Cubs Slip to Reds In spite of a stellar outing for Ted Lilly (including a no-hitter through five innings), the Cubs weren't able to generate any offense as they fell to the Cincinnati Reds 2-1. Lilly gave up two runs over seven innings and struck out seven. Of course, more impressive was Reds' starter Bronson Arroyo, who only gave up one run and three hits. Said Lilly, ""I was throwing the ball pretty good. "I......

Are you a fan of the shoes Michael Jordan made famous? If so, you might want to join the hundreds (thousands?) of fans of MJ and his eponymous shoes who will converge at his statue outside the United Center at noon this Saturday to shoot the final scene of the documentary "Jordan Heads." Billed as "the most anticipated sneaker documentary ever," Saturday's shoot caps four years of production on the film. The documentary looks......

Words cannot even express how much I am going to miss having Bela Karolyi in my life from now on. The man could make watching someone paint sound exciting. Where's the drama in my life now? How can I get excited about anything else after having Bela's exuberance in my life for the last nine days? Fortunately, there's still plenty of Olympics to go as we close in on team finals as well as some......

While gymnastics has taken over for Michael Phelps in providing all the fireworks and dramatics this week, several Chicago-area athletes are providing drama of their own as part of several U.S. teams entering the medal round. It's "win or go home" time and while we'll be happy to welcome back our athletes with open arms, we hope they get to extend their stay in Beijing just a little longer to bring home some medals. Basketball,......

While the Bears thankfully brought their quarterback competition to a close with yesterday's selection of Kyle Orton, the team has a history of lining up just about anyone behind center when the going gets tough. Whether due to ineffectiveness or injury, the Bears have employed more starting quarterbacks over the past decade and a half than any team in the NFL over that time. Since 1992, while the Packers had started Brett Farve and only......

We're coming down the homestretch of the competition now, having completed 12 of the 18 days of competition (while the Olympics are "officially" 16 days long, there were two days of preliminary action before the opening ceremonies). And while China has dominated the gold medal count, Team USA continues to maintain a slight overall lead over the host nation. A few Chicago-area athletes were in action today, doing their part to help the US maintain......

Now halfway through their preseason schedule, the Bears still haven't answered their biggest question -- who'll start at quarterback? While Kyle Orton's performance rated slightly better than Rex Grossman's and some think he's shown enough to earn the job, neither QB looked particularly good playing behind the Bears' ragtag offensive line. We're certainly not sold on either of 'em. Like many of the team's games in recent years, the bulk of the point came......

Michael Phelps is a badass. To do what he did is unfathomable and he did it with grace, dignity, and respect to himself, his fellow swimmers, and Mark Spitz. But thank God swimming is over because if NBC showed Phelps' mother in the stands reacting to a race one more time, I was going to tear my hair out. This is the network's fault in doing what they do best : taking a very sweet......

We've hit the half-way point for the Olympics but there's still plenty of excitement, including Michael Phelps heart-stopping gold medal race. At this point, we suspect he may just be toying with our emotions just to keep us interested. But our Chicago-area Olympians, including Christine Loukas and Dwyane Wade, are providing some fireworks of their own and keeping us glued to our televisions. Which is a good thing, right? Screw it. Go Team Chicago!......

About this time on Friday afternoons, we start getting Friday brain. We feel punchy. We feel silly, maybe a little argumentative, and certainly unable to complete substantive tasks or engage in meaningful discourse. Sometimes, this becomes a leg-wrestling tournament. Sometimes a walk around the block to play that stupid road trip game where you put the word "anal" before the names of cars ("anal Explorer," "anal Liberty," etc). Today, Marcus and I decided to discuss......

While not necessarily trying to sell tickets or merchandise, per se, the Chicago Bears have nonetheless decided they need to ramp up an advertising blitz to remind Chicagoans that we're all part of the Bears. The goal of the "One City, One Team" campaign is "to drive home the strength of that inexorable connection and make [fans] feel a sense of pride in the long-accepted fact that, win or lose, Chicago is a Bears town."......

Do you know someone who "through personal effort and tireless dedication, improves the lives of others and makes a positive impact on their community"? Nominate him or her for the White Sox's Roland Hemond award. It honors extraordinarily philanthropic Chicagoans with a trip to the All Star Game, which will be in St. Louis in 2009. Nominations are due August 22, but the form is really, really basic. [White Sox]......

Team USA's softball team extended its overall Olympic winning streak to 16 games with the help of Cat Osterman's no-hitter, shutting out Australia 3-0 in a rematch of 2004's gold medal game. Osterman, when not competing with Team USA, serves as an assistant coach for DePaul's softball program, and lives in Lincoln Park. She joined the program in 2007 after finishing her illustrious career at the University of Texas in '06. USA Softball Player of......

Former Bear Muhsin Muhammad, now with the Carolina Panthers, said in an interview with Sports Illustrated that Chicago is "where receivers go to die." While that's the quote that's getting the most play today, we like the next part, too. From Peter King's column: Speaking of Muhammad, he had this to say about the state of the Chicago quarterback situation: "In the time Brett Favre has started for the Packers -- what's it been, 16......

In the heat of a division race, with a pitching staff that's seen its ERA climb in each of the past four months, the last thing the White Sox needed was to lose a part of their starting rotation. In fact, the Sox were hoping to get back a key component of their rotation when Jose Contreras, who'd been out since July 13 because of elbow tendinitis, pitched Saturday night. Instead, they lost Contreras to......

