By Roger Wallenstein

Missed the Saturday dance
Heard they crowded the floor
Couldn’t bear it without you
Don’t get around much anymore
– Music by Duke Ellington, lyrics by Bob Russell
I find myself mouthing the words to this old standard with near shocking frequency these days because, I suppose, I actually don’t get around much anymore. And when I do, I’m careful to mask up and social distance. I’ve always enjoyed the song, but nowadays those lyrics have far greater significance than when they were written in 1942.
Take Friday night, for instance. The White Sox were returning home a game ahead in the AL Central Division. They had won 17 of their last 22. Everything was pointing to the playoffs. A hint of fall was in the air, yet these late summer evenings remain blissful now that the 90-degree heat and humidity have bid us adieu for the season. This should have been the perfect night to watch the most exciting team in years on the South Side, not on television but at the ballpark.

Read More

Posted on September 14, 2020

By Jim Coffman

I’m not going to say it, yet.
I’m going to start by writing that that was a hell of a comeback by the Bears on Sunday, featuring Mitch Trubisky’s best fourth quarter as a pro on his way to a 27-23 victory over the Lions.
After displaying the accuracy issues that have plagued him for more than a season now for the first three, grim quarters, Trubisky hit his stride down the stretch. He stopped with the tunnel vision for Allen Robinson and found a variety of receivers for three touchdowns. It all culminated in a perfect deep pass down the right sideline that Anthony Miller hauled in in stride just inside the pylon for the game-winning touchdown with just under two minutes left.

.@AnthonyMiller_3 FOR DA LEAD!!!

📺: FOX #CHIvsDET | #DaBears pic.twitter.com/S0dLCQLNL9

— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) September 13, 2020

Read More

Posted on September 14, 2020

By David Rutter

Even the Asshole Opinion Fraternity to which many of us claim long affiliation and fraternity has some rules.
First, you can’t fear scrutiny or being mocked. Eventually your opinions will inspire you to say or do something worthy of public scorn. Especially because we no longer have wise people – we called them “editors” – to prevent those awful instincts from reaching the public airwaves and ethernet.
We do not live in a world where public scorn is in short supply.
So those of us in good standing among the Asshole consortium concentrate on the powerful, mean-spirited, self-dealing, greedy, venomous, and indifferent because they all deserve to be smacked for their false superiority. None of those qualities is missing these days, either.

Read More

Posted on September 11, 2020

By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes

Beachwood taking the under. Plus: NFL Lifts Lid With Mitch Bowl; George And Virginia Really On It This Year; The White Sox’ Superlicious Schedule; Cubs Cling To Lead Over COVIDY Cards; Sky Falling, Crying; Fire Down Below; Red Stars Restart; Breaking Baffert, and more!

Read More

Posted on September 11, 2020

By Transparency Market Research

A number of indoor and outdoor sports and fitness facilities need flooring that is durable, easy to install, and shock absorbent. Demand for sports flooring with better materials is constantly growing in tennis, basketball, squash, gymnasium, group fitness, and cardio fitness activities.
Worldwide, gyms, yoga centers, Zumba, and indoor sports centers have expanded their spending on new flooring and renovations, thus increasing the revenue potential in the sports flooring market.

Read More

Posted on September 9, 2020

By Jim Coffman

Nick Foles must have really sucked.
That is the only explanation for Mitch Trubisky keeping the starting quarterback job after a miserable 2019 season that featured him, in his third season as the Bears’ primary starter, regressing in every way, He regressed in ways we didn’t think possible, leaving him rated 30th or lower among quarterbacks in a host of categories.
Ryan Pace held a press conference Monday in which he said Mitch Trubisky had risen to the challenge of a competitive training camp. No sports fan in Chicago other than Lou Canellis of Fox Chicago believed him. And may I just say right here, bless your amazingly optimistic heart Lou! 99 percent of Bears fans including me think you go overboard at times but you gotta be you!

Read More

Posted on September 8, 2020

By Roger Wallenstein

“He was riding around on an ATV,” remembered Joe Winograde, a painting contractor in Napa, California. “You could tell he was digging it. He wore bib overalls and a flannel shirt. Pretty sure he had his dogs up there, too.”
That was the Tom Seaver folks like Joe, who happens to be my nephew, knew in the Napa Valley long after Seaver had traded in his spikes and glove for a shovel and pruning shears. His passion switched from striking out big league hitters to growing cabernet grapes on 3½ acres of Diamond Mountain outside of Calistoga.

Read More

Posted on September 7, 2020

By Thomas Chambers

You could have handicapped it.
Aided and abetted by NBC Sports, Churchill Downs shape-shifted its 146th Kentucky Derby in the service of turning its back on the modern world.
The good news is that any discussion vis a vis Triple Crown and asterisks is now dead.

Read More

Posted on September 6, 2020

By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes

There will almost certainly not be a Red Line World Series. Plus: Bears Lose QB Competition; Kiss The Sky; Soccer Wubble; Mubble; and Their Old Kentucky Home.

Read More

Posted on September 4, 2020

By Thomas Chambers

The Kentucky Derby is a palpable vestige of post-war antebellum yearnings, a gripping continuum defiantly nurtured and fiercely defended.
Layers of a State Fair onion growing for 145 years, 146 after Saturday.
And I have a decision to make. Pour me an Old No. 7.

Read More

Posted on September 4, 2020