By Roger Wallenstein

There’s hype, and then there’s reality. And when it sets in, you start to lose faith in all the ratings of top prospects, exit velocities, 100-mph fastballs, scouting reports, interviews of minor leaguers during major league games, and visions of five-tool players.
The flashes of brilliance kindle hope, but the day-to-day results tend to extinguish the vision of prospects turning into stars who in a couple of years will lead their teammates to greatness.
Nowhere is this more apparent than the curious case of White Sox second baseman Yoan Moncada. A near-perfectly sculpted athlete who looks as though he could play point guard or defensive back in addition to middle infield, the 23-year-old is struggling mightily both at bat and in the field.
Manager Ricky Renteria even benched him (along with young shortstop Tim Anderson) last Thursday for what Renteria called a lack of “focus and concentration.”

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Posted on June 18, 2018

By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes

Not sayin’, just sayin’! Plus: International House of Soccer; The White Sox Are Still Playing – And Not Totally Badly; And With The 7th Pick, The Bulls Select . . . ; and Schweinsteiger!

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Posted on June 15, 2018

By Roy Hay/The Conversation

There is an old tradition in England that sport and politics do not mix. This carried over into FIFA when it was established in 1904, sought to take control of the Olympic soccer competition and then organized its own professional World Cup.
Yet, as Bill Murray, my co-author on The History of Soccer in Australia: A Tale of Two Halves, has pointed out, it was the British home nations (England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales) who brought politics into soccer when they refused to play Germany, Austria and Hungary in the aftermath of the first world war. They expected everyone in FIFA to follow suit, and when this didn’t happen, they temporarily withdrew from the organization.
Since then, politics have regularly intruded into the soccer world, including recently with the controversial selections of Russia and Qatar to host the next two World Cups. As one of the most politically charged World Cups gets set to kick off in Moscow today, we look back at five other moments in history when politics did mix with soccer internationally.

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Posted on June 14, 2018

By Jim Coffman

Let’s sink our teeth into this week’s Cubs intrigue shall we?
We are coming up on three-and-a-half seasons into the CCC Era, i.e., the one featuring Consistent Cubs Contention. And this team continues to almost never disappoint as far as dramas unfolding on top of dramas.
This past week was another successful one on the diamond, although it was ridiculously tenuous. But for Jason Heyward coming up with a two-strike, two-out, ninth-inning grand slam to save the Cubs from what looked like sure defeat (a 5-3 deficit going into that pitch), the Cubs go 3-3 against the mediocre Phillies and Pirates at home. In other words, they disappoint. Instead they went 4-2 and picked up ground on the division-leading Brewers (who they trail by a half-game after Sunday’s action).
The biggest development of the weekend has not been fully explored.

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Posted on June 11, 2018

By Roger Wallenstein

Two innings last week provided as good an indication as any why the White Sox have won six of their 10 games in the month of June.
The first came on Wednesday against the Twins in the top of the sixth inning as the Sox turned a 2-1 deficit into a 5-2 advantage in a game they eventually won by the same score. Speed, execution, and a little help from the opposition were the keys.

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Posted on June 11, 2018

By Thomas Chambers

Justify, commanding winner of Saturday’s Belmont Stakes and with it American Thoroughbred horse racing’s Triple Crown, will forever have moons of numbers orbiting his planetary
achievement.
The son of the late Scat Daddy, out of Stage Magic, a daughter of the you-should-have-seen-him fast Ghostzapper, won the 150th Belmont Stakes to become the 13th Triple Crown Champion, the second in three years after 2015’s American Pharoah. He’s the second undefeated horse to take the Crown, after 1977’s Seattle Slew, and the first horse ever to win it without racing at two-years-old.
Bob Baffert is the second trainer to sweep the Triple Crown, after Jim “Sunny Jim” Fitzsimmons, who did it with 1930’s Gallant Fox and 1935’s Omaha. The trainers both did their Crowns consecutively.
As post time approached, the obvious shouted as super trainer Bob Baffert, who also trained ‘Pharoah, seemed to have a certain calm about him, and Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith might have been floating off the floor when he said he couldn’t wait to get the race started.
As it turned out, it was a perfect storm of breeding, training and riding.

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Posted on June 10, 2018

By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes

That’s a clown column, bro. Plus: Crazy Uncle Joe’s Overmanaging Like It’s Going Out Of Style; The Capitals’ Blackhawk; Warriors Came Out To Play; White Sox Tips; TrackNotes Tips; The Unbelievable Money In eSports; Bet Delaware; Schweinsteiger! and The Minnesota Lynx Dunk On Donald Trump.

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Posted on June 8, 2018

By Thomas Chambers

We’ve had the royal U.S. Army veteran Sir Barton. The dervish Whirlaway, aka “Mr. Longtail.” The imperial War Admiral, typecast as literary and celluloid antagonist decades later.
Wartime’s Count Fleet, deserving of racing’s Purple Heart if it had one. Says-it-right-here Citation, the first Million Dollar Baby. Penny Chenery’s authoritatively named Secretariat. And American Pharoah, traditional Thoroughbred zeitgeist in our new global millennium.
For the second time in three years, there’s a real chance the church ladies will have to add another square to the quilt, number 13. His name?
Justify.
Who?

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Posted on June 7, 2018

By AP

“Less than a month after the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for sports betting, Delaware has taken advantage of the rule, putting legal wagering within driving distance of three major East Coast cities.”

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Posted on June 7, 2018

By Louis-Etienne Dubois and Laurel Walzak/The Conversation

Your interest in sports may have started out as a hobby when you were just a kid. You were better at it than others, and some even said you were gifted. Maybe you had a chance to develop into a professional athlete.
Colleges would soon line up to extend full scholarships. If you pushed hard enough, practiced countless hours and kept a cool head, lucrative contracts and international fame awaited.
This fantasy plays out for many kids who dream of “making it to the big leagues.”
Whether they play hockey, football or basketball, even the most remote possibility of turning their love of the game into a respected career is worth sacrificing for.
Enter video games.

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Posted on June 7, 2018