dog?  I’ve never heard of anything like that.  Isn’t everyone there a vegetarian anyways?