by DAN McGRATH | Apr 17, 2011
Word was, this first-round Stanley playoff series between the Vancouver Canucks and the Blackhawks had all the earmarks of a No. 1 vs. No. 8 mismatch—Vancouver was clearly the better, sharper, more purposeful team in racing out to a 2-0...
by DAN McGRATH | Apr 16, 2011
As the Bulls began the National Basketball Association playoffs against the Indiana Pacers on Saturday, they were blithely unburdened by the legacy of failure that dogs their contemporaries on the Chicago sports scene. Six championships in 45 years of existence...
by DAN McGRATH | Apr 16, 2011
The Bulls’ first-round playoff series with Indiana was supposed to be the NBA equivalent of a mercy killing, a chance for them to tune up against the eighth-seeded Pacers in preparation for Orlando, Miami, Boston—the “real” competition in the Eastern...
by DAN McGRATH | Apr 10, 2011
For perhaps the first time since last June, the hockey gods smiled on the Chicago Blackhawks. Alarmingly inconsistent for seven months, the defending Stanley Cup champions needed only one point from their regular-season finale against the Detroit Red Wings to...
by DAN McGRATH | Apr 9, 2011
Jim Whitesell is a Cub fan, and he felt Ryan Dempster’s pain as Arizona clubbed the struggling pitcher for 5 runs and 10 hits in 7 innings on a raw, cold Wednesday at a half-filled Wrigley Field. Alfonso Soriano hit...
by DAN McGRATH | Apr 7, 2011
The weather was the most distinct similarity between the White Sox’s and the Cubs’ 2011 home openers — it was cold, raw and eerily foggy for the Sox-Tampa Bay Rays game at U.S. Cellular Field on Thursday, just as it...
by DAN McGRATH | Apr 4, 2011
Starlin Castro flashed tantalizing glimpses of an enticingly bright future all weekend at Wrigley Field. The Cubs’ 21-year-old shortstop was the most dynamic player in the ballpark, going 8-for-13 in a season-opening series against the Pittsburgh Pirates, with a double...
by DAN McGRATH | Apr 1, 2011
It’s never a down year in Wrigleyville, the drink, drink and be merry capital of Chicagoland. Gloom-and-doom forecasts of a rough season for the Cubs did not seem to have made their way to the famously convivial neighborhood for Opening...
by DAN McGRATH | Mar 31, 2011
The Cubs’ decision to feature Albert Pujols and Derek Jeter on some of their marketing billboards has provoked disbelieving indignation throughout Cubdom. What were they thinking? Jeter, I get — he is the most recognizable face on baseball’s marquee team....
by DAN McGRATH | Mar 26, 2011
Watching Derrick Rose and the Bulls put a one-sided whipping on the Sacramento Kings at the United Center last week raised a question: Anaheim wants this team? Maybe the Kings’ ineptitude was the result of stage fright. They play before...
