Tag / Bulls

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iTunes Top 200 Artists: #161-170

Music.  It is a powerful thing that brings people together, creates memories, and evokes emotions.  It is the universal language that speaks to the soul.  It forms the soundtrack of our lives.

It has now been five years since we last counted down the Top 200 artists in my iTunes library, featuring the songs I have listened to the most since 2007.  It is time to do so again, seeing which performers still resonate and if any newer ones have joined the fray.  So, without further ado, here are my most listened to artists, based on number of plays as of January 1, 2026.

We continue today with our next batch of ten artists, covering the genres of pop and rock, with an actor and a stadium organist for good measure.  We have a single group making their debut on the list this week.

#170: The Rembrandts
iTunes stats: 67 plays
Previous ranking: #186

Formed in 1989, the band combines the totals from their first single, which hit the Billboard Hot 100 in 1990, with various forms of the Friends theme song to rise up the chart, increasing their plays by nearly 43% over these past five years.

#166: Blur
iTunes stats: 68 plays
Previous ranking: #161

The English foursome, formed in London in 1988 and a key contributor to the Britpop genre in the 1990s, added only fourteen new listens over the past five years.

#166: Republica
iTunes stats: 68 plays
Previous ranking: #164

The technopop punk rock band from the UK added fifteen new plays, an increase of over 28% over the past five years.

#166: Tag Team
iTunes stats: 68 plays
Previous ranking: #154

Thank to their inclusion on my Cubs victory playlist, the one hit wonders from Denver, Colorado, who I have seen perform at half time of a Bulls game and before a White Sox game, increased their listens by thirteen.

#166: Dean Martin
iTunes stats: 68 plays
Previous ranking: #176

The Rat Pack member, who passed away in 1995, picked up 18 new plays over the past five years.

#165: Belinda Carlisle
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Chicago White Sox Baseball Is On The Air

Over a year ago, the White Sox, Bulls, and Blackhawks announced that they were partnering with Standard Media Group to create the new television broadcast home for all three teams, which eventually became Chicago Sports Network (CHSN for short).  Starting in October, the network went live missing one small little thing: a carriage agreement with Comcast, the largest cable provider in Chicago.

Ratings for the Blackhawks this past season, their first on the new network, were down 78% from the previous year on NBC Sports Chicago.  The Bulls were looking at a 63% decrease as of February.  The White Sox, coming off a season where they set the MLB record for losses in a year, were not exactly worth the $29.99 the network was charging for streaming.

Well, that all changes today.  Word broke yesterday that the fledgling network had finally reached agreement with Comcast to be added to their channel line-up.  They are expected to be placed on the Ultimate tier plan, which will add $20 to your cable bill if you are not already subscribed.  The Cubs’ Marquee Sports Network is expected to be moved to the same tier following this season.  With live sports seemingly one of the few reasons to keep cable, it seems that providers are looking to soak their customers for as much as they can before everything moves to streaming.

 

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Connecting The City 2.0

Back in 2021, Nike announced they would be introducing City Connect uniforms to Major League Baseball, reimagining each team’s look to “celebrate[s] the bond between each team and its city.”  The White Sox were one of the first to get a City Connect, the infamous Southside set that was widely recognized as one of, if not the best rendition of the initial go-arounds.  Each City Connect uniform combination was intended to last for three years.

Four years later, the second wave of City Connects are being released and the White Sox will likely find themselves on the bottom of most rankings.  Announced yesterday, the new uniform set is the first collaboration between the MLB and NBA, as the jerseys basically adopt the Chicago Bulls look, with red jerseys with black pinstripes, black sleeves, and Chicago across the chest in a very Bulls-like wordmark.

First, the good: I like the black hat with the winged sock logo and the red brim.  And that’s about it.  The jersey looks like a cheap generic that you would pick up at Walgreens or Osco, not something a major league team would wear.  The black pants have red stripes down the sides with “SOUTHSIDE” repeated in black within the stripe.  Overall, this seems like a lazy, bottom of the barrel idea and I can’t see how this City Connect program will last long-term if they are already down to ideas like this.

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2024-2025 Final Standings

After losing in the play-in tournament for the third time in as many years, the 2024-2025 NBA season came to an end for the Bulls last night.  I made it to the United Center for the first time in a decade last November to see Zach Edey and the Memphis Grizzlies take on the Bulls.  Unfortunately, Edey didn’t play, but the Grizzlies still managed to pull out the victory.

