By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes
Dusty and Tony meet again, and we can’t stand either of ’em. Plus: Scrubbie Culture; Matt Nagy Is Now PC2; Sky Eclipses Sun; Preseasoning; and Red Stars React.
Posted on October 8, 2021
The Defiance Of Women’s Soccer In Nigeria
By Chuka Onwumechili and Jasmin Goodman/The Conversation
Not too long ago, Desire Oparanozie, then captain of the Nigerian women’s soccer team, again demanded equal pay for female Nigerian players. In Nigeria, female players are paid woefully less than their male counterparts in comparable international roles and her call had come after her team’s sit-in over unpaid bonuses and allowances for the 2019 World Cup.
Women’s soccer is increasingly popular in Africa, with the national federation recently introducing a continent-wide competition for women at club level. And Nigeria’s national women’s soccer team – The Falcons – have long dominated soccer in Afrida. They’ve won 11 of 13 championships including the inaugural one in 1991 and the latest edition in 2018. Yet despite this domination and fame, they are not treated as equal to the men’s team that has not dominated its African opponents.
In our research, we chronicle the struggle of these women – and their spirit of resistance in demanding human rights and visibility. It’s a spirit that can be traced back to the beginning of the women’s game in Nigeria.
Posted on October 6, 2021
Astros Opening
By Roger Wallenstein
According to FiveThirtyEight, the White Sox’ 24 losses in 42 games decided by one run this season threaten to sideline our South Side ballclub in its post-season quest even before it begins Thursday in Houston. The prognostication website gives the Sox just an eight percent chance of flying a World Series championship banner for 2021 at The Grate. That’s like 25 tries and two successes.
Meanwhile, the Astros are given a 12 percent rating to go all the way. Is Houston really four percentage points better than Tony La Russa’s talented outfit? This requires further examination.
Posted on October 5, 2021
To Boost Black Men In Medicine, Advocates Turn To Sports
By Emily Laber-Warren/Undark
Aaron Bolds didn’t consider becoming a physician until he tore a ligament in his knee while playing in a basketball tournament when he was 15. His orthopedic surgeon was Black, and they hit it off.
“He was asking me how my grades were, and I told him, ‘I’m a straight-A student,’ and he was, like, ‘Man, this is a great fallback plan if basketball doesn’t work out,'” recalls Bolds, who is African American. “He looked like me, and that was even more encouraging.”
If not for that chance encounter, Bolds, 34, a doctor at Mount Sinai Health System in New York, might never have gone into medicine, he says. When he was growing up, there were no physicians in his family or extended social network to model that career path. And at the schools he attended, he says, his aptitude for science didn’t trigger the kind of guidance young people often receive in more privileged contexts.
What Bolds did get attention for was his athletic ability. He got a full basketball scholarship to Lenoir-Rhyne University in North Carolina, where his team won a conference championship. But when he transferred to Bowie State University in Maryland, where he also played basketball, an academic adviser discouraged his pre-med ambitions, Bolds recalls, saying his grades were low and he lacked research experience.
Posted on October 2, 2021
The Beachwood Radio Sports Hour #376: Arlington Hell
By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes
Think it through, people. Plus: Sick & Sadistic; The Losing Streak Ahead; White Sox Wait (Almost) Over; Cubs Got Lucky This Year; Toewser; Flight Plan; NWSL’s Weekend Cancelled; and Fired.
Posted on October 1, 2021
TrackNotes: Sick And Sadistic
By Thomas Chambers
In response to this, I wrote this ⬇⬇⬇. I’m tired of this namby-pamby shit!
* * * * *
Besides rewriting press releases, which is what Bloodhorse does, where were Bloodhorse and the Daily Racing Form when Churchill Downs Incorporated once again raped American horse racing?
As for the Chicago Bears, they can go to hell. Or, Arlington Heights. Same thing.
Posted on September 30, 2021
How It Started
By Roger Wallenstein
If it’s a presidential term, the days, weeks and years can seem interminable. Conversely, a high school career tends to fly by in a flash. If a college kid has the means and the desire, he or she can stretch out the tenure for another year or more.
Four years. For aficionados of a ballclub that launches into a rebuild, the early years move at a snail’s pace, and if not properly conceived along with good fortune, a successful ending never materializes. Not so for the newly crowned AL Central Division champion White Sox. The process, while not totally linear, has a distinct pattern. Ninety-five losses four years ago followed by 100 and 89 the next two seasons before earning a wild card playoff berth a year ago.
And now, according to plan, the division flag can be flown for the first time in 13 years.
At the risk of reminding us of the struggle and ineptitude of that initial rebuilding year, our memories also are refreshed by the promise of the future. Looking back on this weekly White Sox Report, we must start at the beginning.
Posted on September 27, 2021
TrackNotes: Burning Down The House
By Thomas Chambers
Illinois Racing Board Commissioner Alan Henry said it best.
Citing its extermination of Hollywood Park and Calder Race Course, Henry said the demise of Arlington International Race Course “would be another bloody stain on the hands of [Churchill Downs Inc.].”
CDI CEO William Carstanjen started as a lawyer. He later became an in-house counsel in two different divisions of General Electric. He has also had stints with the old Tropical Park in Miami, United Tote Co. and Churchill Downs Simulcast Productions LLC. He was heavily involved with the acquisition by CDI of betting platforms YouBet.com and AmericaTab.
Carstanjen made $10.5 million in compensation in 2020: $1.4 million in salary, a $2 million-plus bonus and more than $7 million in stock. He owns more than 500,000 shares of CDI stock for a 1.4% share of the company, worth $115 million.
Posted on September 25, 2021
The Beachwood Radio Sports Hour #375: Overreaction Everyday
By Jim Coffman and Steve Rhodes
No longer just for Mondays. Including: Fields of Screams; Slouching Toward The Playoffs; The Right Side Of The Rivalry; Developing October; On Wisconsin; Vaxhawks; October Sky; Thorns On Fire; Hail Hawthorne; COVID Drives Online Betting; and Where The Robert Taylor Homes Once Stood: The Women’s Chicago Fall Tennis Classic.
Posted on September 24, 2021
Where The Robert Taylor Homes Once Stood: The Women’s Chicago Fall Tennis Classic
By Randy C. Bonds/RC Bonds PR
The Women’s Chicago Fall Tennis Classic (a WTA 500-level tournament) kicks off Monday and runs through October 3rd in Washington Park on Chicago’s South Side, a first-ever for a tournament of this caliber.
Produced by Chicago’s own, Kamau Murray, this is one of the first Black-produced stops on the WTA tour, at one of the largest minority-owned tennis facilities in the country, XS Tennis Village, a $16.9 million Black owned-and-operated facility. Murray opened up the non-profit tennis facility in Washington Park on Chicago’s South Side where the Robert Taylor Homes once stood.
Posted on September 23, 2021