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"Sports Quote of the Day"
"I feel like whatever you've done in your career, good or bad, it's nothing but preparation for the big events to come." ~ Kevin Hart, Actor, Comedian, Writer and Producer
Trending: Bears' 2016 strength of schedule has increased since April's NFL Draft. (See the football section for Bears and NFL updates).
(Photo/csnchicago.com)
Trending: The NHL’s Point System is Flawed. (See the hockey section for Blackhawks and NHL updates).
Trending: Mickelson leads The Open by 3 after 63. (See the golf section for British Open and PGA updates).
Trending: Duke’s unimpressive non-conference schedule bad for the sport. What's Your Take? (See the college basketball section for our opinion on this article and share your thoughts with us. We'd love to hear your opinion. CS&T/AA Editorial Staff).
Trending: Cubs and White Sox road to the "World Series".
Cubs 2016 Record: 53-35
White Sox 2016 Record: 45-43
(See the baseball section for Cubs and White Sox updates).
Bear Down Chicago Bears!!!!! Bears camping out 2016: Bears have quantity at LB, but do they have elite quality?
By John Mullin
(Photo/csnchicago.com)
The Denver Broncos won the Super Bowl with a linebacker – Von Miller – as MVP. Consider that one template for what coach John Fox and coordinator Vic Fangio seek for their defense. Along that must be the mesh among a group that has upgraded talent but no two projected starters who’ve played together. Adding new starters does not automatically translate into successful cohesion.
“I think we have some better pieces to work with for sure,” Fangio said. “The one thing that will have to get honed up quickly is we are vastly new at the inside linebacker position, so the carryover from Year 1 to Year 2 is not there at that position, and that’s a critical position when you’re talking about that because those guys are kind of the quarterback of the defense.
“They’re in between everybody. As fast as those guys learn how to quarterback the defense, feel comfortable in what we’re doing and we feel comfortable with them, will determine how fast and how well we improve."
Offseason adjustments
No position group underwent a more significant retooling than the one that is the obvious heart of the basic 3-4 and, for the Bears, also for their 4-3 sub packages. The result is a clear expectation that an area of liability in 2015 become an immediate strength for 2016, one with a stunning amount of competition.
None of the 2015 day one starters will be the same: Jared Allen and Shea McClellin are gone, Christian Jones is fighting for a roster spot, and while Pernell McPhee is projected to start, he has been down-sized after undergoing knee surgery shortly after the season.
After using free agency to re-staff both inside-linebacker spots – Jerrell Freeman from Indianapolis, Danny Trevathan from Denver – the Bears made an edge pass rusher their draft priority – Leonard Floyd from Georgia, No. 9 overall.
“He’s got tremendous athleticism; we talked about that even in the draft process,” Fox said. “He’s very smart, has played a lot of different positions, understands the game, and he has the skill set to do all parts of his job, both in coverage and as far as rush.”
That would be your basic definition of “linebacker.”
The additions, along with both Lamarr Houston and Willie Young projected to be fully ready for camp instead of easing back from leg injuries as they were this time last year, give the Bears five proven veterans and Floyd and fourth-round pick Nick Kwiatkowski for purposes of rotation, depth and special teams.
Depth-charting
Inside LBs: Jerrell Freeman, Danny Trevathan
Outside LBs: Lamarr Houston, Pernell McPhee
The mix: Willie Young, Leonard Floyd, Sam Acho, Christian Jones, Nick Kwiatkowski, Lamin Barrow, Jonathan Anderson, John Timu, Jarrett Grace
Three questions camp will begin to answer…
— Whether the Bears can mount a true pass rush from the position core most tasked with delivering one. They have a number of solid rush-linebackers; they have not shown an elite talent, that one dominant rusher that keys a defense and can blow up an offense. Houston (eight sacks), Young (6.5) and McPhee (six) were respectable, particularly given Houston and Young coming off injuries. But the Bears finished with just 35 sacks and need more threat from their rush-linebackers collectively or individually.
“There’s a lot of good rushers there, a lot of good guys who can do a lot of different things,” said right tackle Bobby Massie after facing the group and its constantly changing looks. “So there’s a good variety pack of pass rushers.”
— Whether Floyd is able to add a power component to his speed-based game. Floyd declared this a priority for himself: “It definitely gives me another move to go to when my speed is not working. It will definitely help me grow as an edge rusher.”
— What combination of talents will mesh optimally. Houston, McPhee and the other vets have established skills but the search for impact, particularly in rush lanes, will necessitate mix-and-match's.
10 Most Important Bears of 2016: #4 Can Alshon Jeffery rebound from 2015?
By Lester A. Wiltfong Jr.
(Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)
For the 8th straight year, I'm bringing you who I believe will be the ten most important Chicago Bears for the upcoming season, and next up is a player that may be fighting for his next contract, the franchise tagged Alshon Jeffery.
Alshon Jeffery is a proven playmaker for the Chicago Bears. You may be down on him because of the numerous injuries he dealt with the last two seasons, but when his body is right, he can be a legitimate #1 wide receiver. He played in all 16 games in 2014, even setting a career high with 10 touchdown receptions, but the injuries slowed him to a career low 13.3 yards per reception that year. His numbers were good, he just didn't have the same pizzazz as the previous season.
In 2013 Jeffery was a human highlight reel as he put up a career high 89 receptions and 1,421 yards, including a 10 catch 218 yard game and a 12 catch 249 yard game. There were times that season where it seemed like he was uncoverable, and he was elected to play in his lone Pro Bowl.
Injuries prevented him from suiting up in seven games last year, but he still managed a career best 89.7 receiving yards per game. The offense was clearly better in the nine games in which he played and he's the kind of difference maker that can make everyone around him better.
Check out these numbers I came across on Twitter, in the nine games that Jeffery appeared in, Chicago's offense averaged 23.4 points per game, whereas in the seven he missed, the O only averaged 17.7 ppg. The offense averaged 368.7 total yards per game and 247.4 passing yards per game with #17 suited up, but with Jeffery out of the lineup, those numbers dipped to 314.1 and 205.1 respectively.
Opposing defenses have to scheme for him, so the other receivers should have single coverage more often than not. Defenses won't play eight in the box as much, so Chicago's running game could benefit. Jeffery can go up and high point the ball with the best of them, but he's also a good route runner that can work the middle of the field.
I have a feeling that Jeffery will be playing with a chip on his shoulder all season long. If the Bears and Jeffery can't agree on a long term deal, he'll be playing to prove his worth to the Bears and the rest of the NFL. If Jeffery does sign a contract before Friday's franchise tag deadline, he'll be out to stick it to the "haters."
With tight end Martellus Bennett traded away and tailback Matt Forte allowed to leave via free agency, the Bears' passing game could ill afford Jeffery to struggle through another injury plagued season. Hopefully TE Zach Miller and RB Jeremy Langford can fill some of the void left by the two departing Bears, and hopefully Kevin White will live up to his potential, but Jeffery is a proven commodity.
He just has to stay healthy.
10 Most Important Bears of 2016: #3 Can Eddie Goldman be a dominant force?
By Lester A. Wiltfong Jr.
(Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
For the 8th straight year, I'm bringing you who I believe will be the ten most important Chicago Bears for the upcoming season. Up at number 3 is big man in the middle of the Bears defense, Eddie Goldman.
Last year the Chicago Bears plucked defensive lineman Eddie Goldman in the 2nd round of the draft after many pundits had him with a 1st round grade. The Bears were transitioning form a 4-3 defense to a 30 front and Goldman was a perfect fit to man the nose tackle position at 6'4", 336 pounds.
He was solid against the run as a rookie, but his pass rushing was a pleasant surprise after most scouts called that a weakness leading up to the draft. He has the strength and pad level to have an effective bullrush and he has the tenacity to keep fighting through blocks to get after the quarterback. His 4.5 sacks were 4th among all rookies last year and I expect that number to increase in 2016.
Goldman showed an ability to play either 1 gap or 2 gap in defensive coordinator Vic Fangio's defense last year and with much better talent around him this season, opposing offenses will have more to worry about.
The Bears have Goldman listed at 320 pounds on their website, but reports have the coaches wanting him to play at 325. He will be quicker this year, not only because he's in better shape, but also because his knowledge of the playbook and experience will give him a mental edge over his rookie year.
"The great thing about Eddie is now we have a full season full of tape of things he did really well and things he didn't do very well," defensive line coach Jay Rodgers said. "(Now) he can watch himself do things correctly. And then when he can do things correctly more consistently, you're going to see more plays from him."
The Bears must improve on last years' 22nd ranked run defense, and that starts up front with better line play, and more specifically it starts with a more efficient Goldman clogging up the middle. Even though Goldman is down some weight, he hasn't sacrificed his best asset, his strength. His coaches and teammates have been lauding his play this offseason through mini camp and OTAs."The things you see in Eddie from a year ago are that he's a little bit lighter," Rodgers said. "He's quicker with his feet and he knows where he's going so he can play from a more leveraged position. He's a lot more square on blocks."
Goldman will line up over the nose in the Bears' base D, but I would expect him to move up and down the line a bit more this season. He can collapse the pocket from the interior, eat up two blockers when asked, but I think he's quick enough to split those double teams and to line up and do stuff defensive ends do too.
From CSNChicago;
"We're always going to put the best people out there on the field," said defensive line coach Jay Rodgers. "You've heard coach (John) Fox say, ‘You're role is whatever you make of it.' So if he's showing up on tape as a guy who's producing in pass-rush situations, we're going to put him in there.
"I have no reservations of labeling guys ends and noses, when we get in nickel situations and they're the best two [interior] guys on the field. That doesn't matter to me. It's the best two guys on the field. And if they're tired, it's the next best guy on the field, whatever position they play. And sometimes your nose is a better pass rusher than a guy who's playing end, that's why he was out there a lot."
