By Roger Wallenstein and Steve Rhodes
Hell Week exposes this franchise for what it’s become. Plus: The White Sox Rebuild Is Not Going As Well As You Think.
Posted on June 30, 2017
Pro Flag Football Is Now A Thing – Starring Famous Former NFL Players!
Michael Vick, Terrell Owens, Chad Johnson Come Out Of Retirement
Just stretch before you come off the couch, warns Owens.
New magnet technology!
Pass-heavy, concussion-free.
Posted on June 29, 2017
Few Players Screened For Concussions In Last World Cup
By Lisa Rapaport/Reuters
After more than four out of every five head collisions during the 2014 FIFA World Cup, soccer players didn’t get recommended concussion checks on the sidelines, an analysis of game videos suggests.
“To our knowledge, this is the first study of its kind at this level of play,” said lead author Dr. Michael Cusimano, a neurosurgeon at St. Michael’s Hospital and the University of Toronto.
Guidelines adopted by the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) require players showing any potential signs of concussion after a head collision to be immediately withdrawn from play and assessed by sideline healthcare personnel, researchers note in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
But when they examined video footage of all 64 matches in the 2014 World Cup held in Brazil, researchers only saw medical professionals examine players for concussions in 12 instances accounting for just 15 percent of the head collisions seen on the field.
Posted on June 28, 2017
Todd Frazier Should Lead Off. Seriously.
By Roger Wallenstein
This will be mostly about numbers. If you’re looking for solace and comfort after the weekend sweep by the A’s, whose road record was 9-25 prior to arriving in town, you won’t find it here. The warm, fuzzy words about Mark Buehrle, whose number 56 was retired on Saturday, can be appreciated elsewhere.
No, this will be more about the methods employed last Tuesday when the Sox knocked out 16 hits, including eight for extra bases, in a 9-7 loss to the Twins in Minneapolis. Rick Renteria’s outfit also collected four walks while Twins’ starter Ervin Santana, who entered the game with a 2.56 ERA, contributed an error, giving the Sox 21 baserunners.
Even though Sox pitching wasn’t exactly stellar, you’d think that a team that is 10th in batting with a .261 mark could plate more than seven runs while stranding 14 potential tallies.
But this is the ballclub we’re stuck with. Hawk Harrelson says a bunch of silly stuff, but, “Don’t tell me what you hit, tell me when you hit it,” is something worth investigating with this season’s edition of Chicago’s American League ballclub.
Posted on June 26, 2017
The Beachwood Radio Sports Hour #158: Bulls To Bears: Hold My Beer
By Dan O’Shea and Steve Rhodes
Trade for Trubisky suddenly not the worst by a Chicago team this year. Plus: 2017 Cubs Get Even Weirder; Are The White Sox The Next Cubs?; and Schweinsteiger!
Posted on June 24, 2017
On Joe Louis, Race And How Society Treats Its Sports Heroes
By Jon Hughes/The Conversation
Joe Louis became the second black boxer to win the world heavyweight title when he defeated James Braddock in eight rounds in Chicago on June 22, 1937. That was 80 years ago. Louis held the title for 11 years – the longest of any heavyweight – through an era of crisis and war, and in the face of ingrained racial prejudice.
Like many sporting heroes, Louis not only displayed extraordinary physical prowess, but came to embody the behavior and ethical characteristics seen as desirable by mainstream society. He was also a powerful figure for African Americans to identify with. Studying sports heroes in their context can offer insights into a nation, culture or society at the time – but the comparison with today’s sports stars also reveals surprising continuities between the past and present.
A statue of world heavyweight champion Joe Louis stands in his hometown of LaFayette, Alabama/SaveRivers, CC BY-SA
Posted on June 22, 2017
Driven: The Story Of The First African American Inducted Into The NASCAR Hall Of Fame
Pelfrey’s Proof
By Roger Wallenstein
“We work harder when we have something to prove.”
So writes L. Jon Wertheim in a neat little book, This Is Your Brain on Sports, his second anthology where the Sports Illustrated editor teams up with a psychologist – in this case Sam Sommers of Tufts – to investigate certain aspects of the games we watch such as home field advantage and the appeal of the underdog. It’s entertaining stuff.
Sox pitcher Mike Pelfrey is a good example of the above declaration which Wertheim included in a chapter about the tendency of athletes – regardless of their fame, talent, or ability – to feel disrespected. Many times it’s the thin-skinned superstars who moan and groan, especially when they lose.
Posted on June 19, 2017
The Beachwood Radio Sports Hour #157: The Cubs Are Officially In Trouble
By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes
And help may not be on the way. Plus: On Hahn; The Human Journey Of Scott Darling; Bears Look Good Against The Bears!; Dwyane Wade’s Fake News; What Kevin Durant Has Done; The Pens & P.K.; and Schweinsteiger!
Posted on June 16, 2017
Throwing Injuries In Young Baseball Players: Is There Something We Are Not Considering?
By Jason Zaremski
Unfortunately, we sports medicine doctors are seeing an increase in injuries to the throwing arm in youngsters, and many of these require surgery. Most worrisome is that the risk for developing a throwing injury was shown to increase by 36 times in adolescent pitchers who continued playing with a fatigued arm.
As a sports medicine physician and a former collegiate baseball player, I am concerned about this rise in injuries. They not only take a youngster out of commission for a game or season, but they also can have lasting effects. My team of researchers at the University of Florida is looking for ways to prevent arm injuries.
Posted on June 16, 2017