By picking up the 2023 options on sporting director Georg Heitz and technical director Sebastian Pelzer, owner Joe Mansueto sent a strong message to Fire fans:

Don’t get your hopes up for next season.

Under Heitz and Pelzer, the Fire have missed the playoffs three straight years. They’ve swung and missed on designated players, haven’t built enough depth to survive a season and constructed lopsided rosters prone to the worst kinds of losses.

Yet Mansueto is giving them another chance, opening himself up to questions about his judgment and whose advice he’s taking.

“I’m pleased that Georg and Sebastian will return in 2023,” Mansueto said in a statement. “Going into next season, we feel that we have established a strong foundation with a new coaching staff, led by Ezra Hendrickson, and a core group of players to build around.”

Keeping Heitz and Pelzer for another season hurts the Fire’s chances next year, and could have repercussions for future builds.

Heitz and Pelzer can sign another designated player this offseason after restructuring Gaston Gimenez’s deal. While the roster flexibility should be a positive that gives the Fire a chance to add a striker, Heitz and Pelzer could bring in a high-priced player who might handcuff their successors if they’re gone after 2023.

If that happens, it will be Mansueto’s fault.

Mansueto has done some good things since taking over for Andrew Hauptman late in the 2019 season. He’s invested much-needed money into the club, seems to genuinely care about its success and his deep wallet gives the franchise legitimate hope for the future both on and off the field. Ditching the infamous “Fire Crown” was a sign he’s willing to listen to supporters and reverse a mistake, and getting games onto WGN brought in new fans.

But he can’t seem to quit Heitz and Pelzer, a duo whose failings have undermined the rest of the club. And their successes shouldn’t have been enough to get a fourth year even if Mansueto is looking for steady long-term growth and not quick fixes.

True, since the beginning of 2021 the Fire have sold Gabriel Slonina to Chelsea and Przemyslaw Frankowski to French side RC Lens, but both players were with the club before Heitz and Pelzer came to Chicago. Jhon Duran looks like a shrewd signing who will bring in an eight-figure transfer fee, and should have been a member of the starting lineup earlier this year.

Selling players, however, shouldn’t be the crowning achievement for a front office or a justification for keeping the top executives.

The rest of Heitz and Pelzer’s successes – adding Chris Mueller, Rafael Czichos and Federico Navarro – haven’t translated to helping the team get back into the playoffs. Signing 10 homegrown players and investing in the youth system is a plus, though it remains to be seen how many will be difference-makers at Soldier Field.

Mansueto had a chance to bring in new executives with different methods than Heitz and Pelzer. Unfortunately for the Fire, Mansueto didn’t take advantage of that opportunity. And if the 2023 season is like the last three, there’s only one person to blame.

It’s not Heitz or Pelzer.

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No, this is not a Whitney Houston quiz. (But feel free to sing to yourself. I said to yourself! Stop bothering everyone else in the house). As always, our quiz is about baseball, which has more great moments than all the other sports put together. I was thinking about the fans in Seattle, Philadelphia and Cleveland who experienced the long-sought and, in some cases, unexpected moment of hosting a postseason game.

And it got me thinking about the 42,386 fans who, on this date just six years ago, were at Wrigley Field when the Cubs defeated the Dodgers in Game 6 of the 2016 NLCS and sent their team on its way to the World Series for the first time since 1945. That’s how I got thinking about that team and other Chicago players and managers and great moments that are part of baseball’s rich history.

So while the rest of baseball is focused on the postseason, let’s enjoy our head start on the offseason and seize that one moment in time. As I said to my kids every day as they left for school, “Have fun, and learn a lot.”