Chicago's d-line will be much better this year with the free agent pick up of Akiem Hicks and the drafting of Jonathan Bullard, but Goldman is still the key that that line. I like Hicks as a player and I like the potential that Bullard and even holdover Ego Ferguson has, but I think Goldman can be special.
He made numerous all rookie teams after his 2015 season and many, including me, expect him to have a big 2016.
Bears' 2016 strength of schedule has increased since April's NFL Draft.
CSN Staff
(Photo/csnchicago.com)
Strength of schedule always needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Projecting the difficulty of a team's schedule based off what each of their opponents did the previous year makes little sense, given coaching changes, drafted players, free agents, scheme changes, etc.
It's why Rotoworld's Warren Sharp dives into strength of schedule based on "forecasted 2016 wins from the current betting market." And as the offseason progresses and moves closer to the start of another NFL season, those projections give a clearer picture of just how difficult (or easy) a team's schedule will be. You can read the logic behind Sharp's reasoning here.
As it pertains to the Bears, since Sharp last analyzed his numbers in April before the draft, their schedule has become more difficult. Whereas Sharp ranked the Bears as having the ninth easiest schedule in the league in April, post-draft and free agency the Bears now have the 13th easiest schedule (or 20th overall).
Here's what Sharp had to say about the Bears' SOS:
Bears (#9 opponent increase, #20 SOS)
The Bears play a very similar schedule to the Packers, so it is not odd for them to be nestled close to each other in terms of new opponent strength. Unlike the Packers, the Bears do get the Bucs and 49ers, but both opponents have been bet toward the over by more than 0.5 wins. Overall, the Bears' difficulty increased 28% over average.
The Bears started 2015 with 3 straight losses to tough teams (GB, ARI, SEA) and never could get back on track. Their 2016 schedule is not nearly as tough, and if they can weather some early difficulty, the back half of their schedule sets up nicely. The issue up front is the fact they alternate home and road games through Week 8, but their road slate is difficult (@ HOU, @ DAL, @ IND, @ GB) as compared to their home slate (vs PHI, vs DET, vs JAC). If the Bears can survive that run and make it to the bye week, they play 4 home games in 5 weeks with a short trip to Detroit in Week 14. The Bears actually have more home game back-to-backs than road game back-to-backs. And from Week 10 on, they play the easiest schedule in the NFL. The national audience will get a lot of the Bears early, as for some reason Chicago plays four of their first eight games in primetime.The Bears will open their regular season schedule against the Houston Texans in just 59 short days. It's almost here, football fans.
How 'bout them Chicago Blackhawks? The NHL’s Point System is Flawed.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. (Photo/Kirby Lee-USA Today Sports)
It may have been the best change the NHL has made since the lockout, but there’s still work left to be done.
For the 2015-16 season the NHL changed their overtime format – now all games ending regulation tied are decided by a five-minute 3-on-3 period. If the game is still tied after the 3-on-3 period, a three-man shootout commences. Prior to the 2015-16 season, tied games were decided by a 4-on-4 five-minute overtime period before heading to a shootout if necessary.
There were two primary goals with this rule change – to bring another layer of excitement to fans, and to limit the amount of games ending in a shootout. The NHL’s theory was taking an extra player off the ice for each team would lead to more goals, which in turn would draw more fan interest than the previous 4-on-4 format. The new overtime was able to accomplish both of these feats with ease, but it missed a glaring issue that needs to be addressed.
The Problem
Since 1999 the NHL has awarded two points for a regulation or overtime win, one point for an overtime loss, and zero points for a regulation loss. Under this format regulation wins are valued equally to winning in overtime and shootouts, which has caused an unintended effect on the league.
The Problem
Since 1999 the NHL has awarded two points for a regulation or overtime win, one point for an overtime loss, and zero points for a regulation loss. Under this format regulation wins are valued equally to winning in overtime and shootouts, which has caused an unintended effect on the league.
Because an extra point is being rewarded in the overtime period for the loser, teams are incentivized in certain situations to allow games to go to overtime to maximize their payoff. Research has been conducted to show this, as highlighted in Michael Lopez’s paper, “Tilted Ice: How certain NHL teams are manipulating the league’s point system.” What does this mean? More games are ending in overtime, which has caused more games to end in shootouts. This leads back to why the NHL initially changed the overtime format to 3-on-3.
NHL executives and fans have voiced concerns over teams making the playoffs in part because they did well in shootouts. After the announcement of the new overtime format, Nashville GM David Polie said, “I’m excited about it. We felt unanimous that we would like more games ending in overtime versus the shootout.” The worry has been teams placing a large amount of emphasis on shootouts, which are often considered a skills competition, instead of a team aspect of the game. For this reason the NHL implemented the 3-on-3, but it doesn’t entirely solve their problem – stopping games from going to overtime in the first place.
Of the games that have required overtime since 2006, 57% have ended in a shootout, and 43% ended in 4-on-4 play. In 2015-16 with the new 3-on-3 format those numbers flipped almost identically with 61% of overtime games ending in 3-on-3 and 39% ending in a shootout. Now instead of teams placing emphasis on the shootout, they should be on the 3-on-3 instead. Does that solve the NHL’s problem?
An argument could be made in favor of 3-on-3 play being more team involved than a shootout, but one could also argue it’s still gimmicky. Steve Rosenbloom of the Chicago Tribune went as far to write an article titled “NHL’s three-on-three OT is a joke”. In the article, Rosenbloom said, “If you appreciate a team built to win hockey games as they are played almost 100 percent of the time, then no, this is not what you signed up for.”
If NHL executives, players, and fans are concerned teams are making the playoffs because they won a lot of shootouts, it’s difficult to justify any different for winning a lot of games in 3-on-3 play. There is a simple solution to this problem for the league: making regulation wins valued more than overtime.
The Solution
Introducing a 3-2-1 format in which three points are rewarded for a regulation win, two for an overtime or shootout win, and one for an overtime or shootout loss should decrease the amount of games ending in overtime and help solve this issue. To prove as much, take a look at the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL).
The KHL is the foremost competitive professional hockey league in the world to the NHL, and plays under a similar format and rules. Regarding overtime, the league plays a 4-on-4 five minute period followed by a shootout, similar to the NHL prior to the 2015-16 season. The notable difference between the two leagues is their point structure; the KHL has had the 3-2-1 structure proposed above since its inception in 2008.
Since the beginning of the 2014-15 season there have been a total of 2,520 regular season KHL games, of which only 288 (11.43%) required overtime. This number is significantly less than the NHL, which has had about 24% of its games go to overtime over the past decade.
If the NHL were to implement a 3-2-1 point structure, how would it look? The table to the right shows how many teams would have been affected since 2006. On average, 13 teams per season would have moved at least one spot either up or down in the standings. The most noteworthy case would be the 2005-06 Edmonton Oilers, who finished their season with a record of 41-28-13 and 95 points. The Oilers played more overtime games than any other team in the league by three games with a total of 26 (31% of their games), and finished as the 8th seed. Under the new format, however, Edmonton would’ve missed the playoffs entirely as the 10th seed. Of course, that same Oilers team would go on to win the Western Conference and lose in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals to the Carolina Hurricanes.
With this simple change in the point structure teams would now have an incentive to push for more regulation wins, rather than sit back and allow tied games to be decided in overtime. This change would help ensure teams can’t coast their way into the playoffs by picking up easy points, but also keep the excitement of the 3-on-3 and shootout for fans.
Winning a game in 3-on-3 or a shootout isn’t as impressive as winning in 5-on-5, so let’s stop treating it that way.
Note: This article is a summary of a full-length independent research project titled “A Playoff Payoff Paradox: Why the NHL’s Point System is Flawed” conducted in congruence with the Indiana University economics department. For a list of sources, or the full-length paper, please feel free to contact Cody Reiff at codyreiff@email.com.
Invitees answer Blackhawks’ prospect camp call.
By Tracey Myers
(Photo/csnchicago.com)
Jake Randolph wasn’t sure whether he should answer the phone or not, given it wasn’t a number he recognized.
“I almost ignored the call because I thought it was the usual telemarketer,” Randolph said with a laugh.
Randolph did answer it, however, and the “sales pitch” was an easy one for him to take: it was Ron Anderson, the Blackhawks’ director of player recruitment, inviting Randolph to the team’s prospect camp.
Undrafted players are part of a lot of prospect camps, and Randolph is one of 24 attending the Blackhawks’ one. For he and others, it’s a chance to hone some skills, to get some midsummer work in that can benefit them again come the fall or hope it leads to more opportunity – or a look – down the line.
James Sanchez, who hails from nearby Northbrook, is participating in his second camp in the past week. He was part of the Arizona Coyotes’ camp, which ran from July 4-8. Other than working through somewhat tired legs, he’s seeing the benefits of both camps.
“It’s surreal seeing the best of both worlds, seeing how they do it at different camps,” Sanchez said. “It’s an intense camp and an honor to be here.”
Jimmy Schuldt and his St. Cloud State teammates were playing at the University of Nebraska-Omaha when Anderson invited him to camp. He’s been to several prospect camps in the past but this one with the Blackhawks, his first, was an eye opener.
“The skill level here was really high compared to the other ones, and it’s been a really good experience overall,” he said. “[I was invited] in the middle of the season, so you’re not really thinking about it too much because you’re focused on the season. But once summer came, I was excited to come out here.”
Randolph (Nebraska-Omaha), Sanchez (University of Michigan) and Schuldt are returning to their respective schools this fall. Same goes for fellow invitee Sam Piazza of nearby Darien, who also goes to Michigan. They’ll all take lessons learned from this week back with them.
