SAN DIEGO – The world has changed significantly over the past 12 months and baseball was no exception as last year’s global pandemic sent shockwaves to players, coaches, media and fans alike.

Empty ballparks with no fans, zoom press conferences with the media and heightened health and safety protocols were just some of the dramatic changes seen last season.

On Monday, the Cubs played in their 60th game of the season, a benchmark that meant something completely different in 2020. During the shortened season, the Cubs’ 60th game was their last before entering the postseason.

Following last year’s chaotic sprint, the Cubs reflected on just how dramatic a difference this season has been, compared to last year’s unusual, but historic one.

“Well, I hope we have to worry about going to the postseason, but just not today,” manager David Ross joked on Monday. “It hit me probably a little more than a month ago, I was still in kind of sprint mode. … The last year for me has been a lot. I think for the world, right? For everybody, it’s been a lot. But, we’re starting to see some really light at the end of the tunnel.”

With a schedule spanning eight months and a 162-game in addition to spring training and the postseason, baseball’s grind is unlike any other sport.

Last season’s schedule was a fraction of it’s normal length, but with the mental, physical and emotional toll of an abbreviated season combined with a global pandemic and social justice movements around the country made simply playing baseball a challenge with much of the focus, and rightfully so, in other places.

“I was looking back on it a week after the season ended and was like, ‘That’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life,'” right fielder Jason Heyward told the Sun-Times. “Baseball-wise, being a human being. seeing everyone with their families. It felt like the first time everyone in society was like, ‘We’re being hurt by this no matter how you look at.’ That was tough, man. I think there’s still some residual effects for all of us.”

As the mentality off the field has begun to change with vaccinations rolling out and COVID-19 positivity rates dropping beginning to be seen in all aspects of life, players have also had to recalibrate on the field. After being asked to push through a 60-game season, realizing the playoffs don’t begin in what would normally be the middle of the season is still a shock to the system of players.

Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks had 12 starts during the shortened season and was one of the best pitchers in the game, going 6-5 with a 2.88 ERA. Through 12 starts this season, he’s 7-4 with a 4.59 ERA and even after doing well under the stress of 2020, he still can’t believe what players put their bodies through to try to compete.

“It’s just a wild thought, man,” Hendricks said. “I’m not in the same spot I was last year. Not even close. So feeling like my next start would be in the postseason that’d be a tough spot to be in right now.

“It really did feel so fast last year, but you really didn’t realize how fast it was going in the moment. I don’t think you realize it until you get back into a normal season like this. I mean, we’re really just finding our rhythm and our groove. I feel really good where I’m at, but I’m definitely glad that I get about 20 more starts, for sure.”

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No injuries were reported, according to Chicago fire officials.

Red Line services on the North Side have been temporarily suspended Monday evening following a train derailment near Bryn Mawr Avenue.

A southbound train derailed near the station at 1119 W. Bryn Mawr Ave after 6 p.m., with one wheel coming off the tracks, according to Chicago fire officials.

There were 24 passengers on board the train but no injuries were reported, fire officials said.

CTA Red Lines were only operating between 95th Street and Belmont Avenue, as of about 6:20 p.m.

There were shuttle buses offered for passengers between the Belmont Avenue and Howard Street stops.

Purple Line Express service was also temporarily suspended.

This is a developing story. Check back for details.

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The former Bulls coach got the Knicks back to the playoffs, guiding them to their second-best record in 20 years

NEW YORK — Tom Thibodeau got the New York Knicks back to the playoffs, guiding the team to its second-best record in 20 years.

And in the eyes of the voters, that coaching job was the best in the NBA.

Thibodeau was revealed Monday as the NBA’s Coach of the Year for 2020-21, as determined by a global panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters who cover the league. The Knicks went 41-31 this season, then fell to Atlanta in five games in the first round of the playoffs.

It was the closest balloting since this version of voting was introduced 19 years ago. Thibodeau got 43 first-place votes and finished with 351 total points, while Phoenix’s Monty Williams actually got more first-place votes — he got 45 — but finished with 340 points.

“Anytime you get an award like this, I’m obviously honored,” Thibodeau said on the telecast announcing the results. “But it’s more a reflection of our group and our organization.”

It was Thibodeau’s second time winning the award; he also got it in 2011, his first season with the Chicago Bulls. And another first-year turnaround in New York merited him the trophy for a second time.

