PHOENIX — The last time the Cubs played a game, it was the final game of a rough stretch that saw them lose 13 of their final 16 games before the All-Star break. But in their first game of the second half, they got things started on the right foot.
If there was one thing the Cubs offense can still do with the best of ’em, it’s hit the ball out of the ballpark. While their lineup may look different in a few weeks, there’s still plenty of thump in it right now and they showed it in Friday’s 5-1 win over the DBacks as they slugged three homers in the victory.
“I just think the [All-Star] break was really nice for a lot of us,” first baseman Anthony Rizzo said. “Especially opening up out here. A lot of guys were able to come out early and relax or come out west on vacation a little bit. But I just think that stretch was tough and we really needed that reset at the All-Star break.
With the game tied at 1, Rizzo gave the Cubs a lead that they wouldn’t relinquish. Rizzo came into the game hitting .350 off left-handed pitching and showed Madison Bumgarner why as he launched a solo homer in the fourth inning to make it a 2-1 game.
Third baseman Patrick Wisdom had a breakout first half with 12 homers in 43 games and started his second half in similar fashion by hitting a towering solo shot to make it a 3-1 Cubs lead.
“I think these guys just came out and played nice baseball,” manager David Ross said. “I just think we got good starting pitching and we got timely hitting.”
But the Cubs would get one more big swing on the night. Jason Heyward had never hit a pinch-hit homer in his career, but in the seventh inning, he got his opportunity and didn’t miss it. Heyward’s pinch-hit, two-run blast put the game out of reach.
The offense was more than enough for starter Kyle Hendricks, who won his 12th game of the season on Friday. The victory ties him with Dodgers starter Luis Urias for the MLB lead. Hendricks tossed six innings of one-run ball in the victory, lowering his season ERA to 3.65 in the process.
The Cubs’ right-hander has now gone at least six innings in 13 of his last 14 starts.
“Wanted to set a good tone,” Hendricks said. “Obviously, winning being the main goal. … We’re just focused on staying in the moment. Leave the past in the past. We’ve tried to come into today with a little fresh start and focus on the game today.”
Avoid shopping or making important decisions from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Chicago time. After that, the moon moves from Libra into Scorpio.
Aries (March 21-April 19)
Because your concentration on home and family has been strong lately, it’s not surprising that you might have power struggles with someone, especially a parent. Think before you react! Take a moment so you don’t just react, you thoughtfully respond.
Taurus (April 20-May 20)
Yowsers! Today is ripe for power struggles with others — be they siblings, relatives or encounters with routine contacts. Be careful because if you are distracted in heated dispute, this could lead to an accident. Therefore, pull in your reins. Be aware.
Gemini (May 21-June 20)
Don’t get your belly in a rash over financial matters because it’s not worth it. (Of course, in the passion of the moment, it is.) But if you step back and take a long-range view, you will see that because you are having such a successful year, you can be big about things. Show largess.
Cancer (June 21-July 22)
Power struggles between you and someone close to you might take place. But look at the definition of this type struggle? Why is it so important to have power and control? What is really going on? When the annals of history are written, will any of this really matter? Doubtful.
Leo (July 23-Aug. 22)
Life is full of constant change and an illusion that we constantly harbor is that we can be in control of things. But we can’t. If we could, there would be no accidents, no sudden deaths, no fires and no heartbreak. Don’t be upset about something over which you have no control.
Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)
A serious dispute with a friend, or perhaps one of your kids, might take place today. This dispute might also take place with a member of a group. Essentially, you are idealistically opposed and each of you seems to be stuck in your own POV. Does this sound enlightened?
Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)
Steer clear of nasty quarrels with bosses, parents, teachers and the police, because they could arise today. If so, what will you gain by standing up against them? If you are being abused, this is a different matter. But perhaps you are just rebelling for rebellion’s sake?
Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)
Disputes about politics, race or religion might take place today. You have to ask yourself what will this accomplish? Most likely, you will not change anyone else’s POV. Perhaps you just need to express your anger or your anxiety? Better to stay calm.
Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)
Arguments about money, responsibilities, shared property or issues related to inheritances and insurance might arise today. If so, this will be a serious standoff. (Bad Day at Black Rock.) Try to sidestep this kind of intense showdown if you can. You’ll feel better.
Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)
A power struggle with someone who is close to you might take place today. Actually, our closest relationships often entail power struggles. Who’s in control? Who’s calling the shots? Who is to blame? Who made this happen? This is a childish, simplistic interpretation of life, isn’t it?
Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)
Equipment breakdowns at work are likely. Perhaps power struggles related to your pet or your job might take place. If they have an “all or nothing” characteristic to them, this is your first clue. Ultimatums like “all or nothing” are immature expressions of bullying.
Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20)
Parents must be patient and tolerant with their kids today. Likewise, romantic partners must be forgiving with each other because power struggles can lead to painful misunderstandings and meaningless endings.
If Your Birthday Is Today
Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall (1947), shares your birthday. You are cheery, compassionate and caring. You are also determined and ambitious. You are intelligent and are an interesting conversationalist because you have excellent listening skills. This year is a gentler, quieter year for you. Your focus on partnerships and close friendships will be stronger. Because of this, you will be tactful and diplomatic in your conversations with everyone.
PHOENIX – There’s a lot of things in store for the Cubs over the next 14 days and while the trade deadline line is going to be a major marker in the team’s second half, there is also a long time between now and the end of the season.
The Cubs have a veteran clubhouse, but it’s human nature to acknowledge what could lie ahead as a team or as an individual. After the trade of Joc Pederson, many on the outside have seen the next few weeks as the last days for the Cubs as currently assembled, but trying to keep his team’s focus on the present.
Before Friday’s game against the DBacks, manager David Ross’ message was a simple one and he believes his team still has a lot to play for, regardless of what the future might hold.
“We just got to focus on today,” Ross said. “I think that if we get outside of focusing on beating the Arizona Diamondbacks tonight, then we’re going to shortchange ourselves. The fact that you got contracts coming up or you might get traded in two weeks, or what might happen tomorrow or two weeks or at the end of this season doesn’t affect anything that we’re doing today and how we compete and bring our best today.
“That’s what I think we can control, is our today and competing and trying to win a baseball game and what we do in the box or on the mound today is what’s most important. I think that’s what good teams focus on.”
It’s no secret that the final three weeks of the first half weren’t kind to the Cubs as the team lost 13 of its last 16 games entering the break. However, even amid an uncertain future, Ross wants his team to have a clean slate. Before Friday’s game, he briefly met with the team to discuss the second half.
“There’s expectations here for this group,” Ross said. “I think there’s a real positive that can be taken from the core group here and what they created [with] that expectation. Willson, J-Hey, Javy, Rizz, KB, Kyle Hendricks. Those guys created championship expectations here. I think that’s a positive.
“That’s something that they can wear as a badge of honor and pride. The fact that there’s such high expectations here is from those guys and some guys that were teammates of theirs. But the core group has been together, winning championships, winning divisions, putting up big time numbers and championship, baseball, postseason baseball here for the time they’ve been here. I think that’s a huge positive.”
The first year and a half of Ross’ tenure as manager haven’t been the easiest for someone with no previous managerial experience. While having a steep learning curve, he managed a team to a division title through an unprecedented 60-game season in 2020. This season’s first-half rollercoaster in his first “full” season at the helm, which included an 11-game losing streak, hasn’t been a walk in the park either.
But the reassessment doesn’t stop with the players and throughout his brief time as Cubs’ skipper has often talked about always trying to improve as a manager and that won’t change in the second half.
“You reflect back on some of the things I [talked about earlier]. There’s this doom and gloom over the last two weeks that I don’t know really paints the picture of our first half,” Ross said. “We played our worst baseball when Milwaukee was playing their best and going through the toughest stretch of our schedule and they’re their easiest stretch, like there’s a lot to reflect off of.”
“One of the best communicators and connectors of people that I’ve been around,” Hoyer said last week. “I think David’s a star. He’s done a fantastic job. … Sometimes in these situations people look for blame. I wouldn’t point any in his direction.”
A man was shot to death in a drive-by Friday night in West Pullman on the Far South Side.
The 26-year-old was on the street about 6:50 p.m. in the 12000 block of South Union Avenue when a vehicle pulled up and someone from inside fired shots, Chicago police said.
He was struck multiple times on the body and he was taken to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead, police said.
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Gloria Richardson, an influential yet largely unsung civil rights pioneer whose determination not to back down while protesting racial inequality was captured in a photograph as she pushed away the bayonet of a National Guardsman, has died. She was 99.
