News. Sports. Arts & Entertainment. Politics
In a 60 game season, the cliche “every game matters” takes on a new level of meaning. Every single start, from any SP, is ramped up in significance. Losing any of your starting rotation pitchers, no matter who they are, any given John Doe, hurts all that much more in this strangest of MLB seasons.
Follow paulmbanks
In this time of having to stay home more, and go out less (and even if you did go out more- where exactly are you going to go? What’s open?) nostalgia is huge. With little to nothing to put in our calendars and look forward to, it’s a time for looking back.
This, plus starting the new gig writing about baseball for Sports Illustrated’s L.A. Dodgers site, I reflected back to when I was a hard core baseball cards collector: 1985-1992. Memories of opening up my first Topps baseball wax pack are still vivid. I even set up shop as a dealer at card shows during my youth.
Follow paulmbanks
Ahead of the 30 for 30 “Long Gone Summer,” which debuted this past Sunday, former Major League Baseball slugger Sammy Sosa said in a media opportunity that the film would change people’s minds. Not sure why he said that, other than in trying to up hype up a very substandard “documentary.”
Sosa said nothing of real substance, and gave no true insights during this film, which wasn’t a documentary in the truest sense. It told the story of the home run chase of 1998, with barely even scratching the surface on the issue of performance enhancing drugs.
Follow paulmbanks 
October 30, 2019.
That’s the last time a Major League Baseball game was played. It’s when the Washington Nationals defeated the Houston Astros 6-2 in game seven of the World Series. Since then, more than 225 days have passed without a pitch, 5,400 hours have been whiled away and the world has suffered a global pandemic.
Follow paulmbanks
Last week, on the eve of the 2020 Major League Baseball Draft week, we once again visited with Quinn Priester, the first high school pitcher to be selected in the 2019 MLB Draft. The Pittsburgh Pirates selected the Glendale Heights, Illinois native with the 18th overall pick last summer.
In part one of the Quinn Priester exclusive, we focused on how his first season of professional baseball went. Today we cover some of the fundamentals that he’s been working on and what he takes, fundamentally, from one of his baseball role models, Chicago Cubs ace Kyle Hendricks.
Follow paulmbanks
It’s rare for the Chicagoland area to have a first rounder in the Major League Baseball Draft. It’s exceedingly rare to see it in back to back years. Ed Howard, out of Mount Carmel High School on the South Side of Chicago, became the third shortstop selected and 16th overall pick, by the Chicago Cubs tonight. If you’re wagering on this, like you would at Gclub, you just would not have seen this coming; at all. That’s the beauty of it.
Last year at this time, Quinn Priester, from suburban Cary-Grove, was taken with the 18th overall selection by the Pittsburgh Pirates. For more on Priester go here, as for Ed Howard, well, he has a great role model and friend in the White Sox SS Tim Anderson.
Follow paulmbanks
We don’t have any actual real sports, anywhere, for the foreseable future, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While playing games again is most likely weeks or in some cases months away, the respective drafts can still go ahead as planned, albeit in a very modified version.
And that means mock drafts will go on as planned too! With that in mind, our NBA mock draft can be found here, MLB is below and NHL can be found here. Finally, the 2021 NFL mock draft is at this link.
Follow paulmbanks
Sammy Sosa doesn’t do himself any favors, towards helping his legacy, in the new 30 for 30 “Long Gone Summer” which debuts June 14 on ESPN. The same impasse between player and former club will still be there, as Sosa was given an opportunity to come clean about performance enhancing drugs, but choose not to.
It’s a wound that time can still easily heal, even despite the horrid manner in which the Cubs’ all-time home run leader left the club. The 51-year-old native of the Dominican Republic says he’s happy and content with where he is in life right now, and he reiterates that message in director AJ Schnack’s film.
Follow paulmbanks
If you’ve ever wondered why college and pro sports teams employ media handlers to train their athletes on public speaking, well Wednesday gave you the answer; repeatedly. Below you’ll find four examples of why publicists and media relations departments want all their players to be like Tom Brady, Russell Wilson or Derek Jeter- talk, without every saying anything.
That said, we’re ecstatic that “stick to sports” is pretty much dead now. Thank you Colin Kaepernick for being the primary driving force is getting this to happen. While we’ll focus here on the athletes expressing sociopolitical views that we disagree with, we absolutely support their right to express those views. Better to lose some of your audience but retain all of your soul, no matter what side you’re on.
Follow paulmbanks
June 10 brings the Major League Baseball draft, an event that is “hit-or-miss” to say the least. Draft position, like recruiting rankings, can just as often be an indicator of future success as it is future failure. The only thing it absolutely predicts 100% is sky-high expectations.
Let’s look at 10 of the best and 10 of the worst first round draft picks for both the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox. Yes, we know that listicles are to journalism what Taco Bell is to food. However, it also worth noting that Taco Bell measures its annual revenue in the billions.
Follow paulmbanks
June 10 brings the Major League Baseball draft, an event that is “hit-or-miss” to say the least. Draft position, like recruiting rankings, can just as often be an indicator of future success as it is future failure. The only thing it absolutely predicts 100% is sky-high expectations.
Let’s look at 10 of the best and 10 of the worst first round draft picks for both the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox. Yes, we know that listicles are to journalism what Taco Bell is to food. However, it also worth noting that Taco Bell measures its annual revenue in the billions.
Follow paulmbanks
Jed Hoyer and Theo Epstein rebuilt the entire Chicago Cubs roster, from the farm system up, once already. Now they’ll have to do it again as the Ricketts family is DOING ABSOLUTELY NOTHING with their money in the free agent market.
It’s been two straight winters of inaction and skinflintness and next winter will bring more of the same, except this time Ricketts will blame it on the coronavirus pandemic. That’s a common motif we’ve seen across all walks of life in all industries- doing what you were going to do anyway, but publicly saying that COVID-19 is the reason you’re doing so. If the Cubs are going to get back to the MLB postseason, they’ll need to draft and develop guys again.
Follow paulmbanks
