Since the first Sports Saturday, we’ve covered all of Chicago’s teams in ways you won’t see anywhere else. Here are our favorite stories from the first 100 issues.
Even when there’s nothing going on in Chicago sports, there’s something going on.
It was never truer than during the all-out shutdown in the sports world that began in mid-March of last year and persisted here until Cubs and White Sox started arriving at their home ballparks at the tail end of June for “Spring Training 2.0.”
Still, we found things to write about. And on Saturdays, we continued to pack our Sports section like nobody else.
And now — unlikely as it might have seemed at one dark time or another — the Sun-Times has reached a milestone: our 100th Sports Saturday edition.
The weeks, stories and magazine-style cover images — starting with Ernie Banks and the ’69 Cubs in our debut edition on April 6, 2019 — have flown by in a delightful blur. Since then, every Chicago athlete who’s anybody has appeared on a Sports Saturday cover. And for those who haven’t, their time is coming.
“How do you all do that every single week?” is a question we’re frequently asked.
The only answer: How could we not?
Below is a collection of our favorite stories from the first 100 editions of Sports Saturday.
Blackhawks forward Ryan Carpenter scored twice this weekend against the Red Wings. | Getty
Since returning from his relatively active COVID-19 quarantine, Carpenter has enjoyed arguably his best stretch of hockey since joining the Hawks.
During his two weeks in February with COVID-19, Ryan Carpenter found a silver lining to his sensory loss:
He couldn’t “smell my boy’s poopy diapers.”
But the Blackhawks forward’s two sons — 1-year-old Brock and 3-year-old Beau — still kept him busy, preventing him from resting for 14 days without much exercise like NHL doctors recommend.
“I don’t know if I was supposed to, but I [rode] a stationary bike on my own,” Carpenter said. “Maybe it’s [because of] the kids, too…I wasn’t able to sit around on the couch all day. I know we weren’t really able to leave our apartment until our quarantine was up, but I was still pretty active throughout the day.”
A few weeks later, Carpenter’s relatively exercise-laden quarantine has transitioned into one of his best stretches of hockey since signing with the Hawks in 2019.
The 30-year-old Floridian returned to the Hawks’ lineup Feb. 17, just four days after his activation from the COVID-19 list — much faster than Adam Boqvist or Lucas Wallmark did.
In the six games since, Carpenter — typically a defense-first fourth-line forward — has grown into a significantly more offensive role, including on the Hawks’ first power play unit.
That paid off Sunday against the Red Wings, when Carpenter recorded the first two-goal night of his 216-game NHL career. After scoring just three times in 69 games last season, Carpenter has three in 15 games this season.
“I probably tied my goals from last year already, but it’s not saying much,” Carpenter said. “But I came into this season having a simpler mindset. It helps me on the power play tonight.
“Sometimes goals aren’t always pretty: you just found a way to get it, like that [first] goal that went off somebody and in. So I’m working hard, simplifying my game, not being too cute and just being around the net — that’s where a lot of the goals are scored.”
AP PhotosCarpenter has already matched his 2019-20 goal-scoring output this season.
Carpenter is attempting more shots this season than last (11.8 attempts per 60 minutes, up from 7.9 last year), being more accurate with those attempts (67% are on goal, up from 63%) and forcing goaltenders to spit out rebounds three times more often.
He’s also produced 9.0 scoring chances per 60 minutes, up from 5.4 last year. And his increased offensive aggressiveness hasn’t sacrificed his defensive stoutness; he still ranks top three on the Hawks in both main possession proxy stats.
His new power play role is an even stranger experience, given that he’d enjoyed only 40 minutes of power-play time in his entire career prior to 2021.
But Carpenter texted with Andrew Shaw, who’d been very effective in the same rover spot within the Hawks’ 1-3-1 formation before his concussion, to get “some pointers.”
“I know my role here up to this point has just been more of a depth guy, a good penalty killer,” Carpenter said. “But whatever the coaches ask me, I’m not going to say, ‘No, I don’t want to go out there.’ I’d love to be on the power play.”
Coach Jeremy Colliton has been pleased so far.
