Lately, the ChicagoBlackhawks have seen their play dip a bit over the last few weeks. They are still in that race for the last playoff berth in the Central Division but things are going to have to change if they want to get in. Despite being in this highly contested race, they are probably […]
The ChicagoBulls lost to the Atlanta Hawks on Friday night, ending their three-game winning streak, 120-108. Have you ever seen a player upset with scoring 50 points in a game? That was Zach LaVine after the Bulls lost by 12 points to the Hawks. LaVine shot 18/31 from the field, 7/12 from downtown, and […]
Ken “Hawk” Harrelson acknowledges the crowd on Hawk Day as he was honored by the White Sox before the game between the White Sox and the Boston Red Sox on September 2, 2018 at Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by David Banks/Getty Images) | Getty
“Just the word ‘Cooperstown,’” Harrelson said, summarizing what the honor will mean to him. “You live with it as a baseball player, or as announcer.”
Retirement is treating Ken Harrelson just fine, it sounds like.
Take Friday, for instance. Dateline, Orlando, Fla.
“Every Friday I go to Orange Tree [Golf Club] to get the clam chowder,” Harrelson said Friday morning. “They have the best clam chowder in Florida. And I love clam chowder, I’ll go over later on to have some lunch, sit around and tell some lies with my buddies and maybe watch a couple holes and come home. Watch the Masters this afternoon.”
Harrelson’s calendar is much lighter removed from his distinguished broadcasting career highlighted by 34 years with the White Sox, but there is one significant date marked – July 25. That’s when he’ll be inducted into the Hall of Fame as the recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award for excellence in broadcasting.
“Just the word ‘Cooperstown,’” Harrelson said, summarizing what the honor will mean to him. “You live with it as a baseball player, or as announcer.”
Harrelson, 79, was voted into the Hall via the Frick Award in December of 2019 but because of safety concerns associated with the coronavirus pandemic, induction ceremonies last July were postponed. He’ll go in this summer instead — accompanied by his wife, Aris, their daughter Krista, son Casey and daughter-in-law Kate and grandchildren Nico, Alexander and Hank — but the ceremonies won’t be at the usual outdoor location. Instead, the festivities will be a television-only event broadcast on MLB Network.
The Class of 2020 featuring Derek Jeter, Marvin Miller, Ted Simmons and Larry Walker will be inducted with 2020 and 2021 Frick Award winners Harrelson and Al Michaels, respectively; 2020 and 2021 BBWAA Career Excellence Award winners Nick Cafardo and Dick Kaegel, respectively; and 2020 Buck O’Neil Lifetime Achievement Award winner David Montgomery.
“Forty three years of announcing, I never thought about it,” Harrelson said of the Hall of Fame. “People would say, ‘You’re going to the Hall of Fame.’ I didn’t think about that in that regard. Was up for it a couple times, but there are so many great announcers.”
After a playing career including stops with the Kansas City Athletics, Indians, Red Sox and Senators – he played on the 1967 “Impossible Dream” Red Sox and hit 35 homers and drove in an American League best 109 runs in 1968 — Harrelson parlayed his big personality into a broadcasting career starting with the Red Sox from 1975-81. He switched to the White Sox, under its new ownership group led by Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn, in 1982.
Harrelson was named White Sox general manager after the 1985 season, fired manager Tony La Russa and assistant general manager Dave Dombrowski during the 1986 season, left after that season and became a Yankees broadcaster in 1987.
Firing La Russa went on to a Hall of Fame managerial career and returned to the Sox to manage again this season at age 76.
Harrelson returned to the White Sox as a broadcaster in 1989 and called games till 2018. He was a five-time Emmy Award winner who coined phrases such as “You can put it on the board, yes!” and “Mercy” and gave nicknames like “The Big Hurt” to Frank Thomas. There was never any doubt which team he rooted for.
“I want to be remembered as an entertaining broadcaster and that I announced the way I played. I played my a— off,” he said. “And the greatest compliment you can give me is calling me a homer.”
Now Harrelson is watching every Sox game he can, with La Russa at the helm, and he can’t help but think about the decision he made in ’86, a decision approved by chairman Jerry Reinsdorf who called it his biggest regret. Harrelson has admitted the decision to fire La Russa was a mistake, but he says he didn’t fire him because he was a bad manager.
“He’s only been fired one time,” Harrelson said. “I didn’t fire him because he was a bad manager, I fired him for some other reason that I’ll take to my grave and Tony will take to his grave.
“I’m not going to say [why].”
The Athletics hired La Russa immediately after he was fired and he added three World Series championships and 11 more division titles to go with the division title he won with the Sox in 1983. About seven years after the firing, La Russa and Harrelson shook hands, ending a freeze in their relationship.