Tya Young, her granddaughter, said Richardson died in her sleep Thursday in New York City and had not been ill. Young said while her grandmother was at the forefront of the civil rights movement, she didn’t seek praise or recognition.
“She did it because it needed to be done, and she was born a leader,” Young said.
Richardson was the first woman to lead a prolonged grassroots civil rights movement outside the Deep South. In 1962, she helped organized and led the Cambridge Movement on Maryland’s Eastern Shore with sit-ins to desegregate restaurants, bowling alleys and movie theaters in protests that marked an early part of the Black Power movement.
“I say that the Cambridge Movement was the soil in which Richardson planted a seed of Black power and nurtured its growth,” said Joseph R. Fitzgerald, who wrote a 2018 biography on Richardson titled “The Struggle is Eternal: Gloria Richardson and Black Liberation.”
Richardson became the leader of demonstrations over bread and butter economic issues like jobs, health care access and sufficient housing.
“Everything that the Black Lives Matter movement is working at right now is a continuation of what the Cambridge Movement was doing,” Fitzgerald said.
In pursuit of these goals, Richardson advocated for the right of Black people to defend themselves when attacked.
“Richardson always supported the use of nonviolent direct action during protests, but once the protests were over and if Black people were attacked by whites she fully supported their right to defend themselves,” Fitzgerald said.
Richardson was born in Baltimore and later lived in Cambridge in Maryland’s Dorchester County — the same county where Harriet Tubman was born. She entered Howard University when she was 16. During her years in Washington, she began to protest segregation at a drug store.
In 1962, Richardson attended the meeting of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Atlanta and later joined the board.
In the summer of 1963, after peaceful sit-ins turned violent in Cambridge, Gov. J. Millard Tawes declared martial law. When Cambridge Mayor Calvin Mowbray asked Richardson to halt the demonstrations in exchange for an end to the arrests of Black protesters, Richardson declined to do so. On June 11, rioting by white supremacists erupted and Tawes called in the National Guard.
While the city was still under National Guard presence, Richardson met with U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy to negotiate what became informally known as the “Treaty of Cambridge.” It ordered equal access to public accommodations in Cambridge in return for a one-year moratorium on demonstrations.
Richardson was a signatory to the treaty, but she had never agreed to end the demonstrations. It was only the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that began to resolve issues at the local level.
She was one of the nation’s leading female civil rights’ activists and inspired younger activists who went on to protest racial inequality in the late 1960s and into the 1970s.
Richardson was on the stage at the pivotal March on Washington in 1963 as one of six women listed as “fighters for freedom” on the program. However, she was only allowed to say “hello” before the microphone was taken.
The male-centric Black Power movement and the fact that Richardson’s leadership in Cambridge lasted about three years may have obscured how influential she was, but Fitzgerald said she was well-known in Black America.
“She was only active for approximately three years, but during that time she was literally front and center in a high-stakes Black liberation campaign, and she’s being threatened,” Fitzgerald said. “She’s got white supremacist terrorists threatening her, calling her house, threatening her with her life.”
Richardson resigned from Cambridge, Maryland, Nonviolent Action Committee in the summer of 1964. Divorced from her first husband, she married photographer Frank Dandridge and moved to New York where she worked a variety of jobs, including the National Council for Negro Women.
She is survived by her daughters, Donna Orange and Tamara Richardson, and granddaughters Young and Michelle Price.
James Solis stood in the parking lot of a shuttered Chicago Public School drenched in water, trying to catch his breath.
The recent high school graduate, along with other West Side kids, some as young as 6, was in a massive water balloon fight Friday afternoon, but they weren’t targeting each other. Instead, their opponents were nearly a dozen Chicago police officers.
“I think this kind of helps make the relationship better because there is a lot of head butting with people in authority and young kids like ourselves,” Solis said. “It gets us to a common ground that not all police are bad and not all kids are bad — really we just want to help each other out.”
For the last four years, Solis has participated in The BASE Chicago, which helps young people improve their academic prowess through sports. He credits the organization with getting him through a difficult time when his father died. The BASE, he said, put him on a path to play baseball for Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, starting this fall.
The BASE Chicago organized the water balloon fight with the Chicago Police Knights Baseball Club — a team made up with active police officers — and the Westside Ministers Collaborative. Kids enrolled in programs at Tilton Park also took part.
West Side youth had a water balloon fight with Chicago police officers from the Chicago Police Knights Baseball Club on Friday. Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times
Solis said officers from the Knights have become a staple in the organization; now, rather than be scared of police in the community, he sees them as friends and mentors.
