By Jim Coffman

It is the best of times for Chicago baseball. It is the worst of times for Baseball.
It was the best of times for Blackhawk hockey on Saturday. And it wasn’t the worst that the team lost late last night to the Oilers (6-3), but it obviously wasn’t good, as the best-of-five NHL play-in series evened up at one win apiece. Next game is Wednesday at 9:30.
I’ll have a little more about the Hawks later but I’m going to mostly talk about baseball while I still can as the season teeters on the edge of cancellation.

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Posted on August 4, 2020

By Christopher J. Young/The Conversation

In 2017, I was in Calgary, Alberta, for a conference when I took an opportunity to see a hockey game between the Calgary Flames and the Ottawa Senators. There, as I sat high up in the seats with a beer and a burger, the word “Flames” was in the air, and a light show depicted flames on the ice and around the arena’s perimeter. I wondered if I, an early American historian, was the only person in the place thinking about how a 21st-century hockey team connected with Gen. Sherman’s 1864 Atlanta campaign and the destructive journey to Savannah.

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Posted on August 4, 2020

By Roger Wallenstein

“Please, Gramps, tell me some stories about baseball and the pandemic, then I promise I’ll go to sleep,” pleaded the boy.
“Alright, as long as you’re asleep by the time your parents come home,” replied Grampa. “I don’t think they’ll let me stay with you again any time soon if they find you still awake at this late hour. What do you want to know about those times so many years ago?”
“Were the White Sox any good?” the youngster asked.

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Posted on August 2, 2020