By Dmitry Samarov

I moved to Chicago to go to art school in 1990. I’d been a Red Sox fan ever since a school trip to Fenway Park sometime around 1980. It was one of Carl Yastrzemski’s last years and I didn’t know a damn thing about baseball. Having only arrived from the USSR recently, the thought of signing me up for Little League wouldn’t have crossed my parents’ minds. I played stickball with my best friend, Dan, against the wall of the elementary school. We also played Strat-O-Matic, keeping stats on curling sheets of lined paper, playing out countless seasons as the ’57 Brooklyn Dodgers or the ’27 Yankees or some crazy amalgam All-Star squad spanning decades. Being a Red Sox fan, you needed to embrace disappointment, so when I got to Chicago and looked around for a local club to follow, the Cubs weren’t an option. I already had a lost cause and didn’t need another. The White Sox were another story.

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Posted on April 5, 2011

By Jim Coffman

If this is winning hockey, the rest of the NHL can have it.
And that is starting to look almost likely. The defending Stanley Cup champs are teetering on the edge of missing the playoffs heading into the final week of the regular season.
Tampa Bay pulled out Sunday’s game against the short-handed Hawks 2-0 thanks primarily due to their stultifying neutral zone trap. And while some fans may admire the work that goes into playing that style effectively, most don’t enjoy the choppy hockey that results.
Analyst Steve Konroyd and the producers of the Blackhawk broadcast on WGN-TV carefully showed how the Lightning consistently arrayed as many as four skaters across the middle of the ice just outside their own blue line, making it very difficult for the home team to get any sort of a rush going.

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Posted on April 4, 2011

By Roger Wallenstein

Hope doesn’t necessarily spring eternal at the start of the baseball season. Curiosity maybe. Can Konerko match last year’s numbers? Can Beckham bounce back? Will Peavy be able to perform? Does Ozzie really have a closer? Can Pierzynski make any friends? Will Adam Dunn strike out 200 times?
And there is surprise. One day the Sox are playing a bunch of minor-leaguers in Arizona, and then, presto, they’re in Cleveland, and the game actually counts. It happens very quickly.
So did my entry into the blogging world. It appears that 60 years of following the White Sox – including seven vending beer at Comiskey when I worked virtually every game – qualifies me to comment on this latest edition of the team along with relating past events. So here goes:

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Posted on April 4, 2011

By Carl Mohrbacher

Who will be starting at second for the season opener?
-Rutager, Alsip IL
There has been a strong push within the organization to give the job to Darwin Barney, but there is an outside chance that he will be named starting Small Town Deputy Sheriff in Sevierville, Tennessee; home to the Cubs AA affiliate. Many feel his name lends itself to the job. [Editors Note: Shortly after going to print, Darwin Barney was named the opening day second baseman and the Small Town Deputy Sheriff job was awarded to pitcher Trey McNutt]
What’s up with the Orioles? Former Cubs Kevin Gregg, Jake Fox, Cesar Izturis, Derrek Lee and Felix Pie are on their major league roster. Corey Patterson, Will Ohman, Rocky Cherry, Scott Moore, Mike Fontenot and Lou Montanez were all on the team last year. Rich Hill and even Sammy Sosa were sent to Baltimore at one point. Is this the equivalent of Andy MacPhail rummaging through an ex’s trash for loose clumps of hair in an attempt to make some sort of wicker-Cub?
-Rick, Crystal Lake IL

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Posted on April 1, 2011

By Thomas Chambers

Hot on the announcement by Major League Baseball that it will institute a seven-day disabled list option for players suffering concussions, the movement of sports in general to recognize this most serious of injuries can only be greeted with 21st-century relief.
It runs counter to the old unwritten rule of “playing hurt,” but attention to this injury is warranted and sensible. Now, if coaches from Pop Warner on up can start teaching players not to tackle with their heads.
It also gives us a chance to contemplate the efforts of jockeys, perhaps the greatest athletes of them all.

