Chicagoland Winter Olympians

Darrin Steele of Sherrard, U.S. 2-man Bobsled
Steele and partner Brian Shimer finished 9th in competition on February 16th and 17th.

Dan Steele of Rock Island, U.S. 4-man Bobsled
He will compete on February 22nd and 23rd.

Garrett Hines of Chicago, U.S. 2-man and 4-man Bobsled
Hines and partner Todd Hays finished 4th in competition on February 16th and 17th.

Hines will also compete with Steele on February 22nd and 23rd.

John-Andrew Kambanis of Chicago, Greek Bobsled
Ioannis (John) Livaditis of Chicago, Greek Bobsled

The only Greek Bobsled team finished 31st in competition on February 16th.

Ann Swisshelm of Chicago, U.S. Women's Curling
Stacy Liapis of Chicago, U.S. Women's Curling
Joni Cotten of Mount Prospect, U.S. Women's Curling (alternate)
We face Switzerland in the semifinals today and should hopefully advance to play Canada or Britain in tomorrow's final.

Timothy Goebel of Rolling Meadows, U.S. Men's Figure Skating
Goebel won the bronze medal, although we felt that he performed better on both nights than the Russian silver medallist, Evgeni Plushenko.

Cammi Granato of Downers Grove, U.S. Women's Hockey
Sarah Tueting of Winnetka, U.S. Women's Hockey
After defeating Sweden 4-0 in Tuesday's semi-finals, we face Canada on Thursday for the gold medal, an event we certainly expect to win.

Chris Thorpe of Waukegan, U.S. Men's Luge Doubles
Thorpe and partner Clay Ives won the bronze medal on February 15th.

Becky Wilczak of Berwyn, U.S. Women's Luge
She finished finished 5th overall in competition on February 12th and 13th.

Courtney Zablocki of Naperville, U.S. Women's Luge
She competed on February 12th and 13th and finished 13th overall.

Shani Davis of Chicago, U.S. Men's 5000m Relay Short Track Speedskating alternate
Davis left Utah last weekend after he wasn't needed to compete.

Becky Sundstrom of Glen Ellyn, U.S. Ladies 500m Speedskating
She finished 20th in competition on February 14th.

Chicago Bears

We watched the expansion draft on Monday. Texas appeared to do an excellent job of grabbing quality talent at mostly acceptable prices. As with all football expansion drafts, they picked up a quality line and some decent defensemen, although they really lack any quality skill players.

The Bears lost third-string QB Danny Wuerffel in the draft as the only QB chosen by Texas. Although he's no great loss, since with Shane and Henry Burris already under contract as the second and third-string QBs, there's really only space left for a starter, be it Miller, Bledsoe, or even someone like Dilfer. I still expect Miller back, and they might even wait another year before drafting a potential future starter because of Shane's experience and Burris' promise.

A couple Chicago columnists are now referring to the situation at Halas Hall as the Dick Jauron Hostage Crisis. Maybe these guys don't understand, but Jauron dramatically over-achieved last season, and if they can avoid giving him a contract extension without getting nailed in the press, they should definitely take that route until after the season.

If he makes the right decisions this season in Chambana, he can stay if he wants. If he doesn't or even decides not to return, we bring in someone new to lead the team back into the New Solider Field at Latrine on the Lake Stadium.

Chicago Blackhawks

Tony Amonte of the Blackhawks, U.S.
Phil Housley of the Blackhawks, U.S.
Chris Chelios of Chicago, U.S.
U.S. plays Germany in the quarterfinals today; as with all quarterfinal games, the loser goes home.

Alex Zhamnov of the Blackhawks, Russia
Boris Mironov of the Blackhawks, Russia
Russia plays Czech Republic in the quarterfinals today.

Michael Nylander of the Blackhawks, Sweden
Sweden plays Belarus in the quarterfinals today.

Jaroslav Spacek of the Blackhawks, Czech Republic
Czech Republic plays Russia in the quarterfinals today.

Pasi Nurminen of the Chicago Wolves, Finland
Finland faces Canada in the quarterfinals today.

Our predictions? Sweden over Belarus, Russia over Czech, U.S. over Germany, and Canada over Finland in the quarterfinals. Canada will beat Sweden while the U.S. will edge Russia, setting up one fantastic hockey final to end the games. We'll say Canada wins their first gold in hockey in fifty years while Russia easily secures the bronze.

Chicago Bulls

The major Chicago Sports' news of the moment is the seven-player deal completed yesterday with the Indiana Pacers.

Indiana traded us G-F Jalen Rose, G Travis Best, F Nolan Richardson, and a future second-round pick in exchange for starting SF Ron Artest, starting C Brad Miller, starting SG Ron Mercer, and starting PG Kevin Ollie.

Most everyone seems okay with this because Rose has the potential to be a superstar whereas the guys we gave up can really only mature into extremely capable role players at best.

