Freedom By Langston Hughes

 I was subbing at a high school today.  I was teaching English.  Actually I was subbing for an English Teacher.  In college I was studying to be a H.S. English Teacher but instead got my degree in English Literature.  I figured I was probably not going to be a public school teacher and was eager to get overseas and teach English and do ministry work which I ended up doing after I graduated.  As for public schools, I went from 1992 to 2019 without teaching at one, so it worked out pretty well.  

I actually wasn't teaching English today, I was pretty much taking attendance, sending students to the bathroom, and reading some of the books I brought with me.  I took solace in the fact that I could have taught this class if the need had arisen.  By 8th hour I decided to take a step away from my books and look at one ofthe teacher's texts.  It is called Advanced Language and Literature.  I opened up to Chapter 12 Section 1 and ran into an old friennd, Langston Hughes, whose poem Freedom adorned that chapter

I have typed it out hear without permission.  If you click on the title you can see the poem on it's poetry foundation page.  

Freedom By Langston Hughes

Freedom will not come

Today, this year

Nor Ever

Through compromise and fear

I have as much right

As the other fellow has

To stand

On My Two Feet

And Own The land

I tire so of hearing people say,

Let things take their course

Tomorrow is another day

I Do noy need my freedom when I'm dead

I cannot live on tomorrow's bread

Freedom 

Is a strong seed

Planted

In a great need

I live here, too

I want my freedom

Just as you.

12 New Movies: Shock and Awe (2017)

 Rob Reiner's shocking death late last year had a profound effect on my wife and I.  We had grown up with him  as Michael Stivic on All In The Family and were Young Adults when he began his prolific career as a film director.  We found ourselves rewatching many of his films int he weeks and month after hus and his wife were murdered.  

One film we had not seen or even heard of is my first installment in 12 New Movies to me for 2026.  

Film: Shock And Awe (2017)

Rating: 3 Out of 5 Stars

Summary: James Marsden and Woody Harrelson play reporters for Knight Ridder and Rob Reiner plays their boss who  report on the aftermath of 911 that led to the War in Iraq.  The problem is that the story they are researching and the narrative coming from the White House, Congress and the Pentagon are vastly different. 

Theme: Who should you listen to?

One Thing I liked about the movie: I got to see Rob Reiner act and direct.  Since he spent so much time and energy the last 40 years of his career in the latter, it is easy to forget what a great actor he was as well.

One Thing I did not like about the movie: This my be picky, but I think there was a deliberate attempt to make viewers think that Aaron Sorking was associated with this movie.  Two of Reiner's finest  films are Sorkin collaborations (The American President and A Few Good Men).  This film has legal, military , political and journalism tie ins so since these are all Sorkin Staples the comparisons make sense initially .  However, I thought that the court room scenes, the casting of Richard Schiff (The West Wing) and some of the speeches in the film were contrived to connect Sorkin to the project without adding to the plot.  

The ideal audience for this film: People who like Newspaper movies and people who enjoy Reiner as a director and an actor should enjoy this film.  

Your A Commie Maybe

 I was subbing at a local middle school on Monday.  I don't sub very much at middle schools or highschools compared to how often I am in K-5  buildings.  This can be explained in a joke or with a more detailed explanation.  I will do both.

The Joke: They don't pay me enough to sub at Middle Schools, and too much to sub at high schools.

The Truth of the joke: Someone told me once that the key to working with middle schoolers is building relationships.  It is very difficult if not impossible, to build relationships with middle schools when you are a sub and you changing classes every 40 minutes.  The reason why I think I'm over paid to teach at High School is that compared to elementary, where you are generally teaching for the majority of the day, and middle school, where you are herding  disinterested and disrespectful cats in 45 minute intervals, you are basically taking attendance, announcing  the assignment and reading a book.  

For the 3 years prior to this school year, I spent the majority of my subbing at middle schools.  This was entirely as a long term sub, or a building sub.  Both of those positions involve getting to know the students and them getting to know me.  As a result, I was able to do far more teaching, far more relationship building and slightly less cat herding.  

Monday, I was subbing for a teacher I used to work with at the middle school I was  working the last 3 school years and I have subbed in her resource room 3 or 4 times already this year.  As a resource teacher, I either co-teach with another teacher or teach smaller classes of 5-8 students.  I also get to teach Math, which is one of my passions.

