Author: staff
Summer is officially here, in case the sweat and lightning bugs weren’t enough of a clue. In addition to the shows and artists we profiled in…
Chicago speed cameras will continue to issue tickets for drivers going as little as 6 mph over the limit — for now — after Mayor Lori…
Chicago speed cameras will continue to issue tickets for drivers going as little as 6 mph over the limit — for now — after Mayor Lori…
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — You’re in the mood for fish and your server suggests a dish of invasive carp. Ugh, you might say. But how about…
Hours before the Chicago Board of Education was poised to vote Wednesday on the proposed $9.5 billion budget for the coming school year, Chicago Public Schools…
With runners on second and third and two outs in the top of the 11th inning of Tuesday night’s marathon on the South Side, the few thousand fans remaining began shouting unsolicited advice to Chicago White Sox manager Tony La Russa.Toronto Blue Jays slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was at the plate against Vince Velasquez, and fans called for an intentional walk to load the bases.AdvertisementDid La Russa hear the fans’ advice?“I didn’t think they liked walks,” he said with a grin before Wednesday’s game.AdvertisementLa Russa, of course, was referring to the infamous intentional walk he ordered for Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Trea Turner with a 1-2 count on June 9, a move widely panned by baseball experts and fans alike.A couple of weeks later he can laugh about the uproar, which put La Russa in the national spotlight and made him a moving target for his most vocal critics.Guerrero wound up grounding to third to end the 11th, making the decision not to walk him a good one. Had it not worked out, La Russa no doubt would’ve heard it from the crowd. “Fire Tony” chants had already sounded out during the Blue Jays’ three-run eighth.[ [Don’t miss] With the White Sox rotation finally whole, it’s time for the starters to pick up the slack ]As he stated previously, La Russa doesn’t mind hearing it from opinionated Sox fans.“I’ve said it 100 times, man, I like that they’re here and they care,” La Russa said. “And if they’re displeased and it’s with me, I’d rather them be here and care than not care and not be here. In that particular (situation) I know some coaches went to the top step and yelled back, like, ‘Whaddaya say now?’ or something like that.”La Russa didn’t name the coaches, then asked aloud: “You know what the guy on deck (Alejandro Kirk) is hitting against us? Gee whiz, he’s a killer. We have a tough time getting him out.”Kirk has a .353 average (6-for-17) against the Sox this season with three home runs and a 1.362 OPS.ExpandAutoplayImage 1 of 17White Sox second baseman Josh Harrison, center, celebrates with teammates after driving in the winning run with a single in the 12th inning on June 21, 2022, at Guaranteed Rate Field. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)Getting back to the advice, how did the coaches hear the fans but not La Russa?Advertisement“I heard noise,” he replied.Informed that reporters could hear the fans from the press box located hundreds of feet from the dugout, La Russa said: “You’re paying more attention. I was just concentrating on the game. Mostly I was hoping we’d get an out. I believe in self-talk. You talk to yourself a lot, you don’t hear some people. You listen to yourself.”There is precedent for letting fans make the decisions during a game. Back on Aug. 24, 1951, St. Louis Browns owner Bill Veeck handed out “Yes” and “No” placards to 1,100 fans he called “grandstand managers” and let them vote on things such as whether to steal or replace the pitcher. It’s unlikely Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf would replicate that promotion so fans could tell La Russa how to manage a game.After the Sox came back to win 7-6 in 12 innings, La Russa walked from his office to his news conference. A few dozen fans waiting for him to pass so they could exit their scout seats began chanting, “Tony, Tony.”No word on whether La Russa heard the noise.
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Authorities pulled a body from Lake Michigan Tuesday night.Police said that the body of an unidentified man who they believe was around 30-years-old was taken out…
Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder conducted a “shadow investigation” that sought to discredit former employees making accusations of workplace sexual harassment, hired private investigators to intimidate witnesses, and used an overseas lawsuit as a pretext to obtain phone records and emails, according to a document released by a House committee on Wednesday.The Committee on Oversight and Reform is investigating the Commanders’ workplace culture following accusations of pervasive sexual harassment by team executives of women employees. It released the memo ahead of Wednesday’s morning hearing at which NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell testified remotely.AdvertisementSnyder was invited to testify but declined, citing overseas business commitments and concerns about due process. The committee chairwoman, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., announced during the hearing that she plans to issue a subpoena to compel him to testify.The 29-page memo alleges Snyder tried to discredit the people accusing him and other team executives of misconduct and also tried to influence an investigation of the team by attorney Beth Wilkinson’s firm.AdvertisementSnyder’s attorneys presented the NFL with a 100-slide PowerPoint presentation including “private text messages, emails, phone logs and call transcripts, and social media posts from nearly 50 individuals who Mr. Snyder apparently believed were involved in a conspiracy to disparage him,” the committee said.In a statement, a spokesman for Snyder characterized the report and the hearing as “a politically charged show trial” and said Congress should not be investigating “an issue a football team addressed years ago.”Goodell told the committee that the team’s culture has transformed as a result of the Wilkinson probe and that “Dan Snyder has been held accountable.”The NFL fined the team $10 million last year and Snyder stepped away from its day-to-day operations after Wilkinson presented her findings to Goodell. However, the league did not release a written report of Wilkinson’s findings, a decision Goodell said was intended to protect the privacy of former employees who spoke to investigators.When announcing the discipline, the NFL said none of the people accused of sexual harassment still worked for the Washington franchise. But two separate accusations of sexual harassment by Snyder himself have since surfaced.Former employee Tiffani Johnston told the committee that Snyder groped her at a team dinner and tried to force her into his limousine, which Snyder denies. And The Washington Post reported Tuesday that a woman accused Snyder of sexually assaulting her on a team plane in 2009, resulting in a $1.6 million settlement.Johnston’s allegation prompted the NFL to hire former Securities and Exchange Commission chairwoman Mary Jo White to conduct a new investigation of Snyder and the team, and the league plans to release her findings to the public.Maloney has introduced legislation to curb the use of workplace nondisclosure agreements and to offer protections for employees whose professional images are used inappropriately. Among the accusations against the Commanders are that team employees produced a video of lewd outtakes from a photo shoot involving the cheerleading squad.AdvertisementAccording to the memo, Snyder used a defamation lawsuit against an obscure online media company based in India as a pretext to subpoena emails, phone records and text messages from former employees who spoke to The Washington Post about workplace harassment. The subpoenas were unusually broad, and many of the people targeted “had no plausible connection” to the Indian media company, the committee said.The committee also alleged that Snyder sought to blame former team president Bruce Allen for the problems with Washington’s workplace culture and that Snyder’s lawyers provided Wilkinson and the NFL with 400,000 emails from Allen’s account, highlighting specific ones they deemed “inappropriate.” Some email exchanges with Allen included homophobic and misogynistic comments by Jon Gruden, which were leaked to reporters last fall and prompted the Las Vegas Raiders to fire Gruden as their coach.Witnesses also told the committee that Snyder sent private investigators to their homes and offered them hush money. The NFL was aware of Snyder’s use of private investigators, according to documents obtained by the committee, but that did not stop the practice, witnesses said.Republicans on the committee accused Democrats of going after an NFL team to distract from more pressing issues and exceeding the scope of the committee’s mission.“A core responsibility of this committee is to conduct oversight of the executive branch, but this entire Congress, Democrats have turned a blind eye to the Biden administration,” said Kentucky GOP Rep. James Comer, the committee’s ranking member. “Instead, the Oversight committee is investigating a single private organization for workplace misconduct that occurred years ago.”