BALTIMORE – Pushing back the left field wall didn’t do much to temper the slug fest hosted by Oriole Park at Camden Yards on Tuesday.
The Cubs lost 9-3 to the Orioles in a game that featured seven home runs.
Cubs rookie Christopher Morel sent the first pitch of the game over the fence for his first career leadoff homer. Almost immediately, things went downhill for the Cubs.
Cubs right-hander Keegan Thompson, in his second start as an official member of the rotation – he’d made three spot starts earlier in the year – gave up seven runs in three innings.
“My off-speed stuff was just spinning and staying arm-side,” Thompson said after his first loss of the season. “Looking at older pictures and a couple pictures from tonight, it looked like my stride was a little shorter, maybe, tonight than normal. So, my arm might have been dragging a little bit behind. I’ll look into that a little more tonight and tomorrow.”
The Orioles matched Morel’s leadoff homer and surpassed it with home runs on back-to-back pitches to kick off the bottom half of the first inning.
The next inning, Thompson hit two batters in a row before giving up a three-run home run to Jorge Mateo.
Thompson kept the ball in the yard for the third inning. But the Orioles found other ways to score. Anthony Santander, leading off the inning, hit a ground ball single through the left side of the infield to beat the shift. Then, Austin Hays hit a double up the left-field line.
Cubs left fielder Ian Happ fished the ball out of foul territory, and the relay in from shortstop Nico Horner took an on-target long hop to beat the runner, but the ball glanced off catcher Willson Contreras’ mitt as he tried to put down the tag.
Hays scored on a sacrifice fly from Ryan Mountcastle soon after to give the Orioles a 7-1 lead by the time Thompson walked off the mound. Cubs right-hander Alec Mills, just activated off the 60-day IL (right quadriceps strain) made his season debut as he replaced Thompson.
“It was nice to get back out there,” said Mills, who allowed two runs in five innings to finish the game. “Obviously the situation was not the best, you don’t ever want to come in early after a starter, but that’s why I’m here.”
The home run derby wasn’t over.
In the fifth inning, Contreras launched a first-pitch homer over the left field wall. It was his 10th home run of the season, making this his sixth season with double-digit homers. He only fell short of that mark in the shortened 2020 season.
While Contreras’ home run cleared the recently deepened left-field wall with ease, Hays took the prize for the most imposing long ball of the night. His fifth-inning solo homer landed in the second deck. At 464 feet, according to Statcast, it was the longest home run by an Oriole this season.
By contrast, Orioles third baseman Ram?n Ur?as used the unique new dimensions of the field to his advantage. In the sixth inning, he dropped a solo home run into the corner of the Orioles bullpen, which juts out into left center field. Happ crashed into the perpendicular wall as Ur?as scored the Orioles’ ninth run.
While home runs were responsible for most of the scoring, they didn’t account for every run. Morel, on Tuesday extending his franchise-record on base streak to start a career to 21 games, also hit a sixth-inning RBI triple.
Jessica Zimmerman’s memoir Sleeping With a Stranger is a thriller that could save your life. It is a shocking, gripping ride and a master class in resilience. When I asked Jessica why she wrote this bracingly honest bestseller, she didn’t hesitate for a minute; “There was this voice inside of me that said, ‘this story happened because you are supposed to share it.’”
When Jessica married her college sweetheart Brian, they rejected the usual script. They would not settle down, have kids, work the same job into retirement. Instead, Jessica would provide fun, adventure, and a plan to get out of Conway, Arkansas. Brian would figure out the finances and be their rock. What the couple didn’t know was that fate would reject that script and deliver an unimaginable rewrite.
At first, Brian was a dream husband, reliable and supportive. Jessica was a brilliant shooting star, making her high-spirited way through a series of business and personal triumphs and disasters. Then came two pregnancies, one after the other. Surprises, but delights. When they discovered they were expecting twins while parenting a toddler, Jessica allowed herself a few panicked moments lying prone on the bathroom floor. Then she texted every parent of twins that she knew, asking them to share the best part of the experience. She could always find that crack where the light gets in.