Upon hearing that manager Rick Renteria was fired by the Sox, Harrelson turned to his wife, Aris, and said that Reinsdorf would go after La Russa.
“Jerry is one of the smartest guys I’ve been around, and I’ve played golf with presidents, vice presidents, chairman of the boards all my life. I knew he was going after Tony.”
Harrelson said he spoke with La Russa while La Russa was contemplating taking the job.
“I said, ‘Tony, you have to come back with Jerry,’ ’’ Harrelson said.
La Russa told Harrelson that Jim Leyland, a coach under La Russa with the Sox who went on to a successful managerial career, encouraged him to jump in and La Russa said, “I’m going to do it.”
“I said, ‘Jerry wants you to manage this ballclub. I want you to,’ ’’ Harrelson said.
Harrelson believes La Russa and his team are an excellent match and that the Sox are serious World Series contenders.
“No question about it, no doubt about it,” he said.
“We have all the ingredients on the field to go to the World Series. If we had Lance Lynn last year we may have gone a lot further in the playoffs. We were one starter short. You can’t go to a gunfight with a knife and that’s what we did last year with our starters.”
Even without injured Eloy Jimenez, the Sox are an entertaining and fun watch, Harrelson said. The Sox’ deep bullpen with high-powered arms makes lets Harrelson, still the biggest Sox fan around, sleep well at night.
“I don’t care how good your offense and starting pitchers are, if you don’t have a good bullpen you’re going to lose, it’s that simple. This year we’re set and we have a good bullpen.”
Check back with Hawk around the All-Star break for an updated assessment. But not during that last weekend of July.
A Chicago fan gave John Taddio some gear after the Blackhawks’ Stanley Cup triumph in 2015. | Provided
South Point hotel staple John Taddio dispenses sharp haircuts and winning hockey tips to gamblers
LAS VEGAS — The facial mist is an aloe-lavender mixture, the collagen-cream concoction a blend of organic oils, including Kalahari melon and prickly pear, with jasmine, geranium and bergamot extracts.
John Taddio applies only the finest anti-aging compounds to customers’ mugs.
His facility with the scissors, in the far right cubicle of the South Point barbershop, leaves every client model-worthy.
And the straight razor he wields is so close, well, he best describes it.
“A baby’s ass would be jealous,” says Taddio.
What’s unique about his cubicle, however, is how a visit can pay for itself, and then some. Patrons stroll away feeling younger and livelier.
“Well, not every day presents a good game,” he laughs. “But I can usually find one.”
REVENGE GAMES
Taddio’s voice rises a few decibels on the phone.
“Funny you should ask about the Blackhawks . . . I gave their game today as an Over to a guy in Cincinnati who bets a lot, along with Tampa Bay to win.”
Three minutes earlier, the Hawks’ 4-3 defeat to Carolina had become final. An enviable 5.5 total came with an Over price of -125 (risk $125 to win $100). The Lightning also defeated Columbus 3-2. The Ohio pal made $10,000.
The previous day, Taddio had recommended Colorado (which beat Phoenix 9-3) and Over in Minnesota-San Jose, with the same favorable 5.5 total and -125 price. The Sharks won 4-2.
When the Vegas Stats & Information Network (VSiN) started at the South Point, Taddio, as John the Barber, became a semi-regular NHL Insider on the first all-sports-betting satellite radio outlet. Listeners enjoyed his sound reasoning.
The next morning, we discuss his betting strategies as Taddio gives 35-year-old Brandon Fanning — an Eau Claire, Wisconsin, resident visiting his father, Robert — the full facial treatment.
A Chicago transplant, Robert Fanning is one of the South Point’s high rollers.
Earlier in the week, Taddio had recommended — to select clientele who contact him daily — the Blackhawks over Carolina. Chicago won 2-1. That factored into his selection of the Carolina-Chicago Over.
“The Blackhawks had beaten them, but now Carolina came back and won. Teams are playing a lot of back-to-backs, so there are a lot of revenge games, guys getting pissed off. The Blackhawks have been good, but the Hurricanes are close to being in the playoffs.
“When Chicago won, I knew they wouldn’t keep it up. They’re not as aggressive as the Hurricanes.”
The Blackhawks are battling for a winning record.
“They’re small,” he adds. “They can’t keep up with very good teams.”
ENTERTAINING CAREER
A Buffalo native, Taddio quit high school at 16 to attend barber training, certain the vocation would provide him with an entertaining life meeting interesting people. He has not been disappointed.
He had cut the coconuts of Bills football players during training camp. Former Sabres defenseman Mike Robitaille, whose signed and framed 8-by-10 hangs nearby, is a hockey favorite.
Taddio and wife, Connie, raised three daughters, moved to Las Vegas in 2004, and he has been at the South Point for 15 years.
