chicago Page 35 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Bulls Save Kings From Themselves, Match $78 Million Restricted Free Agency Offer For Zach LaVine
The Bulls and Kings, two teams roughly as far from NBA relevance as possible, spent Friday in a brief tug-of-war over the right to pay huge sums of money for the services of Zach LaVine, a butt player with zero track record of contributing to anything even approaching functional professional basketb...

Javy Baez Stole Home With Another Dope Slide
Nobody makes the little things in baseball more exciting than Cubs infielder Javy Baez, and he did it again today against the Tigers. A steal of home is, of course, alright pretty thrilling. But watch the subtle yet significant way Baez contorts his body for the swim-move slide to avoid a seemingly ...

Home Run Ball Of Pure Evil Comes Back To Ambush Albert Almora's Skull
Some hard-hit baseballs aren’t content just to do their damage on the scoreboard. Some, like Max Muncy’s home run ball from Wednesday’s Cubs-Dodgers game, seem to get their kicks from inflicting as much humiliation on fielders as possible. These sociopathic balls are on a path of destruction, and no...

Javy Baez Deployed His Bionic Arm For This Double Play<em></em>
It might seem like the marketplace is saturated with Javy Baez highlights, and adding another to your memory might seem exhausting. But I urge you to take the time to appreciate the Cubs’ infield stud’s speed, alertness, and arm strength on this double play, which comes with a rare added wrinkle of ...

Only Javy Báez Could Have Made This Wild Solo Double Play
Cubs second baseman and shortstop Javier Báez is a known defensive wizard who makes all sorts of cool-looking plays all the dang time, but he really showed off his skills this afternoon against the Dodgers. Kikè Hernández smacked a double to lead off the eighth inning, but got just far enough out of...

Cubs Reliever Brandon Morrow Says He Hurt Himself While Taking Off His Pants
The Cubs didn’t use closer Brandon Morrow in either of their games Tuesday against the Dodgers, instead relying on a bevy of other relievers. He would’ve been really helpful in the first game, which the Cubs lost 4-3 after Justin Wilson blew a 3-2 lead in the ninth. According to the team, the reason...

Lorenzo Cain Saves His Teammate, Breaks The Cubs' Rundown
Early on in the Brewers’ 4-0 win over the Cubs Tuesday, Christian Yelich was on second base and Lorenzo Cain hit a sharp grounder up the middle. Javier Baez was there for a nice backhand play, but Yelich had already taken off for third, maybe figuring the ball was getting through. That required a ru...

Jason Heyward, Of All People, Finally Got To Josh Hader
Listen, it is illegal to exhibit any sort of excitement about a potential bounce-back from Jason Heyward until he actually finishes a full season with an OPS over .800. I’m sorry, but that’s just the law, and it has been the law ever since he convinced everyone that 2017 was going to be his big come...

The Phillies And Their Dumb Shift Just Handed Third Base To Kris Bryant
The Cubs beat the Phillies 7-5 in a thriller on Wednesday night that culminated in a walk-off grand slam dinger from Jason Heyward. This came right after the Phillies had taken a 5-3 lead in the top half of that inning on a two-run smash from Dylan Cozens. The win-probability graph alone is exciting...

Javy Baez Ruins Sweatshirt, Also Gets An Out
In the ninth inning of an otherwise pretty blah Cubs loss, Chicago shortstop Javier Baez made a daredevil catch along the Steve Bartman wall at Wrigley Field. The out came at the cost of a Cubs fan’s beer and his previously clean sweatshirt, but it was a worthy sacrifice for an acrobatic play....

Danny Farquhar Gives First Interview Since Brain Hemorrhage
Here’s some nice news: White Sox reliever Danny Farquhar, who suffered a brain hemorrhage in the dugout during an April game, gave his first interview since returning home from the hospital. He sat down with Good Morning America on Friday to talk about his recovery for the first time, and while it’s...

Joe Musgrove Reheats The Pirates-Cubs Beef, But Only A Little Bit So It's Still Cold In The Center
The Pirates made it seem like they had moved past Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo’s “illegal but not dirty” slide into catcher Elias Diaz in Monday’s game, but in the third inning last night Joe Musgrove put the beef in the microwave for about 30 seconds. The Pittsburgh pitcher slid hard into Chica...

MLB's Ruling On Anthony Rizzo's Slide Has Some More Cubs-Pirates Beef Simmering
In the eighth inning of Monday’s Cubs-Pirates game, Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo pulled off a successful takeout slide on Pirates catcher Elias Diaz. Though Rizzo was out at home, two runs scored on the play as the slide forced Diaz to throw the ball into the outfield. The catcher stayed on the ...

Is There Nothing That Pablo Sandoval Cannot Do?
Pablo Sandoval made his first career start at second base Sunday night, against the Chicago Cubs. Evan Longoria has supplanted him at third, but Giants manager Bruce Bochy apparently wanted Sandoval’s bat in the lineup with Buster Posey hurt, and the opening was at second base, where regular starter...

Benches Clear In Cubs-Reds After Bold Pitcher Stare-Down
Reds reliever Amir Garrett punctuated an inning-ending strikeout of Javier Baez in the seventh inning Saturday with a triumphant shout, loud enough to be audible over the television broadcast, followed by an aggressive stare-down of his vanquished foe. Unwritten rules and athlete egos being what the...

Albert Almora Jr. Discovers Invisible Stair In Center Field Wall
If baseball players didn’t wear cleats, Tyler Flowers would have earned himself a dinger in his first at-bat tonight. But because outfielders have those spikes on their feet, the Braves catcher’s long fly ball to center field was hauled in by the Cubs’ Albert Almora Jr., who dug his cleats into the ...

The MLB Narcs Have Come For Willson Contreras And His Venezuela Sleeve
Cubs catcher Willson Contreras began wearing a Venezuelan-flag sleeve to honor his home country last summer, and it has become an essential component of his uniform. But as part of MLB’s recent efforts to crack down on uniform regulations, Contreras has been told by the league that he can no longer ...

Willson Contreras Is On An Unholy Tear
Cubs catcher Willson Contreras came into Wednesday’s game against the Marlins stuck in a bit of a slump, having gone 4-for-35 over his previous nine appearances. Contreras, who smacked 21 dingers in 2017, tallied just one in April, and hadn’t had a multi-hit game since April 10. The nine-game slump ...

Ben Zobrist Calls Out MLB For Threatening Punishment Over Black Cleats
Cubs second-baseman Ben Zobrist likes to wear all-black cleats to home games. To hear him tell it, that’s no random fashion statement—it’s done to commemorate a time in baseball’s past when all-black cleats were the norm. But baseball has collectively-bargained uniform standards, just like every oth...

Dopey Chicago Sports Columnist Apologizes For Nonsensical Roquan Smith Take
Roquan Smith, whose playbook was among the items stolen from his car last weekend, was the subject of Chicago Tribune grouch Steve Rosenbloom’s column this week, and boy did Rosenbloom produce a doozy....