Midnight Hawk Favored In Today’s Illinois Derby

UPDATE 4/20: Dynamic Impact Catches Midnight Hawk.
“Running in Saturday’s Illinois Derby means Midnight Hawk will be a no-show for the Kentucky Derby but Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville and Falcons offensive line coach Mike Tice agree that the likelihood of winning one of the Chicago circuit’s premier races beats taking what might be a losing ego trip to Louisville,” Neil Milbert writes for the Tribune.
“Along with Hawks assistant Mike Kitchen, accomplished thoroughbred owner Mike Pegram and prominent Kentucky breeder John Sikura, Quenneville and Tice are co-owners of the 4-5 morning favorite in Hawthorne Race Course’s Grade III $500,000 prep for the May 17 Preakness.”
But Midnight Hawk coulda been a contender!

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Posted on April 19, 2014

In Triple Freakin’ Overtime

“Ken Hitchcock thought his St. Louis Blues finally moved past the lingering debris from their late-season slump in the third period Thursday night and started playing the brand of hockey that allowed them to rack up 111 points through 76 games in the regular season,” Dan Rosen writes for NHL.com.
“Little did Hitchcock know that it would take the Blues another 40-plus minutes to get a win.
“Alexander Steen scored 26 seconds into triple overtime at Scottrade Center to give the Blues a 4-3 victory against the Chicago Blackhawks and a 1-0 lead in their Western Conference First Round series. It was the longest playoff overtime game in Blues history and the first to extend into triple overtime.”
Recap:

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Posted on April 18, 2014

Network Invests In Ultimate Frisbee

“A Chicago-based ultimate Frisbee league with ambitious growth goals has snagged a contract with ESPN to show its games on the network’s primary digital channel,” Danny Ecker reports for Crain’s.
“The three-year-old American Ultimate Disc League will showcase 14 ‘games of the week’ during its current season via online network ESPN3.com as well as select playoff games and its championship in July.

“It’s a big deal for us,” said AUDL Commissioner Steve Gordon, who also owns the Chicago Wildfire franchise. “I’m not even sure how to measure it.”

Here’s a report on the Wildfire made by The Red Line Project last June:

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Posted on April 17, 2014

By Dan O’Shea

I’m in three fantasy baseball leagues, each with some differences between their scoring schemes, yet the same player currently is ranked No. 1 in all three leagues: Alexei Ramirez.
The Cuban Missile has rocketed up the fantasy charts on the strength of a .420 BA, three HRs, 12 RBI, three SBs, a 1.142 OPS and 11 runs scored for the team that shockingly leads all of MLB in runs scored through the first 2.5 weeks of the season.

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Posted on April 16, 2014

By Steve Rhodes

“Stanley J. Sliwa, age 85, of Dunkirk, NY passed away peacefully Sunday (April 13, 2014) surrounded by his loving family,” the Dunkirk Observer reports.
“He was born June 18, 1928 in Niles, Illinois, the son of the late Stanislaus and Stephania Sliwa. Growing up in the Chicago area, he was an avid Chicago Cubs fan who enjoyed watching his team. Mr. Sliwa was a retired bricklayer.”
Theo Epstein’s last words to Sliwa were “Be patient.”

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Posted on April 15, 2014

By Roger Wallenstein

Some people just like to go first.
There’s usually the zany kid who has to be the first one to run into the frigid waters of Lake Michigan on a day like Saturday, the first balmy day of spring. Or how about the joker who inhales a jalapeño martini while friends stand back and wait for the reaction. Then there’s the skydivers and bungee-jumpers who thrive on being the first out of the plane or off the bridge.
Apparently Adam Eaton relishes being first, and luckily for the White Sox, he’s a ballplayer.

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Posted on April 14, 2014

Backs Northwestern Football Players’ Bid To Unionize In Funniest, Smartest Way Possible

Take that, Davids Haugh and Kaplan, and the rest of Chicago’s dumb-jock commentariot.
Suck it, Pat Fitzgerald.
Feed the damn kids.

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Posted on April 12, 2014

Way Better Than Theirs

“And now, from the man who blew up the Bartman Ball, roped the FBI into the investigation of a missing Stanley Cup puck and X-rayed baseballs to see if a decades-old World Series was rigged: Grant DePorter, CEO of Harry Caray’s Restaurant Group, brings you the Chicago Sports Museum,” the Sun-Times reports.
Yada yada yada.
Planning for The Beachwood Sports Museum of Chicago is now underway. Exhibits and items to include:
* The Wrigley Field rooftop contract under glass.
* Our own private label wine sealed with cork from Sammy Sosa’s bats.
* Dunk Ditka: The dunk tank to end all dunk tanks.

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Posted on April 10, 2014

By Dan O’Shea

ESPN’s Matthew Berry has been saying it for years: Never pay for saves.
This season has quickly offered confirmation of that maxim.
Several closers already have been injured this year (Aroldis Chapman, Bobby Parnell, David Robertson) and several others are off to very poor starts that could jeopardize their jobs.
If you’re stuck with a couple of closers who are lame or ineffective or both, you can always choose to forfeit that category altogether in your weekly head-to-head match-ups by deploying hurlers with SP/RP eligibility in the RP slot, or even RPs who have found their way into starting rotations as fifth starters.

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Posted on April 9, 2014

By Jim Coffman

What can they see from up there? And if fans are willing to buy those seats, what won’t they buy?
Those were my primary questions as UConn held off Kentucky for the national championship 60-54 Monday night.
Sure, I also wondered whether the gritty, gutty young Wildcats could find a way to rally yet again. Or whether the Huskies and their ultra-talented and experienced guards, including pride-of-Aurora Ryan Boatright (Co-Mr. Basketball of Illinois 2011), would prove the old maxim right yet again.
That would be the one that states that, eventually, the best guards prevail. Boatright, a junior, and senior Shabazz Napier (a game-high 27 points) certainly qualified as that, despite Aaron Harrison’s amazingly clutch long-range shooting for Kentucky late in the rounds leading up to the championship.
But first I wanted to know why on God’s green earth do people buy tickets for the third deck at the top of a gargantuan arena (capacity 100,000-plus) somewhere in “North Texas?”

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Posted on April 8, 2014