Utah’s Quin Snyder was third and got 10 of the remaining 12 first-place votes. Philadelphia’s Doc Rivers was fourth, getting the other two first-place votes. Atlanta’s Nate McMillan was fifth, Brooklyn’s Steve Nash was sixth and Denver’s Michael Malone was seventh.

The Knicks were 41-31 this season, and that winning percentage of .569 is the eighth-lowest for any coach of the year winner since the award was first given out in 1963. But the job Thibodeau did in his first New York season was outstanding by any measure, guiding the Knicks to their first playoff berth since 2013 and their second-best record in the last 20 years.

On the TNT broadcast announcing the award, Thibodeau spoke of how he grew up a fan of the Knicks in the era that included Willis Reed and Walt Frazier, how his coaching style was influenced in part by others with deep ties to the Knicks — like Rivers and Jeff Van Gundy — and how the players on this New York team like Derrick Rose merited much credit as well. Rose was with Thibodeau when he won the award in Chicago a decade ago.

“There were so many people that helped me along the way,” Thibodeau said. “I’ve probably been the luckiest guy in the world.”

It’s the second major award for the Knicks this season, after Julius Randle won most improved player. Also previously announced was Utah’s Jordan Clarkson winning sixth man of the year.

The MVP, defensive player of the year and rookie of the year awards are yet to be announced.

The defensive player of the year finalists are Utah’s Rudy Gobert, Golden State’s Draymond Green and Philadelphia’s Ben Simmons. The MVP finalists are finalists Nikola Jokic of Denver, Stephen Curry of Golden State and Joel Embiid of Philadelphia. And the rookie of the year finalists are LaMelo Ball of Charlotte, Anthony Edwards of Minnesota and Tyrese Haliburton of Sacramento.

Thibodeau’s win continues a bit of an odd trend. Out of the last 49 seasons, there have been only three instances of the coach of the year also winning the NBA title that same season — Phil Jackson did it with Chicago in 1996, and Gregg Popovich did it with San Antonio in 2003 and 2014.

Thibodeau is the third coach to win the award as coach of the Knicks, joining Red Holzman in 1970 and Pat Riley in 1993. He’s the 10th to win the award multiple times and the eighth to win with multiple franchises.

Coaches were awarded five points for each first-place vote, three points for each second-place vote and one point for each third-place vote. Thibodeau got 42 second-place votes and 10 third-place votes; Williams got 32 second-place votes and 19 third-place votes. Williams was left off four ballots, Thibodeau was left off five.

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Chicago Cubs Rumors: Team has flexibility for trade deadline moves by Jordan Campbell

The Chicago Cubs’ middle infield depth took a hit over the course of the past month with injuries to Matt Duffy, David Bote, and Nico Hoerner. Fortunately for the Cubs, the team has received a shot in the arm from veteran journeyman Patrick Wisdom.

Through his first 13 games with the Cubs and 36 plate appearances, Wisdom has ignited the team’s offense. Wisdom currently has a slash line of .412/.444/1.088/1.533 with 7 home runs and 10 RBIs. For Wisdom, most of his success was due to the hot streak of games that he has put together for the Cubs over the course of the past week.

Last week alone, Wisdom compiled a .435 batting average along with 6 home runs and 9 RBIs. Therefore, it should be no surprise that Wisdom was named the National League Player of the Week for his efforts last week.

No doubt about it.@PatrickWisdom5 is the NL Player of the Week! #CubTogether pic.twitter.com/Hmjtqle7pZ

— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) June 7, 2021

Wisdom’s two-home run performance on Sunday in the Cubs’ victory over the San Francisco Giants was the reason why the Cubs were able to avoid a four-game sweep over the weekend. Wisdom’s emergence has led to questions over the construction of the Cubs’ roster over the course of the rest of the season.

Patrick Wisdom is making a case that he should stay on the Chicago Cubs roster.

Before we dive into what Wisdom’s emergence means for the rest of the Cubs’ roster, let’s first enter the necessary caveat. That caveat being that Major League pitchers are going to adjust to Wisdom and eventually find a way to get him out. Once they do, it will be on Wisdom to adjust and maintain his success.

