By Woodrow Carroll Major League Baseball (MLB) has expanded a great many ways down through the years. Once there were 16 teams strictly in the eastern part of the United States with nary a franchise farther west than St. Louis. That was long ago! Today, we all are familiar with...
By Woodrow Carroll The Sunday, July 9 Major League Baseball (MLB) inter-league game between host Chicago White Sox and St. Louis Cardinals, was vital with the all-star game on the horizon. The White Sox were 38-53 and the Cardinals 37-52, each 15 games under .500. The game, which featured Eloy...
By Woodrow Carroll Thanks to an eight-game winning streak through Sunday, July 2, the Atlanta Braves possessed the best record in Major League Baseball with record of 56-27 (.675). The Braves are well-positioned to win another World Series championship to go with the Atlanta championship in 2021. Were he to...
By Woodrow Carroll Thanks to a 4-1 victory over the visiting Boston Red Sox Sunday, June 25, the Chicago White Sox put an end to a quirky losing streak. The White Sox had dropped two games of a three-game series for three weeks, an unhealthy trait the White Sox had...
By Woodrow Carroll Chicago White Sox pitcher Lance Lynn struck out 16 Seattle Mariners batters in the White Sox-Mariners’ game Sunday, June 18. Seattle still won, 5-1. Lynn’s production tied a franchise record for most strikeouts in a game by a White Sox pitcher, held by Sox southpaw Jack Harshman...
By Woodrow Carroll After falling, 6-5, to the Miami Marlins Sunday, June 11 at Guaranteed Rate Field, the host Chicago White Sox record dropped to 29-38 in the American League Central. The three-game series with the Marlins, which started on a positive note, a 2-1 Sox victory, ended with two...
By Woodrow Carroll Former Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher Roger Craig died Sunday, June 4 at the age of 93. Although Craig’s MLB stats, 74-98 overall in a big league career, 1955 through 1966, left him well short of Hall of Fame consideration, he was involved in more than his...
By Woodrow Carroll It was a long-time coming for Jose Abreu, his first home run of this season and in the Houston Astros’ uniform. The game was Sunday, May 28 in Oakland. After playing nine seasons for the Chicago White Sox, in which he hit 243 home runs, Abreu signed...
By Woodrow Carroll Jim Brown, one of the true greats of football, passed away last week at the age of 87. As is often the case, trying to determine how great Brown was is often tempered by factors not directly related to what Brown did on the playing field. Who...
By Woodrow Carroll Three games into the Frontier League season, the Joliet Slammers held a 1-2 won-loss record through Sunday. The Slammers, an independent professional minor league team, had given up only five run, but, scored only four runs! Up against the Sussex County (the most northern of all New...
By Woodrow Carroll It had to be a strange feeling for Chicago White Sox pitcher Michael Kopech Sunday, May 6, on the road, against the Cincinnati Reds in the rubber game of a three-game series., Kopech gave up a home run in the bottom of the first inning to put...
By Woodrow Carroll When the Seattle Seahawks selected Illinois defensive back Devon Witherspoon with the No. 5 pick in last weekend’s National Football League (NFL) draft, it made him the highest Illinois player drafted since the Fighting Illini’s Kevin Hardy and Simeon Rice went No. 2 and No. 3 in...
By Woodrow Carroll The odds were not in the Chicago Cubs’ favor when they took the field Sunday, April 23 against the Los Angeles Dodgers, even though the Cubs were at home in the friendly confines of Wrigley Field. The Dodgers had pitcher Clayton Kershaw on the mound. Of all...
By Woodrow Carroll Fast starts by teams are a part of Major League Baseball (MLB). After beating the Toronto Blue Jays, 8-1, on the road Sunday, April 16, the Tampa Bay Rays held a 14-2 record. That 14-2 figure was the best in MLB entering this week. In the National...
By Woodrow Carroll If the Houston Astros come away as World Series champions in 2023, it will end a drought going back to 2000. Not since the New York Yankees made it three straight in World Series championships, 1998-2000, has a team repeated as World Series champions. The Yankees just...
By Woodrow Carroll Both the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournament championship games played out last weekend and last Monday, April 3. Each offered plenty of excitement, and, with a plethora of story lines. South Carolina captured the women’s national championship last season with a 64-49 victory over Connecticut in...
By Woodrow Carroll To understand the upsets in the men’s NCAA basketball tournament think of the number 23, is the combined seeding total of the four teams which made it to the Saturday, April 1 Final Four this season. To clarify, the four teams that were ranked No. 1 when...
By Woodrow Carroll For any respectable Division I men’s college basketball program, a postseason berth is usually there for the taking. Considering the men’s NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association Tournament, the NIT (National Invitation Tournament) and CBI (College Basketball Invitational) there are 116 slots. A total of 68 teams are...
By Woodrow Carroll Former Plano High basketball star Brad Korn will be coaching in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament this week, although probably not for long, given the formidable road ahead. Still, that in no way detracts from Korn’s achievement. Korn, who guided the Plano Reapers as a player to...
By Woodrow Carroll For a team that lost three of its final four regular-season games, Northwestern University’s men’s basketball team ended up very well. Faced with a four-game losing streak entering this week’s Big Ten Conference tournament, Northwestern closed out regular-season play with a 65-53 victory at Rutgers Sunday, March...
