Not only was the Smith trade horrific, but then to replace Smith with a legitimate closer we had to deal Palmiero for Mitch Williams (who wasn't nearly as good as Smith anyway). While there are things about Palmiero I don't like, he would have looked awfully nice in our lineup for 10 years.

while I don't like to spend much time on non-Cubs issues in this forum (I think it'd be more appropriate for the Community Blog as Matt and I used in the past), I will say this about the Bears...

In many ways, they resemble the Cubs. They were one of the original teams (like the Cubs were), once a dominant team in the old days(like the Cubs were), and had their moment of glory in modern times in 1985 (though the Cubs haven't) and again in the 2006 season even though they lost....it's kind of like the Cubs in 1984 and 2003 and even 2008, even though they got swept in the playoffs. In those 3 seasons, the Cubs arguably had the best teams in the league, just as the Bears had the best team in 2006, and still lost. In many ways, the McCaskey's and Wrigley's are alike. They showed little patience with coaches, and seemed to have a never ending coaching search. Also, when given the chance to do the right thing and spend enough money to do so, they almost always chose the cheap way out, and rather than build rosters full of good talent and paying to do so, they would often pay huge amounts of cash to land a few players, hoping the teams would be more marketable with fans, not caring about results on the field, because they didn't surround those "star" players with good supporting casts.

With the Bears, it almost always was huge amounts of cash to rookie running backs, hoping to land the next Walter Payton, then every team knew they could load up the box on the run, thus exposing the Bears inept QB's they always seemed to sign. Or, this season, they bet the farm, literally (both in draft picks and huge contract extension) on Cutler, and surround him with a pitiful group of wannabes. Pace, Beekman/Omiyale, Kreutz, Garza, Williams. Is that a line that strikes fear in anyone?!? Pace was released by the lowly Rams for crying out loud. There was a REASON he was left on the scrap heap. Shafer, the back-up to Pace was also signed off the scrap heap. Again, there was a REASON for that. Williams had a back injury that had many experts saying he wouldn't even be drafted in the first round. Then there was the trade of Chris Harris and subsequent signing of Adam Archuleta, and this year, the YouTube sensation (for all the WRONG reasons), Josh Bullocks that certainly make you draw comparisons with Angelo and Hendry.

The crime here is that both the Bears and Cubs have huge fan bases nationally...hell, even globally, and yet the owners of each of these franchises can't seem to find the right formula to success.

I wasn't alive, but I'm damn sure that it was painful for many of you veteran Cubs fans to be around for the "College of Coaches" era. I'm sure it was painful with the Lou Brock trade too...and the 1969 season. I've sat through all of the 3rd basemen after Santo departed, and it was NOT pretty.

For the Bears, we sat through I don't even know how many QB's since McMahon, and you could even argue that he wasn't THAT great, and could go back to even Sid Luckman.

You can make the argument that the 2 most important positions (notice, not including pitching) to a baseball franchise are the 3rd baseman and the 1st baseman. Both positions often are packed with power too, aren't they?

How the Cubs ever let 3B get to such a predicament is beyond belief, just as how the Bears ever let QB become such an issue is even more puzzling.

Until the Cubs landed ARAM and the Bears Cutler, they'd both used combinations of aging veterans and unproven rookies with little to no success. Sure, they'd have good seasons from veterans like Jim Miller and Erik Kramer, and the Cubs would have good seasons from veterans like Ron Cey and Gary Gaetti, but those were band-aid fixes. It's like when you have leaky pipes (I had one recently in my bathroom), and you know you have 2 options, you either can fix it permanently with new fittings, thus requiring more work, or you fix it with special plumbing tape to seal it, knowing that eventually, maybe 2-3 years from now, you're going to have to re-tape it. Even then, you have have choices. You can go the cheap route (a low quality store or resale shop) or go to the Home Depot and pay a little more. That's been the problem for both teams. Rather than going new (young talent), they opted to go for temporary fixes, or cheap young talent like a Rex Grossman or Kyle Orton, knowing that they could sign both relatively easy and for less money long-term. For the Cubs, we had the likes of Doug Strange, Gary Scott, etc., and none of them ever panned out, because they were rushed into action. Gary Scott had only 2 seasons of pro ball under his belt before his call-up, and didn't exactly light it up in the minors to begin with. Rex Grossman didn't have the opportunity to really learn under anyone and was thrust into action when Stewart and Chandler weren't cutting it. Then, in 2004, the Bears went out and signed the likes of Hutchinson, Krenzel, and Quinn, retarding his progress even more, even though he sustained injuries.

There are so many similarities to both franchises, from outright ridiculous statements from their head coach/manager about the reality of their predicaments on the field, such as last year and this year when Lovie Smith declared it a "new season" after they were seemingly eliminated from playoff contention to this year when he declared it a "6 game season" to Lou Piniella saying "it's a long season" and making excuse after excuse for poor play on the field. Then you have the GM's at the helm, making mind-blowing decisions like trading a 2nd round pick for a guy practically run out of a terrible Tampa Bay Bucs team, and you compare that to Hendry trading a cheap, top pitching prospect for a veteran closer that was practically run out of Florida (LOL...both GM's seem to love Florida teams), coming off knee surgery, leading the league in blown saves, AND earning $4 million.

