Chicago -
By Thomas Chambers
Just as I was gathering notes for this piece, we learned that Beholder
was scratched from the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
Some bleeding in her lungs was detected after an examination Thursday morning.
What could have been a spectacular race had already turned into merely a great one when Liam’ Map’s connections decided to run him in the easier BC Dirt Mile. Now, it’s just a very good one.
Posted on October 30, 2015
By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes
Team hid Jeremiah Ratliff’s mass murder threat in latest cover-up. Plus: A Cubs Post Post-Mortem: Not Yet Royal; Dominican Republic Dominates; Bulls’ Black Cloud Lifts; and Wait ‘Til Next Year For The Blackhawks?
Posted on October 30, 2015
By Carl Mohrbacher
NFL Fever – Catch It! Whatever That Means
Seemingly each NFL season brings at least one instance of a Detroit Lion receiver involved in a play that forces us to study, question, ignore or amend the NFL rulebook on the fly.
This year, the Lions have provided the world a couple flavors of end zone weirdness, and Week 6’s occurrence may have cost the Bears a shot at . . . nothing.
Posted on October 28, 2015
By Steve Rhodes
There once was a manager named Maddon
Who benched Starlin Castro, who was saddened
But Starlin came back
at the keystone sack
And everyone was gladdened
There was also a prez named Theo
who probably likes Duran Duran’s “Rio”
He put together a team
that played like a dream
But he’s sure no Ronnie James Dio
Posted on October 27, 2015
Back To The Future
A brilliant managing job, young kids who didn’t know any better, and a bright future. Guess what?
Posted on October 26, 2015
Apparently It’s The Weird Possibility Of Transcendence
“Thrown Is The Only MMA Book Anyone Ever Needs To Write,” Deadspin’s Tim Marchman declared last year.
“Kerry Howley’s Thrown is so good in large part because, so far as possible, she ignores this entire sports-industrial complex in favor of her subjects’ humanity. Rankings, purses, pay-per-view orders, judging, won-loss records, sober discussions of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, marketing strategies, and the like come in here only when they’re truly unavoidable, and are quickly dismissed. Howley, who spent three years in the company of two serious fighters for this book, is writing about something else entirely.
“What she’s interested in is what makes people watch, and what makes them fight. As ridiculous as it seems to the uninitiated – and Howley is both too self-aware not to know how ridiculous it seems, and too self-assured to care – it’s the possibility of transcendence, of a moment like the one she experienced watching the first fight she ever saw, held at a convention center in downtown Des Moines in 2010 not far from a phenomenology conference from which she was fleeing.”
You’ll have to click through to see what that was. And/or maybe Howley will talk about it on Thursday when she speaks at Roosevelt University (5 p.m. in Room 700 of the Gage Building, 18 South Michigan Avenue).
Posted on October 26, 2015
By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes
It’s now 2016 or bust – the honeymoon is finally over. Plus: Back to the Future Was An Awful Movie And Huey Lewis Sucks; Jeremiah Ratliff’s Bye-Bye Week; When It Comes To Aggrieved White Sox Fans, Cubs Fans Should Feel Fine About Gloating; Duncan Keith’s Sudden Surgery; and Derrick & Joakim.
Posted on October 23, 2015
By Thomas Chambers
You can tell a horse you love him, but you can’t make him win.
Cubs trainer Joe Maddon is learning the hard way, perhaps because unlike the Thoroughbred, he has a stable of human sponges who understand English and are eager to absorb all the psychocandy he can Ferrara pan. Only now are the Lemonheads, sour, but a great part of the product lineup, coming off the line.
Marty, Steve and Coach do a great job of covering all of the ‘Ville hijinks, so I’ll leave it at that. Except to say that when I saw Tuesday night that they were not even using one of Bill Veeck’s many masterpieces – as fine a piece of sculpture as this city possesses – and adding in the game itself, I self-diagnosed that I don’t really dig the Cubs’ schtick anymore, haven’t for a while and may never again. It’s just too much and I can’t take it anymore.
Posted on October 22, 2015
By Dan O’Shea
Eight team defenses scored TDs in Week 6. Also, eight defenses – seven of which were among the TD scorers – finished the week with more than 10 fantasy points.
Both figures sounded like a lot to me, but I went back and checked the previous five weeks this season, and was surprised to find that seven different defenses scored TDs in Week 1 and Week 5. Week 6 was the busiest so far this year for defenders or special teams players finding the end zone, but not by much.
Posted on October 22, 2015
By Marty Gangler
Ugh. Why does this always feel the same way in the playoffs? Oh that’s right, because it kinda always is the same way.
In the days leading up to this weekend the front office of the Cubs was front and center talking to anyone who would listen and gloating in the success of The Plan. But how does everyone feel now? We rode our ace for close to 90-some more innings over any season he’s pitched in the past going into the game on Sunday. Was that part of The Plan? Fatigue might happen, right? Was there a plan for that?
It just sure would be nice if the Cubs would have went out and got a Johnny Cueto or a Cole Hamels or a David Price for this moment right now – you know, like other playoff teams did. Even the Mets ditched some assets and shored up their team at the trade deadline with track-record performance-tested bullpen help and a real bat (with a real arm). And it’s kind of working out for them.
Posted on October 19, 2015
