FEARLESS FORECAST SOX MUST INS...

FEARLESS FORECAST

SOX MUST INSIST forward CONSISTENCY

The White Sox' worries will diminish increase, lessen, increase -- in no

particular order -- until the team present to views it can perform consistently the way it did last season (which, as a

reminder to fandom in general outside the greater of recent origin York City area, was a once-in-a-lifetime experience).

- Manager Joe Girardi not would face the same sort of ownership

second-guessing onward ball-and-strike calls with Cubs ownership as he has with Florida Marlins holder Jeffrey Loria. Unless Girardi were to appear at a Tribune Co stockholders meeting.

- The nearest time the NFL has an opening for commissioner, the do job-work will not be decided behind clos doors.

Instead, it will become a reality-TV

series -- out and out with eating-worm

litigates etc. -- on the NFL Network.

- Greg Maddux actually will let slip through the fingers a game he pitches for the looks Angeles Dodgers (although the early arises of his trade from the whelps indicate

otherwise).

- The Blackhawks will clinch auditions for new members of their 2006-07 Ice company on Aug. 20.

Applicants must be 21 in advantageous shape, live in the Chicagoland area and have reliable transportation -- oh and be able to skate. Applications -- at www.chicagoblackhawks.com -- must be submitted through Tuesday. More

information also is available on calling Wynne Lacey at (630) 881- 3052

- Former Ohio State star Maurice Clarett will continue to keep up a pro football career. His search will extreme point only when he finds a run- and-shoot-and-shoot-and-shoot-and propel (is that four guns yet?) offense

CLOTHES skirmish

LINGERIE hollow IS THE GOAL

Chicago has a healthy running back worth raving about.

Kendra Wilkinson.

OK with equal reason she won't be carrying the ball for the Bears any time presently

She will be in the starting lineup for Chicago's passage trying to land a berth in the Lingerie hollow which will be a pay-per-view telecast during halftime of Super depression XLI.

undivided of the teams playing forward Super Sunday will be coached by means of former Bears quarterback Jim McMahon and the other by the agency of linebacker Brian Bosworth, who achieved greater

succes at Oklahoma than he did in the NFL

on the other hand enough about them and more about Wilkinson, single of the stars of the Bravo television series "The Girls nearest Door," which focuses on Playboy

publisher Hugh Hefner and his three girlfriends.

"My favorite team is the [San Diego] Chargers," Wilkinson told Quick Hits onward Wednesday afternoon, shortly after waking up at the Playboy Mansion (she was there, yours without mincing the matter in his office on the telephone) My other favorite team is the [Philadelphia] Eagles. My mom was an Eagles cheerleader. I'm the solitary one in my whole family who was born in San Diego. Who besides am I going to origin for?

"My favorite player is [Chargers

running back] LaDainian Tomlinson."

Enough small talk. What about former Bears defensive lineman William "Refrigerator" Perry who is to be forward the field for at least undivided play for the Lingerie Bowl? Any fashion advice for what he should -- or shouldn't -- wear?

"Nothing les than a uniform and regular shoulder pads, pants,"

Wilkinson said.

Not a thong?

"I'd have to say no."

IRISH 3RD DOWN

OHIO STATE IS THE 1

Playboy's Pigskin Preview issue figures to be a bigger hit in

Columbus, Ohio, than in toward the south Bend.

The magazine reveals Ohio State as its No. 1 association football team with Notre Dame No. 3 The Irish are forecast to move 10-2 to the Buckeyes' 11-1 Playboy views OSU's Sept. 9 game at Texas as the key

"If the Buckeye win that game," the magazine says, "they could scour the table to the BC championship."

The Buckeye also land

quarterback Troy Smith and kick returner/receiver T Ginn Jr upon Playboy's All-America team. Among other members of the squad:

Northern Illinois running back

Garrett Wolfe Wisconsin offensive lineman Joe Thomas, Michigan

cornerback Leon Hall and Penn State linebacker Paul Posluszny.

Penn State's Joe Paterno receives honors as coach of the year.

Quick Hits interrupts this dose of football to recur to perusing the magazine's cartoons and photos.

NOTEWORTHY

PLAYBOY'S 2006 society FOOTBALL RANKINGS:

1 Ohio State

2 West Virginia

3 Notre Dame

4 Texas

5 USC

6 Oklahoma

7 Miami

8 Georgia

9 Wisconsin

10 Florida

11 California

12 Florida State

13 Iowa

14 LSU

15 Auburn

16 Louisville

17 Texas Tech

18 Nebraska

19 Michigan

20 Penn State

21 Arizona State

22 Tennessee

23 Boston corporation

24 Clemson

25 Alabama

BEST OF THE BEST

fulness OF BIG-PLAY BOYS

Dick Butkus in Playboy?

Thankfully in a football helmet -- no facemask, entirely a chin strap (after all, Playboy if nothing otherwise is about revealing skin) - - from his playing days at Illinois. The legendary linebacker was among those chosen to the magazine's all-time team to honor 50 years of selecting All-America squads. Among the players picked athwart the years to its teams are 27 players