Chicago Sports

The great Roger Angell (pronounced “Angel”) died at an age equal to the speed of a great fastball, 101. Angell began contributing to The New Yorker magazine in 1944, the same year the St. Louis Cardinals and the St. Louis Browns met in the World Series. The current editor of the magazine, David Remnick, wrote, “His prose and his editorial judgment left an imprint that’s hard to overstate. Like Ruth and Ohtani, he was a freakishly talented double threat, a superb writer and an invaluable counsel to countless masters of the short story. He won a place in both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and in the Baseball Hall of Fame — a unique distinction.”

In an interview in 1982, Angell said, “I think the real fans are the fans of terrible teams because they know what good baseball is and they know how far their own players fall short. The rallying cry that has always struck me as so poignant and beautiful is ‘Come on, you bum!’ which means, ‘We know you’re no good, but we want to win.’ “

Thank you, Mr. Angell.

On to the quiz:

1. Only five MLB players have hit 100-plus home runs for three teams: Reggie Jackson, Jim Thome, Alex Rodriguez, Adrian Beltre and Darrell Evans. For which three teams did Thome hit his?

2. The White Sox are off to a poor start against their American League Central rivals, not necessarily in overall standings but in intra-divisional games. From 2012 to ’21 (10 seasons), how did the Sox fare in their division?

a)Over .500 b) Under .500 c) .500 ball

3. You remember Shawon Dunston, right? On July 7, 1990, he tied a record held by Joe DiMaggio, Willie Mays and Ernie Banks, among others. The last time this feat was accomplished was by Yasiel Puig in 2014. What did Dunston do?

a)Hit five doubles in a game

b) Hit four homers in a game

c) Hit three triples in a game

4. Loyal (and patient) reader Ron Weiner was the inspiration for this question: Paul Konerko and Jermaine Dye made baseball history together. On April 13, 2009, each hit the 300th home run of their career. They also went back-to-back for the feat. Who was the Tigers’ pitcher for this major event?

a) Justin Verlander

b) Zach Miner

c) Rick Porcello

d) Edwin Jackson

5. Ferguson Jenkins was a remarkable pitcher who deserves all the accolades (and statues) he receives. He leads all Canadian-born pitchers with 284 wins. Which pitcher is second on that list?

a)Reggie Cleveland

b) Russ Ford

c) Ryan Dempster

d) Kirk McCaskill

6. While we’re talking angels, the 1994 baseball movie “Angels in the Outfield” starred Danny Glover and what child actor?

a)Jonah Hill

b) Joseph Gordon-Levitt

c) Angus T. Jones

d) Richie Cunningham

7. Recently, Nestor Cortes of the Yankees became the 41st American League pitcher, and the 104th all-time, to throw an immaculate inning (nine pitches, three strikeouts). This prompted reader Larry Rosen to ask if this had ever been accomplished by a White Sox or Cubs pitcher? Sloppy Thurston had the only one for the Sox, in 1923. These four pitchers did it for the Cubs. Who was the most recent Cub to throw an immaculate inning?

a)Milt Pappas

b) Bruce Sutter

c) Lynn McGlothen

d) LaTroy Hawkins

8. As I was watching the Sox finish off the Yankees in their doubleheader sweep Sunday, it got me wondering: Over the last 10 seasons in which they played from 2011 to ’21 (they did not play in 2020), which Chicago team fared better against their same-league New York counterpart?

a)The Cubs vs. the Mets

b) The White Sox vs. the Yankees

c) They were equal

9. Which sports anchor was on the call for Kerry Wood’s first game with the Cubs, Glenallen Hill’s home run that landed on a rooftop and Sammy Sosa’s 66th homer?

a)Dan Roan

b) Dan Roan

c) Dan Roan

ANSWERS

1. Thome hit 337 for the Indians, 134 for the White Sox and 101 for the Phillies. He also hit 37 homers for the Twins and three for the Orioles.

2. Despite playing .560 ball (107-84) over the last three seasons, from 2012 to ’21, the Sox won 330 games and lost 389, a winning percentage of .459.

3. Playing at Stade Olympique against the Expos, Dunston tripled in the fifth, sixth and ninth innings. He had five RBI that day, which is more than any of those HOFers had when they did it.

4. Zach Miner. Never before had two players hit a century milestone homer in one game.

5. Russ Ford had 100 wins, Reggie Cleveland 105, Kirk McCaskill 106 and Ryan Dempster 132 (67 with the Cubs).

6. The young star of “Angels” would find himself in “3rd Rock From the Sun,” “Snowden,” “Inception,” “Mr. Corman” and, most recently, “Super Pumped.” Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

7. On Sept. 11, 2004, LaTroy Hawkins struck out Jeff Conine, Juan Encarnacion and Alex Gonzalez in one beautiful ninth inning against the Marlins to earn the save.

