Results tagged “sports”

So far this young season, Bulls budding superstar Derrick Rose hasn't played up to the level many expect. His play has been more tentative, he's committing more turnovers and his shooting percentage has dropped. While's he is still recovering from an ankle injury that caused him to miss most of the preseason, and the loss of Ben Gordon allows opposing teams to tighten up their defense, Rose is perhaps his harshest critic when it comes to his play. And he's vowed to do something about it.

College basketball season kicks off this week, with a number of our local teams taking the court for the first time. What's in store for some of our area's most prominent programs?

Pittsburgh Steelers fan Zack Heddinger is suffering from brain damage and blindness. Why this is pertinent on the Chicago scale is unfortunate, as Heddinger says the effects are the result of having been poisoned by Bears fans at a local bar following a 17-14 Bears victory over the Steelers in September. The Pittsburgh Channel reports that Heddinger, 46, has "basically been blind for two months," following the incident.

White Sox GM Kenny Williams always seems to have some deal in the works, so it's no surprise that the Sox are involved in some of the early trade chatter during the off-season. His boldest move last season was landing Jake Peavy from the cash-strapped San Diego Padres, and he might use the Padres' financial situation to try to land another of their star players. Preliminary talks suggest a three-way trade which would send Sox first baseman Paul Konerko to the Anaheim Angels, Padres first baseman Adrian Gonzalez to the White Sox and prospects from Chicago and Anaheim to San Diego.

Don't be surprised if our Editor-in-Chief is a little jumpy this week. He's got this silly fear of clowns and the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus comes to town on Wednesday. Taking over the United Center from Nov. 18-29, the "Greatest Show on Earth" once again exiles the Bulls and Blackhawks for their annual "circus trips." The Bulls open their West Coast swing on Tuesday night against the Sacramento Kings, followed by games against the L.A. Lakers, Denver Nuggets, Portland Trailblazers, Utah Jazz and Milwaukee Bucks over the next two weeks before returning to the Madhouse on Madison again. While the team's been able to return to Chicago to celebrate Thanksgiving with family between games, this year the Bulls play the Jazz in Utah on the holiday.

Despite a failed attempt at securing the 2016 Games in Chicago, Patrick Ryan still has work to do on the Olympics front. Ryan, who was the head of the Chicago Olympics bid, was named chairman of the board of World Sport Chicago on Thursday, an organization whose focus is to get Chicago youth to participate in the wide range of Olympic sports. Ryan had promised that the city's work for the Olympics wouldn't end with the failed bid and this new position will test that promise.

       

The calls for Lovie Smith's head are only going to escalate following the Bears' 10-6 loss to the San Francisco 49ers on Thursday night. Fans don't care about the added cost of firing a head coach with years left on his contract, we just want to see our team win. Especially the winnable games. Thurday night's game, against a team that entered the game with a 3-5 record, was one of those games the Bears had to win if they had any dreams of making the playoffs.

This weekend, the web was abuzz when pictures of former Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa from a recent Vegas event surfaced that showed him looking a bit paler than usual, raising speculation as to its cause, including it being a result of alleged steroid use. A former Cubs employee defended Sosa, saying he'd recently undergone some skin treatment. Appearing on Univisions's "Primer Impacto" program, Sosa himself has addressed the uproar by explaining, "It's a cream that I have, that I use to soften [my skin], but has bleached me some." He then inexplicably said, "I'm not a racist, I live my life happily." So to recap, Sosa's just trying to keep his skin soft and that's why he looks white, not because he wants to be white.

The White Sox's AL Central rival Minnesota Twins are getting ready to move out of the HHH Metrodome and into the new Target Field, which boast such amenities as a view of the sky (they'll love that in April) and a field designed exclusively for baseball. A new commercial supposedly portrays the move, with movers unpacking a truck filled with bats, a World Series trophy and crate filled with Denard Span, Michael Cuddyer and a whole lot of foam peanuts. When a White Sox fan gets hauled off the truck, one of the movers exclaims, "Woah, Woah, Woah! Doesn't belong here..." before he gets tossed back on the truck. We Sox fans are tough so we can take the ribbing -- and the toss back into the truck. We just hope the Twins made sure to use lots of extra bubble wrap on Joe Crede, because he's extremely fragile. [via]

       

Maybe the Bears aren't who we thought they are. While we thought this team was certainly among the top few in the NFC, they are proving to be mediocre at best. Playing against the Arizona Cardinals at Soldier Field on Sunday, the Bears got killed 41-21 by a team who entered the game with an identical 4-3 record.

