Tuesday, April 14, 2026
✶ Untold Chicago Stories ✶ Amazon Music
Home Blog Page 2766

One Surprising Trend From Cole Hamels Cubs Debut

By
Gus
-
PHOTO CREDIT: NBC SPORTS

I’ll admit it. When the Cubs traded for Cole Hamels less than a week ago, I wasn’t exactly blown away. Yeah, the guy has been pretty solid throughout his career and has historically pitched very well at Wrigley Field (remember the no-hitter?) but honestly, it seemed like his best baseball was behind him.

Then I watched his Cubs debut last night and I can happily say that I’m a complete idiot. Granted, it was only one start so I’m not fully sold here yet but if the rest of his starts are anything like the gem he threw last night, I think the Cubs rotation will be just fine down the home stretch of the season.

Hamels line from last night was spectacular — 5 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 9 K, and 2 BB. You hear that Tyler Chatwood? Only TWO walks allowed were allowed last night.

Hamels had all of his pitches working last night and I’d have to say I was quite surprised with his change up. Six of his nine strikeouts from last night were from throwing his change up which was his highest change up strikeout total since 2015. He also threw 27 change ups which is the second highest total for him this season. The scary thing is, Hamels said that pitch has been pretty shitty all year.

“All year my change up has been horrendous. That’s been my focus these last couple weeks. To get back to what I know.”

From a fan’s perspective Cole, the change up looked pretty damn solid last night.

The change up may have been his close out pitch last night but what he did with his fastball should make Cubs fans take notice. For a guy who historically has sat right around 90 mph with his four-seamer, he was throwing some gas last night.

As it mentions, adrenaline may have something to do with it being that it was his Cubs debut and all but he still hit 92 mph on his second to last pitch of the night so that lets me know that he still had some gas left in the tank. It almost seemed like he was using his four-seamer the way pitchers use change ups since his change was so goddamn good last night. Hitters would begin to sit on his change and he would throw 94 mph right down the heart of the plate. Both Hamels and Cubs manager Joe Maddon admitted that his four-seam command isn’t “where he wants it,” but it will definitely be a pitch he will utilize more and more each outing.

He was pulled in the bottom of the fifth after 95 pitches and undoubtedly could have went longer but Maddon seemingly always likes to pull pitchers on a high note after an injury or during a debut. And with a 6-1 lead after five, why risk it? Five solid innings of baseball and one of the best debuts in Cubs history.

I can’t wait to see what he can do down the stretch when the games mean that much more and see if he can keep that velocity up in high pressure situations. He’s pitched on the biggest stage in baseball and even though it’s a small sample size from last night, the guy battles.

It’s looking like a change of scenery for Hamels may just work out in the Cubs favor this season.

White Sox Fan Slugs Top-Shelf Tequila After Surviving Plane Crash

By
Matt Enuco
-
White-Sox-Fan-plane-crash
After surviving Wedensday's Aeromexico Flight 2431 plane crash near Durango, Mexico, Chicago native Alberto Herrera slugged a shot of the best tequila he could find. (Image taken from CBS Evening News twitter.)

Ask yourself this question: What is the first thing you would do if you survived a plane crash? For one White Sox fan that Survived Wednesday’s Aeromexico plane crash, he went 108ing.

After Flight 2431 scraped past the end of the runway near Durango, Mexico on its way to Mexico City, Alberto Herrera confessed to chasing down a shot of tequila to calm his nerves.

“First thing I did was drink a big, big, big shot of tequila,” said the unidentified passenger. “I went to the bartender and said ‘give me the best tequila you got because I just fell from the sky and I’m here to live and talk about it'”

All 103 passengers of Flight 2431 survived the crash after heavy winds forced the plane to the ground as it tried to take off. The aircraft eventually skidded off the runway and passengers were able to escape before the fuselage went up in flames.

Apparently, surviving plane crashes is more common than one would think. According to the International Civil Aviation Society, no one dies in 87 percent of plane crashes. This is a result of enhanced safety equipment onboard and crashworthiness of the aircraft.

“It’s the science of crashworthiness that has really improved over the last 20 years to help people survive a crash,” Mary Schiavo, CNN’s aviation analyst said. “Before then, you used to think a plane crash (meant) everyone would die. Not so anymore.”