“He’s there to get pucks back and support and be the right-handed option in the middle, and he’s been doing that,” Colliton said Sunday. “We broke pressure well tonight, we got the puck back, and it was a good finish [by Ryan].”
Carpenter is likely just a short-term power-play option until the Hawks figure out something better. His five-on-five play is not about to make him a Richard Trophy candidate, either: despite his three goals, he’s still seeking his first assist of the season.
For now, though, Carpenter’s offensive evolution has been both substantial and impactful.
All NIT games will be played in the Dallas area this year. | Steve Helber/AP
The semifinals and championship game won’t be at New York’s Madison Square Garden for the first time in the 83-year history of college basketball’s oldest postseason tournament.
The NIT is moving the entire 2021 event to Texas because of the coronavirus pandemic, taking the semifinals and championship game out of New York’s Madison Square Garden for the first time in the 83-year history of college basketball’s oldest postseason tournament.
The field is being reduced to 16 teams from the usual 32, and all games will be played in the Dallas area. The two venues are the University of North Texas in Denton and an arena in Frisco that is home to a G League team affiliated with the Dallas Mavericks.
First-round games will be played March 17-20, with the quarterfinals March 25. The semifinals are set for March 27, followed by the championship game the next day. Specific arenas for each round weren’t announced.
The NIT field will be announced after the NCAA Tournament is set March 14. The Texas Longhorns won the most recent NIT in 2019.
Chicago White Sox’s Leury Garcia fields a grounder during a spring training baseball practice Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2021, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin) | AP Photos
It’s easier said than done, versatile veteran says. ‘In heat of moment, you just react,’ he says.
TEMPE, Ariz. — The White Sox need Leury Garcia to stay healthy, and refraining from head-first slides into first might be a way to go about that. But Garcia says it isn’t as easy as you might think.
In the heat of the moment, instincts take over, and they might not always be in the player’s best interest.
“That’s definitely something that you can control, that I try to control, but sometimes, in the heat of the moment, you just react,” Garcia said Monday. “It’s difficult.”
Trying to avoid an out, Garcia slid head first into first base in a game against the Tigers last August, tore a ligament in his left thumb and missed the last six weeks of the regular season. In 2017, he sprained the index finger on his left hand sliding headfirst into second base in Cleveland.
“But it’s definitely something that I’ve been working on,” Garcia said. “I’m not planning to do it. But we’ll see. I’m going to try to not react that way. I know you can control it, but it’s not always easy to do it.”
A switch-hitter, Garcia has value as multi-dimensional infielder and outfielder with speed, some power.
La Russa said Garcia “stood out with quickness, arm strength and stroke from both sides” when he was working in the Diamondbacks front office.
“Keep him healthy, a lot of ways he can help you win a game,” La Russa said.
Garcia, who turns 30 this month, is the longest tenured Sox.
Careful with Grandal
Catcher Yasmani Grandal (right knee inflammation) began ramping up activity Sunday after missing three days but won’t be pushed hard, La Russa said, it being only March 1.
Opening Day is April 1.
“Yasmani is definitely making progress every day,” La Russa said. “If the opening day was two weeks, maybe you think about pushing him a little, but it’s not two weeks from now, so we should really get it at a pace to where he’s really 100 percent when he comes back and he makes progress every day.”
The Sox, La Russa said knocking on a table and his head, are in good health a couple weeks into camp.
“[Trainer] James [Kruk]gives us a report at the end of the day and the first of the day, and overall, a little hammy here, guys are in good shape.”
Abreu might play Tuesday
Jose Abreu joined the team on Saturday after a positive coronavirus test (he was asymptomatic) delayed his arrival, and might play against the Rangers Tuesday, La Russa said.
Kopech and Crochet
La Russa on right-hander Michael Kopech and lefty Garret Crochet:
“Michael is improving every time out there, we’re going to go at the right pace to account for getting back on the mound after being away so long. Crochet is in real good shape, he’s had good work here in January when he was rehabbing. Every time I see him, sharper and as impressive as ever.”