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Posted on March 31, 2011

By Dan O’Shea

There is little left to be said about the fantasy basketball season, now in playoff mode, other than this: If you need a last-minute pick-up, and JaVale McGee, PF/C, Washington, is available in your league, grab him immediately.
Why? Thirty-five rebounds in two games going into Tuesday is why. A 28-point, 18-rebound, 5-block Monday night is why. McGee has been one of the nicest surprises of the NBA season, a guy who barely registered in the top 100 players back in November, but should skirt the top 50 at the end of it. His 9.8 PP, 8.2 RPG and 2.4 BPG suggests he’ll make a nice fourth-round pick next year with the potential to average a double-double.
Now, fantasy basketball has never been my strong suit. Fantasy baseball, on the other hand, represents renewal for me. It’s time for our annual recitation of the rites of spring, and for me to have another six months to try to get things right.
This year, that means paying more attention to rookies. Last year was the Year of the Pitcher, but this year will be the Year of the Youth. There are a number of rookies – some who received extended tryouts late last season – who should make an impact this season. Some, like Jeremy Hellickson, SP/RP, Tampa, are well-known and probably already spoken for in preseason fantasy drafts. Others weren’t necessarily draft fodder but should still be on your radar as possible pickups during the season:

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Posted on March 30, 2011

By Nick Shreders

Let us review. And then preview.
* Since 1985, when the tournament field expanded to 64 teams, there never has been a Final Four with all one and two seeds eliminated. This is the first time since 1979 that on the last weekend of tournament play the best 8 teams, seed-wise, have been eliminated.
* Kentucky made its 14th Final Four appearance; the first in 13 seasons.
* UConn made its second Final Four appearance in three years.
* VCU is the first 11 seed to reach the Final Four since 2006 (George Mason) and 1986 before that (LSU).
* Butler is the first mid-major program to reach the Final Four in consecutive years since Jerry Tarkanian had the finest collection of players that money could buy at UNLV in 1990 and 1991.

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Posted on March 29, 2011

By Jim Coffman

I assistant coached my older daughter’s fourth-grade basketball team during the winter and the season ended with a single-elimination tournament a week ago. We played a team we thought we would beat in the semifinals but lost instead and afterward she was inconsolable for a while.
I thought about reiterating all the usual stuff; that she had played hard and well and that we were proud of her and her team (I tried airing some of those sentiments to the team right after the game but a little while later on she was still very sad). There was also the fact that sometimes the other team is just better and there is nothing you can do. Sometimes the bounces just don’t go your way.
But I didn’t think that stuff was going to help. And I didn’t think I was going to be able to say it with conviction.

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Posted on March 28, 2011

By Dan O’Shea

The SP/RP designation is a favorite among fantasy baseball veterans.
Dip into the pool of pitchers who qualify both as starter and reliever, and you never know what you’ll find.
Maybe a top-tier reliever who has been stretched out to be used as a starter; perhaps a young fifth (or even sixth these days) starter making a name for himself; even the occasional veteran starter who earned his “RP” during a brief visit to the bullpen.
The flexibility of these player can give your fantasy pitching staff an extra start or two each week – more innings, more strikeouts, more chance for wins – if you pick the right SP/RPs.
I didn’t want to include SP/RPs in my previous draft guide posts because really they’re starters you’ll use in the RP slot, but they also wouldn’t necessarily make anyone’s list of top 20 starters.
With that in mind, I have made a list of SP/RPs worth drafting this year, as well as RPs who likely will earn the accompanying SP designation early in the season.

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Posted on March 23, 2011

By Nick Shreders

We have seen a lot of close ones in the opening rounds. We have seen some controversial calls, good upsets, and really stupid, game-changing fouls. The Southwest Region is a train wreck. The other three regionals nearly went chalk.
* The round of 64 had 10 games of the 32 total decided by four points or less; five of those by two.
* The round of 32 had 5 games of the 16 total decided by one or two points.
* VCU proved everybody wrong by winning 3 games easily to make it to the Sweet 16.
* Only two teams remain from the 11 in the Big East.
* My girlfriend’s bracket is faring much better than mine. (Note: I take full credit for her bracket.)

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Posted on March 22, 2011