Enjoy it while it lasts, for Illinois becomes irrelevant again after Tuesday

At least insofar as the presidential campaign is concerned – because those of us who live here know we’re the crown jewel of the Great Lakes states. Where else would you find a hot dog stand paying "tribute" to a presidential candidate by offering 3-inch-long wieners?

From the 'inevitable' image Hillary wants to create for herself, ...

But let’s be real. The presidential campaigns have been operating for months in distant places, barely giving us a thought.

... to a leader who tells everybody 'You're Fired" ...

AT LEAST UNTIL Wednesday night, which is when it seemed the candidates started sticking themselves in our faces to try to gain our attention long enough for us to consider actually casting ballots for them.

That activity seemed to peak on Friday when multiple presidential dreamers insisted on cluttering up our personal presence. Even Donald Trump – who with his University of Illinois at Chicago rally has many of the activists all riled up. So many, in fact, that Trump wound up cancelling the event at the last minute -- citing security concerns.

... many political hopefuls are here ...

Admittedly, some people engaged in petition drives to have Trump banned from the near West Side campus. Which was a nonsense attitude to take.

The real way to deal with a political knucklehead is to let him say something stupid so we see what a knucklehead he truly is. Get in his face, so to speak.

ALTHOUGH I DON’T doubt that the security types Trump had on hand were all geared up and ready to deal with anyone they even remotely thought was troublesome – particularly if that person had an excess of melanin showing up in their skin complexions.

... to try to win our votes.

Now I’m sure the Trump backers think they’re sticking up for themselves and their candidate when (in other cities) they have beaten those protesters. Although I’d argue all they’re really doing is showing that Trump is the knucklehead candidate who attracts nitwit supporters.

In the end, the Trump presence could be nothing more than a very vocal minority that only wins if the real majority decides to sit on its duff and do nothing come Election Day.

Wishing he could join our party!

In which case, the idea of a “President Trump” would be exactly the punishment they would deserve for not voting!

BUT IT WASN’T just Trump who felt the need to be in Illinois in hopes of getting our state’s delegates and (ultimately) our Electoral College votes. We do, after all, have more of those to offer than any other Midwestern state – largely because of the presence of Chicago and all its population.

We had Ted Cruz on Friday in the northwest suburbs, while Hillary Clinton was out there on Thursday, and Hillary will be back in the state on Monday in Springfield. While husband Bill on Friday was in Peoria to support his wife’s political aspirations, after making a similar appearance in Evanston.
 

Is the former president that eager to once again live in the White House and enjoy all of its life perks?

We even had John Kasich in our state, with his aides saying the Ohio governor is counting on his home state and ours to keep alive his desire to call himself a presidential candidate.

WE ILLINOISANS COULD become the people who kill off his dreams – thereby making the idea of candidate Trump a reality. That is a goal we ought desperately to do everything we can to avoid achieving. We don’t deserve to be blamed for that; do we?

Lest I forget, even Bernie Sanders made appearances in the area, including a Friday night appearance in suburban Summit at Argo High School – the alma mater of one-time White Sox slugger Ted Kluszewski. Somehow, I think the locals will take greater pride in “Big Klu” than they will  the presence of “the Bern.” Although his appearance Saturday with Rev. Jesse Jackson may get him more favorable attention. 

Personally, I'll take a Big Klu over all of them

In fact, about the only presidential hopeful we’re not going to see in coming days is Marco Rubio – whose own chances for political survival are so tied to the Florida primary on Tuesday he can’t afford to leave the state. So much for any personal contact with the man the Chicago Tribune seriously believes ought to be our nation’s 45^th president.

There is one thing to keep in mind – this personal attention is fleeting. Come Wednesday, the candidates will have moved on to thinking about Arizona, Idaho and Utah; the states whose primaries come a week later on March 22. And in their dreams, they’ll be focused on the days before March 26 – when they can think about staging a campaign event or two in Hawaii to try to gain that state’s voters.

