Second City teams unite for Cup quest
The Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox may be rivals on the field, but there is one thing that unifies them.
The Chicago Blackhawks’ quest for another Stanley Cup.
Chicago Tribune columnist David Haugh attended Tuesday night’s Cubs-Sox game, which was postponed due to rain, but there was as much talk about Wednesday’s Game 7 between the Blackhawks and the Detroit Red Wings as there was about the Crosstown Classic.
“I went to a baseball rivalry, and talk of a hockey game broke out,” Haugh wrote. “I don’t recall another Crosstown Classic in which so many conversations included crosschecking.”
Among those who were excited to see Wednesday’s 2-1 overtime victory for the Blackhawks was White Sox first baseman Paul Konerko, who still likes to skate in the off season.
“ ‘I can go back to every year since I can remember and tell you every Stanley Cup winner from then on and remember the captain who lifted the Cup,’ ” Konerko told Haugh.
Getting tickets from a friend for Wednesday night’s Blackhawks-Red Wings Game 7 thrilled Konerko as much as going deep. The man who grew up in Rhode Island and Connecticut loving hockey called the opportunity ‘a dream.’ So it hardly surprised Konerko that TV ratings for Chicago showed the Hawks drew twice as many viewers Monday night as the Cubs-Sox game.
“I can’t blame them,” Konerko said. “Don’t ask me which one I’d be watching if I wasn’t playing.”
Across from Konerko in the Cubs dugout, Manager Dale Sveum cracked a rare smile when sharing his itinerary after Wednesday’s Cubs-Sox game, a 9-3 Cubs victory.
“There’s not too many times Game 7s come around,” Sveum told Haugh, perhaps unaware the Blackhawks and Red Wings hadn’t met in a Game 7 in 48 years.
“You’ve got to do everything you can do to make that one.”
Chill the umpire!
A high school baseball umpire, who witnesses say was under the influence, passed out during a game in Stark County, Ill., on May 10 and then attacked first responders who came to his aid and was hit with a stun gun twice by police, WQAD-TV in Moline, Ill., reported.
Dwight Perry of The Seattle Times summed up the occurrence thusly: “The umpiring situation, in short: loaded, with one out and two strikes.”
They said it
New Timberwolves President Flip Saunders, to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, when asked if any of his players are untouchable: “That’s kind of a stupid question because Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar got traded.”
NBC’s Jimmy Fallon, on the New York Yankees partially fronting an expansion MLS team: “You can tell it’s owned by the Yankees because A-Rod won’t be playing for that team either.”
Greg Cote of The Miami Herald on a pitcher signed by the Miami Marlins: “The Marlins, who have lost nine games by shutout and are 0-12 at home with the roof closed, signed a reliever with perfect surname for a team at the bottom of the standings: Duane Below.”
Quote of the day
“You win five games, you go to the College World Series. We just won five games. We look at it that way.” Central Arkansas senior catcher Michael Marietta on the Bears’ mind-set going into today’s game against Mississippi State in the NCAA Tournament
Sports, Pages 20 on 05/31/2013