Factoring in the regression and operating under the theory that Wisdom will still be competent Major League Hitter, the question surfaces of what becomes of the Major League Roster. The initial question to that answer is nothing. While it seems likely that Duffy will return within the next week from his back strain, the Cubs are currently carrying 14 pitchers so it would seem likely that the team would simply demote a reliever such as Cory Abbot.

Where the Cubs will truly need to make an important decision is when both Bote and Hoerner are healthy. Once Bote and Hoerner are healthy, it seems likely that the Cubs will decide between either Wisdom or Eric Sogard to keep on the Major League roster. Considering that Sogard’s 2021 OPS of .610 is an indicator that his struggles from the 2020 season have continued, the case should be made that the Cubs should DFA the veteran second baseman.

Related Story: Chicago Cubs have the flexibility for deadline moves

Even factoring in the eventual regression from Wisdom, he still provides the Cubs with more flexibility than Sogard. Sogard, at this stage of his career, is mostly only a second base position whereas Wisdom can play third base, second base, and the corner outfield spots. For now, though, Patrick Wisdom is the defending National League Player of the Week and the Chicago Cubs will need to ride the hot hand for as long as it lasts.

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Dontay Banks, who performed as “DThang,” was killed in a chaotic scene at Club O, where “lots of weapons” were recovered early Sunday.

The brother of Chicago rapper Lil Durk was killed over the weekend in a shooting that also wounded a police officer at a strip club in south suburban Harvey.

Police were investigating if another fatal shooting hours later was possible retaliation.

Dontay Banks, who performed as “DThang,” was killed in a chaotic scene at Club O, where “multiple shots” were fired and “lots of weapons recovered” early Sunday, according to Harvey spokeswoman Giavonni Nickson.

Shortly before Banks was shot, a Harvey police officer heard gunfire and noticed a person with a gun at the club at 17038 S Halsted St., Nickson said.

More gunfire erupted during an “altercation,” and the officer was hit in the thigh, Nickson said. It was unclear if the officer returned fire, and Nickson said it was uncertain if the officer was targeted in the shooting. The officer was in good condition.

About 500 feet away, 32-year-old Banks was shot in his head, Nickson said. “Among the other shots flying, Banks was caught in it,” she said.

Banks, who lived in Chicago’s Gresham neighborhood, was pronounced dead at the scene, according to Nickson and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Around 2 a.m. that morning, another person was killed in a possible retaliation shooting, Nickson said.

Police responded to a shooting victim at 148 W. 155th St., a block west of Ingalls Memorial Hospital, Nickson said. Sinica Price, 39, was taken to South Suburban Hospital in Hazel Crest and pronounced dead with a gunshot wound, she said.

No arrests were reported in any of the shootings, Nickson said.

Dontay Banks’s brother Lil Durk, whose real name is Durk Banks, hasn’t commented on his brother’s death. But on Twitter, Chicago rapper Lil Reese wrote, “Long live dthang love you broski… .”

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Lil Durk founded the record label Only The Family (OTF), and several of its members have come to violent ends.

Last year, OTF rapper King Von was shot and killed in November outside a club in Atlanta. King Von was in Atlanta for his album release party for “Welcome to O’Block,” named after the notoriously violent housing project, Parkway Gardens, on the South Side where Von grew up along with Chief Keef and Lil Durk.

In 2015, Lil Durk’s manager, 24-year-old Uchenna ‘‘Chino Dolla’’ Agina, was shot and killed while sitting in a car in the 8400 block of South Stony Island Avenue.

In 2014, Banks’ cousin McArthur Swindle, who rapped as OTF NuNu, was shot and killed in Chatham. Swindle was in an SUV when someone walked up and started shooting. The SUV crashed into a storefront at 87th and Cottage Grove.

In 2012, Durk Banks pleaded guilty to a weapons charge and was sentenced to a year in prison.

Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times

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Tony Award nominee Joaquina Kalukango will lead the cast for the show which will be presented in a five-week, pe-Broadway engagement at the James M. Nederlander Theatre Nov. 2-Dec. 5.

The cast for the Broadway-bound musical “Paradise Square,” which will receive its pre-Broadway run in Chicago this fall, was announced Monday.

Tony Award nominee Joaquina Kalukango and Chilina Kennedy will lead the cast for the show which will receive a five-week engagement at the James M. Nederlander Theatre (24 W. Randolph) Nov. 2-Dec. 5.

