By Roger Wallenstein

This was supposed to be fun.
The idea of blowing Saturday’s 5-0 eighth-inning lead with Chris Sale headed for another masterpiece wasn’t part of the new plan. The package wasn’t advertised to include Jose Abreu swinging and missing pitches in the dirt as he struck out four times. After taking two of three at Dodger Stadium earlier in the week, certainly a split of the six games played in Los Angeles and Anaheim wasn’t asking too much.
Apparently it was. Toss in Sunday’s 4-2 limp effort, concluding the three-game sweep at the hands of the Angels, and one can’t blame Sox fans for thinking, “Is that all there is?”
Three games doesn’t make a season, so all the clichés – “You have to have a short memory” and “Play them one at a time” – now are required.

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Posted on June 9, 2014

By Thomas Chambers

With California Chrome, jockey Victor Espinoza, trainer Art Sherman and owners Steve Coburn and Perry Martin attempting to become the 12th group in history to win American Thoroughbred horse racing’s Triple Crown, there is going to be a lot of attention paid to the game this weekend.
Some of it will the kind horse racing does not want, but the kind it most certainly needs and deserves as the result of its behavior.
This Belmont weekend could very well be a monumental crossroads for the very future of racing in America – a California Chrome win or not.

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Posted on June 7, 2014

By Steve Rhodes and Jim Coffman

Plus: How the White Sox are out-rebuilding Theo.
And: The Bears report for OTAs.
That’s really all we say about that.

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Posted on June 6, 2014

By Dan O’Shea

Derek Jeter turns 40 in three weeks. Can a fantasy case be made for Captain Clutch in this, his final season?
I had Jeter listed as a sleeper at SS in my pre-season ranks, though based really only on his career-long tendency to do something great at exactly the right time.
I wasn’t expecting a heck of a lot, and if you took a chance on Jeter, you haven’t gotten much at all: .267 AVG, 1 HR, 11 RBI, 1 SB. He also hasn’t been the everyday player Yanks manager Joe Girardi suggested he would be this season.

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Posted on June 3, 2014

By Jim Coffman

The Kings triumphed by the tiniest margin imaginable last night. Los Angeles secured its victory after the teams battled to a tie at the end of regulation. The Kings have made a habit of taking series’ to the limit during these playoffs, clinching three straight with game 7 victories on the road.
But even for them, last night was close. It was the first time they had gone to overtime in the do-or-die series finale. And while the Kings had the better of the play during the extra period leading up to the game-winning goal, the Hawks had chances as well. The kind of flukey, fluttering goal that happened to bounce off Nick Leddy and just over the shoulder of Corey Crawford could easily have happened at the other end.
What was the factor that pushed the Kings over the top?

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Posted on June 2, 2014

By Roger Wallenstein

Excuse me if I’m not overjoyed that the White Sox have the third overall choice in Thursday’s major league amateur draft.
For one thing, this is just another reminder that only the Astros and Marlins had a worse record than our athletes last season, and only a masochistic goofball wants to be reminded of the disastrous 2013 season. Since the Sox pick right before the Cubs, we also must face the fact that the guys on the other side of town were a wee bit less laughable as our Sox a year ago.
Yet there are other circumstances associated with the number 3 pick that concern me.

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Posted on June 2, 2014

By Steve Rhodes and Jim Coffman

Here we go again.
Plus: Are The White Sox Still Playing?
And: Chicago’s French Open.

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Posted on May 31, 2014

By Thomas Chambers

There’s a marvelous episode in Seabiscuit: An American Legend, Laura Hillenbrand’s wonderful chronicle of one of America’s greatest sports stories, of how the seeming upstart Seabiscuit trained for his legendary match race against the supposedly invincible War Admiral, winner of 1937’s Triple Crown.
Back in November 1938, one aspect of racing was in a bit of an evolution. Until that point, race starts were generally primitive, ranging from a simple chalk line on the track, to wood rail “chutes” to the common starting wire. It was simply a wire across the tracks, above the heads of the horses. Jockeys would slyly get their mounts walking into position to anticipate, the wire would be snapped upward and the horses would go.

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Posted on May 29, 2014

By Dan O’Shea

We’re almost to June in our fantasy baseball campaigns, the point at which it becomes pretty hard to find any buried treasure on the waiver wire.
Sure, maybe you can land an SB specialist to help you with one category or an RP with 14 strikeouts per 9 IP to help you with another, but it’s a good bet all the best players are taken.
So how is it, then, that Astros starter Dallas Keuchel was still available in more than 30% of Yahoo! leagues as of Monday?

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Posted on May 28, 2014

By Jim Coffman

Here are a couple thoughts on the Hawks. I’m going to get them out of the way quickly so we can move on to the latest bit of absolute lunacy at Wrigley Field, otherwise known as Panic Central.
The Hawks haven’t just lost three of four to the Kings after they dropped Monday night’s 5-3 decision; they haven’t been close.
But for Jonathan Toews they would have been completely out-classed in Game 3 and last night was a simple thrashing (and what was the final in Game 2? I stopped keeping track when the Kings scored their fifth goal in that one). I know the Hawks trailed 3-1 to Detroit last year and rallied. In order to rally like that, a team has to have untapped reserves. Anyone have any idea what those might be this time around?

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Posted on May 27, 2014