Waiting for Blanco (to start playing),A memo to the Chicago Fire New Coach

To: Juan Carlos Osorio

From: Don Mac Gregor

Re: Saving the rest of the season after the All-Star break.

Coach, first of all, welcome to the team. I was going to suggest that before each game you should hypnotize the team into believing they are playing MKS Cracovia again. If you saw the inspired, if rough play against the Polish visitors you’d be amazed. However I am reminded of the words of Sherlock Holmes: “When you have eliminated the ridiculous, you are stuck with the practical.”

OK, so it wasn’t an exact quote, but I think you understand my sentiments. I want to talk to you about establishing team stability, personnel consistency and variety in the Fire’s attack. Let’s start off with stability.

It’s no fun working for a company that’s the subject of takeover rumors. I work for a company that was taken over by a multinational. It was an upsetting experience for a lot of long time employees. Who would stay? Who would be forced to move on? People would talk. People would speculate. People would upset themselves with speculation and lose focus.

All media -print and electronic – are filled with pesky talk about AEG’s sale of the team. Not thinking about the Chicago Fire’s future is like trying not to imagine Abel Xavier with a shocking pink hairdo flecked with purple polka dots, and a road hazard orange beard.

You can’t stop people from speculating, after work, but while your players are on the practice field and in the locker room, there should be a “no speculation rule”. Get every player to focus on the things they can control – their performance. Whatever happens with the team’s ownership shall happen. There’s nothing they can do until the end of the season. At least the players now know who their head coach is, now how about if they knew who was in their lineup?

I agree with my colleague John Schulz at Windy City Soccer, that the goalkeeping is solid, so I’ll move on to the defense. The Houston loss shows how dependent Chicago’s defense is on C.J. Brown. If a healthy Dasan Robinson doesn’t shore up on the defense, then you and John Guppy have to go out and buy someone next month. Jim Curtin can’t do everything back there.

I have nothing to say about the midfield except KEEP JUSTIN MAPP on the inside. Your predecessor had Mapp on the wing hopelessly hoofing the ball to a heading-challenged Nate Jaqua for half the season. Then Mapp moved inside, and started scoring. There’s one other thing to remember: Mapp is a very energetic MIDFIELDER-not a forward. Let us now move on to Chad Barrett and his rotating cast of forward partners. Who should they be?

The forward partnership should be Chad Barrett and …someone who starts with Chad every game. You may want to put Chris Rolfe back in front when he’s recovered. I’d like to see another big man. When Jerson Montiero gets healthy, put him in for the rest of the season. We need another big man up front who won’t get knocked off the ball in the same way that Toronto’s Marvell Wynne shouldered Calen Carr out of his way. Whether you pencil in Rolfe or Montiero Chad Barett needs a strike partner whose characteristics he knows, and with whom he can work with game after game. Barrett and his teammates also have to know when to give up on hoofing the ball down the field. This brings me to the subject of variety in offense, and in particular, short passes.

If you saw the second half of the MKS Cracovia game, you saw the visitors slither through our defense with a serpentine series of short passes. Our defense was able to blunt their final attack, but Cracovia demonstrated how a quick series of well executed short passes can advance the ball up the pitch. Contrast this with the recent Houston match where the Chicago consistently sent in centering crosses to the head of-oops- Houston’s Craig Waibel. Watch that Houston game again Coach, and plan for more short-pass drills during practice. QUICK short passes.

Good luck with integrating Cuauhtémoc Blanco into your plans. I don’t know if we can make it to the playoffs, but stability, consistency and variety in attack should get us off the bottom of the standings.

One drought ends. Another? (rolls eyes)

In the interest of preserving my blood pressure, I decided to skip watching the Chicago Fire play DC United. Results here.

I hadn't heard the Grant Park Orchestra & Chorus play in a zillion years. Since our church choir director is one of the basses, I thought I'd see what the fuss was about.
I don't know Mendelssohn from Mussorgsky, but I thought I'd give Elijah a try.
(Actually I do know Mussorgsky. I listened to Pictures at an Exhibition, and NO I don't mean the Emerson, Lake and Palmer version!)

Memo to me: go find a CD of Elijah. This was a great concert.

