Chicago Sports

In a dimly lit and sparsely populated health club, a bearded man in sweats and over-the-ear headphones grinds it out on a treadmill that’s facing the parking lot. A hooded figure emerges from the pounding rain and the murky night, steadily approaching the window and pulling out a gun with a silencer–and just like that, the running man is a dead man, crumpled up on the gym floor.

It’s a scene of elegantly constructed, final violence, and it’s one of the many moments when the taut revenge thriller “Memory” proves to be a little more elevated than just another B-movie actioner starring the nearly 70-year-old Liam Neeson, who can still cut to the chase with a sharp line reading and still take down cocky henchmen half his age in hand-to-hand combat. (When will these henchmen ever learn!)

In the 14 years since the first “Taken” movie with Neeson as retired CIA operative Bryan Mills telling his daughter’s captors about his “very particular set of skills,” cementing Neeson’s status as an all-time Action Movie Icon, the great Irish thespian has appeared in close to 50 films, alternating between prestige projects and often entertaining but fairly disposable action fare. Not a year goes by where we don’t see another poster with a steely-eyed Neeson wielding a gun, with slogans such as:

TAKE BACK YOUR LIFE (“Unknown”)NEVER STEAL A MAN’S SECOND CHANCE (“Honest Thief”)JUSTICE COMES DOWN TO HIM (“The Marksman”)LIVES ARE ON THE LINE (“The Commuter”)

Now comes “Memory,” and the poster tells us “HIS MIND IS FADING. HIS CONSCIENCE IS CLEAR.” At first blush, this might seem to be another in the long assembly line of Neeson actioners–but hold on. Neeson’s co-stars include such first-rate talents as Monica Bellucci, Guy Pearce and Ray Stevenson, the director is the veteran Martin Campbell, who gave us one of the best Bond movies ever in “Casino Royale” (2006), and this is a remake of the 2003 Belgian gem “The Memory of a Killer,” so there are signs indicating this could be something more than another formulaic vehicle.

Those signs are worth heeding.

Leeson’s Alex Lewis is the obligatory Hired Assassin With a Mysterious Past who is struggling with advancing memory loss. After FBI Agent Vincent Serra (Guy Pearce) rescues a 13-year-old immigrant girl named Beatriz (Mia Sanchez) from a sex trafficking ring, the nefarious and powerful crime boss Davana Sealman (Monica Bellucci) orders Alex to wipe out all loose ends that would tie her to the ring–including the young girl. Alex doesn’t hurt children, but he has no qualms about taking out a number of assorted bad guys who are trying to take HIM out. But when Beatriz is murdered, Alex can’t be sure if he’s the one that pulled the trigger. In the meantime, we can’t be sure about the loyalties of Ray Stevenson’s local police detective. It’s a tangled film noir web they’ve weaved!

As Alex’s memory continues to betray him, he strikes up an alliance with Vincent, and it’s a great callback to Christopher Nolan’s “Memento” when Alex scribbles pertinent information on his body, just as Pearce’s Leonard did in that 2000 neo-noir classic. Neeson never phones in his performances, but he’s particularly invested this time around, playing a guy who can be a pure killing machine one moment, and as lost as a child the next. Pearce and Bellucci headline the terrific supporting cast, and the 78-year-old Campbell proves he can still direct the hell out of a slick and engrossing thriller.

Read More

Forward DeMar DeRozan was searching for the right words when he was asked about the latest gut punch the Bulls endured Tuesday and finally settled on something from the heart.

”I mean, it sucks,” DeRozan said, sounding somber. ”It just sucks.”

He wasn’t alone in that feeling, either.

What was supposed to be a last practice before heading to Milwaukee for Game 5 of their first-round playoff series Wednesday against the Bucks turned into more adversity for the Bulls, who have had their share of it all season long.

The Bulls announced guard Zach LaVine had entered the NBA’s health-and-safety protocols for the coronavirus.

The team announced on Wednesday morning that LaVine would not play in Game 5.

It is the second time this season LaVine has been in the protocols and the third time in the last year. He also had a contact-tracing scare last summer with Team USA but avoided testing positive.