2024-2025 Team Records

Team Won Loss Winning Pctg
Memphis Grizzlies 1 0 1.000
Chicago Bulls 0 1 0.000
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FB10: Week 44

Despite the turn in weather, and the first snowfall of the season, I managed to stay above the 30,000-step plateau for the fifth week in a row.  Things got off to a decent start on Sunday as we celebrated Danny’s birthday, which left me 34 steps away from 5000.  Monday saw a big drop, going down to 3200 steps.  A charging session on Tuesday helped push me back up to 5300 steps.  Another drop on Wednesday put me 3 steps shy of 4000.  Thursday was just a little worse, needing 8 additional steps to get to 3900.  A slight increase on Friday left me just 6 steps short of 4200.  Saturday was the high point of the week, thanks to a trip to the United Center to see the Bulls battle a Zach Edey-less Grizzlies team and leaving me just 17 steps shy of 6400..

Total steps: 31,986

Daily average: 4569.4

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Selling Your Soul

The Cubs made their deal with the devil, Motorola in this case, on Thursday, agreeing to add an advertising patch to their jerseys as part of a multiyear deal to make the company the team’s “official smartphone.”  The patches made their on-field debut Thursday night against the Cardinals at Wrigley Field.

For the home pinstripes and road grays, the Motorola logo will have a blue background with a white M.  The alternate blue jerseys will have a white background with a blue M, while the City Connect jerseys will have a white background with a navy-blue M.  Motorola is also the jersey sponsor for the Padres in MLB and, in Chicago, the Bulls.

The Cubs become the 23rd MLB team to strike a uniform patch deal, worth an average of $7-8 million with the largest deals, believed to be with the Yankees and Blue Jays, worth over $20 million.

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Post Mortem – Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty

NBA legend Jerry West, who passed away earlier this week at age 86, objected to his portrayal in Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, saying it was “cruel” and “deliberately false.”  Which is totally how the Jerry West played by Jason Clarke in the show would have reacted.

The Showtime era of Lakers basketball, led by Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and coach Pat Riley, featured an up-tempo offense and resulted in five NBA championships and four additional Finals appearances.  Winning Time, with a changed name because its home network of HBO competed against Showtime, dramatized the early days of the era, starting with the drafting of Johnson and the first championship won during his rookie season of 1979-1980.  A second season, covering the next four NBA campaigns, aired starting in August of 2023.

With Kareem retiring in 1989 and Pat Riley stepping down as coach the following year, the Showtime era came to a close in 1991, following a Finals loss to Michael Jordan and the Bulls and Magic Johnson retiring after testing positive for HIV later that year.  Winning Time came to an end in September of 2023, when HBO announced it was cancelling the series after just two seasons.

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Fifty Years Of Music – 1994

Fifty years ago, I made my first appeared on the Earth.  In celebration, we are going to take a look at the year-end Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for each year of my life and see what songs resonated with me at the time and if they continue to do so to this day.

We continue our look back at the music of my lifetime with 1994, the year I settled on a major, finished my second year of college, started my third year, and turned 20.   Only 57 songs on the Hot 100 remain familiar to me today, with 42 of them appearing in my collection in one way or another.

#97: Haddaway – What Is Love
iTunes stats: N/A

The debut single from the singer managed to make the year-end charts two years running despite peaking at #11 in the fall of 1993.

#95: General Public – I’ll Take You There
iTunes stats: N/A

Featured in the film Threesome, this cover of the classic by The Staple Singers reached #22 on the Hot 100.

#92: Melissa Etheridge – I’m the Only One
iTunes stats: 20 plays

The lead single from Etheridge’s fourth studio album, it was re-released following the success of Come to My Window and managed to surpass it, hitting #8.

#91: Bon Jovi – Always
iTunes stats: 2 plays

The requisite new song added to the greatest hits album, it became the band’s eleventh, and final, top ten hit, topping out at #4.

#89: The Four Seasons – December, 1963 (Oh What a Night)
iTunes stats: 27 plays

This remix spent 27 weeks on the chart, matching its original run across 1975 and 1976, and peaked at #14.

#85: Ini Kamoze – Here Comes the Hotstepper
iTunes stats: N/A

Spending two weeks at #1 in December of 1994, it was the only single from the Jamaican artist to break into the Top 40.

#82: Queen Latifah – U.N.I.T.Y.
iTunes stats: 21 plays

Confronting the disrespect of women in society and slurs against women in hip-hop culture, the song remains Latifah’s biggest pop hit, reaching #23.

#77: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – Mary Jane’s Last Dance
iTunes stats: 32 plays

Petty’s first Top 20 hit since 1989, it topped out at #13 on the Hot 100 and topped the Album Rock Tracks chart for two weeks.