Chris Crack has released five albums of no-frills trash-talking hip-hop in 2020 alone, but he’s not worried about saturating the market. When he talked to Audiomack’s Matthew Ritchie upon the release of his first album of 2021, Might Delete Later, the west-side rapper quipped, “Did Aunt Jemima make too much syrup?…Read More
Chicago White Sox bench coach Miguel Cairo, left, hits a grounder to White Sox third baseman Jake Burger during a spring training baseball practice Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2021, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin) | AP Photos
“Those injuries are well behind me and I’m back to playing baseball and belong there,” Burger said.
TEMPE, Ariz. — Name your favorite spring training story:
Once highly touted prospect comes to camp attempting comeback from devastating series of injuries.
Player comes to camp in the best shape of his life.
Player shares his struggle, and now everyone is rooting for him.
Third baseman Jake Burger’s touches them all, and it’s as warm as the Arizona sun.
The “best shape” angle was displayed in pictures at the White Sox spring training complex the last few days. One showed Burger taking ground balls at third, unrecognizable to many after a massive weight loss.
The other was Burger’s massive mug shot on the Camelback Ranch scoreboard during the Sox’ Cactus League opener against the Brewers Sunday, a puffier-faced version of one of the nicest guys around.
And a terribly outdated one that prompted Burger, 24, playing third base, to tell shortstop Tim Anderson, ‘I need to get that picture changed.’ I’m 40 pounds down from that picture. I really want a new picture.”
Anderson told Burger to ‘ask me any question you got. I got you.’
“It’s three years out of the game,” Burger said, “so he’s going to kind of help me speed it back up. It’s awesome playing next to him.”
Everyone wants to help. Three years ago on the same field, as a rookie, Burger was digging hard down the first-base line after hitting a routine ground ball. Minutes later, he was leaving the field on a cart, his left Achilles ruptured.
He would rupture it again – in the backyard, no less — suffer a bruised heel as well and during his rehab sink into states of depression and anxiety. He openly shared them, endearing fans and teammates to him even more.
“I’ve learned a lot about myself and a lot about life itself over these two seasons,” Burger, 24, posted on social media last March. “I’ve battled depression and anxiety. But I’ve realized that opening up and talking about everything has helped me get through it. If anyone that sees this needs help or wants to talk, my DMs [direct messages] are always open.”
Today, he is in a much better place, mentally and physically. When Burger drove to camp for the first time this year, he couldn’t hold back tears.
Within days, manager Tony La Russa threw his name out there as a candidate to push Andrew Vaughn in the designated hitter competition. And then La Russa started him at third base in Sunday’s first game.
“It was one of those things where it kind of told me that I belonged,” Burger said. “Those injuries are well behind me and I’m back to playing baseball and belong there.”
A first-round draft choice out of Southwest Missouri, Burger was a Cardinals fan who attended Game 6 of the 2011 World Series when David Freese hit a walkoff homer. The Cardinals manager? Tony La Russa, in his last season before his first retirement.
“He’s a winner,” Burger said. “That’s the type of manager I want to play for.”
Burger went 0-for-3 Sunday but said his timing was crisp, so he came away feeling OK about his first game. No one expects Burger to make the team out of camp, but La Russa likes what he sees.
“In the infield drills he’s really been agile and he’s shown a very strong, accurate arm,” La Russa said. “And he’s had good at-bats. He’s healthy, you can tell he’s determined and he’s really pleased. I don’t know that he ever took for granted the game of baseball but he certainly is excited, happy to be playing and he hasn’t had a bad day yet.”
Hearing from fans in the stands was the cherry on top.
“It was incredible,” he said. “It’s awesome hearing ‘glad you’re back’ and saying ‘what’s up’ to me. It was unbelievable and then same on Twitter. That’s the support I had throughout this entire journey. Having a big day for myself but also for the people that supported me through it.”
Red Stars owner Arnim Whisler stands next to midfielder Vanessa Dibernardo who was celebrating her 100th NWSL appearance in 2019. | Daniel Bartel/ISIPhotos.com
The announcement comes on the heels of a number of newly named celebrity investors in NWSL teams.