”Before basketball . . . just health-wise, it just sucks,” DeRozan said. ”He’s got a family of his own. It just sucks being in that situation, feeling that way. First and foremost is for him. Second of all, us not having him. Him missing a full opportunity of playing in a playoff series. I mean, it’s frustrating. I can’t even imagine how he feels. The most important thing now is he comes out of that thing being healthy.”

DeRozan said he spoke with LaVine on the phone, and it obviously wasn’t the most upbeat conversation. The Bulls are down 3-1 in the series and face elimination.

”I think he was more frustrated than anything, honestly,” DeRozan said. ”He was just frustrated. I think your frustration outweighs anything else, regardless of how he felt. I was just trying to be there, keep him positive mentally more than anything.”

In an extra bit of bad news, the Bulls said on Wednesday that guard Alex Caruso, who was in the concussion protocol, would also miss Game 5.

With LaVine out, the Bulls will miss the 19.3 points he has averaged in the first four games of the series, and it would mean the Bucks would have one fewer key piece to focus on defending.

DeRozan was getting double- and triple-teamed before LaVine’s illness, so imagine what the Bucks’ defense would have in store for him without LaVine.

”Playing without him was extremely tough,” DeRozan said of regular-season games when LaVine was sidelined. ”He’s Zach; it’s hard to replace that. What he brings, who he is, the attention that he brings, it’s a different dynamic when Zach isn’t out there. So not to have him and playing those games without him, it was definitely tough.

”We’re just going to have to figure out [Wednesday] night, and [it’s] next guy up. We’ve got to find energy to fight for him, as well.”

The Bulls already faced an uphill battle in trying to turn the series around, but the task would be even more difficult without Caruso and LaVine.

”We never really cared for the outside noise,” center Nikola Vucevic said of the Bulls being written off. ”You can’t focus on that. There’s so much of it nowadays — media, social media, fans on social media, whatever it is. You just have to focus on yourself, your team and what we can do to go out there and extend this series.

”People are gonna write what they want to write, say what they want to say. It is what it is. We’ve gotta focus on ourselves.”

Read More

Due to a forecast of cold temperatures Wednesday, the White Sox have changed the start time for Wednesday’s game against the Royals from 6:10 p.m. to 1:10 p.m.

Game tickets, parking coupons and Huntington Bank Stadium Club passes for the 6:10 p.m. start will be honored for the 1:10 p.m. first pitch.Fans do not need to exchange any game tickets, parking coupons or Stadium Club passes to attend the rescheduled game.

Wednesday’s forecast calls for a high of 40 degrees.

The Sox open a home stand Tuesday night against the Royals at 6:10 p.m.

Before the game, the Sox reinstated right-hander Matt Foster from the Family Medical Leave List and optioned outfielder Adam Haseley to Triple-A Charlotte.

Foster, 27, was placed on leave Friday. He is 0-0 with a 1.42 ERA in five relief appearances.

Haseley, 26, appeared in five games after being recalled from Charlotte on April 20, going 2-for-10 with two walks. Outfielder Luis Robert has been expected to return to action after missing three games over the weekend with a sore right groin, which he sustained running out a ground ball Thursday in Cleveland.

Read More

You know what’s fun? Watching sports teams that aren’t cracked, splintered, hollowed-out shells of what they might have been or were supposed to be.

Then again, how would we know?

Welcome to Chicago, where the baseball is inferior, the hockey is revolting and the basketball is 48 minutes from merciful oblivion.

In the time you’ve taken to read this far, the White Sox have committed three more errors and lost another key player to a ruptured something-or-other. The Cubs — hey, how about that 21-0 romp against the Pirates! — still haven’t won a series since the first one of the season. The Blackhawks are rumored to be not quite finished with their lost season, but it would take a deeply deranged, twisted individual to tune in and find out.

And then there are the Bulls, who have found more ways to suffer than any pretty good team should. Unofficial season motto: ”There’s no business like woe business.” For one more night — a Game 5 on Wednesday in Milwaukee that they almost certainly can’t win — the no-show must go on.

We’ll never know how the Bulls would have fared against the mighty Bucks had they been at full strength, Lonzo Ball and all. We do know they didn’t come close to measuring up with all other hands on deck, as losses by 30 and 24 points in Games 3 and 4 at the United Center made abundantly clear. As it was, a team that played sub-.500 basketball after the All-Star break, got manhandled by all the true contenders and withstood more injuries than most already was staggering to the finish line.

