Three Pitchers the Chicago Cubs Should Acquire (And David Price Isn't One)

COMMENTARY | It's not what Chicago Cubs fans want to hear, but 2014 is probably not going to offer much respite from the doldrums of mediocrity of the previous few years.

The only thing keeping Cubs fans from flipping their proverbial lids is the hope/promise/presumption that this rebuilding plan of Theo Epstein and company is finally going to bring the Cubs to relevance, and eventually to a World Series championship.

The beginnings of that relevance are loosely presumed to be around 2015, when the Cubs' current set of up-and-comers -- think Albert Almora, Javier Baez, Jorge Soler, Kris Bryant, etc. -- are projected to start contributing en masse to the big-league club.

Don't blame Urban Meyer for Ohio State running up the score

There was Penn State coach Bill O'Brien's long, seemingly bothered, stare across the Ohio Stadium field. There was O'Brien and Urban Meyer engaging in something that looked like a dead-fish postgame handshake.

There was a three-second pause when O'Brien was asked whether he was bothered when Meyer, who, after Ohio State was already up 49 points in the third quarter, decided to challenge a ruling on the field Saturday night.

"He didn't think we had a first down, so he called time out to challenge it," O'Brien said after the Buckeyes' 63-14 annihilation of the Nittany Lions. "I have no thoughts on that."

This year's Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup defies predictability

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service

Distributed by The Sports Xchange

The 2013 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup has no respect for conventional wisdom.

Think about it. Matt Kenseth led the standings by four points midway through this year's championship battle, as the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series headed to Talladega for the sixth Chase race.

Kenseth has embraced restrictor-plate racing, having won the 2009 and 2012 Daytona 500s as well as the 2012 Chase race at Talladega.

Johnson, on the other hand, has said he'd gladly take a 10th-place finish at Talladega and watch the race from his couch.