Fast forward a year. Jessica is in Kroger’s and it’s not just any grocery run. In her cart: Disney Pull-ups for a potty-training toddler, boxes of Pampers for her twins and packages of Depends for her husband. What in the world happened? Proving that there is a god of bad timing, Brian had developed a devastating illness just when his family needed him most. In a major reversal, Jessica would solely have to rely on Jessica. And so would everybody else.
What follows is a harrowing tale of fighting the medical establishment and blazing one’s own path. Brian had developed a catastrophically inflamed colon. So inflamed, it was practically on fire. However terrible you imagine those symptoms and the ensuing situations, it was worse.
The doctors would take Brian on a terrifying rollercoaster of well-meaning cluelessness that nearly murdered him. Jessica could no longer afford to be the fun one. But the insightful, brilliant, strong, creative, compassionate person she becomes will keep you on the edge of your seat, cheering, crying, and gasping with every twist of this fast-paced story. Prepare, too, to laugh hysterically because this intrepid author has a sense of humor that is not only hilarious but miraculous under the circumstances.
Can Brian recover? Will the marriage survive? Who is the “stranger” in the title? (It’s not just Brian.) Did I mention that Jessica creates a million dollar business to boot? I don’t want to give away too much. I will guarantee that this is memoir at its best. Jessica and Brian’s story is one you won’t hear anywhere else. Jessica kindly spoke with me by phone about her unforgettable journey, and how to thrive when life throws one of its wild curveball pitches
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TELLING A HARD STORY
Teme: Why was it important to tell this very personal story?
Jessica: It’s the only time in my life that I’ve felt truly called to do something. This book was a gamble. It is not a story you really want people to know. It is very embarrassing. It is insanely vulnerable. I’ve never written a book, so I was just going on gut. It felt like a mission.
Of course, I would have never written it without my husband’s approval. At first, there were two parts of the book that I absolutely was not going to put in there – there was a golf course incident and the part about him wanting to commit suicide. He said, “You have to include them for anyone who is going through what I went through.”
Teme: Did Brian have any hesitation about sharing? Or was he on board right away?
Jessica: He was on board from the very beginning. He was at his worst in spring of 2016. I remember we were laying in bed. He was naked because he didn’t have enough energy to take his clothes on and off every time he had to go to the bathroom. The lights were off except for the glow of my computer screen. We were thirty-three at the time. I remember looking at him and thinking, “He looks like he’s eighty years old. I don’t recognize this person.”
But he never had hesitation ever. I had more hesitation. I knew for two years that I needed to write about it and I kept putting it off. It was like a heavy conscience. I would think about it twice a day, and then three times a day, and then it was once an hour, twice an hour, then it was every ten minutes. Finally it was like, “The only way I’m going to escape this is if I actually do it.”
Teme: What was your hesitation?
Jessica: I didn’t know if I wanted people to know this story. That’s why it had to be something so much bigger than me to share it. I grew up in a small town. People that knew me would read it. I didn’t know what it would be like to know somebody had read this and then see them at the grocery store. Would it hurt my feelings if I knew they read it and then never said anything to me? Which was the case in a lot of situations. I had to let go of all the hurt feelings.
FIGHTING FOR FAMILY … AND THE TRUTH ABOUT FRIENDS
Teme: You went from being an uncertain young wife to being a superhero in the way you fought for your family and kept your business going for your employees. What changed in your sense of self?
Jessica: I would love to say that there was some amazing shift, but honestly, you really don’t know what you’re capable of until your back is against the wall and you have a gun pointed at your head, which is exactly what I felt like.
All of the stuff that you would typically overthink and ask opinions, I didn’t do any of that. I had to skip that and just go, “What must I do?” My back was against the wall and I came through. But it wasn’t in the healthiest of manners. I paid for that and had to work on myself and get myself back together.