But then came the news Tuesday that All-Star Zach LaVine had been placed in the NBA’s coronavirus health-and-safety protocols, unable to travel to Milwaukee with the team and will be out for Game 5. With fellow starting guard Alex Caruso in concussion protocol and also out, a series the Bulls weren’t going to win anyway has devolved into kind of a meaningless exercise.

Even setting aside the possibility that free-agent-to-be LaVine’s time with the Bulls is over — what’s a couple of hundred mil between friends, anyway? — the postseason has been one big bummer. LaVine not getting to go down with a fight in his first time in the playoffs is the rotten cherry atop the whole mess.

”It sucks,” Nikola Vucevic said.

And not only that.

”It’s frustrating and it sucks,” DeMar DeRozan said.

Billy Donovan, as steady as they come and rarely one to complain, sounded after practice Tuesday like a coach who has had just about enough.

”This has been going on for us all year long,” he said. ”I mean, this is not anything that’s new to us. Whether it’s been Patrick Williams breaking his wrist; whether it’s been Coby [White] being out with a shoulder, then out with COVID; Zach being out with COVID; ‘Vooch’ being out with COVID; DeMar being out with COVID; Alex having a hamstring issue, a foot issue — I mean, it’s gone on the whole, entire year.”

There’s plenty he left out, too. And now he has to break out the JV squad in a win-or-go-home game against the NBA’s defending champions? It can’t be much fun. No offense, of course, to White, Ayo Dosunmu or anyone else.

Where are Adam Mokoka, Shaquille Harrison and Walt Lemon Jr. when you really need them, right?

Hey, here’s a fun fact: Bulls end-of-the-bencher Matt Thomas scored a career-high 25 points on his senior day at Iowa State. He also made the last 28 free throws of his college career. So what if it was way back in 2017? This guy clearly has the clutch gene. Could it be that the answer to all the Bulls’ problems is right under Donovan’s nose?

No, it wasn’t a serious question. Get ready, though, for a heavy dose of Javonte Green. Did you know Green is the first Radford alum to make it to the NBA? You probably did, considering it gets mentioned whenever the Bulls are on national television and Green is in the game. Come to think of it, does anyone know a single other thing about the man?

It doesn’t matter. This all will be over soon enough.

For this Bulls team — tired, gasping, its best work far behind it — there are no solutions. It’s not the end of the world, but it is too bad it’s ending like this.

Read More

The White Sox didn’t hit or catch the ball, and their pitchers couldn’t throw strikes.

That is how they went about trying to prevent a dreadful losing streak from reaching eight games Tuesday.

Opening a homestand against the Royals, the Sox fell to 6-10 with a 6-0 loss, their eighth in a row to match their longest skid since June 2018, a season in which they lost 100 games.

Things are beginning to spin out of control. And a team with World Series aspirations, while saying it’s early, also is starting to press.

”And you can see it,” manager Tony La Russa said. ”There was some frustration, which is good. If they didn’t care, they wouldn’t be frustrated. The way to end the frustration is just to execute better and be more productive.”

Much like in their 0-6 road trip to Cleveland and Minneapolis that the Sox couldn’t wait to put behind them, this loss offered more bad baseball. The Royals snapped a four-game losing streak.

Left-hander Dallas Keuchel, who was coming off a disastrous start against the Guardians, was backed by more shoddy defense and a big zero for offense, although he walked five in four-plus innings. Sox pitchers issued 11 walks to a Royals team with the lowest walk rate in the AL.

”Tonight, it started with me,” Keuchel said.

After going hitless in the first three innings, the Royals got two runs in the fourth without getting a ball out of the infield. First baseman Jose Abreu dropped a throw from shortstop Tim Anderson for the Sox’ major-league-high 19th error before a walk and a slow roller by Bobby Witt Jr. that deflected off third baseman Jake Burger’s glove for a run-scoring infield hit followed.

”A tough play, but I have to do better,” Burger said.

A slow roller by Adalberto Mondesi to Abreu made it 2-0.

The Royals then sent 10 batters to the plate in a four-run sixth. Four of them walked against relievers Reynaldo Lopez (one) and Kyle Crick (three).