8. From 2011 to ’21, the Cubs were 44-22 against the Mets, winning the season series eight times, losing once and tying once. The White Sox, on the other hand, were 27-40 against the Yankees, winning the season series twice, losing six times and tying twice.

9. Have fun with your grandchildren, Dan.

SHAMELESS PLUG: My book with Bob Ryan, “In Scoring Position: 40 Years of a Baseball Love Affair,” will make a great gift for Father’s Day.

Write me at [email protected], and you might be a part of the quiz

See you in June.

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The Blackhawks laid low during a chaotic May for coaching changes around the NHL.

As the Islanders shockingly fired Barry Trotz and hired assistant Lane Lambert, as the Red Wings fired Jeff Blashill and the Golden Knights fired Pete DeBoer and as Rick Bowness stepped down as Stars coach, the Hawks stayed out of the carousel. The Flyers, Jets and Panthers all sit in the same boat as the Hawks, having finished the season with an interim coach in charge.

Hawks general manager Kyle Davidson and his front-office staff were working on a profile of the next head coach as early as May 3, however, and Davidson added May 16 that they’d begin forming a candidate list within a few weeks. Behind the scenes, the gears have likely been turning.

“Preparing for the draft, the coaching search, building the front office — they’re all kind of running in parallel,” Davidson said May 3. “We’ve got ideas [for the coaching position]. Early July is a loose target for having a good idea of where we want to go with selecting a candidate. … I don’t think you want to get too far in the off-season without knowing who your head coach is.”

With the draft scheduled for July 7-8 in Montreal, free agency opening July 13 and a prospect development camp in Chicago also planned in July, June could be a crucial month for the coaching search.

“We want the coaches that are able to communicate, able to drive a message and create a positive culture and [able to] get players to want to come to the rink and compete every single night,” Davidson added. “That’s based on track record, and that’s also based on how they deliver a message, so we’ll learn that based on what they’ve done in the past but also through the interview process.”

Davidson has harped on compete level repeatedly when speaking about the team he’d like to build. He has mentioned speed and high-tempo play often, too, so he may seek a coach interested in installing a more aggressive forechecking system.

Personality and leadership skills will matter most of all, though.

“It’s a challenging thing to stand in front of 23 players and have that confidence in your ability to be able to communicate the message you want to communicate,” new associate GM Norm Maciver said. “Just having that presence about them is something that’s going to be very important.”

That presence factor is something Derek King brought in spades last season, so it’s a little ironic to see it touted as a trait the Hawks will look for in outside candidates. But even though King has long been promised an interview for the full-time job and remains a candidate, all indications suggest he’s unlikely to get the permanent role.

King’s perceived odds of landing the full-time gig fluctuated wildly all season. He initially seemed like a long shot, then like a real possibility when he righted the ship so quickly in November and December, then like a long shot when the Hawks faded in January and February, then like a real possibility –albeit as something of a placeholder –when Davidson declared the full-on rebuild in March.

Ultimately, King’s old-school tendencies –which arose, for example, when he asked at season’s end for more veterans to be brought in next year –as well as the Hawks’ reluctance to permanently hire another interim guy after already doing so with Davidson may rule him out. Nothing is set in stone yet, though.

“I think the world of Derek,” Davidson said. “He has a great hockey mind. He has a great way [with] the players. He has endeared himself to a lot of people this year. And so you want those type of people in your organization. We have to cross the head coaching bridge first, and then we’ll get to the rest [of the coaching jobs].”

Davidson also said ex-assistant coaches Marc Crawford and Rob Cookson were dismissed at season’s end to wipe the slate clean for the “next…coaching regime,” in which some “new voices [are] needed.”

So if it’s not King, who will the Hawks’ next coach be?

The list of available coaches around the hockey world currently contains plenty of well-known names. Trotz –who has reportedly already interviewed with the Jets — headlines a group that also includes Rick Tocchet, Jim Montgomery, David Quinn, Paul Maurice, Claude Julien, Travis Green, DeBoer and Blashill.

It’s unclear which of those coaches would be willing and interested to jump into coaching a rebuild, but it’s the Hawks’ task to find out. Trotz would be a coup of a hiring yet seems least likely of all to be willing. Montgomery has done nothing but win as the University of Denver’s head coach, the Stars’ head coach and (currently) as a Blues assistant; he’s also a very enticing candidate.

Then there’s an even longer list of lesser-known coaches rising through the ranks who might be ready for an NHL shot. The Hawks could be a prime destination for one of them.

