As draft day nears, Bears become only game in town
With the Cubs and White Sox both in first place, we interrupt the baseball season for the following important announcement: Chicago is a Bears town, and don't you forget it.
It might be irksome to an unapologetic baseball aficionado like myself, who wholeheartedly supports Dan McNeil in his efforts on his WMVP 1000-AM afternoon show to rename Chicago "Baseballville," but there's no use denying it. Just look at the way the local all-sports stations -- on TV and radio -- are trying to outdo each other on the Bears' draft coverage this weekend.
Comcast SportsNet Chicago will have William Jackson reporting live from Halas Hall Saturday and Sunday, with Dan Jiggetts analyzing each Bears pick on "SportsNite" at 10 p.m. each day, starting with a draft preview tonight.
It's not as if the Cubs and Sox deliberately scheduled Saturday-night games to get out of the Bears' way, but it sure doesn't hurt for their radio affiliates.
WSCR 670-AM will do a live remote from the Stretch Run OTB site at State and Lake downtown from 1 to 5:30 p.m. Saturday, when the Sox thoughtlessly intrude, with Laurence Holmes, Hub Arkush, Doug Buffone and Ed O'Bradovich on site, and with reporters Zach Zaidman and David Schuster both at Halas Hall. And that's on top of this week's daily "War Room" reports from morning-midday host Mike Mulligan.
Unencumbered by any Bull playoff games (ha!), 'MVP will nonetheless push coverage off to its ESPN Radio Network from 1 to 3 p.m. before going local in what should be plenty of time for the Bears' pick at 14 with a live remote from the Brownstone Tavern, 3937 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago. Jeff Dickerson, Howard Griffith and Marv Levy will be on site, along with regular reports from Halas Hall.
As the Bears' radio flagship, WBBM 780-AM ought to have big plans for draft day, and it does, but the odd thing is it's pushing things off to its wbbm780.com web site for what it's calling its "Draft Webcast Special," from the Cubby Bear North, 21661 N. Milwaukee Ave., Lincolnshire. The play-by-play team of Jeff Joniak and Tom Thayer will be joined by Jay Hilgenberg and Ron Gleason starting at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, but again that's on the web. It will only air on radio in regular updates at 15 and 45 minutes after the hour, although you can be certain they'll cover the Bears' actual first pick live.
Even WGN 720-AM is planning an on-air interview with the Bears' top pick, whomever he turns out to be.
And then you just know all the evening TV newscasts are going to be pounding the Bears' picks in their sports segments on Saturday and Sunday, and Fox WFLD Channel 32 will trumpet its new preseason deal with the Bears with a "Bears Draft Night Live" special at 10:35 Sunday. The Cubs and Sox will have to do something special to lead the new reports -- and what more can first-place teams do?
"It's totally a Bears town," said Score Program Director Mitch Rosen, "and I think people want that every year. This gives people hope for the future, and that's what we're trying to translate through the speakers."
So the Bears' pie-in-the-sky future trumps the Cubs' and Sox' first-place presents. Oh well, at least "Talkin' Baseball" still airs at 10 a.m. Saturday on 'MVP, and "Hit and Run" will stand tall against the second day of the draft on the Score at 9 a.m. Sunday. We baseball fans will take what we can get.
In the air
Remotely interesting: The White Sox are averaging a 2.0 local Nielsen rating on Comcast SportsNet Chicago this season, up from a 1.3 last season.
NBC has exercised its option on the NHL to carry games next season. WMAQ Channel 5 airs Colorado-Detroit in the Stanley Cup playoffs at 2 p.m. Saturday and New York-Pittsburgh at 1 p.m. Sunday. … HBO's "Costas Now" with Bob Costas goes live at 9 p.m. Tuesday. WSCR 670-AM morning host Mike North is scheduled to appear on a segment on sports-talk radio.
End of the dial: Bruce Levine and Chet Coppock welcome Lee Elia to "Talkin' Baseball" to revisit his rant against Cub fans 25 years ago at 11 a.m. Saturday on WMVP 1000-AM.
Bill Bizeau's "Bizzy on Sports" has joined WJJG 1530-AM airing at 6 p.m. Tuesdays. Bizeau is an Addison product who attended Addison Trail High School, Illinois State and Columbia College.
-- Ted Cox