Anderson later made his seventh error in the last seven days — and the Sox’ 20th of the season — on a grounder in the eighth.

”Is there concern, is there frustration, is there disappointment? Absolutely,” general manager Rick Hahn said before the game.

Hahn, however, reminded everyone that it’s April and that he still believes in the Sox’ talent and upside.

”There’s no avoiding the frustration and disappointment, but one of the beautiful things about this sport is the length of the season really forces the cream to rise to the top,” Hahn said.

The Sox are averaging two runs in their last 11 games and are hitting .171 with runners in scoring position in their last 13. Royals left-hander Daniel Lynch held them to two hits and struck out seven in seven innings.

The Sox, who had five hits, were coming off a 6-4 loss Sunday to the Twins in which Byron Buxton’s walk-off home run against closer Liam Hendriks stirred much talk about La Russa’s decision to pitch to him with first base open. Hahn was invited into the discussion Tuesday.

”I have opinions on that, and those are for those involved in decision-making,” Hahn said. “We have those conversations internally and talk things through as a group. Again, ultimately, hopefully give Tony and the coaching staff the best information to make the right decisions.”

As for criticism of La Russa for relying too much on slumping utility player Leury Garcia, who didn’t play Tuesday, Hahn said: ”Ultimately, the manager has the lineup card, and he’s the one who will answer any questions you have about how he’s using the players and when and why.”

No one on the card Tuesday did much of anything.

”At this level, it’s mostly between the ears, the heart, the guts,” La Russa said. ”And we need to have some success to get it rolling, like [Wednesday] afternoon.”

Read More

Needing a win to keep their season alive, the Chicago Bulls have ruled out guards Zach LaVine and Alex Caruso for Wednesday’s Game 5 against the Milwaukee Bucks.

LaVine will not play after entering the NBA’s health and safety protocols Tuesday. Bulls coach Billy Donovan had said LaVine was not feeling great Tuesday morning, and the two-time All-Star did not travel with the team to Milwaukee later that day.

Caruso entered the concussion protocol after he took an inadvertent hit to the face from the Bucks’ Jevon Carter while trying to get around a pick by Giannis Antetokounmpo late in the second quarter of Sunday’s Game 4.

Milwaukee holds a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven first-round Eastern Conference playoff series. LaVine is averaging 19.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 6.0 assists in the series, while Caruso, arguably Chicago’s best defender, has chipped in 6.3 points, 2.8 rebounds and 4.3 assists against the Bucks.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

Read More

The White Sox didn’t hit or catch the ball, and their pitchers couldn’t throw strikes.

That is how they went about trying to prevent a dreadful losing streak from reaching eight games Tuesday against a supposedly inferior opponent. Opening a home stand against the 6-9 Royals, the Sox fell to 6-10 with a 6-0 loss, their eighth in a row to match their longest skein since June 2018, a season in which they lost 100 games.

Much like the 0-6 road trip against two AL Central foes they couldn’t wait to put behind them, this loss offered another complete exhibition of bad baseball for a team with World Series aspirations. The Royals snapped a four-game losing streak.

Left-hander Dallas Keuchel, coming off a disastrous start in Cleveland, was backed by more bad defense and a big zero for offense once again, although five walks over four-plus innings hiked his pitch count to 88 (42 strikes). Sox pitchers issued 11 walks to the team with the lowest walk rate in the AL.

After going hitless in the first three innings, the Royals got two runs in the fourth against Keuchel without getting a ball out of the infield. It started with first baseman Jose Abreu dropping a throw from shortstop Tim Anderson for the Sox’ major league high 19th error, and that set the tone for another bad night. Anderson, on a fairly routine grounder in the eighth, made his seventh error in the last seven days and the Sox’ 20th of the season.

A walk and a slow roller by Bobby Witt Jr. deflecting off third baseman Jake Burger’s glove for a run-scoring infield hit followed. A slow roller by Adalberto Mondesi to Abreu made it 2-0. The Royals sent 10 batters to the plate in a four-run sixth. Four of them walked against Reynaldo Lopez and Kyle Crick (three).