I’m just now, really, becoming my full true self. It is hard when you realize you are capable of doing it all. We all have our vices in the face of fear or pain. My vice is control because my biggest fear is abandonment or being out of control.
Would it be better for me to not feel the responsibility of everything and to be able to lay some stuff down? Is that the best example for my kids? Would it be better to have a little more help? I spent four years building up heavy walls of just survival. Now I’m taking a sledgehammer to the walls and breaking them down.
Teme: What could you have done differently? You had to take control. If you hadn’t, the doctors were going to take control in a drastic and terrible way. You did everything brilliantly.
Jessica: You’re very kind to say that. People say, “I don’t know how you did that. You’re Superwoman.” I’m genuinely not. I just woke up and did what absolutely had to be done. I had newborn twins. They had to be fed. I would get up and make their bottles and feed them. I had a two-year-old daughter. She had to be dressed. They went to preschool, so I’d pack their bottles and lunch and take them to preschool. That had to be done. I had to go to work. I had to make money. I had to be there for my employees. I had to deal with Brian’s doctors and all of it.
There are things that got put on the back burner. I lost several friends during this time. They just couldn’t understand. I could only spend my energy doing what I had to do to survive and for the other four human beings in my family to survive. That meant not answering phone calls and text messages and not explaining everything, not calling people every single time we were in the hospital. I felt at the end of all of this, people who are really my friends are going to understand. I just didn’t have the bandwidth. It was, “What has to be done next? And let me get it done.”
Teme: How can friends do better?
Jessica: Oh my goodness. I think that’s the true question. I’m so glad you asked it. All anybody wants who is struggling is to be heard. That’s it. The person who is receiving the information is in the most honored position. To have somebody say, “Here are my problems. Here’s how I feel …” They are not coming to you for an answer. They are coming to you to feel heard. My biggest struggle was any time I would share I would be met with advice that I did not solicit.
Teme: Oh, I really hate unsolicited advice.
Jessica: Yeah. I would be met with these suggestions that would have never worked. I wasn’t asking friends for medical advice. I was just sharing what I’m going through. So I think the very best friends are people who listen and just acknowledge your pain. “I’m so sorry you’re going through that. I am here for you, whatever you need.” Don’t pretend you know what they’re going through. Don’t give an example, “Oh, well, I know so-and-so that …”
Teme: That is a fabulous answer. Unsolicited advice is one of my most gigantic pet peeves. Often it’s oversimplified and also, if there were an easy answer, you would have thought of it and pursued it. I don’t know if people realize that unsolicited advice is generally unhelpful.
Jessica: It’s coming from a place of insecurity. I have to remember, “Nope. Don’t give advice unless asked.” It comes from the fear that, “They’re sharing this with me and if I don’t give them something great, they won’t share with me in the future.”
Instead of fully listening and paying attention, we’re halfway listening, but we’re in our brains going, “What am I going to say?” It isn’t a conversation anymore because you’re just waiting for a stopping point so that you can insert something great where somebody will go, “Oh, thank you.” But that’s not the point.
Teme: For all my intolerance of unsolicited advice, I’m guilty of that, too.
Jessica: We all are. We’ve got to unlearn it. I’m still working on it.
HOW TO RISE AND INSPIRE
Teme: How does one avoid feeling like a victim after going through something that could really shake a person?
Jessica: A lot of therapy. I have been in therapy once a week since June 2017. I love it. I think that it’s fascinating to educate yourself about yourself. My therapist has said things that have been incredibly freeing. I’ve lived this huge part of my life living like a victim and feeling like, “You don’t know the life that I’ve lived, the pain that I’ve experienced.”
There came a point for me where a shift happened. It was like, “What if none of this really happened tome? What if it all happened for me?” I also believe that the goal isn’t happiness. The goal is to feel our feelings and have our feeling teach us, guide us, and they eventually lead us to the next step we’re supposed to take. So really, it is all about paying attention. A victim mentality is an easy excuse to not learn from your pain. Pain is a teacher. It’s not going to leave you until it teaches you, so it’s just going to keep coming. At some point, you have to stop and go, “Okay, what is this teaching me?”
