Matt Gangl vividly remembers the first time he laid eyes on the Field of Dreams.

The lead director of Fox Sports’ MLB coverage was making the 4 1/2 – hour drive last year to Dyersville, Iowa, from his home in Minnesota. He saw on his GPS that the site of the beloved 1989 movie was just a bit farther.

“You take a corner, and all of a sudden you can see the light stanchions for the fields, and I literally got chills,” Gangl said. “I’m like, This is exactly why we’re doing this, to provide that moment of wow. You get those goosebumps. It’s like nothing I can fully explain as you drive up the first time.”

The fields Gangl referred to are the movie site, now a tourist attraction, and the nearby pop-up stadium that will host the “Field of Dreams” Game on Thursday between the White Sox and Yankees. “Shoeless” Joe Jackson and other players from the 1919 Sox were featured in the movie. Hence, the Sox’ inclusion in the game. Fox will broadcast the game, and Gangl will direct.

“This game is not only gonna draw baseball fans, but fans of the movie and people who are just intrigued to see how they put a baseball field in the middle of a cornfield,” Gangl said.

Not just a baseball field, but a full-on TV production. Just as the stadium was built from scratch, the broadcast will be, too.

“There’s no obvious stadium infrastructure there. Everything’s being built,” said Judy Boyd, senior vice president of Fox Sports productions. “So you get some things as simple as how do we get a broadcast signal out of there. You’re working in a cornfield. It’s a testament to our tech side.”

Gangl said the broadcast was budgeted roughly to that of a division-series playoff game. The production crew will include just short of 30 manned cameras, a lot for a regular-season game. And because of the bare-bones stadium and remote location, Gangl said Fox will run thousands of feet of cables.

With only 8,000 seats available, the game is truly a made-for-TV event. Both Boyd and Gangl used the word “cinematic” to describe their plan for the broadcast. Gangl said he lost count of how many times he has watched “Field of Dreams,” trying to devise ways to incorporate the movie into the broadcast. The last time he was on site, Gangl visited the house where Ray Kinsella (played by Kevin Costner) lived.

“I’m thinking, What kind of shots could I use that take us the same paths that they did when [Kinsella] goes over and looks out the window to see the first time Ray Liotta, ‘Shoeless’ Joe Jackson, is on the field,” Gangl said. “There’s fun stuff in the works.”

That includes keeping the aesthetics of the era. Boyd said Fox told MLB that it wanted hard advertising signage behind home plate as opposed to virtual or rotating signage. A crew will swap out the sign manually every inning. Fox also altered its graphics, which will have the appearance of an old-time scoreboard. But the network still will use the technology baseball viewers have become accustomed to.

“It is an interesting balance because everything we do as we move forward in sports television is advancing technology,” Gangl said. “More super slow-mo, more big lens, higher-speed camera. To me, it’s using those things in a way that is a little more cinematic than standard game coverage.

“As much as I love great tight shots, and we’ll find those emotion shots, but I think there’s gonna be a lot more resetting grander shots, sweeping motions, things that give us place and proximity of where this event is taking place.”

All that said, Fox knows there’s a game to cover. Coverage begins at 5 p.m. with a one-hour pregame show with host Kevin Burkhardt and analysts Alex Rodriguez, David Ortiz and White Sox Hall of Famer Frank Thomas. Tom Rinaldi also will be on site to deliver one of his fabled features. Joe Buck and John Smoltz will call the game, and Ken Rosenthal and Tom Verducci will serve as reporters.

There will be surprises along the way, but Boyd said viewers can expect to see members of the “Field of Dreams” cast in some capacity, as well as Sox and Yankees players sharing their thoughts on the movie.

And if the last shot of the broadcast looks familiar, that’s because it probably will be.

“It’s that iconic shot,” Gangl said. “There’s the low shot where they’re in the field having a catch, and then it goes to that aerial where you see all the cars coming into the field. I think Dyersville in the background will be cool because I want to replicate that shot at the end of the night.

“There’s things that you want to pay homage to from the movie, and there are things that we can do that can bring some of those moments and memories from the movie to the game. I wanna try to take advantage of as many of those as you can.”

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Major League Baseball revealed the throwback-like custom uniforms the White Sox and Yankees will wear at next Thursday’s Field of Dreams game in Dyersville, Iowa.