1. The Cubs beat the Dodgers 5-0 in that Game 6 of the 2016 NLCS. Kyle Hendricks and Aroldis Chapman were magnificent, combining to face the minimum 27 batters in nine innings. Who was the losing pitcher for the Dodgers?

a. Julio Urias

b. Kenta Maeda

c. Joe Blanton

d. Clayton Kershaw

2. Dick Donovan pitched for the White Sox in the 1959 World Series and was the last Sox pitcher to have a postseason hit. Pitcher Mike Montgomery had a hit for the Cubs in the 2016 NLCS. But was he the last Cubs pitcher to have a hit? If not him, who was it?

a. Mike Montgomery

b. Jon Lester

c. Jake Arrieta

d. Jose Quintana

3. In the 2016 postseason, Jason Heyward came to the plate 50 times. He drew one walk and was hit by a pitch. He also was a menace on the basepaths. In his 48 at-bats, did he have more hits or more stolen bases?

a. More hits

b. More steals

c. The same

4. Since the 2016 season, who has more regular-season wins, the Cubs or White Sox?

5. In 2016, Todd Frazier led Chicago with 40 homers for the Sox. Right behind him, Kris Bryant had 39 for the Cubs. Since that -season, who has led Chicago in homers?

a. Kris Bryant

b. Jose Abreu

c. Javy Baez

d. Anthony Rizzo

6. Who was the World Series MVP in 2016?

a. Kyle Schwarber

b. David Ross

c. Anthony Rizzo

d. Ben Zobrist

7. David Ross played his final game in Game 7 of the 2016 World Series. Rossy homered in his final at-bat (he walked in his final plate appearance). He hit the homer off a former teammate. Who was the pitcher?

a. David Robertson

b. Andrew Miller

c. Bryan Shaw

d. Jake Peavy

8. In 2016, David Robertson led Chicago with 37 saves for the Sox. Hector Rondon led the Cubs. Since that season, who has led Chicago in saves?

a. Liam Hendriks

b. David Robertson

c. Alex Colome

d. Wade Davis

9. Speaking of closers, which -Chicago reliever won the Cy Young Award, is credited with perfecting the split-finger -fastball, became the only pitcher to lead the National League in saves five times (1979-1982, 1984) and was the first pitcher ever elected to the Hall of Fame who had never started a game?

a. Bruce Sutter

b. Bruce Sutter

c. Bruce Sutter

d. Bruce Sutter

ANSWERS

1. Clayton Kershaw won Game 2 -(1-0) but lost Game 6.

2. On Oct. 18, 2017, Jake Arrieta singled, and that might be the last hit ever by a Chicago pitcher -(unless we get Shohei Ohtani).

3. In the NLDS, Heyward went 1-for-12 (.083) with no steals. In the NLCS, he went 1-for-16 (.063) with no steals. In the World Series, -Heyward went 3-for-20 (.150) with four steals. He totaled five hits in 48 at-bats (.104) with four steals.

4. Starting in 2017, the Cubs are 450-421 (.517), and the Sox are 410-459 (.472). Together, they are 860-880 (.494).

5. Starting in 2017, Aaron Judge has led all of baseball with 216 -homers. Kris Bryant has 95 home runs. -Anthony Rizzo has 105 homers. Javy Baez has 116 dingers. Jose Abreu has gone deep 152 times.

6. Kyle Schwarber hit .452. David Ross hit .400. Anthony Rizzo hit .360. My favorite Swiss Army knife, World Series MVP Ben Zobrist, hit .357, without a home run, but with two doubles and a triple. One of those doubles delivered the go-ahead run in the 10th inning of the Cubs’ deciding 8-7 victory over Cleveland.

7. Thank you for indulging me, but I love questions like this. Ross homered off Andrew Miller of Cleveland. They were teammates with the Red Sox in 2013-14.

8. Starting in 2017, David Robertson totaled 27 saves for the Sox. Alex Colome had 42. Wade Davis had 32. And Liam Hendriks has totaled 75 with only 10 blown saves.

9. In 1977 with the Cubs, Bruce Sutter had an ERA of 1.34. In 1979, he won the NL Cy Young with 37 saves and an ERA of 2.22. With the Cardinals, his best year was in 1984, when he set the NL record with 45 saves and had a 1.54 ERA. His former manager Whitey Herzog said of him, “He was the Sandy Koufax of relievers.” Sutter died Oct. 13 at age 69.

Coming next week, filled with scary numbers and people, my annual Halloween quiz. Because it would be silly to do it twice a year.

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A sentimental type can imagine a world in which first baseman Anthony Rizzo, left fielder Kyle Schwarber and ace starting pitcher Yu Darvish all are still teammates on the North Side.

Of Chicago, in case that wasn’t clear.

