Bear Down, Harold Baines...
Bear Down, Harold Baines...
Winter Victories and White Sox Legends
December 9, 2018
Bears 15, Rams 6, Harold’s In
This was perhaps the greatest night in Chicago sports since June 15, 2015 when the Blackhawks clinched their most recent Stanley Cup.
The Hawks played again tonight but, sadly, lost again in what is becoming a stunningly disastrous season. What’s both good and bad, however, is that not many Chicagoans really care that the Blackhawks (and Bulls) are awful because all we care about is the Bears and Harold Baines.
The Bears iced out the Los Angeles Rams 15-6 Sunday night at Chicago’s frigid Soldier Field, handing the Rams just their second loss of the season and moving the Bears to 9-4.
The Bears are thus assured of their first winning season since 2012 and could be one victory away from clinching their first playoff appearance since 2010.
How did the Bears do it? You can close your eyes and pretend it’s 2010, 2006, 1985, 1963 or 1921 and answer that question by saying defense, defense, defense and the run game.
Chicago’s defense – certainly aided by the merciless Midwest weather and a raucous sold-out Soldier Field crowd (which we were lucky to be a part of) – harassed and assaulted Rams running back Todd Gurley, QB Jared Goff and anyone else wearing horns on their helmets and held the Rams to a season low in points and generally just kicked the crap out of those guys from La-La Land.
Bears defensive lineman Akiem Hicks is awesome, linebacker Khalil Mack is legendary, the secondary is top notch and, damn it brother, these guys are good old fashioned tough and stingy.
The only touchdown in this game came not from the defense but was just as fun as one of Chicago’s many defensive scores this campaign: Bears quarterback Mitch Trubisky threw a two-yard TD pass to Bears backup offensive tackle Bradley Sowell, a guy I kept referring to as “Tom Sowell” after the play and I feel lucky to have even gotten that close.
And former Pro Bowl running back Jordan Howard finally got his first 100-yard game of the season. Feed him the ball and he only gets stronger.
This, wonderfully, was the type of game it was at Soldier Field and all 60,000 of us there in person would not have had it any other way. Hit frequently, run hard and have fun. That’s how you do it.
And it’s how you have to do it when your quarterback is terrible. Mr. Trubisky, playing for the first time in three weeks, was 16/30 for 110 yards, three interceptions and that one lovely score. We like #10 a lot but he wasn’t just rusty, he was bad. And if the Bears are to beat the Rams (and the Cowboys and Saints and Texans) in the playoffs he will have to be measurably improved, to put it mildly.
But, for now, we soak up what was nothing short of a magical December night when Chicago was alive with the winter wind and winning football.
The most touching part of the night, however, may have come via phone. It was early in the second half when the notice came across that former White Sox slugger Harold Baines had been voted into Baseball’s Hall of Fame.
Harold spent most of his two-decade career on Chicago’s South Side and drove in the winning run when the White Sox won their first division title in 1983 and was a coach when the Pale Hose finally won it all in 2005. And he’s still with the team today.
Harold Baines is in the Hall of Fame. The Bears are playoff bound. Christmas is in our sights.
Life’s not perfect but…wait a minute. Life is perfect. It certainly is, cousin. It most certainly is. --TK
Sunday, December 9, 2018