“You get direct exposure to all the NHL guys, which is phenomenal. You get to see what an NHL program looks like, and the Blackhawks is one of the best so it was a pleasure to be around it,” Piazza said. “The coaches on the bench will give you tips on how to play a little bit. It’s more wide open here than in school, so you’re just working hard and doing the best you can.”
Schuldt agreed.
“There are a lot of little coaching tips you don’t think about. Not that my coach isn’t good at St. Cloud; he’s phenomenal. But [you] get another perspective, more eyes on me and breaking down my game further. That helps,” Schuldt said. “Little habits I formed over the past few days I’ll carry over to my season and hopefully help my team.”
Most of the camp invitees wrapped up their time here with Wednesday’s scrimmage. It’s been a good week of working and learning, and definitely worth answering that call.
“It’s a great experience,” Randolph said. “This is my first at an NHL camp and what better organization than the Blackhawks, so it’s been a lot of fun.”
“I almost ignored the call because I thought it was the usual telemarketer,” Randolph said with a laugh.
Randolph did answer it, however, and the “sales pitch” was an easy one for him to take: it was Ron Anderson, the Blackhawks’ director of player recruitment, inviting Randolph to the team’s prospect camp.
Undrafted players are part of a lot of prospect camps, and Randolph is one of 24 attending the Blackhawks’ one. For he and others, it’s a chance to hone some skills, to get some midsummer work in that can benefit them again come the fall or hope it leads to more opportunity – or a look – down the line.
James Sanchez, who hails from nearby Northbrook, is participating in his second camp in the past week. He was part of the Arizona Coyotes’ camp, which ran from July 4-8. Other than working through somewhat tired legs, he’s seeing the benefits of both camps.
“It’s surreal seeing the best of both worlds, seeing how they do it at different camps,” Sanchez said. “It’s an intense camp and an honor to be here.”
Jimmy Schuldt and his St. Cloud State teammates were playing at the University of Nebraska-Omaha when Anderson invited him to camp. He’s been to several prospect camps in the past but this one with the Blackhawks, his first, was an eye opener.
“The skill level here was really high compared to the other ones, and it’s been a really good experience overall,” he said. “[I was invited] in the middle of the season, so you’re not really thinking about it too much because you’re focused on the season. But once summer came, I was excited to come out here.”
Randolph (Nebraska-Omaha), Sanchez (University of Michigan) and Schuldt are returning to their respective schools this fall. Same goes for fellow invitee Sam Piazza of nearby Darien, who also goes to Michigan. They’ll all take lessons learned from this week back with them.
“You get direct exposure to all the NHL guys, which is phenomenal. You get to see what an NHL program looks like, and the Blackhawks is one of the best so it was a pleasure to be around it,” Piazza said. “The coaches on the bench will give you tips on how to play a little bit. It’s more wide open here than in school, so you’re just working hard and doing the best you can.”
Schuldt agreed.
“There are a lot of little coaching tips you don’t think about. Not that my coach isn’t good at St. Cloud; he’s phenomenal. But [you] get another perspective, more eyes on me and breaking down my game further. That helps,” Schuldt said. “Little habits I formed over the past few days I’ll carry over to my season and hopefully help my team.”
Most of the camp invitees wrapped up their time here with Wednesday’s scrimmage. It’s been a good week of working and learning, and definitely worth answering that call.
“It’s a great experience,” Randolph said. “This is my first at an NHL camp and what better organization than the Blackhawks, so it’s been a lot of fun.”
By Patrick Mooney
(Photo/csnchicago.com)
Kyle Hendricks gets overshadowed in a rotation fronted by a Cy Young Award winner (Jake Arrieta) and two-time World Series champions with a $155 million contract (Jon Lester) and a love-to-hate reputation among opposing fans and players (John Lackey).
Hendricks also gets overlooked on a high-wattage team with an All-Star infield featuring faces of the franchise Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant. Plus a three-time Manager of the Year (Joe Maddon) with a distinctive look, more than 313,000 Twitter followers, a growing T-shirt empire and those Binny’s Beverage Depot commercials.
But in trying to create a sense of momentum after the All-Star break, the Cubs will give the ball to Hendricks on Friday afternoon against the Texas Rangers, before the American League’s best team unleashes Yu Darvish and Cole Hamels this weekend at Wrigley Field.
Hendricks also gets overlooked on a high-wattage team with an All-Star infield featuring faces of the franchise Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant. Plus a three-time Manager of the Year (Joe Maddon) with a distinctive look, more than 313,000 Twitter followers, a growing T-shirt empire and those Binny’s Beverage Depot commercials.
But in trying to create a sense of momentum after the All-Star break, the Cubs will give the ball to Hendricks on Friday afternoon against the Texas Rangers, before the American League’s best team unleashes Yu Darvish and Cole Hamels this weekend at Wrigley Field.
“Yeah, there’s a lot of headlines on our team, so I’m pretty far down there,” Hendricks said with a laugh. “It’s fine with me. I like it that way.
“If there’s not much going on, not much hype, that’s fine. I’m just going out there, trying to do my thing and win some ballgames. That’s it.”
Hendricks actually leads a slumping rotation with a 2.55 ERA, ranking sixth in the National League between Miami Marlins ace Jose Fernandez (2.52) and New York Mets superhero Noah Syndergaard (2.56). Opponents have generated only a .589 OPS against Hendricks, a shutdown that matches up to Stephen Strasburg’s 12-0 start for the Washington Nationals (.584). A 1.03 WHIP also makes Hendricks a top-10 NL pitcher in that category.
No doubt, there’s an element of Maddon manipulating the game, playing matchups and minimizing damage. But Hendricks did beat Cy Young Award winner Zack Greinke and the extreme-makeover Arizona Diamondbacks in his first start this season. Hendricks also threw six scoreless innings against the first-place Nationals during that four-game sweep at Wrigley Field in early May.
Hendricks lost a 1-0 decision to Madison Bumgarner and the San Francisco Giants in front of a sellout crowd at AT&T Park and a national-TV audience. Hendricks beat the Los Angeles Dodgers and Pittsburgh Pirates in June, outperforming pitching prodigies Julio Urias and Jameson Taillon.
“Kyle’s been as steady as anybody among us,” Maddon said.
Hendricks would come across as edgier if he had long hair, a beard, a body covered with tattoos and no filter during his postgame press conferences. His potential would seem more intriguing if he went to a junior college you never heard of before. Self-promotion is not his specialty. He gets recognized in Chicago “once in a blue moon.”
It might not translate on TV or in street clothes, but Hendricks does have broad shoulders and long arms, growing into what’s become a 6-foot-3, 190-pound body. His father, John, had worked as a golf pro in California.
Dartmouth College head coach Bob Whalen – whose late father, “Chick,” had been a longtime scout for the Pirates – noticed the projectable pitching frame and the levers and athleticism to repeat a delivery during a showcase at Dodger Stadium.
In terms of perception, Hendricks would have overlapped with Bryant for a season at the University of San Diego if he had gone to his second choice out of Capistrano Valley High School.
Forget the polite manner off the field, Hendricks has enough guts and beneath-the-surface intensity to go 22-15 with a 3.23 ERA and a 1.11 WHIP through his first 359 innings in The Show.
“He always knew what he wanted to do,” Whalen said. “He absolutely believed in his heart that he was going to pitch in the big leagues.”
That Ivy League degree in economics obviously helps Hendricks process and apply the game-planning system engineered by coaches Chris Bosio and Mike Borzello. Hendricks has fully incorporated his curveball and four-seam fastball – increasing the effectiveness of his changeup and two-seam fastball – and become more comfortable pitching inside and making adjustments on the fly.
“Learning how to mix those weapons has made me a completely different guy,” Hendricks said.
This is the best-case scenario Theo Epstein’s baseball-operations group hoped for while Ryan Dempster played “Golden Tee” in the team’s Clark Street headquarters on July 31, 2012, consenting to a deal with the Rangers and watching the seconds tick down on the MLB Network trade-deadline clock.
Unless a mystery team reads the market’s supply-and-demand dynamics and becomes a surprise seller, the Cubs are realistic enough to know they probably won’t feel as desperate as other contenders and won’t land a frontline starting pitcher at this year’s deadline.
Hendricks is 26 years old, under club control through the 2020 season and ready to reboot a 53-35 team that lost 15 of its last 21 games before the All-Star break and hasn’t won consecutive series since early-to-mid June.
“We’ve handled all the pressure, all the expectations,” Hendricks said. “Obviously, we’re in a tough stretch right now, but like Joe says: Every team’s going to go through that. (Keeping) up the pace we were on for the first part of the year – no team does that.
“Going through spurts like this, sometimes it makes you stronger – if you can learn from it and come out of it. Hopefully, we can just take the positives out of it, turn it around after this break and get back to winning.”
Road Ahead: Recharged Cubs look to get back on track.
By CSN Staff
(Photo/csnchicago.com)
The Cubs took their foot off the gas over the last four weeks, losing 15 out of 21 games going into the All-Star break.
With the Midsummer Classic in the rearview mirror, the Cubs will look to get back on track this weekend.
Beginning Friday, the Cubs begin a three-game series against the AL-best Texas Rangers at Wrigley Field.
It won't get any easier for the Cubs after the Rangers leave town. On Monday, the Cubs will look to snap an eight-game losing streak against the Mets, who are in town for a three-game series.
Are Cubs as good as they thought? Welcome to 'baseball reality' for Theo Epstein.
By Patrick Mooney
(Photo/csnchicago.com)
From Opening Day until early June, the Cubs almost existed in a dreamlike state, making October baseball at Wrigley Field seem automatic. Winning 97 games and two playoff rounds last year — plus an offseason splurge on free agents that cost almost $290 million — equaled the game’s most dominant team.