Penguins assistant Mike Vellucci, Maple Leafs assistant Spencer Carbery, Lightning assistant Derek Lalonde, Syracuse (AHL) coach Benoit Groulx, Hartford (AHL) coach Kris Knoblauch, ZSC Lions (Switzerland) coach Rikard Gronborg and former Sharks assistant and Chicago Wolves coach Rocky Thompson are some of the names coming up most often.

The Hawks will likely keep a 10-foot pole between themselves and toxic celebrity coaches Mike Babcock and John Tortorella.

More offseason updates

The Hawks signed 23-year-old Swedish defenseman Filip Roos to a two-year contract with a $925,000 salary cap hit. Roos tallied six points in 50 games for the Swedish club Skelleftea AIK last season. Davidson praised Roos’ size (6-4) and skating ability in a statement. He’ll likely head to Rockford next season.The final game of the IIHF world championship will take place Sunday. Five Hawks participated in this year’s tournament: Seth Jones and Sam Lafferty (USA), Lukas Reichel (Germany), Philipp Kurashev (Switzerland) and Erik Gustafsson (Sweden). Caleb Jones was also planning to play but injured his wrist in an exhibition game.Read More

It’s understandable to be confused by your feelings about the Bears right now.

There’s good cause for long-term optimism based on the way general manager Ryan Poles and coach Matt Eberflus have maneuvered through their first few months on the job. But they also need patience, which is a massive ask for what feels like the 30th year in a row.

Bears fans are just nine months removed from Matt Nagy telling them his fourth season was the one in which the offense would finally take flight. Their cynicism is warranted.

But for those with the stomach to accept that fixing the franchise is a multi-year process and the upcoming season might be tough to watch — So were the last three, so what’s the difference? — as Poles remains in the demolition phase, there are signs that this is headed the right way.

There’s no guarantee Poles and Eberflus will be the ones to finally strike gold, but their initial steps have been sound.

Poles’ patience might be maddening, especially with his underwhelming, budget-friendly moves at wide receiver, but it’s one of his strengths. He would’ve been foolish to believe this roster, which went 22-27 the last three seasons, merited splashy acquisitions immediately. He’s right to prioritize 2023.

“We can’tfixeverything in one year,” he acknowledged last month. “But we sure can just keep chipping away and just improving.”

Is that frustrating to hear, yet again? Of course. But is it also practical? Yes.

The plan is straightforward and simple: a full teardown now regardless of what it means for the Bears’ record this season, construction begins in 2023 with ample draft picks and salary-cap space, then contention in 2024 — all with the assumption that Justin Fields grows into a franchise quarterback. Poles will be held accountable if the team appears to be behind schedule at any point.

He missed out on having the No. 7 pick — a spot that carries the potential to land Hall of Fame talent — this year because Ryan Pace used it to trade up for Fields last year and he had to offload Khalil Mack to get another second-rounder.

Poles took some heat for using his second-round selections on cornerback Kyler Gordon and safety Jaquan Brisker rather than a wide receiver or offensive lineman, but again, he’s looking at this as a two-year process from a personnel standpoint.

Those were both legitimate roster holes he needed to address before 2023, so there’s no problem with his picks as long as he fills the other needs next spring. He’ll have all his draft picks, and OverTheCap calculates the Bears having an NFL-high $96.9 million in cap space. Those resources have incredible potential in the right hands.

Then there’s Eberflus, who appears to be making good on everything he said about the way he wanted to run the team. Free of any attachment to players Pace acquired, he and Poles have evaluated the roster with the clearest possible eyes.

It doesn’t matter that Teven Jenkins was drafted to be the left tackle of the future if he’s better off on the right side.

It doesn’t matter if bringing in Mack was a landmark deal if his contract doesn’t make sense on a rebuilding team.

It doesn’t matter that Eddie Jackson signed what was then the biggest contract ever for a safety if he’s unable or unwilling to play up to it in coordinator Alan Williams’ defense.

Furthermore, Eberflus has remained committed to the CEO-style role. He has spent a considerable amount of practice time with the offense, and he and Williams have been unmistakably clear that Williams is the one designing the defense.

And speaking of design, how about the profound notion of building an offense around the dynamic, ultra-gifted quarterback rather than trying to force him into something better suited for an Andy Dalton type? It’s a revolutionary idea.

“I hope that they will just tailor the plays to my skillset, which we’re going to do,” Fields said confidently. “Just finding out what I do best, what we do best as an offense… and run that offense.”

No one knows if Fields will become great. No one knows if offensive coordinator Luke Getsy can duplicate the same success he enjoyed in Green Bay now that he no longer enjoys the benefit of coaching the best quarterback ever.

But the only thing worth judging them on at this point is whether the path they’re plotting looks sensible, and it does. The results are to be determined, but the process is prudent.

That’s true of nearly everything about the Bears right now. The waiting is excruciating, but necessary. In the meantime, the new crew running the team seems functional and competent. That’s all anyone can ask at this stage.

