Billy Corgan Wants Ryne Sandberg and Other Bullets

The Brewers tied the NLCS up yesterday at 2-2 with the Cardinals, and the Tigers pulled closer to the Rangers at 3-2. If I’m right that any Theo Epstein announcement won’t be coming until the LCS end, for those of you who just want the drama to be over, those two outcomes weren’t good.

  • Native son (and badass-super-awesome-my-musical-hero-rock-god) Billy Corgan was on the WGN Morning News yesterday, pleading for the return of Ryne Sandberg. “Please, please hire Ryne Sandberg,” Corgan offered as his message to presumed-new-GM, Theo Epstein. “White Sox Nation followed Ozzie all those years. I think Cubs Nation will follow Ryno.” Unrelatedly, has Billy ever done a version of ‘Someday We’ll Go All the Way’? If not, you gotta get on that, dude. The Eddie Vedder version is sublime, so I can only imagine what you could do.
  • Aramis Ramirez wants a multiyear deal from the Cubs or he’s walking, which is pretty much what he’s been saying for a couple weeks now. I’m more confident that Mike Quade won’t be a part of the 2012 Cubs, but Ramirez isn’t far behind.
  • Let’s hope Theo Epstein isn’t listening to Boston Red Sox writer Seth Mnookin, who offered this impressively obtuse evaluation of Chicago fans and media, as contrasted with those in Boston: “The attention, the scrutiny, it won’t be a 365-day thing for him. There won’t be the public expectations and the media expectations.’’ Pro-tip for Seth: travel outside the Northeast sometime. The rest of the country totally exists, and some of it might surprise you. (How is that last name pronounced, by the way? I hear it in my head as one of the shouts from ‘Street Fighter.’)
  • Meant to include this in the bullets yesterday, but the brilliant Joe Posnanski wrote an absolute tome on the Chicago Cubs. If you have 30 minutes and don’t mind becoming a little depressed, give it a read.
  • David Haugh says we should believe in the Ricketts plan, hopping on the bandwagon I’ve been driving for more than a year. Obviously landing Theo Epstein is a huge presupposition of that belief in the Ricketts plan, but even if that deal somehow falls through, I remain incredibly encouraged by Ricketts’ efforts.
  • Carlos Pena is on boardwith Epstein taking the reigns. “He is the type of person I definitely appreciate and a professional that I appreciate,’’ said Pena. “Even playing against him so many years [for Tampa Bay in 2007-10], and playing for him briefly in 2006, I’ve got nothing but good things to say about Theo. I’m excited. I’m excited about the ballclub.” This is actually emblematic of why it’s so difficult to be a GM – Pena is such an awesome dude, and I want him to come back in 2012 because I like cheering for him … but it may not be the wisest use of team resources, given the state of the team. Tough decision. That’s why Theo gets the big bucks.
  • Bryan LaHair kicked off his participation in the Venezuelan Winter League with a 4-4, two homer effort. Speaking of those tough decisions, eh, Mr. Epstein?
  • Theo Epstein’s grandfather wrote ‘Casablanca.’ Of all the Starbucks on all of the North Side, he walks into mine.
  • This is irrelevant to the world of the Cubs, save for the fact that it touches, lightly, on Epstein, but Ken Tremendous (née Michael Schur), formerly of Fire Joe Morgan fame, wrote a diatribe about the coverage of the collapse of the Boston Red Sox. It is funny and poignant in the way that an article written by a fan of the Cubs would be funny and poignant while flinging self-loathing f-bombs at every turn. Bonus fun fact: Schur is the co-creator of Parks and Recreation. I had no idea. Swoon.
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    Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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