One that might challenge the 2001 Seattle Mariners and their 116 wins, with enough elite homegrown talent and promises of big-market spending power to make Cubs fans dream about a New York Yankees-style dynasty.
And then the Cubs started breaking down in every phase of the game, feeling the effects from injuries and a brutal schedule, getting no days off between June 17 and July 10, losing 15 of their last 21 games before the All-Star break.
Are the Cubs as good as they thought they were?
“It’s sort of baseball reality,” president of baseball operations Theo Epstein said. “It’s virtually impossible to win at the pace we were winning at early in the season the whole year. Every team — even championship-caliber clubs — goes through a month or so where they play .500 or so baseball.
“It’s not like we’re clicking on all cylinders and not finding a way to win games. Our position players would admit: We haven’t had the same grinding relentlessness that we had in April.
“Our ‘pen was pitching a little bit better earlier in the year than they have lately. Our pitchers were pitching at truly an historic pace for the first two months of the year. That wasn’t going to last forever. We knew there was going to be a tough turn or two through the rotation.
“It’s all kind of happening at the same time, so you’re not going to win that many games.”
The Cubs won’t ease back into it, either, beginning a six-game homestand against the American League’s best team (Texas Rangers) and the defending National League champs (New York Mets) on Friday afternoon at Wrigley Field.
Dexter Fowler, an All-Star leadoff guy so important the Cubs didn’t sign him until late February, strained his hamstring on June 18, saying it felt like a seven-day issue, which now might sideline him for a month, and the lineup hasn’t really been the same since without that .398 on-base percentage up top.
Jason Heyward’s sixth sense for Gold Glove defense and running the bases hasn’t covered up his power outage (four homers in 351 plate appearances and a .668 OPS).
The bursts of energy from two-way players Willson Contreras and Albert Almora Jr. will also come with rookie mistakes. For a team built with layers of depth, it adds up when useful role players like infielder Tommy La Stella, outfielder Jorge Soler and lefty reliever Clayton Richard are injured and/or ineffective.
Upgrading the bullpen remains the No. 1 priority leading into the Aug. 1 trade deadline, with Justin Grimm (5.34 ERA) not looking right and Adam Warren (5.79 ERA) getting lost in the shuffle and trying to become a trusted swingman again.
The bullpen feels the stress even more when:
— Jake Arrieta stops performing like a Cy Young Award winner (4.81 ERA since the beginning of June), falling into some of the habits that made him a borderline Triple-A pitcher with the Baltimore Orioles.
— Jon Lester follows up his pitcher-of-the-month performance in June (4-0, 1.41 ERA) by allowing 13 runs across 4 1/3 innings in two July starts combined.
— John Lackey doesn’t bring his “Big Boy Game,” allowing at least five runs in three of his last four starts, his ERA soaring from 2.78 to 3.70.
“That’s not a knock on the pitching,” Heyward said. “That’s going to happen sometimes. Early on, it was like: ‘We score two runs, the game’s over.’ That’s just the way it goes, and our pitchers will tell you the same thing, man.
“Putting it all together right now for us is just going to be a combination of getting our pitchers back comfortable and letting them do what they do. And our hitters just staying consistent and trying not to do too much out there.
“When our young guys came up, they had some instant success, but a couple of them don’t get to play every day, and you can kind of see them pressing to go up there and swing early in counts and things like that. Repetition is the only thing that’s going to allow them to get comfortable with that stuff.
“But I feel like that’s coming. They’re going to do a better job with that, just from being around us and being around each other. That, along with us getting back healthy, is going to do wonders for us going into the second half.”
The Cubs didn’t completely bury the St. Louis Cardinals (seven games back) and Pittsburgh Pirates (7 1/2 games back), with 17 games remaining against those two division rivals combined. The even-year San Francisco Giants (57-33) now have the league’s best record, with percentage points separating the Cubs (53-35) and Washington Nationals (54-36).
Baseball Prospectus gives the Cubs a 94.4-percent chance to win the NL Central, with the playoffs odds set at 98.2 percent, which doesn’t sound so reassuring when a power-pitching team like the Mets or Nationals exposes some of this lineup’s all-or-nothing tendencies and manager Joe Maddon runs the bullpen formula like a guessing game.
The Cubs placed three prospects in the top half of Baseball America’s Midseason Top 100 — Gleyber Torres, Ian Happ and Eloy Jimenez — but don’t have any high-end pitching talent in the upper levels of the farm system to bolster the big-league staff now or package in a trade.
The Cubs flew seven All-Star players to San Diego, including their entire infield and 40 percent of their rotation. Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo have already combined for 46 homers and 128 RBIs, might wind up splitting the MVP vote and remain under club control together through the 2021 season.
But the Cubs are only guaranteed 74 more games this year. It’s a chance to prove that the All-Star takeover wasn’t a high point — and show that hot start wasn’t just a big tease.
“It’s hard to win big-league games,” Epstein said. “People ask me — or there’s this narrative out there — ‘Is it fair to be concerned?’ And I say: ‘Of course, it’s fair to be concerned, because baseball’s really hard.’ It’s hard to play at a consistently excellent level for 162 games, so there should always be an element of concern.
“There should be concern even when we’re 25-6, because that stuff doesn’t last forever. But if it’s fair to be concerned, then it’s also just as fair — if not more fair — to be very excited about what this team is and what they’re capable of and what the foundation is.
“(That’s) the foundation for this year — as well as the future — and what the nature of this team is. It’s not perfect, but it’s really, really good. We trust them. We have to make some adjustments. We have to get some guys locked back in. We have to sort of refocus coming out of the break. And I think we will.”
One that might challenge the 2001 Seattle Mariners and their 116 wins, with enough elite homegrown talent and promises of big-market spending power to make Cubs fans dream about a New York Yankees-style dynasty.
And then the Cubs started breaking down in every phase of the game, feeling the effects from injuries and a brutal schedule, getting no days off between June 17 and July 10, losing 15 of their last 21 games before the All-Star break.
Are the Cubs as good as they thought they were?
“It’s sort of baseball reality,” president of baseball operations Theo Epstein said. “It’s virtually impossible to win at the pace we were winning at early in the season the whole year. Every team — even championship-caliber clubs — goes through a month or so where they play .500 or so baseball.
“It’s not like we’re clicking on all cylinders and not finding a way to win games. Our position players would admit: We haven’t had the same grinding relentlessness that we had in April.
“Our ‘pen was pitching a little bit better earlier in the year than they have lately. Our pitchers were pitching at truly an historic pace for the first two months of the year. That wasn’t going to last forever. We knew there was going to be a tough turn or two through the rotation.
“It’s all kind of happening at the same time, so you’re not going to win that many games.”
The Cubs won’t ease back into it, either, beginning a six-game homestand against the American League’s best team (Texas Rangers) and the defending National League champs (New York Mets) on Friday afternoon at Wrigley Field.
Dexter Fowler, an All-Star leadoff guy so important the Cubs didn’t sign him until late February, strained his hamstring on June 18, saying it felt like a seven-day issue, which now might sideline him for a month, and the lineup hasn’t really been the same since without that .398 on-base percentage up top.
Jason Heyward’s sixth sense for Gold Glove defense and running the bases hasn’t covered up his power outage (four homers in 351 plate appearances and a .668 OPS).
The bursts of energy from two-way players Willson Contreras and Albert Almora Jr. will also come with rookie mistakes. For a team built with layers of depth, it adds up when useful role players like infielder Tommy La Stella, outfielder Jorge Soler and lefty reliever Clayton Richard are injured and/or ineffective.
Upgrading the bullpen remains the No. 1 priority leading into the Aug. 1 trade deadline, with Justin Grimm (5.34 ERA) not looking right and Adam Warren (5.79 ERA) getting lost in the shuffle and trying to become a trusted swingman again.
The bullpen feels the stress even more when:
— Jake Arrieta stops performing like a Cy Young Award winner (4.81 ERA since the beginning of June), falling into some of the habits that made him a borderline Triple-A pitcher with the Baltimore Orioles.
— Jon Lester follows up his pitcher-of-the-month performance in June (4-0, 1.41 ERA) by allowing 13 runs across 4 1/3 innings in two July starts combined.
— John Lackey doesn’t bring his “Big Boy Game,” allowing at least five runs in three of his last four starts, his ERA soaring from 2.78 to 3.70.
“That’s not a knock on the pitching,” Heyward said. “That’s going to happen sometimes. Early on, it was like: ‘We score two runs, the game’s over.’ That’s just the way it goes, and our pitchers will tell you the same thing, man.
“Putting it all together right now for us is just going to be a combination of getting our pitchers back comfortable and letting them do what they do. And our hitters just staying consistent and trying not to do too much out there.
“When our young guys came up, they had some instant success, but a couple of them don’t get to play every day, and you can kind of see them pressing to go up there and swing early in counts and things like that. Repetition is the only thing that’s going to allow them to get comfortable with that stuff.
“But I feel like that’s coming. They’re going to do a better job with that, just from being around us and being around each other. That, along with us getting back healthy, is going to do wonders for us going into the second half.”
The Cubs didn’t completely bury the St. Louis Cardinals (seven games back) and Pittsburgh Pirates (7 1/2 games back), with 17 games remaining against those two division rivals combined. The even-year San Francisco Giants (57-33) now have the league’s best record, with percentage points separating the Cubs (53-35) and Washington Nationals (54-36).