The Sox will wear white jerseys with navy blue pinstripes and a throwback “SOX” logo on the front. The pinstriped caps will not have a logo on them.

The Yankees will sport gray jerseys with “New York” in navy blue lettering across the chest and the familiar “NY” logo on the caps.

The game will be played at 6:15 p.m. near the site where the famous Kevin Costner-James Earl Jones movie “Field of Dreams” was filmed. Fox-32 will broadcast the game.

MLB built a park with capacity for about 8,000 on the site. The game will be the first regular-season major-league game played in Iowa.

The game originally was scheduled for last year, but MLB postponed it to this season because of the coronavirus pandemic that shortened the 2020 season and limited travel for all teams.

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Rumor: Chicago Bulls may be in play for a Lamarcus Aldridge comeback by Ryan Heckman

Current Chicago Bears defensive coordinator, Sean Desai, was first hired as the defensive quality control coach in 2013 and then promoted to safeties coach in 2019. After eight seasons working as an assistant on the Bears coaching staff, Matt Nagy handed Desai the keys to the entire defense in what looks to be a make or break year for both Nagy and general manager, Ryan Pace. Ultimately, he was hired to restore the Chicago Bears defense back to its 2018 form.

To be frank, the offense and defense are on two different timetables going into this season. The offense simply needs to make progress. For Nagy and the offensive coaching staff, the goals are simple: not ranking in the bottom 10 for both passing and rushing, actually giving David Montgomery 20 carries a game, and developing Justin Fields.

However, Desai is under immense pressure to deliver an elite, top-5 defense in 2021. Ryan Pace has given him a surplus of talent at almost every position except in the secondary which has some young up-and-comers. If the Bears’ defense doesn’t play up to its potential, the blame will fall squarely on the shoulders of their defensive coordinator. Luckily, it seems that Desai is already on pace to deliver on the fans and front office’s high expectations.

Training camp is already showing why the Chicago Bears made an excellent hire in Sean Desai.

Bilal Nichols, an emerging star on the defensive line noted that under Desai the team has a whole new swagger about them, reminding him of the 2018 season (via Kevin Fishbain). This was great to hear from Nichols as the Bears need that 2018 magic to disrupt the NFC North and ruin the Packers’ “last dance.”

Other stories that we’ve heard come out of Halas Hall have highlighted that the defense definitely has their energy back. From the takeaway bucket to all the chirping they’re doing to the offense, and the whole crew coming back healthy, Sean Desai definitely has the respect of his guys. This was something that I could not always confidently say about his predecessor, Chuck Pagano.

Khalil Mack, the leader of the defense, also commented that Desai has some of those same qualities as his mentor, Vic Fangio. He added that Desai excels at understanding player strengths and knowing what positions he should be putting his players in to succeed (via Kevin Fishbain).

This would help explain why it was much easier for Desai to gain the respect of his players as they’ve not only gotten to know him as an assistant over the years but because they trust that he’ll be installing a system that every player on the defense will thrive playing in.

This was a sentiment that safety, Tashaun Gipson further echoed in his press conference, saying that Desai has been so trustworthy and accountable for the things he has preached and promises he’s made to put players in the right position. He added that his approach and attitude have energized the whole defense to play hard for him.

Related Story: Khalil Mack’s fiery take on his 2021 expectations

I am eager to see how this skill helps revitalize Robert Quinn this upcoming season. Robert Quinn is in a make-or-break year as the Bears could cut him without much penalty in 2022 if he doesn’t perform. He was better than the numbers showed last year but the Chicago Bears are going to need more than two sacks from their edge rusher opposite Khalil Mack.

Ultimately, 2021 is a big year for the Chicago Bears defense. With many aging veterans and emerging stars poised to seek large contract extensions next summer, the pressure on the defense to return to dominance is palpable. There was a lot of pressure on Matt Nagy to hire the right man to lead the charge on defense and so far it appears that he got it right with Sean Desai.

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TOKYO — Carl Lewis, the winner of nine gold medals in four Olympic Games, could not believe his eyes. He was at home Wednesday night in Houston watching the U.S. men’s 4×100-relay team melt down half a world away in the Olympic Stadium, and he simply could not contain his frustration.

