Major League Baseball: Justin Verlander had a no-hitter going into the 9th inning on Friday, but a 1-out single by Pirates designated hitter Josh Harrison ended that bid as Verlander settled for a 6-0 win in a one-hit shutout.  Andy Pettite earned his first win since 2010, striking out nine and allowing just five base-runners through eight shutout innings against the Cincinnati Reds on Friday.  Chicago Cubs fan-favorite Kerry Wood made the hardest decision of any athlete’s career on Friday, hanging up the cleats mid-season after a final outing against the Chicago White Sox.  Wood struck out Dayan Viciedo, the only batter he would face as the Cubs lost 3-2 to the White Sox.  Wood struck out 1582 batters in 1380 innings in his career.

Canadian Football League: With CFL action dormant, the CIS East West Bowl was held for Canadian College prospects, as the East beat the West 24-16.

Major League Soccer: The big story line of the past week was Chivas USA acquiring Juan Agudelo for Heath Pearce.  Rivalries will be fierce this weekend, as the Vancouver Whitecaps FC host their neighbors from across the border, the Seattle Sounders FC.  The resurgent New England Revolution have something to prove as they host the defending Eastern Conference champions Houston Dynamo.  The Chivas USA and Los Angeles Galaxy will also host their local derby match at 9:30 CDT on ESPN2.  Perhaps the biggest story though, will be if D.C. can move up to 1st or 2nd in standings, while Toronto FC has yet to earn a point in standings, with no wins, eight losses, and no draws.

National Hockey League: The Los Angeles Kings entered the post-season with the lowest seed in the Western Conference and nobody would give them a chance.  They defeated the first seed Vancouver Canucks in five games in the first round, swept the second seed St. Louis Blues, and now find themselves up three games to none against the third seed Phoenix Coyotes in the Western Conference Finals.  The Kings are 11-1 in the post-season, and 7-0 on the road.  The sixth seed New Jersey Devils and first seed New York Rangers are tied 1-1 in the Eastern Conference Finals.

National Basketball Association: In the Western Conference, the first seed San Antonio Spurs lead the fifth seed Los Angeles Clippers 2-0, and the second seed Oklahoma City Thunder lead the third seed Los Angeles Lakers 2-1 in the Western Conference Semifinals.  The eighth seed Philadelphia 76ers, one of a select group of eighth seeds to ever eliminate a first seed, as they beat the Chicago Bulls without Rose and Noah in six games, and the fourth seed Boston Celtics are tied 2-2, while the third seed Indiana Pacers lead the second seed Miami Heat 2-1 in the Western Conference Semifinals.

English Premier League: After Manchester City came back in stoppage time to defeat the Queens Park Rangers and win the Premier League for the first time, their first top-division championship in 44 years, the Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, and Wolverhampton Wanderers were relegated to the Football League Championship.  Replacing them are Reading, Southampton, and one of Blackpool and West Ham United to be determined via a Saturday playoff.

United Football League: There has yet to be any news as to whether the UFL will play in 2012.

National Lacrosse League: The Edmonto Rush finished the regular season at 6-10, while the Rochester Knigthhawks finished 7-9.  Yet both sneaked into the playoffs and now find themselves fighting for the championship.  The NLL Championship Game will be Saturday at 6:30 PM CDT as both teams play for the Champion’s Cup.

Arena Football League: The San Jose SaberCats lead the league at 7-2, while the Philadelphia Soul follow at 7-3.  The Chicago Rush and San Antonio Talons are tied in their division at 6-3, while the final division leader is the Georgia Force at 6-4.

Women’s National Basketball Association: The Los Angeles Sparks defeated the Seattle Storm 72-66 to open up the WNBA season on Friday.  The New York Liberty host the Connecticut Sun Saturday, while the Indiana Fever host the Atlanta Dream, the Washington Mystics the Chicago Sky, and the San Antonio Silver Stars host the Tulsa Shock.  The final teams to begin their seasons will be the Minnesota Lynx and Phoenix Mercury Sunday, live on ABC from Minnesota at 12:30 PM.

Major League Lacrosse: The Boston Cannons and Denver Outlaws lead the league at 3-0, while the Charlotte Hounds found their first win in franchise history with a current record of 1-2.  The Ohio Machine, who entered the league with Charlotte this season, have yet to do so, going 0-2 so far.  The former Chicago Machine, the Rochester Rattlers are in Ohio Saturday, facing the Ohio Machine, who assumed the Chicago Machine’s history.

Article source: http://www.chicitysports.com/2012/05/19/national-sports-weekly-verlander-just-misses-3rd-career-no-hitter/

Trying to get video, having a little problem though… Will upload it if I able too.

