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Baffoe: Wake Up! Sports Are Back

By Tim Baffoe--

(CBS) It was kind of like one of those really great naps. You know the kind -- when you wake up after snoozing a few hours and forget what day it is and think you're late for work. Aren't those the best?

That's what this (lack of) sports week felt like. There were no games of consequence, save for the stupid lingering spectre of Bud Selig's All-Star Game that decides home-field advantage in the World Series. It was nice.

Being relatively free of any major local team news was a respite. Especially after watching the live plastic surgery of the Chicago Bulls' removal of Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah and Pau Gasol and injection of Rajon Rondo and Dwyane Wade. And all that followed the Blackhawks' of trading Teuvo Teravainen, Bryan Bickell, and Andrew Shaw in June.

A few days of not having my head on a swivel jumping at every transaction rumor out there was very welcome in retrospect.

There's nothing wrong with unplugging from the rabidity of our sports consumption once in a while. Constant consumption of anything isn't healthy, and dumb and pathological as we humans are, at least sports figured out somewhere along the way that it needs a vacation from us and our dumb trade proposals and hot takes one week a year.

I was legit burning out on baseball, though. That worried me in particular because this was and still is one of the more interesting Chicago baseball seasons of my lifetime. Both teams went shooting to the highest of highs out of the gate. The Cubs were built better to sustain the rise. The White Sox fell terribly hard to the point where I even finally caved to the conclusion that jettisoning manager Robin Ventura would be a can't-hurt/could-help move at the very least.

Then the White Sox kinda re-peaked out of that valley to enter the All-Star break in the status they were probably supposed to be at all along. But they're in a sort of limbo, too, where they aren't good enough to be a confident postseason pick right now while they're simultaneously not in much of a position to barter to get better but also not able to sell and improve for the future. I'm balling my fists and typing with my knuckles now. I didn't have to do that this week, and I didn't miss it.

Then the Cubs went 1969 Cub-bing the past few weeks. The freefall that wasn't was on, and everything was out of control. Why did we fool ourselves into believing in the plan? A seven-game lead in the division going into the break might as well be a seven-game deficit, and is manager Joe Maddon's shtick getting old? Jake Arrieta died and was naked, and you yourself could hit like Jason Heyward for that money, and stupid sexy Flanders..

The Simpsons- Homer's Skiing incident- Stupid sexy flanders by Cy Ash on YouTube

"We're human beings," Cubs second baseman Ben Zobrist said as the first half wrapped up. "Whatever the fans feel, we're feeling the same thing. When they're screaming at us, that's how we feel inside, but we have to keep that to ourselves and keep playing."

Is it good or bad to know that when you see those cool, calm, collected Cubs faces on TV during a loss that they're actually screaming inside? Wasn't it pretty relaxing not dealing with that fetal position for an entire work week?

Zobrist and some teammates didn't even get much of a break, unfortunately.

"We need to reset," Maddon said. "We need to get guys rested up ... This last week really put us in a fatigue situation."

Fatigue for sure. I had no withdrawal during sports' absence. If anything, it was more of a battery recharge while being able to focus on the real world that operates independent of sports and we hopefully got a chance to reflect on the truly important aspects that shape our world that sports can sometimes distract from.

Where athletes spoke out against violence and began a silly awards show with a very serious message. Tim Tebow got scheduled to speak at the Republican National Convention. And the Bears were playing Pokemon Go.

But now sports are back. The White Sox are apparently activating Justin Morneau and his severely fragile head to bolster their severely mundane lineup and also calling up top prospect Carson Fulmer to dominate opponents in middle relief (which makes sense but is just so Soxy anti-climactic). What a strong cup of coffee for our bleary eyes.

The Cubs get a cozy start to the second half with a series against the Texas Rangers and their American League-best record. Dexter Fowler is still hurt, and they need to make a trade for bullpen help without giving up a chunk of Theo Epstein's sustained success model. And what the hell is this affront to God?

Plus we're less than two weeks away from Bears training camp and the return of breaking up with Jay Cutler but booty calling him a week later and rinsing and repeating. And the Bulls will be a fascinating mess. And somehow the Blackhawks will contend again after another annual purging of salaries.

OK, good nap. But I'm awake now. (Slaps cheeks, shakes head vigorously.)

I'm up. What day is today?

OK. Woo hoo. Sports. Let's do this.

Tim Baffoe is a columnist for CBSChicago.com. Follow Tim on Twitter @TimBaffoe. The views expressed on this page are those of the author, not CBS Local Chicago or our affiliated television and radio stations.

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