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National analyst praises Chicago Bears running back

The Chicago Bears running attack has been the best part of the offense for a long time. David Montgomery has been the undisputed leader in the Bears’ run game for the past three seasons. In 2020, Montgomery eclipsed 1,000-yards rushing on the way to eight scores for the team.

Montgomery’s stability has one national analyst taking notice. Cynthia Frelund, with NFL Network, put Montgomery on her list of the NFL’s most underappreciated players. Here’s what she wrote:

I wish the Bears had addressed their O-line in a way I better understood as an outsider this offseason. After finishing the 2021 season with PFF’s 22nd-ranked unit, Chicago let starters James Daniels and Jason Peters walk, replacing them with journeymen Julie’n Davenport and Dakota Dozier. I will be watching this situation closely to help forecast Montgomery’s fantasy value. However, his real-world value is in part shown by computer vision metrics that indicate how much contact a back deals with. Not only was Montgomery contacted before getting to top speed at the third-highest rate last season, but he also faced multiple hits on the fifth-highest percentage of rushes and runs after the catch. And yet, he managed to haul in 82.4 percent of the passes thrown to him in 2021 (with a catch rate of 78.6 percent for his career). In other words, if the O-line can step up, Montgomery could soar.

Hopefully, Montgomery’s success continues

The offensive line is looking to change its shape to fit a new run scheme in 2022. This should aid Montgomery’s style and help to be more lethal this season. As Bears fans have witnessed, his size is certainly not to be trifled with on the first tackler. Montgomery has also improved from when he was drafted in catching the ball.

The Bears transitioning their offensive line could be a challenge for Montgomery if they struggle to learn the scheme. However, Montgomery has had plenty of experience with adversity with three new quarterbacks and living in Matt Nagy’s system. Montgomery should be set up for success with a better regime.

More to work on

While Montgomery has done well with the adversity he’s faced, he still has more to show before nabbing a new contract after this season. Because running backs in the NFL are relatively easy to replace, Montgomery needs to work on finding the endzone more and upping his run average. Montgomery has only scored a total of 21 touchdowns in his three-year career.

Last season, Montgomery ranked 44th in yards per rush attempt. Since he’s been in the league, Montgomery has never finished a season in the top 32 running backs in yards per rush attempt. It’s taken him a lot of touches for him to reach 2808 career rushing yards. Until he fixes those metrics, Montgomery isn’t that underrated.

Make sure to check out our Bears forum for the latest on the team.

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Cubs reliever Codi Heuer thought the soreness in the back of his arm late last season came from his triceps. Imaging months later revealed something else entirely.

“My ligament was torn off the bone, so I had a big gap in there,” said Heuer, who underwent Tommy John surgery in March. “So, I was actually feeling the bone on bone.”

It will be a while before Heuer, 25, will climb a big-league mound again. He expects a 15- to 16-month recovery, which puts his return at around June or July of next year. But the diagnosis at least provided answers and clear next steps.

“There’s no telling just how impacted he was by the injury,” Cubs vice president of pitching Craig Breslow said. “But I think there’s reason to be really optimistic about what he’s capable of doing when he returns. We’d identified him as a target and in that trade [with the White Sox last summer] very, very intentionally and seen some development opportunities. Unfortunately, we just didn’t really get a chance to realize those.”

Including Heuer, none of the players involved in the most recent trade between the Cubs and White Sox will appear in the second installment of the 2022 Crosstown Cup. Guaranteed Rate Field hosts the two-game series this weekend.

Second baseman Nick Madrigal, the other young talent the White Sox gave up for closer Craig Kimbrel, is scheduled to start a rehab assignment (low back strain) in Triple-A Iowa on Saturday. And Kimbrel, who the Sox traded for AJ Pollock this spring, is closing games for the Dodgers.

Initial reviews of last summer’s crosstown trade came back overwhelmingly positive, as both teams filled their diverging needs. But between the failed setup man experiment with Kimbrel on the South Side, and the surgery rehab waiting game on the North Side – first with Madrigal and now Heuer – retrospective trade grades are still on hold.

Heuer has the chance to topple the scales. If the Cubs’ post-op optimism holds true, Heuer could develop into a vital piece in their next contending team – and the one that got away in White Sox lore.

“We started to see potentially the divergence of two distinct fastball shapes, some opportunity to improve the breaking ball, obviously he had a great change,” Breslow said. “And so I think when he comes back at full strength, we’ll see a pretty exciting version of him.”

Heuer’s velocity gradually dropped over the course of last season. His fastball went from averaging 98.6 mph in his season debut with the White Sox, to 95.6 mph in his first game with the Cubs, to 93.5 mph in his last outing.

“I was a little in my head last year figuring out what’s wrong with my mechanics or whatever,” Heuer said.

