By Lee Dzikus/The Conversation

Opening Day came and went. The Olympics have been postponed. Football in the fall? Don’t count on it.
With COVID-19 infections and deaths rising each day, the cancellation of live sporting events might seem like an afterthought. But in the coming weeks and months, their absence will undoubtedly be felt.
This isn’t the first time sports have been put on hold. During previous crises and conflicts, sports have been stopped. But in the past, the reprieve was brief; sports went on to act as a way to bring Americans together, helping them persevere and, ultimately, heal.
This time’s different.

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Posted on April 15, 2020

By Thomas Chambers

The sports world, like the rest of the world, is stalled. Yet, in a limited manner, the Thoroughbreds run on.
But isn’t that the way it’s always been? Without judgement, for more human history than not, the equine has carried the world on its back. The alleged human(s) in charge who think nothing of watching people die would do well to look a horse in the eye to plead forgiveness.
Oh for two rear horseshoes to the skulls of a number of select individuals to put them out of our misery.

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Posted on April 13, 2020

By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes

GarPax is dead. We think. Plus: Q Life; Baseball Isn’t Coming Back This Year, Folks; Bear Crazy; and Transfer Window.

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Posted on April 10, 2020

21st Century Fox Execs, Too

“Prosecutors revealed new details of alleged bribes paid to FIFA executive committee members to gain their votes for Qatar to host the 2022 World Cup and charged a pair of former 21st Century Fox executives with making illegal payments to win broadcast rights for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments,” the AP reports.
“An indictment unsealed Monday in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn says Nicolas Leoz, then president of the South American governing body CONMEBOL, and former Brazil federation president Ricardo Teixeira received bribes to vote for Qatar at the 2010 FIFA executive committee meeting.
“Jack Warner of Trinidad and Tobago, president of the North and Central American and Caribbean governing body CONCACAF, received $5m in bribes to vote for Russia to host in 2018 from 10 different shell companies that included entities in Anguilla, Cyprus and the British Virgin Islands, the indictment alleged. Guatemala federation president Rafael Salguero was promised a $1 million bribe to vote for Russia, according to the indictment.”

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Posted on April 9, 2020

By Jim Coffman

Where to start with the Bears? Where to start the first chapter of “Being A Fan Of The Monsters Of The Midway For The Last 45 Years?”
I think I should go ahead and note that in the year of my birth (1966), the Bears quickly realized they had enjoyed what had the potential to be the greatest-ever first round of an NFL draft the off-season before. I would like to see any single round in any single team’s draft history in which it selected more fundamentally diverse talent than the Monsters taking Gale Sayers and Dick Butkus Nos. 3 and 4 respectively in the ’65 draft. That was especially the case during pre-Bill Walsh professional football, where year after year the most important capability of successful NFL teams was running the ball and stopping the run.

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Posted on April 8, 2020

By Roger Wallenstein

The tributes are pouring in bearing the news of Ed Farmer’s death on Wednesday. From Jerry Reinsdorf to Daniel Palka, the White Sox family, the people who knew him, have disclosed details about the team’s play-by-play radio broadcaster that were pretty much unknown to those of us who never met the man.
We were aware that Farmer suffered from a genetic renal disease and that he received a kidney, basically saving his life, from a brother a number of years ago. We knew that Farmer was a champion of the organ donor program and that Secretary of State Jesse White visited the radio booth every season touting the program in Illinois.
We didn’t know that Farmer’s mother died at age 38, and his dad passed at 41. If we ever were aware that Ed appeared before a congressional committee, testifying about receiving a donated kidney, we had forgotten.

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Posted on April 3, 2020

By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes

The job of the journalist is to tell the truth, not be a clubby insider. Plus: Q Life; Les Grobstein Still Employed – Others Not So Lucky; If You Love Chicago So Much Why Don’t You Live There?; Bears Bargain Basement; Dippy DePaul; Ex-Cub Jhonny Pereda Makes Coronavirus History; and How Coffman Denied His Lineage To Become A Cubs Fan.

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Posted on April 3, 2020

By The World Surf League

“Learn how the surfing community came together to save Trestles with the Surfrider Foundation leaders that spearheaded the campaign, CEO Chad Nelsen and Coastal Preservation Manager Stefanie Sekich-Quinn.
“With Surfrider and their strong coalition of grassroots organizations, they fought together against big money, big government, and almost impossible odds to protect one of the world’s most iconic waves.”

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Posted on April 2, 2020

By Jim Coffman

Welcome to another chapter of “The Making of a Chicago Sports Fan.” This episode, titled Early Impressions of the National Pastime, is brought to you, as always, by Beachwood Reporter Enterprises.
Last week I wrote about the development of my basketball fandom with memories of my first decade or so (from when I was 9-years-old in 1975 ’til I was 19) of living and dying with the Bulls, then DePaul, then the Bulls again.
At some point I’ll write the next installment of that story, starting with a certain star from North Carolina shooting into our incredibly lucky city via the first round of the 1984 NBA draft (after the goofy Portland Trailblazers took Sam Bowie with the second pick, enabling the Bulls to make the obvious choice at No. 3. Hakeem went first btw).
But I thought that given this is the week that Major League Baseball should be opening (if not for the virus and if not for goofy owners in recent years moving starting dates back to the first days of the last week of March) I’d switch to the national pastime this time around.

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Posted on April 1, 2020