One down, three to go!

The Chicago Blackhawks gave us that come-from-behind victory earlier this week against the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game One of the Stanley Cup finals.

Will this pennant become more obsolete?

Three more victories, and Chicago gets its third pro hockey championship in six years.

WHICH WOULD BE something of significance for Chicago sports fans. Considering that the Blackhawks have only five championships in their 80-something years of existence.

And before that 2010 title, the last Stanley Cup victory for the Blackhawks was back in 1961.

The point being that while the Blackhawks might be an “Original Six” franchise, they’re not exactly one with a significant winning tradition. Taking another championship title this year would make this era’s Blackhawks franchise the highlight of the franchise history.

Enough for us to forget Bobby Hull or Stan Mikita (and I don’t want to read any e-mailed gags about doughnut shops) or anyone else who played all those years ago.

CONSIDERING THAT CHICAGO sports don’t exactly have histories of winning (our sports franchises usually require fans to endure some pretty sucky ball teams), this is an era that will not be forgotten.

It’s not exactly on the same level as those Chicago Bulls teams that won two strings of three-straight-championships during the 1990s.

But they are teams that will make our sports fans think about ice and skating – even the fair-weather fans (I have to confess that none of the pro hockey teams I have seen include the Blackhawks; I’ve never seen a match of theirs in my life) who probably don’t comprehend much of what is happening on the ice.

Who's thinking about doughnuts?!?

Except that fights occasionally break out. And the Blackhawks seem to get whiny opponents from the south to play against – it makes me wish this year’s Stanley Cup final could have been a Chicago-New York Rangers match-up instead of the one we got!

SUCH AS NASHVILLE trying to restrict sales of tickets in their arena to local residents and Tampa Bay wanting to forbid anyone from wearing a Blackhawks jersey in their arena anywhere where it would be seen by a television camera.

Strangely enough, that hang-up seems to be common for a lot of sports teams based in cities that weren’t major league a half-century or so ago.

Which is something rather lame, if you think about it. What kind of place is so insecure that they have to create a phony image that the whole world revolves around themselves?

How will this cover be topped!?!

If the Lightning were really into the hang of things, they’d want to have Blackhawks faithful sitting in their stands, buying their beer and other overpriced concessions, then looking rather gloomy when their team lost.

WHICH MIGHT BE the reason I’m hoping there’s a Blackhawks victory Saturday night in Game Two.

That would set up a possibility for the Stanley Cup to be a four-game sweep, with victories Three and Four coming next week at the United Center.

Let a couple of Lightning fans show up in Chicago and find themselves to be an insignificant minority. So much so that Blackhawks fans won’t be bothered by what they choose to wear.

Although I have to admit to being curious t see how we’ll behave if we get a championship-winner in Chicago proper.

WILL OUR FANS wind up acting stupid and rioting to express our glee, as has happened in certain other cities across the country when their professional (or collegiate) teams came through on the athletic field (or turf or ice or wood, or whatever substance they happen to be playing on).

For those "fans" who can't comprehend what happens on the ice

Then, we can move on to trying to figure out just how far removed from championship quality our baseball and football franchises will be in ’15.

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Burge case finally arrives at a charge

It was with a bit of joy that I woke up Tuesday, did a quick search of the Internet to see what was happening in the world, and stumbled across the reports that just a few hours earlier, Jon Burge was arrested at his home in the suburbs of Tampa, Fla.

So much for Burge, a retired Chicago police officer, being able to enjoy the World Series in his adopted home town in peace.

BURGE IS ONE of those names that comes up perennially in Chicago news reports, and is one that many people may vaguely recognize – even if they’re not sure off the top of their heads who he is or why we should care about him.

For the Burge story has been around for so long that the specifics of his case are lost upon most people. Too many just hear the name Burge and apply one of two labels to him – “corrupt cop” or “victim.”

The latter is true. I have heard some people complain that Burge is merely being picked on by people who want to “coddle” criminal elements.

Now for those who don’t remember, Burge was a Chicago police officer in various capacities and ranks from 1970 to 1993 – when he was officially fired from his job. By that point, he had been on leave and had unofficially retired to Florida, where he continues to live to this day.

WHAT DRAWS THE attention of activists is Burge’s time when he was assigned to the Chicago Police area Two, whose stationhouse is located in the Pullman neighborhood and which encompasses all the police districts on the city’s Far South Side.