I have solutions for both teams, so bear with me (no pun intended).

BEARS:
-fire Angelo, Smith, Turner, and Hiestand
-hire Mike Singletary (I realize we'd have to compensate the 49ers somehow) as head coach, Ron Rivera as defensive coordinator, Mike Martz or Charlie Weis as offensive coordinator, and go out and find the best possible O-Line coach (I don't know who is)
-trade/release: Pace, Chris Williams, Omiyale, Bullocks, Vasher, Hillenmeyer, Ogunleye, Anderson, Harris, both Anthony and Gaines Adams, and Steltz
-elevate Marten, Raiola, and Asiata, all linemen from the practice squad, and Lance Louis to active game duty for the rest of the season to see what we have
-elevate DJ Moore (CB) and Turenne (CB, from practice squad) to active duty to see what we have with them as well, and elevate Iglesias (WR) as well and give Gilbert and Toiena (both DT) a shot to prove they're every down type of players and give them every opportunity to supplant Harris, Anthony Adams, and Marcus Harrison.
-in losing games, like we saw on Sunday, start Caleb Hanie in the second half once you're practically out of it to avoid injury to your biggest investment on the team in Cutler, and to also prepare Hanie in case something does happen to Cutler in the future (which it will with this AWFUL line)

For a Cubs reference...just how many seasons did we have to watch where the Cubs were mathematically eliminated from contention, only to see the same damn veterans playing out the games. Couldn't we have tried using young players just to see what we had with them?!? The Bears need to learn from the Cubs in this regard, and develop their talent better.

CUBS:
-fire Hendry, Piniella, and Rothschild
-hire Gillick, LaRussa, and Duncan
*plan B would be to go with Gillick as an advisor, and hire a Dombrowski or someone like that as GM, then give Sandberg a shot, and lure Maddux out of retirement as pitching coach.
-get young, trade every veteran, except for Z, ARAM, and Dempster, and just start over from there.

Indeed, both teams look lousy for the present AND future in terms of talent and leadership in the front office. At least, in the Cubs case, they have new ownership that apparently wants to focus on youth, and has already done their homework on successful franchises (Red Sox), so they must have a plan. Do the Bears? It's quite obvious they don't. They went out and got their franchise QB, then signed an aging left tackle to protect his blind side, and didn't make an effort to get a top flight receiver, which the team currently lacks. Yes, Knox might develop into an excellent receiver, but who else does he have around him? Aging line, aging defense, and a clueless coaching staff and front office do NOT lead to championships. If the Bears continue down this path, they will FINALLY have found their franchise QB, only to not put together a team around him.

For reference on what a good team around a franchise QB can do for your team, you witnessed it on Sunday with Minnesota.

line: McKinnie, Hutchinson, Sullivan, Herrera, Loadholt
RB: Peterson AND Taylor
WR: Berrian, Rice, Harvin

on defense, to help the offense with field position, they have:
Pat and Kevin Williams, Jared Allen, Leber, and Winfield to highlight an All-Star cast of defense.

For us, we have only Kreutz to brag about on the line, Knox at receiver and Olsen and Clark at TE, and on defense, we had Urlacher (injured), Briggs, and Tillman.

Want another eery similarity between the teams?

In order to improve a woeful line, rather than looking to improve the quality of players, they went out and got the best line coach out there in Marinelli.

In order to improve a woeful lineup, rather than looking to improve the quality of players, the Cubs went out and got the best hitting coach out there in Jaramillo.

Indeed...far too many similarities...did you know that the Bears also turned down Singletary as coach several years ago when he approached them...he didn't even want to be head coach at the time...just work his way up.

We also turned down Girardi, who desperately wanted to be our manager.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH sometimes I wanna shoot myself for being a Chicago fan

Somehow I recall a story where Davis had fallen a bit out of favor with the Texas brass, and the fact that he has other major league ready talent in front of him makes him an option. I know that most teams do not want to give up a 40 HR a year guy, but that is exactly why I am salivating over the prospect. And I think with what the Rangers need, The Cubs can offer something to "Overwhelm" them.

I feel the same way in regards to EY... The Rockies have major league ready talent in front of him, and The Cubs have a strength in pitching that Col always needs.

I guess I look back at the Dero deal, the mid-season deal with Pitt and notice something...we got a lot of pitching in return. It almost seemed as if JH was stockpiling it.
Gaub, Stevens, Patton, Gorzo, Grabow, Diamond...just to name a few and there are more...
In my logic I take that area of excess and look to teams that need cheap pitching. Texas and Col come to mind, and they have desirable "seemingly blocked" pieces in Davis and EY.

Sadly it does not matter, because Hendry will think the same way and say well there is no chance, when really he has all the pieces to "Overwhelm" anyone if he chose to take that route. Because other than a teams #1 or 2 prospect, anybody can be had for the right price.

Now let's comparo lineups:

Aram or Teahen? Aram.
Theriot or Rameriz? Rameriz.
Miles/Fontenot or Beckam? Beckham.
Lee or Kernerko? Lee
Soto or Perzenski? Perzenski
Quentin or Soriano? Quentin
Funko or Rios. Rios
Bradley or Kotsay? BRADLEY!