There were some interesting ironies during the night. I got caught in a rain squall. The rain let up before the performance. The irony? Elijah starts with Israel stricken with a drought.
Near the end of part one the Elijah, whom you may have discerned is an Old Testament figure,
beeches God to bring rain.
I found myself looking up at the sky and thinking,
"Don't get any ideas, Big Guy. This is just a performance."
The night was cool and dry.

Oh yes, and another thing: Elijah starts out with a drought, but all is well in the end. We here how he ascends to heaven on a flaming chariot.
As for the Chicago Fire, they are in a victory drought. The heavens are brass and the earth is iron. Rain?

"He that shall endure to the end shall be saved." Matthew 10:22
But tonight, I chose music, sweetly performed.

More on MAPLight

The Nation posted an article on MAPLight.org.
The site is a good starting point for tracking Federal Legislation, and the interest groups that support and oppose bills as they pass through Congress. Watch MAPLight's introduction video here.

We Need Something Like This For the Illinois Legislature

One of my colleagues heard about Maplight when she went to the Special Libraries Association Convention in Denver.

Maplight not only tracks federal legislation, but the interest groups lined up for and against them. A user can search by Bills in Congress or the California Legislature. Other choices allow you to search Congresspersons, and get a basic idea of who has contributed to them.
Here are two Northeastern Illinois examples: Jan Schakowsky (D-9^th) and Mark Kirk (R. 10th).

Click on the Top Organizations tab for Jan Schakowsky, and you’ll see

Organization of contributor	Contributions
RETIRED	$43,300
SELF-EMPLOYED	$30,700
ATTORNEY	$26,925
AMERICAN FEDN OF ST/CNTY/MUNIC EMPLOYEES	$10,200
TEAMSTERS UNION	$10,000
MACHINISTS/AEROSPACE WORKERS UNION	$10,000
AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS	$10,000
UNITED AUTO WORKERS	$10,000
COLUMBIA COLLEGE/CHICAGO	$9,200
SIDLEY AUSTIN LLP	$8,200

Columbia College? Somebody please explain.

For Mark Kirk, the results would be:

Organization of contributor	Contributions
RETIRED	$404,054
LAKEWOOD HOMES	$39,600
ATTORNEY	$33,250
PHYSICIAN	$24,000
MEDLINE INDUSTRIES	$23,050
INVESTOR	$21,200
WINSTON & STRAWN	$20,850
QUICKSET INTERNATIONAL	$20,050
BUSINESSMAN	$19,400
EXELON CORP	$18,100

A user can search by Interest groups. However, the categorization isn’t organization-specific. I tried searching for Service Employees International Union. The closest category I could find was:
“Commercial Service Union” .

This category will list the top recipients of contributions.

I’d say this is a good place to START your research, and then move on to other sites such as Open Secrets or the Federal Election Commission.

Maplight is relatively new. Maybe if they establish contacts in Illinois, they'll have a database on our legislature, too.
Note: I haven’t forgotten the Illinois State Board of Elections disclosure site . However, when I went to check for statements from Kirk & Schakowsky, I didn’t find any.

SICK TRANSIT....one big piss in a wet suit?

Finally, after various mass transit delays. I got to room 302 of UIC's student center, where Monday's CTA Public hearing was being held.I don't know if Ron Huberman or any of the other officials made opening statements. If so I was too late to hear that.I did arrive in time for the Ron Huberman Roast, a/k/a the Public comment period.People were allowed to step up to the microphone, and in a two minute(?) period, allowed to voice their concerns.The list of questions & comments included:
1. How did the CTA arrive at it's cuts, and will the phase in of cuts be gradual?
2. A National Federation of the blind spokesperson who reminded us of the many blind people on fixed incomes who would be hurt by fare raises.
3. CTA board salaries: why so high?
4. Lost revenue due to broken fare boxes. Get a clue, huh?
5. 30 day pass increase to $122.00 could force people to ride METRA.
---CAVEAT: This assumes that METRA doesn't cry poor and raise fares.
---Well, duh! CAVEAT not everyone who uses bus routes, such as the #1 bus lives near a Metra line. That routes, the Indiana/Hyde Park is targeted for a cut. See the rest here.
6.Why pay more for an unsafe ride? One 20 year old female college student tearfully talked about being harassed on CTA trains, and not getting any help from security. She was ready to take METRA.
7.One person who spoke before me didn't have enough time to get to her point. She used most of her time telling the board how many "Chapter 1" -elementary & high school students parents she represented. Which makes me wonder if those Chapter 1 parents could organize a...
8.Boycott??? Someone in the back kept yelling that.
But can you imagine the logistics of organizing van and carpools to get people to their destinations?
And yet....oh what the heck....suppose a half of the CTA's ridership boycotted, and had car & van pools for a month.Make it two months for a symbolic walkout. Nah, it would have to be three, plus informational picketing.You think CTA would clean up its financial act then?Shades of Montgomery, back in the 50's.