Take a look at the photo on the left -- a recent photo of former Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa we first came across on Deadspin the other day. It was shot at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas when the slugger attended the Latin Grammys 2009 Person Of The Year Event Honoring singer Juan Gabriel. In addition to the ghostly skin, it also looks like Sosa's had some eye work done, too. The nose still looks to be stock, but we guess each starts their rebuilding process differently. Nobody can deny he looks very, very different from how he did even a couple years ago, as seen in photo on the right, taken when he testified to Congress about performance enhancing drugs. Some speculate that Sosa may be suffering from vitiligo like Michael Jackson but, in this case, caused by years of alleged steroid use.

During Tuesday's morning shoot around, the Bulls sent power forward home Tyrus Thomas home with "flu-like symptoms." Thomas missed the Bulls dramatic comeback win against the Milwaukee Bucks last night, with rookie Taj Gibson starting in his place.

     

It's hard to believe more than 20 years have gone by since Sweetness last played for the Bears, and that a decade has passed since Walter Payton's untimely death due to a rare liver disease at age 45. On the ten year anniversary of his passing, the Bears held a halftime tribute to Sweetness at Soldier Field on Sunday afternoon. With his widow Connie, children Jarrett and Brittney and his mother Alyne in attendance the team showed a video tribute to Payton of his highlights on the field and his legacy off the field, as one of the greatest players to wear a Bears uniform and one of the greatest men to play in the NFL. The team also honored Payton by emblazoning both 34 yard-lines with Payton's #34 jersey number.

       

Having fallen to .500 by losing two straight after a 3-1 start to the year, the Bears looked to right the ship against the 1-6 Cleveland Browns at Soldier Field on Sunday. While the Bears came away with a 30-6 victory, it was hardly the reassuring victory the team and fans were looking for. Sure the Bears managed to score 30 points on Sunday, but the team's offense repeatedly encountered trouble when it found itself inside the redzone against the league's worst defense. On three separate occasions the team had to settle for field goals and once even turned the ball over on downs. The Bears may have scored 30 points, but that they didn't capitalize on opportunities to score forty or more was a failure.

       

Is this the year the Bulls finally reclaim their place among the NBA's elite? For the past few seasons, the Bulls have been full of potential but inconsistent on fulfilling that promise on the court. One of these years, they'll finally make that jump. When we last saw the Bulls playing meaningful games, it was in an epic seven-game series (plus seven OT periods) with the Boston Celtics in the opening round of the playoffs. Taking the defending NBA champs and second-seeded Celts the full distance gave Bulls fans a lot to look forward to for this season. But is the optimism justified just yet?

       

Well, that was ugly.

Chicago's sports teams seem to have a knack for drafting players with unique talents. Bulls rookie James Johnson showed off his YouTube-worthy skill -- break dancing! In this clip posted by Dime Magazine, he shows off his windmill skillz at the 2009 NBA Rookie Photo Shoot. He's not the only local rookie to grace YouTube for his off the field antics. Bears rookie Jerron Gilbert has made a bigger name for himself on account of his leaping ability than his play on the field thus far.

Just five games into his tenure, Bears GM Jerry Angelo rewarded quarterback Jay Cutler with a two-year, $30 million contract extension. The deal includes about $20 million in guaranteed money. Already under contact through 2011, the team now holds Cutler's rights through 2013. The Bears stopped short, however, of ensuring Cutler will retire a Bear -- he'll still be just 30 years old when his new deal expires. While his deal is nowhere near the six-year deals pushing $100 million that other young franchise QBs have received, if Cutler continues to put up numbers like he has so far, we have a feeling Angelo and Cutler will be making more deals in the future.

       

While the scoreboard showed that the Atlanta Falcons beat the Bears 21-14 on Sunday night, the reality is that the Bears beat themselves. Turnovers in the red zone and inopportune penalties killed numerous chances to score and left the Bears to hang their heads in defeat. "We had a lot of opportunities to win the game," coach Lovie Smith said. "You can't make those kinds of mistakes on the road against a good football team."

If there's one thing we know about professional sports and the athletes that play them, is that it's as likely for someone to face criminal charges as it is for someone to donate to charity. Unfortunately, Chicago Bears rookie Lance Louis is associated with the former. Louis, offensive linemen and 7th round draft pick out of San Diego state, faces a misdemeanor assault charge for an altercation that happened while in college. The incident, occurring last fall, involved Louis and fellow teammate Nick Sandford. Authorities report that Louis assaulted Sandford in a team meeting room, causing Sandford to suffer a fractured cheekbone, broken eardrum and a concussion on top of it all.