Another client, associated with the Wirtz Corporation that owns the Blackhawks and is involved with a beverage distributorship in Vegas, presented him with souvenirs after Chicago won the Stanley Cup in 2015.
(He’d rather not divulge his age, but Taddio eventually says he was 16 in the early 1960s. He doesn’t catch his self-indictment.)
South Point owner Michael Gaughan, son of the late Vegas legend Jackie Gaughan, has had a standing weekly appointment for years. Taddio infuses Michael’s hot-water towels with a dash of his favorite cologne.
Cold-water compresses spring Gaughan awake after a 40-minute slumber, induced by Enya on Taddio’s Bose audio system.
THE HUMAN FACTOR
Taddio likes the zigzag theory. Since NHL teams are playing each other so frequently, Team A wins the first, Team B often gets the next one.
He tracks hot players, knows who is injured. He possesses an innate puck feel, honed when he played recreational hockey in Buffalo. “The human factor,” Taddio says, “that’s built into hockey, too.”
When a team scores early in the first period, he taps in-game mobile-app options for a first-period tie whose typical odds are +230 (wager $100 to win $230). Two or three hundred dollars is his typical unit.
He only deals with games today or tomorrow. When pressed, though, he favors Colorado (+500 at William Hill) or Vegas (+800) to lift the Stanley Cup, with Florida (+2000) as his long shot.
He agonizes over picks that go south. But his Cincinnati pal mollifies him, crowing that his success rate is about 75%. He remunerates Taddio well.
Some inquire why he does not contribute to, or run, an actual tout service, but Taddio is leery about such operations.
He also likes soccer. He gave up gambling for Lent, which ends the following day, when he will play the Over in Atalanta-Udinese in Italy.
He points to his phone.
“There it is,” says Taddio. “A 2½ total. Usually, it’s three [goals]. That’s a given to go Over. Minus-135. That’s a good one.”
Atalanta wins 3-2. The Tonsorial Tout strikes again.
See him for an exceptional cut and shave, profit on his sports suggestions. The hints of jasmine, geranium and bergamot in the air? Just the sweet smell of success.
Alvaro Medran was half of the Fire’s strong midfield duo, pairing with Gaston Gimenez. | Courtesy of the Fire
With a less unusual season, coach Raphael Wicky thinks “they can do much better and I expect them to do much better.”
When they played together last season, Alvaro Medran and Gaston Gimenez formed one of the top midfield pairings in Major League Soccer. Gimenez was deployed in more of a defensive role, while Medran was effective all over the field.
The combination of a designated player (Gimenez) and someone with a Real Madrid pedigree (Medran) gave the Fire something they didn’t have much of in 2020: a top-tier entity on the field.
“I think with Alvaro, we’ve built a really good relationship as far as football,” Gimenez said through a translator. “I think it’s because we understand the game the same way. We’re watching it, understanding the same game. It didn’t take us very long to get to know each other and be able to work together on the field.
“We really do understand the game in the same fashion. So that helped us last year be able to work off of each other and build that relationship on the field, as well as off the field we have a very good relationship.”
Coach Raphael Wicky echoed that sentiment.
“They’re two really, really good players,” Wicky said. “I think they understood each other pretty quickly on the field. They understood how to work together as a double pivot on the field. They have amazing quality.”
This year, the Fire think Medran and Gimenez could be even better individually and as a duo.
Gimenez didn’t train with the Fire until March 6, 2020, making his debut the next day before the season was paused the following week because of the pandemic. He also missed time to play with Paraguay’s national team, further interrupting his flow in Chicago.
Medran played every game in 2020 after not appearing in a competitive match since the spring of 2019 with Spanish side Rayo Vallecano. Despite the layoff, Medran was arguably the Fire’s best and most consistent performer.
“Last year, I was able to play all of the games, which was really important for me,” Medran said through a translator. “This year, that’s another goal, to play every game, not get injured and just get myself on the board with more goals and more assists.”
Though Gimenez should spend time with Paraguay again this season, the layoffs that were sprinkled through the 2020 season shouldn’t be an issue in 2021. And that’s why Wicky thinks “they can do much better, and I expect them to do much better.”
“Hopefully, the players can really find a rhythm from the beginning and do even better because they have really, really good quality,” Wicky said. “But especially for those players, it is a question of rhythm. They are players who need minutes, they are players who need the real preseason, not always these big breaks like we had last year. Unfortunately, every team had them last year. Hopefully, this season will be a normal season with hopefully not all these breaks, then those players can become even stronger.”
Former Wisconsin quarterback Jack Coan throws a pass against Oregon in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1, 2020, in Pasadena, Calif. | Joe Scarnici/Getty Images
After choosing to play quarterback at Wisconsin instead of lacrosse at Notre Dame, look where Coan is now.
