By Woodrow Carroll Playing host to the Tampa Bay Rays Wednesday of last week, the Chicago White Sox were cruising along with a 7-2 lead. The two teams were in a battle for the best record in Major League Baseball. Tampa Bay had entered the game one-half game better than
By Woodrow Carroll With a 4-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers Sunday, the Chicago White Sox raised their season record to 41-24. At 17 games over .500 with 65 games played, the White Sox were only slightly off the franchise’s record-setting pace. The 1915 edition of the White Sox were
By Woodrow Carroll Although things can change rather quickly, the Chicago White Sox entered this week with the biggest divisional lead in Major League Baseball. After taking three of four at home from the Detroit Tigers, Thursday through Sunday, the Sox, 36-23, found themselves four games in front of the
By Woodrow Carroll With a 3-1 victory over the visiting Baltimore Orioles Sunday and a split with host Cleveland Monday, the Chicago White Sox improved their season record to 33-21 exactly one-third into the this season. It will not be long before the Sox reach the 60 games. Last season
By Woodrow Carroll It was only last week that the Chicago White Sox could boast the best record of any team in Major League Baseball (MLB). Things can change in a hurry, especially early in the season. Poof, it did! After Sunday’s games, the White Sox were 26-19 (.578). Not
By Woodrow Carroll As manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Dave Roberts has a problem most managers would be willing to put up with, for sure. Roberts’ Dodgers are Major League Baseball’s defending World Series champions. The pandemic shortened the Major League Baseball (MLB) season length in 2020 was only
By Woodrow Carroll Trades are a part of the professional sports world and can engender plenty of controversy. Of course, we often have to wait a lengthy time to reasonably know who got the better of the deals. Prior to the 2017 Major League Baseball season, the Chicago White Sox
By Woodrow Carroll The 2000 National Football League (NFL) draft was well along when the St. Louis Rams selected Matt Bowen of the University of Iowa in the sixth round. Shortly later, the New Orleans Saints picked Sherrod Gidean from Southern Mississippi University. Bowen was the 198th player selected and
By Woodrow Carroll In the very near future, the Chicago White Sox’ Jose Abreu will play in his 1,000th game as a Major League Baseball (MLB) player. After Sunday’s 8-4 White Sox victory over Texas, in which Abreu hit his fifth home run of the season and drove in three
By Woodrow Carroll The no-hitter turned in by the Chicago White Sox’ Carlos Rodon last week over the Cleveland Indians was most welcome to a team that has been trying to get its footing early in the season. Pegged as a team on its way up after last season’s 35-25
By Woodrow Carroll We like the long shot, the dark horse, the surprise winner that few gave a chance of coming through with victory. The team or individual few gave little chance of victory sticks in our memory. Beating long odds stays in our memory. Of late, however, the favorite
By Woodrow Carroll It’s fun to argue with the pollsters and nearly all fans do it. Yet, those who put Gonzaga University and Baylor University in, or near, the top spot in the collegiate basketball rankings for most, or all, of the season, should have had smiles on their faces
By Woodrow Carroll We love the underdog. The sports public long has been fascinated by an athlete or team overcoming odds, even if the perception is far from reality. At the start of the 2021 NCAA men’s Division I basketball tournament, we were introduced to a host of surprise teams.
By Woodrow Carroll As nice as was Loyola University’s 71-58 victory over top-seeded Illinois Sunday, at least from the victorious Ramblers’ stand point in the Division I men’s college basketball tournament which started with a field of 68 teams, it was not the first time the Ramblers took a meaningful
By Woodrow Carroll True or false? The first team to enter the men’s NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) basketball tournament undefeated ended up losing to Illinois. True of course! The question would have looked silly if Illinois were not the correct answer. The first NCAA tournament was in 1939 with
By Woodrow Carroll Some things fall into place after many rough moments. For Chicago’s Loyola University men’s head basketball coach Porter Moser the present and future have a rosy glow. Sunday in St. Louis, Mo., Moser’s Loyola Ramblers defeated the Drake Bulldogs, 75-65, to capture the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament
By Woodrow Carroll The Chicago Blackhawks, in the years after World War II, went through a long stretch as the whipping boy of the National Hockey League. The struggle was largely the result of organizational decision-making, not the product of other conditions. After qualifying for the 1946 Stanley Cup playoffs
By Woodrow Carroll A look at the polls in various collegiate sports for both the men and women, there is ready name recognition. State universities, such as the University of Illinois and University of Michigan are easy to identify. State schools we know, for the most part, are based on
By Woodrow Carroll Former heavyweight boxing champion Leon Spinks died last week. Few boxing insiders considered Spinks a ring great. What Spinks did have going for him was fortuitous timing and the ability to make news often for the wrong reason. To say that Spinks was an unknown when he
By Woodrow Carroll Super Bowl LV will kick off at 5:30 p.m. Sunday in Tampa, Fla., with the hometown Tampa Bay Buccaneers playing last year’s champion, the Kansas City Chiefs. It will be the first time a Super Bowl team will play in its home stadium. Given we have 54
