By World TeamTennis

CBS’s live airing of Sunday’s 2020 World TeamTennis championship, in which the New York Empire defeated the Chicago Smash on the last point of the super-tiebreaker 21-20, delivered 556,000 viewers, making it the most watched in the league’s 45-year history.
The victory by the New York Empire earned them the King Trophy and $500,000 in prize money and marked the first time that the WTT’s Finals have aired live on network television. During the event’s “super-tiebreaker” that determined the 2020 Champion viewership peaked at 1.128 million viewers.

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Posted on August 5, 2020

By Jim Coffman

It is the best of times for Chicago baseball. It is the worst of times for Baseball.
It was the best of times for Blackhawk hockey on Saturday. And it wasn’t the worst that the team lost late last night to the Oilers (6-3), but it obviously wasn’t good, as the best-of-five NHL play-in series evened up at one win apiece. Next game is Wednesday at 9:30.
I’ll have a little more about the Hawks later but I’m going to mostly talk about baseball while I still can as the season teeters on the edge of cancellation.

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Posted on August 4, 2020

By Christopher J. Young/The Conversation

In 2017, I was in Calgary, Alberta, for a conference when I took an opportunity to see a hockey game between the Calgary Flames and the Ottawa Senators. There, as I sat high up in the seats with a beer and a burger, the word “Flames” was in the air, and a light show depicted flames on the ice and around the arena’s perimeter. I wondered if I, an early American historian, was the only person in the place thinking about how a 21st-century hockey team connected with Gen. Sherman’s 1864 Atlanta campaign and the destructive journey to Savannah.

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Posted on August 4, 2020

By Roger Wallenstein

“Please, Gramps, tell me some stories about baseball and the pandemic, then I promise I’ll go to sleep,” pleaded the boy.
“Alright, as long as you’re asleep by the time your parents come home,” replied Grampa. “I don’t think they’ll let me stay with you again any time soon if they find you still awake at this late hour. What do you want to know about those times so many years ago?”
“Were the White Sox any good?” the youngster asked.

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Posted on August 2, 2020

By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes

Worst baseball season ever. Shut it down. Plus: Kubs Killers; Rickey Boylen; Chicago Vikings; Blackhawks Bubble; Eddie Goldman Opts Out; Remembering Lou Henson; Jim Boylen Is Still Here And We’re Here; and Sky High, Fire Fluke.

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Posted on July 31, 2020

By Mark Otten/The Conversation

Baseball and basketball might be returning, but the boo birds and thunder sticks will have to wait ’til next year.
Baseball teams have begun playing in their regular stadiums without fans. Meanwhile, all NBA games will be played inside the Orlando bubble before empty crowds.
For sport psychology researchers like me, this is an extremely rare opportunity: We can see what happens when fans disappear for an extended period of time.
Almost like a controlled experiment, it will be possible to compare the outcomes of games with and without fans, with all other things being approximately equal. We’ll even be able to compare fanless home stadium games, like those in baseball, to fanless neutral site games, like in the NBA.

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Posted on July 30, 2020

By Jim Coffman

That might have been the most unpleasant Cubs victory I have ever had the displeasure to watch all the way through on television. And I have watched a few games on TV in my 50 years or so of Cub fandom.
Did I mention that game was not pleasant?

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Posted on July 28, 2020

By Roger Wallenstein

Baseball in the Time of Coronavirus made its debut over the weekend amid joyous cries of “Baseball is Back,” empty stadiums, cardboard cutouts of fans, dubious rule changes, and the inconsistent wearing of face coverings by players, coaches and umpires. Weirdness reigned.
Dr. Anthony Fauci began the festivities on Thursday by throwing out the ceremonial first pitch in Washington. Maybe shot-putting would be a better description as the ball arced far to the left of home plate, touching down about 50 feet from the nation’s leading epidemiologist. As futile as it was, I’ve seen worse from White Sox relievers.

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Posted on July 27, 2020

By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes

Chicago’s First 2020 Champions? Plus: The Cubs Are Back; The White Sox Are Back; Thibs Timeline; and Adam Bomb.

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Posted on July 26, 2020

By Jim Coffman

Um, yeah so, Theo. Tell us again what you were thinking when you made that trade with the White Sox for Jose Quintana a few years ago now?
Because I have to say at this point, it is looking like you could have won more World Series’ for the South Siders with that trade than you have won for the Cubs.

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Posted on July 22, 2020