Article source: http://www.chicitysports.com/2012/05/18/pictures-from-todays-game-cubs-vs-white-sox/

Pitching matchup:
Game 1 (Friday): Phil Humber (1-2, 5.77 era) vs. Jeff Samardzija (2-1, 2.78 era) at 1:20 p.m. central on WGN and 720am radio.
Game 2 (Saturday): John Danks (2-4, 6.46 era) vs. Ryan Dempster (0-1, 1.74 era) at 6:05 p.m. central on FOX and 720am radio.
Game 3 (Sunday): Jake Peavy (4-1, 2.65 era) vs. Paul Maholm (4-2, 4.35 era) at 1:20p.m central on CSN Chicago and 720am radio.

Game notes (Chicago Cubs side):
**Catcher Geovany Soto will have an MRI on his knee and Wellington Castillo will get the start today. Soto will be available in an emergency.
**Pitcher Chris Volstad will likely be pulled from the rotation and Travis Wood will take his spot in the rotation. I think there’s a good chance he’s DFA and hope he’ll be able to get thru waivers/accept assignment and go to Triple A.
**Will Ryan Dempster finally get his first win of the season?

Side note:
I will be at the game on Friday. I will have a article up later and pictures if I’m able to. It’s going to be a blast!

Go, Cubs, Go!

Article source: http://www.chicitysports.com/2012/05/18/crosstown-classic-cubs-vs-white-sox/

Thanks to the hefty contracts paid to Derrick Rose, Luol Deng, Carlos Boozer, and Joakim Noah, the Bulls will be over the salary cap for the foreseeable future. The projected cap next season will be around $58 million and the Bulls currently have $63 million dollars in guaranteed salary (according to Sham Sports).

That’s not necessarily a problem, but the luxury tax will be around $70 million and the Bulls still have to decide whether or not to bring back Kyle Korver, Ronnie Brewer, C.J. Watson, and Omer Asik. I hope you enjoyed the “bench mob” for the last couple of years because there’s a chance you might not see it again.

Decisions

• Omer Asik – Restricted Free Agent - $2,321,875 Qualifying Offer

Asik is likely to get a large deal thrown his way this off-season. 7 footers with Omer’s defensive talents aren’t exactly abundant in the NBA.

We hold “early” Bird rights on Asik meaning we can sign him to a contract and go over the cap. Unlike full Bird rights though, “early” Bird rights limit the amount we (and other teams) can offer him in his first 2 years of his contract to the full Mid Level Exception ($5 mil). This is called the Gilbert Arenas provision. The catch is that teams under the cap can back load the deal considerably.

Teams are now limited in the salary they can offer in an offer sheet to a restricted free agent with one or two years in the league. The first-year salary in the offer sheet cannot be greater than the Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level exception. Limiting the first-year salary in this way enables the player’s original team to match the offer sheet by using the Early Bird exception, or Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level exception (provided they have it and haven’t used it already)¹. The second-year salary in such an offer sheet is limited to the standard 4.5% raise. The third-year salary can jump considerably — it is allowed to be as high as it would have been had the first-year salary not been limited by this rule to the Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level exception². The salary in the fourth season may increase (or decrease) by up to 4.1% of the salary in the third season. The offer sheet can only contain the large jump in the third season if it provides the highest salary allowed in the first two seasons, it is fully guaranteed, and it contains no bonuses of any kind.

Basically, a team can offer Asik a deal of $36 million over 4 years and back load the deal to make it look like this:

Year 1 – $5,000,000

Year 2 – $5,225,000

Year 3 – $12,628,613

Year 4 – $13,146,387

If Asik gets this type of deal offered to him, the Bulls will have an extremely tough decision to make. The Bulls will be at $68 million in guaranteed money if they agree to a deal like this. Remember that the luxury tax will be around $70 million. Jerry Reisndorf has never paid the luxury tax.

• Ronnie Brewer – 1 Year Team Option - $4,370,000

Ronnie is probably the most likely candidate to get sent packing. He’s a good, athletic wing defender, but Jimmy Butler will give you similar production at a fourth of the cost. You know exactly what you’re getting from Brewer. Butler’s ceiling is much higher. This also benefits Stacey King’s throat since he won’t have to growl out “Rrrrrrrrrroonnnay Brrrrrewah” a few times a game.

• Kyle Korver – 1 Year Team Option – $5,000,000

Korver averaged 22 minutes this year while making 1.8 threes per game at a 43.5% clip. That’s exactly what you expect out of him. Do the Bulls potentially want to go into the luxury tax to keep him around? If the Bulls sign Korver and Asik, they will be looking at $73 million in salary and will dip into the tax.

