By Roger Wallenstein

Standing at the fence on the berm above the White Sox bullpen in right field last Saturday in Arizona, my eight-year-old granddaughter Ava got a nice surprise. Blake Smith, a non-roster invitee who made four less-than-stellar appearances in relief for the White Sox last September, had been warming up as the game ended with the Sox on the short end of a 5-3 score against the Dodgers.
Smith looked up, singled out Ava, and instead of returning the ball to the bag resting beside him, tossed it up to the kid. She fumbled it. Might have been her genes. Smith flipped it up to her again. Same thing. Not to be deterred, Smith gave her a third chance, and my outstanding young grandkid snagged it. From my point of view, Smith will never make a better pitch, which was just one of many warm, friendly gestures that one finds on a typical spring training day.
During a time of executive orders, confrontation, hate, anger, and aggression all communicated by confounding, breaking, fake, and real news, the pace and mood of baseball’s annual six-week spring training ritual is a welcome antidote. Things tend to operate in slow motion as the ballclubs take their time getting prepared for the long season ahead.

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Posted on February 28, 2017

By Jim Coffman

Hey NHL, a little help!
The Hawks are taking care of business. They just keep winning, pulling within a point of the division-leading Wild with their 4-2 victory over the Blues last night. But now Minnesota has piled up the games in hand again. They have played three fewer games than the glorious locals who have won nine of their last 10.
So of course what needs to happen now is the rest of the NHL needs to start knocking off the Wild with considerably more consistency. First up? The Los Angeles Kings travel to the Twin Cities tomorrow evening. Let’s go LA!

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Posted on February 27, 2017

Baseball draft time again, and here’s me getting a late start. Over the next few weeks, I’ll lay out my top 100 players in four installments that also provide their positional rankings.
Fans of a certain Cubs bromance will find much to love in the top 10, so here we go . . .
Rankings 1-25:
1) Mike Trout, Of, LAA; OF Rank: 1 – The only player last year with at least 100 runs, 100 walks, 100 RBI and 30 SBs, and fell just one HR short of 30. HRs dropped dramatically from 41 in 2015 to 29, but every other stat rebounded. Led MLB in walks (116) and runs (123), and he’s just 25.

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Posted on February 24, 2017

By Jaime Schultz/The Conversation

Is cheerleading a sport?
The International Olympic Committee thinks so. In December, the IOC’s executive board voted to provisionally recognize cheerleading.
This means that for the next three years, the IOC will provide the International Cheer Union with at least $25,000 annually to promote the sport.
During that time, the ICU can apply for full Olympic recognition in the Summer Olympic Games.
ICU president Jeff Webb called the decision a “monumental milestone for cheerleading” and “the culmination of my life’s work.”
I study the history of women’s sport, which makes me curious about Webb’s enthusiasm for the IOC’s decision. In the past, he has argued against classifying cheerleading as a sport. So why the sudden reversal?

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Posted on February 21, 2017

By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes

Butler or Bust? Plus: Blackhawks Bye, Blame Barnwell, Joe Maddoning, and Coach Is Only Half-In On The White Sox Rebuild, Too.

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Posted on February 17, 2017

By Ben Hirschler/Reuters

LONDON – Scientists have found signs of brain damage that could cause dementia in a handful of former soccer players, fueling worries about the danger of frequent knocks from heading the ball or colliding with others on the field.
The small study was the first of its kind, involving post-mortems on six men who died with dementia after long careers playing soccer. All were skilled headers of the ball.

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Posted on February 15, 2017

By Jim Coffman

That probably did it.
Northwestern’s 66-59 victory at Wisconsin on Sunday night means they will almost certainly go to the NCAA tournament for the first time in program history.
The Wildcats are 19-6 overall and 8-4 in the B1G (I prefer this designation to the one that requires the writer to call a 14-team league the Big Ten). They have six more regular season games and at least one conference tournament game to score that magical 20th victory and make sure they at least finish at .500 in the conference (minimum nine wins). One more win during those last six regular-season games makes an invitation a probability. Two just about guarantees it.

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Posted on February 13, 2017

By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes

Get Garoppolo. Plus: Super Bowl Scenery Chewing; #BearsBoycott; ACL U; As The Bulls Turn, Turn, Turn; The Toewster Is Back; Brain Disease Strikes Mike Adamle; and Baseball’s Worst Idea Since Using The All-Star Game To Determine Home Field For The World Series.

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Posted on February 10, 2017

By J. Douglas Coatsworth/The Conversation

Among the 100 million-plus people who watched the Super Bowl on Sunday: approximately three million youth athletes athletes who play the game themselves, many reflecting on a season of intense competition, hard-fought battles and the tenacity of elite professional athletes.
Entangled in the enthusiasm and attention to professional football is the conversation of concussive injury and how playing professional football is related to brain injuries, neurocognitive problems and neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).
The National Football League has taken steps to protect their players from head injuries, such as changing rules and improving equipment, yet as the Wall Street Journal reports, rates in 2015 declined only slightly.
And while most of the media attention is directed at professional athletes, concussion and brain injuries are also a concern for soldiers in the military and for millions of youth athletes. Rates of concussion in these groups have led researchers and medical professionals to identify concussion as a public health crisis.

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Posted on February 6, 2017

By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes

We are not amused. Plus: Garoppalooza; Mrs. Coach And Boy Coach At The Super Bowl!; The Super Bowl Is A Weird Animal; The NFL’s Legacy Ownership Problem; Peak Jimmy Butler; Not Wild About The Blackhawks; We’re Sad About Elena Delle Donne; Zigs And Zags; Cubs Stockpiling Broken-Down 35-Year-Old Pitchers; and National Everything That’s Wrong With College Football Day.

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Posted on February 3, 2017