Baseball Prospectus gives the Cubs a 94.4-percent chance to win the NL Central, with the playoffs odds set at 98.2 percent, which doesn’t sound so reassuring when a power-pitching team like the Mets or Nationals exposes some of this lineup’s all-or-nothing tendencies and manager Joe Maddon runs the bullpen formula like a guessing game.
The Cubs placed three prospects in the top half of Baseball America’s Midseason Top 100 — Gleyber Torres, Ian Happ and Eloy Jimenez — but don’t have any high-end pitching talent in the upper levels of the farm system to bolster the big-league staff now or package in a trade.
The Cubs flew seven All-Star players to San Diego, including their entire infield and 40 percent of their rotation. Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo have already combined for 46 homers and 128 RBIs, might wind up splitting the MVP vote and remain under club control together through the 2021 season.
But the Cubs are only guaranteed 74 more games this year. It’s a chance to prove that the All-Star takeover wasn’t a high point — and show that hot start wasn’t just a big tease.
“It’s hard to win big-league games,” Epstein said. “People ask me — or there’s this narrative out there — ‘Is it fair to be concerned?’ And I say: ‘Of course, it’s fair to be concerned, because baseball’s really hard.’ It’s hard to play at a consistently excellent level for 162 games, so there should always be an element of concern.
“There should be concern even when we’re 25-6, because that stuff doesn’t last forever. But if it’s fair to be concerned, then it’s also just as fair — if not more fair — to be very excited about what this team is and what they’re capable of and what the foundation is.
“(That’s) the foundation for this year — as well as the future — and what the nature of this team is. It’s not perfect, but it’s really, really good. We trust them. We have to make some adjustments. We have to get some guys locked back in. We have to sort of refocus coming out of the break. And I think we will.”
WHITE SOX: Jose Abreu seeks rebound from painful first half.
By Jim Margalus
(Photo/Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports)
White Sox first baseman received more bruises than he dished out.
We know that the White Sox’ first-half record of 45-43 felt little like 45-43, because they’ve seldom played like a team that hovers around .500. Based on the way we and others talk about the season, the consensus divides the first half into three chunks:
- Chapter 1: 23-10
- Chapter 2: 10-26
- Chapter 3: 12-7
I’d been reluctant to close Chapter 2 because White Sox personnel had been flagged for false starts in declaring it over. Winning five out of their final six series — even if the sixth was a loss to the Braves -- gave us a long enough look at a different product.
It’s subject to interpretation, though. Even with the rebound, the Sox were still well under .500 over their last 55 games (22-33), which is five-eighths of the season to date. If you watched the first half and determined that their true talent lies under .500, well, they’ve been that team longer than they’ve been a winning one this year. You’d be uncharitable, but you might not be wrong.
When a team goes from 13 games over .500 to three games under, there isn’t a single counterpoint compelling enough to even the scales. The White Sox undermined the whole concept of "wins in the bank" with a ruthless efficiency. How does one undo that punch to the gut?
One can’t. Not concisely, at least, and if you have to stack together multiple statements to frame 45-43 as a minor triumph, it crosses the line into whitewashing/propaganda.
If you limit yourselves to two moves of spin, here’s the best you can do.
- The White Sox are over .500 well later into the season than they were last year. It’s progress, even if it’s the "trench warfare" type of progress.
- If somebody told you Jose Abreu was going to be replacement-level player in the first half, what would you expect the White Sox’ record to be?
You can quibble over Abreu’s WAR since there’s a large discrepancy between the two (0.9 bWAR; -0.3 fWAR), but it’s too close for comfort regardless. He hit .272/.326/.430, which would be a great line for Avisail Garcia. Only a fair amount of RBIs has kept the Sox from really feeling it -- he’s on pace for 90something, even though he seldom drives in himself anymore.
The reason behind Abreu’s struggles is pretty simple -- they’re hammering him inside, and he isn’t able to get around on it. The Baseball Savant heat maps show that one of the hot spots is practically on his lead elbow.
His pull rate has consequently dropped from 40 percent in 2014 to 33.5 percent this year, with the increase in soft contact (17 percent to 20 percent) eating into his hard contact. He isn’t chasing more pitches than usual. He just isn’t hammering the mistakes like he used to, perhaps because the misses are increasingly limited to one side of the target.
While Abreu is still on track to eclipse his personal high in HBPs, it seems like he’s been drilled more than nine times. It’s probably because they’ve been predominantly fastballs in the same location. Adam Eaton has been plunked 11 times, but he sometimes gets his choice in the matter.
Abreu, though? He doesn’t get the breaking ball to the lower body, or the mildly inside fastball to dip his forearm into. They’re direct hits, and they’ve caused some strange reactions ("Well, what Jose wants to do is drop the bat. That’s the first thing."). Looking at his game log, there is some correlation between the timing of his slumps and the timing of these HBP clusters.
If the combination of inside fastballs and really inside fastballs are crippling Abreu’s chances of returning to the upper echelon of hitters, I don’t know if there’s an easy solution. My ideas include:
*Body armor: Abreu has resisted wearing an elbow pad for his entire career, but if he’s hitting with discomfort already, maybe it’s an easier sell. Then again, he might need a flak jacket.
*Opening his stance: I can say "he should open his stance" and sound smart, but I don’t know how it applies on an individual basis. If he’s never made dramatic alterations to his stance, this just might result in him getting a fastball to the diaphragm.
*Retaliation: We saw Jose Quintana throw at/behind Evan Gattis after Abreu took a direct hit from Chris Devenski, which suggests the situation has crossed a threshold.
Opponents aren’t seeking to injure Abreu, but it’s a risk they’re too willing to take. But you can’t go to this well too many times without getting suspended.
*Protection: Not limited to Todd Frazier, although a batting average over .230 would threaten opponents more than what he’s shown. If the Sox no longer have an All-Star batting third, they’re going to need more adequacy from the spots — plural — behind Abreu.
That’s where Justin Morneau comes in. He’s still rehabbing in Birmingham, where he checked in with Barons broadcaster Curt Bloom:
Morneau went 1-for-3 with two walks on Thursday, which qualifies as one of his better games. He going through spring training in July, so he shouldn’t be expected to deliver much of an impact, at least at the beginning of his White Sox career.
The hope is that another experienced first baseman on the roster will allow Abreu to heal up when needed, even if Morneau is batting sixth or seventh instead of third. Fortunately for the Sox, even the smallest amount of production would represent an improvement for that role. Having acknowledged this, now we wait for Garcia to strike him down.
Just Another Chicago Bulls Session..... Bulls advance to Summer League quarterfinals in win over Mavericks.
csnchicago.com
(Photo/csnchicago.com)
The Bulls remained perfect on Friday and are now headed to the quarterfinals of the Las Vegas Summer League.
Bobby Portis scored 19 points and Cristiano Felicio added 15 points on 6-for-6 shooting as the Bulls defeated the Dallas Mavericks 86-73 in the second round of the Summer League playoffs.
The Bulls shot 48 percent from the field - Portis was 9-for-13 in the victory - and assisted on 21 of their 32 made field goals. Point guard Jerian Grant led the way with six assists and also added a team-best three 3-pointers.
With the win, the Bulls will now prepare for a matchup against the Washington Wizards in the quarterfinals on Saturday at 7 p.m.
Bobby Portis scored 19 points and Cristiano Felicio added 15 points on 6-for-6 shooting as the Bulls defeated the Dallas Mavericks 86-73 in the second round of the Summer League playoffs.
The Bulls shot 48 percent from the field - Portis was 9-for-13 in the victory - and assisted on 21 of their 32 made field goals. Point guard Jerian Grant led the way with six assists and also added a team-best three 3-pointers.
With the win, the Bulls will now prepare for a matchup against the Washington Wizards in the quarterfinals on Saturday at 7 p.m.
Golf: I got a club for that..... Mickelson leads The Open by 3 after 63.
By Al Tays
(Photo/Golf Channel)
Phil Mickelson came as close as anyone ever has to shooting a 62 in a major championship, his putt for the record seemingly bound for the center of the cup before it agonizingly lipped out. But his 63 - the 28th time someone has shot 63 in a major - was good for a three-shot lead in the 145th edition of The Open. Here's how things stand after Round 1 at Royal Troon.
Leaderboard: Mickelson (-8), Patrick Reed (-5), Martin Kaymer (-5), eight players at -4
What it means: Mickelson is seeking his sixth major and second win in The Open. He hasn't won a tournament of any kind since he won The Open in 2013 at Muirfield, and he missed the cut in this year's first two majors.
Round of the day: After an opening par, Mickelson birdied every other hole from Nos. 2-10. After making three straight pars, he birdied 14, 16 and 17 and lipped out for birdie on 18.
Best of the rest: Patrick Reed and Martin Kaymer both shot 5-under 66. Reed balanced five birdies and an eagle against two bogeys. Kaymer's round was bogey free, as he birdied Nos. 6, 7 and 8 on the front and added circles at Nos. 10 and 16.
Biggest disappointment: World No. 1 Jason Day could manage only a 2-over 73 in what might be the most benign conditions of the entire tournament. "Hopefully by the end of the day I'm not too far behind," he said. "I can just slowly inch my way back into the tournament." Thanks to Mickelson, though, Day is already 10 shots off the lead. Honorable mention here goes to Bubba Watson, who shot a 1-under 70 that could have been so much better had it not been for a triple-bogey 6 on the Postage Stamp hole.
Shot of the day: Louis Oosthuizen, the 2010 Open champion, made a hole-in-one on the 14th hole, sinking a 6-iron shot from 167 yards. It was the highlight of Oosthuizen's 71.