It’s more of a stretch to try to imagine Dusty Baker as their manager, but the ol’ Dusteroo spent a stint of his own with the Cubs, as any fan should remember.

Anyway, they’re all off to greener pastures now — and all still alive in the 2022 quest for the World Series championship. In this week’s “Polling Place,” your home for Sun-Times sports polls on Twitter, we asked which ex-Cub you’d be happiest to see win the title.

“I hope Dusty never wins a World Series,” @cubsaccount commented.

“It’s Yu Darvish for me,” @SamNeher24 wrote.

We also asked voters for their Big Ten West title pick, with Illinois and Purdue currently tied for the division lead at 3-1. Finally, we asked about Lonzo Ball’s and Zach LaVine’s troublesome left knees. On to the polls:

Poll No. 1: Which ex-Cub would you be happiest to see win the World Series?

Upshot: Darvish? Nice. He deserves a better Fall Classic memory than his disastrous outing for the Dodgers in Game 7 in 2017. We’ll be honest: We were thinking Schwarber would be the top vote-getter, but what the heck do we know? And Rizzo, well, people love to root against the Yankees, so he probably shouldn’t take this too personally.

Poll No. 2: Which team will win the Big Ten West (current conference records in parentheses)?

Upshot: Some home cooking here, right? It’s understandable, though, because the Illini have been nothing less than spectacular on defense, very solid on offense and utterly convincing in lopsided wins as underdogs against Wisconsin and Minnesota. Good team. Maybe a very good team. But also a second-place team if Purdue wins Saturday at Wisconsin while the Illini have a bye.

Poll No. 3: Which Bulls guard’s left knee concerns you more?

Upshot: “This is the most Bulls poll in the world,” @freshhegemony commented, and, man, do we ever know what he means. Ball will be out for quite some time. LaVine’s knee limitations remain to be better understood. Wouldn’t it be such a joy to be able to see what this Bulls roster is truly capable of at full strength? Alas, maybe we never will.

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Nothing about the Toronto exurb of Georgetown, Ontario — population 42,123 — suggests a Blackhawks pipeline. It’s a typical Canadian town with a small downtown and a hockey rink nestled between strip malls and fast-food chains off the highway.

But unremarkable Georgetown is remarkably the hometown of three out of the Hawks’ nine Canadian players. Indeed, forwards MacKenzie Entwistle, Taylor Raddysh and Jason Dickinson all grew up there — and at roughly the same time, too.

“What are the odds of that?” Dickinson said. “I don’t even think you could compute that.”

When the Hawks acquired Dickinson from the Canucks two weeks ago, Entwistle and Raddysh actually tried — and failed — to do just that.

“Me and Raddysh started talking like, ‘Oh my god, this is crazy. [We had] two guys on one team, and now all of a sudden, we have three?'” Entwistle said. “We started doing the math. We looked up the population. In 2011, it was 40,000. We couldn’t find anything on the internet for 1999, because that was my birth year, but it must’ve been so small.

“We were shocked. We were excited, though, not only for us three but also for our town, our parents, our families, everyone that drove us to the rinks. It’s so cool.”

(For the record, based on the 290 Canadian players on NHL opening-day rosters and Canada’s population of 38 million, the probability of three Georgetown residents making the NHL is about 1-in-250 — and the probability of three playing for one given NHL team is about 1-in-8,000.)

Entwistle, at age 23, is the youngest of the bunch, with Raddysh, 24, a year older and Dickinson, 27, the eldest. As is the case in many smaller towns, however, there’s no shortage of ties between the trio — dating back long before their Hawks tenures.

Raddysh’s older brother Darren, a 26-year-old defenseman now playing for the Lightning’s AHL affiliate, played minor hockey with Dickinson. Dickinson’s younger brother Josh, a 24-year-old forward now playing in Sweden, grew up friends with Raddysh — they still occasionally play Xbox together).

Entwistle and Dickinson have coached at a local kids’ hockey camp together in recent years. And Entwistle and Raddysh grew up playing on the same lacrosse team. The list of connections goes on and on.

“[Taylor and I] were close,” Entwistle said. “I always make fun of him because he was the kid that just grew way faster than everyone. He was always a heavier-set kid. He was so good at lacrosse, it was nuts. He’d just drop his shoulder and score four or five goals a game. He was that good.”