“Is there concern, is there frustration, is there disappointment? Absolutely,” general manager Rick Hahn said before the game. “Is there also perspective that a week ago we were 6-2 and now we’ve had a crap week and we’re 6-9? Can the fact of the matter be, is it one bad week out of a very long season?”

Before a very bad week spilled over into another, Hahn said he believes in the team’s talent and upside.

“There’s no voiding the frustration and disappointment but one of the beautiful things about this sport is the length of the season really forces the cream to rise to the top over the course of the six-month season,” Hahn said.

The Sox were hitting .182/.234/.282 with 22 runs scored for a 2.2 average over their last 10 games. Lefty Dan Lynch held them to no runs on two hits with seven strikeouts over seven innings.

The Sox, who had five hits, were coming off a 6-4 loss Sunday in which Byron Buxton’s three-run homer off closer Liam Hendriks raised much talk about La Russa’s decision to pitch to Buxton with first base open. Hahn was invited into the discussion Tuesday, and declined to agree with La Russa.

“I have opinions on that and those are for those involved in decision making,” Hahn said. “We have those conversations internally and talk things through as a group. Again, ultimately, hopefully give Tony and the coaching staff the best information to make the right decisions.”

Leury Garcia did not play Tuesday, and his usage in the No. 2 and 3 spot in the lineup despite his .098 batting average led to a question for Hahn about La Russa’s lineups.

“We talk almost every day about the issues affecting the team, ranging from player availability and health to usage,” Hahn said. “Ultimately, the manager has the lineup card and he’s the one who will answer any questions you have about how he’s using the players and when and why.”

Read More

ATLANTA – After pitcher Marcus Stroman’s strong debut with the Cubs, pitching coach Tommy Hottovy talked about the right-hander’s desire to unlock an even better version of himself.

“A lot of his career has been really, really good for a long time,” Hottovy said earlier this month, “And he’s done a lot on athleticism, and I think there’s a whole ‘nother dial there that I think can get turned up if he takes what he’s already really good at and is able to repeat that a lot more consistently, the sky’s the limit, really, on what he can do.”

Since thatfirst outing, Stroman has been searching for a consistent rhythm for his last two starts. The Cubs’ 3-1 loss to the Braves on Tuesday was a step toward getting Stroman back to feeling in sync on the mound. And once he gets there, the Cubs can again talk about turning up the dial.

Stroman said he felt more in rhythm on Tuesday, but not quite where he wants to be. He allowed three runs, two earned, on six hits, a quality start.The Cubs’ only run came on a solo homer from Ian Happ.

Cubs manager David Ross zoned in on Stroman getting ahead in the count. His first time through the lineup, Stroman threw first-pitch strikes to six out of nine Braves batters. He issued no walks.

“Really nice performance,” Ross said. “Thought he gave us a chance to win the ballgame. Looked like he was in control pretty much the whole game.”

The Braves would have done even less damage if it weren’t for a hard line drive to center field that Michael Hermosillo misplayed, caught in between for a waist-high hop that got behind him. Dansby Swanson scored from first base, and Ozzie Albies, who’d hit the single, made it all the way to third.

Stroman again stifled the Braves’ momentum, retiring the next two batters in order. He struck out Matt Olson and induced a fly out from Austin Riley.

“He continued to pitch his game,” Ross said. “I think he’s done that pretty successfully so far. Just he hasn’t been where he wants to be…. Tonight, he just continues to make pitches, he seems very unfazed by the environment and the moment. He’s a guy who’s going to go out there and do his thing. And that’s something I love about him.”

In the sixth, Stroman’s last inning on the mound, the Cubs’ outfield defense helped him secure a 1-2-3 frame. Hermosillo ran into the wall on a long fly ball from Travis d’Arnaud, making the catch in a full-out sprint. Seiya Suzuki caught the last out of the frame against the Braves bullpen’s netting.

“Once I’m in sync, then it allows me to do so much more, whether it be timing, whether it be more aggressive in the zone,” Stroman said. “So the biggest thing isdefinitely just being comfortable with my mechanics. If I’m out there for 100 pitches, I want to be consistent on at least 80 to 90 percent of them. I don’t think I’m anywhere near that number right now.”

He is getting closer. That’s good news for the Cubs, who are relying on Stroman and veteran right-hander Kyle Hendricks to lead their rotation.

