By Roger Wallenstein

I’ve tried hard. I really have. And I’ll continue to make attempts to be more inclusive and tolerant while keeping an open mind about new and different ways of looking at things. However, I can’t disavow my genes. Rosters of major league ballclubs are changing constantly so that many of today’s players are foreign to me. Just like when I was eight years old, when I see a new guy, I want to know what he’s hitting. Not his average exit velocity, barrel rate, wins above replacement, or his spray chart but what’s his batting average? Then, how many homers and RBIs? This is who I am. I also like a Polish with onions, fries and a PBR.
So I wasn’t as agitated as some of the analytics’ followers last Wednesday after the White Sox 4-0 loss to the Cardinals, the lone setback for the Sox in a 6-1 homestand at The Grate, leaving the local crew atop the AL Central Division with a 3½-game bulge over Cleveland.

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Posted on May 31, 2021

By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes

And Bryant and Rizzo. Advancing the narrative. Plus: Tony La Russa’s Diversions; Bulls-Adjacent; Blackhawks-Adjacent; The Sky, An Alderman And A Law School; and The World Of Chicago Soccer.

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Posted on May 28, 2021

By Mark Wilson/The Conversation

The Summer Olympics, postponed in 2020 by a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, is scheduled to begin on July 23rd in Tokyo. The locals aren’t exactly thrilled.
According to a recent poll, 83% of the Japanese public wants the Olympics canceled, and protests are frequent. Amid a coronavirus surge that’s left the country short on hospital space and slow on carrying out vaccinations, an association representing thousands of Tokyo doctors wants the games called off. So do Japanese business leaders.
The International Olympic Committee, the nongovernmental authority that organizes the Winter and Summer Games, has acknowledged this erosion of support without changing course. “We listen but won’t be guided by public opinion,” spokesperson Mark Adams said.

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Posted on May 27, 2021

By Byard Duncan/Reveal

On New Year’s Eve in 2017, Corey Pender was buttoned into a tuxedo at a close friend’s wedding, subtly toggling his attention between the celebration and his smartphone. His beloved Buffalo Bills had a chance to do something they hadn’t done in 17 bedraggled, mismanaged years: clinch a playoff berth.
The situation was promising, but a few things still had to break right. The Bills needed a victory against the Miami Dolphins. They also needed the Cincinnati Bengals to beat a gritty and determined Baltimore Ravens team that was one win away from securing its own playoff spot.
Buffalo prevailed, to Pender’s delight. Meanwhile, as the minutes ticked down in Baltimore, the Bengals hung in. With 53 seconds left on the clock, they scored a game-winning touchdown on a hectic fourth-and-12 bullet pass. Improbably, miraculously, the Bills were headed to the playoffs. Their next opponent: the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Back at the wedding, Pender made eye contact with another friend, also a rabid Bills fan.
“Are we going to Jacksonville?” he mouthed silently as the father of the bride took the mic. The friend nodded. “Yeah, let’s go.”

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Posted on May 25, 2021

By Roger Wallenstein

Home runs are good. Strikeouts? Despite the viewpoint gaining traction that they’re just another out, well, not so fast.
Take the White Sox, for example. They’ve hit 44 home runs in the season’s first 45 games. Only four other clubs have hit fewer. When they’ve managed at least one in a ballgame, the team has won 22 of 28. To summarize, their chances of winning if they can deposit at least one ball into the outfield seats is almost 80 percent. And that’s really good. When the Sox don’t homer, they’re 4-13, and that’s downright crummy.

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Posted on May 24, 2021

By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes

Sort of. But one thing is for sure: The media was wrong. Plus: Cubs Conspiracists; Sky Opens; Red Stars Thorned; Fire Woman; and a bunch of various tangents therein.

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Posted on May 22, 2021

By Roger Wallenstein

This is being written before Lucas Giolito takes the mound this afternoon in Minneapolis in what very well could be the pivotal game thus far this baseball season for the Chicago White Sox. In fact, we might be able to look back four months from now just to see how crucial this contest turns out to be.
That may sound panicky and an overreaction, but the events of the past two nights have thrust the team into a situation of their manager’s creation, and it’s not a pleasant place. We awakened this morning wondering which ballclub, the Sox or the Twins, Tony La Russa is managing. He publicly chastised Yermin Mercedes on Monday night for tomahawking a ninth-inning, 47-mile-an-hour, three-and-oh offering from position player Willians Astudillo over the wall in left centerfield. That would have been splendid had the score been tied or close. However, with the White Sox in command at 15-4, and with the take sign on, poor etiquette doesn’t come close to describing La Russa’s interpretation of the Yerminator’s zealousness.

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Posted on May 19, 2021

By Roger Wallenstein

“Your Phone Is Your Ticket,” says the sign, assuming, of course, that every fan brought their cellphone to the ballpark. And if, heaven forbid, you don’t own a cellphone, you’re out of luck as far as seeing the best team in town.
That was the message last Thursday afternoon as we stood in line to enter The Grate for what turned out to be a 4-2 White Sox victory over the Minnesota Twins. In the 20 months since I last watched the Sox in their home park, not only have some of the rules of the game changed, but the fan experience is a clearly different as well.

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Posted on May 17, 2021

By Thomas Chambers

Rombauer, a versatile turf-or-dirt horse, laid in the weeds most of the way, wheeled into the stretch, went wide and snatched the 146th Preakness Stakes from the two favorites, who had engaged in today’s excuse for a hot pace duel and flattened out in the end.
Jockey Flavien Prat, in his Preakness debut, kept Rombauer in the third group, between horses. As ‘Bourbon and ‘Spirit broke away from the field on the turn, Rombauer went right with them, 2+ lengths back. The table was set. Keeping to the task, the little colt passed the much taller Midnight Bourbon in deepish stretch and appeared to be running downhill.

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Posted on May 16, 2021

By Thomas Chambers

Did you hear the news?
They’re running the 147th Preakness on Saturday, as chocolate-dipped in tradition as any race in America. It’s Grade I, three-year-olds, 1-3/16th miles, a $1,000,000 purse.
This edition provides more intrigue than the May 1 Kentucky Derby did both before and after, I’m serious. Especially if you consider Bob Baffert basically fixed the Derby.

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Posted on May 14, 2021