Quote of the day: "I don’t know how that didn’t go in. There must have been a goalkeeper in there.” - Lee Westwood
Main storylines heading into Round 2: Can Mickelson go low again and put himself in position to win a second Open? Can defending champ Zach Johnson put himself in position to repeat? Is world No. 1 Jason Day too far back? What about world No. 2 Dustin Johnson (71), No. 3 Jordan Spieth (71) and No. 4 Rory McIlroy (69)?
IOC will evaluate absence of top male golfers after Rio.
By Associated Press
Leaderboard: Mickelson (-8), Patrick Reed (-5), Martin Kaymer (-5), eight players at -4
What it means: Mickelson is seeking his sixth major and second win in The Open. He hasn't won a tournament of any kind since he won The Open in 2013 at Muirfield, and he missed the cut in this year's first two majors.
Round of the day: After an opening par, Mickelson birdied every other hole from Nos. 2-10. After making three straight pars, he birdied 14, 16 and 17 and lipped out for birdie on 18.
Best of the rest: Patrick Reed and Martin Kaymer both shot 5-under 66. Reed balanced five birdies and an eagle against two bogeys. Kaymer's round was bogey free, as he birdied Nos. 6, 7 and 8 on the front and added circles at Nos. 10 and 16.
Biggest disappointment: World No. 1 Jason Day could manage only a 2-over 73 in what might be the most benign conditions of the entire tournament. "Hopefully by the end of the day I'm not too far behind," he said. "I can just slowly inch my way back into the tournament." Thanks to Mickelson, though, Day is already 10 shots off the lead. Honorable mention here goes to Bubba Watson, who shot a 1-under 70 that could have been so much better had it not been for a triple-bogey 6 on the Postage Stamp hole.
Shot of the day: Louis Oosthuizen, the 2010 Open champion, made a hole-in-one on the 14th hole, sinking a 6-iron shot from 167 yards. It was the highlight of Oosthuizen's 71.
Quote of the day: "I don’t know how that didn’t go in. There must have been a goalkeeper in there.” - Lee Westwood
Main storylines heading into Round 2: Can Mickelson go low again and put himself in position to win a second Open? Can defending champ Zach Johnson put himself in position to repeat? Is world No. 1 Jason Day too far back? What about world No. 2 Dustin Johnson (71), No. 3 Jordan Spieth (71) and No. 4 Rory McIlroy (69)?
IOC will evaluate absence of top male golfers after Rio.
By Associated Press
(Photo/Getty Images)
The absence of many of the top men from the Olympic golf tournament in Rio de Janeiro will be taken into account in evaluating the sport’s future in the games, IOC President Thomas Bach said Wednesday.
Golf is making its first appearance in the Olympics for the first time since 1904, but 20 men – including the top four in the world rankings – have pulled out, many citing concerns over the Zika virus.
“We have to respect the individual decisions, even if they are going contrary to the recommendations given by the World Health Organization, if Zika is given as a reason,” Bach said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press and two other international news agencies.
Bach added that “very different reasons” not related to Zika have also been cited in golf circles for skipping the Olympics.
“We’re also following with interest the discussions in the golf community, how they themselves are considering these discussions and what judgment they are making,” he said.
Rory McIlroy, among those who have withdrawn from the games, said Monday that golf needs to get tougher in its drug-testing procedures if it “wants to be seen as a mainstream sport.” He also said he may not even bother to watch the Olympic golf tournament on TV, saying he would probably stick to track and field, swimming and diving – “the stuff that matters.”
Golf and rugby were approved by the IOC in 2013 for inclusion in the Rio Games and 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The spate of withdrawals from Rio has put golf’s long-term Olympic future in question.
The IOC will meet after the Rio Games to evaluate golf and all other sports and events on the program.
“One of the main categories of the evaluation is, of course, the question of participation of the best players,” Bach said. “Let us wait then for this evaluation. Then, of course, we will also speak with the International Golf Federation once this is available.”
By evaluating events within each sport, the IOC could look separately at the men’s and women’s tournaments. As it has been almost exclusively male players who have been withdrawing from Rio, the IOC could potentially consider whether to drop the men’s event and keep the women’s tournament for Tokyo.
NASCAR: NASCAR America: Value of winning goes beyond the trophy.
By NBCSports.com
(Photo by Matt Sullivan/Getty Images)
Team Penske has won 25.5 percent of the 90 Sprint Cup races run since 2014 and does not appear to be slowing any time soon after back-to-back wins by Brad Keselowski.
The NASCAR America crew discusses the value of wins even for teams all but set to make the Chase already, noting how Kyle Busch needed the bonus points from his four regular-season wins to advance to the second round of the Chase last year.
Since the start of the 2014 season (90 Sprint Cup races), here’s how many races have been won by each organization:
24 – Hendrick Motorsports
23 – Team Penske
23 – Joe Gibbs Racing
14 – Stewart-Haas Racing
2 – Furniture Row Racing
2 – Roush Fenway Racing
1 – JTG Daugherty
1 – Richard Petty Motorsports
The NASCAR America crew discusses the value of wins even for teams all but set to make the Chase already, noting how Kyle Busch needed the bonus points from his four regular-season wins to advance to the second round of the Chase last year.
Since the start of the 2014 season (90 Sprint Cup races), here’s how many races have been won by each organization:
24 – Hendrick Motorsports
23 – Team Penske
23 – Joe Gibbs Racing
14 – Stewart-Haas Racing
2 – Furniture Row Racing
2 – Roush Fenway Racing
1 – JTG Daugherty
1 – Richard Petty Motorsports
SOCCER: Sean Johnson's saves were few, but big in Fire's shutout victory.
By Dan Santaromita
(Photo/csnchicago.com)
Sean Johnson didn’t have to make a save in the first 80 minutes of Wednesday’s game against Sporting Kansas City, but the Chicago Fire goalkeeper came up with a pair of big ones in the final minutes.
First, he dove to stop a curling Brad Davis free kick from just outside the box in the 81st minute. Then, he made a tougher save to keep out a Dom Dwyer header in the 87th minute. Johnson was credited with just those two saves for the shutout, his third of the season.
Forward Michael de Leeuw got all the attention for scoring the game’s only goal in his first start and first home match for the Fire, but Johnson’s efforts didn’t go unnoticed by the team. Coach Veljko Paunovic explained how he and de Leeuw were talking about Johnson’s big saves.
“On the way [to the postgame press conference] we were just talking about how important the goal was for us, but also [de Leeuw] mentioned and credit to him, ‘Sean saved us,’” Paunovic said. “Of course I would say that Sean also deserves to be here as one of the players who had a fantastic game. For us that’s what we were looking for.”
Johnson didn’t play in the first nine matches of the season, but has started the last eight. Matt Lampson, who was the starting goalkeeper in the first portion of the season, has started the Fire’s two U.S. Open Cup matches since Johnson has won the starting job back.
Even though Johnson only had to make two saves, the Fire were under a lot of pressure throughout the match. Sporting KC had an overwhelming majority of the possession and had 19 shots in total, along with a number of free kicks from close range and corner kicks that put more pressure on both Johnson and the Fire’s defense.
“With Brad Davis coming in they had the ability to whip balls in,” Johnson said. “It was just an adjustment we had to make and we were able to do that tonight.
Fire GM Nelson Rodriguez hints at potential summer moves.
By Dan Santaromita
(Photo/csnchicago.com)
Chicago Fire general manager Nelson Rodriguez gave some rain delay theater to some members of the media during Wednesday’s weather delay at Toyota Park. Rodriguez gave updates on where the team stands and what might happen in the current transfer window.
First, he said the team could end up being more active in this transfer window than originally planned. The later than hoped arrival of Michael de Leeuw and the departure of Gilberto have changed things since Rodriguez said the Fire wouldn’t be active in this summer window.
“We had some targets that we had identified for January and we are looking to see if we can accelerate any of those targets,” Rodriguez said. “That’s a little trickier because some of the clubs we’ve spoken to, we’ve spoken to on the basis of January. Do they have enough time to find a reinforcement if they make the move with us? The second thing that we’re trying to do is look within the league. I don’t want to say we’ve had advanced discussions, but we’ve had lengthy discussions on a few players within the league to see if we can reinforce the squad that way.”
Rodriguez said in some ways he prefers to acquire players from within Major League Soccer because of their familiarity with the league. He described those players as “potential starters” for the Fire.
As he has said before, Rodriguez talked about the team’s need for a “bigger personality.” He cited de Leeuw’s competitiveness as something that goes along with that, but believes the Fire need more in that area.
As for the big question of the moment, the team’s open Designated Player spot, Rodriguez said it was possible the team could add a DP before the end of the season.
“If and when we find the right match, my answer is yes,” Rodriguez said. “I think one of the nice things that we have right now is that ability to strike with budget space, allocation, TAM (targeted allocation money), DP slot, international slot. Everything is available to us that if we find the right player, the right circumstance and if it fits in this window we can do it if we choose to.”
Rodriguez said a lot of the players from outside MLS the Fire are looking at have contracts that would expire in a year. Those players would have had only six months left on their contracts in the MLS offseason in January, meaning that transfer window would have been the last window for the current clubs to get anything in return for them before the contract expires.
As for what position the Fire need, Rodriguez mentioned a playmaker type is high on the list.
USMNT back in Top 25 of latest FIFA Rankings; Mexico, Wales climb.
By Nicholas Mendola
(Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images)
Mexico and the USMNT’s Copa America Centenario successes sent them up the latest FIFA rankings. El Tri moves up two spots to 14, while the Yanks hit 25. That’s six spots better, just above the Netherlands.
The Top Five of Argentina, Belgium, Colombia, Germany and Chile remains unchanged, though there were some big movers just outside it. France leaps 10 spots to seventh while Wales gains 15 spots to 11th, moving two slots ahead of England.