“This was a football coach taking a team to the Super Bowl and losing 99-0 because they were completely ill-prepared,” Lewis said in a phone interview with USA TODAY Sports.

“It’s unacceptable. It’s so disheartening to see this because it’s people’s lives. We’re just playing games with people’s lives. That’s why I’m so upset. It’s totally avoidable. And America is sitting there rooting for the United States and then they have this clown show. I can’t take it anymore. It’s just unacceptable. It is not hard to do the relay.”

Moments after the Americans finished a stunning sixth in their preliminary heat in relay qualifying, failing to advance and eliminating their medal chances, Lewis took to Twitter:

“The USA team did everything wrong in the men’s relay,” he wrote. “The passing system is wrong, athletes running the wrong legs, and it was clear that there was no leadership. It was a total embarrassment, and completely unacceptable for a USA team to look worse than the AAU kids I saw.”

Lewis, 60, the assistant track coach at his alma mater, the University of Houston, said he has been involved in recent years with U.S. relays due to the participation of UH athletes in the system.

“In track and field, the individualized part of it, every agent is down there, every person is down there talking (to the coaches), they want their guys to run, they’re all saying we’ve got to run six guys so they can all get a medal. The last thing they’re thinking about is coming across the line for the United States. It’s back to the same thing, selfish.”

After the American debacle, two members of the U.S. team spoke with the media in the mixed zone, according to USA TODAY Sport’s Tom Schad. Asked how much practice they had for the event as a group before the race, Fred Kerley, the second leg, said, “Don’t know,” and Ronnie Baker, the third leg, added, “Not much.”

Lewis focused on Baker, who had to run the turn in the track between the 200- and 300-meter mark, in his comments to USA TODAY Sports.

“I’ve never seen Ronnie Baker run a turn in my life,” Lewis said. “Go back and watch the third leg, look at him, he looks like he’s running on ice because he’s never run a turn. He doesn’t run the (individual) 200, so why is he running a turn when he never runs a turn?”

Said Lewis: “We’ve been talking about this forever. The relay program has been a disaster for years because there’s no leadership and no system. When I said everything is wrong, it is. If you break it down, people were in the wrong legs, obviously they were not taught how to pass the baton in those legs. Just simple things like that. I watched it. I’m not blaming the athletes so much. This was leadership.”

When asked if he’s ready to take over the U.S. relay program, Lewis laughed loudly. But he was not laughing about what he witnessed from Tokyo on his TV at home.

“I’m so frustrated because I’m so passionate about those three letters, USA,” Lewis said. “That’s why. I love my country. I love winning. That’s what gets me. How can we let the United States down so much in an unacceptable way like that?”

Read more at usatoday.com

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A Chicago police officer is facing felony charges in connection with an on-duty shooting last year at the CTA Red Line’s Grand station.

Officer Melvina Bogard, 32, faces counts of aggravated battery with a firearm and official misconduct for the Feb. 28, 2020 shooting, the Cook County state’s attorney’s office announced Thursday.

No charges were announced against Officer Bernard Butler, who was with Bogard at the time of the shooting and was recorded by a bystander yelling “shoot him” before Bogard opened fire.

Shortly after 4 p.m. that day, Bogard and Butler tried to arrest 34-year-old Ariel Roman after he was seen walking between cars on a northbound Red Line train.

The officers followed Roman when he got off the train at the station and tried taking Roman into custody at the bottom of a set of stairs leading up to the station’s main concourse.

Roman struggled with Butler and was eventually able to stand up. Video footage showed two deployed stun guns laying on the station’s floor.

As Roman ran up the stairs, Butler repeated yelled for Bogard to fire, the video shows Bogard shot once at Roman when he was feet away from her and then again when he neared the top of the stairs.

Roman was shot in the hip and buttocks, according to his attorneys, who filed a lawsuit against the city and both officers.

Roman was taken into custody after the shooting and briefly faced resisting arrest and narcotics charges, which were later dropped by the state’s attorney’s office.

The Civilian Office of Police Accountability submitted the findings from its investigation to Supt. David Brown in October. The Chicago Police Department later moved to fire both officers.

Federal authorities also have opened a criminal investigation into the high-profile police shooting.

Bogard turned herself in on the charges Thursday morning and is expected to appear in court later Thursday, the state’s attorney’s office said.

