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Chicago Tribune
9 minutes ago
- Sport
- Chicago Tribune
Today in Chicago History: Cubs hire Buck O'Neil who becomes first Black coach in major league history
Here's a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on May 29, according to the Tribune's archives. Is an important event missing from this date? Email us. Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago) 1962: The Chicago Cubs hired John 'Buck' O'Neil as the first Black on-field coach in major league history. 'I have never told anyone this before, but I was the one who talked to [then-Cubs owner] P.K. Wrigley and asked him to hire Buck,' Cubs Hall of Famer Ernie Banks told the Tribune in 2006. 'That had always been between just me and Buck. I'm saying this with love today; it was me. I said to Mr. Wrigley: 'There is a man I know who has a lot of talent with baseball, it's Buck O'Neil.'' A solid-hitting first baseman, O'Neil barnstormed with pitching legend Satchel Paige during his youth and twice won a Negro leagues batting title. He later became a pennant-winning manager of the Kansas City Monarchs. O'Neil — who fell short of induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame by one vote in 2006 — was finally enshrined there in 2022. He died in 2006 at age 94. 1976: Six Flags Great America (which was originally known as Marriott's Great America) debuted in Gurnee. The $50 million-playland opened in miserable Memorial Day weekend weather, but 12,000 visitors still showed up. Roller coasters including the corkscrew barrel roll Turn of the Century were a big hit. 2013: Catcher Dioner Navarro had the first three home-run game of his career, connecting from both sides of the plate at Wrigley Field to lead the Cubs to a 9-3 win over the Chicago White Sox. Navarro had 6 RBIs, drove in a career-high 5 runs and scored 4 times. Navarro hit six home runs for the White Sox during the 2016 season, before he was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays. Subscribe to the free Vintage Chicago Tribune newsletter, join our Chicagoland history Facebook group, stay current with Today in Chicago History and follow us on Instagram for more from Chicago's past.
Chicago Tribune
33 minutes ago
- Sport
- Chicago Tribune
Indiana Pacers are a win away from the NBA Finals. Can they win tonight at Madison Square Garden?
NEW YORK — The Indiana Pacers need just one win to reach the NBA Finals and they already have two of them at Madison Square Garden in this series. They can finish off the New York Knicks quickly, just like they play. But while the Pacers like their games fast, they were trying not to get ahead of themselves as they prepared for Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals on Thursday night. 'We're still pretty young so we're learning by some of the experience that we're getting right now, but we've got to stay in the moment,' coach Rick Carlisle said. 'We've got to keep our eye on the ball and go day to day and moment to moment here.' Indiana opened a 3-1 lead with a 130-121 victory Tuesday behind Tyrese Haliburton, who had 32 points, 15 assists and 12 rebounds without a turnover, the first 30-15-10 game in the postseason with no turnovers since they were tracked beginning in 1977-78. The Pacers have three opportunities to reach the NBA Finals for the second time in franchise history. They fell to the Los Angeles Lakers in 2000 in their only time playing for the title. The No. 4 seed in the East looks ready for another chance. The Pacers are 11-3 in the postseason — unbeaten outside of losses in all three Game 3s — and they have won six straight road games, two shy of the NBA record within one postseason. They simply ran by the Knicks in Game 4, scoring 22 fast-break points, but Haliburton expects much more resistance when they try to win a series on New York's home floor for the second straight year. 'You can feel good about it for the night, but then you've got to be ready to go for Game 5 because their backs are against the wall,' Haliburton said. 'They're going to play as desperate as they can, as they should. They're going to come out and throw a punch and throw more punches and more punches, and we've just got to be able to respond to those.' The Knicks rallied from a 20-point deficit in Game 3, the third time in this postseason they have done that. Now they need to make a much different kind of comeback: the 14th in NBA history from a 3-1 deficit. 'I mean, we've been a team that has kind of found a way to do the impossible when it always seemed impossible. We just keep fighting, so it's going to be a testament to our whole playoff run,' Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns said. 'Now we have to be in one of the biggest fights our lives and of our season, and it starts with next game.' Coach Tom Thibodeau has tried a lineup change, inserting Mitchell Robinson to play alongside Towns in a double-big look. He has gone deeper into his bench than usual in search of the right combinations to slow down a Pacers team that has reached 130 points twice in this series after doing so in Game 7 of the East semifinals last year, when they shot an NBA playoff-record 67.1% from the field in a rout at MSG. The Knicks put themselves in bad positions by committing 17 turnovers in Game 4 that led to 20 points, but they also gave up easy baskets even when their defense was set. It left them with plenty to correct if they wanted to extend their first conference finals appearance since 2000 to a Game 6 in Indiana on Saturday. 'I've never known this team to quit,' forward Josh Hart said. 'That's not the character of the guys that we have in the locker room. So obviously our backs are against the wall, but we're competitors and we're going to bring it until the series is over.'