I was able to shift and to say, “I’m not a victim who survived. I’m going to be a survivor who inspires. I’m going to share. I’m going to be open and vulnerable. It’s not going to be for everybody, but if it helps some people, then great.”
WHAT IS RESILIENCY?
Teme: How do you define resiliency?
Jessica: You have to believe in yourself. You have to know that you have a purpose, that you are worthy, that you are capable of absolutely anything. Instead of a fixed mindset that believes, “These are the cards I was dealt and this is the hand I’m going to play,” believe, “You know what? I can switch up my cards, or I can get better cards, or I can learn how to play this game so I can have a better hand.” So much of it stems from self-confidence. If you believe in yourself, it’s ninety-percent of the battle. A big part of believing in yourself is freeing yourself from what you think the world expects of you and starting to just care about what you know to be true.
FINDING THE FUNNY
Teme: I was so delighted with the humor in your book. You’re so funny. How did you maintain your humor through such hard times?
Jessica: When I was in it, there was no humor. But on reflecting, I was able to really see things and go, “Man, that’s kind of funny.” Like that my husband, who is already thin, happens to get a disease that makes him lose sixty pounds in three months right when I’ve given birth to twins! That’s funny! You can’t even make it up.
Teme: Who’s your favorite comedian or humor writer? Who has influenced your sense of humor?
Jessica: I love Gary Janetti. He is an author and television writer. He’s saying all the things that everyone thinks but no one says. When someone can point out the absurdity of reality, to me that is really funny.
JESSICA AND BRIAN TODAY
Teme: How are you and Brian now?
Jessica: We’re okay. We have gone through some really hard times. We’ve gone through major peaks and major valleys. We have been together since we were eighteen, which is a really young age. We have so much love and respect for one another. He and I are family until death do us part, forever and always. But we are different people coming out of everything we’ve gone through. If I’m being totally honest, sometimes I wonder. We have a very open relationship where we feel free and safe to discuss these things. One of the things that Brian gives me, that I don’t know if anyone else ever could, is the incredible gift of feeling completely free to be who I am and to feel safe and secure to know he’s always there.
With that said, sometimes I wonder if we have taught each other and been for each other everything we can. Can we continue to encourage one another to grow? Or are we stifling each other’s growth? So that’s what you work through, and that’s part of life and marriage.
I’m not going to say that I know for certain we’re going to be married the rest of our lives. We may very well be. We may have a 60th wedding anniversary, and I would love that. But I also don’t want to shame myself into thinking that that’s the only acceptable answer. I want to do what is best for him and I both, and what’s best for our family.
Teme: It’s refreshing to hear, “sometimes I wonder.” It sounds like a very natural, universal aspect of marriage.
Jessica: I don’t think it’s discussed enough. People put so much shame around it and say, “Well, I should just be grateful. I just need to ignore this.” The truth is, I have spoken with so many people that feel this way. Feel your feelings. Don’t put shame around them. Feel them and let them guide you to the next decision.
IF YOU’RE FEELING STUCK, JESSICA CAN HELP
Teme: Absolutely anything else we should add?
Jessica: I have a program on jessicazimmerman.com called The Game Plan. It is a step-by-step guide that I do for people who are trying to figure out how to live their true life. I ask questions that I don’t think a lot of people get asked that makes them really start thinking, “Do I actually want to be living the way I’m living, or do I want to do something different?” And it gives them permission to think differently and to question. If anybody is in a place where they feel stuck, it’s a great resource.
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Jessica Zimmerman’s memoir Sleeping With a Stranger is available at independent bookstores and wherever books are sold.
Learn more about Jessica and her creative, inspiring strategies for life and business at jessicazimmerman.com.