Croatia, Poland and Iceland surge double-digits places into the Top 25. Venezuela’s solid Copa gives its a 31-place boost to No. 46, and Guinea-Bissau is up 40 to 75.
No. 93 New Zealand is the biggest gainer, rising 54 places.
The big losers? Austria is down 11 to 21 after going bottom of its group at EURO, while aforementioned Holland’s inactivity sinks its standing.
NCAAFB: CFP head hints playoff semifinals could be moved off New Year’s Eve.
By John Taylor
(Photo/Getty Images)
By most accounts, including the most important metric, television ratings, the New Year’s Eve slot for the College Football Playoff semifinal games was an abject failure. Despite the ratings bath and the calls from most corners to move the semifinals off New Year’s Eve, the powers that be have (stubbornly) remained steadfast in creating a new “holiday tradition.”
In March, however, the CFP at least somewhat acknowledged an issue, announcing that the start times for the 2016 playoff semifinals, on New Year’s Eve yet again, would be pushed back an hour from the year before. The thaw continued in April, with executive director Bill Hancock stating that the CFP “will continue to review this matter.”
Now, for the first-time ever Wednesday, it appears common sense is slowly taking hold when it comes to this scheduling issue. While nothing will be done about the 2016 semifinals on New Year’s Eve, and with the 2017 semis on New Year’s Day 2018, Hancock hinted that the semifinals following the 2018 season could — could — be moved off Dec. 31.
“We will be exploring whether there is a better way for the semifinals,” Hancock said according to USA Today‘s George Schroeder. “We will be thinking about whether New Year’s Eve is the right way to go. …
“The next two years, it’s not a discussion point. We have time. … It’s a matter of (having) tremendous viewership, but can there be more people who have a chance to watch the games. We want to find the best day when the most people can watch the games.”
One thing the playoffs following the 2015 season proved, New Year’s Eve is not even remotely the best day for viewership.
The semifinals are scheduled to be played on New Year’s Eve seven out of the next 10 years. Here’s to guessing that, after ESPN and the CFP take yet another ratings bath for the 2016 playoffs, that schedule will change dramatically. And will be implemented in time for the 2018 playoffs.
In March, however, the CFP at least somewhat acknowledged an issue, announcing that the start times for the 2016 playoff semifinals, on New Year’s Eve yet again, would be pushed back an hour from the year before. The thaw continued in April, with executive director Bill Hancock stating that the CFP “will continue to review this matter.”
Now, for the first-time ever Wednesday, it appears common sense is slowly taking hold when it comes to this scheduling issue. While nothing will be done about the 2016 semifinals on New Year’s Eve, and with the 2017 semis on New Year’s Day 2018, Hancock hinted that the semifinals following the 2018 season could — could — be moved off Dec. 31.
“We will be exploring whether there is a better way for the semifinals,” Hancock said according to USA Today‘s George Schroeder. “We will be thinking about whether New Year’s Eve is the right way to go. …
“The next two years, it’s not a discussion point. We have time. … It’s a matter of (having) tremendous viewership, but can there be more people who have a chance to watch the games. We want to find the best day when the most people can watch the games.”
One thing the playoffs following the 2015 season proved, New Year’s Eve is not even remotely the best day for viewership.
The semifinals are scheduled to be played on New Year’s Eve seven out of the next 10 years. Here’s to guessing that, after ESPN and the CFP take yet another ratings bath for the 2016 playoffs, that schedule will change dramatically. And will be implemented in time for the 2018 playoffs.
Surprise! Media taps reigning champ Alabama as preseason SEC favorite.
By John Taylor
(Photo/Getty Images)
With another SEC Media Days in the books, the conference released the results of its media poll, with ‘Bama targeted by that group as the overwhelming favorite. Based on the league’s points system, ‘Bama, with 223 points to win the SEC championship, easily lapped LSU and its 59. Tennessee, Georgia and Florida from the East Division are next with 29, seven and five, respectively.
Being the favorite, though, doesn’t exactly bode well for Nick Saban and his troops.
"Reminder: The media has predicted the correct SEC champion ONLY 5 times in 24 years
94: Florida
95: Florida
07: LSU
08: Florida
14: Alabama
— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) July 14, 2016"
UA, with 2,220 points, received 246 first-place votes to win the West. Others in that division receiving first-place votes are LSU (76), Ole Miss (five), Texas A&M (three) and Arkansas (one). Mississippi State is projected to finish last, 372 points ahead of fifth-place Auburn (890-518).
Over in the East, every team but Kentucky and Missouri received first-place votes. Tennessee received 225 of those, followed by Florida (57) and Georgia (45). Vanderbilt actually received a pair of first-place votes, while South Carolina, projected to finish in the East’s cellar, received a pair as well in the anonymous voting.
Over in the East, every team but Kentucky and Missouri received first-place votes. Tennessee received 225 of those, followed by Florida (57) and Georgia (45). Vanderbilt actually received a pair of first-place votes, while South Carolina, projected to finish in the East’s cellar, received a pair as well in the anonymous voting.
NCAABKB: Duke’s unimpressive non-conference schedule bad for the sport. What's Your Take?
By Rob Dauster
(AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
Duke released their non-conference schedule on Wednesday, and while the highlights of the schedule will be the highlights of the non-conference season, there really isn’t all that much to sink your teeth into.
The Blue Devils will square off with Kansas in the Champions Classic at Madison Square Garden in what will likely be the most anticipated non-conference game in 2016. Duke will be the consensus preseason No. 1 team in the country while Kansas will likely be in the top five; we have them No. 3.
Duke also squares off with Michigan State, another preseason top ten team, in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.
But after that?
They play seven games against mid-major or low-major competition with absolutely zero chance of beating the Blue Devils; the spread in all those games will be over 20 points. Their date with Florida in the Jimmy V Classic is better on paper than it will be in person, and their trip to Vegas to play UNLV looked a lot more difficult before the UNLV program imploded.
And then there is the Hall of Fame Tip-Off tournament at Mohegan Sun Arena, where Duke gets Penn State (meh) in the opener before facing off with either Cincinnati or Rhode Island, both of whom are borderline top 25 teams. That game should be competitive, especially if Duke plays URI and the URI faithful make the hour drive to see the Rams play Duke, but it’s a sad state of affairs when the third or fourth best game that Duke will play in the first six weeks of the season is one that we hope will be competitive.
That’s how it works with college basketball early in the season, and it’s one of the biggest reasons that the sport continues to lose relevance. Less than a third of Duke’s schedule in the first two months of the season is worth watching for diehard college basketball fans, and only two of those games will convince anyone with something better to do than sit on their couch and watch sports to make the effort to see them play. More than half of their schedule comes against completely overmatched opponents.
And this is the norm.
Sure, Kentucky and Kansas and North Carolina may have had some better luck with their marquee games this season than Duke did, but that doesn’t affect the overall trend in college basketball: Too many of the games that get played are blowouts that aren’t worth watching.
You can’t blame Duke for Florida and UNLV being down. And it’s not their fault that the Hall of Fame Tip-Off committee couldn’t land another elite program for that event.
But it is their fault that they play seven games against relative no-names before Christmas, and who is going to tune in to see Duke put a 40 point mollywhopping on Maine or Grand Canyon when we can watch our fantasy football dreams whither away and die along with the rest of America?
(UPDATE: People seem to be taking this as a shot at Duke, and it’s not meant to be, so I’m going to elaborate a bit more on this.
This is not always the case, but generally speaking, the industry standard for high-major programs is to play at least seven of their 13 non-conference games at home. This generates revenue, whether it be making season ticket packages more appealing and easier to sell or profiting off of the food, apparel and parking that sports fans always seem to be spending their money on. Some programs require more than seven games.
This becomes a problem when you look at how Duke scheduled: They play two neutral site games in New York and two in Connecticut. Their trip to Vegas is, technically, a neutral site game, as is their game against Elon in Greensboro. If you bust out your calculator, that means that Duke has six neutral site games on their schedule — not unusual for the Blue Devils — which means that they cannot schedule a home-and-home for this season if the athletic department wants them to play seven non-conference games at Cameron Indoor Stadium. And that’s before you consider that the games against Grand Canyon and Marist are given to the Blue Devils by the organizers of the Hall of Fame Tip-Off, which is typical for the early season tournaments.
Now imagine that this is happening at all of the visible, high-major programs around the country. No one is going to volunteer to play a road game with getting a home game in return, and with the way that these schedules shake out, it’s impossible for a lot of these programs to actually play true road games.
So what happens is that the low- and mid-major programs willingly accept a big check and a chance to play on national television in exchange for, in all likelihood, taking a whipping on the road.
And so what we’re left with is this situation, which no one can argue is good for the sport of college basketball even if, individually, it is in the best interest of the individual programs.)
If we really want people to pay attention to college basketball outside of the month of March, they need to be provided with something worth paying attention to. That’s true of just two of the 13 games that Duke, the biggest brand and the preseason No. 1 team in the country, announced today.
Anyway, here is Duke’s full schedule:
Nov. 11: Grand Canyon
Nov. 12: TBA
Nov. 15: vs. Kansas (MSG, Champions Classic)
Nov. 19: vs. Penn State (Mohegan Sun Arena, Basketball Hall of Fame Tip-Off)
Nov. 20: vs. Cincinnati/Rhode Island (Mohegan Sun Arena, Basketball Hall of Fame Tip-Off)
Nov. 23: William & Mary
Nov. 26: Appalachian State
Nov. 29: Michigan State (ACC/Big Ten Challenge)
Dec. 3: Maine
Dec. 6: vs. Florida (MSG for Jimmy V Classic)
Dec. 10: vs. UNLV (Las Vegas)
Dec. 19: Tennessee State
Dec. 21: vs. Elon (Greensboro, N.C.)