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Jack Coan has fond memories of rooting for Brady Quinn and Jimmy Clausen as a young Notre Dame football fan, but it was lacrosse that seemed to be his ticket out of Long
Island, New York.
‘‘That’s sort of the hotbed for lacrosse,’’ Coan said during a recent break from his first spring practice as a Notre Dame quarterback. ‘‘There’s obviously not many Division I football players that ever come out of there. So growing up, I definitely thought
lacrosse was going to be my future.’’
Coan, in fact, initially committed to play
lacrosse for the Irish and longtime coach Kevin Corrigan. That decision came the summer after Coan’s freshman year of high school.
‘‘I played with all the travel teams in the summer and did all the showcases,’’ Coan said. ‘‘But, honestly, once I got my first Divi-
sion I football offer, I knew it was pretty much over. Football was my first true love. I knew that’s always what I wanted to do.’’
Coan, a 6-3, 221-pound product of Sayville, New York, eventually signed with Wisconsin, spurning schools such as Michigan, Northwestern, Indiana, Miami, Louisville and Boston College.
Notre Dame, however, never offered Coan a chance to play football. The Irish already had Brandon Wimbush and 2016 signee Ian Book on campus.
‘‘Growing up, I was a Notre Dame fan,’’ Coan said. ‘‘I was committed here for
lacrosse, but I think a main reason for that was I wanted to come here and watch some football games.’’
Coan went on to make 18 starts in 2018-19 for the Badgers, including a one-point loss to Justin Herbert and Oregon in the 2020 Rose Bowl, but he ultimately lost his starting job to redshirt freshman Graham Mertz after
having season-ending surgery on his right foot six months ago.
When the Irish expressed interest in Coan after he put his name in the transfer portal in December, he was thrilled.
‘‘It was pretty cool how it worked out,’’ Coan said. ‘‘Everything came full circle, and I was able to come here. But coming out of high school, I didn’t have an offer here. If I did, there would have been a good chance I would have come here, but I didn’t.’’
Even with Book preparing for the upcoming NFL Draft after going 30-5 as a three-year starter, Coan remains in prove-it mode when it comes to the Irish coaching staff. He is splitting first-team reps this spring with lightly used holdover Drew Pyne, and the fan base is salivating not over Coan but over a Blue-Gold Game look at early enrollee
Tyler Buchner, the dual-threat high school star from Southern California.
While Book’s mobility was a huge part of his success, Coan was mostly a pocket passer at Wisconsin. That could change if he wins the job, as expected, even coming off his surgery.
‘‘We’re not afraid to run Jack,’’ Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly said. ‘‘He is a better athlete than people have given him credit for. Maybe he hasn’t been discredited; maybe that’s not fair to say. But he’s a good athlete. He runs well, he’s big, he’s strong.’’
Those who watched him play lacrosse as a teen prodigy could attest to that.’’
‘‘I think [lacrosse] has helped a lot as a quarterback,’’ Coan said, ‘‘just as far as agility and conditioning and scrambling. One thing with lacrosse is making moves but still keeping your eyes down the field and trying to find open guys. It just works on your athleticism and vision.’’
By the time the Irish face Wisconsin on Sept. 25 at Soldier Field, Coan might be heading into his fourth start. He hopes to show he can be more than just a caretaker for an offense that should feature tight end Michael Mayer and running back Kyren Williams.
A rebuilt offensive line that returns only one starter could put a premium on quarterback quickness.
‘‘I think running is a part of my game that I can use when I need to,’’ Coan said. ‘‘When I was at Wisconsin, I’d rather hand the ball off to Jonathan Taylor than me run the ball. I’m excited to definitely use my legs a little bit here. I feel like I’m more athletic than probably a lot of people think.’’
The Chicago Cubs are not having a good year offensively so far. MLB pitchers as a whole have a better batting average than the Cubs do as a team and that is not a joke. It makes it even worse because some of the stars on expiring contracts are having bad starts as well. The […]
A fire broke out April 9, 2021 in Brainerd on the South Side. | Chicago Fire Department
The fire broke out a home in the 9400 block of South Halsted Street.
One person died and another was seriously wounded in a fire Friday night in Brainerd on the South Side.
The fire broke out after 11 p.m. in the 9400 block of South Halsted Street, according to Chicago fire officials.
Still and Box on Halsted will be a fatal fire. One occupant non ambulatory was trapped inside. Flames too intense to make rescue. Adult male. pic.twitter.com/ACS4OUf7U9
The past few weeks have made things quite interesting for the ChicagoBears, in terms of how they will approach the 2021 NFL Draft. For months now, Bears fans have been holding onto hope that general manager Ryan Pace would be able to pull off some kind of move in order to address the quarterback […]
