By The American Poolplayers Association

A Chicago resident is $15,000 richer after a recent visit to Sin City. But his good fortune didn’t happen in the casino. Benjamin Almazan won the 2017 APA 8-Ball Classic Pool Championship earlier this month in Las Vegas.
Almazan was amongst nearly 6,000 pool players throughout North America who attempted to qualify for the American Poolplayer Association’s 8-Ball Classic. He was one of only 582 who advanced to the national finals at the Westgate Resort & Casino.

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Posted on May 16, 2017

By Roger Wallenstein

Let’s just put it this way: The White Sox and Padres won’t be facing off in a World Series any time soon.
That was only one takeaway after a weekend that saw the Sox win a couple of games to end their six-game losing streak. Of course, they got lots of help as the National Leaguers were more than accommodating during two of the more bizarre games you’ll ever see.
All of which left the Padres with baseball’s worst mark of 14-25, which seems fitting after watching these guys play. If this is what rebuilding looks like, the San Diegans have barely broken ground.

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Posted on May 15, 2017

By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes

World Series hangover. Plus: White Sox Back To Rebuilding; Ronnie Woo-Woo Banned From Wrigley Field Along With Other Nonpaying Customers; The Problem With Mitch Trubisky’s Honda Accord; and Bastian Schweinsteiger Already Fed Up With Quality Of MLS – Just Two Months After His Move From Manchester United.

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Posted on May 12, 2017

‘Wouldn’t You Rather Bring Home The Trophy Than Be The Trophy?’

Earlier this month, ESPNw held its 2nd annual espnW: Women + Sports, Chicago event, self-described as “Thought leaders and experts from across the industry will explore topics including Women and Leadership, the Sports Industry Future and the Business of Women and Sports.”
Here are some highlights from the body issue panel, featuring Christen Press, captain of the Chicago Red Stars and a member of the U.S. women’s national team.
1. Body Image And The 2016 ESPN Magazine Body Issue.
“I still don’t know if I did the right thing.”

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Posted on May 11, 2017

By Jim Coffman

I returned to Wrigley Field on Sunday night for the first time this season. I had been to a game or three at the ballpark in each of the last few years after a 10-year stretch when I had a piece of a season-ticket package and attended 15-20 games annually.
And of course I have an origin (of my Cubs fandom) story: some of my best memories of growing up with my brother in the ’70s and the first few years of the ’80s are of taking the 22 Clark Street bus up to Addison and walking around to the bleachers. By the time the Cubs made the playoffs in ’84, I was off at college.
The tanking years drove me away and I’ve never regained my drive to attend games in person and give my money to the billionaire, conservative owners. When I get out to the ballpark these days it is because a friend invited me (thanks Tom!). Also, Sunday just so happened to be my birthday, and my sixth-grade daughter Jenna is a Cubs fan and enjoys going to games.
We sat in box seats about 18 rows up from the Cubs dugout (close enough that a kid with a glove in the row in front of us and over to our left caught one of the balls that a Cubs player tosses into the stands at the end of just about every top half of innings).

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Posted on May 8, 2017

By Roger Wallenstein

A couple of Sundays ago at Sox Park in the ninth inning of a White Sox 6-2 victory over Cleveland, fans laughed hysterically when an over-served patron took off from the right field foul line, eluding security until he was finally tackled in left field. The first security guard to confront the fan merely got a handful of a Paul Konerko jersey – it being of the tear-off variety – enabling the scoundrel to make his way across the outfield, arms waving and bare chested with his ample belly hanging over his belt.
Despite warnings from management, this scene is repeated on a few occasions around baseball each season, and most of the time spectators get a good chuckle and say things like, “The Bears should sign him,” or “Give that guy another beer.”
In Sox annals the stunt has taken an ugly turn at least three times.

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Posted on May 8, 2017

By Thomas Chambers

The cranky Always Dreaming, along with the longtime money combo of trainer Todd Pletcher and jockey John Velazquez, scored a decisive 2 3/4-length victory in what turned out to be, thank you for asking, a very entertaining and memorable 143rd Kentucky Derby weekend.
It seemed a celebration of this racing world we wander as the outfront owners, a coupla Brooklynites seemingly right out of central casting, Anthony Bonomo and Vincent Viola, added perhaps the ultimate chapter in their friendship-since-childhood partnership. They represent the ownership of, take a deep breath, MeB Racing, Brooklyn Boyz Stable, Teresa Viola, St. Elias Stable, Siena Farm and West Point Thoroughbreds.
Looking and acting like a tough-guy pussycat, Viola summed it up after the Derby. “We are truly kids, in our hearts, from the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. We always dreamed and this is one of the dreams that came true.” His eyes were like saucers as he told of his father teaching him how to act as he made his first childhood visit to Aqueduct.

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Posted on May 7, 2017

By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes

In retrospect, the Bears’ draft still sucks. Plus: Trump-Lover Jay Cutler Joins Fox Sports; Pax & Garfield; The Cubs & Castro; The White Sox Way; and Schweinsteiger!

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Posted on May 5, 2017

By Thomas Chambers

There are two kinds of sports fans, at least in these parts.
Those who bet and those who don’t. But gamblers see their games forever differently, because the inner game of the wager tints whatever is going on in the field.
In the old days, when you used to see No Gambling signs posted around the ballpark, the product was sometimes so bad that betting was the only way to enjoy yourself out at the yard.
These days, baseball games are taken out of the hands of the best pitchers and players, making handicapping impossible. Football is an inhuman, militaristic industry and not a game or a sport, civilian casualties be damned. And basketball is too painful to watch even with a wager down.
But we do have Thoroughbred horse racing, and specifically, this weekend’s 143rd Kentucky Derby.

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Posted on May 5, 2017

By AP

Horse racing’s most visible races are set to begin with the Kentucky Derby during the first week of May. The events are underscored by a concern about the future of immigrant workers who support the tracks.

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Posted on May 3, 2017