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Next month Frank Lloyd Wright and Prairie School architecture will be celebrated at the annual Wright Plus housewalk in Oak Park and River Forest. But what makes these two neighboring western suburbs truly special is not just the 31 Wright-designed structures, but the wide variety of historic architecture that can be found here. Many of the houses come with impressive architectural pedigrees, whether it is Oak Park’s most “intact” Victorian designed by local architect Henry G. Fiddelke (who also worked on Ernest Hemingway’s childhood home) or a disputed River Forest residence done by either Wright himself or one of his young draftsmen, Harry Robinson.

If you’re an architecture geek like me, walking around OPRF can be like visiting an outdoor museum. Located just nine miles west of downtown Chicago, it’s a convenient place to live if you want to be close to the city. And though it can be a bit pricey, you can buy into the suburb’s architectural heritage.

Let’s start with the crème de la crème. When I lived near the intersection of Pleasant and Grove I’d always admire the impressive Victorians that sit on all four corners. This home at 139 South Grove Avenue designed by Fiddelke & Ellis is one of them. In our current world of HGTV renovations, it’s pretty shocking to see a home in such original condition with ornate millwork, stained glass windows, pocket doors, built-in furniture like bookcases and sideboards, as well as six fireplaces with hand-carved mantels. Five different types of wood was used throughout the home and none of it has been painted. It’s a miracle! Although the kitchen has been modernized, it still preserves the historical flair of the home. The one-bedroom coach house can be rented out or used for whatever suits your needs, whether as a guest house or office. But the best part is its walkability—not just to stores and restaurants in the Hemingway District but to public transportation. 

Located a few doors down from Frank Lloyd Wright’s Winslow House, this 1960 ranch-style design was one of twelve built by architect and developer Martin H. Braun on the former estate of Edward C. Waller. Chicago Tribune advertisements for Braun’s “tomorrow’s houses” lured potential owners with amenities like rumpus rooms and built-in televisions. Some of those original details survive, but this 10-room home has been updated for life in today’s world. Plus it has a yard to die for! You’ll find a surrounding deck, garden ponds, green house, and above ground pool. That might explain the hefty price, but who wouldn’t want a private oasis on an acre lot that backs up to the woods and the Des Plaines River?

Roy J. Hotchkiss was the draftsmen for local architect E.E. Roberts and these two men were responsible for hundreds of buildings in Oak Park, including the town’s art deco masterpiece, the Medical Arts Building. He designed this Craftsman-style Foursquare in 1924. Almost a hundred years later the home is a blend of historic charm on the exterior with modern day decor on the inside. You’ll find plenty of space here with 15 rooms offering different options for further renovation, plus a large coach house out back. And you’re just steps away from a Green Line stop.

This 1914 Prairie-style home comes with controversy. Frank Lloyd Wright famously did “bootleg houses” on the sly, which led to his boss Louis Sullivan firing him. Well, history repeats itself. Architectural historian William Allin Storrer declared an entire block of homes in River Forest to be Frank Lloyd Wright designs, although evidence shows they are “bootlegs” by Wright’s draftsman Harry Robinson. One of these disputed homes is currently for sale. Historically appropriate details include art glass and a roman brick fireplace. There is also a bright sun room for reading and relaxation and contemplation… who *actually* designed this house?

Located in between two Frank Lloyd Wright-designed homes on Oak Park’s beautiful Forest Avenue, this understated 1890 Queen Anne was designed by Patton & Fisher, architects responsible for a number of buildings in town, as well as one of Chicago’s most visible architectural landmarks: the vividly red-brick Main Building at the Illinois Institute of Technology, completed three years after this house. While preserving the original woodwork, the home has been tastefully updated inside with new bathrooms and a bright white kitchen that opens up to a spacious family room. Compared to the Victorian on Grove, which seems like a museum, this old home is quite livable for modern tastes.

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Why Is Trump’s Hatchet Man Postmaster General DeJoy Still on the Job?

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By Aquinas wired,
today at 8:54 am

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy

Thinks the USPS something he should destroy.

It’s time to divorce

This Trump Trojan Horse

And the President find someone else to employ.