Are the Bears interested in trading for loudmouth wide receiver Terrell Owens? That's the rumor ESPN was spreading yesterday when Adam Schefter speculated that the 1-4 Buffalo Bills may want to trade T.O. before next week's trading deadline, and their Rumors page (both ESPN Insider only) suggested he might end up with the Bears.

              

Yesterday's Bank of America Chicago Marathon saw Kenyan Samuel Wanjiru set a course record of 2:05:41 and Russia's Liliya Shobukhova was the top woman finisher. In addition to the standard prize money for winning, Wanjiru also pocketed a $100,000 bonus for setting the course record -- but that almost didn't happen. Not aware of his record-setting pace or the bonus at stake, he waved to the crowd during the final stretch and ended up surpassing the old mark by a single second.

For an estimated 45,000 runners, months of training will culminate with the 32nd running of the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, which will begin at 7:30am in Grant Park Sunday morning. The 26.2 mile race snakes through 29 of our city's neighborhoods, from the Loop north to Wrigleyville; looping back south and west through University Village, Little Italy, Chinatown and Bridgeport; before hitting the finish line back in Grant Park. The urban course creates an amazing tour of Chicago for the runners, while also being spectator friendly: over 1.5 million people are expected to stand on the sidelines cheering on friends, family or strangers. The marathon website offers spectator info. While the past two years have seen high temps create problems for runners, this year's race forecast calls for cool and rainy, with a high of about 50 degrees.

Last season, both our baseball teams reached the playoffs. This time around, both the Cubs and White Sox cleaned out their lockers. This was not unexpected for the Sox, but many truly thought this was going to be the Cubs' year. And yet fans on both sides of town are left to "wait until next year."

With all of the Olympics hoopla last week, we hadn't yet had a chance to preview the Blackhawks season, which opened in Helsinki, Finland against the Florida Panthers on Friday. After last season's renaissance on the ice, hockey has re-emerged as a sport we in Chicago care about, and we fans have high expectations for our Blackhawks in 2009-10.

       

For a half, the Detroit Lions looked like a team intent on putting together an actual winning streak as an encore to their first victory in almost two years. They jumped out to an early lead and went into the half tied at 21. However, the Bears came alive in the second half and ended up blowing out the Lions 48-24 at Soldier Field. We probably weren't the only Bears fans concerned when the Lions scored on the game's opening drive, to take an early 7-0 lead. But the Bears answered, with Jay Cutler scoring on an helicopter spin of a leap into the end zone. The Lions stormed back down the field and took a 14-7 lead before the Bears tied the game on a touchdown moments into the second quarter. A Tommie Harris interception set up a Greg Olsen score that gave the Bears a 21-14 lead, but the resilient Lions drove 98 yards to knot things up before the intermission.

       

For the second time in as many weeks, the Bears came from behind in the fourth quarter to win, this time knocking off the Seattle Seahawks 25-19 on the road. In the first half, things didn't look so good for the Bears when they fell behind 13-0. Jay Cutler threw an interception, Robbie Gould missed a field goal attempt and penalties hurt the team. They couldn't take advantage of a team without a number of its top players, including starting QB Matt Hasselbeck. Momentum in the game shifted, however, just before the half when Matt Forte's fumble at the two yard line was challenged and overturned. The Bears scored a TD and cut the Seattle's lead to six at the break.

Ugh. Thank you, ESPN Chicago, for twisting the knife and - as the Cubs see their slim odds of a playoff appearance in 2009 disappear in the wake of a season of mediocrity and controversy - reminding us of another Cubs team, one that made a great run through the NL East only to see a two games to none lead in the NLCS (in a best-of-five series, mind you) over the San Diego Padres vanish as the Padres won three straight on their way to the World Series.

Embattled Cubs outfielder Milton Bradley tried to improve a very bad situation on Wednesday, by issuing a formal apology through his agents. Bradley also dropped his union grievance over the suspension on Wednesday, when the Cubs agreed to suspend him with pay -- meaning he'll earn about $400,000 while sitting at home (waaaaaaaaaaaaay more than what Marcus makes by blogging in his underwear from a basement).

Over a year ago, we posted about an article in the "Sporting News" which theorized that the infamous "Black Sox" scandal -- the 1919 White Sox were accused of throwing the World Series -- was inspired by the Cubs having done so themselves the year before. A fascinating new wrinkle to the already extensive Chicago baseball lore. The author of that article, Sean Deveney, continued his research and has now written The Original Curse, which digs deeper into what may be the true reason for the Cubs' century of futility.