But that's not why I brought you here today,  (I know 5 paragraphs of intro, and not even my point.  What can I say I'm a professional communicator.) 

Today, I am here to share with you a video from the Social Studies class I co-taught on Monday.  

When Nothing's Sacred

A few weeks ago I saw this song by Billy Sprague on Spotify and was touched by how relevant it still is.  

 Most of the lines of the song start with People need or But. So in the notebook my daughter gave me for Christmas, I made two columns.  On one I wrote "People need ...  " and the other I wrote "but..." I have reprinted it without permission below.  But, I will add that the song was written by Billy Sprague and appears on his 1993 album The Wind and The Wave.  I just like how when laid out like this it looks like a list poem.  Even when you add the music it really is.

Note: There is a chorus in the middle of the song which also repeats at the end.  I will write the chorus at the end and put an * each time the chorus appears in the song.

When Nothing's Sacred

by Billy Sprague

People Need...                                                       But...

True love                                                              Chase infatuation

A hope                                                                  Live on short supply

Wisdom                                                                Get more education

Forgiveness                                                          Settle  things eye for eye

Identity                                                                 Satisfied with titles

A living God                                                         Seem content with idols

Destiny                                                                  Settle for careers*

Faith                                                                       Place their bets on science

A refuge                                                                  Stay out in the rain

Each other                                                              Rely on self reliance

Christmas                                                               Settle for a holiday

Dignity                                                                   Survive on ego

Truth                                                                       Will take an alibi

A savior                                                                   Much prefer a hero

(Most) long for heaven                                           Have settled for the sky*

And the soul remains unsettled and the world a wilderness.

In a time when nothings sacred and souls settle for less.

I really wanted to share a live performance of this song and could not find one of Billy Sprague performing it but did find this video of Gary Hall Peck covering it. I think this is a very good rendition of it.

 

A Packers & Bears Fan Reaction to the Wild Card Round

I absolute this video. When you get to the 1:42 mark, that was definitely me the entire first half.

Dave’s Eulogy For His Mom

Today, it has been 1 month since the passing of my Mom.  This is the first time I have mentioned here on the blog.  It is still too raw for me to process, but I thought this might be a good place to post the brief comments I made at her visitation service the day before her funeral.

    

Should Mark Buehrle be Elected into the Hall of Fame?

Today is the 5th of January and the first day of the second semester.  As good of time as any to get the discussion going about who should be elected into Baseballs Hall of Fame as the announcement as to whether and who the Baseball Writer's Association of America (BBWAA) elected to that August group will be made later this month.  

Here is some analysis as to whether Mark Buehrle should be enshrined in Cooperstown.  I'll be back later this month to share my feelings on Buerhle and the others who are appearing  the BBWAA ballot.

A Comment About Comments

 If uoi are a fellow blogger and you have been listed recently in one of the various blog rolls that appear here on Leap of Dave, you may have seen or be seeina in the future a comment on one of your posts that looks like thei:

Happy New Year! Each year at this time, I clean up my blog to prepare for the upcoming year.  I consolidate all of my blog rolls to one entitled something like These blogs are so last year. Then at the beginning of the year when people post on their blogs for the first time.  I read that post in it's entirety and usually read or reread the last post of the previous year.  This year I decided to then write a comment on the first post which is why you are reading this. 

The comment then will say specific things about their blog and post.  In a few days I'll stop adding a comment after the first post, but for the rest of the year I'll continue to prune the last year blog list and transfer most of them to the current blogroll.

I follow this procedure for multiple reasons: 1) It's a quick glance for me to keep up with  which blogs may have stopped posting over the previous year.  2)I helps me evaluate whether I want to keep blogs on my blog roll that I'm no longer reading or interested in.  3) In a bizarre way this process id fun and comforting me. 

 My blogging has evolved since 2008 when this blog began as Home School Dad.  Other blogs like Dave Out Loud, and Crazy Uncle Dave's Sports blog soon followed.  Eventually this blog changed names and incorporated some of the other blogs in a one stop shop/ multiplex of my many and varied interests.  

As my blog has changed so have my blogrolls, this yearly changing of the blog guard helps facilitate that change.

Two Thoughts on Life

Robert Redford and Rob Reiner were two of my favorite actors turned directors.  They both passed away in the last 4 months of  2025 and as a result I've been thinking about them and their work.  Yesterday, quite by accident, a movie quote popped into my mind.  I could not place the movie at first, so I googled it and soon this scene was on my phone.