Chicago Tribune
33 minutes ago
- Sport
- Chicago Tribune
Chicago baseball report: 1-2 punch fuels Cubs sweep — and Colson Montgomery ‘attacking' White Sox's plan
The Cubs took care of business as they needed to, completing a sweep of the nine-win Colorado Rockies on Wednesday to set up another series against the Reds after a dramatic three-game set last weekend in Cincinnati. While the offense was largely kept in check during a cool series against the Rockies at Wrigley Field, managing nine runs in the three games, the pitching staff did its part by holding the visitors to five runs. The White Sox return to division play next week at Rate Field with four games against the Detroit Tigers beginning Monday followed by three against the Kansas City Royals. The Sox are 2-14 against American League Central teams this season. Every Thursday during the regular season, Tribune baseball writers will provide an update on what happened — and what's ahead — for the Cubs and White keeps showing he can affect a game in a multitude of ways. After his steal of third base in the 11th inning Tuesday led to scoring the tying run in the Cubs' eventual walk-off victory, his solo home run in the sixth Wednesday to right field on a ball well below the zone proved to be the difference in a 2-1 win to sweep the hapless Rockies. It marked his 15th home run, tying him with Suzuki for the team lead. Crow-Armstrong became only the fifth player in MLB history with at least 15 home runs and 15-plus stolen bases in the first 56 games of a season, joining Alfonso Soriano (2003), Eric Davis (1987), Bobby Bonds (1975) and Ken Williams (1922). Photos: Chicago Cubs beat Colorado Rockies 2-1 to complete sweep at Wrigley FieldWhen told that tidbit, Crow-Armstrong joked how he was more focused on swiping a base Tuesday night after seeing teammate Kyle Tucker also reach 15 steals. 'Baseball's got a lot of funny stats,' Crow-Armstrong said. 'It's too early in the year for me to look at a stat like that and be really taken aback, I guess just because I said I was evaluating different things after (Tuesday's struggles).' Suzuki (51) and Crow-Armstrong (50) are the first pair of teammates in Cubs history to reach 50 RBIs in the club's first 56 games (since RBIs became an official stat in 1920), according to team historian Ed Hartig. The duo surpassed Hack Wilson and Charlie Grimm (1929), Hack Wilson and Kiki Cuyler (1930), and Ernie Banks and Ron Santo (1969), who all did it 62 team games. Suzuki extended his hitting streak to nine games with his RBI double in the first inning Wednesday. He's hitting .417 during that stretch. Crow-Armstrong said it has been a treat hitting fourth and getting to watch Suzuki's at-bats from the on-deck circle. 'I love Seiya, when Seiya is hot, it's some of the most beautiful baseballs being hit I think that you can find if you appreciate the game, if you appreciate Seiya back-spinning a baseball,' Crow-Armstrong said. 'He's just one of the better hitters I've ever seen.' Ryan Fuller didn't talk about reinventing Montgomery at the plate during the shortstop's two weeks in Arizona. 'But (it was) reaffirming who he is and what he does best,' the White Sox director of hitting explained Sunday. 'We saw some things movement-wise that just wasn't matching up with what he does when he's at his best. That was the performance staff, the biomechanists, everybody working together, to say when you are at your best, here's how you are moving, and every day we can inch closer to that.' Fuller worked with Montgomery on his swing when the 2021 first-round pick went to the club's Arizona complex. General manager Chris Getz announced the move April 29, and Montgomery was back in Triple-A Charlotte's lineup May 13. Montgomery entered Thursday with a .318 average (14-for-44), six doubles, two home runs and seven RBIs in the 11 games since returning the Knights. 'Leaving (Arizona) was great physically, mentally as well,' Fuller said. 'We got to talk about mindset, go out to dinner every night. So, the two of us, it was a great experience and to see him go out and have success and have fun and look like himself again, that's how you want to draw it up.' Fuller said the Sox went in with a plan — and Montgomery was able to attack it every day. 'Everybody was on the same page of here's the plan, let's go in and when we leave we are going to be in a better spot,' Fuller said. 'Kudos to him for taking it really well and then attacking the problem and going back and executing the plan really well.' Sign up for our White Sox Insider newsletterGetz said that Montgomery's 'routine has been very consistent in his work.' 'He's much more confident in himself,' Getz said. 'He's obviously gotten more hits, he's had better at-bats. There's still work to be done. We certainly want to cement the process with him. But he's done a nice job.' The Sox have lost eight of their nine road series. Their lone road-series win came May 13-15 when they took two of three from the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park. The Sox are 6-23 on the road. It's not an envious position for a pitcher to find himself. The automatic runner who opens an extra inning on second base immediately puts pressure on the pitcher. While rookie third baseman Matt Shaw became the hero in Tuesday's win against the Rockies with his walk-off single to right field, right-hander Chris Flexen helped set up one of his first big moments in a Cubs uniform. Flexen pitched the 10th and 11th innings and was prepared to head out for the next frame once Michael Busch's single to left field tied it. 