Some ulnar collateral ligament injuries the player feels in the moment, as the UCL tears on one fateful pitch. Heuer’s wasn’t like that, to the point where he’s not sure when the injury occurred. And while most UCL tears present as pain on the inner side of the elbow, Hoerner’s soreness radiated from the back. So, it didn’t sound any Tommy-John-surgery alarm bells late last season.

When Heuer started ramping back up this winter, during the lockout, his recovery was slower than usual. When physical therapy didn’t eliminate the discomfort, he went in for imaging.

“I don’t know if relief is the right word,” Breslow said of his initial reaction when he heard Heuer’s diagnosis, “but it kind of explained what was going on, why was the velocity starting to trend in the wrong direction.”

Heuer underwent full UCL reconstruction and had an internal brace put in his elbow.

“I’ve still got a bunch of confidence knowing that I can go out there and get outs when I’m not feeling 100 percent. So, I’m going to carry that into whenever I’m ready to go, and build from there and keep going.”

First step: months of tedious rehab.

“I won’t be picking up a ball until September,” Heuer said.

In the meantime, as Heuer put it, he’s “doing a lot of leg days.” Last week, he declared with a smile that he’d already regained full range of motion in his elbow. That, and working out scar tissue, are the main goals in the early days of Tommy John rehab.

“But honestly, it feels pretty good,” Heuer said. “Champing at the bit to get back.”

On Deck

CUBS AT WHITE SOX

Saturday:Keegan Thompson (4-0, 1.54 ERA) vs. Johnny Cueto (0-0, 0.00), 6:15 p.m., FOX, 670-AM

Sunday:TBD vs. Dylan Cease (4-2, 4.24), 1:10 p.m., Marquee, 670-AM

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The bad Cubs lost 20-5 to the pitiful Reds on Thursday. The score might have been an anomaly. The loss wasn’t.

The Cubs lose at home (7-15), they lose in one-run games (4-11) and they lose interleague games (1-4).

They strike out a lot, and they give up a lot of home runs.

They have some players I’ve never heard of, which isn’t a problem. That their parents haven’t heard of them is.

If you’re Cubs management (and I’m sorry if you are), what’s worse: To say you’re rebuilding or to say you’re awful at your job? Me, I’d much prefer the pain of rebuilding to the shame of being awful at my job.

But not the Cubs. They refuse to use the “R” word. Marquee Sports Network, the team’s state-run propaganda arm, has a show called “The Reporters,” featuring a host and media members. During a recent taping, The Score’s David Haugh criticized team president Jed Hoyer for not being more transparent about the franchise’s long-term roster plan. The show’s producer immediately stopped the segment to say they were having technical difficulties. A camera problem? Audio issues? A wardrobe malfunction? Nobody seemed to know, but when the producer gave the order to recommence, it came with a stipulation: No more talk of Hoyer’s lack of transparency.

Marquee didn’t want to put words in guests’ mouths. It only sought to take one word out: rebuild.

When news of the suppression got out, the Cubs quickly issued an assurance that, going forward, no topic would be off the table for discussion. Too late, in terms of credibility.

Maybe the club was taking a page from the playbook that’s all the rage now, the one in which everybody gets to create their own truth. Why do the Cubs care so much about that bad word? Because they think it’s bad business. They’ve already put fans through one rebuild, which led to a World Series title in 2016. But that was different. There were new owners, the Ricketts family, and a new team president, Theo Epstein, who had a history of winning. What do we have to lose except a lot of games, amenable Cubs fans seemed to say to themselves at the time.

This rebuild is another story, and the people at the top — chairman Tom Ricketts and president of price tags Crane Kenney — know it. The team traded fan favorites Javy Baez, Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo last season not because it didn’t have the money but because it wanted to save money. All while still charging $110.17 for a general-admission ticket, parking, two hot dogs and a beer, the highest average in baseball in 2021. All while charging fans to watch Cubs games on Marquee, which was supposed to generate gobs of cash for signing elite players.

How’s that gobs-of-cash thing going for you fans?

The Cubs don’t want to admit they’re rebuilding because they understand, somewhere in their shrunken souls, that putting the fan base through two rebuilds in 10 years is wrong. It’s especially wrong because they took money made off paying customers and put it into team-owned business projects and team-owned pockets instead of into quality players.

The Cubs think they’re being sneaky: It’s not a rebuild if we don’t use the word. If we call it something else — a transition phase, a reset, a pina colada, anything — people will start to believe it.

They say “enhanced interrogation techniques.” I say “torture.”

When I asked Hoyer about the Cubs’ rebuilding project on Opening Day, he said he didn’t recognize the term.

“I don’t know what that means,” he said. “Every team ends up in different cycles, whether it’s payroll cycles, whether it’s competitive cycles.”

