By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes
Bullyproofing racists. Plus: Olympic Gold; The Collapse Of College Basketball?; The Cubs Are Set!; Bulls Tank You Very Much; Sad Blackhawks Season Gets Sadder; and Sitton Spin.
Posted on February 23, 2018
Black Chicago Blackhawk Reacts To Racist Blackhawks Fans
‘We Have Some Fans Who Think A Certain Way’
“The Blackhawks have banned four fans from their home games for directing racist taunts toward Washington Capitals forward Devante Smith-Pelly,” AP reports. “The Blackhawks also apologized to Smith-Pelly and the Capitals.”
The incident:
Barry Trotz with straight facts on the four fans who had racist remarks towards Devante Smith-Pelly 🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/MkhpzRbT7v
— Bar South N Celly™ (@BarSouthNCelly) February 18, 2018
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Smith-Pelly:
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The Blackhawks’ Anthony Duclair:
“How do I feel? I mean, like, we have some Blackhawks fans that think a certain way. If they’re Blackhawks fans, they would know there is a black hockey player on the team.
“It’s obviously a white sport, and you just want to go out there and compete. There’s obviously some ignorant people in this world, so you have to deal with that.”
Anthony Duclair: “It’s unacceptable to be honest with you. … It’s just very disappointing.” pic.twitter.com/GAbyagVvt2
— Blackhawks Talk (@NBCSBlackhawks) February 19, 2018
Posted on February 20, 2018
SportsMonday: Radio Days
By Jim Coffman
Baseball is coming!
An African-American driver named Bubba Wallace just missed winning the Daytona 500 on Sunday (that is a big deal, people), the NBA might have actually found a compelling All-Star format, the Winter Olympics continue to thrill . . . and because I am a Chicago sports fan, today I’m focusing on baseball.
I would write more about Bubba but this is a local column and if there is anything less local around here than stock car racing, I don’t know what it is.
Posted on February 19, 2018
The Beachwood Radio Hour #188: “No Competent Society Allows This To Happen”
By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes
A shitty week grinds Coach Coffman’s gears. Plus: Cubs Win Winter; White Sox Battery & Assault; The Winter Olympics Are Disordered; Big If True; Ramblers On A Roll; Blackhawks Bad To Worse; and Marginal Bulls News.
Posted on February 16, 2018
A Long History Of Protest For Black Athletes
By Noreen Nasir/AP
“Today’s black athletes are part of a tradition of the intertwining of race, sports and society in America. From boxer Jack Johnson to Serena Williams, each generation has had to reckon with their era’s racial climate to help move the U.S. forward.”
Posted on February 15, 2018
The Winter Olympics’ Growing Pains
By Heather Dichter/The Conversation
When the International Olympic Committee announced that PyeongChang would host the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, most people outside of South Korea had probably never heard of it, let alone knew that the eastern part of the country had snow and mountains.
The shift in the type of place capable of hosting such a mega sporting event demonstrated how much the Winter Olympics has grown – but this change also brought with it a set of problems unforeseen when the event began in 1924.
Figure skating first appeared on the Olympic program in 1908, and ice hockey in 1920, but these events were part of the Summer Games. The first Winter Olympics took place in the French alpine village of Chamonix in 1924. The organizers of the Paris Olympics that year wanted to offer an International Sports Week at the beginning of the year with solely winter sports as an experiment. Only after its success did the IOC decide to call the Chamonix event the Winter Olympics.
Posted on February 14, 2018
Who Will Win The Ivy King Cup?
By The Windy City Rollers
Don’t miss the biggest night in Chicago roller derby!
All season long, the Windy City Rollers’ home teams have been battling for the Ivy King Cup. On February 17, we’ll see who takes the championship home!
Join us on Saturday, February 17, for our last bout of the home team season, a doubleheader at UIC Pavilion (525 South Racine Avenue).
Posted on February 13, 2018
SportsMonday: Darvish Signing Exposes Cubs Problem
By Jim Coffman
I busted out my “W” flag t-shirt Sunday after it had sat in the closet throughout the baseball offseason. I thought the Cubs’ signing of Yu Darvish warranted a little celebration. Plus pitchers and catchers report tomorrow and that is always a great day.
But the Darvish signing wasn’t all good news for the North Siders. It was another reminder, in an offseason full of them, of management’s failure, more than six years into its tenure, to successfully draft and develop pitchers of any note.
Posted on February 12, 2018
The Beachwood Radio Sports Hour #187: Olympic Narratives Open For Business
By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes
But even Shani Davis can’t make all his dreams come true. Plus: Coach Coffman’s Epic Super Bowl Wrap-Up; The Mirotic Trade Looks Even Better After Seeing The Rest Of The League’s Deadline Deals This Week; Derrick Rose Not Welcome In Minnesota; The Blackhawks Are So Sad We Don’t Even Want To Talk About Them; PECOTA PESCHMOTA; and Help Us, Loyola, You’re Our Only Hope.
Posted on February 10, 2018
Instant Replay Radio
By Roger Wallenstein
This has happened before. Maybe not quite like today, but the White Sox found themselves scrambling to find a radio outlet during the winter 47 years ago too, which is exactly what’s going on right now.
It appears that the Sox likely will be broadcast over the Cubs’ once-sacred airwaves of WGN after one season on WLS, whose parent company Cumulus Media has filed for bankruptcy, negating the last five years of its contract to carry Sox games.
While a stable of promising young players provide lots of optimism for the future, back in the winter of 1970-71 no self-respecting radio outlet had the least bit of interest in airing the exploits of the South Side team. The Sox were coming off their worst year in franchise history having lost 106 games, just the third and last time that Sox losses exceeded the century mark. Just a few more than 6,000 fans per game witnessed the carnage at Comiskey Park.
Posted on February 9, 2018