By The NBA and MGM

NEW YORK and LAS VEGAS – MGM Resorts International (NYSE: MGM) and the National Basketball Association (NBA) announced today a new multi-year partnership that will make MGM Resorts the official gaming partner of the NBA and WNBA. The announcement was made this afternoon by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and MGM Resorts International Chairman & CEO Jim Murren in New York City.
This historic partnership will bring millions of NBA fans and MGM Resorts guests together through an innovative collaboration that will open new and exciting opportunities to engage with each other’s world-class brands and products. The partnership is the NBA’s first with a sports betting operator in the U.S. and is the first of its kind between MGM Resorts and a major professional sports league.

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Posted on August 7, 2018

By Roger Wallenstein

Jim Thome, who played parts of four seasons for the White Sox, was rightfully inducted into baseball’s Hall of Fame on last week along with his 612 career home runs. You even can get a Jim Thome bobblehead if you show up early enough at The Grate on Saturday.
However, another member of the White Sox organization, one who spent 41 years on the South Side, entered a far more esoteric hallowed hall a week earlier minus the fanfare and publicity that accompanied Thome. That would be Nancy Faust, who entertained fans with her organ playing at Comiskey Park and then across 35th Street from 1970 through the 2010 season.

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Posted on August 6, 2018

By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes

Win big, lose ugly.
Plus: It’s Time, White Sox.
And: Hall Of Bears Mirrors.

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Posted on August 3, 2018

By Steve Rhodes

One in an occasional series tracking the movements of those who have worn Cubbie blue.
1. Daniel Poncedeleon.
Poncedeleon made his major league debut for the Cardinals on July 24th against the Cubs, which was notable for two reasons:
First, the Cubs drafted him in the 14th round in 2013, but “he failed his physical due to concerns about nerve placement in his elbow.” He had already been drafted by the Rays and Reds in 2010 and 2012, but didn’t sign with either team. The Cardinals then picked him in 2014 and he finally signed and stuck.
Second, this:
“He suffered a fractured skull in May 2017 while pitching for Triple-A Memphis when Cubs prospect Victor Caratini struck Poncedeleon in the right temple with a line drive, requiring emergency brain surgery. He missed the rest of the season and now wears a carbon fiber insert in his cap. (For more on his remarkable comeback, check out Joe Trezza’s story at MLB.com from spring training.)”

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Posted on August 2, 2018

By Jim Coffman

Who to believe, who to believe?
On one side, we have the sycophantic local media who write things like “Inside Matt Nagy’s Beautiful Mind” and continue to assert that moving up to draft Mitch Trubisky was a good idea despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Those guys kept telling us that first-round draft pick and projected starter Roquan Smith would be in camp soon enough and there was nothing to worry about – just a little “language.” Now they’re reporting that Smith is seeking language in his contract that would protect him from losing guaranteed money if he breaks the new tackling rules often enough to get suspended.
On the other side, a bunch of national voices arguing that the Bears are blowing it again, arguing that wholly at fault in refusing to give Smith something that at least some other rookies have apparently already received. They are saying the Bears should cave and give Smith what he wants even if it means everyone else on the defense would want the same language when they sign their next contracts.
I have to say at this point, as loathe as I am to back usually pathetic Bears management, I find their case more persuasive.

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Posted on July 31, 2018

By David Pozen/TakeCare

The 2018 World Cup was the first to use Video Assistant Referees (VAR). VAR allows decisions by the head referee involving goals, penalties, direct red cards and “mistaken identity” to be reviewed, immediately afterward, with the aid of video footage. Not coincidentally, the 2018 World Cup was also the first to feature upward of 20 penalty kicks. At the 2014 tournament in Brazil, a total of 13 penalty kicks were called, not including shootouts. In Russia, the number was 29.
The criteria for awarding penalty kicks have not changed. According to the official laws of the game, if a player commits a foul punishable by a direct free kick inside her own penalty area, “[a] penalty kick is awarded.” Each and every time a player inside this zone pushes an opponent, trips an opponent, handles the ball deliberately (unless he is a goalkeeper), and so on, the opposing team gets a penalty kick.
In legal-theory parlance, the criteria for awarding penalty kicks are “rules” rather than “standards.” They are clear and precise – not completely clear or precise, as terms like “trip” and “push” go undefined, but relatively so – and they give little discretion to the referees who enforce them.

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Posted on July 31, 2018

By Roger Wallenstein

The suspense, the drama, the anticipation. Heart-pounding tension building day-by-day, hour-by-hour. Each season it’s one of the most ballyhooed highlights of major league baseball.
Of course, we’re talking about the Trade Deadline, and we’re right in the midst of it. The Dodgers landed the biggest prize by prying loose Manny Machado from the Orioles. According to FiveThirtyEight, this singular move enabled the Dodgers to overtake the Cubs as the National League team with the best odds of winning the World Series.

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Posted on July 30, 2018

By Thomas Chambers

Fedora’d and vested, impeccably complemented and contrasted in a perfect gray with a wealthily spaced pinstripe, Charles Howard gingerly bulled his way through the thicket, guided by the dancing light of the campfire and the smell of its smoke.
Over there was an all-white colt, seemingly with a tree branch growing out of gauze wrapped around his left front leg. Hackles up, but beat down by The Crash’s aftermath, quickly instinctually hospitable with a “ya hungry?,” the cowboy greeted the stranger, who took a seat on a fireside log.
“What’s in his bandage?” Howard asked. “Oh, that’s hawthorn root. It increases circulation,” Tom Smith answered.
“He gonna get better?” “Already is, a little.”
“Will he race?” “No, not that one.”
“Why you fixin’ him?” “Cuz I can. Every horse is good for somethin’. He could be a cart horse, or a lead pony, and he’s still nice to look at. Know, you don’t throw a whole life away, just cuz he’s banged up a little.”
“Is that coffee?” “Yeah. It’s bad though.”
“You always tell the truth?” “Try to.”
The owner and the trainer teamed up and went to unimaginable places with a horse who just needed some patience and a little more time. Given the chance, he soared the Thoroughbred horse racing firmament, capturing the imagination of an America that needed someone just like him right at that moment.
That won’t happen in 2018, as we learned this week that Justify, the 13th winner of America’s Triple Crown of racing, of all things, has been retired to stud. “Filling in an ankle,” a dodge as weak as it is unexplained, was the hook.

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Posted on July 28, 2018

By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes

Theo settles for Cole Hamels. Plus: Rodon!; The Biggest Underreported Story In Chicago Sports; and We’re Talking About (Bears) Practice.

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Posted on July 27, 2018

By Roger Wallenstein

What some people call a gimmick just might work for the White Sox.
After Reynaldo Lopez put his team in a 5-0 hole after one inning in Seattle on Sunday, might manager Ricky Renteria follow the lead of the Tampa Bay Rays and use one of his bullpen guys to pitch the opening inning (or two) before Lopez enters the game?
This is a legitimate question since the promising righthander has been absolutely miserable in the opening frame of his 20 starts this season. After Sunday, Lopez has been tagged for 16 earned runs in those 20 innings for an ERA of 7.20. His season’s ERA climbed to 4.13 Sunday. Toss out the first inning, and that number shrinks to 3.51.

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Posted on July 23, 2018