 

 

This quote from The Natural, although said to Redford's Roy Hobbs rather than by him,   informs and leads  the protagonist to the decisions that makes up the film's climax.

Thinking of Redford naturally made me think of Reiner. Thinking of Reiner led to thinking of the Princess Bride, which led me to this brief scene.  

In reviewing the context of both of these scenes, the hard fact that life is painful cannot be denied.   Both characters were denied (albeit temporarily)  true love due to circumstances beyond their control. The quotes are both delivered to their respective true loves when at each point of the film a happily ever after doesn't seem to be in the cards.  

Hope and bitterness both carry transformative powers.  The concept of hope in the line "the life you learn with, and the life you live with" says to me, yes life is pain, but much like pain you endure in a fire swamp you can learn from that pain.  Thinking that life is only pain can create a bitterness that is hard to overcome.  I am glad  that the 4 characters depicted in these scenes found their happy endings.  When I think of Redford and Reiner and all the stories they told through their acting and directing, it makes me sad that their lives have ended (especially in the tragic way Reiner's ended ) but glad that I am still learning about life through their work.  

Close Only Counts in Horseshoes, Hand Grenades and placing 0-2 Notre Dame in the AP top 25

Today, is my last post of the year.  I originally started this one  September 14th after the AP writers release this, their 4th college poll of the year.  The University of Illinois was 3-0 and they got ranked 9th to show that,  The University of Tennessee was 2-1 having just lost 44-41 to the University of Georgia  in overtime so they were rewarded for their loss by staying put at 15th.  This may seem unfair to some of the 17 other teams along with U of I ranked in the AP top 25 who started 3-0  especially the 8 3-0 teams ranked below TN all because the Volunteers played the Bulldogs close.

However one team dropped inexplicably in the rankings and they certainly had a bigger axe to grind than the 3-0 teams who felt slighted by TN.  This team had started the year ranked 6th in the preseason poll .  The next week they dropped from 6th to 9th.  They had a bye week in week 2 so they were able to jump us from 9th to 8th but then the indignity of plummeting, freed falling, dropping from 9th to 24th.  

This of course was South Bend Indiana's gift to Football itself, Notre Dame.  What did Notre Dame do to deserve this national embarrassment?  Failure to achieve any of the goals they set for themselves?  No, I think that might just be too on the nose for the AP writers.  Notre Dame had lost their first game and then after 2 weeks to think about it lost their 2nd game.  Now, they only lost by a total of 4 points, so that was plenty of reason to place them above undefeated U.S.C. (who beat their 3 opponents by 115 points),  and BYU (+93 point differential in their 2 games). 

I mean that's crazy? How entitled can BYU get complaining thinking that their 2-0 start should be rewarded and place ahead of a team that could at that point  in the season  count all their victories with no hands.

I meant to get that out much sooner than today, but Notre Dame started winning and my original post got relegated to draft status.  I always like to resurrect a post or two from draft status near the end of the year and I thought the title of this post, alone, merited an end of the year reprieve.

Yesterday Illinois and Tennessee met for the first time on the gridiron in the music city bowl here are the highlights.

If The Playoffs Were Today + 7 Game WHYDFML Index Last Reg Season Week Edition

 4 weeks ago I made this post about a weekly feature I was introducing until the end of the football season.  As often happens on this blog, I did not deliver on the feature.  This was mostly due to situations beyond my control, so I won't dwell on them but will go ahead and pick up the segment where I left off.

With 1 week left in the regular season  here is the NFL Playoff Schedule if the Playoffs Began today...

AFC

1st Round Bye #1 Denver Broncos (+1 seed ) AFC West Division Champion (13-3) +16 

#7 Buffalo Bills (Same seed ) AFC Wild Card3 (11-5) +8 @ #2 New England Patriots (-1 seed since 12/2 AFC East  Division Champion (13-3) +18

#6 Los Angeles Chargers (-1 seed)  AFC Wild Card2 (11-5) +10  @ #3Jacksonville Jaguars (Same Seed) AFC South Division Champion (12-4) +28

# 5 Houston Texans  (Previously  unseeded)  AFC Wild Card 1 (11-5) +29 @ #4 Pittsburgh Steelers (Previously unseeded ) AFC North Division Champion (9-7) +4

