OK, It's Officially Official Now - Theo Epstein is a Cub

The press conference introducing Theo Epstein as President of Baseball Operations for the Chicago Cubs was held this morning at 11:00, which means that the nearly two-week-long wait for Epstein to actually begin working for the Cubs is finally over.  What a fortnight it's been - I don't think I've seen this level of national media hyperventilation about an off-field sports event since the second Brett Favre unretirement announcement.  And it's not just the mainstream media:  throw in the blogosphere and the Twitter-verse, and I think the only subject that's consumed more Internet bandwidth than speculation about Epstein these past two weeks is pornography. 

In any event, with the media circus behind us, it's good to know that Epstein will now be able to begin re-building the completely decimated Cubs franchise, because there's a lot to do (replace the manager, find better players, dump the bad contracts, figure out whom he's going to trade to the Red Sox for himself, teach the front office holdovers what "on-base percentage" is, etc.)  Thanks again to the Ricketts family for going all-in on this one and giving Cubs fans a reason to believe that good things are coming our way.  Now quit your lollygagging and get to work, Epstein!

Second Place, Here We Come!

If the reports and rumors floating around are correct, congratulations to the Green Bay Packers, the 2010 NFC North champions. And congratulations to the Chicago Bears, too - that 7 or 8 win season now might be good enough for second place in the division! Heady times, indeed.

As a requiem for Brett Fav-ruh, if he truly stays retired, here are three facts:

1. His last pass as a Green Bay Packer was an interception which led to his team losing the NFC Championship game.

2. His last pass as a Minnesota Viking was an interception which led to his team losing the NFC Championship game.

3. Chris Chandler has quarterbacked a team to the Super Bowl more recently than Brett Fav-ruh has.