"Do you think they're going to listen to us?" someone asked me afterwords, as we waited
(and waited) at the UIC Halsted blue line. I facetiously suggested that we should steal the board member's cars and force all of them to take public transit.I don't know. I think we attendees were allowed to blow off steam. This was our piss in a wetsuit. It made us feel good to get our frustrations with the CTA out of us.But like a piss in a wet suit, it gave us a warm feeling, but will anyone at CTA notice?

Sick Transit, Part 3. CTA, are your trying to lose me to METRA?

I ask this assumption based on two possibilities.
1.The CTA raises its monthly pass to $122.00
2. METRA doesn't raise it's mothly passes.

Heck,it be easy for me to tell my employer to stop paying for the monthly CTA card and switch it to METRA.
Looking at the list of routes to be cut, it appears that CTA is conceding passengers to METRA.
I see they are cutting Evanston routes such as the 201, and the 206.
Not everyone can afford that switch.
How many Evanston Hosptial workers can afford a ten ride Metra ticket to Central street?
How may domestics who ride the Pace 213, after connecting through the purple line can afford a ten-ride Metra ticket to Winnetka from downtown Chicago?
We are many, we reverse commuters. Suburbs, you need us. You need CTA service as much as we city folk do.
More after I've had a night's sleep.

SICK TRANSIT Part 2 STOP, LOOK and LISTEN, DAMNIT!

I was going to write something about the CTA hearingat UIC Monday night. I'll get to it. I was delayed traveling there because my long commute from the work in the Northwest Suburbs was made even longer because 1) The Milwaukee North Line train was delayed due to freight traffic. 2.) We were delayed because of this accident.
If you're driving in the 'burbs or you're just crossing the tracks, don't forget the fundamentals.
See title of this post.
Let me add two other things.
1) Get off the cell phone and pay attention to your surroundings.
2) Remember, METRA will occasionally run its local trains as expresses. That was the case today. Be aware that a massive hunk of metal on wheels may come whooshing your way faster than you think. Adjust accordingly.
Thus endth my lesson.
Thus endeth a life.

SICK TRANSIT..inglorius hearings?

The PACE 626 bus I take to work had to pull over and restart a couple of times. Its dodgy condition, I am tempted to say, is a metaphor for mass transit in Northeastern Illinois. All of us who ride Metra, PACE, and the CTA will be affected by cutbacks to service.This morning, I heard State Sen. Julie Hamnos complaining about her suburban colleagues taking potshots at the CTA.
Read up, my suburban dear ones: We city folk work in your 'burbs, you need US and you need the mass transit that gets us to your office parks, your shopping malls, your factories, and your hospitals.If you don't believe me, then spend a day riding the yellow line, or PACE bus routes such as the 290, the 626 or the 386.You might be interested to know how far some city folks have to travel to get their jobs. I know people traveling from the South Side to get to Northbrook, for example. They need the L service to get up to the Skokie terminal on time for their bus.Ok.
Enough ranting. I'm going to a CTA public hearing tonight.More later.

Sweeping Away Cobwebs....