“I’m happy it went in that direction and not and not backward,” Stroman said. “So, definitely just work off that momentum and work withour guys here to get my body and my mechanics in the best position before next start.”

Read More

ATLANTA – Braves reliever Jesse Chavez greeted Cubs rookie Ethan Robers with a, “How you doing kiddo?'” before their teams opened a three-game series at Truist Park on Tuesday.

Chavez’ 2022 reunion with the Cubs had been short-lived. He’d appeared in three games for the Cubs, allowing four runs in 5 2/3 innings before the Cubs traded him to Atlanta last week, with a cash consideration, for left-hander Sean Newcomb.

In that short time, the veteran reliever made an impact on Roberts.

“I sat and talked in the bullpen with Chavy this week for probably, gosh, a total of two hours probably,” Roberts said last week, “just just nit picking his brain and stuff like that.”

The biggest piece of advice Chavez gave him, Roberts said, was to breathe.

“If you think you’ve got a big pitch to make, you’ve got to breathe deeper than you think you need to breathe,” Roberts recounted.

Chavez told the rookie that in Colorado, after Roberts walked in a run in the fifth inning of an eventual Cubs win.

“It’s a learning experience,” Roberts said with a smile. “I’m young, I’m gonna make mistakes. But I’m going to learn from my mistakes and not make them again.”

Ring in the series

A pair of Cubs pitchers stood on a red circle of red carpet up the first baseline before the game Tuesday as the public address announcer’s voice boomed over the loudspeakers:

“Please welcome back to Braves country, World Champion pitchers Drew Smyly and Chris Martin.”

The crowd gave each an ovation to kick off a brief World Series ring ceremony for the former Braves who signed with the Cubs this spring. They donned their diamond-encrusted rings and held them out to be displayed on the imposing video board over center field.

On the Braves’ way to a title last year, Martin allowed one run in five playoff outings, and Smyly earned the win in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series before appearing in two World Series games.

Simmons slowed

Cubs shortstop Andrelton Simmons (right shoulder inflammation) experienced a minor setback in his rehab in Arizona, the team revealed Tuesday. Simmons is still throwing but is taking a break from hitting live after experiencing shoulder soreness. He’s expected to resume live batting practice next week.

“I think the challenge is, you’ve got an elite defender that we’re missing, right?” Cubs manager David Ross said. “… I think guys [have] been doing really well, we’ve mixed and matched the group as best we could.”

Without Simmons, versatile infielder Jonathan Villar, who the team envisioned as primarily a third baseman, has been serving as the backup shortstop.

“I think the main thing is just knowing he’s a big part of our success,” Ross said of Villar, who has committed four errors but entered Tuesday hitting .341 with eight RBI. “He’s swinging the bat well. Some guy may be playing great defense but not hitting – we’ve all got areas in our game that we can improve. And he’s working.”

Read More

With just two days left until the NFL Draft kicks off in Las Vegas, Chicago Bears GM Ryan Poles met with the media and provided some insight into the team’s draft plans. While it’s more than apparent there are definite needs at a few positions, Poles appears ready to not give in to any panic. How’s he preparing to handle such situations once teams are on the clock? Full blown draft simulations.

Those online mock draft simulators are a great way to pass the day, but Poles’ setup has to be quite the simulator for him to be doing this multiple days. Just how many simulations they’ve gone through and how they concocted the trade offers are the real questions. Yet while this is all a much different approach than what we were accustomed to hearing about from previous Bears regimes, the different methods didn’t stop there.

When it came to building their draft board and ensuring they had the right players in the right spots, Poles and the scouting department incorporated anonymous polling of rankings to avoid “groupthink” scenarios.

With an exercise like this to shake up the room, scouts are obviously being a little more open with their favorites and criticisms that they may not say out loud. Poles went on to say “It allowed everyone to put their thoughts and ideas down and it takes that out of it. You see it. I put it on the screen and you could hear the oohs and ahhs. It was a really cool exercise.”

The biggest takeaway we may see from this approach is the Bears finding they are much higher on a player than the league’s consensus this weekend. Could they get completely roasted because of it? Absolutely. Is it the best approach to come to the right conclusion? We’ll find out just a short few days from now.

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

Read More