• C.J. Watson – 1 Year Team Option - $3,200,000

You’d have to think the Bulls will bring C.J. back with Rose out a sizeable chunk of next year. He’s a cheaper option and plays a more important role than Korver or Brewer. I’d say C.J. is likely the only one of these 3 to come back next year unless the Bulls try to package some of them in a trade.

The Bulls have some really tough long and short term decisions to make. What do you guys think? Who should we bring back? Are you willing to (potentially) pay that much for a backup center with zero offensive skills? The luxury tax isn’t calculated until the end of the year, so the Bulls could potentially bring everyone back and package them together in a trade.

Article source: http://www.chicitysports.com/2012/05/17/the-financial-future-of-the-chicago-bulls/

For the second summer in a row, CJ Watson has had a procedure done on both of his feet to address his plantar fasciitis.

He played the entire season, including the playoffs, battling the injury. In the regular season he averaged 22 minutes per game, and with Rose out for the playoffs, averaged 28 minutes per game.

Fortunately, he did not have to go under the knife for this procedure. He had a certain type of shock wave therapy done, where basically, sound waves are blasted into the foot breaking up the damaged tissue.

“It was hard,” Watson said of playing through the condition. “I couldn’t do all the things that I’m usually capable of doing. But I knew with Derrick (Rose) out, I had to give the team what I could.”

Article source: http://www.chicitysports.com/2012/05/17/cj-watson-has-foot-surgery/

Another Cubs/Sox series is upon us which means the next installment of the New Era Rivalries commercials featuring Chicagoland locals, Craig Robinson of ‘The Office’ and Nick Offerman of ‘Parks and Recreation’  is here as well.  This time, Craig grills Nick to see how far would he go to see the Cubs win the World Series.

The combination of New Era and Funny Or Die is doing great things for the sports commercials. I get giddy when I see the spot air while watching live television. Not only do these commercials beautifully illustrate New Era’s demographic of the hardcore fan but, they’re hilarious.

Watch it below and let us know in the comments how far would you go to see your team win the world series?

While we have your attention, please take a minute and swing by our Message Boards to discuss Chicago Sports with many other fans. http://chicitysports.com/forum 

Article source: http://www.chicitysports.com/2012/05/17/round-2-cubs-vs-white-sox-commercial-with-craig-robinson-and-nick-offerman/

But let’s be honest with ourselves. Did anyone really believe this was the year the Bulls would overtake the Heat in the Eastern Conference, en route to hanging banner number 7?

No. And if you say you did, you were lying to yourself.

And don’t give me that, ‘We added Rip Hamilton’ method of reasoning. Hamilton surely made us a much better team than the 2010-11 squad, but if you’ve watched even one Miami Heat game this season, you’ve noticed they, too, are a much improved team (without adding much of anything last offseason).

It seems the Heat have finally figured out how to play with each other. Last season was a constant struggle between Dwyane Wade and Lebron James, both doing their best to avoid stepping on the other’s toes.

Lebron: ‘Here, you take the ball.’

Wade: ‘No, you take it.’

Lebron: ‘Are you sure? You were here first.’

Wade: ‘But look at that guy guarding you. He can’t stop you.’

Lebron: ‘But…but…”

Chris Bosh: ‘Hey guys, I thought there were 3 of us?’

That right there was the Miami Heat’s 2011 season in a nutshell. But 2012 has been a 180-degree turnaround. Miami looked primed and ready to take their second consecutive trip to the Finals, even before D-Rose’s injury.

Every championship team is the beneficiary of a few breaks along the way. For Miami, their first break came in the form of a season-ending injury to the league’s reigning MVP.

With the Bulls out of the picture, Miami has a relatively easy road through the East. Boston will put up a fight if the two teams meet, but aside from the Celtics, what other team in the conference can even compete?

Of course, getting to the Finals and actually winning their first championship together are two entirely different things. Oklahoma City, San Antonio or L.A. (no, not the Clippers) won’t allow the Heat to just waltz right through the postseason.

There’s no doubt the Miami Heat took a collective sigh of relief when Rose went down. But, it shouldn’t be this easy. The road to the Finals was supposed to go through Chicago. If someone is able to knock off Miami, they’ll be in the same position next year, with Lebron desperately searching for his first NBA title to help build on his legacy, and the rest of the team trying their best to make that happen.

If Lebron and the Heat can stay ring-less for just one more season, the Bulls will be waiting. And the likeliest scenario will feature the rematch we were all hoping for, with these two teams battling it out for the conference. That’s the way it should be.

So Bulls fans, while our season is over, the NBA season is not. We’ve still got a rooting interest in this year’s playoffs.

It’s time we band together whatever energy we haven’t spent cursing Tom Thibodeau or Carlos Boozer or Watson to Asik.