Added Raddysh: “I was one of the bigger kids…[and] that’s where you could dominate. I was actually better at lacrosse than hockey, but I was only 10 years old.”

Both of them eventually had to pick one sport to focus on, and both ultimately chose hockey — although it wasn’t a completely straightforward decision for Entwistle in particular.

Even then, though, they ended up in the same Triple-A hockey program,the Toronto Marlboros, and occasionally played together when Entwistle was called up to the older team as an injury replacement.

“As we got older, we kind of lost touch a little bit — everyone gets on different teams and stuff — but now we’re back,” Entwistle said. “We’re just following each other.”

Meanwhile, Entwistle and Dickinson linked up about five years ago, they estimate, as two of a handful of instructors at Pasmas Hockey Development, a camp run by former Capitals draft pick and Georgetown native Rod Pasma.

“We range from ages 6 to 16, so we see all skill levels,” Dickinson said. “The kids are really receptive and want to learn. It’s nice because I was [once] that kid that was dying to learn. I see a lot of those kids and I’m like, ‘Yeah, this was me. I get it. They want to learn as much knowledge as they can.'”

Entwistle and Dickinson have gotten to know each other well from those two weeks together each August, but their friendship has been elevated to a new level this past week.

With Dickinson and his wife currently living out of a hotel while sorting out longer-term living arrangements — the trade out of Vancouver took them by surprise — Entwistle has served as their de facto Chicago tour guide and Uber driver.

“He picks me up every day right now, it seems,” Dickinson said. “He’s a good kid, and I’m learning a lot more about him now than I would’ve previously. We didn’t spend this much time together. It’s nice to learn more about his family and what he’s about outside the rink.”

While commuting to and from the United Center, of course there’s plenty of reminiscing to be done about old times in Georgetown. But years down the road, Entwistle, Dickinson and Raddysh will likely be able to reminisce just as much about their hard-to-fathom 2022 reunion on the Hawks.

“We can’t look back on it now, but in time, we’ll look back and say, ‘That was really crazy,'” Dickinson said. “I don’t know if anybody else from Georgetown could get to the NHL, and we had three on the same team.”

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Ozzie Guillen may just find his way back to the south side if reports making the rounds are anything to go by.

It appears the Chicago White Sox are set look to the past again in their quest for a new skipper.

Ozzie Guillen, who piloted the club from 2005-11 and is now a Television analyst, will interview next week for the White Sox vacant manager’s post, sources told Michael Allardyce of NBC Sports Chicago.

It is not unclear how serious Guillen’s candidacy may be, but he recently said he is open to discussing a potential return to the dugout.

“It is not in my plans. I don’t know if it is in the White Sox plans,” Guillen said on NBC Sports Chicago earlier this month, per Allardyce. “Even if they think I can help them for next year, I’m very open to listening to it.

“Let me be cocky,” he added. “Nobody in baseball knows this ballclub better than Ozzie Guillen.”

Guillen won 678 games as White Sox skipper. He led the team to a pair of division titles and became the first Latino manager to win a World Series when he helped the franchise end its 88-year championship drought in 2005. He was also a fan favorite on the South Side during 13 seasons as the White Sox shortstop.

The outspoken Venezuelan has not managed for a decade. His last attempt was an ill-fated campaign with the Miami Marlins in 2012. The Marlins disciplined Guillen during that season for his controversial comments about Fidel Castro and fired him after the club lost 93 games.

The White Sox managerial post opened when Tony La Russa resigned late in the season due to health problems. La Russa’s squad underachieved in 2022, finishing with a .500 record one year after winning a division title.

White Sox has already interviewed Houston Astros bench coach Joe Espada and Kansas City Royals coach Pedro Grifol, and both left good impressions on the organization, sources told Jon Morosi of MLB.com earlier this week. Former Texas Rangers skipper Ron Washington is also in the mix.