I’ve been a comedy fan since age four when Moe Howard asked me, “What’s your name, lil’ goil?” Fortuitously somehow by way of Washington, D.C., Poughkeepsie and Jerusalem, I ended up in Chicago, the comedy Mecca of the world where comedians are kind enough to give me their time and where I was lucky enough to meet the great Dobie Maxwell who introduced me to the scene. You can reach me at: [email protected]. (Please remember the “w” there in the middle.)
I am often very reasonably asked, “How DO you pronounce that?” The spelling is Teme, but it’s pronounced Temmy.
Tim Anderson took live batting practice Tuesday, another step in his recovery from a groin strain suffered against the Cubs nine days ago. The next big step is a minor league rahab assignment at Triple-A Charlotte next week.
“Tim had a good weekend in Tampa, in terms of his healing and progression toward rehabilitation,” general manager Rick Hahn said of Anderson, who traveled with the team on the road trip against the Rays and Blue Jays.
The original projection for Anderson’s time away was three weeks, and that remains in place.
As for the Sox’ other key pieces working back from injuries, Eloy Jimenez started in left field on his rehab assignment at Charlotte Tuesday, going 1-for-2 with a single.
“It’s a matter of getting his legs completely under him and getting his timing at the plate and rhythm back,” Hahn said. “I don’t have an exact time to project his return, but it’s getting closer, knock on wood.”
Lance Lynn (knee) is slated for 70-pitches Wednesday in what could be his last start before making his Sox debut.
“If that goes smoothly, we’ll then have a conversation about next steps for him, which could well include being activated in Chicago,” Hahn said.
Hahn said right-handers Joe Kelly (hamstring) and Vince Velasquez (groin) ideally will be activated at the end of the month.
Hahn on La Russa
An hour or so after Joe manager Maddon was surprisingly fired by the Angels, Hahn was asked to evaluate the job La Russa has done this year.
“Look there’s been challenges across the board here for everyone,” Hahn said. “We’ve responded to some pretty well and we’ve muddled our way through some others. That’s not just on Tony. That’s the front office. That’s me. That’s the coaches and the players themselves. We are in this as an organization and none of us as an organization are satisfied with where we are at right now. … We feel good about what the next several months hold for us potentially.”
Sanchez, Sosa wait in the wings
It’s too early to consider middle infielders Yolbert Sanchez and Lenyn Sosa, the Double-A Southern League Player of the Month, as an answer to the second base problem, where Josh Harrison (.181/.265/.276) and Leury Garcia (.189/.199/.265) are producing. But they could be brought up before the season is over, Hahn said.
“Obviously we’re not at the position yet to say they’re a clear upgrade and that they’re ready to help but they both certainly belong in the conversation,” Hahn said.
Sanchez was promoted from Double-A Birmingham to Triple-A Charlotte after 14 games.
“They’ve always been on the map, they put themselves on a timetable that they should be considered for ’22,” Hahn said.
Too close for comfort
Twenty-three of the Sox’ first 25 wins were by four runs or less, including nine by one run, seven by two, five by three and two by four.
The Sox have won two games by five or more, by 10-1 against the Tigers on April 10 and 5-0 against the Yankees on May 22. In 2021, 32 of the Sox’ 93 wins were by five or more runs.
This and that
Steve Stone, celebrating his 40th year as a broadcaster, threw out the first pitch.
*Sixteen members of the Amateur City Elite (ACE) class of 2022 were congratulated during a pregame ceremony.
Draymond Green entered Game 2 of the NBA Finals with a very clear mindset: bring force.
“I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I’m going on about my summer and we lost the NBA Finals because we couldn’t meet force with force,” Green said ahead of practice in Boston on Tuesday. “So I think that was just kind of it for me, and understanding that, like I said, that is my department. That’s where I’m supposed to lead, and I can’t let my guys down.”
The lack of physicality is what stuck out to Green the most when he watched film from Game 1. He felt that the Warriors won that game for 42 minutes, but as they let their foot off the gas in the fourth quarter, the Celtics took advantage.
In his mind, it was what needed to be their No. 1 adjustment.
