Chicago Sports Memories is Back!

THEO EPSTEIN

A lot of water has flowed under the proverbial bridge since you last heard from us at the end of 2011. Here are some highlights of the Chicago sports landscape at that time.

• The Bulls' Derrick Rose was the NBA's reigning MVP (the youngest in league history at age 22), head coach Tom Thibodeau was the incumbent coach of the year, and the Bulls were coming off a season in which they had racked up the best record in the league (62-20) and made it to the Eastern Conference finals. To say the future looked bright for all concerned would be a gross understatement.
• The Blackhawks, a year and a half removed from their first Stanley Cup championship since 1961, were in the midst of a stretch under head coach Joel Quenneville during which they would qualify for the NHL playoffs for nine consecutive seasons and capture the Cup twice more. Their core group of young players (including Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith, Patrick Sharp, Brent Seabrook, and Corey Crawford) would remain together for years to come.
  
• The Bears had just completed an 8-8 season which ranked as a profound disappointment after a trip to the NFC championship game the year before. Quarterback Jay Cutler remained an enigma; he had not yet attained the superstardom predicted for him, and it was beginning to look as if he never would. Head coach Lovie Smith and future Hall of Fame linebacker Brian Urlacher would both be gone a year later.
  
• The White Sox had just parted ways with blustery manager Ozzie Guillen and replaced him with the placid Robin Ventura, who had never publicly expressed interest in managing until the day he was hired. Guillen's tumultuous tenure, of course, had produced (in 2005) the franchise's first world championship since 1917, so his place in Pale Hose history was secure. Lanky lefthander Chris Sale, just twenty-two, was poised to emerge as a major star.
• The Cubs had just endured a 71-91 slog under overmatched manager Mike Quade. Shortstop Starlin Castro, twenty-one, made the All-Star team and led the National League in hits; he appeared to be a perennial star in the making. Most importantly, Theo Epstein had just been hired to lead the Cubs' baseball operations. Just thirty-seven years old, he had already been general manager of the Boston Red Sox for nine years and in 2004 had engineered their first world championship since 1918. He had joined the Cubs to try and end the world-famous drought that stretched all the way back to 1908.