By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes
Gripping agents and griping fakers. Including: White Sox No Longer Best Team In MLB; Cubs Bull & Pen; Go, Bears, Go!; Sky Hot; Red Stars, Fire & USMNT; and more!
Posted on June 18, 2021
Kids Who Get Hit In The Head Playing Football Show Brain Changes
By The Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center
With preseason football training on the horizon, a new study shows that head impacts experienced during practice are associated with changes in brain imaging of young players over multiple seasons.
The research, conducted by scientists at Wake Forest School of Medicine and the University of Texas Southwestern, is published in the June 15 issue of the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics.
“Although we need more studies to fully understand what the measured changes mean, from a public health perspective, it is motivation to further reduce head impact drills used during practice in youth football,” said the study’s corresponding author Jill Urban, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Wake Forest School of Medicine.
Posted on June 16, 2021
Next Team Up
By Roger Wallenstein
This “next man up” might not be so much hooey after all. At least not yet.
But what’s Tony La Russa, Rick Hahn, and the minions in the dugout supposed to say about the staggering injuries that this year’s edition of the White Sox have endured? We heard the mantra once again last Wednesday when second baseman Nick Madrigal suffered a proximal tear of his right hamstring trying to beat out a slow grounder to third base. The Sox wound up losing the game 6-2 to Toronto, the team’s only loss of the week. Madrigal had been on a roll recently, raising his batting average to .305 while 16 of his 61 hits have gone for extra bases. In the previous nine games, Nick was slashing a rousing .353/.389/.948 with a home run and six RBIs. Clearly his loss would hurt.
But not so fast. The team hasn’t been beaten since Nick went down. Danny Mendick and Leury García will be the replacements for the foreseeable future, and beginning with Thursday’s 5-2 victory over the Blue Jays prior to the weekend’s three-game sweep of the Tigers in Detroit, that duo has combined for five hits, four walks, three RBIs, a two-base hit, and an on-base percentage of .529. Mendick also made a superb play on Friday, cradling a hard ground ball behind second base for the final out in the bottom of the tenth inning, preserving a 5-4 Sox win.
Posted on June 14, 2021
The Beachwood Radio Sports Hour #360: Cubs Screwing Front Office – And Themselves
By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes
Anti-vax clubhouse eminently despicable. Including: Anthony Rizzo No Longer Likable; Where These Cubs Came From; Next Manager Up, Please; Thibs Tout; Coby White Has A Shoulder; Justin Trubisky; Sky Trade; and The World Of Soccer.
Posted on June 11, 2021
‘The Most Important League In The City’
By Tom Mayer/Chicago Challenger League
The Chicago Challenger League started the 2021 season last week with a game against the Thundercats.
“We [were] thrilled to be able to launch our 2021 season by playing against another Little League team,” said coach Tom Mayer. “This shows what makes Challenger baseball so special: building community, providing opportunities, and having fun through baseball.”
The Challenger Division is a division of Little League for boys and girls with disabilities, ages 4-18 (or up to age 22 if still enrolled in high school) to enjoy the game of baseball.
Posted on June 9, 2021
Hero For A Day
By Roger Wallenstein
Driving down North Avenue on Sunday for the first time in months, I had to double check to make sure that I wasn’t on Division or Ohio. New high rises stood in places where taverns and eateries used to dwell. Crossing Elston was a new experience since the fruits and vegetables of Stanley’s had turned into a pile of bricks and rubble. Remember that place kitty korner? The one with the surrey out front? Long gone. Thankfully Art’s Drive-In remained to slap me back to reality.
And talk about rapid change! On Saturday, Tony La Russa was getting roasted once again for having Danny Mendick bunt in the bottom of the sixth at The Grate. Having just scored two runs to trail 4-3, runners stood at first and second with no outs. Poor Danny bunted into a force at third base, the beginning of the end of the rally as neither team scored again the remainder of the afternoon.
“I think that’s the play,” said the White Sox skipper later. “I felt really good about bunting them over.”
And the Twitter world lit up.
Posted on June 7, 2021
TrackNotes: Savor The Baffertless Belmont
By Thomas Chambers
One week does not a trend make, but if this goes longer, I could get real used to it.
That would be big race days without Bob “Silver-Maned” Baffert boppin’ all over my viewing screen.
But we’ll get to him later – there’s much to do on that front – and talk about a potentially wonderful day of racing.
Our focus shifts east to beautiful Belmont Park, Elmont, NY, for the 153rd Belmont Stakes. There’s no Triple Crown on the line, just as well, but this race and a menu of other stakes will do quite nicely.
Posted on June 4, 2021
The Beachwood Radio Sports Hour #359: Measuring Stick Month
By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes
June will tell the tale. Including: Unlike Cheers, Not Everybody Knows These Cubs’ Names; White Sox Still Overcoming Manager; They Call Him Mr. Thibs; Putin’s Plan Is Working; Blackhawks Lose Lottery; Sky Nothing Without Parker; Red Stars, Fire Should Move; and Is David Montgomery Really Faster?
Posted on June 4, 2021
Who (Literally) Are These Guys?
By Jim Coffman
So, not only do the Cubs have heretofore unreported-upon young arm talent in their organization, but they might just have something approaching unlimited pitching depth there? And this happened how?
The first-place North Siders (30-23 heading into Tuesday) put a fearsome 12th player from their early-season roster on the injured list Monday, announcing that starting pitcher Trevor Williams had undergone an appendectomy. But that just meant yet another promising prospect would make the trip to The Show.
This time it was Kohl Stewart, who hustled back to the big leagues (he was there with the Twins a few times late last decade) in time to toss five innings of one-run (unearned) ball and spark the Cubs to a delightful (five homers) 7-2 home victory over the powerhouse Padres. I will never get used to writing those last two words, but the 34-and-21 team from San Diego has absolutely deserved it so far this season.
Posted on June 1, 2021
Bunt Grunt
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.
Posted on May 31, 2021