By Corinne Daprano and Leslie Picca/The Conversation

Women have made great strides in the world of sports over the past 50 years.
Especially in some individual sports, female champion athletes today earn far more money and command a much bigger audience than their predecessors – thanks to breakthroughs by tennis champions like Billie Jean King and Venus and Serena Williams and top golfers such as Kathy Whitworth, Nancy Lopez and Michele Wie.

We are fans of women’s basketball and scholars who study the role that gender plays in sports and the changing status of female athletes. Despite massive changes in attitudes toward women who excel at sports overall, with few exceptions we’ve observed that the disparity between what adolescent boys and girls can aspire to accomplish in professional basketball today remains enormous.

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Posted on February 25, 2020

By Jim Coffman

From early February into the middle of the month, my thinking changed regarding whether the Houston Asterisks’ 2017 World Series championship should be vacated.
I initially felt that it would be a mostly empty gesture, but as time passed it seemed to occur to everyone including me that the owner and the Houston players going essentially unpunished was untenable. I understand that commissioner Rob Manfred would like to wait for the end of the investigation into whether the Red Sox used technology to cheat in 2018 (to potentially say, “You see, several teams were doing it”) but considering the inability of MLB to conduct brisk investigations, that might not happen for months. And even if it doesn’t, who cares?

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Posted on February 24, 2020

By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes

Cleaning up Manfred’s mess. Plus: The Unprecedented Nature Of Kris Bryant; Baseball’s New Freaky Rules; Marquee Media Moves; End Of The World According To GarPax?; Bulloney; Ben & Eddy; We’re Confused Too, Breadman; Derek Carr’s Eyelashes vs. Casey Urlacher’s (Alleged) Offshore Gambling Ring; Illinois Hoops Nation Update, and more!

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Posted on February 21, 2020

By Steve Rhodes

One in an occasional series tracking the movements of former Cubs.
1. Tuffy Rhodes.
“Tuffy Rhodes could be tough to figure out,” Jason Coskrey writes for the Japan Times.

Sometimes, he’d flash a big smile and crack jokes. Catch him in a good mood, and you might forget you weren’t actually an old friend. Other times, Rhodes gave off an aura that said it’d be best to find whatever you were looking for somewhere else.
If he’d homered in a loss, he would shoo away reporters and tell them “home runs don’t matter when you lose.” If his team had won, nothing was off limits, even if he’d had a bad game.
Rhodes wasn’t a robot. He rose with wins and sunk with losses. He was many things, but most of all, he was human.
Despite what the majority of voting members of the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame may try to tell you, he also deserves to be enshrined there with other Japanese baseball greats.
Another Hall of Fame announcement came and went [last month] without Rhodes’ name in bold, black katakana characters on the top half of the page. Instead, Rhodes was in his usual place (and typeface) about halfway down the list of candidates.

Somehow fitting. In some ways, he’s the ultimate ex-Cub, a flash, a bust, a success elsewhere and yet, in the end, unvalidated.

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Posted on February 18, 2020

By Jim Coffman

The Hawks just can’t get over the hump. Or should I say they can’t get over the barrel? Remember that on Wide World of Sports? Guys on skates trying to long jump a record number of barrels? Those were the days I tell ya; goofy days sure, but days.

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Posted on February 17, 2020

By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes

Rich basketball player jealous of teeth-pullers. Plus: Joe Maddon Is A Liar And Clever Things To Say About The Buffalo Sabres, The Houston Asterisks, John Henry, Charles Barkley, The Chicago Bulls, The Chicago Blackhawks, Adderall & eSports; Bobby Knight; Jason Kipnis, Spring Training, PECOTA, Kenny Williams and Illinois’ Basketball Nation.

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Posted on February 14, 2020

By David Rutter

The Beloved Chicago Cubs and their Beloved Fans should worry that Kris Bryant one day might be the second coming of Draymond Green.
Or even worse – cripes! – Lou Brock.
Cubs management has sent every verifiable signal that they collectively want to trade their young superstar as fast as possible because, you know, he’ll want to be paid in 2021 what he’s worth in the current market, and the Ricketts family is almost broke. Down to its last two or three billion.
A point of order. When baseball owners complain about the strangling effect of flush salaries for players, remember they are the ones who set the market. They even created the system when beer baron and St. Louie Cards owner Augie Busch publicly taunted centerfielder Curt Flood into suing for free agency escape. Millions now are spent over what essentially was a $10,000 raise that Busch would not pay.

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Posted on February 10, 2020

By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes

Why men great then they gotta be traded? Plus: Chief Chiefs; The Bulls’ Neverending Implosions; Like Chicago Police, Blackhawks Accruing Too Much OT; Lincoln Park Lyins; Illinois Hoops Roundup; and Olympic Surf’s Up.

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Posted on February 7, 2020

By AP

“Members of the USA Olympic Surfing Event are training in California to compete in the upcoming Summer Games in Tokyo where surfing will make its Olympic debut.”
Says one: “It would definitely be rad to medal.”

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Posted on February 4, 2020

By Jim Coffman

Generally I am not a fan of watching sports in the middle of a big loud group. Unless of course I am at the game. If the contest involves one of Chicago’s teams, I generally won’t do it. You simply can’t see and/or hear what is going on nearly as well when there is a lot of chatter in the room and friends and distractions from what’s going on at any given time.
But when it comes to the Super Bowl, I do it every year. Some very good friends throw a party and it just can’t be missed.

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Posted on February 3, 2020