In fact, there are several other recent examples of plane crashes that resulted in none or only a few fatalities. In 2005 an Air France jetliner overran a runway in Toronto and all passengers survived. In 2013 a plane clipped the end of a runway while landing in San Francisco scraping down the runway without any fatalities. Three people died in 2016 on a Singapore Airlines flight that caught fire in the city-state.

There were dozens of Chicagoland natives on the flight including a priest who was traveling with friends to celebrate his birthday. For Herrera, maybe there will be a cold one waiting for him in the 108 at the next White Sox game.

VIDEO: Kyle Schwarber Teaches Everyone What Not To Do (Even Though It Worked Out)

By
Aldo Soto
-

You know what’s worse than sliding head-first into first base? Sliding feet-first into the bag, which is what Kyle Schwarber did during Wednesday’s game against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

I love the hustle, but there is just no way you can convince me that doing the following will somehow increase your chance of beating out the defender to the base.

This is just a quick way to get injured rather getting to first base faster and even though Schwarber was safe it was still pretty dumb.

Please, stop sliding into first base.

All that being said, I do admit that when I first saw the play I thought it looked cool. Still not OK, though!

The Other Non-Yu Darvish Injury Update For The Cubs That’s Also Good News

By
Aldo Soto
-

If you remember back to the offseason, the Chicago Cubs signed three free agent starting pitchers. Yu Darvish, Tyler Chatwood and the sometimes forgotten about Drew Smyly. Darvish and Chatwood obviously haven’t worked out as the Cubs would like so far, but although Smyly hasn’t pitched at all this year it still looks like he could be a great surprise for the team.

As Darvish is scheduled to throw in a simulated game in the upcoming days, another positive step toward his comeback, the Cubs had a good update on Smyly too.

The 29-year-old pitcher had Tommy John surgery last July and after signing a two-year deal in the offseason the Cubs didn’t expect him to pitch for them at all in 2018. However, Smyly’s rehab has progressed nicely and the positive news from June, when the lefty started pitching live batting practice, has continued to the point that there’s talk he could join the pitching staff by September.

Cubs’ pitching coach Jim Hickey was on 670 The Score Wednesday morning and said Smyly will throw a simulated game Thursday.

If Smyly doesn’t suffer a setback in the next month, then he should be in the bullpen when rosters expand in September.

Smyly has spent his career as both a starter and reliever, recording a 3.74 ERA and 1.20 WHIP 570.1 innings. Almost all of the work from the bullpen came in 2013, with the Detroit Tigers, appearing in 63 games that season, while posting an impressive 2.37 ERA in 76 innings.

The left-hander hasn’t pitched since 2016, when he was with the Tampa Bay Rays. He was traded to the Seattle Mariners prior to the 2017 season, but Smyly began the year on the DL and never pitched for Seattle.

As a starter, Smyly has put up a 3.97 ERA and 1.22 WHIP in 85 career starts.

So, Cubs fans can monitor the returns of Darvish and Smyly during the next month.

Javier Baez Keeps Casting Spells On Pitchers And Chasing Down An MVP Title

By
Aldo Soto
-

I agree with you. The love for Javier Baez was probably a little overboard before this season. Yes, he was co-NLCS MVP, as the Chicago Cubs were on their way to winning the 2016 World Series and last year Baez became an every day starter. There was room for improvement then and there still is in 2018.

But you know what? The love has never been higher and it’s never been more deserved than now for El Mago, who is rightfully in the National League MVP discussion.

Everyone has seen the highlight reel plays on defense, but this year Baez has taken his offensive game to another level. On Wednesday night, he went 2-for-4, raising his batting average to .302, top-10 in the NL, and Baez also drove in a run.

After setting career highs last year in home runs and RBIs, 23 and 75, respectively, Baez is on his way to slugging way past those numbers. He already has 83 RBIs, which lead the NL, and his 22 home runs also rank in the top-10.

Sure, Baez only has a .335 OBP, yet the slugging (.575) and his base running do more than make up for it.

And then there are plays when he simply makes magic happen right in front of our eyes, casting spells on pitchers, scoring runs even when he’s out.

We joked about the MVP chants back in May, when Baez was coming on strong and the talk became more serious as the first half came to an end. It’s now August and Baez hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down.

He ranks fourth in fWAR and bWAR in the NL, hits for power and average, and is one of the best base runners in all of baseball, while playing elite defense too.

