By Thomas Chambers

Just like I can’t separate an egg, it’s the same with sports.
When strikeouts outnumber hits and two-dollar hitters are appreciated, it’s not baseball. When a touchdown catch becomes a Zapruder exam, it’s not football. And it’s pop-a-shot, not basketball.
There’s corollary with Thoroughbred horse racing, even though 20 jockeys each straddling a nearly three-quarter ton critical mass of power and speed has really never changed and it demonstrates much more simplicity. The lords of racing are the real drag.

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Posted on May 3, 2019

CTE Is Not Just A Football Problem

“Todd Ewen, a former professional hockey player, took his own life in September 2015 in the basement of his St. Louis home,” the Atlantic reports.
“Ewen had been suffering from depression and memory loss since his retirement from the NHL, in 1998. Before his death, he confided in his wife, Kelli, that he feared he may have chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE – a neurodegenerative disease that most experts agree is linked to repetitive head trauma.”

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Posted on May 1, 2019

By Angela Farmer/The Conversation

The NFL draft represents a professional dream come true for the 224 college football players who get picked.
For most players, however, going pro will never be more than a fantasy. Fewer than 2% of college athletes ever play professional sports at any level for any amount of time.

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Posted on April 29, 2019

By Jim Coffman

I caught a huge break Sunday.
I was watching the Cubs game when guests arrived for dinner. As the game against the Diamondbacks went to extras, I managed to keep it on with the sound down during cheese-and-crackers but when the meal was served it was time to turn it off and head for the dining room.
I could have paused it and started it again when I returned, but dude, there are 162 games in the MLB season. I’m not going to catch every inning of every one.
Instead, I turned on the TV about an hour-and-a-half later to find . . . the top of the 15th and a replay of Tyler Chatwood, of all people, hitting a leadoff double! Awesome managing, Mr. Maddon, declining to bring in final Cubs bench player Taylor Davis to pinch hit and instead sending Chatwood up there against an opposing pitcher who turned out to have been his childhood friend.

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Posted on April 29, 2019

By Roger Wallenstein

“You coulda had this guy for a ham sandwich!” gurgled Harry Caray back in the early ’70s when he called Sox games on TV.
He was referring to Luis Tiant, the legendary Cuban righthander whose career was resurrected when he joined the Red Sox in 1971. El Tiante, as he became known, was a big winner in Cleveland until a fractured scapula threatened his playing days. Subsequently the Twins and Braves unceremoniously released Tiant before Boston took a chance on him.
Taking his ample waistline and Fu Manchu mustache to Fenway Park, Tiant developed one of the most unique deliveries in history, a series of twists and turns showing his back to the hitter and altering his release point pitch-by-pitch. With runners on base, he patented a movement in which his hands undulated back and forth before finally coming to a set position. He provided the height of entertainment each time he took the mound. There has never been anyone quite like Luis Tiant.

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Posted on April 28, 2019

By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes

And not because Khalil Mack was their first-round selection. Plus: Why The Raiders and Giants Ought To Use This Coping Mechanism That Some People With Depression Use; We See You, Cardinals; The Return Of Robbie Gould Journesia; Dan Bernstein In Thrall To Ryan Pace’s Execufuck Of The Year Award; The Cubs Are Back – To .500!; Here’s To You, John Hancock; Pedro Strop Is So Cub; TIL: Addison Russell Has Three Children Under The Age Of Four With Three Women From Pensacola; and Tim Anderson And El Mago Both Had Themselves A Week.

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Posted on April 26, 2019

By Steve Rhodes

One in an occasional series tracking the movements of ex-Cubs.
1. Carlos Zambrano.
Oh how we miss Big Z around here. Now that he’s with the Chicago Dogs, we might have to start a Dog Factor column. Or, we could just wait ’til he’s with the Cubs again.

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Posted on April 23, 2019

By Jim Coffman

More Javy Baez magic and the first bit of evidence that one of Theo Epstein’s big-money free agent signings might not be a bust added up to a great day at the ballpark Sunday for the Cubs. It can be said at this point that they have officially bounced all the way back (to 10-10 overall) from a rough start to the season.
Overall the team’s hitting was lousy just about all weekend against a Diamondbacks team that is also essentially break-even on the season. But for a couple windblown, run-scoring fly-ball “doubles” on Friday and six total hits being just enough Sunday, this series could have gone the other way in a hurry.

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Posted on April 22, 2019

By Roger Wallenstein

It’s always there, that strip at the top of the TV screen, providing all the information that you really need. The score, the count, the outs, the runners, and the ticking pitch count on its relentless journey telling us just how much longer the pitcher of the day will survive before the bullpen enters the fray.
Since 100 pitches signals the bewitching hour for the starter, you can’t help but be encouraged if, for instance, a guy like Reynaldo Lopez requires but 14 pitches to complete the first inning like he did Sunday in the White Sox eventual 4-3 loss to the Tigers. The longer it takes for the entry of fellows such as Jose Ruiz, the better chance there is for success.
Consider that a starting major league pitcher averages about 5⅓ innings of employment in order to reach triple digits in pitches, earning him the next four days off. Somehow, some way, the parade of hurlers next in line are vested with the responsibility of getting the final 11 outs with little or no damage. In the case of the present-day White Sox, this is a challenge of immense magnitude.

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Posted on April 22, 2019

By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes

Pleasure greatly exceeded by pressure, urgency, payroll, bullpen, Bryzzo. Plus: Most Dramatic Week Of White Sox Season Already Over; TWIB Notes; Tiger Woods Is No Ben Hogan, Muhammad Ali Or Rick Allen; Third-Choice Porter Moser Lays Down A Marker; and Bears Skipping First Day Of Draft.

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Posted on April 19, 2019