By Steve Rhodes
“Take me out to the ballgame, and then take out a loan to pay for it,” Jamie Sotonoff writes for the Daily Herald today.
“As the Chicago baseball season begins today, a new report shows both the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox continue to rank among the most expensive teams to watch play.
“The cost of taking a family of four to see a Cubs game at Wrigley Field this year is estimated to be $305.60, and it’ll cost $258.68 for a White Sox game, according to the 2011 Fan Cost Index, a dollar amount calculated annually by Wilmette-based Team Marketing Research.”
A Brewers game, by contrast, costs a family of four $160.40.
Between the Brewers and the Packers . . . Wisconsin ain’t bad.
Carl’s Cubs Mailbag
An Opening Day preview.
He Ain’t Heavy
“Being the younger brother of the world’s best two-way hockey player can be cause for unfair comparisons, but David Toews says his big brother is a blessing and not a curse,” Gary Lawless writes for the Winnipeg Free Press.
“The 20-year-old Toews has two goals and two assists through three Western Hockey League playoff games with the Brandon Wheat Kings and was looking for more when the Wheaties hosted the Medicine Hat Tigers Thursday night at Winnipeg’s MTS Centre.
“When your big brother is Jonathan Toews, Olympic hero and captain of the defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks, you’re going to have to live with the ‘he’s J.T.’s little brother,’ stuff.”
Man U
Comes to Chicago to play the fire July 23rd.
A Jockey’s Life
Perhaps the greatest athletes of all.
Cow Pokes
“Cattle futures surged to a record in Chicago yesterday on speculation demand for U.S. beef would increase in Japan after radiation from the stricken nuclear plant contaminated food supplies,” Bloomberg reports. “Tyson Foods Inc., the top U.S. meat processor, said the country may increase imports.”
Lead Feet
“Residents in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood complained for years about metallic-tasting smoke rolling down their narrow streets but had little evidence it was harmful,” Michael Hawthorne reports for the Tribune.
“Now they have proof. New monitoring data obtained by the Tribune reveal that high levels of toxic lead frequently lingered in the air last year outside an elementary school in the predominantly Latino enclave that is attended by nearly 500 children.”
Health Care Reform
“During the recession, Chicago’s Swedish Covenant Hospital chief Mark Newton was unwilling to take draconian measures such as layoffs,” Health Leaders Media reports. “Instead, he deployed a tactic from his entrepreneurial background: he challenged his staff to find ways to cut costs themselves.”
And apparently they did – and saved their jobs.
About Those Loafing Truck Drivers
The media misses the point.
Chicago’s Human Stun Gun
Or Not.
The Week in Chicago Rock
You shoulda been there.
The Week in WTF
Farrakhan, Blago, hyperlocal news, pediatricians, Jewel.
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American Dream Declared Dead As Final Believer Gives Up
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The Beachwood Tip Line: A dream deferred.
Posted on April 1, 2011