Activists who take an interest in police brutality and torture argue that Burge was a master of both genres. They claim his interrogation techniques cross the line between pressure to get someone to talk, and outright abuse.

Until Monday, there were never any criminal charges against Burge. But earlier this year, the City Council and Mayor Richard M. Daley approved a $20 million payment to settle a lawsuit brought by four people who claim Burge abused them while they were in police custody some two decades ago.

Now as often happens, the criminal charges now pending against Burge are not for the actual physical force (I don’t doubt those suspects were hit, what is at stake is whether the force crossed the line into torture).

THE TWO CHARGES of obstruction of justice and one charge of perjury relate to court proceedings in 2003 when Burge provided information about the decades-old physical force. Federal prosecutors say Burge did not tell the truth (he says he never tortured anybody). So they want to turn him into a convicted liar.

That is what activists with an interest in police brutality are going to have to settle for. A special report put together by Cook County officials two years ago determined that while some criminal suspects may have suffered torture back when Burge ran the detective bureau in Pullman, the statute of limitations had run out.

The end result was that the now-60-year-old Burge was required to appear before a federal judge in Tampa on Tuesday, where bond was set at $250,000 (he put up his house). He is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Chicago on Monday, although the question is whether he will be allowed some sense of dignity in remaining free or whether bond will be revoked and he will get to live at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, looking out at the streets of downtown Chicago through one of those slits in the side of the building that pass for windows.

I can already hear the arguments from people who always want to give the police the benefit of the doubt in such cases (even though I think that police ought to be held to a higher standard to ensure they don’t abuse the great authority entrusted to them by working in law enforcement).

THESE WERE CRIMINALS who needed to have some force used (this is the real world, after all). Not only that, these are old cases and who’s to say how well anyone remembers the details. Besides, is it really fair to prosecute Burge now, all these decades later?

But U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald of Chicago is applying the same higher standards to police that he has applied to Chicago political people in recent years.

“There is no place for torture and abuse in a police station. There is no place for perjury and false statements in federal lawsuits,” Fitzgerald said, in a prepared statement. “No person is above the law, and nobody, even a suspected murderer, is beneath its protection.”

So now, the same federal prosecutor who took down former Gov. George Ryan for acts that some consider to be “just the way Illinois politics operates” is going after Burge for behavior that some might say is “just the way Chicago police operate.”

NOW, WHILE I concede the fact that police have a legal authority to use some physical force (we wouldn’t arm them with pistols and nightsticks if we didn’t expect them to be used every now and then), the stories told about Burge have always exceeded any sense of legal restraint.

Stories of inmates being given electric shocks to provide the “proper” (ie., self-incriminating) answers to interrogation questions are old. I heard them back when I was a full-time police reporter for the now-defunct City News Bureau of Chicago.

That was back in 1988, so none of this is new. And for what it’s worth, I used to make regular trips to that same Pullman Area stationhouse, and encounter many police officers who were quick to defend Burge’s behavior. I never actually met the man – he had been reassigned to a different unit by then, and always seemed to work different shifts than I did.

If anything, it is the age of these stories (the Chicago Reader stories that are considered some of the most definitive reporting on the Burge situation date back to 1989) that makes me glad something has finally happened.

IT IS TIRING to hear the Burge name turned into just a vague label that somehow relates to police brutality, but which most people don’t really know how. And to think that Burge will be able to tie into the groups of people who want to support police even though he may have abused his law enforcement power is kind of sickening.

Getting an indictment means we can start taking the steps toward something resembling a trial. That means eventually, the name “Burge” will quit being something of significant interest in news reports across the city.

Jon Burge, if convicted, can become just another anonymous inmate. Or, if he manages to beat the charges and get an acquittal, he can become just another anonymous retired cop who chose to leave Chicago and urban life for some rural, sunny climate.

Either way, it’s “Good Riddance” to Burge on behalf of the people of Chicago.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: The Chicago Reader was one of the first publications to take seriously (http://www.chicagoreader.com/policetorture/900126/) the concept that something funky with the police was taking place on Chicago’s Far South Side.