Frank Brim, executive director of The BASE Chicago, said the water fight was a way to help normalize relations with the police and also humanize the young people from the West Side.
“A lot of times kids in this ZIP code have been known for being what some considered bad kids and we want to introduce our kids as great kids doing some great things who have phenomenal parents,” Brim said. “We also have the police officers and some of our kids feel a certain way about them, so this is an opportunity to get them engaged.”
Solis said he knows firsthand how important it is for police to show young people like him that they care about the community.
Eric Bermudez, a Chicago police officer, said the water fight was fun, but more importantly, events like this are essential to building trust.
“It’s an amazing feeling to get out here into the community in a positive and safe environment with our youth to show them we are out here for them and we care,” Bermudez said. “This kind of thing is essential; in order to effect change, you got to go out and make change. We are out here and we care.”
Officers from the Chicago Police Knights Baseball Club held a water balloon fight with West Side Youth, many from The BASE, a youth sports league. The two sides squared off outside the former Marconi Elementary Community Academy on Friday.Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times
LOS ANGELES — Biz Markie, a hip-hop staple known for his beatboxing prowess, turntable mastery and the 1989 classic “Just a Friend,” has died. He was 57.
Markie’s representative, Jenni Izumi, said the rapper-DJ died peacefully Friday evening with his wife by his side. The cause of death has not been released.
“We are grateful for the many calls and prayers of support that we have received during this difficult time,” Izumi said in a statement. “Biz created a legacy of artistry that will forever be celebrated by his industry peers and his beloved fans whose lives he was able to touch through music, spanning over 35 years. He leaves behind a wife, many family members and close friends who will miss his vibrant personality, constant jokes and frequent banter.”
Markie, who birth name was Marcel Theo Hall, became known within the rap genre realm as the self-proclaimed “Clown Prince of Hip-Hop” for lighthearted lyrics and a humorous nature. He made music with the Beastie Boys, opened for Chris Rock’s comedy tour and was a sought-after DJ for countless star-studded events.
Biz Markie attends the 20th Century Fox press line on Day 2 of Comic-Con International on July 25, 2014, in San Diego.Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP
The New York-native’s music career began in 1985 as a beat boxer of the Juice Crew, a rap collective he helped Big Daddy Kane join. Three years later, he released his debut album “Goin’ Off,” which featured underground hits “Vapors” and “Pickin’ Boogers.”
Markie broke into mainstream music with his platinum-selling song “Just a Friend,” the lead single on his sophomore album “The Biz Never Sleeps.” The friend-zone anthem cracked Rolling Stone’s top 100 pop songs and made VH1’s list of 100 greatest hip-hop songs of all time.
Markie, who released five total studio albums, consistently booked more than 175 shows a year, according to the rapper’s website. He’s appeared on television shows including “In Living Color” and the 2002 movie “Men in Black II,” which had him playing an alien parody of himself in the film starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones.
Markie also taught the method of beatboxing in an episode of the children’s show “Yo Gabba Gabba!”
I go back in the “hutch” for Playboy’s long anticipated International Playboy Bunny Reunion here in Chicago. This weekend-long event is also a celebration of the 60th anniversary of The Playboy Club. Read story here: https://bit.ly/2VSn2Q7, and enjoy photos below.
Candace Jordan, award-winning media personality, cyber-scribe and author CandidCandace.com has appeared on three of the city’s top 100 lists: 100 Powerful Chicagoans, 100 Women Making a Difference and 100 Women of Influence. She has been a Chicago personal brand since moving here in 1974 and is a champion and an advocate for our city, shining a light on the charities, people and events that make it great through her many media outlets, including her popular Candid Candace blog.
I’m a tiny bit obsessed with space. I’m told it’s an acceptable obsession because I take what I learn and share it with others. If I’m not writing about space, among other things, I’m busy doing science with one of the many student orgs I volunteer with or, advocating to bring more STEM programs to underrepresented students. I miss working in a lab, so invite me out to see yours!
One reason that Chicagoans might be having problems getting a response to their non-emergency calls to the city is that officers in the Chicago Police Department’s non-emergency call center have been having trouble meeting their bosses’ performance expectations.
That’s according to records obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times that show the officers’ “average service level” — the percentage of calls answered within the police department’s “goal response time” — was just 38% during a sample period of April 19 to April 30.