....from this blog..and [COUGH] the dust.
The Chicago Fire's coach Dave Sarachan has a lineup depleted by injuries and national team callups. A couple of the fill-ins, Bakaray Soumarie, and Willian Oliveira have done well. Nevertheless the Fire is a team made of of folks not used to playing with each other.It showed Saturday night. Chivas's pass distribution was much better. Nevertheless, the Fire's defense had a good game until...until...oh go to the MLS Website and click on the highlights.of the Chicago-Chivas match.It's a cruel game. One slip up by Dasan Robinson and Chivas gets a goal. Read more here, if you must.
............
Hmmm...next Saturday....go to the Globe and watch DC United vs the Chicago Fire? Or go hear the Grant Park Chorus sing.
That used to be an easy choice. Watching soccer shouldered everything out of the way. On the other hand: how much disappointment can I bear? I have a sideline pass to FIRE games, and thus really can't express my emotions about the team's performance...although I have been muttering obscenities. Nevertheless, it's hard to shoot photos and yell WTF!!! at the same time.Nah. When I realize that the only choirs I've heard recently have been my church choir, and the mass that makes up Section 8, then I think it's time for some cultural enrichment. Blake Adams, our choir director, sings in the chorus. It's time to hear what he and his fellow choristers can do.Hearing Mendelssohn will not make me grind my teeth, the way an overhit crossing pass does.

Robo-calls versus humans...

...we'll see who does a better job today. I've deleted at least three from the Moore campaign. One human from Gordon's campaign called with a polling place reminder.
Score one for Gordon's campaign for not clogging up my voice mail box.
But never mind my irritiation with Robo-calls. I want to know if they're effective?
If I was running for office and was flush with $$$$ they way Moore is, what would be a better use of campaign money: contracting out to an automated calling service, or getting a group of well trained humans to spread the word.
One article I found suggests the humans work better. Donald P. Green and Alan S. Gerber tested campaigning techniques such as mailings, door hangers, door-to-door canvassing and robo-calls.

In a series of more than 20 experiments conducted between 1998 and 2002, Donald P. Green and Alan S. Gerber tested all of the key techniques campaigns employ to generate voter turnout. In each experiment, they established a control group that received none of the mail, phone calls or door-to-door contacts being tested. Then, using voter records showing which voters actually voted, they measured the impact of these methods. ...A major message that comes through these experiments: Quality counts. The more personal the contact, the more likely it is to motivate someone to vote. Phone calls by volunteers or well-trained and committed callers work much better than calls made by professional callers with no connection to the candidate or cause. In the case of phones, paying $1.50 for a high quality call is far more cost effective than paying 50 cents for a short call hurriedly read by an uncommitted caller.

From: Shattering myths about getting out the vote. , Campaigns and Elections June 1, 2004. Green and Gerber's research ended up in a book called Get Out the Vote! How to Increase Voter Turnout.

Maybe Robo-calls are cost effective if the candidate doesn't have an experienced staff, with little experience in training volunteers. But an incumbent using robo-calls? It sounds like laziness.

Time to start campaigning!

On my voicemail was yet another “Robo-call” from Illinois SEIU urging me to vote for Joe Moore. I angrily erased the thing. Is it Tuesday yet? Enough with these outsiders telling me who to vote for!
A few minutes later, I had an epiphany. I have been taking these calls the wrong way. Silly me, I though, forget what certain Rogers Park blogs say. You don’t need to live in a ward to campaign for an alderman. Therefore, you don’t have to live in a city to campaign for a mayor.
Therefore, I want to urge everyone in Naperville to reelect George Pradel!

You may be asking what I know about Naperville? Ok, it’s twenty five miles west of Chicago in DuPage County. You can get there by Metra from Union station, and it’s the home of North Central College. I know this because back in 2002 & 2003, the Chicago Fire played its home games at Cardinal Stadium while Soldier Field was being renovated. They also have a neat looking downtown. I know, because I spent many a Saturday there before and after Fire games. It’s a neat looking city that probably is drawing a lot of ex-Chicagoans out there who are fed up with Cook County politics, and have yet to learn about DuPage County politics. Also, if you’re fed up with WBEZ’s programming changes, you can move out to Naperville and get WDCB’s signal a lot clearer.
Sure, sure, you say, but what do I know about local issues in Naperville? Aren’t there things I should discuss like growth, business development and all that other boring stuff? No, silly!. Go here if you want views about that
Why do I need to concern myself with Naperville’s mundane local issues which don’t affect me directly? I’m supporting George Pradel because he was a friend of the Chicago Fire. That’s good enough for me.