Here’s the “cycle” the Cubs are in: Their player payroll has gone from third highest in the league ($221.6 million in 2019) to 14th ($147.6 million this season). They’re an alleged major-market team.

An alleged major-market team that isn’t rebuilding.

OK, got it.

As I’ve written before, it’s stunning how quickly the Cubs have lost all the goodwill they’d built up after the 2016 title. And they don’t seem to care about that loss.

The Cubs aren’t big fans of my work, so I wasn’t surprised I wasn’t invited to be on “The Reporters.” When my phone didn’t ring, it must have been Marquee not calling. But now that the Sun-Times has decreed that none of its writers can appear on the show because of the recent ethical issue, it looks like I have no shot whatsoever.

Sigh.

Do the Bears have a show?

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What a week it’s been for White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson.

That whole Josh Donaldson thing. The enormity of a controversy. The questions and answers that followed for days.

And the baseball.

Anderson’s first response to it was a game-clinching home run Sunday, on national television, from New York City.

And while Donaldson was sheltered by a stay on the COVID-19 list, Anderson kept playing superb baseball. Starting with a two-hit game game in New York Saturday, when Donaldson called him “Jackie,” Anderson went on a 10-for-21 tear and played clean, sometimes flashy defense at shortstop.

“He rises to big moments,” Sox third base and infielders coach Joe McEwing told the Sun-Times.

“I would never doubt that man.”

McEwing, who has been by Anderson’s side since his rookie season in 2016, has hit thousands and thousands of ground balls to Anderson and had who knows how many conversations with him about baseball and life.

“Nobody understands the journey and path the man has been through to prepare him for these occasions,” McEwing said.

McEwing watched Anderson this week and was not surprised.

“It’s over, it’s behind us and we move forward,” McEwing said. “He handled it extremely well. He’s grown so much as an individual, each day. As he continues to grow as a person he grows on the field as well. I’m extremely proud of the way he has handled it and moved on.

“There are situations where people thrive in, and they’re special talents. He always rises up. Look at how he rises up in the playoffs. He wants those moments.”

Somewhat lost in all of the Donaldson hullabaloo is the way Anderson’s defense has found its footing after rashes of errors. He made nine in his first 24 games, leading the major leagues, and answered questions with humility.

“I’m like the worst right now,” he said before a game on May 10. “All I can do is get better. I’ve got to keep working.”

McEwing knew he would. And that he would rally. And Anderson has, playing errorless ball in 14 games since then. Of his last 25 games, 24 have come without an error.

“If you look at his history, there always will be two or three days where there are three or four errors,” McEwing said. “I know it’s coming at some point and I’m glad it came early because he’s been magnificent since. Usually happens once in spring training for a day or two and we slow things down. And it happens once in the season, usually at a time when he’s played a lot of games in a row and he’s tired.

“Right now, I think he’s in the best place he’s ever been.”

The Cubs come to the South Side for games Saturday and Sunday and Anderson, a .485 hitter in the postseason and owner of a walkoff homer against the Yankees in last year’s Field of Dreams game says the glare of center-stage games doesn’t affect him.

Saturday’s game is part of Fox’s “Baseball Night in America” package.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s an ESPN game or Fox,” Anderson told the Sun-Times. “It’s cool to play on ESPN, don’t get me wrong. At the end of the day it’s my career so I play hard whether it’s on TV, on YouTube, on Apple TV or [local] NBC [Sports Chicago]. I’m going to play my same game.”

That game this season has produced a .363/.401/.516 hitting line with five homers, nine doubles, 19 RBI and seven stolen bases. Seeking his second batting title in four years, Anderson is third in the majors in batting average. He has batted .335, .322, .309 and .363 in his last four seasons.

Anderson leads major league shortstops in 2022 in hits, average, on-base percentage, total bases, OPS+ and batting wins above replacement.

Since 2019, he leads AL shortstops in average (. 328) and multihit games (137), and is fourth or higher in six other categories.

“Everyone doubted it, saying what he was doing was not sustainable and he keeps doing it,” McEwing said. “Is that sustainable? There are facts. Everyone probably said that about Tony Gwynn.

“It’s amazing how talented and gifted he is.”

CUBS AT SOX

Saturday: Keegan Thompson (4-0, 1.54 ERA) vs. Johnny Cueto (0-0, 0.00), 6:15 p.m., FOX, 1000-AM.

Sunday: Marcus Stroman (2-4, 4.71) vs. Dylan Cease (4-2, 4.24), 1:10 p.m., NBCSCH, 1000-AM

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The bad Cubs lost 20-5 to the pitiful Reds on Thursday. The score might have been an anomaly. The loss wasn’t.

