The news broke on a quiet Monday two weeks into the New Year. Johnny Podres, the left handed pitching hero of the Brooklyn Dodgers' only World Championship in 1955, had died in a small hospital in Glen Falls, in upstate New York. He was 75. He was one of author Roger Kahn's fabled Boys of Summer.

Little known fact: Giants coach Tom Coughlin graduated from Waterloo High School in Waterloo, New York. Waterloo is also, famously, the name of Napoleon's final battle as Emperor of France. Super Bowl XLII, meanwhile, will be acting as someone's Waterloo, in that it's going to be one team's final battle this year. Well, technically, I guess it's both teams' final battles. The important thing to remember, is that at the conclusion of this game, it's still going to suck to be French. Unless you're the President who's dating a supermodel.

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Baseball Digest recently announced their 2007 All-Rookie Team. There were no Cubs on the team this year, as there were none in 2006, or 2005, or 2004, or any year since Kerry Wood in 1998. Since then, 122 players have been named to the Baseball Digest All-Rookie teams, and not one of them has been a Cub. Think of that: 122 players have been named to All-Rookie teams over a period of ten years, and none have been Cubs. It's statistically preposterous to the point where a discerning person would have to assume the result was completely intentional. But we know better.

It's a common sentiment echoed by our elders: "I gave that company 37 years of service, of hard work, of dedication." And to them, that's of utmost important. It means they were loyal; it means that even if other opportunities presented themselves, they stayed true to their company.

But for sports bloggers? It's been more like 37 seconds.

I'm not going to question anyone's manhood here, especially when it's the manhood of an enormously-muscled football player, but the whole sobbing episode brings up an interesting question: When it is okay for a sports figure to cry? But, since you're clearly no sports figureâ€"you obviously already gave up on your New Year's Resolution to get back in shapeâ€"let's bring the question a little closer to home: When it is okay for a spectator of sporting events to get wrapped in whatever they're watching and shed some tears?

This week, the Chicago Fire announced a three-year, multi-million dollar sponsorship agreement with Best Buy. As part of the deal, the company's name will be on the front of the Fire's jersey, replacing the traditional "Fire" lettering on the home jersey and "Chicago" lettering on the road version. MLS only allowed sponsorship on the fronts of jerseys last season, with the largest deal so far being Herbalife's sponsorship of the LA Galaxy, at an estimated $20 million through 2011.

For some reason, the state of Illinois has never reached the heights and consistency of the college basketball programs in places like Indiana and North Carolina. But while it certainly doesn't have an NCAA Tournament contender every season, the Land of Lincoln normally has at least a couple of teams in the midst of a good run, which should signal a deep tourney run.

The Cubs are the last team in baseball to figure out the importance of on base percentage, especially when it comes to their lead-off men. Regardless of the manager, they seem stuck in a previous generation in which the only important attribute necessary for a lead-off man is speed.

In 2008, only uber-reliever Rich "Goose" Gossage will be inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame. Gossage is undeniably deserving, and it's a good and belated thing that he'll be enshrined. However, what's puzzling is that less than 25 percent of the voting writers saw fit to name Tim Raines on their ballots. Raines, who spent several years in the White Sox organization as a player and coach, is one of the best leadoff men of all-time and certainly one of the 100 greatest players ever to grace the game. By any sensible standard, he's a Hall of Famer.

Visiting South Bend, it's hard to find anyone off campus with a good thing to say about Charlie Weis. From restaurateurs, to veterinarian technicians, to car dealers, there are enough stories about Weis' arrogance and entitlement to choke the Four Horsemen. Digging deep enough, former players and people working with the football team hint that Weis better relates to game film than to his players and the student body. In short, he acts more like a geeky, self-conscious offensive coordinator, than a politicking head coach at an elite university. But no one associated with the university will go on record breaking bad on the coach, so it's hard to tell if any of these tales are true, or, even if they are, if it affects the win total.

In last week's nationally-televised game against Portland, something was different about the Bulls. This wasn't the threadbare husk of a team we saw during the first, dismal months of the season. They had energy, made sense, and were able to build a huge lead against one of the league's hotter squads. Maybe Boylan's more than a placeholder; maybe Skiles was that much of an asshole; maybe there's wisdom in change for change's sake. But in the end—or, more accurately, after an end and two overtimes—the Blazers had the win. All because when they were way down in the third, Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge, Jarrett Jack, and even Travis Outlaw welcomed the challenge of coming back. They didn't just play to win the game, or "want it more" than Chicago.

The sign expressed what many of the fans inside DePaul's McGrath Arena last week are feeling when it comes to their basketball-playing, publicity-generating native daughter. It had nothing to do with a college basketball game, however. Candace Parker is far bigger than that. "Candace Parker sure would look good in Sky blue."

In 2008, the Cubs will have the opportunity to make the playoffs in consecutive seasons for the first time since the Roosevelt Administrationâ€"the Teddy Roosevelt Administration. Last winter, the Cubs coughed up almost $300 million in guaranteed player salaries and, for their efforts, edged the Brewers by a pair of games in the Central. Of course, toiling in baseball's weakest division helped quite a bit...

During his interview with Mike Wallace on Sunday evening, Roger Clemens responded to the question of steroids as Hall of Fame fuel, by saying, "That's not who I am." The statement should resonate, because it has escaped each of us. This does not bode well for Roger. That wasn't the real you who did steroids? Of course it wasn't. Clemens is a pitcher marked by success, not failure. And cheating is, above all, an admission of failure.

The Mitchell Report may have broken the hearts of millions, but for NBA fans, it was downright vindicating. See, this is what a real scandal looks like. This is how the game's essence gets polluted and corrupted. And this is what it really means to look back on a decade and wonder if any of it really counts at all.