Losing our top three scorers hurts, but Mercer added little other than 8 successful shots each night at a low percentage, Miller doesn't dominate despite being one of the current ten best centers in the league, and Artest is rather erratic at times. While he's an excellent defender at almost every position, he didn't seem to fit into the long-term plans as anything more than a sixth man.

The Bulls really need to find a way to move both Charles Oakley and Marcus Fizer to clear room for acquiring shooters in the off-season. Oakley's a free agent anyway, although we should be able to at least pick up the second round pick that he originally cost us from some team desperate for veteran help.

Chicago can only hope that the reconfigured long-term plan will wind up more effective than the last few seasons. Eddy Curry, Tyson Chandler, Eddie Robinson, and Jalen Rose are set in either the 5-2 (center through shooting guard) positions or 4-1 (power forward through point guard) positions for the next three seasons. Since Rose plays best at shooting guard, he could also remain there while Robinson comes off the bench in favor of starting Jamal Crawford at point guard.

This year's draft will determine which alignment the Bulls will use. We should secure one of the two top picks, allowing us to select either Duke's PG Jason Williams or Chinese center Yao Ming. We sort of prefer the latter as we'd secure height advantages normally over every opposing player on the floor. Rose might begin fighting Williams for shot opportunities similarly to the way he fought with Reggie Miller in Indiana, so if the Bulls draft Williams, they should probably look to trade Rose for another future first round pick and just start the kids with Eddie Robinson.

Of course, none of this will matter after we "lose" the lottery and settle for the fourth pick.

Due to the Bulls' trade and time crunch in getting more magazines reviews written, I'll save both teams' Spring Training previews for the next week or two. I've already covered who's likely to make each team; now I want to look at everyone who will be in camp with both clubs.

Chicago Cubs

The Cubs signed LHP Bryan Ward to compete with Mahay, Sinclair, and Shumaker be the second lefty in the bullpen. Frankly, fifty-five year-old Burt Ward would be a more useful addition to the pen than Bryan, since at least Burt could keep the gang entertained with stories of how Adam West used to hit on him in the Batcave.

They also picked up LHP Jeff Tabaka in the same mix, although now we're hearing strong rumbling that new pitching coach Larry Rothschild really likes Carlos Zambrano and wants to keep him. The Cubs should really consider dealing Julian Tavarez for even a half-decent prospect at this point to open up the long relief role for Zambrano, allowing him to be worked out as both a spot starter and reliever in the majors where he likely belongs.

We've also heard no new age increases from anyone other than Juan Cruz, so our prospect horde seems intact.

Korean 1B Seung-Yeop Lee will join Cubs' camp for workouts sometime in the next couple of days and then stay with the team until the second week in March. Despite the minor detail that he's hit 223 HR in Korea before his 26th birthday, we don't plan on bidding for him in two years when he hits free agency. The organization seems rightfully committed to Hee Seop Choi, and considering their respective ages and upside, this decision appears correct to us. If Choi falters in the next two years, we can always bid for Lee after the 2003 season.

Chicago White Sox

Durham's now building his case in the media for why he should stay with the team. He realizes that with Valentin, Hummel, and Harris all available as potential replacements, without even mentioning the capable Tony Graffanino as a temporary starter, the Sox have several quality options if Durham were to be either dealt or allowed to leave via free agency after the season. Considering his current role on the team, relatively limited upside, and "proven veteran" salary, we definitely hope the Sox grab a two decent prospects in trade instead of risking him accepting arbitration after the season.

Jerry Manuel is also discussing tinkering the lineup, leaving Valentin at #2, batting Lofton leadoff as expected, but dropping Durham to #3 to give Thomas more RBI opportunities. Apparently Manuel continues to fail to realize that OBP is important in your top hitters, Valentin's switch-hitting power nicely breaks up Konerko and Lee lower in the lineup, and Ordonez should be hitting third in the first place.

Extensive use of any lineup beginning with Lofton, Valentin, and Durham will cost the Sox just enough, probably in the neighborhood of three or four wins, for them to lose the division to Minnesota or even Cleveland. With less baserunners thanks to the low OBP guys and Ordonez and Konerko hitting into double plays in back of Thomas, I just don't see this potential tinkering benefiting the Sox in any way whatsoever.

Next week will be our Olympic wrap-up with Spring Training previews beginning ASAP.

One final and fantastic suggestion from last Tuesday's Daily Herald, relayed by Barry Rozner "from Grayslake e-mailed Peter Gallagher: 'You mean there's not a single mind in the White Sox front office bright enough to find Anthony Molina some sort of job? The positive press alone would justify his first year's salary. And you wonder why they can hardly give tickets away.'"

While we certainly don't support any move favoring the Sox over our Cubs, but Felon Christensen is one black mark on the Cubs for which the team and organization deserve to suffer. Someone in organized baseball needs to provide for Molina in at least a coaching or administrative capacity, and either Chicago team seems the most appropriate solution to us.

Until Steve Goodman can rest in peace, these are your Good Chicago Sports.