#76: Culture Beat – Mr. Vain
iTunes stats: 13 plays

The German group’s only single to chart in the US, it went to #17.

#72: Aerosmith – Amazing
iTunes stats: 17 plays

Featuring backing vocals from Don Henley, the track peaked at #3 on the Album Rock Tracks chart and #24 on the Hot 100.

#68: Aerosmith – Crazy
iTunes stats: 28 plays

Accompanied by a video featuring Alicia Silverstone and Liv Tyler, this last single from Get a Grip reached #17.

#65: 69 Boyz – Tootsee Roll
iTunes stats: 19 plays

The group’s debut single, it became the only one to crack the Top 30, topping out at #8.

#63: Real McCoy – Another Night
iTunes stats: 20 plays

The German group’s first single to chart in the US, it went all the way to #3, where it spent a record-setting eleven non-consecutive weeks.

#62: Snoop Doggy Dogg – What’s My Name?
iTunes stats: 57 plays

The first solo outing from the west coast rapper, it peaked at #8

#61: 2Pac – Keep Ya Head Up
iTunes stats: 19 plays

Focusing on black womanhood, the rap track reached #12.

#60: Jodeci – Cry for You
iTunes stats: 19 plays

Topping out at #15 on the Hot 100, the lead single from the group’s sophomore album sat atop both the R&B/Hip-Hop songs chart and the Billboard Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop airplay chart.

#59: Warren G – This D.J.
iTunes stats: 15 plays

The second single from the rapper’s debut album, it was his second straight top ten hit, going to #9.

#55: Domino – Getto Jam
iTunes stats: 15 plays

The rapper’s debut single became his one and only top ten hit, peaking at #7.

#54: Bruce Springsteen – Streets of Philadelphia
iTunes stats: N/A

Recorded for the soundtrack to Philadelphia, it reached #9, becoming Springsteen’s twelfth and final top ten hit.

#52: Snoop Doggy Dogg – Gin and Juice
iTunes stats: 49 plays

Nominated for a Grammy, the second solo single from Snoop went to #8.

#51: Gin Blossoms – Found Out About You
iTunes stats: 23 plays

Originally written in the mid-80s by the band’s former guitarist, it peaked at #25.

#50: Beck – Loser
iTunes stats: 16 plays

Beck’s first single to chart on any major chart, it reached #10 in April and was named one of the 500 best pop songs of all time by Billboard magazine.

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Setting A New Standard

Don’t download that Stadium app just yet.  A little over two weeks ago, news broke that the White Sox, Bulls, and Blackhawks were expected to announce they were moving their game broadcasts from NBC Sports Chicago to Stadium, a multi-platform sports network controlled by Jerry Reinsdorf. Turns out that was a bit premature.  Yesterday, news broke again that the three teams would instead partner with Standard Media Group to create the new television broadcast home for all three teams, starting in October.  The currently unnamed network is expected to be available across multiple platforms, including over-the-air and carriage agreements with cable and streaming providers.

Based in Nashville, Standard Media Group is a local broadcast and digital media company that, according to its website which looks to have not been updated since 2022, operates television stations in Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska and Rhode Island.  Compared to them, Stadium, owned by a digital and media investment subsidiary of the White Sox with offices and studios at the United Center, looks like a major player.

Why the change?  Maybe Reinsdorf is looking to start greasing the wheels in Nashville ahead of a potential move.  Maybe the thought of spending money, even if the majority of it was coming back to him, offends the chairman to his core. Maybe the White Sox, Bulls, and Blackhawks draw better in Rhode Island than anybody realizes.  We may never know the truth.

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Building A New TV Home

The White Sox, Bulls, and Blackhawks are expected to announce this week that they are moving their game broadcasts from NBC Sports Chicago to Stadium, a multi-platform sports network controlled by Jerry Reinsdorf.  Stadium, which already has a streaming platform n place that could potentially offer a direct-to-consumer product through its app, would then convert into a regional sports network and attempt to find distribution with cable and satellite providers, in an era where viewership is declining.  The teams, specifically the White Sox and Bulls, are also looking for traditional over-the-air broadcasters to carry some, if not all, of the games locally.

Presumably, most, if not all, of the on-air staff would move to the new channel, as this would seemingly spell the end of the road for NBC Sports Chicago.  Some of the behind-the-scenes staff will likely need to move over as well to enable Stadium to make the transition.

Stadium, of course, is owned by Silver Chalice, a digital and media investment subsidiary of the White Sox with White Sox VP Brooks Boyer listed as CEO.  Their offices and studios are currently located at the United Center.