The announcement comes on the heels of a number of newly named celebrity investors in NWSL teams. The Red Stars’ 14 new investors include industry leaders in entertainment, technology and business with ties to Chicago. Their goal is to continue developing a world-class environment reflective of the athletes playing for the Red Stars.
For Coyne Schofield and her husband, NFL unrestricted free agent Michael Schofield, their investment is deeply personal.
As a member of the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association, which just embarked on its second Dream Gap Tour, Coyne Schofield is all too familiar with the lack of investment in women’s sports. Her involvement — like her career as a player, a broadcaster and a development coach — is to show women what’s possible.
Annie Costabile/Sun-TimesKendall Coyne Schofield addresses a group of young athletes before they break up into different groups at the PWHPA’s youth clinic at the United Center in 2019.
“As two professional athletes ourselves, we’ve had two very different experiences in the professional sports world,” Coyne Schofield said. “Our involvement is beyond capital. It’s about bringing awareness to the disparity between men’s and women’s professional sports.”
“Kendall is one of the hardest working athletes I know,” Schofield said. “Women’s sports don’t get the respect they deserve. By us investing in it, we hope that it helps grow the women’s game. And when I say the women’s game, I mean all of them.”
Coyne Schofield jokes that even though her life revolves around women’s sports and advocating for the sustainability of women’s professional sports leagues, women’s hockey more specifically, her husband might be the biggest women’s sports fan in their household.
Regardless, they’re hoping their investment will inspire others to invest in women’s sports when they see the difference it makes.
Before making their final decision, Coyne Schofield said she was fortunate to have a conversation with Spain. When she learned Spain was on board, along with other investors such as music executive Colleen Mares and entrepreneur Marie Tillman, it reinforced the reasons she wanted to be involved.
The Red Stars are the latest NWSL franchise to announce the addition of high-profile investors. In January, four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka joined the back-to-back championship-winning North Carolina Courage. After the news broke, founding and majority Red Stars owner Arnim Whisler texted the Sun-Times that the Red Stars spoke to the tennis star, too.
Introducing the newest caretakers of this team – they are owners, fans, community members, dreamers, builders, movers, growers, and more broad shoulders to stand upon. It’s a Chicago thing.
Spain said she felt inspired by colleague and two-time World Cup champion and Olympic gold medalist Julie Foudy’s ownership stake in Angel City FC. It didn’t occur to her that the Red Stars might be expanding their ownership group or that she would be approached by Whisler. She just knew she wanted to be an owner.
“At the ESPNW Summit, one of my panels was with Abby Wambach and Glennon Doyle,” Spain said. “Abby talked in her book about if they don’t give you a seat at the table, screw pulling up a chair and build a new table. I think I kind of joked with [Julie] Foudy and Glennon and Abby, saying, ‘Well, I’m going to be an owner.’ ”
Spain began earnest conversations with Whisler in October. When she brought the idea to her financial advisor, she was told, “This is a perfect fit for you.”
When Whisler originally set out to expand the Red Stars’ capital base, he did it with a few goals in mind. He wanted to reflect the diversity of the organization’s fan base in its owners, to be able to attract global soccer stars and to secure the future success of the organization.
Chicago’s new ownership group was introduced to the media Monday afternoon. During the zoom press conference, Whisler said he expects fans to return to the stadium this season at 25% capacity. The Red Stars’ first home game will fall between May 15 and May 22, Whisler added.
The continuous growth across the NWSL from league sponsorships that include Budweiser, Twitch, Verizon and CBS, to team investors indicates the future of women’s soccer in the United States is bright. There is still a huge gap between women’s professional leagues and men’s from the obvious disparities in media coverage all the way, to pay and training environments.
Idonije addressed those differences saying he never could have imagined working multiple jobs in order to sustain his 11-year professional football career. A reality for many professional athletes in the NWSL and other professional women’s sports leagues.
“These are elite pro athletes, period,” Idonije said. “Everything they experience needs to be on that level, the same level that other pro athletes are experiencing in other leagues.”
Based on the revenue from attendance expectations for 2021, sponsorships, camps and clinics and merchandise the team has already added $500,000 in spending that can be put towards training environment, housing and front office hires.