'I do think that you need that in a season: You need some games that people remember, you need some moments to build that camaraderie, you need to have heroes that aren't the same heroes over and over,' Cubs President Jed Hoyer said before Tuesday's win. Manager Craig Counsell praised Flexen's two 'huge' innings and the other work he has put in that has given the Cubs chances to come back and win by covering innings. Flexen hasn't allowed an earned run in 12 1/3 innings (seven outings). 'As they've proven in the past, time after time, we're never out of the fight and give these guys a chance and get the crowd into it a little more,' Flexen said afterward. 'It's pretty electric.' Asked what the key to his success, Flexen wryly noted the Rockies had unfortunately scored their automatic runner in the top of the 11th. But looking at his season more broadly, the 30-year-old credited the organization's 'tremendous' pitching department that has helped him get on track with a lower arm slot that has put him in a more competitive position since he signed a minor-league deal and was part of big-league camp. 'Hats off to them, as soon as I came into camp, it was a big part of that, some changes that I had to make,' Flexen said. 'The mindset coming out of the bullpen is get outs as fast you can, and whatever situation you're in, try to hold it down right there and go out there and compete.' Josh Rojas felt like his work in the cages had been going 'really well' in the days leading up to this week's series against the New York Mets. 'I feel like I'm trending in the right direction,' he told the Tribune on Monday at Citi Field in New York. 'Now it's just a matter of getting the right pitches to hit, staying disciplined up there.' The next night, he doubled in his first at-bat. A right toe fracture delayed the start of the infielder's season. He's hitting .158 (9-for-57) in 20 games after going 1-for-5 with an RBI on Wednesday. 'I've been trying to get to the point where I can hit consistent line drives all over the field,' Rojas said. 'I've been rolling over pitches that I feel like I should be elevating and getting into the gap. Pitches out over the plate, I'm fouling off or popping up. 'I've been trying to get more consistent in finding a position to put my body in to hit line drives all over the field and adjust to offspeed and breaking stuff.' 'When you're in a building phase, it's hard emotionally, I've been there. You've got to make decisions towards the future. … The key when you're in this position is just like, OK, finding one player after another, and you build up a critical mass, and all of a sudden, you can be pretty good pretty quickly.' —
Chicago Tribune
33 minutes ago
- Sport
- Chicago Tribune
Chicago Sky are one of only two winless teams in the WNBA. Four areas of concern from their 0-4 start.
It's not quite disaster yet. But the opening four games of the WNBA season have raised critical concerns for the Chicago Sky, who will seek their first win of the year Thursday against the Dallas Wings at Wintrust Arena. The Sky racked up four losses in the first 10 days of regular-season play — a pair of blowouts to the Indiana Fever and New York Liberty followed by a couple of closer defeats to the Los Angeles Sparks and Phoenix Mercury. The Sky are one of only two winless teams along with the Connecticut Sun, who are 0-5. This Sky team under first-year coach Tyler Marsh was never going to contend among the heavy hitters of the league. For that reason, the opening results against the Fever and Liberty — albeit demoralizing because of the point differential (a combined 60 points) — didn't necessarily come as a surprise. But the Sky should be able to compete among the middle tier of playoff contenders such as the Mercury, Sparks and Wings. What has gone wrong? Here are four areas of concern for the Sky after the first four games of the season. Few things have stood out more painfully than the Sky's lack of defensive consistency. They have the worst defensive rating (113.6) in the league after allowing opponents to score a league-worst 94.3 points per game. The Sky are the only team that has yet to hold an opponent under 90 points. This might seem strange given the personnel on the Sky roster. Angel Reese is the best defensive rebounder in the WNBA. Elizabeth Williams is averaging the sixth-most blocks (1.3) in the league. The Sky have limited opponents to 33 points in the paint per game, a reflection of the defensive consistency provided by the frontcourt. But while the paint has been secured, the Sky defense has struggled from three notable weaknesses. First: The Sky can't defend the 3-point line. Teams shoot a staggering 45.1% from behind the arc against the Sky, a weak point that accounts for 41.4 opponent points per game. This is a direct reflection of the team's success in limiting paint production — opposing teams incite the Sky to collapse