Follow us on Twitter at @chicitysports23 for more great content. We appreciate you taking time to read our articles. To interact more with our community and keep up to date on the latest in Chicago sports news, JOIN OUR FREE FACEBOOK GROUP by CLICKING HERE

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1. Mount Carmel (8-0)

Saturday at No. 2 Loyola

2. Loyola (8-0)

Saturday vs. No. 1 Mount Carmel

3. Lincoln-Way East (9-0)

Won 28-21 (OT) at Bradley-Bourbonnais

4. York (9-0)

Won 34-8 at Oak Park

5. Simeon (8-0)

Saturday vs. Lane at Gately

6. Glenbard West (7-1)

Saturday at Hindale Central

7. Hersey (9-0)

Won 49-6 vs. Buffalo Grove

8. Lemont (9-0)

Won 49-6 at TF South

9. Prospect (8-1)

Won 64-24 at Rolling Meadows

10. Marist (6-3)

Won 34-6 at No. 23 Brother Rice

11. St. Rita (7-2)

Won 30-6 vs. Notre Dame

12. Warren (8-1)

Won 48-6 vs. Zion-Benton

13. Maine South (7-2)

Won 28-21 (OT) vs. New Trier

14. Crete-Monee (7-2)

Won 25-22 vs. No. 19 Kankakee

15. Prairie Ridge (8-1)

Won 56-49 vs. Crystal Lake Central

16. St. Charles North (8-1)

Won 32-31 (2OT) at No. 18 Batavia

17. Wheaton North (8-1)

Won 36-20 vs. St. Charles East

18. Batavia (6-3)

Lost 32-21 (2OT) vs. No. 16 St. Charles North

19. Kankakee (7-2)

Lost 25-22 at No. 14 Crete-Monee

20. Lake Zurich (8-1)

Won 35-0 at Waukegan

21. Plainfield North (9-0)

Won 35-0 vs. Oswego East

22. Naperville Central (6-3)

Lost 31-3 vs. Naperville North

23. Brother Rice (6-3)

Lost 34-16 vs. No. 10 Marist

24. St. Francis (8-1)

Lost 25-14 at IC Catholic

25. Sycamore (9-0)

Won 28-0 vs. Morris

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The Blackhawks are still theoretically tanking, and their largely unrecognizable roster is proof of it.

Anonymous or not, though, their overlooked players have demonstrated impressive amounts of scrappiness and resilience through the season’s first few weeks.

The Hawks rallied from two goals down to stun the Red Wings 4-3 in overtime Friday, winning for the second time in four games. Philipp Kurashev and Connor Murphy led a third-period comeback before Max Domi picked the top corner on a semi-breakaway two minutes into the extra session to thrill a lively crowd of 18,753 at the United Center home opener.

“Winning’s fun, right?” Domi said. “I’ll take it.”

Before the game, the Hawks debuted a new intro video that ties their slogan for the rebuild era — “Ready to Work” — in with Chicago’s blue-collar everyday culture.

The video was well-produced. But coach Luke Richardson was notably the only member of the 2022-23 Hawks who actually appears in it, demonstrating just how few marketable players the Hawks have left — and how much additional turnover the roster will likely undergo by season’s end.

That lack of talent will likely catch up with the Hawks eventually. Four games hardly represent a sufficient sample in an 82-game season. They certainly won’t complain about exceeding expectations in the meantime, though.

“They really showed a lot of character in that room, and that’s a credit to the leadership on this team,” Richardson said. “At the end of the second period, we had a good push, so there was a lot of belief. Coming out for the third, I knew we were going to be there at the end.”

Starting goalie Petr Mrazek suffered a minor injury late in the second period and was replaced by Alex Stalock. Richardson said Mrazek will be re-evaluated Saturday but Arvid Soderblom was recalled from Rockford after the game, with Alec Regula sent the other way.

Kubalik returns

Former Hawks forward Dominik Kubalik got a trial run through the weirdness of being in the United Center visitor’s locker room during the preseason, but Friday marked his official return as a new member of the Red Wings.

He returned with a vengeance, tallying two points — including a sly tip-in goal off a shot by fellow ex-Hawk Olli Maatta.

Kubalik was part of Detroit’s first splashy offseason in years; they also brought in David Perron, Ben Chiarot, Andrew Copp and Ville Husso during free agency.

“That was No. 1 thing for me when I talked to the Red Wings, that they’re trying to make another step forward,” Kubalik said. “It’s a good sign for me. I was really happy to be part of it.”

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