Asked whether top police officials are satisfied with that performance, a department spokesman said the unit is “continuously being evaluated to identify areas of improvement.”
The Alternate Response Section is staffed by cops who’ve been stripped of their police powers and others not medically cleared for full duty. They work in a building on the Near West Side.
Doyle said she made most of her calls to 311. It’s unclear from her phone records whether her delays occurred at the 311 call center — which is staffed by civilian city employees — or after she was transferred to the police-run Alternate Response Section.
People can call 311 to request city service like garbage pickup and complain about things like airport noise and rat infestation.
People who call to fill out a non-emergency police report get transferred to the Alternate Response Section — either by the 311 operators or by pressing “7” on their phones to be automatically transferred there. Or they can bypass that process by calling the Alternate Response Section directly at (312) 746-6000.
Citizens also can fill out non-emergency police reports online or have officers in the field or at police stations take their reports.
Doyle said her mother tried to file a report at a South Side police station but was told she couldn’t because she didn’t own the vehicle. Doyle said she filed her report on the phone because she now lives in Arizona.
According to the records the city released for the last 12 days of April:
The average wait time for an officer to pick up the phone was two minutes and 46 seconds. The biggest delay for an officer to pick up the phone was more than 29 minutes — on April 20.
More than 12,000 calls were made to the Alternate Response Section in that period, including those transferred from the 311 center and those made directly to the unit.
About 9,300 calls were picked up by cops answering the phones. About 2,760 people hung up rather than wait after being put on hold.
The 311 call-takers transferred about 1,500 calls to officers. Callers pressed “7” to bypass a live 311 operator more than 5,760 times.
The majority of the calls to the Alternate Response Section don’t result in a police report being taken because many are for information that doesn’t require one, according to police officials.
Theft was the No. 1 type of report filed by the unit. Slightly more theft reports — 1,394 — were filed by Alternate Response Section officers than by cops in the city’s 22 districts, who took 1,382 theft reports in that period.
Alternate Response Section officers also took slightly more vehicle theft reports than district cops: 383 to 335.
Officers in the Alternate Response Section don’t take reports about traffic accidents.
The entrance to the building where 311 operations and the Alternate Response Section are headquartered at 2111 W. Lexington.Ashlee Rezin Garcia / Sun-Times
Launched more than 20 years ago, the 311 center — and the Alternate Response Section — were supposed to take pressure off the 911 operators who handle life-and-death calls.
In 2013, the police department under then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel decided to send alternate response a greater share of citizen’s calls for police service. Cops were no longer supposed to respond in person to 911 calls about vehicle thefts, garage burglaries or crimes in which the victim is “safe, secure and not in need of medical attention” and the suspect is “not on the scene and not expected to return immediately,” according to the 2013 policy.
Those calls would be transferred from 911 to the Alternate Response Section — a change the police said would free 44 officers a day to respond to the most serious crimes.
From April 19 to April 30, Alternate Response Section officers filled out 19% of the police department’s non-emergency reports. District cops in the field and in police stations handled the other 81%.
Asked whether they’d like to see the Alternate Response Section officers taking a bigger share of non-emergency reports, police officials answered only, “ARS was designed to maximize the ability of the department to readily respond to serious criminal acts and emergency situations and focus on crime and disorder problems on the beat level.”
More than 230 officers were assigned to the unit in late April and May, including 95 officers on limited duty.
Some officers have remained in the Alternate Response Section for years, getting their full police pay.
Officer Thomas Sherry leaves the Cook County criminal courts building at 26th Street and California Avenue after a 2006 court appearance.Brian Jackson / Sun-Times file
One officer, Thomas Sherry, was on desk duty in the unit for more than a decade until the department moved to fire him and suspended him without pay Feb. 10. He was accused of doing illegal searches and filing false reports in 2004, court records show.
Between 2002 and 2006, Sherry had worked for the now-disbanded Special Operations Section, a citywide unit that made drug and gun arrests. Some officers in the unit were convicted in a federal corruption investigation, but criminal charges against Sherry were dropped in 2009.
Former police Cmdr. Jacob Alderden, who ran the Central District downtown until he was demoted to captain in early June, is now in charge of the Alternate Response Section. He got the department’s highest honor in 2018 for his actions following a hospital shooting. Police officials won’t say why he was demoted, saying that’s a “personnel matter.”
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