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  I’m Jerry Partacz, happily married to my wife Julie for over 40 years. I have four children and eleven grandchildren. I’m enjoying retirement after 38 years of teaching. I now have an opportunity to share my thoughts on many things. I’m an incurable optimist. I also love to solve crossword puzzles and to write light verse. I love to read, to garden, to play the piano, to collect stamps and coins, and to watch “Curb Your Enthusiasm”.

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Chicago multi-instrumentalist and Reader contributor Luca Cimarusti is having a busy summer. In July his minimalist postpunk trio, Luggage, dropped the album Happiness, and now he’s about to put out the second full-length from his black-metal solo project, Annihilus. Cimarusti originally wanted to keep this project anonymous, but he dropped that idea after releasing his first demo, deciding that the mystique of anonymity wasn’t worth the trouble and distraction of maintaining it. Last year’s full-length debut, Ghanima (American Decline), earned rave reviews and immediately established Annihilus as a project to watch.

Cimarusti named Annihilus after a Marvel Comics villain from the so-called Negative Zone who first appeared in the late 60s, but even if you know about his plan to destroy the universe with a bomb harnessing the Power Cosmic, it really won’t prepare you for the fury of the new Annihilus record. Follow a Song From the Sky is a deep and wild album, full of eloquent rage and formidable artistry. Its raw guitar work and vocals have strong links to punk, industrial, ambient, and postrock, and Cimarusti can switch gears between the eerie and the absolutely unhinged; “Draw the Beast,” which features guest vocals by Ryan Wichmann of Sick/Tired, is especially brutal in this way. “Winter Song” settles into a harsh, sharp-edged groove and sustains it for a perfectly satisfying length before erupting into a glorious coda that sounds almost like an old-school rocker grinding a guitar against an amp. While Annihilus is technically a solo project, Cimarusti is hardly a loner, and on Follow he welcomes collaborations from several local musicians. Electronic composer Brett Naucke adds simmering, boiling noise to several tracks; Dan Binaei of Racetraitor and Trevor de Brauw of Pelican contribute guitar to “AMA” and “Song From the Sky,” respectively; and Brian Case of FACS turns in a mesmerizing vocal performance on “Song From the Sky.” The first single from the album, “The Voice of Shai-Hulud” (inspired by Frank Herbert’s Dune series), condenses an epic journey into less than five minutes–you can almost feel the sand blowing into your eyes. If this past year and a half has taught us anything, it’s that the creative impulse will not be denied, even under terrible conditions. On Follow a Song From the Sky, Cimaurusti shows how it can be adapted into wondrous new mutations. v

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The Bears put nose tackle Eddie Goldman, long snapper Patrick Scales, linebacker Christian Jones and tackle Elijah Wilkinson on the reserve/COVID-19 list Tuesday. They remained out Thursday morning, with Bears coach Matt Nagy saying he hopes that there will be no other positive tests.

Wilkinson is not vaccinated; it’s unclear if the other three are, though presumably they would not have been tested Tuesday had they been vaccinated.

“I think it’s just for all of us to understand we’re still going through this thing,” Nagy said. “There’s, you know, gotta be great communication through all of it. And then again, this isn’t just a football thing this is a worldwide thing that I think we gotta all recognize is still going pretty good.”

The NFL has two different sets of rules for players depending on their vaccination status. Vaccinated players who test positive can return any time after two negative tests, while unvaccinated players must isolate for 10 days. Vaccinated players don’t have to isolate if they are ruled a high-risk close contact of someone who is infected, while unvaccinated players must isolate for five days after a close contact.

Bears quarterback coach John DeFilippo, who is vaccinated, quarantined for the first five days of camp because of the coronavirus but returned earlier this week. Nagy stressed that “we are not back to 2019” when it comes to protocols.

“Until everybody says it’s normal and there are going to be no issues, then the guys have to expect that,” Nagy said. “On the front end, we have to learn what the rules are per the league of fully vaccinated vs. non-vaccinated and how that works. We’re all kind of learning but I think our guys have been great so far, I really do. They are following all the rules and they are doing what they are supposed to do and they really have not talked about it too much. But with what happened the other day they are probably all saying, ‘O.K, man, this is real, this is what we have to do.'”

Since July 25, teams have tested 2,528 players and 4,549 staff members, the NFLPA wrote in a memo sent to players Wednesday. Of the 65 positive cases, 32 were among vaccinated people. Citing the speedy spread of the Delta variant, the NFLPA said it will recommend increasing the frequency of tests among vaccinated players — up from once every two weeks to once a day. The NFL would have to agree to any change in testing frequency.

