By Steve Rhodes

One in an occasional series tracking the movements of ex-Cubs.
1. Starlin Castro.
Because the Cubs are in the midst of a series against the Marlins down in Miami, it’s a good time to check in with the once-future star shortstop who found it hard to focus over the course of 162 games.
It might be forgotten now, but Castro went to three All-Star Games over his six years as a Cub.
Castro lost his job at shortstop to Addison Russell that year, but after moving to second he actually upped his game at the plate. That December, though, the Cubs sent him to the Yankees for reliever Adam Warren and a player-to-be-named-later, who turned out to be infielder Brendan Ryan. The Cubs released Ryan six days after acquiring him.

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Posted on April 16, 2019

By Jim Coffman

Ho hum. Another Sunday, another ridiculous morning-to-night run of sports drama.
Of course, the big headline was the return of Tiger Woods. And there was no recency bias whatsoever in the immediate declaration that his victory at the Masters was the greatest sports comeback ever.
It was not. It wasn’t even the biggest comeback in golf history. Goodness gracious, people, could you maybe let 24 or even 48 hours pass before you make bad ridiculous declarations like this? Ben Hogan rallying from a near-fatal auto accident in 1949 to win the 1950 U.S. Open in 1950 still stands as golf’s greatest comeback. It isn’t even close.

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Posted on April 15, 2019

By Roger Wallenstein

Listening to White Sox broadcasts and reading what the beat writers have to say, Don Cooper, who’s been the White Sox pitching coach since 2002, is well-respected and very successful. He has been instrumental in developing talented pitchers such as Chris Sale, Jose Quintana, Mark Buehrle, Jon Garland and others. Perhaps his shining moment came in the 2005 World Series when starting pitchers Jose Contreras and Freddy Garcia joined Buehrle and Garland to stifle the Houston Astros on their way to the four-game sweep.
When talking about Sox pitching successes during Cooper’s tenure, quality starts are frequently mentioned. In half of Cooper’s 16 seasons coming into this year, the Sox ranked in the top 10 among the 30 teams when it comes to starting pitchers who lasted a minimum of six innings on a yield of no more than three runs. Guys like Sale and Quintana were masters of the craft.
Keeping the opposition in check for a game’s first six innings should produce a winning ballclub, providing that the bullpen can protect a lead, helping the starter to pick up a victory.

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Posted on April 15, 2019

By Thomas Chambers

When little brother Jim Jr. was doing his work down in Conway, Arkansas, I was lucky to enjoy the hospitality of he and his bride and son.
It’s the home of Central Arkansas University, a beautiful campus where Crumbs found Scottie, and you know the rest.
We even ran into Scottie once, at a pizzeria, when he was in town to be inducted into something and have something named after him. Feeling “jolly,” I pressed to shake Scottie’s hand, and his bodyguard, nearly as tall as the Pip but twice as wide, nearly killed me with his stare. You’d be stupid, and I wasn’t, to not think he was packing heat.
The little jockey on my shoulder, belatedly, said, isn’t there a race track down there? Smarty Jones, Arazi, Zenyatta in the Apple Blossom? YEAH.
So I fully exploited said hospitality, fluttered the eyelashes, and angelically said, “Hey, why don’t we go to Oaklawn Park?”

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Posted on April 14, 2019

By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes

Greatness unappreciated by all except media, Maddon. Plus: Yu Darvish Is Even Annoying His Neighbors; The White Sox Are Also 3-8; Sale Sucks, Rays Rock; The Fight To Pay Minor Leaguers; The Circuitous Route of Wauconda’s Matt Mooney; Now The Bulls Pray To The Lottery Gods; Lottery Gods Smile On Blackhawks; “Q” Now Florida Man; Chicago Fired; DePaul Demons Officially Nation’s 103rd Best Team; and Co-Ed Swim Team Launches.

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Posted on April 11, 2019

By Fox 10 Phoenix

“Depending on the level, you’re making $45 a game, $60 a game, $70 a game.”
And for non-roster invitees, spring training is unpaid.
“For a guy a step away from the big leagues . . . ”

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Posted on April 9, 2019

By Grey Horse Communications

We teased it in our last newsletter, and now we’re shouting it from the rooftops: our client, the International Swimming League launches today as the first gender-balanced professional sports league, and also the first to pay elite swimmers living wages to compete.
Those enormous milestones will impact the landscape of competitive swimming around the globe. About 75% of swimming’s current Olympic champions and world-record holders will compete in ISL tournaments, which will rapidly establish fair pay as a standard among the world’s top swimmers. The league also plans to televise tournaments to a mass viewership – another first.

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Posted on April 9, 2019

By Jim Coffman

I totally lucked into being able to watch the last 10 minutes and overtime of the national men’s college basketball final last night. Virginia pulled away from Texas Tech in overtime (85-77) thanks to stellar efforts from sophomore forward De’Andre Hunter (a career-high 27 points, including the ultra-clutch game-tying three as the final seconds ticked away in regulation) and junior guard Ty Jerome.
Notice what I did there. I focused on the players first and foremost. Even the best national college basketball analysts continue to fail to do that. We hear so much about coach Tony Bennett, and how he handled the heartbreak of Virginia’s historic loss in the first round of last year’s tournament to the University of Maryland Baltimore County (becoming the first ever No. 1 seed to lose to a 16), but it is the players who win or lose everything.
All pregame and postgame analysis should begin and end with the players. One of the elements of college basketball that continues to infuriate me is that analysts still can’t seem to help themselves. They still worship at the cult of the coach.

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Posted on April 9, 2019

By Roger Wallenstein

You gotta love April baseball because the surprises and shockers never cease to amaze us.
The champion Red Sox can’t get anybody out, having lost eight of their first 11 games. The Cubs are even worse with the highest ERA in the MLB universe.
Meanwhile, Detroit, picked to finish at or near the bottom of the Central Division of the American League, is on top while Tampa Bay, which will provide the opposition the next three afternoons on the South Side, has a major league-best 1.88 ERA which helps explain their 7-3 record, good for first place in the AL East.
Perennial ace Max Scherzer of the Nationals is 0-2. This from a guy who’s lost only 13 games over the last two seasons. Chris Sale’s record is the same as Scherzer’s coupled with an 8.00 ERA.
On the plus side, the Dodgers’ Cody Bellinger already has eight home runs and 18 RBIs and is hitting .455. That’s almost an entire season for more than a few part-time players.
Locally, White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson, who missed the two-game Cleveland series last week for the birth of his second child, is hitting 127 points higher than any other hitter in baseball after collecting four hits Sunday in a pathetic 12-5 loss to the high-flying Mariners. If Anderson gets just one hit in his next 24 at-bats, he’ll still be hitting over .300.
Meanwhile, his keystone partner Yolmer Sanchez is one-for-24.
See what fun early April is?

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Posted on April 8, 2019

By Thomas Chambers

Friday evening, just before Saturday’s three-ringer, I chuckled at the dispatch from Fox Valley Kate who, summarized, asked “Who are these horses?”
While Thoroughbred race horses don’t get famous before winning anything famously, such as the Kentucky Derby, she succincted everything for anyone eyeballing the 2019 Road to the Roses. I talked her down, but she was right, which will be no wagering comfort on the first Saturday in May.
And Saturday was fairly formful. Whew.
You don’t have the beauty of hindsight as you put the money on the horsey’s nose, but we’ll know soon enough the ramifications of yesterday’s Three Major Preps. We already know it was a lot of fun, even half way into Svengoolie to the Santa Anita Handicap.

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Posted on April 7, 2019