NFC

1st Round Bye  #1 Seattle Seahawks  (+4 seeds) NFC West Division Champion (13-3) +26

#7 Green Bay Packers (-1 seed)  NFC Wild Card 1 (9-6-1) -8  @ #2 Chicago Bears -1 seed) AFC North Division Champion (11-5) +6

#6 Los Angeles Rams  (-4 seeds)  NFC Wild Card 2 (11-5) -4 @ #3 Philadelphia Eagles (Same seed)  NFC East Division Champion (11-5) +10

#5 San Francisco 49ers  (+2 seeds)  NFC Wild Card 1 (12-4) +26@ #4 Carolina Panthers  (Previously unseeded ) NFC South Division Champion (8-8) -4

Instant Analysis:  There is not a lot of movement expected or possible for outsiders looking in.The AFC North champion will be the winner of the Steelers Ravens game and the Tampa Buccaneers will only get in the playoffs if they beat the Carolina Panthers and the New Orleans Saints beat the Atlanta Falcons.  Otherwise, the Panthers win the NFC South.

I'll

Tom Howard / Randy Stonehill, live concert, December 30, 1978

Beltin' Melton The Bill Melton Story

Wes King on Bob Bennett

I found this message from Wes King in a FB chat room. It is from CCM musician Wes King about Bob Bennett.  Wes does end the post pass it on.  So I took this as permission to copy and paste it here:

Per my last post about the great Bob Bennett. 

I think, for some reason, that we get little glimpses of heaven here on earth. 

The obvious ones for me are my wedding, my kids being born, surviving cancer are big ones.
I do remember well, the first time I heard Bob Bennett. I lived in a little town in Georgia, Winder; there were no bookstores or music stores in my blessed hometown. I had to drive to Athens, GA to a place called The Carpenters Shop, I think. I would drive there every weekend to see if the Pat Terry Group had released anything new. I obviously had no idea how the music biz worked. I was simply starving for Jesus music. I would make the weekly 35 minute drive and would go and ask the cashier if Pat Terry had put anything out. He would do his best not to roll his eyes and say that, no, they haven't. 

So I would wonder as I wandered over to the music section and see if I could spend the $9.99 in my pocket on something else. I was as curmudgeonly back then as I am now about music, so often I would come home ten bucks richer minus a penny. 

That is how I found Bob Bennett. I must have been around 16, maybe 17, because I was getting pretty good at guitar. I put on his record in my room and I knew there was a heaven. I can still see the glossy wood floors of my bedroom and the chest my record player sat on. I put that record on and I was alive.

I was more alive after the first song. 

I was intrigued. The lyrics were captivating, his voice was butter, his guitar was... what the heck was HE DOING!!! QUICK, WHERE'S MY GUITAR. WAIT, I CAN'T PLAY THAT, WHAT KIND OF FREAK IS THIS? WHO IS THIE GUY? WHY HAVEN'T I HEARD OF HIM YET? 

Footsteps in the Garden changed my life. 

It changed the way I play guitar. This guy is a unique talent that only a few people fall in, in my opinion.
I won't tell you who I think doesn't fall into this category, but I will a few who I think do.
(I have other categories, btw, but this is the singer, songwriter, poet, philosopher category),
Here is a sampling of those for me.
Mark Heard.
Pat Terry.
Well, it kind of stops there for me. 

So many songs of his I love. One that was mentioned was Mountain Cathedrals. 

One of my favorites. I got to sing in a few amazing cathedrals in my day. Bob's song was ringing in my head as I played.
As an artist, Bob is a cathedral to me. His music is a beauty clothed in humility and brokenness.

As much as we all hate facebook, and are freaked out by the big brother thing that is happening. It was a Facebook post that made me go down memory lane and remember a slice of heaven in this poor fallen world. 

Oh, and I agree with the post that someone mentioned about Andrew Peterson. Listen to his new song Is He Worthy, maybe you will think of heaven with me. 

Pass it on.

I added all the music referenced from Spotify.

If the Playoffs Were Today ... (With WHYDFML 7 Game Index)

 One of my favorite bits when I was younger was to look at the standings in a sport and proclaim: 'What If the Playoffs were Today?".  

