Locker Page 6 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
The Cardinals appear to want to assemble the worst starting rotation
The 2023 season for the St. Louis Cardinals was an absolute disaster. Though they entered it as the NL Central favorites, even if by default, they lost 91 games as pretty much everything went wrong. The epicenter of their collapse was their starting rotation, which contained pitchers that couldn’t s...
The Phillies are betting on Aaron Nola to bounce back
The numbers add up for the Phillies to hand Aaron Nola a seven-year deal with an average of $24 million or so per year. Losing him would have meant a hole in the No.2 spot of their rotation. at the very least, and the Phillies aren’t chasing down Atlanta (even if at this pace their 40-man roster mig...
USC and UCLA prove why home and away jerseys are a thing of the past
USC and UCLA haven’t been relevant, in terms of a national championship status, in years. I can’t even remember when, but mostly because my brain turned to muck long ago. They tell me that USC has a prime QB prospect in Caleb Williams, and yet every time he shows up in a big game he appears to do no...
This week in the locker November 18, 2023
I and many other Chicagoans used to sit in our simple Midwestern homes, huddled by the coal stove or whatever people picture us doing in the winter (it’s not that far off, it’s just huddled at the bar), and have a good chuckle at how New Yorkers were sentenced to a life with James Dolan. Here was a ...
The real culprit in this Charissa Thompson mess is podcasts
This Charissa Thompson backlash, justified as it is, misses the bigger point, and if I may add 2 cents to the towering pile, it’s this: Podcasts are dumb. After two years of aggregating sports personalities saying stupid stuff, there’s more idiotic news made on podcasts than on social media at this ...
The USMNT shows mettle, and a lack of depth
The scoresheet will say that the USMNT got a 3-0 win over Trinidad and Tobago. And because it’s the Nations League, and more importantly the qualifying round for next summer’s Copa America, the result lords over all. Manager Gregg Berhalter will probably say something about the patience and fortitud...
Jerry Reinsdorf has McConnell’d half of Chicago
I and many other Chicagoans used to sit in our simple Midwestern homes, huddled by the coal stove or whatever people picture us doing in the winter (it’s not that far off, it’s just huddled at the bar), and have a good chuckle at how New Yorkers were sentenced to a life with James Dolan. Here was a ...
The NHL is going to screw with OT again, even though it’s already a joke
Whenever any discussion of changes the NHL wants to make to its standings system or points system, it has to be remembered that the league has no interest in finding ways to separate the good teams from the bad. The league likes it that very few teams are ever actually under .500 (only 10 of the 32 ...
No one self-destructs quite like the Buffalo Bills
If Chris Berman is indeed still alive, and not just some hologram or rejected Chuck E. Cheese animatronic figure at this point, he probably wouldn’t go on air and say, “NOBODY BLOWS THEIR OWN DICK OFF LIKE THE BUFFALO BILLS!” Not because it isn’t true, but because he hasn’t updated any of his catchp...
The Oilers season is already slipping away
One month into an NHL season isn’t probably the time to panic — unless you’re the Edmonton Oilers and the pressure cooker started a couple years ago. A 3-9-1 start has already left the Oil with something close to a Sisyphian climb. Sure, there’s 69 games left, but we’re just a week from Thanksgivin...
What does a guy gotta do to get a college football upset?
With two weeks remaining before conference title games, there’s very little time for college football to have its weird week. The teams with one loss should have an opportunity to earn a bid with a conference title. There are nine Power Five teams with one loss or fewer — Georgia, Michigan, Ohio Sta...
Big Ten declares martial law, rest of college football wonders if they can do that
The handling of the Michigan sign-stealing scandal has been a debacle from the start, and it culminated Friday with the Big Ten suspending coach Jim Harbaugh for the final three games. U-M filed a temporary restraining order against its own conference that it hopes can be expedited before kickoff at...
Brian Snitker was asleep at the wheel again
The symmetry is almost startling. It was three days short of being the exact date, one year later. Brian Snitker didn’t have an itchy enough trigger finger, or just fell asleep, and the Phillies teed off on a starter that shouldn’t have been on the mound. Which pivoted the division series to a 2-1 P...
Now comes the tricky part for the Orioles
It’s awfully easy, and too easy, to point at an up-and-coming team like the Rangers that spent a lot of money to augment the players they developed from within and say that’s the reason they clobbered an up-and-coming team like the Orioles that did the exact opposite, basically only adding the decre...
The NHL has a new slogan: Gay is not OK
Another NHL season is upon us, and the NHL wasted no time in being the NHL:...
Sifan Hassan is a marvel on the track or on the street
You know Dutch middle-distance runner Sifan Hassan, even if you don’t know her name. If you spent any time watching track and field (and wow do I wish this was more of a weekly sport here in the U.S.), you can’t miss her. Hassan won three medals in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, taking the gold in both...
The Sooners’ zag with Brent Venables was chess, not checkers
It’s games like Saturday’s 34-30 loss to Oklahoma that make college football fans eternally skeptical of Texas. The No. 3 Longhorns came into the Red River Rivalry as 4-point favorites over the No. 12 Sooners, but it was evident from Quinn Ewers’ opening-drive interception that it wasn’t going to be...
The Miami Dolphins and San Francisco 49ers can afford to gamble
A couple of early season behemoths in the NFL rolled the dice with house money Friday as the San Francisco 49ers’ defense got scarier with the addition of edge rusher Randy Gregory, and the Miami Dolphins’ offense folded Chase Claypool into a ridiculously talented group of skill players. The two tra...
Never play the Bears on a day when a team legend dies. Everyone knows this
Let me take you back to Nov. 7, 1999. ...