The Cubs lose at home (7-15), they lose in one-run games (4-11) and they lose interleague games (1-4).

They strike out a lot, and they give up a lot of home runs.

They have some players I’ve never heard of, which isn’t a problem. That their parents haven’t heard of them is.

If you’re Cubs management (and I’m sorry if you are), what’s worse: To say you’re rebuilding or to say you’re awful at your job? Me, I’d much prefer the pain of rebuilding to the shame of being awful at my job.

But not the Cubs. They refuse to use the “R” word. Marquee Sports Network, the team’s state-run propaganda arm, has a show called “The Reporters,” featuring a host and media members. During a recent taping, The Score’s David Haugh criticized general manager Jed Hoyer for not being more transparent about the franchise’s long-term roster plan. The show’s producer immediately stopped the segment to say they were having technical difficulties. A camera problem? Audio issues? A wardrobe malfunction? Nobody seemed to know, but when the producer gave the order to recommence, it came with a stipulation: No more talk of Hoyer’s lack of transparency.

Marquee didn’t want to put words in guests’ mouths. It only sought to take one word out: rebuild.

When news of the suppression got out, the Cubs quickly issued an assurance that, going forward, no topic would be off the table for discussion. Too late, in terms of credibility.

Maybe the club was taking a page from the playbook that’s all the rage now, the one in which everybody gets to create their own truth. Why do the Cubs care so much about that bad word? Because they think it’s bad business. They’ve already put fans through one rebuild, which led to a World Series title in 2016. But that was different. There were new owners, the Ricketts family, and a new team president, Theo Epstein, who had a history of winning. What do we have to lose except a lot of games, amenable Cubs fans seemed to say to themselves at the time.

This rebuild is another story, and the people at the top – chairman Tom Ricketts and president of price tags Crane Kenney – know it. The team traded fan favorites Javy Baez, Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo last season not because it didn’t have the money but because it wanted to save money. All while still charging $110.17 for a general-admission ticket, parking, two hot dogs and a beer, the highest average in baseball in 2021. All while charging fans to watch Cubs games on Marquee, which was supposed to generate gobs of cash for signing elite players.

How’s that gobs-of-cash thing going for you fans?

The Cubs don’t want to admit they’re rebuilding because they understand, somewhere in their shrunken souls, that putting the fan base through two rebuilds in 10 years is wrong. It’s especially wrong because they took money made off paying customers and put it into team-owned business projects and team-owned pockets instead of into quality players.

The Cubs think they’re being sneaky: It’s not a rebuild if we don’t use the word. If we call it something else – a transition phase, a reset, a pina colada, anything – people will start to believe it.

They say “enhanced interrogation techniques.” I say “torture.”

When I asked Hoyer about the Cubs’ rebuilding project on Opening Day, he said he didn’t recognize the term.

“I don’t know what that means,” he said. “Every team ends up in different cycles, whether it’s payroll cycles, whether it’s competitive cycles.”

Here’s the “cycle” the Cubs are in: Their player payroll has gone from third highest in the league ($221.6 million in 2019) to 14th ($147.6 million this season). They’re an alleged major-market team.

An alleged major-market team that isn’t rebuilding.

OK, got it.

As I’ve written before, it’s stunning how quickly the Cubs have lost all the goodwill they’d built up after the 2016 title. And they don’t seem to care about that loss.

The Cubs aren’t big fans of my work, so I wasn’t surprised I wasn’t invited to be on “The Reporters.” When my phone didn’t ring, it must have been Marquee not calling. But now that the Sun-Times has decreed that none of its writers can appear on the show because of the recent ethical issue, it looks like I have no shot whatsoever.

Sigh.

Do the Bears have a show?

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Ryan Poles had the secondary at the top of the draft board

Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles choosing to address the need at secondary over the wide receiver was not an impulse decision during the 2022 NFL Draft. Video released by the Bears on their Youtube channel confirms the Bears were going with Kyler Gordon and Jaquan Brisker before anyone else. By pick 39, when Gordon was selected by the Bears, Poles listed Gordon and Brisker as his top choices.

“Write down Gordon one… Brisker, two,” the caption reads Poles saying in the Bears draft room. Brisker would of course stay on the draft board until the Bears plucked him away at pick 48.

Many talented wide receivers were taken in the first round which left fewer good choices on Day 2. However, there were a couple of options the Bears passed on who were drafted between 39 and 48. Wan’Dale Robinson, from Kentucky, was taken by the New York Giants at 43. John Metchie III, from Alabama, was taken at 44 by the Houston Texans.

Metchie was a name CCS mentioned as a player for the Bears to keep an eye on. For good reason, as he found the endzone eight times last year. It appears the Bears didn’t have him or another player of any position in mind other than Brisker as a fallback if Gordon was taken by another team at 38. It’s surprising and disappointing the Bears didn’t have a wide receiver on their board higher than a player who fell to them at 48. But then again, maybe Poles and his staff know something all of the other NFL team’s scouts missed.