Here in Chicago. much has been made lately of the fact that the Bears are now tied for the best record in the National Football Conference.  Of course that may all change this weekend when the Bears take on the hated Packers.  Every Tuesday from now until the playoffs actually begin,  I hope to show you what the first round of the NFL playoffs would look like if the playoffs would actually begin on that day.

I will also include a stat called the What Have You Done For Me Lately (WHYDFML) 7 Game Index.

The index assigns 1 point for a win and -1 point for a loss over a 7 game period.  It then weights those wins and losses from 7 to 1 most recent to least recent.  The New England Patriots have won all 7 of their last games.  

W W W W W W W

7   6   5   4   3  2   1  

When you add this up they have 1 7 Game WHYDFML of 28

The Bears have won their last 5 games since losing to the Baltimore Ravens and had won the game previous to that so their WHYDFML looks like this:

W W W W W L W

7   6   5   4   3 -2 1

Which makes their index +24

There are many different WHYDFML indices that I use but the 7 game one is very front loaded.  If the Packers prevail against the Bears this weekend, their index will plummet from +24 to +12.  The Packers will not only jump a 1/2 game ahead of the Bears in the standings, but their WHYDFML will increase from +14 to + 18.  

Confused?  It will grow on you.  Or it won't. But until we're sure, here is the NFL Playoff Schedule if the Playoffs Began today...

AFC

1st Round Bye New England Patriots (#1 Seed) AFC East Division Champion (11-2) +28 

Buffalo Bills (#7 Seed) #3 AFC Wild Card (8-4) +6 @ Denver Broncos (#2 Seed) AFC West Division Champion (10-2) +28

Indianapolis Colts (#6 Seed) #2 AFC Wild Card (8-4) -6 @ Jacksonville Jaguars (#3 Seed) AFC South Division Champion (8-4) +14

Los Angeles Chargers (#5 Seed) #1 AFC Wild Card (8-4) +12 @ Baltimore Ravens (#4 Seed) AFC North Division Champion (6-6) +12

NFC

1st Round Bye Chicago Bears (#1 Seed) NFC North Division Champion (9-3) +24

San Francisco 49ers (#7 Seed) #3 NFC Wild Card (9-4) +16  @ Los Angeles Rams (#2 Seed) AFC West Division Champion (9-3) +14

Green Bay Packers (#6 Seed) #2 NFC Wild Card (8-3-1) +14 @ Philadelphia Eagles (#3 Seed)  NFC East Division Champion (8-4) Even

Seattlle Seahawks (#5 Seed) #1 NFC Wild Card) (9-3) +18 @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers (#4 Seed) NFC South Division Champion (7-5) -6

Instant Analysis:  The AFC home teams (division champs) all have a higher or equal WHYDFML # than their opponents. The NFC home teams all have a lower WHYDFML than their opponents.

I'll be back next Tuesday with another exciting installment of ...

If the Playoffs were today  ...

Full documentary: The Edmund Fitzgerald (2025)

50 Years ago today the Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior. The disaster inspired Gordon Lightfoot's 1976 hit "The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald"

If You get a chance you may enjoy this hour long documentary.

The Storm Before The Calm - Poetry Friday

Today is Poetry Friday. I haven't been blogging very much at all recently, let alone writing poetry.  But this morning   I was playing with the phrase "storm before the calm" and inverted it to" calm before the storm" which I have used before.  

While I was walking  towards my Mom's room in the nursing home she's been staying at since August, "The Poet That Lives Inside of Me" was helping me assemble this poem which I typed here as soon as I could get to my I-Pad.  

 I didn’t go to work this week

To spend time with my Mom

Was it the calm before the storm

Or the storm before the calm?

During Co-vid we saw glimpses 

That she wasn’t aging well

And we are all quite resistless

To that upcoming death knell

But hospice and declining

Are new vocab to see

And since I’m her med POA

A lot of weights on me.

So I've been here each morning

To feed her and observe

I'm not sure what to tell her

And I do not have the nerve 

For now, she is in rehab

Hope she relearns to walk

Walking could restore her

But that seems like idle talk

What I know of rehab

Is that it builds from day to day

So if you can’t remember rehab

What more is there to say?

Most times she does remember me

At times thinks that I'm Dad

But He’s a good role model

So that’s not all that bad

He calls her every morning

Cross town - both stuck in bed

I tell her I am David Charles

And he is David Fred

They’ve been apart since August

When they found a blood clot in her lung

Hospital and rehab ever since

It’s really not that fun

The plan: 4th week November

At last, it’s coming soon

There will be much Thanksgiving

When they finally share a room

And then with Christmas looming large

We'll  be forging a new norm

Will it be the storm before the calm

0r the calm before the storm?

