Blackhawks Vs. Penguins In Stadium Series On Saturday
It’s not as cool as when Wrigley hosted hockey – or Fenway, or Yankee Stadium – but then, Soldier Field isn’t a ballpark either.
1. From scratch.
Posted on February 28, 2014
Chicago Soccer Player Patrick Grange Had CTE
Former UIC Flame Died At 29 Of ALS
“Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the degenerative brain disease linked to repeated blows to the head, has been found posthumously in a 29-year-old former soccer player, the strongest indication yet that the condition is not limited to athletes who played sports known for violent collisions, like football and boxing,” the New York Times reports.
“Researchers at Boston University and the VA Boston Healthcare System, who have diagnosed scores of cases of C.T.E., said the player, Patrick Grange of Albuquerque, was the first named soccer player found to have C.T.E. On a four-point scale of severity, his disease was considered Stage 2 . . .
“Grange was a lifelong soccer player who starred in high school and played collegiately at Illinois-Chicago and New Mexico. He played for the Chicago franchise of the Premier Development League, a proving ground for future professional players, and in a couple of semiprofessional leagues.”
Posted on February 27, 2014
Fantasy Fix: Baseball Draft Guide Part 4 – The Big Fish
By Dan O’Shea
The outfield is where you’re most likely to find the most coveted of fantasy players = the so-called 5×5 (HR/RBI/SB/AVG/Runs) talent. This season all of the top nine OFs are capable of delivering to some degree in all these categories, but one big fish is a better swimmer than the rest.
Posted on February 26, 2014
What The MSM Missed In Sochi
Athletic Feats Vs. Journalists’ Accommodations
Justin Reiter, who was unable to get adequate support from the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association to send him to Sochi, lived out of his truck during his Olympic training. Shaun White landed off the medal podium for the first time. And the MSM focused so much on Yulia Lipnitskaya with her noodle-like spins and Play-Doh flexibility that they missed Adelina Sotnikova, who took the gold home to Russia in the women’s individual competition for the first time ever. RT’s Perianne Boring highlights some of the best moments from the events.
Posted on February 25, 2014
SportsMonday: Hoping Michael Sam’s Stock Drops
By Jim Coffman
There were a few local options for the column today but both were depressing. We could have focused on the sad, sad fact that the Bulls are still far, far away from competing with the Heat.
Or it could have been the now annual rundown of how bad college basketball is in Chicago and just about across the state – although my son Noah tells me Illinois State is kicking butt in the . . . ‘what’s that conference again?’
But for this week and hopefully this week alone, let’s go national.
Michael Sam will not cause the distraction that many have predicted for the NFL team that drafts him.
Posted on February 24, 2014
Relevant Excerpt: The Cartel: Inside The Rise And Imminent Fall Of The NCAA
Taylor Branch vs. Northwestern
“College athletes are not slaves,” writes Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Taylor Branch in The Cartel: Inside the Rise and Imminent Fall of the NCAA. “Yet to survey the scene – corporations and universities enriching themselves on the backs of uncompensated young men, whose status as ‘student-athletes’ deprives them of the right to due process guaranteed by the Constitution – is to catch the unmistakable whiff of the plantation.”
*
From Chapter 5, “The Myth Of The ‘Student-Athlete.'”
Today, much of the NCAA’s moral authority – indeed, much of the justification for its existence – is vested in its claim to protect what it calls the student-athlete. The term is meant to conjure the nobility of amateurism and the precedence of scholarship over athletic endeavor. But the origins of “student-athlete” lie not in a disinterested ideal but in a sophistic formulation designed, as the sports economist Andrew Zimbalist has written, to help the NCAA in its “fight against workers’ compensation insurance claims for injured football players.”
Posted on February 21, 2014
Fantasy Fix: Baseball Draft Guide Part 3 – 3B, SS & The Last Of The Sure Thing
By Dan O’Shea
We can do our best to maintain a sense of mystery, but picking the best fantasy players at 3B and SS is really a pretty obvious exercise. The talent is much deeper at 3B, but there is very little to argue about the top 10 players. At SS, the talent pool is so shallow that there is nothing worth arguing about.
Posted on February 20, 2014
Mistwood vs. Morningwood*
Compare And Contrast
“Mistwood Golf Club in Romeoville, fresh off of its $6 million dollar course renovation and development of the new Performance Center, has been garnering the national spotlight over the past year.
“GOLF magazine named it the ‘Best U.S. Renovation You Can Play‘ for 2013 and Golf Range magazine recognized the new Performance Center and driving range among the Top 50 Ranges in the U.S.
“If you are planning to attend the Chicago Golf Show this week (February 21-23) and would like to meet with and interview the staff from Mistwood, feel free to stop by booth No. 1512 and learn more about these awards and what is planned for the upcoming golf season.”
Posted on February 19, 2014
The Cubs Are Totally Gonna Get Their Shit Together This Spring (Not)
By Marty Gangler and Steve Rhodes
A bunch of guys are totally reporting in the best shape of their lives.
Also, the team is really gonna stress fundamentals this year.
And they’re really gonna work on the little things.
And if they stay healthy, who knows?!
They just wanna play meaningful games in September.
They prefer not to use the word “rebuilding.”
Posted on February 18, 2014
SportsMonday: The Cubs’ Bear Market
By Jim Coffman
Ticket prices are escalating at an even more ridiculous rate than usual aren’t they?
As I become, what, the one billionth fan to complain about how expensive it is to attend a sporting event these days, it is clear that prices are even more untethered to reality right now than they have been the past few years.
My wife came home last week and told me we had a chance to purchase tickets through her place of work for the Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks versus the talented Pittsburgh Penguins at Soldier Field. We would be able to watch the March 1 Stadium Series match-up scheduled to start at 7 p.m. for the low, low price of $179 per ticket.
We could afford to purchase a couple of those tickets. There is no way in hell we will do so.
Posted on February 17, 2014