The cast will also feature John Dossett, A.J. Shively, Nathaniel Stampley, Sidney DuPont, Gabrielle McClinton, Kevin Dennis and Jacob Fishel.

Produced by Garth Drabinsky, “Paradise Square” is directed by Tony Award nominee Moisés Kaufman (“I Am My Own Wife”), with choreography by two-time Tony Award winner Bill T. Jones (“Spring Awakening,” “Fela!’), and a book by Christina Anderson Marcus Gardley, Craig Lucas and Larry Kirwan. The production features the “re-imagined” songs of Stephen Foster and original compositions, with a score by Jason Howland (“Beautiful: The Carole King Musical”), Nathan Tyson (“Tuck Everlasting”), Masi Asare (“Monsoon Wedding”) and Kirwan.

Alessandra Mello

The production, which received its world premiere in 2019 at Berkeley Rep, tells the story, set in New York in 1863, about the tenement housing community of Five Points in Lower Manhattan where Irish immigrants and free-born Black Americans who had escaped slavery via the Underground Railroad co-existed and shared their cultures as the tight-knit community until the Civil War’s New York Draft Riots of 1863 violently changed everything.

“It is here in the Five Points where tap dancing was born, as Irish step dancing joyously competed with Black American Juba,” the show’s official press announcement stated.

Drabinsky, who Chicagoans may remember for his critically acclaimed projects here including “Ragtime,” “Showboat” and record-setting “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” starring Donny Osmond in the 1990s, is the controversial theater mogul who was sentenced to five years in prison after being convicted in Canada of defrauding shareholders of Livent, the theater production company he co-founded with Myron Gottlieb, also convicted in the high-profile case. Drabinsky was released on parole in 2013 after serving 17 months, and all charges in the U.S. were later dismissed.

Individual tickets for “Paradise Square on sale at 12:00 a.m. June 8 (midnight Monday) at broadwayinchicago.com.

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In many instances, the survivors and the heirs still have title to the buildings that were torched and forcibly seized from their relatives. Do they have the right to take back the land?

On its 100th anniversary, the 1921 massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma has finally come to national attention. The history of the massacre is now known. The damage inflicted clear. The question is what is to be done to repair the damage?

In the early 20th century, the Greenwood neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was a center of Black economic prosperity in the U.S. Often called the Black Wall Street, Greenwood supported around 15,000 people. It had close to 200 Black-owned businesses, 15 doctors, two dentists, law offices, restaurants, movie theaters, hotels, a hospital and schools. Greenwood was a prosperous community on the Black side of segregated Tulsa.

That made it a source of envy and of resentment. In the early hours of June 1, 1921, a “deputized” white mob — some estimates report it numbering 10,000 persons, supported by the Tulsa police and the mayor of Tulsa — swept through the community, burning, looting and murdering in a calculated act of mass terror. The trigger for the mob violence was a rumored attack on a white woman by a Black man — a charge that was later dismissed when it turned out that the supposed assailant accidentally tripped into her.

As many as 400 Black residents were killed, more than 1,200 homes burned, 10,000 people were left homeless, churches, schools and a hospital were destroyed. There were no convictions for any of the charges related to the violence. Blacks in Tulsa were the most arrested and the most denied. The dead were buried in mass graves never to be seen again. ”Decades of Black prosperity and millions of dollars in hard-earned wealth were wiped out in hours, but nobody was ever held accountable, and no compensation was ever paid,” concluded a report by Human Rights Watch.

Last week, three survivors of the incident — all over 100 years old — testified before Congress about the terror and injustice.

No one now doubts the damage wrought. The question is what is to be done to rectify the harm done? In many instances, the survivors and the heirs still have title to the lands and buildings that were torched and forcibly seized from their relatives. Do the descendants have the right to take back the land? In most cases, restitution must be considered for the land and business owners. Many have deeds to the stolen property. They deserve restitution. The multigenerational damages are staggering. The Stratford Hotel, for example, was worth about $125,000 at the time it was torched. In today’s dollars, it would be worth over $100 million.

Restitution calls for returning to the rightful owner something that has been taken away improperly. Reparations is a broader concept, calling for compensation to make good damages that cannot simply be rectified. Many commissions have called for reparations for the victims of the Greenwood massacre, but to date nothing has been done.