The future will tell if the Bears made the right picks

The additions at secondary will help to improve the position that had a lot of struggles last season. Especially in the red zone. Reports from camp seem to show the staff is excited about the two young studs on defense. Poles had hinted he wanted an early-round wide receiver but said he would not reach, per multiple reports. Poles drafted wide receiver Velus Jones Jr. in the third round of the draft.

While Gordon and Brisker will be fun to watch on Sunday, my fingers are going to stay crossed I don’t see Metchie and Robinson pop up on my red zone channel this season. (While we’re at it, I’ll also throw George Pickens who fell to 52nd as another good option the Bears could have taken.) If one of those wide receivers starts hitting in fantasy leagues, Bears fans will surely gripe for years to come.

Make sure to check out our Bears forum for the latest on the team.

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What a week it’s been for White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson.

That whole Josh Donaldson thing. The enormity of a controversy. The questions and answers that followed for days.

And the baseball.

Anderson’s first response to it was a game-clinching home run Sunday, on national television, from New York City.

And while Donaldson was sheltered by a stay on the COVID-19 list, Anderson kept playing superb baseball. Starting with a two-hit game game in New York Saturday, when Donaldson called him “Jackie,” Anderson went on a 10-for-21 tear and played clean, sometimes flashy defense at shortstop.

“He rises to big moments,” Sox third base and infielders coach Joe McEwing told the Sun-Times.

“I would never doubt that man.”

McEwing, who has been by Anderson’s side since his rookie season in 2016, has hit thousands and thousands of ground balls to Anderson and had who knows how many conversations with him about baseball and life.

“Nobody understands the journey and path the man has been through to prepare him for these occasions,” McEwing said.

McEwing watched Anderson this week and was not surprised.

“It’s over, it’s behind us and we move forward,” McEwing said. “He handled it extremely well. He’s grown so much as an individual, each day. As he continues to grow as a person he grows on the field as well. I’m extremely proud of the way he has handled it and moved on.

“There are situations where people thrive in, and they’re special talents. He always rises up. Look at how he rises up in the playoffs. He wants those moments.”

Somewhat lost in all of the Donaldson hullabaloo is the way Anderson’s defense has found its footing after rashes of errors. He made nine in his first 24 games, leading the major leagues, and answered questions with humility.

“I’m like the worst right now,” he said before a game on May 10. “All I can do is get better. I’ve got to keep working.”

McEwing knew he would. And that he would rally. And Anderson has, playing errorless ball in 14 games since then. Of his last 25 games, 24 have come without an error.

“If you look at his history, there always will be two or three days where there are three or four errors,” McEwing said. “I know it’s coming at some point and I’m glad it came early because he’s been magnificent since. Usually happens once in spring training for a day or two and we slow things down. And it happens once in the season, usually at a time when he’s played a lot of games in a row and he’s tired.

“Right now, I think he’s in the best place he’s ever been.”

The Cubs come to the South Side for games Saturday and Sunday and Anderson, a .485 hitter in the postseason and owner of a walkoff homer against the Yankees in last year’s Field of Dreams game says the glare of center-stage games doesn’t affect him.

Saturday’s game is part of Fox’s “Baseball Night in America” package.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s an ESPN game or Fox,” Anderson told the Sun-Times. “It’s cool to play on ESPN, don’t get me wrong. At the end of the day it’s my career so I play hard whether it’s on TV, on YouTube, on Apple TV or [local] NBC [Sports Chicago]. I’m going to play my same game.”

That game this season has produced a .363/.401/.516 hitting line with five homers, nine doubles, 19 RBI and seven stolen bases. Seeking his second batting title in four years, Anderson is third in the majors in batting average. He has batted .335, .322, .309 and .363 in his last four seasons.

Anderson leads major league shortstops in 2022 in hits, average, on-base percentage, total bases, OPS+ and batting wins above replacement.

Since 2019, he leads AL shortstops in average (. 328) and multihit games (137), and is fourth or higher in six other categories.

“Everyone doubted it, saying what he was doing was not sustainable and he keeps doing it,” McEwing said. “Is that sustainable? There are facts. Everyone probably said that about Tony Gwynn.

“It’s amazing how talented and gifted he is.”

CUBS AT SOX

Saturday: Keegan Thompson (4-0, 1.54 ERA) vs. Johnny Cueto (0-0, 0.00), 6:15 p.m., FOX, 1000-AM.

Sunday: Marcus Stroman (2-4, 4.71) vs. Dylan Cease (4-2, 4.24), 1:10 p.m., NBCSCH, 1000-AM

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