Laura Purdie Salas is hosting the roundup this week join her by clicking here.

1977 Green Bay Packers Team Season Highlights

Ed Farmer's birthday: Hear Him call A Triple Play

Stats Sunday: Most Improved Baseball Teams of 2025

 The Regular season of MLB came to an end last month some would say that for the White Sox  it did so mercifully.  I would  beg to differ. 

Me (In my best Dickensonian pauper's voice) : Please Sir, may I differ? Please?!? Could I kindly differ?

When you lose 100 or more games in a season  3 years in a row as my beloved South Sliders (misspelling intended) have it would  ostensibly make sense for anyone covering the team to write  an end of the season review as a post-mortem.  Over the past few weeks I have read many that looked just like that,

However,  as I mulled it over in my mind, I realized that the 2025 record of 60 wins paired with 102 losses ,  an abysmal 21 games below .500, was in actuality 19 wins better than their record setting (in a bad way) 2024 season total.  This made me wonder how the White Sox would match up to the rest of the league in terms of most improved win total from 2024 to 2025.

2025 MLB Teams (Listed from most improved  to least improved regular season from 2024 to 2025)

     Team                          2024      2025   

1. Toronto Blue Jays      74-88    94-68 +20 

2. Chicago White Sox    41-121 60-102 +19

3. Miami Marlins           62-100 79-83   +17

4. Los Angeles Angels   63-99    72-90  +9

5. Chicago Cubs             83-79   92-70   +9

6. Boston Red Sox         81-81    89-73   +8

7. Athletics                     69-93    76-87   +7

8. Cincinnati Reds         77-85    83-79   +6

9. Seattle Mariners         85-77   90-72    +5

10. Milwaukee Brewers  93-69   97-65   +4

11. Texas Rangers            78-84   81-81  +3

12. Detroit Tigers             86-76   87-75  +1

13. Philadelphia Phillies   95-67  96-66   +1

14. San Francisco Giants  80-82  81-81   +1

15. New York Yankees      94-68   94-68   E

16. Houston Astros            88-73    87-75 -1.5

17. Tampa Bay Rays          80-82    77-85 -3

18. San Diego Padres         93-69    90-72 -3

19. Kansas City Royals      86-76    82-80 -4

20. Cleveland Guardians    92-69    83-74 -4.5

21. Washington Nationals  71-91    66-96 -5

22. St. Louis Cardinals       83=79  78-84  -5

23. Pittsburgh Pirates          76-86   71-91 -5

24. Los Angeles Dodgers    98-64   93-69 -5

25. New York Mets              89-73  83-79 -6

26. Arizona Diamondbacks  89-73 80-82 -9

27. Minnesota Twins            82-80 70-92  -12

28. Atlanta Braves                89-73 76-86 -13

29. Baltimore Orioles           91-71 75-87 -16

30. Colorado Rockies           61-101 43-119 -18

Analysis: I marked each record in bold if that team went to the playoffs the year listed.  Of the 7 teams that made the playoffs in 2024 and 2025, three did so with more wins than the previous year, 1 team had the identical record each campaign, and 3 won more games in 2024 than they did this year.  

Of the 3 cities with 2 teams , Chicago was the only city that had both teams improve let alone be in the top 5 of improved teams.

Top 10 most improved home and road teams. (Teams in bold are in tp 10 in both categories)

Home                       Road

Blue Jays +15          White Sox +9    

Red Sox + 10            Athletics +9

White Sox + 10        Marlins +9

Marlins + 8               Blue Jays +5

Angels +7                  Mariners +3

Padres +7                   Mets +3

Yankees +6                Cubs +3

Cubs + 6                    Angels +2

Reds + 6                     Guardians +1

Brewers +5                 Nationals +1

Pirates + 5                  Giants + 1

So, yes the improvements from one year to the next for our Chicago teams is something to be celebrated.   Similar improvements next year are not impossible dreams.  If  The Cubs improve  by 9 wins next year they would be past the 100 win mark.  If the Sox win 19  more games next year they would only finish 2 games below .500.  Will that happen, who knows?  But steps in the right direction are signs of life not cause for a post-mortem.