2 Related
Green’s upped intensity was felt immediately. On the very first possession of the game, Green tied up Al Horford behind the 3-point line, forcing a turnover. That set the tone for how he was going to play all night.
Horford, Marcus Smart and Derrick White combined to shoot just 6-for-23 from the field in Game 2. In Game 1, they knocked down 15 out of 23 shots from 3-point range alone.
“You get to the NBA Finals, and physicality and meeting force with force is important,” Green said. “It’s just something that you have to bring to this game … when I watched the film, and even just how I felt, I just didn’t think they felt us enough. You can’t get to this stage, to this level, and the reason you lose is because a team didn’t feel you. That’s a shame. You have to lose once you get to this level because a team was just better than you.”
Green credits his naturally forceful and physical nature to where he grew up (Saginaw, Michigan) and the era of basketball he watched as a child.
“Playing at Vets Park, playing at the Civitan Recreation Center, obviously, growing up I watched guys like Gary Payton, Rasheed Wallace,” Green said. “I watched all those guys and how they went about their business. Dennis Rodman. Seeing those guys over the years, and I have a huge appreciation for Uncle Oak, how he enforced things. That’s a part of the game. That is a skill.”
So as far as Green is concerned, Game 2 was not only a display of the raised level of intensity he and the Warriors needed following the opening game of the series; it’s also what they need — or more — to close it out.
Former Bears defensive tackle Akiem Hicks let it fly — again — about the quarterbacks he got stuck with in Chicago.
In his first press conference since signing with the Buccaneers last month, Hicks basked in the joy of joining Tom Brady while pointing out that his former teammates were nowhere near that level.
“Something I’ve thought of often is that when I came into the league, I had Drew Brees and Tom Brady as my first two quarterbacks,” Hicks said Tuesday. “Then I went to Chicago. It wasn’t Drew Brees and Tom Brady. We’ll just say that, right?
“I feel spoiled [now] to have somebody on the other side of the ball that can deliver all the time, and he’s proven it over the years.”
Hicks was with the Bears from 2016 through ’21 before the team let him walk in free agency. During his six seasons, the Bears started 10 quarterbacks. Mitch Trubisky, who has an 87.0 career passer rating, started 50 games in that span.
With that instability and incompetence at quarterback, it’s no surprise the Bears scored the fifth-fewest points in the NFL and had the 12th-worst record during Hicks’ tenure despite being the No. 5 defense in the league over that time.
Hicks enjoyed one winning season with the Bears, who went 6-11 last season and headed into a major rebuild under new general manager Ryan Poles.
Hicks said Tuesday returning was not a consideration, but did not elaborate on whether that was his choice, the team’s or a mutual. He was attracted to the Bucs because of “the chance to win” and play with a quarterback of Brady’s caliber.
“It was definitely a draw,” he said. “It benefits a defense tohave a quarterbackthat can control the clock, the ball and the field position. And that’s what we have here.”
Hicks also fired a shot at the Bears’ quarterback moves two years ago when asked about the team shunning Colin Kaepernick. He replied by pointing out the ill-fated signing of Mike Glennon.
Each month, ChicagoNow holds a contest for the best posts that appeared on ChicagoNow.com during the previous month. Of the more than 1`,000 posts that appeared on ChicagoNow.com during May 2022, here are the 20 judged to be the best. (Posts originally appearing on Margaret Serious were selected by the votes of other bloggers.)
I moved to Chicago from the south suburbs in 1986. I have diverse interests, but I love writing about what I’m interested in. Whether it’s a personal interest or part of my career, the correct words to get the idea across are important to me. I love words and languages — French and Scottish words enrich my American English. My career has included years as a journalist and years working in museums, and the two phases were united by telling stories. I’m serious about words and stories. So here I am, ready to tell stories about words and their languages.