Let’s put that collective energy together to root as hard as we possibly can…for the Lakers or Celtics, the Clippers or Thunder, the Pacers or Spurs, or maybe even the 76ers (except Evan Turner).

We must combine our rooting power to support anyone we possibly can…except Lebron and the Heat.

Article source: http://www.chicitysports.com/2012/05/15/2012-was-never-the-year-of-the-bull-but-weve-still-got-something-to-root-for/

When a pitcher throws more pitches fatigue becomes an issue, which, has a snowballing effect because as the pitcher throws more his pitches become less crisp which leads to lack of control which leads to mistakes which leads to lots of runs given up.

According to Craig Burley of the Hardball Times, a batters average when seeing a first pitch strike is about .261, whereas when a pitcher starts behind a batter the average raises to .280. Also, when 2 completely average pitchers are examined, one who always throws first pitch strike and one who always throws first pitch ball, Burley says “The first pitcher, the “strike one” pitcher, has an expected ERA of about 3.60. The second one, the otherwise perfectly average one who always throws a ball on pitch one, has an expected ERA of about 5.50. He’ll also pitch about 12% fewer innings.”

That point leads me to my subject, the John Danks of 2012.

John Danks this year has been pitching behind all season. Let’s begin by examining his latest outing, vs. the Tigers. In that start he began with a first pitch ball to 15 of 22 batters of those 15 at bats only 5 lead to outs, whereas the 7 at bats that began as strikes lead to 4 outs, small sample sizes, but you get the drift.

In his last start vs. the Tribe those numbers, essentially, were reversed. He began 11 batters with a first pitch ball which resulted in 3 outs but started 12 batters with strikes which resulted in 11 outs.

The tertiary effect of all these first pitch balls is the extended at bats, which lead to extended innings, which when given to good hitting teams, as we saw with Detroit, will lead to big innings for the opponents; which, with the offensive woes of the Sox, we don’t need to be spotting other teams with big leads. Also, Danks is supposed to be our

With all that being said John Danks has always been a high pitch totals type of pitcher but this year the free passes seem to be catching up with him and with him taking over the role of the big innings eater, the replacement for Buehrle, that won’t last long if he continues to go deep into counts.

Article source: http://www.chicitysports.com/2012/05/15/danks-and-the-first-pitch/

The average time it takes a torn ACL to heal is seven to nine months. This would mean the Bulls would be playing without Rose until near the All-Star break of the 2012-2013 season. However, the doctors have told Rose he could be playing basketball again as soon as four months.

I’m sure by ‘play basketball’ in four months they probably meant ‘shoot a friendly game of HORSE’.

The Bulls definitely won’t want to take any chances with this injury, and should wait until he’s 110% before bringing Derrick back, even if it means not getting him back until the third quarter of the season, and winding up with a six, seventh or eight seed in the playoffs.

After all, as we’ve seen two years in a row now, having the top seed doesn’t really mean anything. It’s having a complete, healthy team, that’s going to bring in the ring.

Article source: http://www.chicitysports.com/2012/05/15/derrick-roses-knee-surgery-a-success/

Going into this came, many thought if the Cubs score, the Cubs would win. As Ryan Dempster was on the mound with the majors best earn run average. But that did not go to plan at all…

The Cubs jumped out to a 4 run lead when their bats came to alive in the 5th inning. Thanks to an rbi-single by Starlin Castro, 2-run home run by Brian LaHair and an rbi-single by Geovany Soto.

So … Ryan Dempster has not given up more than 3 runs in any his starts this year. Until the 6th inning of today’s came. He gave up a lead-off single and the next batter got a single too. So, it was 1st and third no outs. Dempster then got 1 out on a popout, still 1st and 3rd. But the next batter Lance Berkman singled and drove the guy in from third. It’s now bases loaded for Yadier Molina , but it did not go good as Molina doubled in 2 runs. If it wasn’t for a great play bu Castro, the game would have been tied. The Cardinals eventually tied the game in an rbr single in that inning.

Alfonso Soriano, whom has the most clutch rbi’s by a Cub had an 2-out rbi single to give the Cubs a 5-4 lead. The Cubs tacked on an insurance run in the 9th inning for cushion.

However, Rafael Dolis – new Cubs closer did not need it. As he shut down the Cards in a 1-2-3 inning. He struck out 2 batters and a flyout.

Other note:
**Brian LaHair has reached base in 31 straight games.

The Cubs will try to sweep the Cards tomorrow as Paul Maholm takes on Kyle Lohse at 12:45 p.m.

Article source: http://www.chicitysports.com/2012/05/14/dempster-still-no-w-on-record-pen-wins-one-cubs-6-cardinals-4/