Browsing: Sports

Chicago Cubs third baseman Patrick Wisdom, right, looks at the home plate umpire after being called out on strikes to end the second inning of the second game of a doubleheader against the Colorado Rockies at Wrigley Field on Aug. 25, 2021. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)

The first few years Keith Maciszek decorated his Evergreen Park house in Bengal orange and black, it got vandalized. After eight or nine years, “people started understanding we’re not going anywhere,” he said. In the last few years, people wish him good luck. (Melinda Moore / Daily Southtown)

Kim Davis: “I can talk about that work because I’ve been working directly and Danny and Jaime around the specifics. You may know that a couple (of) months ago we rolled out a leaguewide initiative called Respect Hockey. And embedded in that are what we call training around ‘BAHD’ behaviors, the acronym ‘BAHD’ standing for bullying, abuse of all kinds, harassment and discrimination. And Sheldon Kennedy is one of our partners in that. As you know, Sheldon Kennedy went through a similar situation of sexual abuse many years ago and he started company in Calgary that helps organizations, specifically hockey in this case, work through and train and create learning around this. The Blackhawks were one of first teams to step up to be part of this. But they’ve gone even further than the work that they were doing around Respect, which is not just training but also providing mental support, abuse counseling for both victims and their families, and so they have been very intentional about making sure that there are services that are wrapped around this so that this never happens again.”

“When the ball finds (Dosunmu), we’re going to attack and be aggressive and drive but the worst thing you can do is on the baseline pick up your dribble,” Donovan said. “He’s got to keep his dribble alive, spin, go back out, get out of trouble. … Those are two things he can learn from in terms of keeping his dribble alive, but I have a lot of confidence in him and he’ll figure those things out the more he’s in those situations.”

BEIJING, CHINA – JANUARY 31: Austin Kleba of USA in action during a training session at the National Speed Skating Oval before the start of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games on January 31, 2022 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images) ** OUTS – ELSENT, FPG, CM – OUTS * NM, PH, VA if sourced by CT, LA or MoD ** (Dean Mouhtaropoulos / Getty Images)

In the shadow of those political issues, China put on its show. As Xi took his seat, the performers turned toward him and repeatedly bowed. A simultaneous cheer went up from them, and they raised and waved their pom poms toward their president — China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong. A barrage of fireworks, including some that spelled out “Spring,” announced that the festivities were at hand.

“No, not really. It’s not something that’s talked about much,” he said. “Obviously when you play with guys on our team — you got Jonesy (Seth Jones), Flower (Marc-André Fleury), Kaner (Patrick Kane), Tazer (Jonathan Toews) — a lot of guys who could probably go, you’re probably (thinking) one of those guys is going to go over me.

Like Raimann, Faalele also is new to the sport. Faalele grew up in Melbourne, Australia, as a basketball and rugby player. A football camp run by the University of Michigan in Australia, where college programs are more likely to be on the lookout for kicking and punting specialists, happened to unearth Faalele. IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., caught wind of the 6-foot-9, 400-pound giant, and during his junior year of high school in 2016 he enrolled there, learning the sport and the art of playing on the offensive line.

“I feel like I’ve been able to really find my rhythm, finally able to find my role within the team and play off my teammates,” said Vučević, who matched his season high in points. “Sometimes as a big man, because you don’t have the ball as much you have to depend on others. It just took a little bit longer than I wanted to early on, but I felt like the last couple of weeks I’ve been playing much better. I just want to continue to build on that.”

“It would be a great honor to be able to do something like that,” Donovan said. “It speaks to the players and the team, it’s something we all share in because you’ve got to finish in first place in the East. It would be a great honor, but a lot of the credit when something like that happens needs to go to the players because they’re the ones out there performing and playing.”