The Chicago Sun-Times tried to score points by claiming to be the first Chicago newspaper (http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/1233077,jon-burge-cop-torture-chicago-arrested-102108.article) in Tampa, Fla., for the story. The Tampa Tribune offers (http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/oct/21/211133/feds-charge-ex-chicago-police-boss-obstruction/) their take on the Chicago story.

A University of Chicago-supported group offers this timeline of the Burge situation (http://humanrights.uchicago.edu/chicagotorture/timeline.shtml).

Is Mayor Daley a compulsive gambler when it comes to Chicago sports teams?

When it comes to political people placing bets on their hometown professional sports teams, Mayor Richard M. Daley is a master.

Perhaps it was all those years in the 1990s when the Chicago Bulls were dominant in the National Basketball Association. Daley would contact his counterpart in whatever city the Bulls were taking on, and place a bet for delivery of some sort of food item indigenous to that particular burg.

THE BULLS’ SUCCESS (six NBA titles in eight seasons) meant he got a lot of good eats.

So naturally, Daley is carrying on his bets now that the 2008 Major League Baseball season has turned out to be so unique for Chicago.

Our mayor actually has bets going with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and with three officials in the St. Petersburg/Tampa, Fla., metropolitan area.

Now as this is written, both the White Sox and Cubs have managed to start off their performance in the 2008 playoffs by losing all their games thus far. Javier Vazquez just seemed determined Thursday to give the Tampa Bay Rays a lead, even after the Sox recovered from his initial outburst of negativity. And the Cubs showed what the franchise's character is all about, losing by scores of 7-2 and 10-3.

SO THERE’S A chance that Daley will be making double payments.

In the case of the White Sox (the baseball team that Hizzoner Jr. actually takes an interest in), he’s offering up sausages made in Chicago, along with lots of baseball equipment that the park districts in those cities could use for their youth league baseball programs.

Should the Sox manage to rebound and beat the Devil Rays (I’m sorry, but I think that’s a better sounding name than this generic-sounding moniker they came up with beginning this season), Daley will get seafood and cigars.

When it comes to supporting the Cubs, his bet is more a symbolic gag.

L.A. WILL GET a gesture supporting that city for the 2016 summer Olympics if the Dodgers win, while a Cubs victory would result in Tribune Co. owner Sam Zell being “returned” to Chicago (the company owns both the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times), although some food products apparently also will transfer hands.

Daley has the routine down pat.

In cases where actual goods are exchanged, Daley gets sponsors to pay for the items, which means the local providers wind up getting some free publicity if they have to cough up the goods. So Daley doesn’t pay for anything.

And even if Daley “wins,” the mayor is usually good about plugging the companies that would have provided the stuff.

SO EVERYBODY GETS a feel-good movement, and our political people get to feel like they connect with “the fans,” who also are “the voters.”

I just have one question.

What happens if my dream of a World Series for this year comes true, and we actually get the first all-Chicago World Series for the first time in 102 years?

Does Daley bet against himself? Does he get lame and do nothing? Or will we have to settle for Gov. Rod Blagojevich filling in for a political surrogate for the Cubs, with Daley taking up the cause of the White Sox?

WHAT COULD THEY bet that would represent the image of the North and Sout' sides? How about some of those gooey, sticky-sweet cinnamon rolls from Ann Sather restaurant, up against some sausages and other meat products provided by the Calumet Meat Co. (the home of Moo and Oink)?

In a separate matter, Daley is not the only politico who sees the need to try to connect with sports fans.

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., who also is running a campaign to be the first Chicagoan to get to live at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., told ESPN Radio that a City Series would be reason for him to take some time off from the campaign trail – so he could be at the ballpark to cheer for the White Sox.

“I’ll tell America, I’m sorry guys, but I’ve got my priorities straight,” Obama said during a radio interview earlier this week. The scary thing is that there is a certain segment of the U.S. population that would agree with Obama on that view.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: Is there a bet that Richard M. Daley can resist when it comes to Chicago’s (http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=31264) professional (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/30/daley-bets-local-eats-on_n_130686.html) athletic teams? Or does he know how to play along with a good gag (http://laist.com/2008/10/01/mayor_villaraigosa_bets_chicago_may.php) when he hears one?

Barack Obama would want to be at the World Series if any of the games wind up getting played (http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/10/02/obama-jokes-hell-skip-campaigning-for-a-chicago-world-series/) in Chicago.