Now you may be saying, “Don, Naperville is so far away. How can you possibly campaign for Pradel? Shouldn‘t you be concerned with an election closer to home?”
Gosh, that’s a good point! Hey, there are elections in Evanston
Craig! Toni! Jocelyn! Let's get going! Guys! Are you with me?
Guys?.......

Life After MatchNight

A new MLS season begins today. Normally, I'd be posting photos to the gallery related to MatchNight. My colleagues Bill and Dan would be posting game articles on The Fire Alarm.
No more. MatchNight ceased operations on March 31. While Bill recovers from his stroke, Dan, John, Rusty and I can be found here.
My writing contributions to Windy City Soccer will be...occasional. The bulk of my contributions will be photographs, which can be seen here.
As for RevsNet, Mid-Atlantic Soccer report, and the other regional MatchNight sites, you can find their successors here.
And now, own to the Sears Centre AND Toyota Park.

Bill has been what?????

File this under "It's not what you say, its what people hear."
What do you think of, when you hear that a hospital receptionist tell you patient has been discharged from a ward?
Dan called me last night to tell me that our friend Bill had been discharged from his ward at Illinois Masonic Hospital. he didn't know where. Could I call his brother or his Dad?
Something didn't make sense. Our friend had been bedridden and has been recovering from a stroke. He is in no shape to walk out of Masonic under his own power. Was he transferred to an off-site rehabilitation facility.
I called his father. Nope. No news of a transfer.
This morning Dan called me back. Yes Bill had been discharged. Discharged from the critical care ward on the sixth floor to the rehabilitation ward on the third.
Dan was embarrassed by the misunderstanding, but frankly, I would have been confused by the use of the word too.
Maybe discharged is standard terminology among hospital workers to refer to a transfer of a patient from ward to ward. But Dan and I don't work in hospitals.
When someone tels me a patient has been discharged form a ward, I would normally think that person's out on the street.
Not any more.

Post Election Ruminations

Q: Is it true that there are vineyards in Rogers Park?
A: Perhaps. Check out the sour grapes here.

if you live near 1337 W. Fargo....

.....and are reading this at work (it's ok I won't tell) I hope you got to the polling place. If not, MAKE TIME TO VOTE. No excuse if you work in the 'burbs. (And I'm waaaay out there.)
Who knows 1337 W. Fargo. (35th pct.) may be a dounghnut-free polling place. Give it a look.

The tally on phone calls

The Broken Heart of Rogers Park lists the number of 49th ward mailers
Who's keeping track of phone calls? (either automated or with a human speaking on the other end.)
I've gotten
2-"49th Ward"..no message left
1-Don Gordon..someone left a message.

Anyone else?

Carrying on

How many of you have a friend or relative who has been hospitalized with a severe condition?
How does it feel when you visit this person in their hospital ward? Add to that, how does it feel visiting someone in their forties, someone bright, a self starter, with a wicked sense of humor?
How about this: you're riding up the elevator to the floor your friend/relatives's ward is on, once again mentally preparing yourself to see a once-healthy person, bedridden with tubes running out of their body. Your preparing yourself to see a normally talkative person who is recovering from a stroke and can barely speak. How does it feel?
I'll never get used to it.
I have a friend name Bill who is recovering from a stroke. He was the creator and editor and chief of the Fire Alarm. I have been contributing photos to the site since its inception. While Bill has been in the hospital, Dan has been running the site.
Tomorrow is the Chicago Storm's first home game at the Sears Centre in weeks. It'll be strange not seeing Bill up in the press area, or hanging out with the Reignmen. (A supporters group.)

Feeding the "content monster"

I guess I have this blogging thing all wrong.
I was under the impression that if you have nothing left to post, or if
you don't feel like posting for a long time, you should tale your blog
down.
I was wrong. I've been looking at other blogs that haven't had updates
for days, weeks, or months. But there they are - cobwebs for all to
see.
Ok, I get the message now- no more "man of a thousand blogs".
As far as a blog theme...it’s a work in progress.