ARTIFICIALLY INDUCED REGIONAL HOPE and that's about it on the Chicago sportscape.
So what better hang time for an August offering of Ins and Outs?
(Note: All decisions are interim and subject to change quicker than a wind shift carrying haze from a Canadian wildfire.)
· IN — Fantasy football — Experts can prattle on all they want about the outrageous media exposure the NFL receives. … But no single new-mill phenomenon has brought the sports show business into more mainstream nooks and conversations than fantasy football. … With most league drafts in the next few weeks, intense research will be revealed and produce fixed-budget intensity from folks who could give a rat's aunt about point spreads.
· OUT — Full-game betting on the NFL — Three-and-one-half hours for a single wagering decision? … What's next, paying with cash? … The idea of watching and waiting for close to 200 minutes only to have a curious pass-interference call flip the gold standard is provably inhumane. … Inevitable intellectual impalement is no way to while away a Sunday.
· IN — The Savannah Bananas — The amazing barnstormers are filling huge venues and taking baseball to remarkably imagineered places. … Eventually, the dog-paddling masters of MLB are going to have to take notes and refine some energizing ideas for their far too frequently languid pastime.
· OUT — The White Sox on TV — The Fail Hose draw decent audience numbers by putting three high-interest games against the Cubs on free television and suddenly their brain people are the second coming of Roone Arledge? … When country classic Charlie Daniels sang “The South's Gonna Do It Again,” he wasn't thinking about televised baseball from Chicago's West 35th St.
· IN — The decision to keep the NCAA men's and women's basketball tournament at 68 teams — As it is, in the final weeks preceding Selection Sunday, working knowledge of the probable fields requires a cram course. … The chaos brought about by the transfer portal and NIL money has only made those quick studies more challenging. … Now, adding more B-grade participants would go down as nothing more than a diluting money grab.
· OUT — The NFL's new equity stake in ESPN — Really “Out” for media consumers who believe sports in America are strengthened by a significant segment of appropriately independent journalism. … Nothing needs to be said to current and future ESPN staff … What's inbounds — and more important out-of-bounds — from hard reportorial perspectives about the nation's most powerful sports conglomerate is as clear as a studio light on Scott Van Pelt's high-beam pate.
· IN — Recognizing the lack of fuzziness around the current Cubs operation — The lovable Cubbies, tra-la, tra-la, are a thing of the Jack Brickhouse-Harry Caray past. … That notion recalls a time when even the institutional gray of TribCo fought a somewhat noble battle to sustain a valued civic trust. … Now, the failure of Tom Ricketts to commit money at the trading deadline as his MLB franchise smolders after a molten start suggests nothing but shrewd Nebraska-bred greed.
· OUT — The 2025 MVP chase of Pete Crow-Armstrong — Once again, what, who? … He hopefully will have many more seasons in Wrigley blue to max out his significant potential. … But like a quality young thoroughbred still learning, PCA apparently needs a few more times around the warning track.
· IN — Monitoring the new-stadium maneuvering of the Browns in southwest suburban Cleveland — There are lessons to be learned that could be mirrored when the Bears finally commit to Arlington Heights. … In CLE, the Haslams bought a choice tract of land on the front doorstep of Hopkins Airport that once housed two Ford Motor Co. plants. … Now, in a midnight-hour “bill sneak,” the Ohio legislature abruptly found $600M in free money to help the Browns steal away from Cleveland's corporate limits and betray city leadership. … Caveat Illinois.
· OUT — Overlooking all of those fresh exit and entrance ramp upgrades on Route 53 — Quite a coincidence of timing. … Next up — as far away from scrutiny as possible — should be an announcement about the widening of Palatine Road to enhance fan access to Bitcoin.com/George Halas Stadium. … The idea may finally be sinking in behind the closed doors of that $8.8B football corporation that a future golden road indeed does flow to Euclid & Wilke in Arlington Heights.
Jim O'Donnell's Sports and Media column appears each week on Sunday and Wednesday. Reach him atjimodonnelldh@yahoo.com. All communications may be considered for publication.