1983 Chicago White Sox went from under .500 in mid-June to divisional winner
The 1983 Chicago White Sox had a rough start after two months of baseball. The team was 25-27 through 52 games, matching this year’s White Sox record as of Tuesday afternoon. The team would rebound in late June, going on several winning streaks of 5 or more wins in a row. By the end of the season, the White Sox managed to win 99-games. The 1983 White Sox manager, Tony La Russa.
The team didn’t always win with ease during that streak. “They’re winning ugly,” Texas manager Doug Rader said of the White Sox. As of early June in 2022, the White Sox season has started ugly like the season 39-years ago. And a lot of the games the club has won have been nailbiters. The White Sox have built some early leads, only to see the bullpen bring the game to disaster.
White Sox have faced adversity this year
The White Sox had high expectations headed into the 2022 campaign. After winning the division in 2021, White Sox fans were hoping the team could take the next step and make a run to the World Series. Since March, the White Sox have been plagued with injuries.
Powerful bats like Eloy Jiménez, Tim Anderson, and Luis Robert, have been rehabbing. Needed arms like Joe Kelly, Lucas Giolito, and Lance Lynn, have been often absent on the mound. These injuries have caused the White Sox to look out of sync this season, and the losses have mounted in the early part of the schedule.
The Team should get healthier
Fortunately, the White Sox should get Lynn, Jiménez, Anderson, and Kelly back within a month a so. If the Sox are going to contend for a playoff spot, they will need these players back. The White Sox need to preserve what they can until the All-Star break, and then make their move. The team is currently 5-games behind the Minnesota Twins.
Hopefully, the White Sox can catch a break, and the Twins can start losing some games this week so the White Sox can stop losing ground. The Twins play fierce competition with series versus the New York Yankees (39-15) and Tampa Bay Devil Rays (31-23). The White Sox don’t have it easy with their series beginning Tuesday. They will face the Los Angeles Dodgers (35-19) at home.
How far can this year’s Chicago White Sox go?
Even if the White Sox manage to get swept by the Dodgers—and let’s hope they don’t—the team would still be on pace with the 1983 team. That year, the White Sox would lose four in a row, going 25-31, before the team started to get on their winning ways.
The team then finished strong and made the ALCS before running out of gas against the Baltimore Orioles. It was the White Sox’s first postseason appearance since the 1959 World Series. This year’s team has yet to show it has the fire to get to the playoffs. When the elite arms and bats return, we’ll see if the White Sox have the ability to turn their season around. They have the talent to win enough games.
The White Sox will have to do this with good starting pitching and hot bats. The offense has always had the potential to put runs on the board, there’s no reason for the team’s run differential to be this bad. A long baseball season evens most things out, and I’d assume runs will come in bunches for the White Sox.
If they can create a little magic, it wouldn’t surprise me at all to see the 2022 White Sox go further into October than the 1983 club.
Cubs manager David Ross sent Joe Maddon a text Tuesday letting his predecessor know he was thinking about him.
The Angels announced Tuesday evening that they had fired Maddon amid a 12-game losing streak. The club named third base coach Phil Nevin their interim manager.
Maddon, a three-time manager of the year, joined the Angels in 2020 after five seasons managing the Cubs, including a curse-breaking 2016 World Series run.
Maddon’s first season at the helm in Chicago coincided with Ross’ first in a Cubs uniform, then as a veteran backup catcher.
“Just thinking about him, that’s a sucky thing to hear,” Ross said Tuesday. “I love Joe. Joe has done a lot for me and was a great manager for me. I don’t know what’s going on in Anaheim from that standpoint, but thoughts go out to him.”
Maddon amassed a 471-339 record with the Cubs. He led them to the playoffs in all but his final season as skipper.
“I have a ton of respect for Joe,” Ross said. “Another human being that I’ve learned a lot of baseball from. A lot of my managerial philosophies and the way I handle things are a lot of the example he set when he was my manager.”
A testament to how much has changed for the Cubs in the past few years, only seven players on the active roster in Baltimore on Tuesday played for Maddon in his last year in Chicago.