The Bears opened their preseason with a 24-20 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs at Soldier Field on Thursday. And while Bears fans were looking for some answers about their team and its prospects, particularly on offense, instead more questions were raised than answered. Heading into the game, the biggest question was at quarterback. Would either Kyle Orton or Rex Grossman show enough to prove they could ably lead the team's offense? Last night, neither......

The 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing are getting ready to start have already kicked off and, well, it seems that not many folks are as enthusiastic about it as some of us are (one of us has even participated in an Olympic Torch relay). So forgive us if we seemed a bit excited this morning because we dig that time every four two years when the world comes together to celebrate the pageantry and......

According to a new analysis from Forbes magazine, Cubs fans are the fourth most loyal in baseball, behind the Rangers, Red Sox and Braves. Loyalty here is measured as the relationship between winning percentage and attendance since 1991: "The faster that fans boosted attendance and the more hastily they abandoned poor performance indicated fans who were less loyal." Baseball's least-loyal? Angels fan. [Forbes]......

Brett Favre is no longer a member of the Green Bay Packers. Following an increasingly hostile situation created by his desire to come out of retirement while the team had moved on with Aaron Rodgers, the Packers finally traded the future Hall of Famer to the New York Jets late last night. Refusing to trade him within the division -- the Bears and Vikings were supposedly interested -- it came down to a horse race......

Coach Lovie Smith says not to read anything into it, but Kyle Orton will start at quarterback for the Bears when they host the Kansas City Chiefs at Soldier Field tomorrow evening. Lovie's game plan calls for Rex Grossman to play in the first half also, and the Bears first team offense will remain in the game until intermission so that both QBs get a chance to work with them. The quarterbacks vying for the......

When Wrigley Field joined the 20th century and added lights to the stadium in 1988, part of the team's agreement with the city banned night games on Fridays or Saturdays. Now the Cubs want that ban lifted. The Cubs and the city originally agreed to 18 night games per season at the Friendly Confines. Later amendments have increased that total to 30, but the weekend ban remains in place. The Cubs claim that their desire......

The White Sox limp home after a 10-game road trip that most certainly did not end on a high note Sunday. The team lost 14-3 to the lowly Kansas City Royals, in a game that saw a bench clearing brawl and numerous ejections. With the bases loaded, Sox pitcher D.J. Carrasco hit the Royals' Miguel Olivo with a pitch, which the ump called intentional. That lead to the melee, and the ejection of both Carrasco......

We’re somewhat hesitant to mention it given the Bulls' track record with “done deals" this summer, but the team and Luol Deng have agreed on a six-year, $71 million contract that will be officially announced this morning at a press conference at the Berto Center. With incentives, the deal can reach upwards of $80 million. Having turned down a five-year, $57.5 million deal last off-season, Deng was a restricted free agent. He could have signed......

Perhaps a few years later than initially expected, the White Sox are rumored to be acquiring Reds outfielder Ken Griffey Jr. before today's trading, deadline according to FoxSports. The deal, in which the Sox will give up prospects, is supposedly awaiting Griffey's approval—he's a 10-and-5 player—before being officially announced. With the Sox in first place at the deadline, GM Ken Williams is looking to add the final pieces to ensure his team can compete through......

Even before William Ligue Jr. ran onto the field at Comiskey Park and attacked a Royals coach, Cubs fans have tried to pin the undeserving "violent" label as a negative stereotype of Sox fans [Ed.'s note: It probably has something to do with incidents like this]. Never mind that Ligue admitted to actually being a Cubs fan... or that it was outside Wrigley Field that a fan was shot and killed [Ed's note: Touché, Lipsman].......

After first choosing to hold out of training camp while demanding a new deal, and then reversing course and showing up without a raise, Bears kick return specialist Devin Hester was rewarded with a fat new contract on Sunday. The 4-year deal guarantees him $15 million and could be worth as much as $40 million with incentives. Hester had wanted a deal that paid him like an elite wideout; the Bears were willing to pay......

The Peoria Chiefs — the Cubs' Class A Midwest League affiliate — took part in a major league bench clearing brawl Thursday night (video here) with the Dayton Dragons. Fifteen players and both managers were ejected from the game as a result of the melee and one fan was taken to the hospital after being hit by a ball thrown by pitcher Julio Castillo. He'd been aiming for the Dayton dugout. Guess we know why......

When most of the Bears hit the practice field for the first time on Wednesday, one player was very noticeably absent. Kick return extraordinaire Devin Hester was nowhere to be found in Bourbonnais. He's decided to hold out of training camp until he gets a new contract. He's entering the third season of a four-year deal he signed after being drafted in '06. "I can't go out and play this year making $445,000. Come on,......

A sports-collector convention and SportsBuy.com say they'll pay Steve Bartman $25,000 for an autograph. But their press release also says "Where forth [sic] art thou, Steve Bartman?" so who knows. And for the record, wherefore means why, not where. Anyway, organizers for the National Sports Collector Convention must know that Bartman will never do it, so this is a no-risk stunt. The show starts next Wednesday at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont,......

New Year's Day outdoors? That's how Chicagoist usually spends it—but on a Mexican beach. At least until the Rose Bowl kicks off. We're not quite so sure we'd want to spend it outside in Wrigley Field, which could be a little cold. On the other hand, watching two of the "Original Six" NHL teams face off in the open air does sound pretty damn cool. Standing inside temporary baseboards approximating where the rink will sit,......