News. Sports. Arts & Entertainment. Politics
Editor’s note: re-publishing this from May 2014 as the Field of Dreams game unveiled their special uniforms today.
The Black Sox are one of the most compelling stories in Chicago sports history. The eight members of the Chicago White Sox ex-communicated from baseball forever for throwing the Cincinnati Reds comprise as intriguing and multi-layered scandals as you’ll find anywhere in sports history.
Follow paulmbanks
Editor’s note: re-publishing this from 2019 as the Field of Dreams game unveiled their special uniforms today.
Shoeless Joe Jackson, and the rest of his teammates banned from baseball due to the Black Sox scandal, are not in the Hall of Fame, but they do have a strong presence in Cooperstown.
On the main level of the baseball hall of fame, you’ll see prominent photos of Shoeless Joe, the 1919 Chicago White Sox, and various artifacts relating to the team and the scandal. The hall has ace pitcher Eddie Cicotte’s pocket watch, manager Kid Gleason’s jersey and the very first ball thrown in the World Series on display.
Follow paulmbanks
Today saw Dr. Derrick Gragg formally unveiled as the 23rd Athletic Director at Northwestern University, succeeding the ultra short tenure of the scandal-plagued Mike Poliskey. But in the greater sense Gragg is following in the foot steps of Dr. Jim Philipps, who is now ACC Commissioner.
Gragg is a lot like Phillips in that he’s an innovator, bringing big and important events to life. One such example is the Tulsa Legacy Game, started with the intention of bringing greater awareness to the Tulsa Race Massacre in 1921.
Follow paulmbanks
Northwestern announced their new Athletic Director yesterday, Dr. Derrick Gragg, the NCAA’s senior vice president for inclusion, education and community engagement. The former Eastern Michigan and Tulsa AD assumes his new position on July 1.
Gragg has a long list of achievements, and his hire is very timely for a multitude of reasons, but perhaps of particular relevance and poignance is the fact that he helped conceptualize the Tulsa Legacy Game, designed to pay tribute to the survivors and descendants of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, widely recognized as one of the worst incidents of racial violence in U.S. history. The first Tulsa Legacy Game took place last year, and as May turned to June, the centennial of the Tulsa massacre was observed.
Follow paulmbanks
As has been well documented, especially so on this site, the patriotism gets ramped up to jingoism and then some at the Indianapolis 500 every year. Actually take that jingoism and square it, no wait- take it to the tenth power. On one hand, we get it- this site’s colors are red, white and blue for a reason.
It is the nation’s biggest Memorial Day weekend gathering, as it draws over 300,000 people each year. On the other hand, come on- spare us the native advertising for the armed services; sponsored by Chevrolet. People showed up for an auto race, not a recruiting pitch, and certainly not for more Chevy ads.
Follow paulmbanks
The Indianapolis 500 is the world’s highest attended single day event. Its total capacity is approximately 400,000 with about 125,000 located in the cheapest and most “festive” seats of the infield.
All newbies marvel at the sheer size of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway upon entering it the first time. The modern day answer to Circus Maximus is large enough to hypothetically house the Vatican, Churchill Downs, Yankee Stadium and the Rose Bowl all at the same time.
Follow paulmbanks
As Super Bowl LIV arrives, it’s time to reflect on the best of all the big games. In the early 1990s, the Buffalo Bills went to four straight Super Bowls and lost all four, but man did they help to provide one of the best Super Bowls of all time. Like Tom Petty said, “even the losers- get lucky sometimes.”
Obviously, they never did, in the end, but sometimes history is better when it’s written from the point of view of the losers. It wasn’t just the Buffalo Bills who made that Super Bowl so special.
Follow paulmbanks
(Editor’s note: re-publishing this holiday season article from a previous year because it’s Christmas time)
This weekend begins the bowl season, and with it the crappy bowl games that very few of us care about. Saturday brings us a cadre of bowl games that are just as awful as whatever bowl game hosted Notre Dame and USC in the classic Christmas film “Die Hard.”
The total number of bowl games has multiplied at an absurd rate these past few decades, but one truth still remains- real bowl games don’t start until after Christmas, and for the most part well after Christmas. Genuinely desirable bowl games still adhere to tradition, and take place on New Year’s. (For a preview of #14 Notre Dame vs #17 LSU go to this link)
Follow paulmbanks
The history of football itself is long, fascinating and somewhat mysterious. No one can precisely pinpoint the date, year or even century when the sport came to being. Taking into consideration remainings, sports fields, and balls made out of organic materials some scientist say that it can be traced back to ancient civilisations such as Ancient China and Egypt.
However, the football as we know it today, or at least a very similar form can be traced back to 19th century England. this was the first time rules to football were presented, and this is precisely why the UK is the place commonly related to this sport.
Follow paulmbanks
Believe it or not, the Soviet Union once had a national baseball team. They weren’t exceptional or anything, but they did try to go toe to toe with the United States. Yes, the East vs West, communist vs capitalist clash of civilizations battle carried over to the baseball diamond.
Much has been made of CCCP vs USA in ice hockey, to a lesser extent basketball and of course the Ivan Drago vs Rocky Balboa prize fight that effectively ended the Cold War.
Follow paulmbanks
The Montreal Expos, Sacre Bleu! Yes Les Expos, what other franchise, in Major League Baseball history, had a weirder existence. They existed from 1969-2004, and only had one division title, in a strike shortened season.
The postseason has only been cancelled once in our lifetimes, during the labor crisis of 1994, and yes, it was the Montreal Expos who held the best record in baseball when that season ended abruptly. Their history is strange, as is this current Major League Baseball season, and the times we currently live in.
Follow paulmbanks
Sunday sees the ending of the Chicago White Sox season, with not much of note to show for it, except Tim Anderson winning the batting title. Tuesday marks the centennial of the beginning of the most intriguing and interesting thing the White Sox, or anyone else in sports for that matter, has ever done.
We are referring of course to the 1919 World Series, which will forever be defined by the Black Sox scandal, in which eight ballplayers were forever evicted from the game, due to their conspiring to intentionally suffer defeat. The Sox were heavily favored to beat the National League-champion Reds that fall classic, which began Oct. 1, 1919, but fell behind 4-1 in the best-of-nine, and lost in game eight (they were experimenting with the format that autumn). Eight Sox players, including one of the most mythical figures in baseball history, “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, were charged in 1920 with conspiring to throw the Series, but were acquitted.
Follow paulmbanks
