We'll always have Chicago

"We'll always have Paris."

What a bittersweet line from the movie, "Casablanca"!

The context is, Rick and Ilsa have made up after their fight. She thinks Rick is flying out of Casablanca with her. He plans to send her husband with her instead. They won't have the rest of their lives together, but, "We'll always have Paris."

That's the way I feel about the Indianapolis Colts and the Chicago White Sox.

This was the year the Colts team was supposed to go to the Superbowl by those who live and breathe football.

Then, in the very first AFC playoff game for the Colts, the very first mind you, we saw Indianapolis throw away the game in the first quarter.
A friend of mine, who is a newspaper sports editor, insists it wasn't Peyton Manning's fault.

I don't know. All I know is I saw Manning miss his receivers by yards and even tens of yards before the team started meshing with too little, too late.

I won't blame Vanderjagt. (He missed a 46-yard field goal attempt.) That would be like a relay team falling farther and farther behind and then blaming the last guy to run with the baton.

Maybe the line could have protected Manning better. Maybe his receivers didn't get into position. But surely, surely, he has to take some of the responsibility for throwing the ball away, repeatedly.

When I worked in radio, I usually refered to the Colts on air as the "Indianapolis Cubs," for their lovable "Wait'll next year" mentality.

It's not so funny this year. The Colts are building a multi-million dollar stadium with convertible roof. It will raise the cost of dining in Indy for it is being financed in part with increased innkeeper taxes.

It's not funny because the Colts aren't the Cubs.

My wife blamed me.

"It's your fault, you know," she said. "Every time you watch the Colts they lose."

No, I don't have to go see them play. I don't have to watch them on TV. It's too bad they were so laughable instead of lovable in the playoffs.
But, we'll always have Chicago. The Chicago White Sox, that is.

I watched them.

They went all the way. they are the World Champions. They have a new stadium. But they went into the World Series with their heads in the game and their bodies ready to play.

The Colts went nowhere in postseason play, but we'll always have The Chicago White Sox.