*(NOTE: Duke’s release initially included Marist as their Nov. 12th opponent, but they subsequently announced that game had not yet been confirmed.)
Chicago Sports & Travel Inc./AllsportsAmerica Take: It's great that the big schools (Power 5) give the smaller schools the opportunity to play them and get exposure to the big time. I'm not adversed to that but I don't like the idea of playing smaller schools just to enhance your record. Why not play a few small schools and then play a few power 5 schools that aren't in your conference. You're going to lose some and your record won't be perfect but the competition will test , show your team's shortfalls and give you an opportunity to correct mistakes. Everyone wants to have the great record to get a better seeding at NCAA tournament. That's understandable, however, in today's real world, there's a lot of good young basketball talent coming off of the schoolyards and from around the world. Enjoy it now because it's not going to last for long. Just as Michigan State found out in the NCAA tournament this year, a young, hungry team out to prove something will be a force to be dealt with. Kentucky also had a few losses last year that they didn't expect. What we're saying in essence is, "Competition breeds excellence" and to be the best, you have to play the best. Believe me, in the future, upsets will become more of the norm as the talent in big schools and little schools obtain parity. And yes, the one and done in the big schools isn't going to help either. As the players from the small schools play together for three or four years, they will be more familiar with each other, their systems and their skills and attitudes. There will always be small schools that the big schools will be able to out play but Goliaths look out, there's a lot of David's coming your way. It's going to happen so remember, you heard it here first.
As usual, we've stated our position which some of you will agree with and others of you won't. But that's what makes this country great; our difference in opinions and our freedom to express them. Don't be bashful, please go to the comment section at the bottom of this blog and share your thoughts on this article and let us know, what's your take? We just love hearing from you.
Marion P. Jelks, Chicago Sports & Travel Inc./AllsportsAmerica Editorial Director.
Albany vs. Duke cancelled due to HB2.
By Travis Hines
(Photo/nbcsports.com)
While the NBA waits to make a decision on whether to host its All-Star Game in North Carolina, the state’s controversial bathroom bill has canceled a college basketball game.
Albany’s scheduled visit to Duke on Nov. 12 has been cancelled due to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s ban on state-sponsored, non-essential travel to the state of North Carolina in response to HB2, the state’s law that requires transgendered people to use the bathroom as assigned by the gender on their birth certificate, according to the Herald-Sun.
“The State University of New York supports Governor Cuomo’s executive order banning all non-essential travel to the state of North Carolina,” SUNY spokesperson Holly Liapsis told the Herald-Sun. “We instructed our campuses to immediately review any existing travel plans by faculty and staff. SUNY and its campuses continue to support the Governor on taking this stand.”
In May, the U.S. Justice Department ruled the law violated the Civil Rights Act, but the state is fighting the decision. While the stakes of such a fight are vast and broad, it’s clear that sports – whether its Albany or the NBA’s signature weekend – will be brought into the fray as it plays out.
New York’s ban won’t affect the state’s highest-profile program, Syracuse, because it is a private institution.
Let the games begin: NBC Olympics boss fires back at ESPN's Rio Olympics critics.
Albany’s scheduled visit to Duke on Nov. 12 has been cancelled due to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s ban on state-sponsored, non-essential travel to the state of North Carolina in response to HB2, the state’s law that requires transgendered people to use the bathroom as assigned by the gender on their birth certificate, according to the Herald-Sun.
“The State University of New York supports Governor Cuomo’s executive order banning all non-essential travel to the state of North Carolina,” SUNY spokesperson Holly Liapsis told the Herald-Sun. “We instructed our campuses to immediately review any existing travel plans by faculty and staff. SUNY and its campuses continue to support the Governor on taking this stand.”
In May, the U.S. Justice Department ruled the law violated the Civil Rights Act, but the state is fighting the decision. While the stakes of such a fight are vast and broad, it’s clear that sports – whether its Albany or the NBA’s signature weekend – will be brought into the fray as it plays out.
New York’s ban won’t affect the state’s highest-profile program, Syracuse, because it is a private institution.
Let the games begin: NBC Olympics boss fires back at ESPN's Rio Olympics critics.
By Michael McCarthy
The chairman of NBC Sports Group is firing back at ESPN personalities who say the Rio Olympics are shaping up as a disaster and that U.S. Olympians should boycott next month's Games.
After previewing NBC's Olympics coverage, NBC Sports chairman Mark Lazarus spoke Monday with Sporting News about Rio doomsayers such as Mike Greenberg of ESPN2's "Mike & Mike," as well as Michael Smith of ESPN2's "His & Hers," who said U.S. Olympians such as NBA star Carmelo Anthony should "seriously consider" boycotting Rio to protest police shootings and gun laws in the U.S.
During a one-on-one interview at the studio home of "Saturday Night Live," Lazarus said it's "hypocritical" for Americans to call for boycotting global sporting events in foreign countries such.
"So should they not play in Dallas? Should they not play in New Orleans?" he asked. "I mean, there’s a lot of horrific things all over the world — including in our country. We’re not perfect. And other countries say the same thing about us. I think it's a little hypocritical for anybody to say we should try to affect the politics or the culture of another country based on sport — and a peaceful gathering of sport. I don’t admire that point of view. I think that that kind of rhetoric can be turned on our country just as quickly, unfortunately and for sad reasons."
Speaking of hypocrisy, Lazarus was asked if he thought ESPN's on-air personalities would be bashing the Olympics if their network, not NBC, held the U.S. TV rights. He smiled.
"You’ll have to ask them that. I think they let their talent speak their minds somewhat. I don’t know that their minds are always well-informed," he said.
The biennial bashing of the Olympics in the media goes beyond ESPN, though. Lazarus said it has become a popular media sport to take pot shots at host cities and upcoming Games.
There are loads of stories about how the venues and hotels aren't ready, and about deadly outside security threats. Prior to the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, for example, the media warned "Black Widow" suicide bombers could penetrate the protective cordon of the games in Russia. It didn't happen.
"I do think it's somewhat part of the Olympic rhythm," Lazarus said.
Still, there are legitimate fears this year about the Zika virus, polluted waters, poor infrastructure and political problems in Rio de Janeiro, Lazarus said. He promised NBC will address them in a one-hour "Live from Rio" special hosted by Bob Costas on Aug. 4 (8 p.m. ET), the night before the opening ceremonies.
A handful of NBC employees have declined to go to Rio due to Zika concerns. Jim Bell, NBC's executive producer of the Olympics, said Rio failed to clean up the waters where sailing events will be held.
"It was a promise that has not been kept," he said.
Following the police shootings of Philando Castile in Minnesota and Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, La., Team USA basketball player Anthony called for NBA stars and other athletes to become more involved politically. That would be a far cry from the politically neutral stance of previous superstars such as Michael "Republicans buy shoes, too" Jordan and Tiger Woods.
Smith used his bully pulpit on "His & Hers" with Jemele Hill to call for an athlete boycott.
Smith wants U.S. athletes to take a stand the same way Tommie Smith and John Carlos did at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. "There's nothing more American than the Olympics serving as a stage for social protests with the world watching and listening," he said.
Or even for millionaire athletes like Anthony (who don't need an Olympic medal for their livelihood) to boycott Rio completely. Sure, they may lose corporate endorsements, but they'd gain a "larger legacy" beyond medals, trophies and championships, Smith said.
"There are plenty of reasons to make a statement and make a stand and say, 'No, I'm not going and putting the USA on my chest and bringing honor and glory to a country that is not respecting my fellow citizens as human beings with equal protection under the law,'" he said.
Costas, NBC's longtime Olympic host, brushed aside the barbs coming from ESPN.
"Look, everyone protects their own investment to a certain extent, and that includes us," he told Sporting News on Monday. "We're hopeful that all these issues, which are real, don't intrude. On the other hand, we're prepared to deal with them if they do. We're certainly going to acknowledge them before we begin because if you don't, then you've buried your head in the sand of Copacabana Beach."
Tour De France: Stage 12, Tom Dumoulin and Chris Froome, equally motivated.
Le Tour France
(Photo/Le Tour France)
The first time trial of the Tour de France is featured on the thirteenth day of the race, which is quite unusual. Suspense hasn't been killed any such race. The first nine riders on GC are still within two minutes after the battles of the Massif Central, the Pyrenees and the Mont Ventoux. Chris Froome dominates. That puts him in the situation of a hot favorite ahead of the 37.5km long individual time trial from Bourg-Saint-Andéol to Caverne du Pont d'Arc. He has a chance to increase his lead over Adam Yates, Nairo Quintana and all other GC contenders. Two hills are on the course, one at the beginning and one at the end. It won't be a nightmare for the climbers. Most of them fear the time trials but not this one. However, it suits the specialist as well. Tom Dumoulin has full confidence after he won the queen stage of the Pyrenees. Tony Martin and Rohan Dennis are more under pressure to deliver.
On
emoriesofhistory.com
1876 - George Washington Bradley of St. Louis pitched the first no-hitter in baseball in a 2-0 win over Hartford.
1973 - Nolan Ryan (California Angels) became the first pitcher in two decades to win two no-hitters in a season.
1985 - Baseball players voted to strike on August 6th if no contract was reached with baseball owners. The strike turned out to be just a one-day interruption.
1999 - In Seattle, WA, the inaugural game at the Seattle Mariners' Safeco Field was held.
1973 - Nolan Ryan (California Angels) became the first pitcher in two decades to win two no-hitters in a season.
1985 - Baseball players voted to strike on August 6th if no contract was reached with baseball owners. The strike turned out to be just a one-day interruption.
1999 - In Seattle, WA, the inaugural game at the Seattle Mariners' Safeco Field was held.
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