Bears tight end Jimmy Graham posted part of the memo on Twitter and wrote the following: “Was basically forced into getting the vaccine. Now I’m just confused.”

Graham’s issue, he explained, was that he could be fined a maximum $150,000 for missing daily coronavirus tests even though he’s vaccinated.

“How’s the punishment 100 [times] worse than last year and I’m vaccinated now?” he wrote.

Nagy said Graham has not discussed the issue with him.

“There is stuff going on every day with this and I think everybody is figuring out the best thing to do to be safe,” Nagy said. “And not just in the sports world but in life in general, every state is a little different in what they are doing. Masks, no masks, things are certainly changing.”

Nagy, like all NFL staffers, had to get the vaccine. He declined to detail what his thought process would have been like otherwise — “You can say one wrong thing and it goes the wrong way from what I say,” he said — and said he respects players’ viewpoints on the matter. While coaches like the Vikings’ Mike Zimmer and Washington’s Ron Rivera have been visibly frustrated with their team’s low vaccination rate, Nagy has remained even-keeled publicly. He said the Bears simply explain the facts to their players.

“You got the why –now you can make your decision on what you want to do,” Nagy said. “That’s literally all you can do and you got to be open and honest. Whatever people believe or get into, that’s up to them. Otherwise, it can be a distraction that takes you away from football.”

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Soul singer Bette Smith aims to make the most of her first time in the Chicago area.

She performs Tuesday at Space in Evanston, part of her “Bustin’ Out of Brooklyn Tour ’21.”

The New Yorker plans to play tourist while she’s in town.

“I have a girlfriend in Chicago,” Smith says. “I met her in New York, and she moved back home during the pandemic. She’s gonna take us around on the waterways and highways and byways. I’m really excited about that. I’ve heard a lot about the Windy City, but I’ve never been there before.”

Smith — whose style has often been compared to Tina Turner and Aretha Franklin — had plans to tour and promote her album “The Good, the Bad and the Bette,” released last fall.

Because of the pandemic, that changed. She played virtual shows, took stock of her mental health and worked on her music.

The enforced break from travel made her very appreciative of being able to be back on tour.

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“I took up meditation, walked my dog and just really tried to focus on building up my inner strength so that, when I get back out there, I’m in shape to do my thing,” Smith says. “That’s how we got to it with our dogs and nature and our families. That’s how we got through it in New York.

“It was really good to be out there after the lockdown for about a year or two. I think all the artists right now in the world are so happy that we’re finally — hopefully — getting out of being in lockdown. It’s really good to be around the fans, give them energy and get back energy. It’s a really positive feeling. I hope the pandemic stays away and dies out.”

“I’m a Sinner,” one of the songs on her latest album, has become a favorite with crowds when she performs.

“I’ve been getting a lot of good energy from it,” she says. “I like it because it’s kind of a biblical story, and I thought it was a very funky beat. It’s a real crowd-pleaser, and I try to sing it every time I get out there. It’s one of my favorite songs on the new album.

“When I’m singing, I’m teaching, and I think a lot of things feel that way. I think it’s a really nice trip to take the audience on — to go to church on stage. I think that’s a really positive way to communicate with the audience sometimes.”

Smith says one of her musical influences is legendary gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, who lived in Chatham and Hyde Park.

“I have really eclectic tastes,” she says. “I like Mahalia Jackson. I grew up listening to her. And now I like Valerie June and a lot of upcoming new soul singers and folk singers like The War and Treaty.

“A lot of people say I sound a little like Tina Turner. She’s been a big influence also. I like Tina’s stage presence. She’s got a lot of chutzpah.

“I love Mahalia Jackson because she was so dedicated to the Lord, and she refused to sing secular music. It was very interesting to see how she dedicated her life to singing religious music exclusively.”

Smith says she’s happy to be playing concerts again.

“I’m looking forward to touring in the Midwest, and I’m looking forward to being on stage again within it and hanging out with the Midwestern audiences,” she says. “Learning new things from them and having them learn new things from me as a New Yorker.

“It’s going to be a really exciting time for me and my band.”

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