As far as how this investor group alleviated the financial strain caused by the pandemic, Whisler said the first funds weren’t brought in until November. By that time, the organization had weathered much of the fallout without assistance other than the federal PPP loan it received for $127,924 last April.
What Whisler said this group gave was a commitment to the 2021 season and beyond and the team is not done adding to its new list of investors.
“There are more coming,” Whisler said.
The list of owners, which the team said is still developing:
The Bears are hiring former Texas head coach Tom Herman. | Tim Warner/Getty Images
He’ll serve in a newly created role — offensive analyst/special projects coach.
The Bears are hiring former University of Texas head coach Tom Herman in a newly created role — offensive analyst/special projects coach.
The Longhorns fired Herman in early January after four years, during which he went 32-18 at one of America’s premier coaching stops. His 7-3 showing in 2020 wasn’t deemed good enough, though, and he was eventually replaced by Alabama offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian.
Herman was the head coach at Houston for two years, going 22-4 before taking the Texas job.
Herman has never coached outside of college football — or, except for a five-year period, the state of Texas. It’s unclear what special projects he will oversee, and how much time he will spend inside Halas Hall. He joins former Packers defensive coordinator Mike Pettine, who was named a senior defensive assistant last month.
Also Monday, the Bears named Anthony Hibbert assistant strength coach. He spent the past six seasons at Oklahoma State.
GettyActress Erica Watson attends the “CHI-RAQ” New York premiere at Ziegfeld Theater on December 1, 2015 in New York City.
Chicago actress and stand-up comedian Erica Watson died in Jamaica on Saturday from COVID-19 complications, according to a family member. She was 48.
On Sunday, Watson’s brother, Eric Watson, confirmed his sister’s death via a Facebook post, writing, in part: “We are not taking this easy. Please respect our privacy right now … as we make arrangements to bring my sister home. Keep us in your prayers.”
Watson, a Kenwood Academy High School and Columbia College alumna, wore many hats as an actress, stand-up comedian, public relations representative and activist. Her acting credits and media work include Showtime’s “The Chi,” NBC’s “Chicago Fire,” Spike Lee’s feature film“Chi-Raq,” ABC 7’s “Windy City Live” and WCIU’s “The Jam.”
In 2018, Watson created “Fierce,” a cosmetic collection in a brand partnership with Nena Cosmetics, where she was one of the cover girls for their advertisements.
“When I was a little girl ‘What Are Little Girls Made Of’ was my favorite nursery rhyme, but I wasn’t the normal little girl where it was just sugar and spice and everything nice. There was a little naughty in the mix,” she told the Sun-Times in 2018.
2:50 p.m. Excitement, tears and masks as CPS students head back to school for 1st time during pandemic
Nicole Ramirez thought she’d be able to handle it, but then she saw staff at Walt Disney Magnet School swipe her 7-year-old daughter’s forehead with a thermometer.
And Ramirez started to cry.
“It’s something about everything we’ve gone through this year. Dropping her off has been really emotional for me,” said Ramirez, 40, still teary eyed as she talked Monday morning in Uptown.
Ramirez’s daughter was one of more than 37,000 K-5 Chicago Public Schools students expected to return Monday, with another 18,500 in sixth to eighth grade set to return next week. That’s the largest group to return since the pandemic started, although 145,000 have chosen to continue learning remotely.
12:54 p.m. Johnson & Johnson’s one-and-done vaccine arriving in Chicago this week, mayor says
Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times
Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday she expects Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot coronavirus vaccine to arrive in Chicago in day or two and the city is ready to put the third option to immediate use.
Two days after the Food and Drug Administration cleared the J&J vaccine for emergency use, Lightfoot told reporters she’s chomping at the bit to take advantage of the one-and-done option it provides.
“We anticipate that it will be here, if not today, then tomorrow. I don’t have a firm lock on what the amount of doses is, so I don’t want to get ahead of myself. But we do expect it here this week,” the mayor said at a news conference on the gradual re-opening of Chicago Public Schools.
“We will put it to work as soon as we get it. CDPH has been preparing now for some time, as we saw the Johnson & Johnson vaccine kind of moving through the regulatory approval process. And it gives us obviously another tool to use to get people vaccinated. So we’re excited for that opportunity.”
