By Roger Wallenstein

You gotta love April baseball because the surprises and shockers never cease to amaze us.
The champion Red Sox can’t get anybody out, having lost eight of their first 11 games. The Cubs are even worse with the highest ERA in the MLB universe.
Meanwhile, Detroit, picked to finish at or near the bottom of the Central Division of the American League, is on top while Tampa Bay, which will provide the opposition the next three afternoons on the South Side, has a major league-best 1.88 ERA which helps explain their 7-3 record, good for first place in the AL East.
Perennial ace Max Scherzer of the Nationals is 0-2. This from a guy who’s lost only 13 games over the last two seasons. Chris Sale’s record is the same as Scherzer’s coupled with an 8.00 ERA.
On the plus side, the Dodgers’ Cody Bellinger already has eight home runs and 18 RBIs and is hitting .455. That’s almost an entire season for more than a few part-time players.
Locally, White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson, who missed the two-game Cleveland series last week for the birth of his second child, is hitting 127 points higher than any other hitter in baseball after collecting four hits Sunday in a pathetic 12-5 loss to the high-flying Mariners. If Anderson gets just one hit in his next 24 at-bats, he’ll still be hitting over .300.
Meanwhile, his keystone partner Yolmer Sanchez is one-for-24.
See what fun early April is?

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Posted on April 8, 2019

By Thomas Chambers

Friday evening, just before Saturday’s three-ringer, I chuckled at the dispatch from Fox Valley Kate who, summarized, asked “Who are these horses?”
While Thoroughbred race horses don’t get famous before winning anything famously, such as the Kentucky Derby, she succincted everything for anyone eyeballing the 2019 Road to the Roses. I talked her down, but she was right, which will be no wagering comfort on the first Saturday in May.
And Saturday was fairly formful. Whew.
You don’t have the beauty of hindsight as you put the money on the horsey’s nose, but we’ll know soon enough the ramifications of yesterday’s Three Major Preps. We already know it was a lot of fun, even half way into Svengoolie to the Santa Anita Handicap.

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Posted on April 7, 2019

By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes

Panic! At The Wrigleyville Disco. Plus: Yoan Machado; Enough About The White Sox, Let’s Talk More About The Cubs; Don’t Sleep On The Rays; Texas Technology; Good Riddance, Chicago Fire; and Blackhawks, Bulls, Blue Demons Still Playing.

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Posted on April 5, 2019

By Dennis L. Cogburn/The Conversation

The federal government has long covered about a tenth of the Special Olympics’ budget. This nonprofit that gives athletes with intellectual disabilities a chance to train and compete in a wide variety of sports gets most of the rest of its funding from from foundations, corporations and individuals. It spent a total of roughly $150 million in 2017, the most recent year for which information is available, with the federal government’s portion totaling $15.5 million.
President Donald Trump’s first three proposed budgets, for the 2018, 2019 and 2020 fiscal years, would have broken that formula. Instead of the usual arrangement, his first three draft spending plans called for giving nothing at all to the Special Olympics.

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Posted on April 5, 2019

By Steve Rhodes

One in an occasional series tracking the movement of former Cubs.
1. Jason Hammel.
We included Hammel in this feature in February when he signed a minor-league contract with the Rangers. Then, he actually made the Opening Day roster. Then, he actually retired!
“As per Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News, Hammel simply ‘decided he needed to go and be with his family, something you could tell was weighing on his mind this spring,'” MLBTradeRumors.com reported.
“Rangers GM Jon Daniels told The Athletic’s Levi Weaver and other media that Hammel ‘was very apologetic about the timing’ of his decision, coming so soon after the team decided to include him on its 25-man roster.”

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Posted on April 4, 2019

By Jim Coffman

No one ever thinks it is a good idea to panic in any context. And of course it is especially stupid to panic in the relatively meaningless world of sports.
It is never news that someone is pledging not to panic, especially, again, in frickin’ sports.
And yet in sports media it seems like not a week goes by without some genius headline writer and/or copy writer feeling the need to re-assure fans that “so-and-so won’t panic.”
People, try a little harder. You know that “prominent person pledges not to be an idiot” is not news and yet you still trumpet “not panicking” as news. The Cubs lost a couple games in a row over the weekend and the p-word came out. For gosh sakes enough already.

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Posted on April 1, 2019

By Roger Wallenstein

This new, improved edition of Ricky’s Boys provided a glimpse of what could be the future Sunday afternoon in Kansas City. What a delight Lucas Giolito provided us after walking the first batter he faced on four pitches. We could be excused for thinking, “Here we go again.”
But the kid’s Hollywood background immediately kicked into high gear. Not only did he pitch far into the seventh inning without so much as walking another batter, but the Royals couldn’t manage a base hit until Alex Gordon singled with one out in that seventh frame. What drama. So entertaining. We were expecting a rerun, but Giolito produced a creative, successful opening for his 2019 season.

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Posted on April 1, 2019

By Syracuse University

Now more than ever, information and data are driving the sports industry – the 5th-largest economic sector in America, generating nearly $500 billion a year.
Scouts and agents rely on sport analytics to identify unusual talent and athletic capabilities. Performance data helps professional athletes monitor fitness and predict likelihood of injury. Sport marketing executives value data analytics to improve the fan experience.
In that spirit, the featured theme of the inaugural Andrew T. Berlin Sports Analytics Symposium will be “Calculating the Future of Sports Through Analytics,” at the Westin Michigan Avenue Chicago on April 3rd.

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Posted on March 31, 2019

By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes

Cubs rule, Sox suck. Plus: Howard’s End; Chalk Talk; Hoops!; Bulls Still Shit; Blackhawks Still In It; DePaul Still In Running For 102nd Best Team In Nation: Fire Still In It; and Price Of Brace Brings Soccer Player To His Knees.

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Posted on March 29, 2019

By The National Building Museum

“This exhibition presents outdoor images of basketball courts and hoops – public and private – that have captured the attention of photographer Bill Bamberger.
“Collectively, they celebrate the sport and reveal both its global importance and enduring appeal. Hauntingly devoid of people, the images are nonetheless remarkable neighborhood and community portraits.”

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Posted on March 29, 2019