The Angels started off this season strong, a month ago sitting at No. 1 in the American League West. Entering Tuesday, they’d not only fallen to second in the division but their record (27-29) had slid below .500.
Maddon told The Athletic that he was surprised by the decision, adding, “You always rely on people in charge to read the tea leaves properly. This time, they did not. You didn’t even have to ask me. You can ask any of the players or coaches. They’re the ones who really know.
“Perry [Minasian, Angels general manager,] was in a tough spot. I understand that. Let me just put it that way. I would really rely on the sentiments of the coaches and the players.”
Cubs activate Mills
TheCubs activated right-hander Alec Mills off the 60-day injured list Tuesday, marking the end of a winding road back from a back injury that to start the season. What was originally expected to be a minimum 10-day IL stint turned into a 60-day IL stay due to a quadriceps strain setback.
Rather than make another rehab start on Tuesday, as originally planned, Mills joined the Cubs bullpen in Baltimore. In a corresponding move, the Cubs optioned right-hander Anderson Espinoza to Double-A.
“Millsy’s kind of the swiss army knife,” Ross said of Mills’ role. “He can do a lot for us.”
Bote pulled from rehab assignment
Just as Cubs infielder David Bote (left shoulder surgery) became eligible to return from the 60-day IL, the Cubs announced they’d pulled him from his rehab assignment for bouts of dizziness. He will be evaluated to determine next steps.
Bote last played on June 2 for Triple-A Iowa. In 12 games he was batting .178.
NEW YORK — Jim Seals, who teamed with fellow musician “Dash” Crofts on such 1970s soft-rock hits as “Summer Breeze,” “Diamond Girl” and “We May Never Pass This Way Again,” has died at age 80.
His death was announced Tuesday by several people including John Ford Coley, who had formed the ’70s duo England Dan and John Ford Coley with Seals’ older brother Dan. Further details were not immediately available.
“This is a hard one on so many levels as this is a musical era passing for me,” Coley wrote. “And it will never pass this way again as his song said. He belonged to a group that was one of a kind.”
Seals and Darrell George “Dash” Crofts were Texas natives who had known each other since they were teenagers and had previously been in the Champs, which before they joined had a hit single with “Tequila,” and a group including Glen Campbell. They started Seals and Crofts in the late 1960s and over the next several years were among a wave of soft-rock groups that included America, Bread and England Dan and John Ford Coley.
Seals and Crofts had three top 10 hits: “”Summer Breeze,” “Diamond Girl” and “Get Closer.” Their other popular songs included “Hummingbird,” “You’re the Love” and “We May Never Pass This Way Again.” Seals and Crofts also released the controversial “Unborn Child,” an anti-abortion song that came out the year after the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision and was banned by some radio stations.
They broke up in 1980, but reunited briefly in the early 1990s and again in 2004, when they released the album “Traces.” Seals also performed on occasion with his brother Dan, who died in 2009.
He is survived by his wife, Ruby, and their three children.
The 2022 Pro Bowl is months and months away. As of right now, Chicago Bears players and coaches have their sights set on this upcoming training camp taking place later this summer.
But as fans and analysts of the game, it is hard for us not to look forward to the season and predict how well or how poorly our teams are going to do.
The last few seasons, the Bears haven’t been amongst the top of the NFL in Pro Bowl selections. Odds are the Bears aren’t going to be towards the top this season either.
With a completely new coaching staff and a very young and rebuilding roster, the Bears are more focused on improvement from the team.
The Chicago Bears haven’t sent many players to the Pro Bowl in the past few seasons. However, this young group could have a few surprise names on the ballot come voting time.
Despite low expectations from people around the league, the Bears do have many solid young pieces on both sides of the ball that could end up having huge seasons. With so much turnover this offseason, many new players will be given elevated roles and playing time, possibly leading to more production.
With more players getting significant minute boosts, there really is no saying how many players could have a breakout season. With that being said, here are 3 ‘Pro Bowl dark-horse’ candidates for the 2022 Chicago Bears.
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