around the basket, creating improved catch-and-shoot opportunities behind the arc. Notably, opponents are taking 8.8 corner 3s per game, a high-value look for a shooter. Second: The Sky are dead in the water in the open court. The defense seems to fall into disarray every time an opponent pushes the floor in transition, leaving the central lane of the court open for teams to run straight up the gut to the basket. This is why the Sky give up 13.5 fast-break points per game, which takes away from their ability to profit off a fast-paced style. Photos: Meet the 2025 Chicago SkyThird: Even in the half-court, the Sky's off-ball defense remains incredibly sluggish, which allows opposing teams to pick the court apart if they keep the ball moving and switch sides with consistency. And their defense generally lacks disruptiveness, creating only 13.8 turnovers per game. Without any pressure on the perimeter, teams are allowed to feel comfortable on the attack, leaving the Sky in a constant state of reactive defense. The Sky are the most mistake-prone team in the WNBA. They average 19 turnovers per game and give up 19.8 points off those errors. Only four Sky players — Courtney Vandersloot, Kamilla Cardoso, Ariel Atkins and Hailey Van Lith, who has played limited minutes because of injury — are averaging more assists than turnovers. This creates a sizable margin for opposing teams outside of their half-court offense, an issue exacerbated by the lack of defensive pressure because the Sky aren't making up enough of these points by creating turnovers. Their turnovers derive from a few sources. Some have been genuinely baffling examples of individual error — players dribbling off their own foot or tossing lazy passes into the hands of a defender. But much of the Sky's turnover problem seems to reflect a teamwide discomfort within the offensive system. The Sky are one of the fastest-paced teams in the league, but this insistence on pushing the pace often leads to miscalculated passes up the court that squander transition opportunities before they begin. Entry passing remains a concern for the Sky as guards such as Vandersloot and Atkins develop a two-man game with Cardoso, Reese and Williams. And similarly, the posts have struggled with getting stuck in double teams on the low block, resulting in poor outlet passes that are intercepted. A small silver lining is that errors can be one of the more fixable weaknesses for a team. The Sky are working with an almost entirely new backcourt. Growing pains were to be expected. But until they reduce their turnovers — preferably to 14 or fewer per game — the Sky will have barely any breathing room offensively. An important piece of the Sky's new ethos revolves around the proliferation of the 3-point shot. The Sky were last in 3-point shooting last season and want to flip that identity on its head. On a perfect night, the Sky aim to take 30 shots from behind the arc. The entire offseason acquisition list — Vandersloot, Kia Nurse, Atkins and Rebecca Allen — was predicated on making this offensive shift. The Sky average more 3-point shots — 23.8, a massive jump from last year's 14.9 — but also started with a dry spell. The are shooting 28.4% from behind the arc. Shooting can be streaky. This truth was reflected by guard Nurse, who started the season 1-for-15 from behind the arc before going 4-for-7 against the Mercury on Tuesday. But for the Sky, the real concern is the quality of shots being created. They have struggled to create corner looks — the highest-efficiency version of the 3-point shot — instead relying heavily on above-the-break shooting to sustain their 3-point volume. And the offense has struggled to create the space showcased in the preseason through dribble handoffs and perimeter screens to create quality looks from deep. Carving out improved 3-point looks will be a key for the Sky to shake out of this slump. The 3-point misses have been a glaring issue. But the Sky are also particularly poor at the rim, eliminating one of their supposed strengths. The Sky have shot 46.2% from within 5 feet of the rim — making them the only team in the league to average below 50% from that range. This is an issue headlined by the frontcourt, which is shooting a collective 36.2% in the 5-foot range: Reese averages 33.3% shooting on nine attempts per game; Williams 40% on 3.8 attempts; and Cardoso 54.5% on 8.3 attempts. This low efficiency means the frontcourt produces only 18 points per game from close-range shooting despite the team's expected strength in the post. The issue extends to the entire roster — Atkins, for instance, is averaging 20% shooting on shots within 5 feet. But the frontcourt's finishing is the bigger concern for the Sky, who have crafted their entire offensive system around the ability to beat opponents at the rim. A lack of efficiency at the rim diminishes the effectiveness of the pick-and-roll game. It disrupts the balance the Sky are attempting to create between the perimeter and the low block, providing less of a challenge for opposing bigs and producing less punishment for defensive errors. And it prevents the Sky from leaning into one of their greatest advantages — their size — when other areas of their offense are struggling.