Johnson & Johnson initially is providing a few million doses of its one-shot vaccine, with shipments to states expected to begin Monday. By the end of March, the pharmaceutical giant has said it expects to deliver 20 million doses, ramping up to 100 million doses by summer.
11:40 a.m. It’s another back-to-school Monday for CPS
Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times Children walk to George B. Armstrong International Studies Elementary School as students return to in-person learning at the Rogers Park neighborhood school on the North Side, Monday morning, March 1, 2021.
Nicole Ramirez thought she’d be able to handle it, but then she saw staff at Walt Disney Magnet School swipe her 7-year-old daughter’s forehead with a thermometer.
And Ramirez started to cry.
“It’s something about everything we’ve gone through this year. Dropping her off has been really emotional for me,” said Ramirez, 40, still teary-eyed as she talked Monday morning.
More than 37,000 K-5 students are due to return Monday, with another 18,500 in sixth to eighth grade set to return next week. That’s in addition to the 5,000 pre-kindergarten and special education cluster program students who have been in classrooms already.
Disney Principal Paul Riskus stood outside the North Side school, greeting parents — many of whom were, perhaps not surprisingly, a little confused about which entrance to use at the sprawling concrete-and-steel campus.
“We’re ready. We’ve been getting ready since July,” Riskus said. “There have definitely been challenges, but I’m really excited about today. We feel the building is safe and we’re really just excited about seeing the kids.”
9:39 a.m. Near West Side’s profit lure outlasts the pandemic’s lull
Wander the sidewalks of the Near West Side, and it’s easy to get an eerie sensation. It’s almost like a “Twilight Zone” episode about a place with evidence of human habitation right there, maybe just around the corner, and yet you don’t see anybody.
It’s just the mind playing tricks, after all. Whatever name applies — West Loop, Fulton Market, West Town — the region was Chicago’s busiest place for development and an extension of downtown’s commercial might.
It’s hushed now, as people are still staying out of offices. With capacity limits in place, restaurants are groggily stirring to life, but there is still less reason than before to be out and about, even with the weather easing up.
Look closer, though, at the signs of ongoing investment, and the neighborhood gives off a different vibe. Having recoiled in the pandemic, parts look ready to spring back to business.
State health officials reported an additional 22 people have succumbed to COVID-19, bringing the number of virus-related deaths to 20,516. Eight of Sunday’s 22 fatalities were reported in the Chicago area and included three Cook County men in their 60s.
8:28 a.m. Pandemic makes obvious another great health threat to African Americans: obesity
As COVID-19 descended on us last March, the Fat Nag watched with dread and hope.
Dread, knowing this 21st-century plague would hit Black folks hardest. When it comes to health disparities, we always weigh in on the wrong side of the scale.
And as the Fat Nag always reminds, there is another plague that affects us most — our everlasting battle with obesity.
I harbored hope, however, the pandemic would usher in a new awareness that the fat is killing us.
For years, as the self-proclaimed Fat Nag, I have been reminding, railing and begging Black folks to get the fat out.
Four people were shot Feb. 28, 2021 at a gas station in East Chicago, Indiana. | File photo
The shooting happened Sunday at a gas station in the 1200 block of West Chicago Avenue.
A 7-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy were among four people wounded in a shooting Sunday night at a gas station in East Chicago, Indiana.
The shooting unfolded about 9:10 p.m. after two women, 23 and 20, drove to a gas station with the child and teen in the 1200 block of West Chicago Avenue, according to East Chicago police.
The two women entered the gas station to purchase items and noticed a man and woman inside staring at them, police said.
When the women returned to the vehicle, they noticed the man and woman had also left the station and then heard gunfire, police said.
The 23-year-old woman was shot in her upper back and hospitalized in serious condition, police said.
The girl was shot in the right arm and the teen boy was struck in the right ankle, police said. Both were taken to St. Catherine Hospital where their conditions stabilized.
The 20-year-old woman suffered a gunshot wound to the left arm and was taken to the same hospital, where her condition stabilized, police said.
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