Hate him or love him, Javier Baez won’t be disappearing from the MVP talk this year. The MVP buzz is just beginning for El Mago.

Cole Hamels Was Excellent In His Cubs Debut

By
Patrick Mooney
-
Credit: CBS Sports

When the Cubs traded for Cole Hamels, the knee-jerk reaction was that fans would be happy if he could simply be better than Tyler Chatwood every fifth day. Anything better than that would be gravy.

Well, then tonight was sweet, sweet gravy.

Like the rest of the Cubs starters, you’d like to see him go deeper into the game and pitch with more efficiency (95 pitches), but two errors and a catcher’s interference played a large role in Hamels’ high pitch count. Besides, Joe Maddon has a track record of pulling pitchers on a high note in their debuts and returns from the disabled list to keep his guys feeling good about themselves.

All in all, it was an excellent debut for the 34-year-old. Cubs fans will gladly take 10 more of those outings.

Rick Hahn Is In Charlotte And Eloy Jimenez Is Not Playing

By
Matt Enuco
-

Hold onto your buts. Rick Hahn is reportedly in Charlotte tonight and Eloy Jimenez is not in the lineup. And White Sox twitter swiftly erupts with unbridled joy!

According to Jonathan Lee, a journalist who covers the Charlotte Knights, Hahn is in the building and Jimenez was given the night off.

Parsing out the meaning of this coincidence is futile. Of course, we all want to believe Hahn has already asked Jimenez to head home and pack his bags so he can escort him down to Tampa Bay for the next series. But the odds are stacked against that possibility.

Sure, Jimenez has posted ridiculous stats in Triple-A since his promotion on June 21. He was named the White Sox minor-league player of the month on Wednesday and there’s no doubt that he is forcing the issue. Yet, it’s unlikely that Jimenez has checked all the boxes for a promotion only five days after the checking-the-boxes statement became a catchphrase.

Moreover, speaking from experience, executives don’t travel to minor-league affiliates to deliver promotions. Instead, they head to the minors to watch certain players when a promotion is on the horizon. The fact that Jimenez is not in the game tonight doesn’t indicate much in my opinion.

On the other side of this argument is that big-league brass typically take multi-day trips to the minors, so Hahn is likely down in Charlotte for a few days. We don’t know when he arrived in Charlotte; all we know is that he is there tonight and Jimenez is not in the game.

The more likely alternative narrative is that Hahn is down there to eye a few pitchers. Kopech threw last night and for all we know he could have been in the building last night for a final look at the flamethrower. But, there are other possibilities as well.

Two immediate possibilities that standout is Ryan Cordell and Jordan Stephens. Cordell seemed poised for a big-league appearance early in Spring Training before an injury derailed his season. He’s batting .145 in 15 games in Triple-A after batting .333 in Birmingham.

Stephens posted exceptional numbers in Double-A as well before stumbling in his last 14 starts in Triple-A. He’s dealing with a 4.36 earned run average in Charlotte and while that isn’t terrible it’s not a figure that begs for a promotion.

Cordell is a more likely scenario considering Adam Engel hasn’t pieced his offensive game together. Adding Stephens to the big leagues doesn’t make much sense either considering there isn’t an opening in the rotation.

The most likely possibility that I see is Hahn is taking a hard look at relievers. Caleb Frare was acquired last week from the New York Yankees when Hahn swapped $1.5 million in international free agent bonus money. He’s been exceptional this season at Double-A and continued his success briefly in Triple-A. He’s given up one run in three combined innings between Scranton-Wilkesbarre and Charlotte, and as a southpaw, Frare seems to be an easy choice to promote quickly.

Although White Sox fans might not have much patience for it, Carson Fulmer could also be another reason for Hahn’s excursion to the south. Fulmer might be a future piece of the bullpen, but he still suffers from cold spells where he can’t find the strike zone and everything in the strike zone gets turned around.

Given the ease with which relievers can be moved over the waiver wire, Hahn might have to make a decision quickly. But, the possibility also exists that Hahn is just down there to catch a glimpse of his shiny toys and ponder the future.

VIDEO: Cubs Game Delayed After Jason Heyward Drills Umpire With Foul Tip

By
Aldo Soto
-

Home plate umpire Chris Guccione left during the third inning of Wednesday night’s game between the Chicago Cubs and Pittsburgh Pirates after taking a Jason Heyward foul tip off his face mask.

