By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes
Just call him Portishead. Plus: Jon Lesster, Chris Not For Sale, Breaking China, Elene Della The Dream Donne, The Chicago Fire Did Something This Week, and Here Comes Chrome.
Posted on June 26, 2015
TrackNotes: Here Comes California Chrome
By Thomas Chambers
Horseplayers tend to swim on, like sharks, looking just ahead for the next score, the big overlay.
Racing fans do much the same thing, except that if a big-name horse is still running, you keep an eye on him, perhaps nostalgically. California Chrome falls squarely into this category.
Seems there’s plenty of intrigue, speculation and politics surrounding the star of the 2014 Triple Crown drive, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner who fell about two lengths short in the third jewel, the Belmont Stakes.
‘Chrome is heading home to America and will land at none other than Arlington Park, for both U.S. quarantine and race preparation purposes. He’ll be pointed to our own Arlington Million on August 15 at Chicago’s white palace of racing, Arlington Park (What’s with that home page, about 12.5% devoted to racing?)
Posted on June 26, 2015
Fantasy Fix: Shopping The DL
By Dan O’Shea
Picking up or trading for an injured player is always a gamble, especially when the player has been a long-term resident on the disabled list, like a pitcher coming off Tommy John surgery. Yet, it also could be one way for a losing fantasy team to pursue a turnaround, or at least stake a claim on a long-term investment.
There are a number of players who have recently come off the DL, or are expected to in the days ahead. Some of them, who haven’t played at all this year and largely were ignored during drafts, could provide a nice mid-season boost for a fantasy team in need.
Posted on June 24, 2015
Special Moments In Starlin Castro
By Steve Rhodes
Starlin Castro is one of the most aggravating players in recent Cub history.
Consider this exchange I had with Cub Factor impresario Marty Gangler over the weekend:
Steve: (After Castro’s walkoff single) Castro still has to go.
Marty: He’s fearless in bigger situations at the plate it seems. And I don’t know if it’s bad to have a guy in the lineup that can get hits on horrible pitches. If he’s your 7th batter maybe he’s fine. Idk. His d is just below average too. If you have Schwarber and the left field masher to be named later in the lineup maybe you count on nothing from Castro and you are ok. He’s 25 and already has 916 hits. Bryant is 23 and has 62 hits.
Posted on June 22, 2015
One Cliché At A Time
By Roger Wallenstein
Crash: Learn your clichés. Study them. Know them. They’re your friends. Write this down. “We gotta play ’em one day at a time.”
Nuke: Boring.
Crash: Of course. That’s the point.
This has been a season of clichés so far for the White Sox. Chances are manager Robin Ventura and most of his players don’t have the Bull Durham scene playing in their heads, but they have been well-schooled nevertheless.
“It’s still early” was the mantra back in April, when the promise of a contending team was questioned due to a sluggish beginning when the team lost 11 of its first 20 games.
Back on May 3, pitcher John Danks proclaimed, “There’s a lot of season left, but definitely [we] don’t want to dig ourselves too deep of a hole. We’ve got to pick it up.”
Posted on June 22, 2015
The Beachwood Radio Sports Hour #56: Dynasty Schmynasty
By Jim Coffman, Roger Wallenstein and Steve Rhodes
Blackhawks not Jordan’s Bulls, but are they at least the ’85 Bears? Plus: Fire Robin Ventura Already; Kyle Kub; U.S. Women’s Soccer’s Nostalgia Trip; The Sky’s New Dynamic Duo; The Chicago Fire Did Something This Week; Springfield’s Very Own NBA Finals MVP; and The Cell Is Supposedly Fun.
Posted on June 19, 2015
Fantasy Fix: Billyball
By Dan O’Shea
If a guy can steal five bases in a single game, as Billy Hamilton, OF, CIN, did last Sunday against the Cubs, he doesn’t need to do anything else to provide fantasy value – or so the thinking goes.
Hamilton is without argument the fastest player in baseball. After the first week of the 2015 season, he was on track to steal about 180 bases. He’s cooled down since then, stealing 24 bases in 60 games played by CIN, with 19 of those SBs stretched out over a 59-game span if you discount his thievery against the Cubs (though to be fair, he missed a few games during that stretch, and entered as a late replacement in a few others). In any case, he had 31 total SBs heading into Tuesday.
I’ve never been a big fan of Hamilton, though I have acquired him for a couple of my fantasy teams the last two years just to use him as a lottery ticket – if my team is losing the SB category going into the weekend, I’ll start him one or both days, assuming his lack of other fantasy contributions doesn’t hurt me too bad elsewhere.
Posted on June 17, 2015
Coffman: Blackhawks Supercede Bears
By Jim Coffman
The core four led the Hawks to history.
And this team now stands alone both at the pinnacle of hockey and right near the top in the annals of Chicago sports.
Various forwards made multifaceted contributions as the playoffs went on and on for about two postseason months of hockey. They chipped in as the Hawks defeated Nashville in six, blitzed Minnesota in four and used a spectacular finishing skate to somehow find a way past the Ducks in seven. Then it was Tampa Bay and five games and 55 minutes worth of hockey in which neither team ever led by more than a single goal.
The wingers and centermen did great work but the only reason this team prevailed was the performance of defensemen Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, Niklas Hjalmarsson and Johnny Oduya.
Posted on June 16, 2015
We Should Know Better
By Roger Wallenstein
It was just a pop foul that eluded catcher Tyler Flowers in front of the visitors’ dugout last Tuesday evening. A tough play because the ball was spinning away from him while first baseman Jose Abreu was playing too deep to offer any chance of making the play.
What was a tad surprising – the play came with no one on in a scoreless game – is that many in the crowd of 18,439 chimed in with a chorus of boos once the ball bounded away from Flowers. Poor Tyler. He had made an honest effort on a ball few catchers would have corralled, yet all he got was the disapproval from fans who have expected so much more from this team thus far.
Were they booing Flowers, a .205 hitter, personally? Or was this simply frustration over a perceived defensive flub that characterizes most Sox games? Probably some of both.
Posted on June 15, 2015
Hawks-Like?
By Marty Gangler
I have to admit it’s tough to come up with much about the Cubs right now with the Blackhawks on the verge of winning their third Stanley Cup since I’ve been alive.
And really, is it worth even mentioning the Cups they won way back when there were only six teams? C’mon. That barely counts. Six teams?! This championship run is the only one that has mattered in franchise history. And all you old-timers, don’t break your hip trying to argue. I mean geez, they didn’t even have curved sticks in 1961.
But it would sure be nice to think that the Cubs are putting together a “Hawks-like” movement by bringing in young high draft picks and then surrounding them with skilled veteran talent. And you know, maybe that is happening, but the Cubs haven’t won squat yet, so no, it’s not happening. Because lots of teams stink for a while, get good draft picks and then continue to stink – just pick your sport. But some teams, actually very few teams, stink for a long time while getting high draft picks and then win three championships in a short period of time.
Posted on June 15, 2015