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Girardi a Cubbie dream; I’d sooner believe Ozzie will be at Wrigley Field

It isn’t a surprise that the Chicago Cubs fired their field manager on Monday. It had been speculated upon that Dale Sveum would not be back with the Cubs in 2014.

Joe Girardi, where he began

And in a sense, a manager whose teams lose 101 and 96 games during the two seasons he was in charge is vulnerable to losing his job. Although these were the Cubs teams that management higher up openly admitted weren’t going to be in contention for anything other than last place in their division of the National League.

SUPPOSEDLY, THE CUBS are putting all their efforts into bolstering a minor league system so that sometime around 2015, it will start producing quality ballplayers for the major league roster.

And perhaps by 2016 or 2017, it could mean winning ball clubs that could actually bring an end to the assorted championship droughts (no National League title since 1945, no World Series championship since 1908) by teams wearing Cubbie-blue.

It’s no secret that I’m skeptical of that time line. I’m not convinced that the influx of talent will be forthcoming. I’m also aware of the fact that draft picks don’t always pay off (which is why I think those White Sox fans who were rooting for a historically awful season in 2013 so as to get a higher round draft pick were being stupid!).

But what really amazes me is the fact that Sveum is being blamed for the awful play of ball clubs that his bosses always admitted were going to be terrible. Particularly since it is stirring up the speculation that Joe Girardi is destined to be the new field manager of the Chicago Cubs.

Girardi as much Yankee lore ...

THAT’S JUST RIDICULOUS. It’s not going to happen. If THAT’S the reason for letting Sveum go, Cubs fans are going to be in for quite a disappointment when Girardi remains in New York – where he has been field manager for the New York Yankees for the past six years.

I realize that Cubs fans see a Peoria native who played Big Ten college baseball for Northwestern, then went on to play 15 seasons in the major leagues – including two stints totaling seven years with the Cubs.

... as Mariano Rivera or Derek Jeter

They want to believe he’s the ultimate Cub who’s just dying for the chance to come back to Wrigley Field. I don’t believe it. Not just because Girardi himself told reporter-types Sunday that his Chicago connections aren't as strong as they used to be AND his family has grown to like life in the New York area.

Mainly because I’ve always thought of him primarily as a Yankee (he played four seasons, including a stint as the starting catcher for the 1996 World Series-winning team and also as a significant player paired up with Yankees star Jorge Posada on World Series-winning teams of 1998 and 1999).

Skowron a Boilermaker/Yankee

DURING HIS MANAGERIAL stint as a Yankee (dating back to 2008), he led a World Series-winning team (2009) and also other teams that were contenders – and likely would be in the American League playoff picture this year if not for all the injuries they experienced.

No matter what one thinks of the Yankees, that’s a winning situation he’s in. And most professional baseball people don’t get hung up on any one city – they want to win!



The Red from Argo

I don’t see him giving up his current status until the time comes when the Yankees are ready to let him go. Which likely would make him a manager past his peak – which is what one could argue was a description that fit Gene Michael and Lou Piniella (two Cubs managers who came to Chicago with strong Yankees pedigrees).

They wound up winning nothing during their time in Chicago. I don’t see Girardi wanting to suffer the same fate.

IN A SENSE, I see Joe Girardi as being a modern-day equivalent of ballplayers like Bill Skowron and Ted Kluszewski. The latter was from suburban Summit, while Skowron was from the Northwest Side. Both also attended Big Ten colleges (Purdue for Skowron, Indiana for Kluszewski) before getting into professional baseball.

And both included a stint in Chicago (with the White Sox) amongst their major league careers.

Could Ozzie learn to love Wrigley?

But Skowron was very much a Yankees star, while anyone remembering Kluszewski’s uniform sleeves cut off to accommodate his bulging shoulder muscles remembers the Cincinnati Reds uniform he was wearing at the time.

I see Girardi staying in New York, while someone else winds up being the head guy at Wrigley Field. Ozzie Guillen, anyone??!?

  -30-