Guccione stumbled back a few steps before Pirates’ catcher Francisco Cervelli grabbed and hugged him. A Pittsburgh trainer came out and after a few minutes, Guccione decided to stay in at first.

However, after Heyward doubled and Javier Baez walked, Guccione exited the game causing a short delay. Ed Hickox replaced Guccione behind the plate.

Need A Little Pick Me Up? Here’s Pedro Strop Dancing To Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”

By
Gus
-

I don’t think this story needs much of an introduction.

Cubs reliever Pedro Strop was keeping things loose before tonight’s game against the Pittsburgh Pirates when he recorded himself dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” Strop is a great follow on Instagram and posts some great videos of him enjoying life. I’ll be the first to tell you, I took four years of Spanish in high school and have absolutely no idea what the hell is was saying in the video so if it’s something offensive, I apologize.

But this video was too good not to share.

New Twist Arrives in The Roquan Smith Contract Impasse

By
Erik Lambert
-
chicago bears roquan smith
Credit: ESPN

Remember how I said not too long ago that the further this holdout goes over the Roquan Smith contract situation, the more fans would start to turn against him? Well, it would seem the pivot point may have arrived. The #8 overall pick still has shown zero signs of being ready to join his team at training camp. He’s already a no-go for the Hall of Fame game and could likely miss the first preseason game a week later too.

People are getting frustrated. Every other draft pick is signed. Are the Bears really fighting him this hard over an unwillingness to stay away from the guarantees in his contract over a possible suspension due to the new NFL helmet rule? If the new information that just came out has truth to it, then the answer just went from yes to no.

According to David Haugh of the Chicago Tribune, the standoff on the helmet rule is already resolved and was before it became public knowledge. Instead the holdup has shifted to another issue, one that puts the onus less on the Bears and more on Smith’s agents. It’s clear they’re trying to back the team into a corner, seeing how much they can get since they got this latest concession.

GM Ryan Pace and the top brass have continued to hold their ground.

Roquan Smith contract dispute now over protection from off-field incidents

“In an effort to end the contract impasse with first-round draft pick Roquan Smith, the Bears conceded they won’t go after his guaranteed money if the linebacker gets suspended under the NFL’s new rule legislating helmet contact, the Tribune has learned.

The Bears made this concession even before the recent public disclosure of the major sticking point, according to a source with knowledge of the situation. They are one of eight NFL teams willing to include contract language protecting a first-rounder’s guaranteed money if he’s suspended for an illegal hit, a source said.

But Smith remains away from training camp because his representatives at CAA Football have insisted the Bears go even further and include contract language protecting the player from discipline for behavior outside the realm of a football play. The Bears’ reluctance to do so revolves around their fear of setting a precedent for future contracts and has nothing to do with concerns about Smith’s character, the source said.”

In essence, the Bears aren’t willing to open a Pandora’s box where players no longer have to fear being punished financially for possible incidents they may suffer off the field. Given how big of an issue this has become in recent years with lots of young players finding themselves in trouble with the law, this would mean the Bears still have to pay him his guarantees even if he were to somehow get in such trouble.

This is not a common thing handed out to rookie players.

Only four other teams in the league have conceded to do so. The Bears don’t seem willing to be the fifth, even as their desire to have Smith in camp increases. It’s a battle of wills right now. Pace has some leverage. Danny Trevathan is back at practice and Nick Kwiatkoski has had the best camp by far of his career. Those two look like they could form a more than adequate pairing at inside linebacker.

This decreases the pressure on Pace to make the deal happen. Conversely, Smith is reaching a point where he’s going to start losing money in the form of game checks. One would have to imagine this will be more detrimental to his financial status than a guarantee protection over something that’s unlikely to happen given his glowing character background.

Is the 21-year old kid actually the one orchestrating this or is he adhering to the advice of his agents? There’s no definitive answer. All anybody knows for sure is each passing day he’s gone isn’t going to help him in his push for a starting job.

1...2,7652,7662,767...3,203Page 2,766 of 3,203

Subscribe to our Newsletter

✶ An Unfiltered Voice For Chicago Sports Fans ✶

Chicago Sports News

About Us

© Sports Mockery, Inc. 2026