Chicago Tribune
an hour ago
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Intuit Art Museum has its big reopening: ‘I don't want this to be a traditional art museum'
Where most museums would open with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, the Intuit Art Museum, following a landmark $10 million renovation, reopened to the public recently with a ribbon-. Public officials and other guests turned to their neighbors and connected the ends of their ribbon scraps to create a long, interconnected artwork that will remain in the museum's collection. It was an apt way to ring in a new chapter for this West Town institution. Since its founding in 1991, the museum has collected work by self-taught artists, often called 'outsider art.' Before that, it was called 'art brut' or 'primitive art.' But all those terms are — forgive the pun — on the outs. After receiving a transformative grant from the city's Department of Planning and Development to refurbish its space, Intuit took its facelift as an opportunity to rebrand. What was formerly 'Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art' now avoids the divisive 'outsider' terminology to simply become 'Intuit Art Museum.' It has a catchy acronym to boot: IAM, pronounced 'I am.' That streamlining extends to the gallery space itself. Intuit President and CEO Debra Kerr said the curatorial team has tried to use language that came directly from the artists or their families. When that wasn't possible, the team tried to convey information as directly as it could, with no frills. 'We're working really hard to eliminate some of that curator speak, if you will,' she said. 'I don't want this to be a traditional art museum.' That comes across more pointedly at the new Intuit. Its Henry Darger exhibition and apartment recreation — one of its mainstays — has also been refurbished, now taking over a below-ground level of the museum. LED screens stand in for the walls and windows of the Lincoln Park apartment of the reclusive artist and writer. Down the hall, you can thumb through novels that inspired Darger's epic about the seven Vivian Girls, sisters who fought to end child slavery. 'Of course, you can't touch all the art on the walls or the sculptures on the pedestals,' Kerr said. 'But we can make (the experience) more immersive and interactive.' The installation 'Henry Darger: The Room Revealed' is one of relatively few evergreens at the constantly-changing Intuit. Most of its gallery space — triple what it was before the renovation — will change out works periodically, whether they're pieces on loan or from the museum's collection. The ground floor is largely dedicated a rotating display of the museum's permanent collection, with works by the likes of Mr. Imagination, Lee Godie and Wesley Willis. The Willis selection currently on display, from 1989, depicts the museum's location at Ogden and Milwaukee avenues. The second floor is completely devoted to special exhibits, beginning with the timely 'Catalyst: Im/migration and Self-taught Art in Chicago.' The exhibition, which runs until early next year, features work by artists living and deceased who made their home in Chicago after living somewhere else. It makes bedfellows of far-flung and gripping works: the flamboyant and intricate oil portraits of Drossos Skyllas, a Greek immigrant; the collage art of Thomas Kong, a Korean-American convenience store owner in Rogers Park; and the freehand crochet of Pooja Pittie, a disability rights advocate who came to Chicago to pursue an MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Carlos Barberena, of McKinley Park, is among the artists featured in 'Catalyst.' Originally from Nicaragua, his -inspired linocuts frame contemporary migration scenes with an almost Biblical grandeur. One of Barberena's works, 'Riding the Beast,' shows a young man stowing away on the network of freight trains running from southern Mexico to the U.S. — called 'la bestia,' or the beast, by those who have survived the arduous journey. But not all survive. Its perils are represented by skeletons clattering behind the migrant, one cupping an hourglass just over his shoulder. 'Some of the works here have the same stories behind mine. One (artist) also took a train to leave their country because he was escaping genocide,' Barberena said. 'We always think that we are not connected with each other, but everything is intertwined.' Students will be able to take in such lessons through a learning studio at the back of the museum, already populated with youth artworks. Its grown-up equivalent, the Center for Learning and Engagement Opportunities — CLEO for short, named after founding board member and former Intuit president Cleo Wilson — will offer another space for discussion and decompression. All spaces in the museum are ADA compliant, with a new entrance ramp and elevators. Visitors with disabilities and their accompanying care partner can enter the museum for free. Kerr sees it all as part of her goal to make the new Intuit 'the most welcoming and accessible space in Chicago.' 'If you come from a background where you never went to museums, I want this to be your first museum,' she said. 'There's no beaux-arts facade; there's no grand staircase. Just walk into the storefront. Someone's going to greet you, help you figure out what to do next, and off you go.'