Last September, descendants of the victims and Lessie Benningfield Randle, a 106-year-old survivor of the massacre, filed suit against the City of Tulsa and other official bodies. They accurately charged that Tulsa officials permitted and participated in the destruction of their families’ homes and businesses, and that the City of Tulsa also worked to block any compensation from insurance companies. They asked for a detailed accounting of the property and wealth lost or stolen, the building of a hospital in northern Tulsa to replace the one that was burned down, establishment of a fund to recompense the victims and their descendants, and a break from city and county taxes for survivors or descendants of those who were killed or injured.

Reparations are, of course, controversial, but correct. Basic justice requires some remedy for wrongs committed. And no community can come together without wrestling directly and honestly with the horrors committed and the damage caused. The Tulsa massacre is not the only incident of racial terrorism in this country. Tulsa is a metaphor for all the other race massacres that have occurred in the U.S.

In the end, the following must happen: Lynching must be a federal crime. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky blocked it. A Marshall Plan is needed to secure and restructure institutions for fairness and justice. The most significant piece of the Marshall Plan is 50-year development loans at 2%, government secured with quarterly returns. How the citizens, the city and state and the courts handle this question will reveal much about the state of justice in this country.

Send letters to [email protected].

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Chicago artist and actor Tony Fitzpatrick says the mural, a tribute to the late Steppenwolf artistic director Martha Lavey, will be his last public artwork in Chicago.

A massive mural created by Chicago artist and actor Tony Fitzpatrick will be installed on the exterior of Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s new arts and exhibition center in Lincoln Park this week.

Fitzpatrick, who has put on several shows at Steppenwolf over the years, said his mural, which measures 12 feet high by 76 feet long, is a personal tribute to former Steppenwolf artistic director Martha Lavey, who died in 2017 and who he considers a mentor.

It’s Fitzpatrick’s largest work to date and his first outdoor mural — and the 62-year-old artist also says it will be the end of a chapter in his career.

“I think it’s time for guys who look like me to get out of the way. My show coming up in October at the [College of DuPage] will be my last museum show. This will be my final public artwork for the city of Chicago. I’m still going to do gallery shows all over the world, I just feel like,… when you get to the top of the hill, you pull the next person up. I think there needs to be more room for artists of color, for LGBTQ artists and for female artists.”

Provided

Fitzpatrick said because of the size of the mural and because they could not find a space to work during the pandemic, he enlisted the help of fellow artist Danny Torres, whom he’s recently partnered with in a new public art initiative called Fitzpatrick/Torres Humboldt Caballo, to digitize eight pieces.

They were then digitally printed in Bologna, Italy, on 57 ceramic porcelain tiles, each measuring 4 x 4 feet, and will be installed this week at the building, 1646 N. Halsted St. The building itself, which will house an educational center and additional stages, is scheduled to open in the fall.

Known for his drawings and collages that often have birds, the pieces Fitzpatrick selected for the mural feature floral or tree themes instead of birds and has a garden theme. In addition to being a tribute to Lavey, the mural — titled “Night and Day in the Garden of All Other Ecstasies” — is similar to the creative process of a play, Fitzpatrick said.

Provided

“This is the most un-Tony-like looking work of art I’ve ever made. I just thought there really wouldn’t be any human figures. The only thing is Martha’s eyes are in it … We didn’t want it to be literal or linear. We wanted it to be much like the creative process of when you’re putting together a play and trying 100 different things on your way in,” Fitzpatrick said.

The garden theme was something that came to him when thinking back to conversations he had with Lavey over the years.

“I knew based on conversations with Martha that leading a theater company is like tending a large, unruly garden. There are thorns, there are blooms, there are explosions of unexpected color, and there are constantly more seeds available. Every play blooms into its own unexpected beauty but like a garden, it’s fraught with peril as well. There are thorns, there are weeds, there are invasive species.”

While he says the mural will be his last public piece, Fitzpatrick is expanding into other areas. He said he will continue to create jigsaw puzzles of his work — something that he started during the pandemic and went over well, and soon will be adding his art to skateboard decks in a new venture.

Still, the mural brings him personal pride as something that can be viewed and enjoyed by anyone walking by the building.

“I wanted to leave something lasting, life affirming and positive.”

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